We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
Today I have a real treat for you all. It is the movie “Fail Safe” which is a 1962 depiction of the build up to world war 3. And it stars Henry Fonda, so you know it’s a great movie.
Please take the time to watch it. It was 60 years ahead of its time.
Meanwhile, my post on Quora…
Why is the USA so eager for a war with China
Any one who wants war has a mental disorder.
Obviously they have never experienced war, and has no idea or concept of what it entails. Pain is real. The loss of everyone you ever knew is real. The lost of your money, your homes, your jobs, and your friends is real. The loss of your culture and your society is real.
The loss of your innocence is permanent.
…
So why do so many American “leaders” want to engage a war with China?
I’ll repeat myself.
Anyone who wants a war has a mental disorder. They are not right in the head. They need to be seen by a doctor and treated for this disorder. If need be, well then, locked in a padded room. But they should not be permitted anywhere near the levers of power.
…
Ah. It was deleted.
I guess that stating the obvious is against the “rules” in the United States.
a young boy, puts $100 in the bank every single day. One day the boss at the bank noticed and asked, hey buddy, why do you keep dropping $100 in here everyday? The kid says, Can we talk in your office? The boss says, yes, and they go to his office. Then the kids spills the beans. Well, I make a bet everyday with someone new that I can kiss my right eye. The boss laughs and says, no way you can do that. The kid smirks. Wanna bet? The manager agrees, and quick as a wink, the kid takes out his fake eye and kisses it. The boss feels kind of silly and gives him $100. But he wants it back. So The kid says, okay, but with a twist. I’m pretty sure that you are wearing red girly panties. If I’m wrong, I’ll give you back your $100 plus another 100. Thinking he’s too smart, the boss agrees. The kid adds, but before you drop your pants, we need 10 witnesses to make it official. The boss gathers his team and after taking his pants off, he feels very proud to have won $100. Then he notices the kid is all smiles about losing money. Confused, he asks, why are you happy about losing your cash? The kid grins. Well, I had a bet with your team about how fast I could get you to drop your pants.”
Braised Pork with Green Chile Sauce
Mild green chiles season this meaty pork stew. Serve it with rice or as a burrito filling. This can also be served with tamales. This chile verde is also good served with scrambled eggs.
Ingredients
Pork
1 (3 pound) lean boneless pork butt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 large green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 (7 ounce) can diced green chiles
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1/4 cup water
Garnish
Tomatoes, cut into wedges
Cooked rice
Sour cream
Lime, cut into wedges
Instructions
Trim and discard fat and cut pork into 1 inch cubes.
In a large frying pan, heat oil over medium-high heat; add meat a few cubes at a time and cook until very brown.
Push meat to side of pan and add onion, garlic and bell peppers; sauté until limp.
Stir in chiles, oregano, cumin, salt, cilantro, vinegar and water.
Cover and simmer until meat is fork tender (about 1 hour).
Skim off fat and discard.
Serve with rice or make burritos or serve in your favorite way.
For Burritos: spoon pork into warm, soft flour tortillas, add sour cream, tomato wedges, and a squeeze of lime juice and fold to enclose. Rice may also be enclosed with the filling in the burritos, if desired.
What can you do to upset your neighbors the most in a well-to-do neighborhood?
Set up a drug dealing operation.
Because I was raised poor, a lot of things DID NOT bother me once I moved into a nice neighborhood. Things that might drive other neighbors (who have always been wealthy) absolutely crazy wouldn’t faze me at all. Loud music? So what. Kids shooting off fireworks? Hey, it’s better than gunfire. Lawns that grew a little too tall? Big deal. But set up a crime syndicate in one of the nicest neighborhoods in the U.S., and you’re going to make some very influential people extremely irate!
I lived in poverty when I was younger. The shack we lived in measured 500 square feet. My bed was in the kitchen. Stabbings and shootings in the neighborhood were routine. Before I was born, my parents found a guy dead on the front porch. He had been stabbed overnight and I guess he stumbled toward the house for help, only to collapse there. Drug deals became common.
My father worked very hard to eventually escape poverty, and I applied the same work ethic to my life. I had no desire to remain in a neighborhood where I had to fear for my life every single day. Anyone who has lived in such a place can tell you that it’s a miserable way to live!
I became successful. I got married. My wife was also successful. It took me 42 years, but we finally bought one of the more modest homes in one of the wealthiest towns in America. Celebrities became my neighbors. I didn’t hear gunfire. There was no crime. Kids left their toys on the lawn overnight and nobody stole them. People left their car doors unlocked at night. This is why I had worked so hard, for this level of safety and peace of mind. I had finally arrived!
About a year after moving in, our very quiet neighbor (an older lady who lived alone) moved out. A lady who had just divorced her multimillionaire husband moved in. She had triplets who were 17 at the time, two boys and one girl. She apparently had no control over them. Among many infractions, the girl once drove through our lawn, tearing up the grass and the driveway. Who drives through your neighbor’s lawn? One of the sons was driving drunk when he plowed through a neighbor’s fancy brick driveway entrance. But worst of all was the other son, who apparently had a large drug dealing operation.
Sketchy-looking cars would pull up at all hours of the day. The kid would come out of his house, sit in the back seat, make some sort of exchange, and then go back inside. Cars and houses throughout the neighborhood began to be broken into, probably linked to the people showing up to buy drugs.
This is what I had escaped. When you’ve worked so hard to live in a place with no crime, and you’re suddenly faced with drug dealing, people breaking into cars and houses, vandalism, and all that stuff you escaped, you become pretty ticked off. We didn’t pay all this money for a house only to have flashbacks of where I grew up. Other neighbors who were unfamiliar with such behavior were even more furious!
One particular neighbor, who happened to be a big time television producer, finally made the call. Police swarmed the house, found A LOT of drugs, and the kid who had now turned 18 got a pretty hefty prison sentence. The family moved out a month later.
My dad bought himself a 1973 Mercury Montego two door. Every option you could imagine, back when you could actually order a car built for you.
Really sharp car, dark blue metallic with a blue vinyl top. Had a dark blue leather interior with front bucket seats. Was his pride and joy. Biggest motor available, 460 4bbl. That car was a real sleeper. Fast as hell. Got about 8–9mpg. Every time you went around a right turn there was a metallic thump from the back somewhere. Turn left, nothing. Dad was an OCD prick. Drove him nuts. Was to the dealership for service multiple times. They replaced all kinds of stuff, even the rear axle. Finally he had me lay in the back seat and listen as he drove around. I isolated the sound as coming from the area of the drivers side rear quarter panel. Dad and I took out the rear seat and removed the interior panel. We found heavy nut and bolt hanging from a string. Taped to the sheet metal was a note, “How long did it take you to find this?”
Coconut Corn Bread (Dominican Republic)
Ingredients
1/2 cup diced mixed candied fruit
2 tablespoons dark rum
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup coconut cream
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup shredded fresh coconut
Instructions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Mix candied fruit and rum in small bowl; reserve.
Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl; add eggs, one at a time, beating until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients except candied fruit mixture and coconut; beat until smooth, about 30 strokes by hand. Fold in candied fruit mixture and coconut. Pour into greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
Bake until top is golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.
Cool for 20 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely before slicing.
In the 17th century, a priest in Venezuela was particularly fond of meat. Yet during the Catholic holiday of Lent, eating meat is not permissible — only fish may be consumed. So he wrote a letter to the Vatican.
He had found an animal, he said, which “lived in the water, had webbed feet” and “it even kind of tastes like fish when you cook it”. Would it be allowed to consume this creature during Lent? The Vatican replied, also by letter — it was allowed to eat the creature, provided they classify it a fish. So they did. And Venezuelans have been eating this animal ever since.
What species do I speak of? The capybara. World’s largest rodent, a largely aquatic species that loves to dwell in water. A meatlover’s delight — from giant hamster, to conveniently reclassified “fish”. One hell of a good loophole, if you ask me.
I worked for a food establishment that keeps all of its food on a “line”. One day I was sicker than I’ve ever been and needed to call out. I figured this wouldn’t be a problem since I never called out, but I was wrong.
So they force me to come in under threat of termination.
So i come in. I’m making food on that line, and I have a very specific urge everyone knows well. But, oh my oh me! I can’t leave the line! I have a lot of food to make! So I threw up. On the food in the line.
The company had to close for a short time to have the line professionally cleaned and sanitized.
When they finally reopen, I get called into the office. They ask me what happened. I tell them quite plainly that I tried to call out sick and was forced to report to work. Their genius response was ”you were scheduled to work so you had to come in.“
So I simply asked them how much it had cost to have the line cleaned. They give me a rough figure. I tell them they forgot about the money they lost out on by being forced to be closed during that time. Lastly, I tell them, straight to their face, that if I call out, it’s for a reason. If they force me to come in while I’m sick and throwing up, I will purposely throw up on the line again and they can pay that price again. And if they try to saddle me with the bill of cleaning the line, reduce my hours, or fire me for any reason, I would be more than happy to report them to the number that’s literally above their head about us not being allowed to come in sick. The next week my hours were reduced. I pulled out my phone, looked at the sign I referenced the week prior, and started typing in numbers in front of the manager. My hours were immediately reinstated.
After that, anytime I called out sick, I was told to feel better and call when I wasn’t sick anymore.
I feel like I’m a good fit to answer this question because I used to own a Chevy Volt, which is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV). In the summer, the Volt would drive 50–60 miles using only the battery, before switching to the 4-cylinder engine and acting like a normal hybrid, alternating between gas and battery.
Most days I did not drive anywhere near 50 miles. So I would come home, plug in to 120V, and the car was fully charged in the morning.
Why not a PHEV, then?
Well, it’s got an engine I rarely used, and some complicated electronics and wizardry to switch back and forth between the battery and the engine. It was something else that could go wrong on top of a straight EV propulsion system.
Some people like PHEVs because once they exceed range of the small battery pack, the car switches to gas and then you can just drive it like a gas car. Fillups are quick, and you’re back on the road. When you get to your destination, you can charge if you like, and your next 50 or so miles are all electric.
I loved the Volt. But I always felt it would grow up to be a Tesla, and last year, it did.
I much prefer having an EV. It’ll handle that 50–60 miles of daily driving you ask about with aplomb. Since the range of my EV is 318 miles, I could do that much driving for 4 days easily, without recharging if I didn’t want to.
Or I could charge at 120V/15A, as I typically do, and in the 12 hours or so that I’m sleeping and doing other things at home, I can add 36 or miles of range. Yes, eventually I’ll have a deficit, if I really do drive 50–60 miles per day, but I don’t. And for those that do, you can easily install a 240V outlet and charge quicker if you need it. So it’s a non-issue.
My in-laws are Chinese. I am a white American with mixed West-European ancestry. When I sit down to a meal with them, I have learned to practice strategic food placement on my plate so that it is never actually empty.
In the US, we have drummed into our heads as small children that it is incredibly rude to leave uneaten food on your plate, especially if you are a guest at someone else’s table. It is an insult to the chef. “There are starving children in Africa!” was the exhortation when I was a child. “Eat your vegetables and be grateful you have them!”
In Chinese culture, it is the obligation of the elder generation to make sure that the younger generation(s) are fed. If your plate is clean, that means you must still be hungry, but are too polite to ask for more. So they give you more, whether or not you actually have the capacity to eat it, whenever they observe sufficient empty space on your plate. Furthermore, it is extremely impolite to refuse to eat food given to you by a parent, auntie/uncle, or grandparent.
Therefore, I have learned to eat an amount sufficient for myself at meals while leaving enough on my plate to spread out and take up all of the large bits of contiguous space that might accommodate an additional serving.
I still feel guilty about the starving children who might like to have my leftovers, though.
My first boss told me that when she realized that several of us-all teenagers-were trying to coordinate our schedules so we all got off on the same day, so we could hang out outside of work. I didn’t understand it then. I thought she was just being a bitch.
But, ten years later, when I was in management, it made more sense. Coworkers are one group. Friends are another. Mixing those groups can cause problems, especially when one friend is put in charge of another.
It’s fine to be friendly with your coworkers. You should be friendly with them. But being friendly, and being their friend, are two different things.
I’m anti-social anyway, so it was easy for me to avoid making friends with the people I’ve worked with over the years. I’ll chat with them at work. I’ll ask them about their families, and they’ll do the same for me. But when work is over, I don’t hang out with them.
I suppose a lot depends on the type of job, though. Not every job is about making money. What I do now, for example: teaching. It’s not-for-profit. But I also don’t see my coworkers very often. Just in the halls during passing periods and during our weekly staff meeting. Other than that, I’m usually the only adult in the room. If adult interaction is your thing, teaching probably isn’t the best career choice.
This image was uploaded on an Internet forum with the caption:
“This is the lettuce you eat in your burger when you go to Burger King, enjoy it“
The netizens were shocked and horrified. They were angry to learn someone working in the kitchen has been messing up with their food.
Soon people got down to tracking the person; ‘where done and who doing this’! The image was posted anonymously, on the 4Chan forum. 4Chan users got down to work to discover the person behind it.
In the picture you can only see the shoes and pants of the uniform of the hamburger chain and that does not reveal anything since they are all dressed the same.
The image was tracked to its location. They found out where came from.
It came from an area where there was only one Burger King for many miles around.
Thereafter the netizens wrote and posted many mails to the Chain manager of Burger King, Mayfield Rd.
Then the Manager got into action and in a short time, the manager was able to find who had done it Two people who were on that shift were fired on the spot, they lost their jobs, and faced a fine of thousands of dollars.
So now you know, never make people angry on the internet, you could end up paying dearly.
I remember a guy who worked at a company with me. He was a professional who loved his job. He was 83, when the company forcibly retired him.
He made good money, and took fabulous vacations, had his house paid off 30 years before. He died 3 weeks after they forced him out. He lost the will to live, when he stopped doing what he loved.
I knew this lady that I worked with, who hated her job, she was depressed about having to go into work every morning. The happiest day of her life was when she retired early, with an early retirement package.
I think the benefits of working longer or retiring early very much depend on how you feel about your job.
It also depends on your health. If you think you will die early, then there is really not much point in working late. Unless you really love your job.
If you think you will die late, then working later, getting a bigger pension, and more savings, and using your wages for vacations and toys, now that your house is paid for, is the way to go.
I think it also depends on the country you live in. I live in Canada, I loved my job, I got 30 vacation days, 12 flex days, plus 3 golf days a year. I don’t know how many sick days and compassionate leave days I was entitled to because I never used them all up. So I got the equivalent of 9 weeks vacation. With weekends and statutory holidays I got 162 days off a year. Which is almost exactly half a year, so work wasn’t the same to me as an American who worked weekends, and only got 2 weeks vacation.
I could take fabulous exotic vacations, or just relax at the cabin while working.
Jamaican Rum Punch
Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients
4 cups water
1 cup lime or lemon juice
6 cloves or allspice berries
3 cups strawberry-flavored syrup
2 cups Jamaican white rum
Instructions
Mix all ingredients together in a punch bowl, and let the mixture settle for 1 hour before removing the cloves or allspice.
Stir and serve over ice cubes in old fashioned glasses.
Water and rum may be added to weaken or strengthen as needed.
One reason I wanted to shake hands with Oskar Groening is because our first meeting did not go so well. On the first day of the trial, I introduced myself and reached out to shake his hand. The strangest thing happened. He was trying to say something as he was sitting sideways in his chair. He turned white and fell backwards, not saying a word. He was holding onto my arm so he did not hit the floor. At that moment he was not a Nazi but an old man who fainted and I was trying to save him from falling. I screamed, “He is falling and I can’t hold onto him – he is a big old guy!” This was not the interaction I was hoping for. I knocked out an old Nazi.
The second reason is because I am interested in what will happen when someone from the victims’ side meets with someone from the perpetrators’ side. You cannot predict it. So today after the trial session concluded, I went up to Oskar Groening. He wanted to stand up but I said, “Please don’t, we do not want a repetition of last time.” I just shook his hand and said, “I appreciate the fact that you are willing to come here and face us. But I would like you to appeal to the old Nazis who are still alive to come forward and address the problem of neo-Nazis in Germany today. Because these young misguided Germans who want Hitler and fascism to come back — they will not listen to Eva Kor or any other survivor. You can tell them you were in Auschwitz, you were involved with the Nazi party, and it was a terrible thing.”
As I was talking to him, he grabbed me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Well I probably wouldn’t have gone that far, but I guess it is better than what he would have done to me 70 years ago.
Everything he is accused of — I am saying he did all that. I have forgiven the Nazis and everyone who has hurt me, but I told him that my forgiveness did not prevent me from accusing him nor from him taking responsibility for his actions. And I told the media that he was a small screw in a big killing machine, and the machine cannot function without the small screws. But obviously he is a human being. His response to me is exactly what I was talking about when I said you cannot predict what will happen when someone from the victims’ side and someone from the perpetrators’ side meet in a spirit of humanity.
I know many people will criticize me for this photo, but so be it. It was two human beings seventy years after it happened. For the life of me I will never understand why anger is preferable to a goodwill gesture. Nothing good ever comes from anger. Any goodwill gesture in my book will win over anger any time. The energy that anger creates is a violent energy.
I am asking a question: What do we want in the future? Do we want to keep pointing fingers and the accused stay in one corner and the accuser stay in the other corner and they never connect? How will that work out? Look at the world – it doesn’t work out. All we have is people who are feeling angry, people who are running around doing crazy things.
When tragic things happen, we have to sit down and discuss, what are the options for the victims and for the perpetrators? Most people are only here in court to accuse him of things he has already admitted. So now what? I don’t think we should raise a statue in his honor, but he can serve as a good example to young people that what he participated in was terrible, that it was wrong, and that he is sorry that he was part of it. Now there is a message that has some usefulness for society.
If I had it my way, the dialogue between the survivors and perpetrators would have started a long time ago. And it would have helped the survivors cope and maybe heal themselves, but even more so not to pass the pain on to their children.
My ideas in life are very different, I know. I am in the minority — maybe a minority of one. I know how society looks at it, but as I look at society, I do not think it is working very well. So what I am saying is, maybe we ought to try something else. And my idea is for people from the victims’ side and people from the perpetrators’ side to come together, face the truth, try to heal, and work together to prevent it from ever happening again.
Back some 30 years ago, fresh out of college, I worked at a real estate company owned by a Greek immigrant.
The company did everything involving real estate, loans, brokerage, management, home flipping…. It was a good place to get all around experience.
About 3 months into the job, the owner approached me and asked if I was ready to purchase my first house. Told him I was not ready, I was living with my parents and saving money. Then he told me a real gem.
He said to not purchase a condo or house for my first home. Huh? I said. He told me to purchase a four unit apartment. I told him I did not have that kind of money. Then he gave me the whole spill.
A single family home cost $150,000 and I would need $10,000 deposit plus pay $1000 per month for loan payment plus upkeep.
A four unit apartment cost $250,000 and I would need $15,000 deposit plus pay $2,000 per month for loan payment plus upkeep.
Here is the real kicker. If I bought the house, I would not have anything left over after I paid for all my expense.
If I bought the apartment, I can rent 3 other units at $700 each and the rents will actually pay all my cost.
WOW!
Here is the second kicker!
He said I can save that $1,000 a month and after two years, purchase another 4 unit apartment. Then I can move to my second apartment and rent the original place for extra $700. Now I will be saving $1,700 per month! My head was spinning. I realized how he made his fortune. He had multiple apartments collecting rents.
I went home and told my parents about what the owner told me. My Dad was bit skeptical but said he will help me to get the loan if needed.
Fast forward 30 years…my wife and I are making retirement plans. Thanks to the advise from my boss early in my career, things look good.
Back when homeless people were Hobos, Drunks were Winos, and “substance abusers” were Hypes, I pounded a classic foot patrol beat on San Francisco’s Mission Street. After 3 or four years, I literally knew everyone on my beat, bad, good, or wack-a-doo.
We’d periodically get some merchants complaining about this or that, so the Captain would tell the Lieutenant, and he would lean on the street Sergeant, who in turn would tell us: “ Its the weekly sweep time boys”.
Mitch would grab the BIG paddy wagon, and the six beat cops would ride its rear bumper while picking up the usual miscreants more or less at random.
We’d do a decent job of disarming them before tossing them in the wagon, and in that the prisoners and the cops knew how to play the game, we didn’t get any big surprises.
Untill:
I forget his real name, but if I called him “stinky” , and mentioned that he NEVER took off any of the 3 pairs of pants, or five overcoats he wore, everyone knew who he was.
Stinky was face down on the pavement across the street from the food market at 22nd when we grabbed him. Mitch did a cursory high risk pat search for weapons, or bottles of cheap wine, and finding none, cuffed him up and put him in with the other 15 bums in the back of the wagon.
At the Station, we had a regular assembly line thing going where the arrestees would line up, get a photo taken, have their meager belongings tossed into a brown grocery bag, and then shamble into the drunk tank.
Stinky shuffles up, and is so out of it, he can’t empty any of his 11 coat pockets. Mitch leans him against the booking counter, and begins taking handfuls of God know what out of the pockets.
Suddenly Mitch jumps in the air, yelling all sorts of Germanic based profanity, and is yelling “ Something bit me..something M….F….g BIT ME !!!”
Stinky has a semi-blank look on his face, but says; “ Oh, that’s just my lunch”
I grabbed the offending coat, ( while wearing gloves!) , turned it up-side down, and shook it.
About 7 or 10 half-dollar sized LIVE soft shell crabs fell out, and began scuttling around the booking room.
Stinky had apparently stolen them out of the fresh sea-food bin at the fish market up the street before we nabbed him.
To say that hilarity ensued would be vastly understating the commotion that followed, but suffice to say Stinky didn’t get his lunch, and Mitch never lived it down.
The Lieutenant had Mitch prepare a Line Up Briefing presentation on the “importance of proper searches during custody” later that week. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he finished
Avdiivka, Ukraine FALLS to Russian Army – “Complete Rout”
Once considered impregnable, the KEY city for Ukraine defense, Avdiivka, the most heavily fortified city on the entire planet, has fallen to the Russian Army.
Within hours, the bloodiest battle of the 21st century (so far) will be over.
For those who have not kept up on developments in the Russian Special Military Operation (SMO), Avdiivka is the place from which the Ukrainian Army has shelled the civilians of Donetsk City for TEN YEARS!
There are going to be lots of tactical, strategic, and political implications from this that we will see over the next days and weeks.
There are reportedly very FEW Ukrainian defenses behind Avdiivka; the Ukrainians put all their eggs into one basket, counting on the deep Soviet-era nuclear bunker system, and defenses built since the end of the civil war to make it “impregnable.”
ALL of those defenses have failed and the Russian Army now controls the city.
(HT Remark:Remember how CNN and Bloomberg crowed endlessly that cutting Russia off from SWIFT was like using a Nuclear Weapon, and that there was no way Russia could survive that? Here we are, two years later, and now, there is no way for UKRAINE to survive!)
This is a developing story . . . check back for updates.
2023.02.22 China Declares War On The United States
Gonzalo was correct.
Be the Rufus
“Today I went to Dunkin and saw a clearly homeless guy singing on the side of the road and picking up change. Eventually I saw him stroll into Dunkin, as he was counting his change to buy something I began to get super annoying and talk to him over and over again even when he didn’t really want to talk. Since he had maybe $1 in change I bought him a coffee and bagel and asked him to sit down with me. He told me a lot about how people are usually very mean to him because he’s homeless, how drugs turned him into the person he hated, he lost his mom to cancer, he never knew his dad and he just wants to be someone his mom would be proud of (along with another hours worth of conversation.) this lovely mans name was Chris and Chris was one of the most honest & sincere people I’ve ever met. After realizing I really need to get back to class Chris asked me to wait so he can write something down for me. Handing me a crumpled up receipt he apologizes for having shaky hand writing, smiled, and left. I opened his note and this was it. “I wanted to kill myself today because of u I now do not. Thank u, beautiful person.”
The most important thing that drug rehabs understand that soon to be patients don’t, or can’t, or have forgotten, is that your being there is a matter of life or death. Plain and simple — you will die or you will get clean — that’s it.
Preparation for rehab goes like this.
You make the call to rehab and tell them you need help. Their phone intake staff will ask you a handful of questions like:
What is your drug of choice?
How long have you been using?
Are you safe?
Have you ever been to rehab?
Do you have a phone number that we can call you back if we get disconnected?
Are you on probation or parole?
Do you have an address where we can pick you up?
Those are a few of the questions the rehabs I’ve been to have asked me during the phone intake interview.
If you noticed, there is a seemingly important question that isn’t asked (or wasn’t asked of me).
That is: “Do you have insurance?”
Every rehab that I’ve been to didn’t require insurance. Once I got into rehab they helped me find funding.
Once you make the call asking for help, rehab is usually less than twenty-four hours away.
Here is a list of things that are great to have, but without resources not all of them are possible.
Your shoes and clothing.
Toothpaste, toothbrush, body wash, stick deodorant, razors. Don’t bother bringing any aerosol deodorant, mouthwash or cologne. If it has alcohol and has an outside chance it can be abused, it is contraband.
Cigarettes.
Money.
Hard candy in an unopened brand new package.
Don’t bring drugs, alcohol or weapons. That’s a crime in and out of rehab. They will call the cops. You will pay dearly.
Now you’re packed up and ready to go.
Usually, within twenty-four hours they send a van to pick you up at your doorstep. Again, it’s life or death so time is ticking and rehabs understand that.
The van is probably going to have four or five other people heading to rehab also. They’re in the same boat as you.
Once you get to rehab, you’re gonna get naked and searched. So, let’s back up. Before you get picked up, get a shower and shave. Somebody is going to be looking at your body without your clothes on.
Once you’re searched and all your belongings are searched, you’ll be assigned a bed.
You’re going to have 1–5 roommates.
You’ll go through 1–7 days of detox. This will seem difficult. You’ll be on medication. It’s gonna hurt, but it gets better.
After detox, you’ll be moved to rehab.
Now it’s official.
There are lots of people with lots of problems in rehabs.
Focus on yourself — they are not your friends. Don’t trust them, don’t believe them and don’t leave with them.
Listen to your counselor.
Pay attention.
If you have the opportunity to get into a halfway house after rehab, take it.
It’s awesome. You get to work, save money and start your life over.
In WWII, Nazi Germany was concentrating their man power toward the Eastern Front.
An ENTIRE Wehrmacht Division which consisted of 2 brigades of about 12,000 soldiers was up against a single Soviet KV Heavy tank.
The crew of the tank (5 personnel) held off the German advance for hours. The Germans simply couldn’t disable the beast. Eventually, the crew of the tank ran out of ammo and was killed by the Germans.
The Germans took the bodies of the Soviet soldiers and buried them with full military honors.
They swept through the KV and grabbed a flag of the Soviet Union. The bodies were buried with the flag, saluted, and 21 rounds were fired in their honor.
Everyone is aware of the infamous Christmas Truce of 1914 during WWI. Similar things about during WWII. Please remember that during WWII, Germany was signed under the Geneva Conventions. The SS didn’t really care for this. But the Wehrmacht did and had to abide by it.
During national holidays like Christmas, the Germans and British once again ceased fire. They all agreed to stop shooting to give themselves time to bury their fallen soldiers. This happened on multiple occasions but was looked down upon, especially by Adolf Hitler.
During Operation Barbarossa (Invasion of the USSR), German was winning in the beginning. They were sweeping through the Soviet Union fast and capturing millions of Soviets. With the unforgivable Einsatzgruppen killing off Soviet Jews in the rear.
There are many pictures out there of Wehrmacht and even SS soldiers helping their enemies (Soviets). With the increasing victories of the Germans, thousands of Soviets were being injured. There are pictures and stories out there of SS soldiers caring for those victims. I know, it’s really hard to believe. (I’ll add the pictures in once I find them).
The Geneva Conventions state that once the enemy is disarmed, they’re no longer an enemy but a POW. And POWs must be treated humanely and taken care of.
During WWII, the Wehrmacht captured American POWs. They were separated (officers from enlisted). They were given jobs (mostly for junior ranks). They were given 2 full meals a day, and were able to receive care packages from the Americans Red Cross.
This was different with the SS most of the time.
Americans were captured by the 1st SS Panzer Division (Hitler’s Honor/Body Guard Division, Leibstandarte SS) after the Battle of the Bulge.
This image completely breaks my heart, as I’m an American soldier and have massive respect to my veterans, especially WWII veterans.
Instead of taking prisoners, the SS decided to shoot them dead and leave them in the snow. An MG-42 opened fire at them, killing 84. A few survived and managed to reach another American Division. After that, most divisions gave the order to kill all SS personnel on sight. In 1944, the commander of the SS Division (Joachim Peiper) was caught along with his men. They all stood trial for killing POWs. Peiper unfortunately got away with his crime. He was later killed by Nazi Hunters long after the war.
Jamaican Banana Bread
Ingredients
Bread
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons light cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup skim milk
2 tablespoons dark rum or 1/4 teaspoon rum extract
1/2 teaspoon grated lime rind
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/4 cup flaked, sweetened coconut
Topping
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons butter
2 teaspoons lime juice
2 teaspoons dark rum or 1/8 teaspoon rum extract
2 tablespoons chopped pecans, toasted
2 tablespoons flaked, sweetened coconut
Instructions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
Bread
Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with electric mixer; add sugar, beating well. Add egg; beat well.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir well. Combine banana, milk, rum, line rind, lime juice and vanilla extract; stir well. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with banana mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition. Stir in pecans and coconut.
Pour batter into prepared pan; bake for 60 minutes.
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes; remove from pan. Let cool slightly on wire rack.
Topping
Combine brown sugar, margarine, lime juice and rum in saucepan; bring to a simmer. Cook 1 minute; stir constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in pecans and coconut; spoon over loaf.
I pulled an idiot move and had the other driver follow me. New town, didn’t know my way around very well but knew I was being followed. Drove past my apartment complex and into a neighborhood, make a u-turn back out to make sure I am being tailed and yep, I am. Ended up driving to a convenience store and parking up front. See the other guy park as well, then as soon as he gets out I back up and leave. Do a few more twists and turns and catch a red light or two, make sure I lost them, then go to my apartment. Lucky for me they didn’t know which drive I was going to or even where I was going. And I left about an hour later for the airport and was gone a week plus. Thankfully they never saw me again, out of state plates would’ve been a give away for me.
– Kursk 2.0? – Moon of Alabama, Jun 09 2023 – Collapse of Operation Citadel 2.0 – TASS, Feb 24 2024 by Konstantin Sivkov – Vice President of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences for Information Policy
> Sir Tim Clark told the Financial Times he had seen a “progressive decline” in Boeing’s standards, which he put down to long-running management and governance mis-steps, including prioritising financial performance over engineering excellence. <
Use as open (not Ukraine or Palestine related) thread …
Posted by b on February 25, 2024 at 13:03 UTC | Permalink
Cheese Tortellini Crock Pot Dinner
A creamy, cheesy crock pot dinner recipe featuring cream cheese, cheese tortellini and spinach.
Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 large bag cheese tortellini
1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bunch fresh spinach, stems removed, or 1 bag frozen spinach
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 container vegetable or chicken broth
4 ounces grated mozzarella cheese
Instructions
Place block of cream cheese in the slow cooker.
Pour the bag of tortellini over the cream cheese.
Pour the can of diced tomatoes over all.
Add the spinach to the top.
Sprinkle garlic powder, onion powder, pepper and Italian seasoning over the top.
Pour the chicken broth into the slow cooker.
Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top.
Cover the slow cooker, and cook on HIGH for about 2 1/2 hours.
Stir well and serve.
Fail Safe (1964) | Full Movie ft. Henry Fonda | Voyage
A U.S. plane loaded with hydrogen bombs is flying towards Moscow and because of technical difficulties, is impossible to recall. Starring Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau. Directed by Sidney Lumet.
“Dr. Strangelove” and “Fail Safe” were released the same year, 1964, and deal with the same subject. Dr. Strangelove got more attention due to its satirical, comedic approach to the subject of nuclear destruction, but Fail Safe brings home the point in a far clearer, more compelling manner. It’s just as chilling today as it was 60 years ago.
This is for all youse guys that used to read Mad Magazine back in the 1970’s. It was part comic, part sarcasm, and part boyhood joy. Nothing even similar to it exists today. But, back in the day, we all would read it while drinking our sodas, and munching on our Babe Ruth candy bars.
The summers were of baseball, and fishing poles. It consisted of canoes, and mason jars. It was bicycle riding, and rail road track hikes, as well as exploring old homes and factories. It consisted of wall telephones in olive green kitchens, milk boxes on the porch, and hotdogs over an open fire in the evening.
We wore bell bottom pants, polyester billow sleeve shirts with choke collars, and big decorate belt buckles. A “nickel bag” of pot was enough to put on an open album cover, and use your driver’s license to separate the stems from the seeds. We had cigarette lighters built into the cars will back seat ash trays, and “cherry bomb” mufflers.
It was a calmer time; a simpler time. A time before the world went completely MAD.
I turned 18 and had proof. I looked 14 but it didn’t matter. 2 brothers owned a deli in my neighborhood, they took a liking to me. I made $108:00 a week and drank $150:00 worth of Lowenbrau beer back when it was made in Germany. The refrigerator where they kept the beer was out of sorts. Every beer had ice in it. It was fucken heaven.
The deli brothers slept in a back room at the store. They closed at 11.
I used to bang on the window at 2 in the morning. They were handing me cases of Lowenbrau out the door at 2 am and 4 am. I ran up a very large bill.
I was incredibly popular with the drunks I hung out with, mostly because I was always buying. One night they were robbed as they closed up. One of them reached for a gun behind the counter, the robber blew both their heads off and split.
I came upon the carnage at 1 am. I knew something wasn’t right when the door was open. I went in and saw they were dead. I walked out with 4 cases of Lowenbrau and put them in a friend’s trunk.
We sat in the nature preserve drinking till the sun came up. It was a great summer. I owed close to one thousand dollars in credit. It would have taken me years to pay it off. They were barely scratching out a living in the deli. We were all better off
Beef and Mushroom Stew with Caraway Dumplings
Browning meat in the oven reduces the amount of fat needed for cooking. Serve with julienne parsnips and carrots.
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
Stew
1 1/2 pounds round or blade steak
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Bouquet Garni*
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (if necessary)
1/2 pound small mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups beef stock
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Dumplings
1 cup soft fresh bread crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 egg white
Instructions
Stew
Cut steak into 1 1/2 inch cubes. In a bag, combine flour, pepper and salt. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat with flour mixture. Shake off excess and place meat on wire rack in flameproof casserole. Bake in 350 degrees F oven for about 25 minutes or until browned. Meanwhile, prepare Bouquet Garni.
Set meat aside on platter.
Place casserole over medium heat. Only if necessary add all or part of the oil. Add mushrooms, cap side down, and cook until golden, transferring to platter as they brown.
Add onion and garlic; cook until onion is transparent. Add stock, wine and tomato paste; bring to a simmer, stirring and scraping bottom of casserole with wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits.
Return meat to pan; add Bouquet Garni. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour or until meat is tender. Meanwhile prepare dumplings.
Dumplings
In a bowl, toss bread crumbs and melted butter together with a fork. Combine flour, baking powder, caraway seeds and salt. Mix lightly into crumb mixture. Beat together egg and egg white; add to crumb mixture and mix lightly (mixture will be soft) shape into 8 balls of even size.
Remove Bouquet Garni and discard. While stew is simmering, add dumplings, cover and cook, without removing lid, for 18 minutes.
Notes
* Tie together with kitchen twine 1 celery stalk with leaves, 3 or 4 sprigs parsley, 1 bay leaf and small sprig of thyme.
I worked for a company called Pyxis that made medication dispensing systems. The first CEO of the company was a VERY smart man named Ron Taylor who said “we will NEVER be FDA regulated” – the thinking being that if we are, the weight of the FDA’s requirements for paperwork and process are just *onerous*. Which they are. Anyway, we made sure the product never delivered drugs to patients – that the Nurse or Doc that used our system was ALWAYS the final vehicle of delivery – so we didn’t need to be FDA regulated.
Years later, Pyxis is bought by Cardinal Health who then buys bunch of other med-tech companies and they have this bright young VP who says “since half of our stuff is FDA regulated, let’s make ALL of our stuff FDA regulated!!!”. All of us old-timer engineers told him it was a bad idea, we explained that we’d never release a new software revision or product again… but he didn’t listen.
Once we invited the FDA to the building to check out out, that was that. The doors were very nearly shut, he was asked to leave and the company took a HUGE hit. The FDA didn’t really want to be there, but once you invite them in – they’re in. I was there for the whole transition – not my first time seeing that – and it was pathetic. In my remaining years at that company, not a single major product initiative or update made its way out the door.
I was an assistant manager of a service station (gas ration + garage) and responsible for most of the station’s hiring, training, and firing.
We had hired a kid named “Kris,” who had managed to pass the math part of the application and seemed relatively competent to be polite and make accurate change.
One day, a long time customer of the garage came walking around the bay side of the building and waved me down. He was more my boss’s customers met than mine, but we knew each other well enough.
“Hey, Mark. I wonder if I could talk to ya for moment?” He had a fairly concerned look on his face.
Being someone who was always willing to help a customer solve an issue, I didn’t hesitate.
“Of course! Hat can I do for you?”
“Well, I , uh, I wanted to let ya know that I was talking to the kid in the store and, and he told me that I should definitely not be bringing my car here to you guys.”
I was speechless for a good five seconds, but my eyes were probably meeting my ears.
“Mr. Smith, thank you so much for letting me know. You know how hard Mr. Boss and I work to make sure all of our customers are well taken care of and I appreciate you sharing this with me.”
I walked over to the store side and asked Kris if he had actually told our customer, Mr. Smith, who had been a gas and garage customer for over 15 years, that he shouldn’t trust our shop to take care of his car.
Kris was 19, heading on up to 13, so he thought he was a “man of the world” since he had a 30+ year old sugar momma and must’ve thought that made him something extra special.
“Yeah.”
“You’re fired. I’ll have Mr. Boss down here in less than an hour to write your last check. You can wait here or come back.”
He decided to come back after standing there for a moment without saying anything.
I called up my boss and told him what had happened. He told me to write up a letter explaining why he was being fired, and that he would be there as quickly as he could to get that check together.
Kris came by and I gave him his check in an envelope with the letter. I just handed it to him. He took it and walked out. I didn’t say a word, and neither did he.
Good riddance! I was so glad we had done such a great job by our customers that one of them had no problems letting me know about that kid.
Teaching conditions and pay were not good for government teachers. The premier, Sir Henry Bolte, had thrown down the gauntlet for teachers. There was to be a strike and teachers were to gather at the steps of Parliament House while a bill to make striking illegal for teachers was to be debated.
I decided to go by public transport so I would not get stuck in town or have to pay excessive parking fees (after all, I was a lowly paid teacher). I got to the steps of Parliament House before 9 a.m. There were police shoulder to shoulder forming an impenetrable line – and the only teacher there was me.
I moved up and down, waiting for others to arrive. By about 9:15, no=one else had arrived and a senior policeman stepped down and spoke to me. “Why are you so special that there are so many of us here?” I replied that I was the only one on time and everyone else was late. By 9:30, all except two police left.
By 10, there were a few hundred other teachers there, so the two police were totally overwhelmed. But we did behave!
My moment of fame, and the local papers didn’t get a photo of me facing off to over a hundred police!
My two friends let’s call them John (Christian American) and Fatima (Arab Muslim) are going out.
They have a passionate love story. Tattooed each other’s names on their bodies. Fought a giant backlash from her Arab family against their marriage because he is from a different religion and culture. Made deep promises to have an eternity of love and marriage together.
One day Fatima gets a message from a woman saying that she is so sorry to be the carrier of bad news but John her fiance is cheating with that woman’s sister. The message contains so many screenshots and proofs that cannot be faked and he is indeed cheating.
The texts she showed me were vomit-enducing. He would tell the other woman exactly the same things he tells her. How he only lives for her. How he can think of nothing but touching her. There were nudes exchanged between them and words of adoration.
Fatima’s world collapsed. She came to me crying and asking about what to do. I told her forget about him. What a piece of trash. Dump him this moment. My blood was truly boiling knowing all the sacrifices she made and all the promises that were broken.
Next day, I woke up to pictures of John and Fatima together uploaded online. I asked her and she said “Oh Salma he told me he was just comforting her because she was having hard times. Besides all men play around sometimes and I love him”.
I can’t decide until this moment whether I want to slap him or her…
People will always associate with you when you’re succeeding. No one wants to associate with failure.
Nobody’s busier than a person who doesn’t want you.
Just because you love each other doesn’t always mean you’re meant to be together.
It’s okay to fuck up and make mistakes and to be scared. You don’t have to know what you’re doing all of the time.
There’s nothing better than showering and putting on an oversized t-shirt and then crawling into a bed with fresh sheets.
Nothing turns us on more than someone who sincerely cares about you and who directly communicates their intentions.
Sometimes we get into those moods where we don’t feel like reading, you don’t feel like being on the internet, you don’t feel like watching a tv show or you don’t feel like sleeping and existing in general.
There’re no final version of ours . We never stop evolving, growing/ changing, nor should we.
Sometimes you’re in a mood to destroy your relationship with everyone you know.
Having a baby fall asleep on your chest is one of the purest and nicest things ever.
Dancing around your room to music and not giving a single fuck is one of the ultimate forms of self care.
Privacy is power. What people don’t know, they can’t ruin.
This old gentleman was in court because he got a felony ticket for duck hunting with a self made shotgun round that was one grain too heavy after being weighed by the game warden. Some random obscure law. He had been returned to court a number of times while the District Attorney was trying to figure the case out. A new judge who heard the case had the biggest smile as he heard the story from the District Attorney and the very humorous old man.
The judge started chuckling then roared laughing as the man explained that he was the president of the young duck hunters boy scout something or other for the past 40 years teaching young men to hunt ducks and the Game Warden was his ex-wife’s new victim as the warden had been dumb enough to date her, and so the Game Warden was being a bit of a tool.
The judge was laughing so hard as he asked the District Attorney if it was ok to just drop this silly outdated charge so no one had to listen to the outrageous story anymore.
I had to stop the guy on his way out to exchange numbers and went out hunting with him the next week. Dinner was good.
David: Shots fired at 123 Mockingbird Lane, in the city.
911 Center: Is anyone hurt, is anyone in danger?
David: No more danger. Yes, my wife. She is in need of EMS, just to check her out. She has some pretty serious contusions.
911 Center: What happened?
David: She’s just scraped up pretty bad, but is safe. Three men tried to drag her into their vehicle, as she got out of her car.
911 Center: Where are those three men, now?
David: Two are laying in the street and one is hanging outside of his vehicle. A white panel van.
911 Center: I have police and EMS on the way. Where are you now?
David: I am in my house with the doors and windows locked.
911 Center: Are the three men moving?
David: I have three males suffering from various gunshot wounds, none of them are moving or breathing, that I can tell.
911 Center: I’m glad that you and your wife are okay. Stay in the house. Stay safe. The police will clear the area and then come in contact with you. Are there any other people with guns, in the area.
David: No. It’s quiet. The neighbors are all in their homes. Cars are driving around the bodies.
___________________________________
Dispatch: Break. Units, 31, 202, 103, 104 and 115. Respond to 123 Mockingbird Lane. Victim reports shots fired, 3 male suspects appear to be shot and non-responsive. Victim and his wife are in their home at the same address, and are sheltering in place. Witnesses report no other individuals in the area.
Unit 31: 31 in route. 202, put 103 at the north end of the block, 115 will position at the south end. 104, 202 and myself will clear the area.
Dispatch: Unit 31, EMS from Smiths, and Centerville paramedics are ready to roll in, once the area is clear.
Dispatch: Break, all units, step down from active shooter protocol, be on standby until 31 clears.
__________________________________ Detective Branch: Sir, at what point did you determine your wife was being attacked.
David: I heard her screaming from the street. I recognized her scream as unusual, because she only screamed like that once before.
Branch: When was that?
David: When she was approached by a stray pitbull and the baby was in the yard.
Branch: Then what did you do?
David: I grabbed my AR and ran to the front of the house.
Branch: What did you see?
David: A big guy dragging my wife by her hair, while she was kicking and screaming. The skinny guy was trying to grab her feet, but she was kicking the crap out of him.
Branch: Then what?
David: I yelled, “I have a gun! Let her go!”
Branch: What did the big guy do?
David: He tried to lift her up to shield himself with her body. The skinny guy started to reach into his waistband. I saw a gun silhouette against his white t-shirt. He wasn’t facing me, so I knew he was going to point his gun at my wife. I shot him first.
Branch: Is that why he was shot in the back?
David: Yes.
Branch: Then what?
David: I shot the skinny guy twice before he fell. One got him in the right shoulder, and the second one hit him in the middle of his back. He didn’t get up, which seemed to piss the big guy off, so while he was fighting with my wife, I ordered him to let her go!
Branch: What did he do when you told him to let your wife go?
David: He seemed to not be too sure what to do, but then I heard two gun shots come from the van. A bullet impacted on the side of the house, about 10 feet from where I was standing. The muzzle flashes were quite bright, coming from the van.
Branch: Then what?
David: So I have this low light scope, and the guy in the van was opening his door and he had a large caliber hand-gun, looked like a 45 or 44 magnum. I wasn’t about to let him out of the van with that gun, so close to my wife, so I put the crosshairs of my scope, on the driver’s head, and shot him. I saw a puff of red in his headlight beam and he didn’t move.
Branch: Why is the big guy, dead?
David: Because he looked over his shoulder and didn’t see the driver any more. He called what I am assuming is his name, and “Nick” didn’t answer. He then put his arm around my wife’s neck and he looked like he was going to choke her out or break her neck. He was big enough to do that… I didn’t have a choice.
Branch: What happened then?
David: I yelled to my wife to “run to your left!”. She used her feet and what strength she had left, to run to her left. The big guy turned to the left with her, which exposed his right side profile. I shot him in the right side of his rib cage. He went down pretty quickly.
Branch: Weren’t you afraid to hit your wife?
David: I prayed to God that I wouldn’t. But I knew that if I accidently hit her, she would forgive me. But I couldn’t forgive myself, if I didn’t hit the men who were attacking her.
Branch: Do you have anything else to add in your statement?
David: No sir.
__________________________________
31: Dispatch, this is thirty-one. Paramedic says all three subjects are DOA. Need a coroner out here, with a bio-cleanup crew. We are taping off the area and posting a patrol at the house for the night. Put 103 on it.
Dispatch: Chief wants to know if we are pulling in the vic for the DA?
31: His call. But I am not seeing it.
THE END
Footnote: I originally posted this answer back in October of last year. However, I deleted my account and all my answers after my life was threatened. (Not over this post, but another one.) So, now that that problem is solved. I am going to re-enter Quora. Hopefully, with a few more controls and a nice security system.
Modern Women Get SALTY When Men Start Ignoring Them
I was having a skiing class in St. Anton, Austria back in 90’s and the class took a lunch break. Eric the ski instructor was making conversation and asked how we had all come down to Austria. I told I had driven and he asked if I had found it a problem driving on the RHS in my right hand drive car (Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 went like hell). I said no and I drove a lot abroad and he then asked which other countries drove on the left. I think I mentioned Japan, Australia and New Zealand and then a Dutch chap said South Africa. There was a moment of silence before Eric said “The British invented concentration camps”. I should have bitten my tongue but came back with “Maybe but we didn’t fit them out with Gas Chambers and Ovens” . “No just machine guns” replied Eric. The Dutch chap then said that many Dutch people wouldn’t ski in Austria as Kurt Waldheim (former secretary general of the United Nations and former member of the SS) was President of Austria. He had been voted in despite knowledge of his war efforts. They had better ski in Holland then said Eric. At which point someone suggested it might be a good idea if we changed the subject and normality resumed. As we get up from the table Eric says “Where would you like to ski this afternoon?” I couldn’t resist it so I said “How about Poland? ” At least everyone laughed, including Eric.
Last week I had the pleasure of babysitting my friend’s 4-year-old daughter for the day.
We had a fun day: going to the library, picnicking in the park, playing on the playground and ending the day with a little bit of ice cream! (I’m allowed to spoil her).
Once we had been home for a few minutes I noticed I was getting a migraine and asked her to play quietly because my head hurt.
I then proceeded to peruse my phone as I waited for the migraine to subside.
“No, no, no,” the little girl said to me.
I glanced up and gave her a curious look.
“If your head hurts, you don’t look at the screens. You close the eyes like this and don’t do the phone or the computer,” she told me.
I obeyed and noticed that my migraine dissipated quicker than usual.
That 4-year-old was incredibly unqualified (what with her still being a toddler and all), but I’ll be darned if she didn’t have some great life advice.
She Tried To Date Women As a Man And Quickly Learned Why Men Are Opting Out of Dating | Part 2 Norah
A guy asked me to be his girlfriend the night before he left to France for a 3-month internship but I rejected him because I wasn’t sure. We remained close friends after that. On the night of my birthday (he was still in France), we video-called and he sent me a link to a website. It turned out that he made a video of each of our friends saying happy birthday to me, along with my favourite songs playing on the background. At the end of the video, he said happy birthday to me with Rascal Flatts’ song My Wish.
“And while you’re out there getting where you’re getting to I hope you know somebody loves you And wants the same things too Yeah, this is my wish”
He is now my boyfriend of 2 years.
AI experts make predictions for 2040. I was a little surprised
My mother did. I was the youngest of six kids. We brown bagged lunches every day. We. included my father. My mom made one heck of a good lunch from leftover from the night before. She always baked and had a slice of cake or some sweet included in our lunch.
My dad was senior test director at our local Army base and was pretty high up in government service workers (GS 15 rank almost equal to a General but was a civilian). He worked with high ranking Army people.
His brown bag lunch started to go missing several times a week. My father was money tight (tight as a crabs ass and the crab is waterproof) so him having to spend money for lunch was not going over very well.
My Mother made cupcakes for dessert one day but iced two of them with, you guessed it right, ExLax. Not just your normal dose for constipation but enough for an almost immediate explosion.
It only took a few hours for my father to find out who was stealing his lunch. That Major was transferred very quickly after the incident.
Hungry Potter and the Chamber of Snacks – (Harry Potter AI)
Not my mom but my dad. I was 12 going into 8th grade, dad and I were doing my back to school shopping at our thrift stores. I had my budget, my list, I knew exactly what to spend. When we got to the counter and after she totaled everything, she could have said this before, but the cashier said the store was under new ownership and there was a 10% purchase fee. WTH!!! I’ve never heard of that except at grocery stores (that cost plus thing). Anyway I’m over budget so I have to take off some things, the shoes I could live without, the belt I really liked, and 2 shirts. Not a lot and I could recycle a few more from last year (my used last year clothes are really showing their age so they get put in work clothes or grease rags) but we total out and leave. My dad who had been so excited early seemed really quiet. After loading this in our truck we head towards home. In my reserve pocket I pull out my ice-cream fund. Every year before or since (even this year when dad took me college clothes shopping) I keep enough for ice-cream. My dad stops at the shop and says he’s not really in the mood for ice-cream. Wait a minute this is our thing always. My dad sets in on this I should have better, he should have made more money, his little girl shouldn’t have to buy 2nd hand clothes for school. He has completely failed me as a father. Maybe I would have been better off with his brother’s family, they have money. I was shocked, appalled, I have never felt that way. I slapped him, harder than I meant to but I did. And I pulled out, as he says, my grandma voice. Listen here mister. You have never once come close to failing me not even for a moment. The love and devotion you have given me is worth more than any amount of money in the world. I don’t need better or expensive stuff. I need you holding me at night when I’m scared, telling me you believe in me when no one else does. Letting me know that beans and bread for dinner is perfect again this week. I don’t want more money or expensive, flashy stuff, I want us. I want our goofy little traditions, our silly little interactions, our weird fun times. You are the best father in the whole world because you value love over anything else. Now this is our ice-cream tradition and if you don’t want to do it then let’s just leave. We both cried alot in our truck that day, and it was the best ice-cream treat we’ve had. My dad has never brought up money again and I haven’t slapped him…well that hard again. I love you always daddy
Trump is a great golfer. The best golfer to ever occupy the White house. It’s not even close. He is very good. Yet, as in most things Trump, he is not as outstanding as he claims to be. He lies and cheats.
that: “once playing with Trump in the 1990s he realized that Trump had placed a ball just feet from the pin that he had never hit. Mulvoy called Trump out on cheating and Trump rationalized:
“Ahh, the guys I play with cheat all the time,” Mulvoy said Trump told him. “I have to cheat to keep up with them.”
Someone I know golfed with Trump at a charity event. Apparently Trump was cheating and was called out.
When asked to stop cheating, Trump responded: “I cheat on my taxes, I cheat on my wives, and I cheat at Golf. Get used to it.”
Trump then smiled broadly, and kept cheating. He didn’t win the tournament. But he didn’t stop cheating.
“I’ve played with him a lot,” says a frequent guest in Trump’s foursomes. “This one time, I was in the fairway and he was right of the green but a little bit down the hill. He didn’t think anybody was watching, but I was. I saw him make a chipping motion from the side of the hill but no ball came up. Then he walked up the hill, stuck his hand in the hole and pulled a ball out. It must’ve been a ball he had in his hand the whole time. Then he looked up and yelled, ‘I chipped in!’”
2. The Quick Rake
This is a sneaky little move in which you hit your approach putt and then quickly walk up and rake up what’s left of it, no matter the length, before your opponents can stop you or think to holler, “Hey, wait a minute!” Trump has mastered this move. He does it sometimes before the ball has even stopped rolling. MSNBC cameras caught him doing it once to a ball that had sped five feet past the hole and was gaining speed. By the time anybody can object, the ball is already in his pocket.
3. The Ball Switch
“Whenever I’ve caddied in Trump’s group,” says Greg Puga, an elite Los Angeles amateur and caddy, who has Trump in his group plenty, “he always gets his own cart. He makes sure to hit first off every tee box and then jumps in the cart, so he’s halfway down the fairway before the other three are done driving. That way he can get up there quick and mess with his ball.
Csipetka (Pinched Noodles – Hungary)
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Instructions
Mix flour and salt; add egg. Stir to make a stiff dough, sprinkling in a few drops of cold water if necessary. Knead until smooth.
Let dough rest for at least 30 minutes.
Flatten dough a bit at a time between floured palms (or roll 1/8 inch thick on a floured board) and pinch off pieces slightly smaller than a dime. Drop them into rapidly boiling salted water; cook until tender, about 15 minutes.
Drain and rinse csipetke; stir them directly into stew or soup, if ready. Otherwise, turn them into a bowl, coat with oil, and set aside in a warm place until ready to use.
Notes
You can drop csipetke into broth or soup for extra flavor and texture, or you can serve them alongside a main course with sauce or gravy, or you can use them in place of dumplings or noodles in almost any other recipe.
This may have been common at the time but it will still sound pretty bizarre to American ears in 2020.
In May 1894, the federal government put four men on trial for smuggling opium into San Francisco aboard the yacht Emerald. Now, shipping, selling, and smoking opium was totally legal in America that year; there were at least twenty shops selling opium in Chinatown – and advertising in the local papers and the city directory (under “Opium Dealers”). However, everybody had to pay the $10 per pound import duty in order to do so, and as always, there were people who didn’t want to cut the government in on the profits. One of them was Ewen W. McLean, who’d been smuggling opium for almost a decade. But he and his captain, John Voss, had avoided arrest and were safely out of reach up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Louis Greenwald, George Thomas, George Wichman, and Emerald’s mate, Henry Mensing weren’t so lucky. After a couple of days of testimony, in which two members of what the newspapers called “the Emerald Ring,” flipped and gave up the four and the whole scheme, the prosecutors had a solid case and just needed to tie up a couple of legal bows.
One of these was demonstrating that the duty hadn’t been paid. Not too difficult, because the half-pound tins in which the opium was smuggled were supposed to bear a Customs stamp and none of the ones seized did. The second issue was a little trickier. The government needed to show that the opium was in fact opium and that it had come from abroad (thereby requiring payment of the duty).
There were no crime labs back then, no CSI or Quantico, so the government had a conundrum. They solved it by bringing in an opium expert, a Chinatown resident and long-time opium consumer named Mun Jin Moy, who laid out all the gear he needed to smoke some opium. At the urging of the United States Attorney, Mun broke open six cans from the seizure, withdrew some opium from each, and as the newspaper reported it, “cooked his dope over the little spirit lamp, and then, placing it on the bowl of the pipe, sucked away with apparently great enjoyment as his little eyes blinked and glistened through the wreaths of smoke.”
Undoubtedly fairly wasted at this point, but apparently still able to talk, Moy considered carefully. “’Him velly good,’” he said, and ruled that the opium had come from Victoria, being a higher quality than that from Panama.”
With that testimony “in the can,” Mun left the stand, the only person I know of who was actually paid by the government to get high in a federal courtroom. The jury evidently liked what they heard, because they convicted three of the four defendants, who got five years in San Quentin for what were essentially tax violations.
Up in Victoria, McLean ran dope to Hawaii for a few more years, then left that business and went legit, founding the Vancouver Stock Exchange and making it into “Who’s Who in Canada,” so crime evidently does pay sometimes. John Voss attempted to sail around the world in a canoe and didn’t quite make it, but he wrote a book about it (still in print) and his canoe is in the Maritime Museum of British Columbia.
But paying a drug addict to come to federal court and smoke a bunch of dope (from the government’s evidence) and testify about it? That’s pretty damn bizarre.
Your best memories are not always real. When someone makes us feel good, we tend to color all memories of them positively and they might not be as good as you remember. Kind of like how as kids we thought our parents were super heros. This makes you a better person cause you can leave in the present and not compare your present relationships to the past.
maybe you’re the problem. When in difficult relationships it’s important to consider if and how you’re the problem. Not to say that bad people don’t exist but also if you’re with them, why then are you with them? You do have a problem too
Your family doesn’t love you unconditionally. Try being a pain and you’ll see this for sure. Actually the only people who love you unconditionally are people who don’t love themselves. Even your child will stop loving you and love another mother if you stop mothering them
Not everyone will get to have a peaceful beautiful death. Many will die in painful ways. Enjoy a beautiful peaceful life while you can.
You will likely be completely forgotten about 20–80 years after you die. Your legacy too so stop focusing on building a legacy and instead focus on giving your family a beautiful love cause that’s mostly what they’ll miss before you get forgotten. The people who knew you might never forget you but soon they’ll die too and you’ll seize to exist. Don’t believe me? Just think about it… what’s the name of your grandfather’s grandfather?
Your children don’t care how successful you are. They just want and need your positive attention. If you sacrifice this for work or building a legacy, they’ll very quickly and happily squander your legacy soon as you’re gone
You don’t know what you don’t know. Next time someone speaks allow yourself to listen and discover what you didn’t know
very few people are thinking about you right now. Most of them are thinking about themselves and what you think of them but not really thinking about you
In 10 years you’ll most likely realize you did some things wrong even the rbi gas you’re convinced that you’re doing right. As you acquire more info, you’ll realize how limited your thinking was. Don’t believe me? Just imagine how madly I love you were in that first love. You probably thought that will never change. You now realize you were wrong
many people choose you because they see the value in keeping you around. As soon as you lose that value you will lose those people too
I viewed the world from the lens of television, and I thought that the stereotypes thrown at me was real. I believed that wars were gallant men fighting for just purposes, and that work as an never ending adventures with one mystery after the other.
Ah. The harsh reality wasn’t that at all.
Now, that was decades ago. Today, it seems that Gen-Z is having some real coping issues. This is the West, buy the way, not in the East. And what I am reading, hearing about, and watching is terribly disturbing.
The ship USS America is now under water.
The water has breached the deck and starting to go down the air funnels and leech into the duct-work. The hallways have inches (3 cm) deep water that one has to splash through to get to the upper flooded deck.
The signs are all there.
Perhaps the sinking will be complete before the captain of the Ship; whatever “president” that might be might want to reconsider a war with a vibrant, healthy, professional boxer like China is today.
Just sayin’
Today…
French Defense Reports Acknowledge Ukraine Is Done With
The French president Macron has recently pushed for an engagement of foreign troops in Ukraine. The idea was immediately rejected by every country that would be able to send a reasonable number.
The question is why Macron suddenly came out with this.
A series of recent reports from the French defense establishment might have caused his irritation.
The French magazine Marianne got access to “several confidential defense reports” from the French army on the situation in Ukraine.
The situation looks exceedingly bleak for Ukraine, which might in part explain Macron’s recent declarations around sending troops to Ukraine. I translated the important parts of the article:”A Ukrainian military victory now seems impossible”
The reports Marianne consulted write that Ukraine’s counter-offensive “gradually bogged down in mud and blood and did not result in any strategic gain” and that its planning, conceived by Kiev and Western general staffs, turned out to be “disastrous”: “Planners thought that once the first Russian defense lines were breached, the entire front would collapse […] These fundamental preliminary phases were conducted without considering the moral forces of the enemy in defense: that is, the will of the Russian soldier to hold onto the terrain”.
The reports also highlight “the inadequacy of the training of Ukrainian soldiers and officers”: due to a lack of officers and a significant number of veterans, these “Year II soldiers” from Ukraine – often trained for “no more than three weeks” – were launched into an assault on a Russian fortification line that proved impregnable.
Somehow people who had never heard of the Battle of Kursk convinced themselves that Russian soldiers in defensive positions would run away as soon as they would hear a tank rumbling towards them. They of course did not do so.
These Russian troops are well managed and cared for:
The reports also highlight that contrary to Ukraine “the Russians have managed their reserve troops well, to ensure operational endurance.” According to this document, Moscow reinforces its units before they are completely worn out, mixes recruits with experienced troops, ensures regular rest periods in the rear… and “always had a coherent reserve force to manage unforeseen events.” This is far from the widespread idea in the West of a Russian army sending its troops to the slaughter without counting…
The Ukrainians on the other side are done with:
“To date, the Ukrainian general staff does not have a critical mass of land forces capable of inter-arms maneuver at the corps level capable of challenging their Russian counterparts to break through its defensive line,” concludes this confidential defense report, according to which “the gravest error of analysis and judgment would be to continue to seek exclusively military solutions to stop the hostilities“. A French officer summarizes: “It is clear, given the forces present, that Ukraine cannot win this war militarily.“
The fall of Avdeevka has shown that the Ukrainian military, even on the defensive, will inevitably lose the fight:
“The Ukrainian armed forces have tactically shown that they do not possess the human and material capabilities […] to hold a sector of the front that is subjected to the assailant’s effort,” continues the document. “The Ukrainian failure in Avdiivka shows that, despite the emergency deployment of an ‘elite’ brigade – the 3rd Azov Air Assault Brigade –, Kiev is not capable of locally restoring a sector of the front that collapses,” alerts this last report.
In consequence the Russian forces will simply move on:
What the Russians will do with this tactical success remains to be seen. Will they continue in the current mode of “nibbling and slowly shaking” the entire front line, or will they seek to “break through in depth”? “The terrain behind Avdiivka allows it,” signals this recent document, also warning that Western sources tend to “underestimate” the Russians, themselves adept at the practice of “Maskirovka,” “appearing weak when strong.” According to this analysis, after two years of war, Russian forces have thus shown their ability to “develop operational endurance” that allows them to wage “a slow and long-intensity war based on the continuous attrition of the Ukrainian army.”
There is nothing really new in the above for people who have followed the facts on the ground.
So why were western media, and politicians like Macron, late in recognizing the real situation?
Posted by b on March 12, 2024 at 16:59 UTC | Permalink
When a coward meets a man
What did a teacher say that made you immediately walk out of the classroom?
My teacher told me, “No you may not leave the room. Stay in your seat.”
This was said after I glanced out the open door to see my younger brother standing in the doorway crying. (I was a Jr, he was a sophomore) This was so out of character for Mike, that without thinking, I had jumped up from my desk and asked the teacher if I could be excused for a minute. He, too, saw my tall, goofy, big-hearted brother standing there brushing away tears.
I never sat back down, I just kept on going toward the door and my brother. My brothers and I had a very tight relationship. We were always there for one another, and this time was the same. The teacher didn’t say another word as I exited the classroom.
I immediately hugged my brother and asked him what was wrong. He then told me, between the tears that a boy in his gym class had made a nasty remark about me, and without thinking, Mike had sent a basketball soaring across the gym, which hit the offender right square in his face. Blood went everywhere, and it turned out that he had a broken nose. Mike felt terrible about breaking his nose and just knew he was in trouble big time.
I got Mike calmed down and he went back to class, but only after I assured him that I wouldn’t tell our mom about the incident. Then I went back to class and sat down and continued to listen to the lecture for the day. Teacher never said a word to me.
I’d do it just the same if it happened all over again. Nobody, but nobody ever came between my brothers and me.
Damn! This guys is a menace
What is the strangest thing you’ve found buried?
I worked as a field archaeologist for ten years or so and in that time I participated in the excavation of many historic and prehistoric sites in North America.
One of my more unusual finds was in South Western Wyoming.
Wyoming is a big state, comprised of deserts and mountains and little in between. The population is scant and you can drive for hours in some places without seeing another car or an occupied home. A common problem in Wyoming is running out of gasoline because gas stations are few and far between. Many residents have a second gas tank installed in their pickup trucks for this reason.
One spring the company I was working for was scheduled to excavate a prehistoric Native American site in the very rough terrain of the South Western corner of the state. The site was nestled on a terrace on the side of steep hill surrounded by canyon walls. The site had been discovered decades earlier when an oil company put an oil well pad near the site but it had not been investigated further.
The site had some interesting characteristics. First, it was located on a terrace, a flat spot on the side of a steep hill. Then the site was protected from wind on three sides by canyon walls. And finally the site had access to fresh water via a stream that crossed below the site. These characteristics made the site uniquely suited for settlement to ancient people. Such a perfect place was extremely rare.
Upon arrival, we located a series of petro-glyphs or prehistoric rock drawings which were spread across the sandstone walls that protected the terrace. The panels were crowded with images, many of which featured stick like hunters stalking groups of antelope in the desert dunes. Occasionally bison, goats and birds made appearances. But one panel included a dog.
At the time it was known that Native Americans had domesticated the dog but the details were sketchy. For sure dogs were common among the “civilized” late prehistoric tribes of the Carolinas on the Atlantic coast and a breed of tiny dogs were known to the famously civilized Aztecs of Central Mexico but after that it was a big blank as of early 1990s.
The crew examined the “dog” and then looked at the antelopes and it was our collective opinion that the dog was a dog. The ancient artists were particular in their portrayal of the animals, there was little variation in the way they made the antelopes. The antelopes were antelopes and the dog was a dog. We wondered about a domesticated “coyote” or even a “wolf” but this figure had a dog like profile and posture.
We did not spend much time on the rock drawings. They would be documented and preserved. Instead we focused our attention on the sizeable archaeological deposits on the terrace. Imagine the terrace as a bowl with 5 feet of stratified sand in it, with each strata containing the remain of multiple seasonal occupations. In all 8,000 years of ancient American history were recorded in these thin layers, like the pages of a giant history book.
In the coming days, we revealed layer after layer after layer of ancient camp site, with excellent examples of finely designed arrow heads, dart point, and spear tips and all or most of the specimens fit neatly into the historical typology of types which were well documented for this region.
And then we settled into a number of strata that were all from the Archaic age. In the archaeology of the Americas, the Archaic period is this incredibly long and undifferentiated period that starts roughly at 6,000 BC and continues to 1,000 BC. From this period we have only the slightest indications of what life was like.
In the archaic, humans lived in small bands, they hunted, they collected foods from the wild and they moved in seasonal cycles to harvest things as they became available. Almost everything else about the archaic peoples are unknown. We occasionally get a very detailed snap shot of archaic life from a particular region and then hundreds of miles and thousands of years of silence .
Early on, it became apparent that we were going to be looking at many layers or occupational instances of the Archaic. As we peeled the top off the archaic strata we found a multitude of “features” which are stationary archaeology remains that can indicate particular human activities. Features might include storage pits, bone piles, fire features (hearths or fire pits) and so on.
And then we found what looked like a small burial. We quickly adjusted our pace of excavation, and out came the smaller pics and brushes. In the bottom of an oval pit some 80cm across we found the well preserved remains of a dog, curled as if asleep. Our best bet at the time was that the dog dated to the Late Archaic and could be anywhere between 3,000 and 4,500 years old.
Finding the dog was a shock to us. Maybe the specimen was a mutated coyote or adolescent wolf, or maybe the dog was “intrusive,” i.e. from a latter date and someone dug a deep hole into more ancient deposits… However, the features start point was well within the Archaic strata.
This find would indicate that the “dog” appeared in North America at a date much earlier than originally believed and that maybe the “dog” was domesticated separately by ancient native Americans in very distant communities separated by hundreds of miles and thousands of years.
Random, Rome and R
Have you ever called in a “welfare check” to the police? Did it turn out there was a real need? Officers, how often are “welfare checks” something where a person does need assistance?
My lovely youngest brother.
He lived in the local city, I live just outside with my family, he used to talk to our mother every day. She rang me on my daughter’s birthday, and told me he’d not answered his phone, or texted back all day.
We popped over, on the way my husband ran over a raised island, with curbs around, there was usually a lit bollard on top.
We went on, parked, and went in the block of flats. He didn’t answer the door, I rang him. In the end he shouted back. I wanted to call an ambulance, he didn’t want me to. We stayed about 10 minutes. I said you sound terrible ally. He refused help again.
We started driving home, and he rang me, we chatted and he said he’d talk to mum. He sounded the normal Ally then. I said I would call him tomorrow. And he said love you.
Later, on our drive home, we realised we’d damaged the wheel, on that island. The tyre was slowly letting out the air, and I think the wheel rim took a knock. So now the car was out of commission for a day or two.
Later I put my mum at ease, and had a chat with her.
He didn’t answer the next day.
So the day after, I had my daughter take me back. He really didn’t answer any calls through his letter box. I could hear his phone ring.
I rang the police and ambulance. They said yeah, contact the hospital and see if he’s been admitted.
Nope, not there. So I rang ambulance again. The ambulance came first, they called the police, and they crashed in the door.
No one let me see him, but he’d died.
I think he died the evening I spoke to him.
Then I had to ring my family. That’s something I don’t want to do again. I had to tell everyone when our father died, that was shit, too.
I was sent away by the police and the paramedics. It was the start of more worry. The police called the council to seal up the door.
In the UK, a death like this always warrants a postmortem.
LOL
What is the best way a friend has showed you that they are a true friend?
My dad was being taken off a ventilator at the hospital. They put him in a room because they expected him to die. I sent my son and husband home because they were so antsy and while upset didn’t want to stay. So I sat by myself. I held my dad’s hand and thought of why had my normally very smooth rather dull life turn into this horror movie. My mom was becoming somebody I didn’t know with dementia 😢. She said these horrible things to me that I know she didn’t mean but hurt anyway. Then she was killed in an auto accident. Three months later I’m sitting by my dad in this surreal hospital room watching him labor for breath. Suddenly I see the person who has been respite support for my autistic son for years come running up with tears running down her face. She found out I was alone up there. Well, now I wasn’t ❤️.
She has my heart and my sword forever.
Can The US Compare To CHINA’s High-Speed Rail?
Disturbing trends.
What was the best hidden bonus you found in your old car at a new car dealership, when you were cleaning it out before taking your new car home?
I had an elderly couple trade for their “final car” several years back. They had been married a long time and were coming up on their 50th anniversary, and in conversation I had noticed the little old man was not wearing a wedding band. I didn’t mention it as it was none of my business, but I had noticed he was fairly frail looking.
After they left, I was going through their car to double check to see if they had missed anything, and I noticed something gold poking out from under the driver seat rail, so I grabbed a long screw driver and gave it a wack to knock it out from under the rail. It was a very old looking wedding band. I called them to let them know I found something they would want back and asked them to come by to retrieve it. When they came by and I handed it to them, they both teared up. They told me how he had been battling illness over the last 6 years, and he had lost a lot of weight and at some point it had fallen off. They couldn’t figure out where he lost it, but I figure it happened when he was putting on or removing his seat belt. She had offered to replace it, but he said it was irreplaceable and God would make sure he got it back.
That one still gives me chills, and I was glad to get it back to them in time for their 50th anniversary.
We don’t wanna…
In the USA, it’s not just taxes, and inflation, you HAVE to tip!
What is the rudest/most unusual/most obnoxious thing you have seen someone do at a wedding?
I was at a wedding many years ago. The groom’s family were Jewish. The bride’s family were Christian.
The bride’s father stood up to speak. He started with “I love my daughter, Abigail, with an A because she is Amazing. Then he gave a couple of sentences about why she was amazing. Then “I love my daughter, Abigail, with a B because she is Beautiful”.
Okay so he is going to spell out Abigail – that’s cute. But no, he went on to C, then D, etc, all the way through to Z. I have no idea what he came up with for Z because everyone on my table was asleep and/or drooling by then. He spoke for 25 minutes, which is the longest father-of-the-bride speech I have ever had the misfortune to witness.
But it’s not the length of the speech that was the obnoxious thing. Or the gushing sentimentality of it.
For ‘C’ this woman’s father said, “I love my daughter Abigail with a C because she is Clever.” Lovely! Right? No!
He wasn’t proud of her cleverness because she had a very good degree from one of the two best British universities. No! She was clever because she had snagged a rich Jewish husband, who worked in finance and had a trust fund.
The father-of-the-bride looked so proud of her and he clearly didn’t have a clue he had pissed off the Jewish half of the room, with this massively antisemitic trope.
Even now many many years later, the groom’s mum and her friends still talks about that speech and how tacky it was.
Why Gen Z and Alpha Are Making Teachers Quit
Disturbing trends.
Are inmates respectful of the medical equipment that other inmates have to use?
I never saw anyone mess with a wheelchair. Most of the guys in chairs were pretty easy going and got along with everyone else. If someone were to try and swipe a chair, it’d be obvious where it came from, and if they were trying to damage it, they’d quickly discover how rugged the things were.
I saw a little horseplay with crutches, but nothing serious.
The only cases I was aware of where someone actively targeted medical equipment were all against the same guy. Crazy Dave was universally hated by everyone. He’d pick needless fights because he simply had no idea when to quit, or how unpopular he really was.
CPAP machines could be an easy target. The machines are loud and therefore unpopular. Of course, destroying the CPAP will only make the inmate snore and that’s even less soothing. So, to destroy a CPAP, it’s pretty clear who your beef is with.
No idea if this guy is crazy, or if his name is Dave. Image from eBay.
Crazy Dave had a CPAP. Of course he didn’t need it, but he was such an incessant whiner that the staff would give him stuff so they didn’t have to listen to him. He was the kind of guy who would feign a heart attack if we had a new female CO in the unit.
One time someone stole the hose from Dave’s machine. I think it was later found in the showers with some unsavory something-or-other on it. The next attack was more clever. The guy in the very next bunk waited until Crazy was sleeping and used a needle to put dozens and dozens of tiny holes in the hose. After a while, that hose was about as air-tight as a whiffle ball.
Dave wanted a walker too. Nothing wrong with the man (physically), but he wanted a place to sit while waiting in line for commissary. He also had a need to keep up with the hypochondriac Jones crowd. He dumped reams of kites in the box until he eventually got one. Dave couldn’t keep the walker in his locker like the CPAP, so it was always vulnerable. Several times random people would undo the screws that held the handle on, or adjust the legs so they were at different heights.
His own private chair. Image from Amazon.
Aside from Crazy Dave, pretty much everyone else’s medical equipment was off-limits. If there had been a way to make a tattoo gun out of CPAPs however, I’m sure that would’ve been a different story.
More Gen-Z WTF?
SpaghettiOs
Kids will love this homemade version of a favorite canned pasta.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
1 (26 ounce) can tomato sauce
3 cups water
1 cup milk
2 cups Cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
8 ounces ditalini or pasta of choice, uncooked
Instructions
In a large pot mix together the sauce, water and milk. Bring to a boil.
When it reaches a bowl, stir in the cheese and turn it down to a simmer. Continue to stir until the cheese is melted.
Add the garlic and stir.
Pour in the uncooked pasta. Simmer on low for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally during the first 5 to 6 minutes to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Check the pasta after 20 minutes, if it’s not as soft as you would like, cook it a little longer. Sauce will thicken even more over time.
Why Are Men Falling Behind?
Disturbing trends.
Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?
I got called to look over the computer and network for a very meek looking, slightly overweight, older grandmother..
First, I noticed that her router had no firewall enabled.. Upon inspecting the computer, I noticed that there was a strange folder in the windows directory, filed with foreign copyrighted videos. I found that a ftp server had been hidden in the system and was serving the films to the Internet. I figured the system had been hacked and the ftp server was installed by malicious malware, but then after opening the GUI for the ftp server, I found several other directories.. The contents of one directory took me by surprise.. The directory contained photos and movies of the little old lady involved in BDSM activities with various men. The must have been hundreds of files in it.
I talked to the woman about the firewall and the ftp server and discovered, from the now red faced woman, that she had installed the ftp server herself but supposedly had no clue about the foreign copyrighted movies.. I deleted the foreign copyrighted movies, reconfigured the server and installed a firewall and left her BDSM stuff.. Telling her to be careful of what she exposed on the Internet..
I love this
Why is TikTok going to be banned in America without any scandal meanwhile Facebook is left untouched with massive scandals like Cambridge Analytica?
Facebook is banned in China
Google is banned in China
YouTube is banned in China
This led to China developing some of the finest and best internet applications on earth and today Chinese Software programming beats everyone else hollow
The Chinese Apps are so good that if they ever came out they would beat Western Apps in seconds
Didi has far more features than Uber
Douyin makes Tik Tok look like a Ford Taurus and YouTube like a Ford Model T
WeChat is a combo of everything and runs the entire Chinese nation digitally
Taobao and JD are as good as Amazon and better than flipkart
The US Point of view :-
You guys deny our Internet Giants from playing in your massive market
Your Internet Services & E Commerce market has a 80% share for Domestic companies
Once you come to our markets, you will put all our players at risk and take a large chunk of revenue from our markets
We cannot have that
The Chinese Point of View :-
We don’t pretend and never pretended to be a fan of the FREE MARKET like you did
You have used FREE MARKET and throttled all your competitors but NOT US
The fact is our products are better than yours because we don’t have a saturated market and we have 20 engineers for 1 of yours
The bottom line is
US has a $ 3.5 Trillion a year Internet services market today
China has a 12.6 Trillion RMB Internet Services market today ($ 1.8 Trillion)
The two combined have a market equivalent to 80.3% of the World’s combined market
By 2035, US is expected to have a $ 4.5 Trillion Internet services market
China is expected to have a $ 4 Trillion market
Both nations will fiercely protect their own markets and evolve within their own markets
This is inevitable
Karen is upset
What are the strategies of China and Russia to deter America from using nukes in a desperate situation as a Samsonite option?
China and Russia can’t
raise the IQ of US presidents,
stop US presidents from putting the US neocons/chickenhawks in their cabinets,
improve the critical thinking skills of the US electorate,
make US cable news, the New York Times, and the Washington Post better than the paper you’d use to clean up dog shit.
Right now, we’re relying on Putin and Xi Jinping to be the adults in the room and not the crash-test dummies that we Americans keep putting in the office of the US presidency and Congress.
From the US side, we’re not preventing nuclear war but heading straight into an idiot apocalypse.
I’m old enough to remember when US presidents tried not to provoke a nuclear war, but those times are long gone.
Nuland resigns. China hawks take over
“Project Ukraine is her child.”
“Her resignation was insisted upon by powerful people in the United States.”
Swiss Steak with Tomato Gravy
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 large slice round steak
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large cans tomatoes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 large onion, diced
Kosher or sea salt and pepper
1 cup water (for gravy)
Instructions
Spray slow cooker with Pam. Turn on LOW.
Heat oil in large skillet.
Cut round steak into serving-size pieces.
Put flour into a shallow pan. Add salt and pepper to flour and flour steak well.
Fry steak in hot oil until brown.
Pour a few tomatoes into the slow cooker. Add pieces of browned steak and remaining tomatoes in layers. Add diced onion.
Cook for 4 hours on LOW heat.
Remove meat from slow cooker.
Put 1 cup of water in a pint jar. Add 3 tablespoons flour. Shake well. Add to tomato mixture in the slow cooker. Cook and stir until gravy is thickened.
Put meat back in long enough to heat.
Serve with mashed potatoes.
Men Are Lost? No they aren’t- they are DONE! Women are clueless about why!
Disturbing trends.
What does it feel like to live in a super-large house?
For years I lived in a large Tudor home, or as a family member called it, an “English two-door”. It was built in 1920 in the U.S. and was most certainly a relic from the days when people had live-in domestic help.
Maintaining such a home is a time consuming and expensive proposition. It was sometimes hard to find a balance between restoring with historical accuracy and updating to modern systems.
The front door looked as though it could withstand a battering ram, 4 inches thick, wooden and heavy. Inside the front door was an ante-room, another heavy door and then the foyer. This was the size of an average living room and was for the most part unused space. It was large enough for a 5 piece orchestra to play comfortably in when we agreed to participate in a walking tour of historic homes, in support of a local theatre one Christmas. There was room left over for a sizable Christmas tree and a grandfather clock that chimed. Being asked to participate in fundraising events becomes a regular occurrence when one owns a home like this.
In addition to all the usual rooms found in an average home, there was a library, a solarium with a stocked bar, a sewing/ironing room, sleeping porch, butler’s pantry, mud room and servants quarters. There were window seats everywhere. Nearly every room had at least one wall of windows with an upholstered seat running along the length.
We installed new hardwood floors throughout the first and most of the second floor.
Secret wall compartments were tucked away around the house. Certain panels opened when pressure was applied, like in a Hercule Poirot mystery.
There was a kitchen original to the house used for food preparation, with stainless counter tops that ran the length of the walls, prep sinks and a pass through to another slightly smaller kitchen with a swinging door that led into the dining room. There was a dumb waiter (no longer in use) that went to a hallway on the second floor, great for playing hide and seek. Once in a while someone would get stuck and be forced to give away their position in order to be helped out of the little cabinet.
There was a narrow back stairway used by the staff, back when there was staff – 2 flights that led to the bedrooms on the second floor and then 2 more that led up to the attic. The attic itself could have served as a very nice living space except for it being unbearably hot in summer and bone chilling in winter.
The doorways were narrow in the “service” area. They led to the basement, laundry room, butler’s pantry and a small apartment. These floors were original to the house.
The bathrooms were almost completely original. Nice in some ways, but not very practical. The tubs were free standing and large, there were only 2 real showers in the entire house; the rest had bathtubs with handheld sprayers attached to the taps. The most popular bathroom with a shower was located in the master suite which meant a steady stream of traffic coming through the bedroom in the mornings.
Many of the bathrooms had the original fixtures similar to these. Others had been updated. There’s also a tub and shower in this bathroom that’s partially visible in the mirror. This type of radiator was throughout the house.
The concept of locking bathroom doors was unheard of in our house. The locks on the doors were all original and the skeleton keys had become either lost or were in the junk drawer in the kitchen and it just wasn’t worth anyone’s time to try to match each with its proper door. This created some minor issues when company came. Our house rule was a closed bathroom door meant occupied and visitors would have to try to trust in that. At yet another fundraising event, even our soon to be Governor wasn’t comfortable in a bathroom with no lock and asked one of his staff to stand outside when he went in.
There’s an episode of Downton Abbey when Lord Grantham says “I’ll sleep in my dressing room tonight” as if he’s making some sort of sacrifice. The master suite in our house had a dressing room. One wall was lined with rows of shallow drawers, meant for folded shirts, ties and other sundry items, a full length free standing mirror and a window seat overlooking the back of the property. There was also a full-sized bed and a small bathroom. Lord Grantham wasn’t exactly roughing it.
There were very few overhead light fixtures except in some of the bedrooms upstairs. There were sconces in most of the rooms that didn’t provide much light. Even with white ceilings and light walls, the house seemed dark much of the time. Extra lamps were a necessity.
The winters were cold not just in the attic but in the entire house. There was a fireplace in every bedroom and common area. The house didn’t seem designed with New England winters in mind. I’d be comfortable wearing a turtleneck, fleece jacket, sweatpants and heavy socks to bed. The original owners probably spent their winters somewhere much further south or maybe this was the height of modern heating in the early 20s.
The furnace was always on its last legs, propped up in some spots by blocks of wood. It was originally coal burning, but had been converted to oil at some point. I remember the furrowed brows on many a technician’s face when I’d lead them down to the cellar to service this behemoth.
All windows had to be covered in plastic every winter to keep the heat inside. The covering of the windows was an annual family activity that began in October.
A large house like this is an amazing place for children to grow up. A magical place of discovery. There was plenty of room to play with friends. There were areas inside large and empty enough to ride a scooter around. There was an empty room on the second floor that became the train room. I filled it with low plastic tables and we designed quite an impressive railway system with 2 separate train sets. There was a high speed bullet train on one side and “Thomas the tank engine” on the other. It was the sort of thing you’d only want to set up once, and because of the size of the house, we were able to do just that.
The cellar was divided up into several small rooms, most with doors and shelving on the walls. There was also a bathroom down there. They were designed to serve a purpose back in the day; wine rooms, cold storage, dry goods, etc. The cellar was avoided by most and was off limits to kids. It was full of dangers, such as a deep well-like hole in the floor that was often filled with water.
The house is unique on the street. It was the only house with any property to speak of. It was situated between two parallel streets with a “service entrance” that led out the back of the property.
The yard was by far. where the kids and I found the greatest joy living in this house. It was an oasis from the world, surrounded by 3+ acres of lawn and woods, insulated from traffic sounds and the dogs could run free. It was like having our own private park. A hill on one side was perfect for sledding in winter. The kids also learned how to make maple syrup with sap that we collected with a simple tap and bucket attached to a tree.
Sledding. The copper beech tree in the background is over 100 years old. The black figures sitting in the leaves to the left are the dogs.
The grounds were full of various wildlife. Some transient, some permanent residents. The array of birds was incredible for a yard in the suburbs. One night, we heard a noise outside and the motion sensor floodlights came on. The kid’s grandmother opened the front door and found herself eye to eye with an eight point buck, standing in the circular drive. There were deer living in the woods adjacent to the lawn. I often caught a glimpse of one or two lying in the woods during the day. I put food out for them on a feeding station I set up on a tree. I provided the food because there was nowhere for them to go that didn’t require crossing a busy street or wandering through a parking lot and residential neighborhoods and a few had already been hit by cars.
We grew Dahlias. I was very proud of those Dahlias. We divided and saved the bulbs from year to year and had a magnificent crop every summer. One spring morning, I was utterly devastated to find the deer had dug up and eaten most of the bulbs. I was upset, no doubt, but unlike one of our neighbors, I would never think of retaliating in any way. I knew a neighbor who had no tolerance for deer and skunks ravaging their gardens. So, I fed them hoping to keep them safe in our yard. The only hazard they faced was one of our dogs bounding after them through the woods occasionally. Raccoons, skunks, foxes and plenty of neighborhood cats (due to the large crop of catnip we planted in the garden) came through on a regular basis. We had hawks, owls and crows that would stop for a few days.
I discovered the bird feeders were attracting wood rats. As much as I respect wildlife, I couldn’t abide rats and took down the bird feeders that were closest to the woods. I don’t particularly like crows either – or rather the racket a flock can make – waking everyone at the crack of dawn with that incessant “CAW… CAW… CAW”. Usually, my husband would go outside and hit the trunk of a tree with a broomstick or something to shut them up. It did, but only until he got back into bed. Early one morning he had had enough of one particularly brazen crow and went outside, picked up a rock and threw it at the thing. We heard the “thwack”. Neither of us could believe he’d actually hit the bird, it was quite a distance away, in a tree in the cover of other trees. We thought we saw it fly away and went back inside. Later on, he found it, dead, lying on top of a bush back in the woods. I felt bad. I didn’t want it killed, just out of our yard. It was a crime of passion though, committed in the heat of the moment. He had been working all night.
There was a small fenced in fish pond where the only resident was a bullfrog that reappeared every summer and a brook that, when it rained, overflowed and flooded parts of the lawn.
There was a fountain (which we didn’t run). The wooded areas had originally been manicured lawns with flower beds and daffodils that I was often asked about as they seemed so strange popping up 100 feet back in the woods. Nearly half of the original lawn had been taken over by various bushes and saplings. There was still plenty of lawn area left, more than most people need. It must have been incredibly beautiful back in the 1920s.
The “thinking rock”, was a large boulder just off the patio, where we would sit and talk about things, sit and think or just sit.
There was a patio next to our thinking rock with a sitting wall that was covered in geraniums from May through October. Pulling the weeds from between the flagstones was a weekly project. The many trees in the yard provided a spectacular show in the Fall. We pressed leaves into a heavy book and labeled them every year.
One day the kids found a small hole at the base of a tree with a flat rock covering it. There was something barely legible scratched into the rock but it looked like it said “Sara’s…something”. We couldn’t quite make it out. But, in the hole under the rock they found an arrowhead, a small blue bottle and a key. It was so much fun for them to find this and they eventually added a few things of their own to this mini time capsule.
The little quirks of daily living in a big old house are endless and many features of the house definitely spark the imagination. It served both as a teaching tool and a window into a time where things were simpler (at least in our minds), and understated opulence was possible. The over-sized rooms that often seemed so empty and lonely magically became just the right size when the house was full of family and friends. The livingroom, that a friend once said seemed about as homey as a hotel lobby, came alive during family gatherings, full of laughing children and clinking glasses.
Outside, there were dogwood blossoms, hickory nuts and widow makers that fell from above. The house was equal parts hazard and haven. Overall, it was a wonderful experience living in a home that size; essentially unchanged from the early 1900s. It was our home and we very much lived in it. It provided my children with room to spread their wings and make all sorts of discoveries all on their own. It gave them a sense of a connection to the home life of a family much like ours 100 years ago, and to learn to appreciate the beauty and value of nature in their own back yard.
History, Bitch!
What would happen if a nuclear bomb were to detonate mid-air when it was halfway down its fall?
Five guys actually volunteered to stand at ground zero of a nuclear blast just to see what would happen.
No, they were not crazy. Nor were they being punished. It just shows how stupid some people can be (I’m joking guys, don’t take out your pitchforks).
During the Cold War when the US and Russia were both trying to set the world record for spending the most amount of money on nuclear weapons, the general public was getting a little bit worried about these weapons of mass destruction.
Despite US claims that nothing bad would happen if a nuclear bomb detonated above civilians, nobody was buying it.
So what did the US do?
They decided to prove it.
On July 19, 1957, five exceptionally brave Air Force officers and one cameraman (probably reevaluating his life at that point) stood about 65 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Sure enough, two F-89 jets flew above their heads and shot out a nuclear missile. Thankfully for the group, the missile did not malfunction and promptly detonated directly above their heads.
According to Major Body as it happened,
“We felt a heat pulse. A very bright light. A fireball it is red. The sky looks black about it. It is boiling above us. It is rapidly losing its color…”
Then the blast could be heard and he continued to say,
“There is the ground wave! It is over folks, It happened! The mounds are vibrating. It is tremendous! Directly above our heads! It is a huge fireball. … Wasn’t that a perfect, perfect shot.”
Now, at this point you might be wondering about all of that radiation from that blast that was hovering over their heads. Surely they have been exposed to a decent amount of ionizing radiation, right?
Since the blast occurred pretty high up in the air (around 18,000 feet or 5.5 km from above), no ground material was sucked up to create a giant mushroom cloud, and thus no giant radioactive cloud was present. As for the material in the bomb itself and surrounding dust, those radioactive particles would have traveled quite a large distance before descending back down to Earth. EDIT: As others have pointed out in the comments, you don’t need to worry about gamma rays because by the time it reaches them, the radiation is halved by 20 times. Thanks Lyle McElhaney and Graham Ross Leonard Cowan .
So it made sense that later on when the men were being examined, it turned out that they were exposed to negligible amounts of radiation from the bomb. It was even less than the amount the pilot was exposed to.
The irony here is that while this was entirely devoted to proving the safety of nuclear blasts high in the air, radioactive particles from such tests often ended up settling on nearby towns, leading to a number of health issues.
While it’s not certain that it’s related to this particular blast, interestingly enough all 6 men (including the cameraman) eventually ended up with cancer later in their life.
What was the weirdest phone call from a random number you have ever received?
A couple of years ago, I got a rather random call on my business phone. Unlike my regular calls from product vendors or salespeople (or occasionally a potential client) this was a young woman’s voice, quite tentative.
“Is that Nick Malik?”
I confirmed that she had, in fact reached me. But then came the odd question:
“Are you a relative of Mary Wolf?”
I was dumbfounded. That was my maternal grandmother’s maiden name.
“Yes, that’s my grandmother’s name.”
She pressed on “Is that the same Mary Wolf who earned a business degree from Ohio State University in 1918?”
At this point, I was glad I had created a genealogy chart for my family. But this was the most curious call I’d ever had.
“Yes, I think so.”
It turns out the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State was going to celebrate their 100th Centennial. This young woman was trying to get information on Mary Wolf, the first woman to graduate from the OSU college of business.
I knew it was unusual for a woman to attend a public university in those days. I did not know she was the FIRST WOMAN to graduate from the OSU College of Business.
Of course my beautiful Grandmother had passed away many years ago, but her eldest daughter, my aunt, was still alive. Her son had contacted me on Facebook a few years ago, so I looked him up and passed along contact information on my aunt for her to get some biographical details.
This young woman had found me from an old article on a defunct blog where I mentioned my parents. Somehow she had tracked down my mother (a published author, artist, and poet) (who had passed away) and then managed to find me by googling her name, then my name, then found my business site. TENACIOUS!
The nice young woman sent me a set of coasters from OSU and a box of Buckeye chocolates as a thank you. The real thanks was finding out what a pioneer my grandmother was.
Trump 2024
And
And
What did a family member say or do that you don’t talk to them anymore?
“Your Dad may have just died, but he’s been dead to me for 5 years. I just want to know what I’m getting.”
My amazing Dad passed away in 2019. My brother and I were from his first marriage to my mom, and he had 3 more girls with my step-monster. As it turns out, he and step-monster had been divorced for about 20 years and he and my mother rekindled their romance after the death of my stepdad in 2001. His eldest daughter hated my mother with a passion, which caused a lot of drama and neither my mom, myself, or my dad had spoken to the Brat in about 5 years.
My Dad had his first stroke in April 2019, worked extremely hard to recover his speech, walking, etc., but had a massive stroke in June 2019, after which we took him off life support. Only the Brat lived in his city during his illness and did nothing to help or support. I flew cross country and stayed for months to help take care of him and my mom.
My Dad was my hero and I loved him immensely. Watching him struggle was so hard, but nothing prepared me for seeing him have the final stroke and the difficult decision to remove him from life support. He was only 67 and in the prime of his life.
While my mom, brother and I were at the funeral home making arrangements, the Brat walks into his house with a pad and pen – telling her own sister “Your Dad may have just died, but he’s been dead to me for 5 years. I just want to know what I’m getting.”
Needless to say I definitely haven’t spoken to her since. My Dad had talked about removing her from from will for years, but apparently never did. It frustrates the hell out of me that she only saw him as bank. That she received equal shares of his sizable estate kills me to this day.
Biden’s handler
If you see an attractive girl in public, how would you personally approach her, and what would say to her? (I’m trying to learn better social skills)
“Excuse me – do you know anything about making gravy?”
I was at the supermarket, in the flour aisle. A guy was talking to me, looking lost and deeply concerned about the multiple bags of flour that he was holding in his arms.
Me: “Umm… a little bit, what do you need?”
Guy: “I’m confused by all of these different types of flour. I’m making dinner tomorrow for my sister and her family, and the recipe calls for ‘flour’, but I have no idea if I need all-purpose flour, pastry flour, whole wheat flour, spelt flour…”
He gives a confused and embarrassed look and shrug with the hint of a smile as he finally looks at me and makes eye contact. If he’s attempting to flirt, he’s doing a great job of it.
Me: “I’m pretty sure that they would all work, but all-purpose flour is usually a pretty safe bet.”
Guy: “Thanks so much. Why on earth do we need so many types of flour?”
Me: “I don’t know, it’s kind of crazy isn’t it.” I turn to leave
Guy: “I see that you’re buying candles, are you making a birthday cake?”
Me: “Yes, my husband and I are celebrating my daughter’s second birthday tonight.”
Guy: “Wow, congratulations! And let me just tell you that you look amazing. Your husband is very lucky.”
Me: “Thank you.”
I think we both felt good about the exchange. Had I not been happily married, we might have continued the conversation, and who knows where it could have led.
The best way to approach a woman is indirectly, and by talking about something that will pique her interest. Never ask her out until after you have had at least 5 minutes of fascinating two-way conversation.
The West is NUTS!
How do lifers cope with the fact that they will never be outside the prison walls ever again?
There are two types of lifers in Missouri. Those with life without and lifers who have the possibility of parole. Most in both cases accept that prison is their home now and where they will spend a large portion of their lives if not all of it
Those who have life without the possibility of parole do not have to worry about parole hearings.Many cut ties with family and friends on the outside They just want to deal with their life in prison.
I knew many who had life without. Most were laid back and just wanted to do their time. They had their circle of friends. Usually others doing a lot of time. Many are willing to give advice to new people to prison if they think the person will listen.
However, get on their bad side and it’s usually not going to be just a fight , but a stabbing
Only a few had trouble dealing with the life sentence. I remember one young guy who came in with life with the possibility of parole. So he at least had a chance. But he complained to everyone that he couldn’t do the life sentence. He even said he was lost without his phone. Rarely said anything about missing his family , it was always the dawn phone he missed. I think someone got tired of hearing him and beat him up
China Warns New Zealand about Joining AUKUS!
What is the most intelligent one liner you have come across?
Late one Christmas eve my 65 year old father encountered a man who had broken into our warehouse store. The man was half my dad’s age and muscular. When my father realized the man had a handgun he dove behind a counter. The man fired a shot but missed. He started to make his escape but my father got up and tackled him. The burglar fought him off and ran toward the other end of the building but was tackled again. After fighting him off the man limped away but realized there was no exit. He turned and shot at my dad three more times. I arrived to hear those shots. The burglar finally found a way out but I followed him in my truck until the police arrived and took him into custody.
The evening before the man’s trial my father received a phone call from the man’s wife who asked him to think about her husband’s four kids before giving his testimony. My father’s immediate response – “Was your husband thinking of my kids when he shot at me?”
China’s Two Sessions as the World Watches What It Does!
Have you ever seen someone call the cops and it backfired on them?
Oh, yes…
My oldest son’s girlfriend “A” had moved in with us. She was 19, legally an adult and could move wherever she wanted. She also wanted absolutely nothing to do with her mother or her sister (though she and her sister have since reconciled and are now very close). Their mother has serious substance abuse issues and their childhood was much less than ideal.
We still don’t know how her mother found out where we lived, but one night she showed up on our doorstep, demanding to see her daughter. She was yelling thru our locked security screen door how I’d “put a spell” on her daughter, that she refused to believe her daughter didn’t want to see her, we were keeping her against her will, etc. My son’s girlfriend had been hiding in their bedroom while my husband had been calmly replying to the mother’s histrionics, but he finally convinced “A” to at least come out to where her mother could see that she was alive and unharmed. “A” stood under the light in our dining room so her mother could see her, and she once again told her that she was fine, but she wanted nothing to do with her and to please leave her, and us, alone. The mother started up her screaming again and told my husband that she was going to call the sheriff on him. He told her to go ahead and do that if she wanted. We were on our own property and hadn’t broken any laws, so he wasn’t sure what she thought the sheriff would do, but hey…if she wanted to call them, have a ball.
She went back to her car, he closed the door and went back to watching TV. Maybe 10 minutes later, there was a knock at the door. My husband opened it to find a sheriff’s deputy on our front porch. He was invited in and he told us he’d already talked to the mother and he wanted to get “A’s” side. He spoke to her, then went back to where the mother was waiting in her car. He told her that “A” was an adult who was of sound mind and body and she’d made it VERY clear that she wanted nothing to do with her. Not only that, but my husband and I wanted her trespassed, so should she enter our property again, she would be arrested. He then returned to the house and gave us instructions on how to obtain PPOs (personal protection orders) against “A’s” mother.
Yeah…calling the sheriff certainly backfired against her that night.
What’s the biggest thing from childhood that still bothers you today?
From the outside, my family looked pretty normal: Mom stayed home and Dad worked, a full-time job in the Post Office and sometimes one or two part time jobs. But the family dynamics and child rearing were off-kilter.
Unfortunately, my Dad had been injured in a non-combat accident in WWII. That led to multiple medical procedures and left him in continuing pain. He’d come home from work and go right to bed. He even had a sandbag traction device at the foot of his bed attached to a kind of girdle he wore to relieve the pain.
My parents were nice folks, saw that we had what we needed growing up, weren’t the horror parents of abuse stories. But they lacked good parenting skills.
My mother would frequently say to my brother and me (born 1948 and me 1950), “Don’t bother your Father now” when he went to bed. That meant “be quiet and go away” to us. I don’t remember my Dad spending much time with me, unless it was something he was interested in. And his hobbies were… different. Like rock collecting, hand tooling leather crafts and copper enameling jewelry. I don’t remember him so much as throwing a ball back and forth with me, ever. He followed sports, but never explained how baseball or football worked. I think other extended family members recognized this and took pity on me. My maternal uncle took me to one San Francisco Giants game. My
brother-in-law took me to a World Series Giants game in the 1960’s. That was my total sports exposure.
I taught myself to ride a bike borrowed from a neighbor kid. By myself, no help from Mom or Dad. That taught me a lesson: if I wanted to learn something, or do something, I had to do it myself.
So… benign neglect.
As I look back from my 70’s, I wanted to understand my life journey, as many seniors do. What was the narrative?
One of the early signs of a problem was in High School English. The teacher was baffled. He told me, “I don’t understand. You write beautiful sentences and even paragraphs. But you can’t write a story.” I also couldn’t understand literature. Because I didn’t fully understand people.
I wasn’t stupid, although I thought I was an idiot. Was a college graduate, had a job as a computer programmer for decades, so there were some working brain cells. What I lacked were social skills and political savvy. The social skill deficit would come up in job interviews, where the interviewer would pick up on tells like lack of confidence or hesitation. More than once, an interviewer said something along the lines of “Well, you’re going to be working for so-and-so. You’ll be their problem”. The lack of political sense caused problems that could have escalated to job loss.
Lately, I was comparing notes on childhood with my brother. I got so far as to say: “In childhood, did you ever feel like…” and he finished for me: “ we were unwanted? Yeah, me too!”.
Modern Women FURIOUS they also GET REJECTED in Other Countries While Passport Bros find HAPPINESS
Have you ever put your child in a daycare only to take them out shortly after because something didn’t feel right?
My daughter was coming home with bruises on her shins. I asked her what was going on, and she said that a boy was kicking her. I spoke to her teacher about it, and next day, police and CPS were at my house questioning my father. They said she said it was her grandfather. I have been caring for my elderly parents for over 20 years, and at that time, my father had just gotten out of the hospital and was still hooked up to an IV and catheter. It was ridiculous. It was obvious both to me and to CPS and the police that they were covering something up. They knew all about him being ill and in the hospital. And I spoke to another parent having the same problem. They said the teachers would go outside with the kids and stand around talking to one another without watching the kids. I took my complaint to the director, and she said that I had no right to talk to other parents about the school, and my daughter was obviously partially retarded because she couldn’t speak well. I demanded my money back and told her never to even think about breathing the same air as my daughter or I would serve her her own ass on a silver platter. That was the end of that. And I made a formal complaint to every agency involved with them.
What trivial knowledge might save your life one day?
When walking downstairs, don’t put your hands in your pockets.
If you’re ever at a party and your drink tastes unusually salty, do not continue drinking it. Rohypnol is reported to have a salty taste.
If a power line falls next to you, do not walk or run. Put your feet together and do a bunny hop to jump and get away.
When the waterline is abnormally far from the shore, this is a sign of a tsunami.
If you see a photo of anyone where they only have one “red eye” from the flash, this could be a sign of retinoblastoma, a type of eye cancer.
Don’t leave ice packs on wounds or swelling for more than 15 minutes at a time to avoid irreversible nerve damage!
A gray ring around the edge of the cornea is an indication of the high level of cholesterol in the blood.
Keeping transparent water bottles in your car can cause a fire if sunlight passes through them.
A finger up the bum will get the dog (or any animal) to stop what it’s doing real quick.
Baking soda will extinguish a fire, even grease and electrical fires.
Losing weight without trying could very well be cancer.
If you are a male and you pee on a pregnancy test and it comes out positive, go get yourself checked for testicular cancer.
If your car is broken down, do not stand in front of it while waiting for help.
Money falling from buildings? Don’t pick it up, get the hell out of there, it’s a way terrorists kill more people, is by having them all in one place.
If you’re ever unsure if an electrical wire is live, use the back of your hand to touch it. Regular contact could trigger muscle contractions, potentially leading to a fatal grip.
China SHOCKED us 🇨🇳 (British family arriving for the first time)
Have you ever found something in your food that was clearly not supposed to be there? How did you react?
Money was tight when Dad was in the Navy and Mom was home with 3 very young girls. As a rare treat we got popsicles. My youngest sister and I split a 5 cent popsicle. My middle sister insisted on getting a 7 cent banana one. As she started eating it she said it tasted funny and Mom said she demanded it so she had to eat it. She cried but kept eating. Mom started eating the other half and it was bitter. She saw something green on it. My crying sister had finished hers but threw up. The man at the little store gave Mom her money back and offered a free popsicle if a different flavor. He pulled the rest of the banana flavors off the shelf. My sister had some ulcers in her mouth and Mom felt terrible. At that time they used liquid quick lime to speed up freezing. Apparently some got into the mold for the banana flavor. The store owner gave them Mom’s name and she was pleased with the cash settlement they sent to her.
My father had a boyhood “best friend”. His name was Zeke.
He used to tell me stories. They would go fishing together as boys. They would do things. They would get drunk, and they would live their lives on “Polish Hill” a Polish-American suburb in Pittsburgh.
He was Zeke’s “best man” at his wedding. And he knew both Zeke and his wife quite well as they all were High School friends.
One day…
…I was perhaps 16 years old at the time, and having a long-distance, relationship with my girlfriend. With periodic phone calls, and weekend visits to her home in Lower Burrel, PA.
One day…
My father was crestfallen. He came home (from work) and was pale as a ghost.
It turns out that his buddy Zeke had an argument with his wife. It was pretty bad. And the wife took out a pistol and shot Zeke in the face.
BLAM!
It apparently blew most of his head off, and he was buried in a closed-casket.
It really shook my dad up, and I don’t blame him.
Now, myself, being much older… has had good long time “best Buds” Childhood friends dead… yeah I know what it is like.
Robbie… drug overdose. Marcus… Suicide by shotgun blast. My cousin Sincere’ … Coronavirus.
My brother, Daniel… I just don’t know… he doesn’t answer any e-mails. It’s been over a year now.
Life moves on.
People.
Life is too short to die over an argument. If you and your spouse are not getting along… then leave. No one needs to die over anything.
At the age of 39 I had it all. A loving wife, two fantastic kids, an apartment in New York City, a house in the country, new car, nice vacations and a high paying job as Creative Director of a hot creative advertising agency.
Everyone wanted to be me.
Except me.
On the outside I was the poster boy for Happy Successful Man Who Has His Whole Future Ahead Of Him. But deep down inside I was miserable.
I began to assault myself daily with that five word mantra. The one that so many of us begin muttering when they find themselves wandering through that unfamiliar, unsettling neighborhood known as midlife.
Is this all there is?
We don’t ask ourselves that question when we’re 25. It’s still too early in the first quarter of the game. We caught the ball on the five yard line and we’re making our way up the field.
But at 39, it’s halftime. Do the math. The average man is going to live till the age of 78. I was on the back nine.
I know — your actual mileage may vary. You could get killed falling off a ladder at age 60. Or at the age of 100 you could fall off a hooker. There’s a lot of latitude in The Middle. But somewhere between 30 and 50 you’re halfway done. It’s up to you to decide when to look at the face in the mirror and say:
Is this all there is?
No. There’s a whole lot more. And I’m going to tell you how to get there. Tonight I’m going to send someone to your house. He’s a teenager, about 17 or 18. He doesn’t know much about life — what teenager does? But he knows what’s cool. And after talking to you for a couple of hours, he’s going to be able to zero in on what’s a cool new direction for you to head in.
In fact, by the end of the evening, this kid is going to completely outline and plan the second half of your life. And that’s what you’ll do. Trust me, it will be cool.
What’s that you say? That’s the dumbest damn thing you ever heard? Why should you let some teenage kid with no world experience plan the second half of your life?
My answer is, why did you let him plan the first half?
This rut that you’re stuck in, this life that you’re trapped in, who planned it? Not you. Not the YOU you are now. Most of us form our life’s plans shortly after high school. Maybe we’re 16, maybe we’re 23, but for the most part we’re still kids. And then once we make a plan, we stick with it.
That was my insight. I was pushing 40 and still living the dream of some teenage kid.
That kid didn’t exist anymore, and yet I was still following the path he laid out for me. Most kids can’t project past next Saturday, much less conjure up what your life could be like 25 years down the road.
That was the moment I decided that the 40 year old me should start planning the life of the 60 year old me and beyond.
I was at the top of the ladder, and I suddenly realized I didn’t need one more rung. I wanted to find a new ladder.
I did. Climbing that ladder was at times terrifying, but never boring. Today I have all the things I had at the age of 39 and more. But this time around I’m deliriously happy with who I am and where I am. I still have dreams for the future, but I no longer wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and ask is this all there is?
My Act Two was conceived, written, produced, and directed by an adult. And I’m grateful for the insight that convinced him to take on the job.
EDIT – JANUARY 30, 2017: Dear People of Quora. I am overwhelmed by your response to my post. Not because the number of views and upvotes have skyrocketed, but because most of the comments and the private messages have asked me for more. Lots more.
One commenter, Traci Amick, said it like this: “Marshall, Marshall, Marshall… You can’t leave us hanging! When you made the decision to redirect and change your life what and how did you do it?”
There was a reason I left you hanging. I’ll get to that in a minute. But first, let me give you a brief (and I do mean brief) overview of what happened after the light bulb went on.
Here I was, pushing 40. At my core I’m a writer, but somewhere along the way the ad agency that hired me to write ads promoted me and paid me more money to stop writing and start managing. I wore suits, spent a lot more face time with clients, and I supervised a hundred other people. And while it was often gratifying, I realized that my career had stolen the one thing I loved doing most. Writing.
My solution was to start writing on my own. Over the course of countless nights and weekends I wrote a play, Squabbles, a comedy. Two years later it ran for eight weeks in a dinner theatre in Kansas City. (Since then it has played in thousands of theatres around the US.)
Shortly after Squabbles opened, ABC-TV asked me to turn it into a pilot for a sitcom. It didn’t fly, but now I was an accredited pilot writer, and for the next 6 years I kept my day job as an advertising agency Creative Director, and developed TV pilots for the networks on my own time. It’s unusual for a pilot to get picked up for a series, but two of mine did. I was 45 when the second one got picked up, and I decided to make the leap. I left advertising for TV.
I went to Hollywood, but it wasn’t fair to uproot my wife and kids to chase my dream, so they stayed in New York. I flew home as often as I could, which wasn’t often enough. Many of you asked if my quest for a new career wrecked my marriage. Just the opposite. After two years, despite the fact that I was on the fast track, I left Hollywood and came back to what was most important to me — my family.
There were some TV writing opportunities in New York, and I wrote a movie script which I sold and produced, and then — out of nowhere — a whole new creative avenue opened up. The Internet.
I caught the wave early. I opened Compelling Content, an Internet advertising agency, sold it five years later, and eventually zeroed in on the final frontier for every writer. A novel.
That took five years, and in 2006, I published The Rabbit Factory, my first crime fiction novel. Today I’m a #1 best selling author, with five books of my own, and the coauthor of the NYPD Red series with James Patterson.
I didn’t mention that in the original post because I didn’t want to be thrown off Quora for shameless self-promotion.
I’m not on Quora to sell my books. I’m here to exchange information, to share experiences, to give and take bits and pieces of life magic. I love this forum, and I’m grateful that one of my posts could resonate with so many of you.
One final note: Eight days after my original post I have a quarter of a million views, 3300 upvotes, and over 100 comments and messages. In the beginning, I responded to the comments, but I’ve reached the point where I no longer can. I wish I could, but I have to get back to my day job. Writing.
At the moment, I’m working on NYPD Red 5 with James Patterson. But this experience on Quora, especially your comments and messages, has made me realize that there are a lot of people out there going through the same mid life career angst that I went through. And that the 60,000 word version of my story just might make an interesting book.
EDIT 2 – FEBRUARY 15, 2017: One million views. Humbling to say the least (and I’m not exactly a guy who’s world famous for his humility).
The subject of life change is a hot button for most of us, but more often than not it’s the story of someone stuck in a dead end job who is looking for a better way. My experience wasn’t that. I walked away from a successful career that was stifling me, and today I’m thriving in the one I had been dreaming about.
I get a lot of head nods when I share my story in person, but I’m amazed that it resonated with so many people across this global forum.
Thank you for your eyeballs, your upvotes, and your feedback.
I was able to answer every direct message, but because of a Quora Quirk it’s extremely difficult to respond to the hundreds of comments. There’s no logic to the order in which they appear and no way to reorder them so the newest are at the top. That means I have to click on “comments,” scroll through five or six, then click on “more comments.” Eventually, I get to one I haven’t read yet, but as soon as I send a reply, the site takes me back to the top of the comments, and I have to go through the process all over again.
EDIT 3-MARCH 18, 2017: For those of you who wanted more details (really — it’s not my ego; some of you actually asked) I’ve expanded my answer into an article on Medium. Thank you for the encouragement. Here’s the link: The Thrills and Perils of Switching Careers
I rented the ground-level apartment in my friend’s split level for a few years. The guys who rented upstairs owned a party lighting company, and as a result they usually came home from work around 3 AM. I worked a nine-to-five job, and I’m a fairly light sleeper. When they came home from work, they’d occasionally turn on the TV, and usually fairly loud, which would of course wake me up, but most of the time I could drown out the noise by turning on a fan in my bedroom.
This was annoying but I could deal with it……until one of their girlfriends moved in upstairs. This nasty such-and-such had no problem with turning up the volume on the TV all the way, in the middle of the night every night, and watching for hours. This was the early years of flat-screen TVs and they had a big one, so likely it was verrrry expensive. When I knocked on the door to ask them to turn it down, I was told ‘this is when we get home from work and we’ll do what we want’. Even having my friend, their landlord, intervene, had no effect.
Well, a few nights of one or two hours’ sleep made me downright ingenious. I remembered that once, while microwaving my dinner, I had started vacuuming the floor and having both appliances turned on tripped the circuit breaker. I crossed my fingers that we were on the same circuit and during the next morning’s 3 AM showing of Willy Wonka, with the girlfriend screaming “I love this movie!” and turning the volume up even louder than usual, I turned on the microwave and the vacuum. Five seconds and poof! Blessed silence! I heard a little shuffling around upstairs, then one of them went down into the basement and reset the circuit breaker.
The power came back on, and so did the television. I waited about a minute before turning back on the microwave and vacuum. Poof! Silence! They reset the circuit breaker again, but this time there was no more TV. I went back to the most blissful slumber ever.
My friend later told me that they complained to him about the power going out because it was such an expensive TV and that could damage the electronics. I told him that if they kept the volume to a respectable level then I wouldn’t have to do anything about it, but I wouldn’t hesitate to if it happened again. The microwave/vacuum trick was only necessary a couple more times before they got the hint and kept the noise down in the middle of the night.
Chinese believes in owning assets and keeping a healthy cash flow. As a Chinese origin I do find western lease or rental mindset difficult to comprehend but it is a cultural thing.
Chinese people feel compel to own things and to not let others dictate lease terms to them. Westerners feel that buying assets when you can lease them makes more sense. But to me it is cultural. China is a 5000 years nation, the west like the U.S, Canada and Australia are merely 250 years or so. They are a warrior type mentality that fights all the time. I guess it impacted their mindset.
Chicken Scaloppini with Rustic Tomato Olive Spaghetti
The ingredients are married perfectly to enhance the chicken.
Ingredients
4 ounces multi-grain thin spaghetti
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large leek, white and light green parts, thinly sliced (or 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 cup Lindsay® California Ripe Pitted Olives, halved lengthwise
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 egg whites
1/4 cup dried Italian seasoned bread crumbs
4 (4 ounces) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/4-inch thickness
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Instructions
Cook spaghetti according to package directions.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Sauté leek and garlic in oil 2 minutes.
Add tomatoes, olives and pepper flakes; simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, beat egg whites with 1 tablespoon water in a shallow dish or pie plate.
Place bread crumbs in another shallow dish or pie plate.
Dip each cutlet in egg mixture letting excess drip off. Dredge in bread crumbs to coat each side lightly.
Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken; sauté for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until golden brown and cooked through.
Drain spaghetti; transfer to four serving plates. Spoon tomato sauce over spaghetti; top with chicken and garnish with basil.
Prep: 15 min | Cook: 15 min | Servings: 4
Nutrients Per Serving: Calories: 401, Calories from fat: 132, Total fat: 15g, Monounsaturated fat: 9g, Cholesterol: 73mg, Sodium: 683mg, Total Carbohydrates: 33g Dietary fiber: 4g Protein: 33g
I asked AI to make a Music Video… the results are trippy
Pol Pot (real name Saloth Sâr) was the dictator of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, taking power at the end of the Cambodian Civil War. As soon as he took power, He and his administration transformed Cambodia into a one party communist dictatorship. Over the next 4 years, he and his administration committed various human rights violations and carried out what is now known as the Cambodian Genocide. To go into more detail, Pol Pot and his administration:
• Forced the Cambodian population to work without pay.
• Made the Cambodian population live in the country side by forceful removing them from their homes in the cites.
• Destroyed Cambodia’s legal system and replaced it with re-education and interrogation centers. If they thought that you were guilty, you would have been very hard pressed to convince them otherwise.
• Caused much of the Cambodian populace to starve, many times to death.
• Killed anyone they either felt didn’t fit into their new society or deemed to even slightly be a threat to their regime. these included: people with connections to the previous government, Doctors, Lawyers, Intellectuals, Journalists, Business Leaders, Vietnamese Cambodians, Chinese Cambodians, Thai Cambodians, Christian Cambodians, Cham Muslims and family members of prisoners who were thought to be a threat to the regime. Even wearing glasses or being able to speak multiple languages could get you killed.
• If you were to be executed (which was very likely), you would have been taken to one the various “Killing Fields” and would most likely be killed with a pickaxe, so that they did not waste any bullets.
By the time they were overthrown during a Vietnamese invasion, the Cambodian life expectancy was about 18 years old.
As bad as rulers such as Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin and Mao Zedong were for their people, I believe no one was as brutal as Pol Pot was.
I feel like their motto put it best:
To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.
This doesn’t qualify as disgusting, but many years ago, I was involved with an Internet startup. They spent all of their time having meetings which achieved nothing, and were a complete waste of everybody’s time. One day, I was asked, no told, by the CEO to prepare a lengthy report on something that I considered ridiculous. I wrote 3 pages of it, and then decided to see what would happen if I didn’t finish it off, so I added 35 more pages of Loren Ipsum (Latin), and handed the report in. At the next meeting when everybody was present, I made a point of asking the CEO if the report was what he had wanted. He said “Yes, it was great”. I stood up, and told the entire room that this very important report that I had handed in, and which the CEO thought was great, actually contained 35 pages of Latin, proving that he hadn’t actually looked at it. I said “I quit”, and walked out of the door. The company went belly up 6 months later.
I don’t know if it was disgusting, but it was rather a unique trick. I used this a couple of times on drug dealers.
When I worked undercover in narcotics I would be asked to buy street-dealer weight in either cocaine or Heroin. The designer drugs weren’t around yet and this new stuff called crack was just making its way onto the market.
One problem every undercover faced was the hand to hand delivery of the drugs. During the actual purchase, you needed to be able to testify that you gave the money directly to the seller and they directly handed you the drugs. ( AKA hand to hand purchase).
Drug dealers were wise to this. When an informant would introduce me to the seller they would take the money but they would only give the drugs to the informant and not to me directly.
I couldn’t testify that I got the drugs from the informant. That would require me to identify the informant and have them testify. No way I would do that. So I came up with a cool little trick.
I would give the dealer the money and he would pass the drugs off to the informant who gave them to me. I would look at the package and say it was light (not the correct weight) and throw the package back directly to the dealer saying I wanted my money back. Drug dealers are not in the business of giving out refunds.
I’d move in close seemingly to get my money back, but we’d talk a little and I would agree to the light package if he would agree the next package would be a little overweight.
As soon as the dealer agreed, I’d reach out and take the package back directly from the dealer, sometimes almost pulling it out of his hands, thus completing a hand to hand transaction.
We would let the case sit for six months before we made the arrest, so they would not remember what informant walked me in. But my little hand to hand trick worked every time.
What is the craziest military tactic ever used?
Viewer discretion is advised… Imagine you’ve time travelled back to the 7th July 1944, and you’re now a squad leader on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands with the 105th Infantry Regiment of the US Army. As your cutting around giving the ‘grunts’ on the .30 cal Browing machine-gun their ‘arcs of fire,’ suddenly, multiple blood-curdling screams across the battlefield could be heard – BANZAIIIIII!!!!!
The Japanese have just launched a massive banzai charge, leading from the front are their officers, brandishing their samurai swords. Just behind the officers are thousands of Japanese soldiers with bayonets fixed, and as the sun glints down on the cold steel you feel the sweat beads across the forehead form. You lift your helmet and wipe the sweat with your sleeve as you wait for them to get in range. . . you wait. . . and wait. . . RAPID FIRE!!!
Your M1 Garand’s barrel is glowing red, the .30 cal is clattering away bursting your eardrums. As one of the enemy Japanese soldiers falls another one takes his place. They have now broken into your position and the hand-to-hand fighting is fierce. . . all of a sudden you’ve been brought back to the present, you don’t know why, but grateful that you’re now safe. . . I’ve dramatized, but I want to try to put you into the same position (‘foxhole’) as the defenders.
The Battle of Saipan and the US forces had pushed the Japanese back so far they had nowhere to go by 6th July, so the commander of the Japanese forces Yoshitsugu Saitõ made plans for a final suicide banzai charge for his soldiers and the civilians on the island. Saitõ said:
“There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured.”
Why the Japanese soldier didn’t believe in surrender, was because they believed in the code of ‘Bushido’ the samurai code of conduct:
Honour was a samurai’s life. Upholding one’s honour through suicide was regarded as a virtue. Loss of face was regarded as an insult that had to be avenged. Surrender was unforgivable sin that resulted in exclusion from civilized society. Dying in battle is what a samurai aspired to achieve.
The Japanese would try to swarm the enemy in a mass frontal attack which the allies called a banzai charge. This was shortened from, Tennõheika Banzai “Long live His Majesty the Emperor.” This tactic was classed as an honourable suicide which was against well organised, dug-in troops with machine guns and artillery support.
The American soldiers/marines who fought at the Battle of Saipan were some brave men, they had “balls of steel.” This is what Wilfried ‘Spike’ Mailloux of the 105th Regiment facing the Japanese Banzai charge at Saipan, said:
“I was scared as hell,” said Mailloux, then a 20-year-old corporal from Cohoes, a mill town north of Albany. “When you hear that screaming — ‘banzai’ — who wouldn’t be?”
To me, the Japanese soldier’s banzai change of World War 2 was the craziest military tactics used.
JEFFREY SACHS FULL INTERVIEW ABOUT CHINA – U.S RIVALRY CONTINUE ? AND MORE
Oh my God. A deep madness.
Subtle Change in Ukraine Blame Means Deadly Trouble for Americans
OPINION-EDITORIAL — A very subtle change in the words coming out of the Russian Foreign Ministry signals the FINAL step before the annihilation of the United States. We have now reached the final step . . .
The wording used by the Russian Foreign Ministry was very subtle, but its implications are anything but. See if you can pick-up the subtle change in this excerpt from RT:
The US and its citizens are complicit in the deaths of the Ukrainian POWs who were killed last week when the Russian Il-76 military aircraft transporting them was shot down by Kiev’s troops, Moscow’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has said.
On Thursday, Russia’s Investigative Committee released a report stating that the cargo plane was destroyed using two US-made MIM-104A missiles fired by a Patriot air-defense system. The Il-76 came down in Russia’s Belgorod Region last Wednesday. All of those on board – 65 Ukrainian POWs, three Russian troops, and six crew members – were killed.
Russian investigators stated that Ukrainian troops fired the missiles from a staging area in Kharkov Region, not far from the village of Liptsy, some 10km from the Russian border. They based their conclusion on 116 missile fragments found at the crash site bearing inscriptions in English.
Responding to the report, Zakharova said in a Telegram post that US citizens “need to know where their money is going,” arguing that President Joe Biden and his administration have made Americans “complicit in a bloody tragedy.”
Did you catch it? Did you pick up the subtle change in the language they used? It’s right there in front of you!
Here, let me focus it for you:
“The US and its citizens are complicit in the deaths of the Ukrainian POWs . . .”
Then again, in a later paragraph:
” . . .arguing that President Joe Biden and his administration have made Americans “complicit in a bloody tragedy.” “”
This tiny and subtle change points the finger not just at the US Government, it also points the finger at . . . . YOU. And me! Individually. Personally.
This is a point I have made repeatedly on my radio shows in the past two years. I have earnestly pointed out that what our GOVERNMENT does, is being done IN OUR NAME.
Remember, this nation celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address wherein he posited that we have “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Ergo, when the US Government does something, it does it in OUR name. You and me.
The Russians have now made clear who it is they hold responsible for what the US Government is doing: YOU and ME.
You see, we . . . . you and me . . . . ARE in fact, to blame!
We sit back and do nothing while our government runs roughshod over the whole world. Sanctions on this one and that one. Military action here. Military action there. And whenever our Government engage in that activity, people we don’t know, in lands we’ve never been to or maybe haven’t even heard of . . . . die.
Oh, and while our government is doing all this crap to people all over the world, you and I sit back and do . . . . nothing. We don’t make a phone call to our members of Congress or the Senate. We don’t write a letter or send a fax. We don’t even fire-off an email. We sit on our asses and do absolutely . . . . nothing.
The Russians are now making clear it is YOU and I who are doing this. YOU and I who are to blame. Directly. Personally.
You know what? They’re right.
WE are to blame. We elect these people then sit back and tacitly approve of what they’re doing by our own, personal inaction. They slaughter people all over the world. They bomb countries back into the Stone Age. You and I sit back and do absolutely nothing. Or worse, we sing idiotic Beach Boys Parody songs like “Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran . . . .” as if somehow what we’re doing is good. It isn’t.
A Russian guy I know cited US Senator Lindsey Graham the other day to make a very valid point to me. He showed me what Lindsey Graham, posted on “X” (formerly Twitter) wherein he said the following:
Then the Russian guy asked me “What if some member of the Russian Federation COuncil (i.e. a Russian “Senator”) Posted this exact message on VKontake (Russian Social Media) only changed the countries involved, like this FAKE SAMPLE:
FAKE RUSSIA SENATOR
In case the Putin Administration is wondering, it is abundantly clear to the United States and everyone else in the region, that the Administration doesn’t want war. But it will be difficult to tell the families of the fallen soldiers that the United States is not at war with us.
The United States is at war with Russia on multiple fronts through their proxies (Ukraine). Weak talk and weak action are putting our service members [in Ukraine], at risk. If the United States doesn’t pay a heavy price after the deaths of our service members, and the wounding of many more, then the Putin Administration is derelict in their duties to protect Russian personnel in harm’s way.
To the Putin Administration: Stop the weak rhetoric and respond with strength to protect Russian interests and lives. Your current approach to United States/NATO aggression is not working. Change while you can.”
Same words as Lindsey Graham. Same logic.
So I have to ask YOU, the Reader, if Lindsey Grahams words about Iran are good enough to warrant the US attacking Iran, would the FAKE Russian Senator’s exact same words about Ukraine, justify Russia hitting us?
Why not. Same situation!
You see, this is a big problem for my fellow Americans. We view the world as being ours to do with as we please. We never once stop to think how other powerful nations, might decide to use OUR logic, when dealing with . . . . us.
Now, some of you will react by saying “They wouldn’t dare.” Oh no? Why not?
And you would respond “Because we would nuke the living shit out of them.”
Really?
Because they can also do that to us.
Oh.
Yes.
Reality sets in.
And those same reactionary Americans who would say “They wouldn’t dare” would then likely say “They won’t, it would mean the end of the world.”
Yes. It would. And we would have done it to ourselves by the way we are behaving around the world.
Why should Russia sit back and allow us to supply arms to Ukraine, which are now clearly being used to kill Russians?
Why shouldn’t Russia tell the United States (again) to stop supplying weapons that are killing Russians and then add, or Russia will start hitting the United States?
Why shouldn’t Russia make it direct? Blunt?
Well . . . . turns out, they just began making it blunt. At the top of this Op-Ed, they have now begun blaming “American citizens.” You and me.
Where is this leading? Let me explain it this way:
What is the difference between “Killing” and “murder?”
Murder is the unlawful killing of an innocent. But “Killing” is allowable if it is “justified.”
For instance, if a guy is aiming a gun at you, and you do something which kills him, that is “self defense” and not murder, even though the guy is now dead.
So there is a difference between killing and murder. One may be allowed while the other is not.
Same thing with countries.
The U.S. is supplying weapons for Ukraine to use to kill Russians. Russia has repeatedly told the US and NATO to stop, but we are not stopping. ERGO, it would be “justified” for Russia to kill us in self defense.
Thankfully, the Russians have good morals and they know that perhaps the innocent American people ought not be harmed because of our evil government. SO thus far, they have not killed us.
I think the change in Russian Foreign Ministry wording mentioned at the start of this Op-Ed, tells us that’s about to change.
The official Diplomatic Corps of the Russian Federation is now openly, and publicly, laying the blame for the deaths of Russians, upon “the American people.” Me and you.
Having repeatedly told us to stop, the only thing left for Russia to do is to make us stop – by killing us.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has now begun laying the historical groundwork to justify exactly that.
By changing their statements to lay blame upon “the American people” they are building a record to justify killing . . . us.
Wise-up folks.
Unless we reign-in our wayward government, and stop them from running roughshod over the whole world, you and I __can__ be held accountable. You and I __can__ be stopped.
The clock seems to be ticking.
Now, you can either step up and start being an active and engaged citizen, and start telling your elected public servants to knock it off, or you can go right back to sitting on your ass and doing nothing until the brilliant white flashes start. Then you can feel sorry for yourself as you vaporize, except God already knows: You brought this on yourself by not getting off your lazy ass and stopping your own government while you still could.
No pity for you and me.
FEARFUL EUROPE! Europe Slows down De-Risking from China
I had my fairly new license and was driving my parents car when a deer darted out in front of me. I swerved and put the car into a ditch. Not hurt.
I find a phone and call a tow truck. Get back to the car and there is a police car there. I explained I’d stayed with the car for 15 minutes but knew there was a gas station nearby.
He gives me a ticket for speeding because in his opinion that’s the only way this could have happened.
Now this is a small municipal court for traffic tickets. My license was from my parents home 3 hours away. He was expecting me to just mail in the fine rather than contest it. He approached me before court to “refresh his memory about the event” and naively I did. He gets called and testifies that I was speeding.
So, I asked him where he was when the accident happened and was able to witness me speeding. He said he passed me going in the opposite direction.
So, I asked: if you saw me speeding in the opposite direction & saw me wreck my car, why did I have to walk 20 minutes to the phone, call police headquarters to report the accident, and walk back before you wrote the ticket?
The judge stopped things at that point & dismissed the charges.
This will not go down well with the electorate and, moreover, with the soldiers of the Ukrainian forces:
A poll published by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology in December found 88% of Ukrainians supported the top general. Zelensky’s approval rating, though also high, was considerably lower at 62%.
It is far from clear that any new commander will be able to improve Ukraine’s difficult situation on the battlefield without significantly more forces and weapons — precisely what Zaluzhny has demanded of Zelensky, adding tension to what was already a fraying relationship.
Zaluzhny’s popularity — both within the military and among ordinary citizens — makes his removal a political gamble for Zelensky. It also poses strategic risks at a time when Russia has intensified its attacks and Western security assistance for Kyiv has slowed. The general has built strong rapport with his Western counterparts and has often been able to advocate directly for certain materiel and seek counsel on battlefield strategy. … Both Budanov and Syrsky are considered favorites of Zelensky and Andriy Yermak, the chief of the presidential office and Zelensky’s closest adviser. Nearer the front, however, there seems to be little appetite for change.
“My personal opinion is you can’t do something like this right now — Zaluzhny is someone 80 percent of the military considers a good authority,” said Oleksandr, a battalion commander fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“For what is he being removed? It’s not clear. And who will replace him? Syrsky? God, I hope not. No one in the army likes Syrsky,” Oleksandr added.
The Bild publication writes that Zaluzhny wanted to withdraw troops from Avdiivka a few weeks ago, but Zelensky refused him this and on December 30 he personally went to the city to the front line to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters.
So all the coffins that arrived from near Avdeevka to Ukraine since December 30 are solely on the conscience of Zelensky and his passion for narcissism.
Avdeevka is nearly surrounded and any attempts to hold onto it will cost many valuable lives of soldiers for no discernible advantage. But, just like with Bakhmut, Zelenski wants to hold on to the city to be be able point his western sponsors to some ‘successes’.
My hunch is that, after Monday’s kerfuffle in Kiev, the decision to fire Zaluzny was still hanging in balance.
The change now only happened after the noeconservative destroyer of Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, had landed in Kiev.
When asked by a journalist whether Nuland had learned about Kyiv’s plans on the battlefield, she replied that, in her opinion, Ukraine would achieve great success.
“I have to say that I leave Kyiv tonight more encouraged about the unity and the resolve, about 2024 and its absolute strategic importance for Ukraine. I also leave more confident that, even as Ukraine strengthens its defenses, Mr. Putin is going to get some nice surprises on the battlefield and that Ukraine will make some very strong success,” the U.S. Under Secretary of State emphasized.
This hint does not foresee success on the ground but asymmetric operations within Russia or the Black Sea. More to the like of this which has happen last night:
Ukraine sinks Russian ship.
During a night attack by drones in the Donuzlav area, the Black Sea Fleet lost the Ivanovets MRK, built in 1989, 493 tons of displacement, armed with Moskit missiles.
Sinking that ship will do nothing to change the outcome at the battlefront. Nor would any attacks on Russia oil and gas infrastructure change anything.
Nuland’s remark also hints that the replacement of General Zaluzny will not come in the form of Army General Alexander Syrski, who is disliked by the troops for unsuccessfully holding grounds in Bakhmut and elsewhere at too high costs in men and material.
Nuland’s hint towards asymmetric operations points to the elevation of the Chief of Military Intelligence Directorate Major-General Kyrylo Budanov as a incoming replacement for Zaluzny.
Budanov has been responsible for some daring, if mostly unsuccessful, terror attacks on Russian land and interests.
Back in June 2023 the Economist explained why Zelenski might seek to elevate Bundanov:
Aides huddle close when the general speaks. Under his leadership, Ukraine’s main directorate of intelligence—HUR—has become a plucky, autonomous authority that punches above its weight. It resembles a gang. “Before we had managers, now we have a leader,” says one veteran officer. Oleg, an operative who has known General Budanov for decades, speaks approvingly of his ability to infect others with his fervour, comparing him to a snake “hypnotising you before he comes in for the kill. Restrained, measured, never panicked. You do anything he asks.” … As a confidant of the president—those in government call them kindred spirits—General Budanov is understood to be playing an ever-bigger role in behind-the-scenes peace negotiations. Sources say he is a conduit to secret talks with the Chinese, and he has also been in contact with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner outfit.
In conversation it is clear that General Budanov has been thinking hard about post-war Ukraine. Last winter there was talk of him becoming defence minister. He insists his only ambition is victory. Yet secret polls conducted by Mr Zelensky’s office show they are thinking about using the cult of their hero spymaster to counterbalance a perceived rivalry emanating from Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s likeable and independent commander-in-chief. General Budanov’s colleagues say they are convinced he is destined for a big political role once peace comes—if he lives that long.
To the TV producers (Yermak) around the former comedian actor Zelenski it is all about ratings.
Budanov may be good at marketing his image as a successful terrorist.
But he has zero experience of leading any size of unit in combat. You can not lead a company, battalion, brigade or army by ‘huddling close’ with aides. It needs long term strategic thinking just as detailed attention to all kinds of day to day logistics.
Leading an army is like conducting a huge orchestra through a four year long Wagner epos. Having played the first fiddle in a chamber quartet does not qualify for that.
I am sure that U.S. military is not happy about this move. While there were some disagreements with Zaluzny about the right strategies those were between military professional who allowed for diverting opinions. Zaluzny was seen as an experienced professional soldier. Budanov is seen as a spook who had never been in command of any real military. He well not be talked to at the same level.
According to one source, Zaluzhnyi’s senior staff are also expected to be removed from their positions.
With the new inexperienced leadership the situation on the ground will soon become a catastrophic mess for forces of Ukraine. There will be wrong priorities, miss-allocations of resources and large scale losses of men and ground.
On the other side terror attacks on Russian targets, industrial equipment as well as population centers, are likely to sharply increase.
The larger U.S. aim of all this, first announced as a 2019 RAND study, is still unchanged:
The study at that time recommended the arming of Ukrainian’s army as the best way to unbalance Russia. We have since seen the escalation of that strategy. The move from the battlefield to the realm of terror is a response to the degradation of the first by empathizing the psychological effects of the second.
The foreseeable outcome though is unchanged. Ukraine will be smashed, Russia’s power will increase and the global view of the U.S. as a reliable partner will be diminished.
Posted by b on February 1, 2024 at 14:48 UTC | Permalink
I exposed a huge scam by my local gas distributor (cooking gas).
This is a typical cooking gas cylinder in India.
As you can see (not very clearly though), on the neck of the cylinder, net weight and gross weight are clearly mentioned.
Recently, I read an article in ‘The Hindu’ that revealed that a lot of gas agencies/distributors/delivery persons in India are stealing cooking gas. They take out about 1–2 kg of gas from each cylinder and sell it separately in black. The loss in weight is too small for an unsuspecting buyer to notice. But in terms of money, this translates into a loss of about 60 INR per cylinder. The article cautioned everybody to get their gas cylinders weighed before paying the delivery person (Delivery persons are mandated to carry a portable weighing scale along with them by the Govt.)
At first I laughed it off. My agency was trusted. It would never do that. But then on a whim, I decided to try it out. When the next cylinder was delivered to my home, I casually asked the delivery boy to weigh it. The color on his face instantly changed. He started stammering, started insisting that there was no need for this because the bond of trust we shared! I immediately grew suspicious. I pressed him. He then started making excuses that he forgot to bring along his portable weighing-scale.
Luckily, I had my own weighing scale at home. I immediately brought it out and weighed the cylinder myself. The gross weight printed on the cylinder was 29.5 kg, whereas the scale read 27 kg. A difference of bloody 2.5 kgs.
The delivery boy started begging me not to register a complaint against him. And that he wouldn’t repeat the mistake ever again.
Apparently, this is a huge scam going on all over India. If you are reading this answer, please get your gas cylinder duly weighed before paying for it.
Not exactly fired, but we thought it was a great reaction.
After a recent merger between two rather large companies, it was necessary to reduce personnel, so each department was asked to cut staffing by a certain percentage.
To encourage volunteers, management offered to give a full week worth of salary and paid medical benefits for each full year a person had worked at the company if they took early retirement. And anyone who qualified for a pension also got the full pension as if they had not retired early.
One member of our team was about 14 months away from his planned retirement date when he would start receiving full Social Security and pension payments.
He had worked for the company for 45 years. After some simple math, we all strongly encouraged him to take the deal.
He got 45 weeks of full pay, a whole year of benefits coverage (negotiated with HR), his full pension, and they also bought out the almost two months of accrued vacation time that he had been saving up in order to retire a few months early.
He basically got a 12+ month paid vacation with full benefits. We will be having a retirement party for him on his original planned retirement date in a couple of months. 😀
I imagine that wasn’t what management had in mind when they made the offer, but everyone on our team was very happy for him to get it!
The Duran: NATO Crossed Putin’s Red Line and Russia is Ready to FINISH It
Yesterday, I was working with an Orthodox Jewish woman around age 25 on sparring.
Let’s call her Chaya. It was her first day training and I was taking her under my wing to mentor her a bit. (Yes, I have reached the level of being able to slightly teach others. Not much)
Chaya was very sweet, and found it hard to hit. She was so kind and shy, she found it so difficult to get up the anger to hit.
I was holding up the kick shield for her to practice on. (For those who don’t know, this but with punching)
She wasn’t hitting the body shield bag hard enough. She just couldn’t summon the anger needed. She kept giggling and being very gentle and kind.
I tried to rile her up. “Come on, Chaya. Imagine the teacher you hate most? Imagine being cut off in traffic? Imagine your air conditioner breaking on the Shabbat.”
Nothing. She just had no anger.
So I had to be a ***** and I knew exactly what to say. So I said “Imirtza Hashem by you, dear. Have you tried being less picky?” Which means “With God’s help by you,” in reference that she needs divine assistance to find a partner, something Jewish singles (especially female) hear ALL THE TIME AND IT DRIVES US ALL CRAZY! It’s condescending, it’s shaming and it’s really salt in our wounds. And we hear it from well meaning busy bodies all the time.
Chaya’s eyes narrowed and her jaw tightened with sheer rage. She punched the bag so hard, I was knocked back several steps. “See, I knew you had that in you,” I said triumphantly. “Now, you know you can punch.”
She delightedly thanked me and we exchanged worst date stories.
Sometimes, you just need some motivation and if it takes using evil, so be it.
No. But may I highlight a dirty trick by a phone soliciter?
I’ll take that as a yes.
A neighbor of mine was a saleman for Sam’s Club. The guy who makes a pitch to your boss, offering a discount to any of his/her employees who’d like the group membership, put on sales presentations at state fairs etc., cold-calling as well.
Then I moved halfway across the state. He calls me one afternoon, disguising his voice and acting as if he’s calling on behalf of some worthless telemarketing offer. Of course I, not recognizing him, utter some choice words before hanging up. He calls me right back, identifies himself and proceeds to ask me why I couldn’t be more polite in declining whatever it is that’s being offered.
I told him why. Said my peace and then we chatted about whatever he had really needed to talk to me about.
Many years ago I was in a chat room of a group with hundreds of members. Predominantly adults but, there were older teens. I don’t remember what was being discussed but, this kid (older teen) started making rude comments then started making bizarre comments about school shootings,violence and basically hinting he was going to do something. Quite a few people ignored it or told him he was being inappropriate and that he would be reported to moderator. Most in the discussion didn’t take it seriously. I went to his profile which fortunately wasn’t locked down. So concerning posts and was able to figure out the state, town and high school he attended. And his actual name. So I called the police in that town. Explained what I had seen, sent screenshots etc. While I was on the phone with a detective they got a call from one other man who had done the same as me. Surprisingly, the detective called me back a few hours later and while he didn’t give me many details he did say, that between myself and the other man they were able to locate the boy and that everyone was safe. I confess to stalking the FB profiles later and saw that he had been hospitalized so hopefully he got the help he needed. I worried I was doing the wrong thing but, I just kept thinking how hard it would be to live with myself if I saw news the next day of a school shooting and HADN’T called.
Candies in a box
“I know that I have less to live than I have lived.
I feel like a child who was given a box of chocolates. He enjoys eating it, and when he sees that there is not much left, he starts to eat them with a special taste.
I have no time for endless lectures on public laws – nothing will change. And there is no desire to argue with fools who do not act according to their age. And there’s no time to battle the gray. I don’t attend meetings where egos are inflated and I can’t stand manipulators.
I am disturbed by envious people who try to vilify the most capable to grab their positions, talents and achievements.
I have too little time to discuss headlines – my soul is in a hurry.
Too few candies left in the box.
I’m interested in human people. People who laugh at their mistakes are those who are successful, who understand their calling and don’t hide from responsibility. Who defends human dignity and wants to be on the side of truth, justice, righteousness. This is what living is for.
I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch the hearts of others. Who, through the blows of fate, was able to rise and maintain the softness of the soul.
Yes, I hustle, I hustle to live with the intensity that only maturity can give. I’ll eat all the candy I have left – they’ll taste better than the ones I already ate.
My goal is to reach the end in harmony with myself, my loved ones and my conscience.
I thought I had two lives, but it turned out to be only one, and it needs to be lived with dignity.”
Brilliant Anthony Hopkins
and free interpretation of Mario de Andrade’s poem
We had a dishwasher that wouldn’t latch, darn thing wasn’t more than 20, 24 months old. Called the repair guy. He “fixed” it, I paid the bill and off he goes. Well the darn thing starts leaking about two days later from the middle of the door at the bottom. So he comes back, takes the front of the door off. I can see the paths of the water leak from the “newly replaced latch” all the way down the insulation ( soaked by the way) to the spot where it leaked onto the floor. He informs me that we need a new door, over $450, we only paid $560 for it. So I informed him I wasn’t paying for a door, the latch was obviously installed wrong. Oh non, says he, the latch is fine. Oh no, say I, you broke it I’m not buying anything. So he leaves. I call the repair business office, they send a higher up, supervisor or some such ro lookat it. I show him the paper work, he looks at the machine and, Lo and behold the latch is incorrectly installed and the door needs to be replaced. New door for free, and no labor charge. He even refunded the work for the latch.
The greatest threat to the U.S. is your mostly brain dead population created as a result of 75 years of U.S. media propaganda and spin by the US media to glorify the U.S. and demonised those that refused to be submissive and subservient to them.
I have been a business mechanic of sort for years on end till my retirement, and in my view, the first part of any change is recognition and acceptance of the need to change! In the case of the U.S. you guys don’t even know you are in life support and that your U.S. economy is one humongous Ponzi scheme!
There lies the US problem. If you don’t want to know that you are haemorrhaging cash due to forever wars and you cannot afford your defence spending. If you refuse to accept that Chinas has lapped you guys! You ain’t gonna fix it! There lies your problem. Americans must be the most ignorant and naive people on planet earth! You media has made all of you believe in your so call “exceptionalism”
You still think Chinese lives in caves with bats and Russians are Slavic underachievers! And you are 10 foot tall genius! Many here in QUORA still thinks we are in 1945 when the 2 world wars ravaged all other major powers! And the U.S. share of world economy is 52%.
China and Russia don’t need to lift a finger, Americans will implode the U.S!
Please note that the antonym for Democracy is not Communism. It is Dictatorship. There is no logical contradiction between communism and democracy, as many in the US seem to believe. It is a ridiculous, gross misconception.
Is America a true democracy? In my opinion, there is no true democracy or true dictatorship in this world. Every country lies somewhere on a continuous spectrum between these two extremes. If America were a true and pure democracy, I should be able to look into Trump’s tax records and no one could stop me. Note I am not criticizing the American system, but only saying that you cannot call it a true and pure democracy in the sense of the word. It is just closer to the democratic end of the spectrum than some other countries.
I am from Taiwan, not China. I have not lived a single day under communism, but I have lived many years under an anti-communist dictatorship, and that was BAD. You cannot equate democracy with anti-communism. It is simply wrong.
It is very strange to me that communism is such a dirty word in the supposedly free and open-minded American public psyche, as if it were some kind of voodoo witchcraft. I find it totally anti-intellectual and closed-minded, not worthy of a true and free democracy.
I lived in a townhouse with one shared wall. When I moved in, the neighbors were a very quiet couple, never heard a peep out of them. They moved out a year later – and 3 single male construction workers moved in. They played obnoxiously loud music at all hours of the day and night. Complicating matters – I had a 3 year old, and was pregnant with my second child. So sleep was a need.
My wusband (nicer than saying ex-husband because he WAS my husband at the time) politely went next door to ask them to turn down the music – several times. It got to where they wouldn’t answer the door when he went over there. We called the police several times – and they wouldn’t answer the door for the police either.
The situation was wretched – and I began looking for ways to get the message across. One night – they left their garage door open during a particularly loud jam session. I had already gone to bed, and was wearing a huge maternity nightgown – because – I was hugely pregnant. I quickly snuck into their garage, and flipped the breaker switch. And scurried back to my side of the townhouse quietly. They figured it out the next morning. And did their party thing the next night – and I repeated the process. After that they left the garage door shut.
Around this time, I had the baby I was expecting. My wusband and I decided to take the kids and visit a friend for a few hours on a Saturday when we knew all of the neighbors were home sleeping off their Friday night party. Before we left, we moved both of the stereo speakers over to the shared wall, and turned on some super loud heavy metal music to share with said neighbors. And left. We did this several more weekends.
The construction workers broke their lease and left a couple of months later.
Many years ago I had a strange neighbor that lived with his mother next door. I did not speak with them but I would wave if I saw them to be polite.
A few years later I had fallen asleep on the couch and heard this weird noise by the window like scratching. I thought it was my cat and started checking, I see the screen going up in the window and two arms, I started screaming get the f*** out of here and slammed down the storm window.
I woke my son up and called the police, unfortunately my description was two arms of a Caucasian male. This was in the country so not a lot of people around. Four police cars later and after getting my story they went next door. I figured they were asking if they saw anything, but no they were hauling out the guy next door. They found him hiding under a car in the garage. They told me they knew this guy and he had been in trouble before. He had actually broken into my house when the people before me lived there. That would have been good to know before…
So we go to court and you can tell this guy is not right in his mind when he talks to the judge stating he doesn’t understand: so after my victim impact statement, they hold him over but say I can go but not to worry he will not be back.
I do not know what happened but he was back two weeks later and now I have to live next to this guy.
All I could think of was this, my neighbor he knows when I am home or at work so what exactly were his motives to break in knowing we were home? Scared me to death and I had two kids to think about (my daughter was not home the night this happened luckily).
So I called my brother and he came over with a shotgun to teach me target practice. I printed off pictures of this guys mugshot to use for target practice in my backyard. When I was done, I posted them around my property so he would get the message…
Not sneaky but hopefully scared him off. I never had trouble for the next year I lived there but I also never leave a window or door unlocked at night either. Even in the summer months.
Luckily I have much nicer neighbors now and a much better gun to protect myself with if the need arises.
Opening Incredible Garage-Found Gun Safes After 8 Years | What Will We Find Inside?!
Update 4/12/17- Many, many folks have asked me to identify the hotel chain. It was a Hyatt!
I was on a road trip and needed to stay overnight suddenly because a fast moving snow storm was blowing in.
I could see the logo of a hotel chain I occasionally use a few blocks away. I called them and asked if I could have a room on short notice? No problem. Note that between the time I called and the time I appeared at the front desk was maybe 20 minutes!
Here is a portion of my front desk (FD) conversation-
FD- “Mr. B. thank you for staying with us on such short notice. I see you have our affinity card so you have a room on our priority floor. Please remember that we have complimentary coffee and breakfast on that floor beginning at 6:00 am.”
Me- “Thanks but I’m leaving early tomorrow and I’ll be gone by 5:00 am.”
FD- “I understand Mr. B. Have nice night.”
So I trundled up to my room and there on the desk was a small pitcher of ice cold milk and three fresh chocolate chip cookies along with a note. The note was handwritten and addressed specifically to me and thanked me for staying on such short notice. It was signed by the manager. I was very impressed but the best was yet to come!
The next morning my alarm went off at 4:30 am as I planned on leaving at 5:00 am. The message light on my room telephone was blinking but the phone never rang! Of course that would have disturbed me.
The message was something like this-
“Good morning Mr. B. We noted that you were leaving early this morning and couldn’t take advantage of the amenities on our priority floor. We took the liberty of placing coffee and breakfast pastries outside of your door. We didn’t know if you preferred regular or decaffeinated coffee so we included a carafe of each. Have a safe trip!”
You know guys, sometimes I get the biggest belly-laugh when I read some of the answers here. Either they are terribly deluded, or they are immensely ignorant.
…
Here’s a REAL answer.
First of all, let’s throw out some FACTS to “set the table”, so to speak.
China has the largest Navy in the world.
China’s navy is not spread out all over the place (like the USN), but are concentrated at the projected battle fields.
China’s navy is also the oldest navy in the world. It was operating CENTURIES before the first organized navy in Europe.
China’s navy has been restructured, and operates NEW ships with cutting-leading-edge systems and technology. Many of which are unique and unknown to the West.
Were a war to occur between the USA and China, a Naval war would be the lest of the worries of the American “leadership”. Economic, social, and financial collapse would all be in free-fall.
But, let’s answer this question.
Can the United States Navy sink the Chinese Navy?
Here’s my answer…
Yes, the USN has the ability to destroy vessels, aircraft, bases, and people of the PLAN.
It is highly unlikely, however, that they will be able to completely destroy the PLAN.
It is likely that in the process of this destruction, that the USN would suffer great losses in men, material, weapons, and vessels.
Both sides will likely take great losses.
But this is 2024. China’s city-destroying munition capabilities are global. The consequence of a United States (or proxy) war against China will result in the people of the attacking nation being hurt.
Thus…
American major cities will also become targets for destruction.
…
Remember, boys and girls, China is a peaceful nation…
…until it isn’t.
…
Never forget the great losses that the United States incurred the last time they fought the Chinese.
Look at the BIG PICTURE. Not the tactical issues, but the strategic issues. Then faced with this reality, project the highest probability outcomes.
They are not pretty.
JUST NOW…States Under Attack NEED National Guard Deployed IMMEDIATELY
Modern architecture in Nigeria is built with total convenience in mind. We have more toilets and bathrooms in our houses than bedrooms. I’ve built two myself, although not opulent in any way, but it was unthinkable to construct a four-bedroom home with just one or two bathrooms.
When I travel and hear people or real estate agents in developed countries boast about their six-bedroom houses with two baths, the Nigerian in me can’t help but feel puzzled. In Nigeria, such a setup would be considered ridiculous.
I understand that building in developing countries like Nigeria is quite cheap, but just how much extra is it going to cost for a decent bathroom in every bedroom?
The unwritten standard amongst Nigerians is that each bedroom must come with its ensuite bathroom, just like a hotel, ensuring privacy and convenience. Additionally, there’s always a separate toilet for guests by the living room.
This practice in Nigeria also stems from practicality. With sometimes large families, the idea of waiting in line for a bathroom in your home seems absurd. To think that one would have to walk the entire hallway to get to the toilet, especially at night. This is unimaginable in a home with several boyfriends and girlfriends.:D
Our homes are designed to ensure that everyone has their own space, minimizing inconvenience and maximizing comfort. Building a bedroom without a space for a toilet, accessible only from the same bedroom is a great disservice to whoever is to occupy that room.
While mostly rich folks opt for homes with extensive bathrooms in developed countries, it’s intriguing to note that such a luxury, sometimes at a lower standard is a standard feature in a modern Nigerian building.
P.S.
In the comment section, some people have shifted focus to Nigeria’s poverty, rather than discussing architecture. About 23% of Nigerians, over 50 million people, belong to the middle-upper class, and many in this category can still afford to build their homes. This number alone is more than the population of many rich countries. Nigeria is a land of both immense wealth and poverty. If you’re looking for stories about poverty in Nigeria today, you’ll have to keep scrolling or better still, write it yourself! This post focuses on the architectural styles prevalent among Nigerians who have the means to build their own homes based on my observations!
Poverty is a real problem in Nigeria and it’s getting worse, but there is so much wealth in Nigeria too. Sadly, talking about Nigeria’s poverty and scams is more acceptable and beneficial to many westerners that we can’t even talk about anything else without backlash.
Oh, boy, did I! My mother still blames him for my hatred of math 35 years later!
I had an Algebra teacher get it in his head that A students will always get an A, B students will always get a B, etc, regardless of the grading scale. If and A was 90-100%, A students will do the work to get above 90%, and if an A is 95-100%, we would do the work to get a 95%, etc.
So he decided to make his grading scale A= 98–100%, B= 95–97%, C= 92–94%, D= 90–91‰, below 90% is and F.
So what had been an A/B student (me) would instead fail. Yeah, we hated him. And it only took 1 semester to get him onto probation, and he was gone after the second semester.
He really screwed up by doing this to my class. Out of 52 kids in my graduating class, almost 10% were teacher’s kids, plus one was the principal’s kid! In rural Wisconsin, many normal kids had parents that were uninterested in grades or intimidated by teachers, but when the parents ARE the teachers and principal, that factor disappeared, and they had no problem pitching an absolute FIT until it was fixed.
But I still hate math, the damage was already done.
Papa Vento’s Sicilian Chicken
Like Chicken Parmesan, my father made this for us all the time while we were growing up.
Ingredients
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup olive oil (+ more for frying)
1 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan
Ground black pepper
6 large slices mozzarella cheese
1 large can (32 ounces) crushed tomatoes (regular or Italian seasoned)
1 medium onion
Instructions
Pound out chicken breasts between wax paper to 1/2-inch thick.
In a shallow bowl, combine breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. In another shallow bowl, pour 1/2 cup olive oil.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Dip chicken breasts first in olive oil, letting excess drip off, and then press into breadcrumb mixture. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium / low heat. Sauté chicken breasts until golden on both sides.
Arrange chicken breasts on bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Pour crushed tomatoes evenly over chicken. Halve the onion and “sliver” cut it, sprinkling them on top of the tomatoes (quantity depends on your taste ). Lay 1 piece of cheese over each chicken breast and bake for 30 minutes until cheese starts to turn golden and sauce is bubbly.
My father makes this with pounded round steak and non-seasoned tomatoes but we love this version. You can make it either way and make up your own mind.
When I was born my parents lived in a flat (apartment ) in quite a rundown area as they were struggling to make ends meet.
My Dad worked 12 hour nights and came home to my mum in floods of tears. Shed been cooking a curry and the “skinheads” on the next floor didn’t appreciate the cross cultural culinary efforts that my mum was whipping up.
They kicked and banged at the door screaming “it stinks of f***ing P***s in here” and other derogatory and racist remarks. All while knowing full well there was a young mother and baby inside.
My Dad came home, and after mum told him what had happened, he decided to visit the chap upstairs.
Knocking was done via my Dad’s shoulder on the flimsy little Yale lock (Dad was a rugby player, Prop to be exact!) and upon entering the was confronted with the offender, in his underpants, swinging a mase at him. Dad kindly removed the offensive weapon from him and told him what a silly man him and his friends had been. Then, upon exiting, Dad noticed this guy’s new stereo system and it reminded him that he’d also had enough of his crappy music at all sorts of hours.
Dad informed him that “I’ve had e-f***ing-nough of this too” and proceeded to throw the stereo system out of this chaps window, which was obviously shut because Dad wouldn’t waste time like that.
Job done, Dad goes back down stairs to enjoy his curry. Then there’s a knock at the door and matey boy has phoned the police. My Dad was honest and willingly accompanied the officers to the station to attempt to resolve the matter.
Fast forward and it goes to court. Now there’s breaking and entering, GBH, criminal damage and………. burglary. This guy had had the audacity to say Dad had stolen his precious stereo system and, during questioning the Judge asked my Dad “so, do you know the whereabouts of the said stereo system”
My Dad replied “Yes your Honour, with all due respect I believe the stero is still in the f***ing tree”
The courtroom burst into laughter and after the judge reminded my Dad to watch his language, decided to send a constable to investigate my Dad’s claim.
After the proceedings resumed the constable concluded to the court
“Yes Your Honour, it would appear that the stereo system is still in the tree”
I believe the chap upstairs was done for wasting police time and moved not long after.
My Dad has always got plenty of these stories from his younger days and whilst I don’t condone any of his actions, they’re bloody epic!
Chinese penchant for knowledge and continuous improvement means that Chinese will always become smarter that Americans in general. Americans in general are cursed by the perception that they are exceptional. Starting from this premise makes them think they are better and smarter than the rest.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The U.S. became overwhelmingly strong due to the coincidence of history. The 2 world wars wrecked all the major economies and left the U.S. with one eye but the rest of the world has lost both their eyes! The became the king of the blind.
Confucianism ethics in every Chinese person mean they focus on being educated and learning. They will stop at nothing to give their children the very best education money can buy. Diligence and hard work is among the traits that gives Chinese the edge. This means apart from having a higher and better education that is at least 3 full years ahead of the west, the Chinese race never stop learning.
American has this feeling of entitlement and it thinks the world must be submissive and subservient to them and they can always be the best by hook or by crook. These days mainly by crook! Given any task Chinese will start faster and work harder at it and in the end Chinese will be more successful.
Candice explains why it is important for wives to be monogamous
Chinese lower -cost cars are the result of EV’s and they need batteries which China has the raw materials to make unlike the US so low cost EV’s represent the future of international relations between the trading Nations which has developed into a competition between two trading blocks.
Bipolarism has taken the world by storm BRICS led the way as the Russian Special Operation guaranteed retreat to be forbidden, the World post February 24 – 2022 will never be what it was from 1991 to 2011, I know that end date is not universally accepted it was when Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi refused to be cowered into submission and took on the British and French Arab Spring which had to be save by Obama coming to their rescue bombing Libya and alienating Russia, Vladimir Putin saw the need to jump into the Presidency again because Demitry Medvedev was too far gone supporting Obama, now Demitry Medvedev is an anti Western hawk compared to Putin, that’s how different things are in Russia today compared to 1991 to 2011.
After 2011 Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad followed in Gadaffi’s footsteps and unlike Muammar Gadaffi the Syrian leader remains alive while military Keynesian economics has conquered the United States of America after getting up to full speed under Obama in 2011, now the US economy is swallowing Europe using the pretext of war with all credible sources pointing to the modern times unprecedented threat coming from the Southern Powers China and Russia which is alarming the US, Britain and EU.
This international predicament developed from the US, British and EU’s 1991 complete victory over the entire political and economic landscape within which China has risen in that 33 years to reflect the exact opposite as the goods arranged on supermarket shelves are coming from China taking the place of Japan as the manufacturing centre of the US, Britain and EU’s operations, on top of that China as part of BRICS is now the largest exporter of cars to what is now becoming known in political and economic narratives’ as the Northern Group associated with the pattern of wealth acquisition in the North American continent and poverty in the Southern American continent.
BRICS represents the South and have gained control over a significant portion of the World’s economic landscape which the Northern Group of Nations the US, Britain and EU can’t afford to allow China’s belt and road initiative becoming the turning point of the Northern Groups 1991 to 2011 political and economic control of World affairs, one way the Government’s of the US, Britain and EU can reign in BRICS as they did Japan is to make China’s products economically non viable by pushing up the prices compared to the competition from other parts of the World that do not challenge the economic dominance of the Northern Group the US, Britain and EU.
Import duty is one way the Northern Group are pushing up the prices of what China has to offer, this Government policy does have limitations as the Northern Group manufacturers become protected and take advantage by pushing up the prices of their cars.
1, In 1991, US pharm industry promoted opioid-related drug by saying opioid is harmless. Doctors could prescibe it to patients & drug stores could sell it. From 1999-2017, 200,000 Americans died from opioid. Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of OxyContin was sued & fined for $8.3 billion in 2020. Purdue is owned by a Jewish American family Sackler.
2, In around 2010, OxyContin was hard to get. People turned to heroin which is cheaper but stronger. It also uses an ingredient from opium. In 2010-14, CDC reported that the death rate due to heroin has risen more than 200% among “white” & African Americans.
3, The 3rd wave is fentanyl which started in 2014. It also contains an ingredient from opium. In Aug 2021-Aug 22, 100,000 Americans died of drug overdose. 2/3 were fentanyl.
Capitalism & politics
In the book “Death of Despair & Future of Capitalism”, economist Anne Case & Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton point out the collusion between pharm capitalists & politicians. Their deep collusion makes it difficult to control drug.
Politicians receive donation from pharm capitalists. Hence politicians will never come up with an effective law to control drug.
British Guardian reported in 2017 that, for the past 10 years, US pharm industry spent $2.5 billion in lobbying politicians. 90% of congress-persons & 97 out of 100 senators received political donations from pharm industry. At least once.
The fight between the 2 political parties is another reason. While both parties swear they would fight drug crisis, no party wants to cooperate with the other to effective beat drug abuse. No party wants the other party to become a hero.
scapegoat
In order to show they have done their part in fentanyl battle, USA blames it on China.
China adopts zero tolerance on illegal drug & is very strict on drug control. China is ahead of United Nations to classify drug into fine categories so as to effectively catch drugs that do not meet the requirement.
Since Sept 2019, US customs has not caught any fentanyl from China. But US politicians keep telling Americans that China exports fentanyl.
In 2023, USA sanctioned a Chinese police unit & lab that inspects for illegal drug. Perhaps USA is upset that China is too strict & US customs did not find any from China.
USA also sanctioned companies that produce LEGAL chemicals & equipment that can make fentanyl. The chemical is legal because, if used properly, it can be used to make pain killer for, say, cancer patients. The equipment is legal because it is a tool to make pills.
US politicians are not serious about solving problems.
Look at poverty: any theft below $950 is not a crime. ie USA encourages open robbery.
When USA loses jobs due to Clinton’s globalisation program, Trump said China steals US jobs.
Instead of curbing gun violence, USA militarizes teachers & babies.
If one day USA collapses, it is the collusion of US politicians & capitalists.
How do you start a business? You must have these two.
Business concept.
Capital.
Do you have a great idea, or you have money to invest, or a little of both?
If you have money, this is the scariest part in China. Because if you are asking on Quora (instead of Chinese social media), you are likely a foreigner who aren’t familiar with Chinese language and society.
Like with any society, it’s not wise to advertise your willingness to spend your money. You are just ringing the dinner bell for scammers, more or less. There will be hundreds of people being very willing to become your best friends.
Isn’t China very safe? Very. But while police can protect you from criminals, police can’t protect you from yourself and your own bad decisions, persuaded by scammers.
If you have a great idea, you may think of ways to safeguard your ideas, trade mark if you can, so the people you pitch your ideas to will not simply steal your ideas and lock you out of any profit.
Chances are there are millions of people in the same boat as you: having great ideas, wanting investors.
What to do to start your dream business in China?
Starting a business requires more commitment than a marriage. You have to be ready to give 200%.
Need money. Unless you are lucky enough to have a financier, you need some initial capital to invest in your idea, to create some kind of a working prototype, to have something for show. This will put you above the millions of people who simply got ideas.
Get to know China.
China is like any society. There are honest people and there are really shady people. You can’t simply see it on their appearance alone.
If you are a lone warrior, your first investment is to live in China, even a few months at a time. Get involved in Chinese daily life, get involved in the industry you want to be in. Find a part time job there?
Or seek out an existing support network you can trust.
If you are Indian, seek out other Indians already working in the industry you want to start business in. They are likely more sympathetic to befriend and show you the rope. They may even find you a job.
But beware, even your own compatriots can scam you, or mislead you. Don’t be too trusting.
This is all I have for a Quora answer.
With only a very vague question, this is all you are going to get. Being an entrepreneur is full of risk. Your first lesson is not to get rich quick, but learn risk management. I rather you lose a few thousands today for a hard lesson, than to lose a few millions 10 years later for this same lesson.
Pro-Tip: Find professional legal consultation for second opinion.
Say you are about to engage in a business deal, whether with local Chinese or your compatriot, secretly go outside to find paid consultation services. They will know Chinese laws and regulations more than anyone. They can smell a fish from miles away. You can’t save money on this.
Pornstar’s ABANDONED Mansion ~ You Won’t Believe What We Found Inside!
Malaysia man’s viral stunt of planting banana tree in pothole gets road repaired within hours
Public works department blame continuous rain as reason behind delay in road maintenance
Frustrated over the authority’s inaction, a Malaysian man planted a banana tree in a pothole on a road to draw attention to the problem.
Mahathir Aripin from Jalan Sandakan-Lahad Datu village in Sabah posted a photo of the banana tree standing almost in the middle of the road on his Facebook page.
The base of the tree was covered with some soil to ensure it stood erect.
He also posted a message expressing his concern for those using the road and humorously suggested he might use tar next time.
“I feel sorry for the road users. I’ll cover it with tar next time,” he said on 29 January.
Seeing the response to his Facebook post, the local authorities responsible for road safety – the Sabah Public Works Department – started work to repair the road.
Reports said the pothole was filled within hours of Mr Aripin bringing attention to it.
The public works department blamed continuous rain as a reason for delay in the road maintenance.
This method of highlighting road repair issues is not unprecedented. There have been cases reported in Kedah in the country, and even in Florida, US.
Mr Aripin’s post sparked a conversation on road conditions in Malaysia.
On social media, several commentators commended his effort to bring attention to the problem of road safety and maintenance.
One jokingly said that he should have planted a durian tree whose fruit is notoriously foul-smelling instead of a banana tree.
Others responded with the laughter emoji while some called his attempt to plant a banana tree in the pothole “naughty”.
The pothole’s location was about 500m from the spot where a recent accident claimed the life of a 4-year-old girl, believed to have been caused by a pothole.
According to Malaysia’s Road Safety Plan 2022-2030, the country aims to reduce road deaths by 50 per cent by 2030.
In police work, there are many things you see that you would rather have not seen. Suicide by firearm seems to be at the top of my list. I only experienced this once in my career.
Sure I have found people a day after the person lost their head, sort of, with the blast from a shotgun — what a mess. It’s very inconsiderate to the family members or even first responders who have to deal with this.
But only once, when I was responding to a call of a man with a gun was I quite close when the shot was fired. I was out of my patrol car with a partner and running up an outside staircase which led to the man’s apartment when we hear the bang. He is sitting on the landing at the top of the stairs with his back against the wall, looking at us. He had a small caliber handgun still in his hand, and the barrel remained in his mouth. He was alive for the moment, but it was apparent he wouldn’t survive.
My partner took out a pair of latex gloves because there was blood, and started to put them on. I didn’t wait for gloves and grabbed the gun with both hands and first peeled his finger off the trigger. I then peeled the rest of his fingers from around the gun and handed it to my partner.
I wasn’t sure how this man felt about the police, but I was going to be sure that he didn’t take one of us with him. The man expired while we were at the scene. There were skull fragments and white and gray brain matter against the wall behind where he was sitting. Even after shooting himself he remained upright and seated.
A crime scene was immediately taped off, and detectives were brought in to investigate. The first unique discovery was that the handgun was fired twice. The first bullet was later found flattened but still in the brain cavity. It must have struck the inside of his skull with sufficient force to fracture it but did not exit. The second bullet was found underneath the man’s body.
Something I learned from detectives that night is that it’s not uncommon for a person considering suicide by handgun to fire a test round to make sure the gun is working properly. The noise from the first shot was reported by a neighbor and drew us to the scene.
Had our arrival hurried this man’s final desperate act? That’s something we will never know. I would have loved to have had the chance to speak with the man and perhaps change his mind. But that wasn’t to be.
I was permitted to enter the man’s home with the detectives and found a neat and well-organized apartment. He had this entire event meticulously planned out.
On the dining room table were a series on neatly organized envelopes lined up in a perfect row. Three were separately addressed to family members, while one was marked Funeral director and last one simply said: Police. Inside the envelope, marked police was a neatly handwritten letter. The first thing I noticed was that the letter was dated with today’s date. The letter explained that he had taken his own life freely. He went on to explain that he suffered from a very painful and debilitating terminal illness which would lead him to a more painful state before his eventual death.
He provided us with the names and contact information for several doctors who were treating him. He also asked us to make sure we contacted the funeral director first, so his family members would not see him in his current state. He went on to ask us to hand-deliver the other letters to his family members and provided their addresses, which were all local. He closed his letter by apologizing to us for any mess his act may have caused.
We next opened the letter to the funeral director, as it was unsealed and only identified with the words funeral director. Again, we found a neatly handwritten letter reminding this funeral director of his pre-paid funeral contract. The letter advised that one of his children had the written agreement. He went on to provide significant detail on his final arrangements, down to the suit in which he wanted to be buried.
The final three letters were to his children and were sealed which is how our officers delivered them to his loved ones.
A cursory search of the apartment which is standard in any crime scene identified two more, nearly exact sets of letters. Each set of letters were also handwritten but had different dates on them. Each roughly a few weeks apart. It was clear that the man had planned his demise on several prior dates and but hadn’t or couldn’t go through with it, until tonight
We reviewed these earlier letters because they were not in envelopes or sealed. The letters to his children were very loving and apologetic; asking for their understanding and forgiveness for his decision. They also spoke of the hopelessness of his medical situation and the difficult decision of letting go.
I never met this man until that night, and yet I feel like I knew him. In reading his letters, I believe that he was a decent man confronted with an impossible problem with no good solution. His final written thoughts were of comforting and reassuring his family and seeking their forgiveness for his decision to end his pain and his life.
We Found A Abandoned Safe In The River. What’s Inside The ABANDONED SAFE? (OPENED)
Obviously, I mean OBVIOUSLY, they have never been to China and have no idea how fucking enormous it is.
If you hop in a car, and start driving, it will take you days… DAYS… passing huge apartment buildings full of hard working, militarized families, studying… working… training…
…building after building. Mile after mile. Kilometer after kilometer. Over and over and over.
One enormous giga-complex housing thousands of families… after another… and another… and yet another.
China is HUGE.
Simply enormous.
…
China is not the third world cesspool that the Western “news” says it is. It’s a nation thirty years in the future. It is proud. It is strong. And it is LETHAL.
It is a dragon wearing a cute panda-bear suit.
You all in the West are unaware.
Backwards. Retarded.
Fed garbage; not just figuratively, but literally. Most American doesn’t even know where California is on a map, or how many States there are, or how much 5 + 8 is.
When I say “stupid”.
I mean it.
Meanwhile in China…
I started using facial recognition and QR to pay back in 2013. That was ten years ago. I haven’t touched a coin or paper money in all that time. Using paper money is so 19th century.
My car is electric and it talks to me, and only turns on when my voice recognition software allows it to.
It self parks, customizes the interior with a rotation of interior motifs, plays my morning jazz tunes, and gives me a nice warm back rub as it links to the toll road and carries me off to my office.
In my office, my staff brings me my coffee and turns on my systems for me. Sometimes they might have a kid or two with them, being sick or what not. No worries, though, they are their next to their parents doing their studies next to the desks.
Lunch is paid for all my staff. It’s one of the state mandated laws, and after they eat a huge healthy cafeteria meal of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, they go take their normal naps.
…
That’s just the first four hours of a typical day in China.
…
There’s a bunch of dunder-heads that think that the USA can invade China with D-Day style Naval assaults, and the threat of nuclear war.
Troll?
Moron?
Buffoon?
Ignoramus?
They believe that proud and powerful aircraft carrier will lay off the coast of China and launch cascade after cascade of fighters and bombers into China.
They think that stealthy submarines will sneak up and start bombing China. All this unopposed, and the Chinese will take it. Smile and say “… can I have another, master?”
They believe that the proud troops will be easily resupplied by Australia, Japan, Korea and Philippines. After all, that is the on-going American construction activity. Billets. Barracks. Supply depots, and large investments in bordellos for employment for the locals.
Fantasies. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
NEVER going to happen.
…
I am here to tell you that World War started in 2008.
Oh, sure, the elements started far earlier. But historians will write that the date of the war began was in 2008.
It peaked in 2020 with the bio-weapon(s) that the USA launched on China during CNY (John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo brilliance there), and fell back towards conventional war with the NATO conflict began in Ukraine.
It hasn’t gone that great though.
Wars don’t go to plan, and this crop of brain-dead, pathological psychopathic oligarchs are dangerously deluded.
Take Ukraine. Ah. The “war in Ukraine”.
What they mean is the unreported hostilities used to counter the Russian “special military operation”.
Over 3000 American soldiers (with countless more NATO gents) are dead. Just because the American “news” isn’t reporting it, doesn’t mean that it is not going on.
Dead Americans are all over the place. I have photos and photos. Movies and movies. But if I put them up, they get pulled. It’s “news you can use”, but that is bad for the Westerners to see.
Good men. Soldiers. American men.
Dead.
Over what? And why?
It is sad.
I cry for the widows at Fort Lenard Wood.
As that phase winds down with a European collapse (economic, social, industrial, and military) a new phase opened up.
All to schedule; a disruption of the middle eastern shipping lanes.
Ah… that’s gonna teach China a lesson!
In their wet dreams, perhaps. China is about 3450 steps ahead of the rest of the world. They know what underwear that you will wear two days from now. Long before you even decide to put some on. That’s how advanced China is.
This idea that “China can be isolated” has failed, and is bound to fail, as the Chinese BRI are now proving how far-sighted and successful the rerouting of shipping avenues have proven themselves.
No wonder both Russia and China are screaming forward; an economic gallop. While the collective “West” is mired in inefficiency, lunacy, and insanity.
None of which is being reported in the “news”.
Here’s some more American troops in Ukraine…
Meanwhile…
We are watching the United States collapse in front of our very eyes.
The USA has this dream of opening up a long-desired war in the Pacific over China. Troops, material and weaponry are flooding toward the Philippines, Japan and Australia. All ready to die for “democracy”.
Whatever the Hell that means.
A rally-cry of the moronic who still believe that “their vote counts” and that American culture (woke, red-pill, open marriage, LGBQ+) is worthy of preserving.
Woo! Woo! I’m gonna kill Commies for all that free gay sex!
And when that day comes… “death by cop” will be experienced in America. Up and down the coasts. As the United States will be bludgeoned by many, many, MANY people; and their nations. People who have been ridiculed and marginalized over the decades of pompous, elitist wars and flouting.
America is NOT respected in the world.
It is despised.
It is no mistake the distain that the illegal immigrants show towards American. And they are the polite ones. The USA is poised to get a much-needed Ass-Kicking at a scale of ferocity that is off the scale; in both ferocity, and in long-duration and everlasting pain.
And the United States has lost.
It just hasn’t been reported on yet.
Look around yourselves. The USA has no downtowns. No factories. No hard workers. No functioning anything. It’s just on the long slow crumble…
At this point in time, “war against China” will not be needed.
It’s OVER.
He HOARDED GUNS! I Bought The MOST EXPENSIVE Storage Unit In The Country!
There’s something curious about China, well… at least in Southern China. You see, all the buildings are stone facing on cement. These are huge mega buildings all of stone and rock. And you know what?
Yeah.
When the weather is right, condensation forms….
The cold and cool buildings hit the mist wet laden air, and condenses. The walls are wet. The windows are wet. The floors are wet. Everything is wet.
I do not mean, every now and then. I mean, that when things condense… everything is like living in a glossy layer of water. Holy cow!
It’s a thing about China. Not a big issue, but rather a curiosity.
Here’s another… for today…
China’s “wacky” dance breaks barriers, unites the world
Yes. This is truly popular here in China. I am just surprised that it is popular in the rest of the world also.
At my previous workplace, I had a friend who used a wheelchair. He was a normal guy with a great attitude. Everyone was super nice to him and treated him as a special person, except me.
We had alloted workstations. So people usually preferred to use the same stations every day. One day, someone offered him a station that was closer to the washroom. I was there, and the offered workstation was alloted to me.
I immediately objected, and asked the reason for the same. I also asked the guy if he wanted to move there? He clearly denied any such kinda request made to the management by himself. However, it was an over-smart person who wanted to shine and look empathetic in front of the team.
I clearly refused to leave my place. The meeting was over and, while leaving the room, the guy thanked me for treating him like a normal person. But everyone else looked at me like I was standing there wearing just my underpants. We later became friends as he felt normal in my company. He never wanted to be treated like a special person. He never wanted to be helped without asking for it.
Even the manager later advised me to think before I spoke. I just asked her, “is it not okay to treat someone as a normal person?”
PREQUEL – She Thought An Open Relationship Was A SURE THING Until Learning Her BF’s Dad Coached..
Qian Xuesen was an exceptionally talented engineer and one of the founding fathers of China’s space industry. He spent much of his early scientific career in the US before being imprisoned on groundless accusations as McCarthyism swept across the country.
After spending four years under subsequent house arrest, Qian returned to China vowing to never step foot in the States again. His departure dealt a significant blow to America’s rocket program and laid the foundations for China’s journey to become a formidable space power.
Today, as Sinophobia is once again on the rise, academics of Chinese descent are leaving the US at record levels. In this light, Qian’s story should be viewed as a warning of the dangers of Cold War Zero-sum-ism.
Kavita Puri, one of the BBC’s less biased journalists, gives a surprisingly fair and detailed account of Qian’s life and his contributions to mankind. She writes:
In Shanghai there is an entire museum containing 70,000 artefacts dedicated to one man, “the people’s scientist” Qian Xuesen.
Qian is the father of China’s missile and space programme. His research helped develop the rockets that fired China’s first satellite into space, and missiles that became part of its nuclear arsenal, and he is revered as a national hero.
But in another superpower, where he studied and worked for more than a decade, his significant contributions are rarely remembered at all.
Qian was born in 1911, as China’s last imperial dynasty was about to be replaced by a republic. His parents were both well-educated and his father, after working in Japan, established China’s national education system. It was evident from an early age that Qian was gifted, and he eventually graduated top of his class at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, winning a rare scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.
In 1935 a trim, well-dressed young man arrived in Boston. Qian may have experienced some xenophobia and racism, says Chris Jespersen, professor of history at the University of North Georgia. But there was “also a sentiment of hope and belief that China [was] changing in fundamentally significant ways”, and he would certainly have been among people who respected his knowledge.
From MIT Qian moved to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), to study under one of the most influential aeronautical engineers of the day, the Hungarian émigré, Theodore von Karman. There Qian shared an office with another prominent scientist, Frank Malina, who was a key member of a small group of innovators known as the Suicide Squad.
The group had earned this nickname because of their attempts to build a rocket on campus, and because some of their experiments with volatile chemicals went badly wrong, says Fraser Macdonald, author of Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket. Though he adds that no-one died.
One day Qian got drawn into a discussion of a complicated mathematical problem with Malina and other members of the group and before long he was an integral part of it, producing seminal research into rocket propulsion.
At the time, rocket science was the “stuff of cranks and fantasists,” Macdonald says. “No-one is taking it seriously – no mathematically inclined engineer would risk their reputation by saying this is the future.” But that quickly changed with the start of World War II.
The Suicide Squad caught the attention of the US military, which paid for research into jet-assisted take-off, where boosters were attached to the wings of aircraft to enable them to get airborne from short runways. Military funding also helped establish the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in 1943, under the directorship of Theodore von Karman. Qian, along with Frank Malina, was at the heart of the project.
Qian was a Chinese citizen, but the Republic of China was an ally of the US, so there was “no massive suspicion about a Chinese scientist at the heart of American space endeavour”, says Fraser Macdonald. Qian was given security clearance to work on classified weapons research, and even served on the US government’s Science Advisory Board.
By the end of the war he was one of the world’s foremost experts on jet propulsion, and was sent with Theodore von Karman on an extraordinary mission to Germany, holding the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel. Their goal was to interview Nazi engineers, including Wernher von Braun, Germany’s leading rocket scientist; America wanted to find out exactly what the Germans knew.
But by the end of the decade Qian’s glittering career in the US came to a sudden halt, and his life there began to unravel.
In China, Chairman Mao declared the creation of the communist People’s Republic in 1949, and quickly the Chinese came to be seen in the US as “the evil ones”, says Chris Jespersen. “So we go through these periods in the US where we are infatuated with China, then something happens and we revile China,” he says.
Meanwhile, a new director at the JPL came to believe there was a spy ring at the lab, and shared his suspicions about some members of staff with the FBI. “I note that they are all either Chinese or Jewish,” says Fraser Macdonald.
The Cold War was under way, and the anti-communist witch-hunts of the McCarthy era were just around the corner. It was in this atmosphere that the FBI accused Qian, Frank Malina and others of being communists, and a threat to national security.
The charges against Qian were based on a 1938 document of the US Communist Party that showed he had attended a social gathering that the FBI suspected was a meeting of the Pasadena Communist Party. Although Qian denied being a party member, new research suggests he joined at the same time as Frank Malina in 1938.
But this doesn’t necessarily make him a Marxist. To be a communist at this time was a statement of anti-racism, says Fraser Macdonald. The group wanted to highlight the threat of fascism, he says, as well as the horror of racism in the US. They were campaigning, for example, against the segregation of the local Pasadena swimming pool, and used their communist meetings to discuss it.
Zuoyue Wang, professor of history at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, says there is no evidence that Qian ever spied for China or was an intelligence agent when he was in the US.
He was, however, stripped of his security clearance and put under house arrest. Caltech colleagues, including Theodore von Karman, wrote to the government pleading Qian’s innocence, but in vain.
In 1955, when Qian had spent five years under house arrest, President Eisenhower took the decision to deport him to China. The scientist left by boat with his wife and two US-born children, telling waiting reporters he would never step foot in America again. He kept his promise.
“He was one of the most prominent scientists in America. He had contributed so much and could have contributed much more. So it’s not just humiliation but also a sense of betrayal,” says the journalist and writer, Tianyu Fang.
Qian arrived as a hero in China but was not immediately admitted into the Chinese Communist Party. His record was not impeccable. His wife was the aristocratic daughter of a Nationalist leader, and until Qian’s fall from grace he’d been living happily in America – he’d even taken the first steps towards applying for citizenship.
When he finally became a party member in 1958, he embraced it and always tried to remain on the right side of the regime. He survived purges and the Cultural Revolution, and thus was able to pursue an extraordinary career.
When he had arrived in China there was little understanding of rocket science, but 15 years later he oversaw the launch of the first Chinese satellite into space. Over the decades, he trained a new generation of scientists, and his work laid the foundations for China’s Lunar Exploration Program
Ironically, the missile programme that Qian helped develop in China resulted in weapons which were then fired back on America. Qian’s silkworm missiles were fired at Americans in the 1991 Gulf War, Fraser Macdonald says, and in 2016 against the USS Mason by Huti rebels in Yemen.
“So there’s this odd circularity. The US expelled this expertise, and it has come back to bite them.” In taking a tough line against domestic communism, he suggests, the country deported “the means by which one of their main communist rivals could develop their own missiles and space programme – an extraordinary geopolitical blunder.”
A former US Secretary of the Navy, Dan Kimball – later head of the rocket propulsion company, Aerojet – once said it was “the stupidest thing this country ever did”.
Today, there is once again heightened tension between China and the US. This time it’s not over ideology but trade, concerns over tech security, and China’s failure – as President Donald Trump regards it – to do more to contain Covid-19.
While most Americans have no idea about Qian and his role in America’s space programme, Tianyu Fang says many Chinese Americans and Chinese students in the US, do know about him, and why he had to leave, and they see the parallels with the present day. “US China relations have got so much worse they know they could be under the same suspicions as Qian’s generation,” he says.
In Fraser Macdonald’s view, Qian’s story is a warning about what happens when you expel knowledge. “The whole story of American science is that it is propelled by people coming from outside… but in these conservative times that’s a story that becomes harder to celebrate.”
The JPL’s contribution to the US space programme has, Macdonald believes, been much neglected compared to that of Wernher von Braun and other German scientists, who were taken in secret to the US soon after the visit paid to them by von Karman and Qian.
Braun had been a Nazi, and yet his achievements are recognised in a way that those of Qian and others from the JPL are not, Macdonald says. “The idea that America’s first viable space programme was started by homegrown socialists – whether Jewish or Chinese – is not really a story that the US is able to hear about itself,” he says.
Qian’s life spanned almost a century. In that time China grew from an economic minnow to a superpower on Earth and in space. Qian was part of that transformation. But his story could have been a great American one too – where talent, wherever it is found, could thrive.
Last year, when China made history and landed on the far side of the moon, it did so in the Von Karman crater, named after the aeronautical engineer who was a mentor to Qian. A nod, perhaps, to the fact that American anti-communism helped propel China into space.
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Has a company ever chosen morality over profitability?
SC Johnson made a choice like this, and it’s hurt sales ever since.
Saran Wrap is a product people in the United States know well, and it’s been popular for years… it hit the markets in 1953, and quickly became popular for its utility in storing food. It blocked odors, it microwaved well, and it did a better job of clinging to containers than any other product on the market. (It may have been popular in other countries as well, but I have no frame of reference for that.)
If you’ve used Saran Wrap in the past decade or so, you’ve probably noticed it’s not as effective as it used to be.
Originally created by Dow Chemicals, Saran Wrap came under SC Johnson’s control in 1998. Shortly thereafter, they discovered that one of the chemicals used to manufacture the famous plastic wrap, polyvinylidene chloride, had toxic effects on the environment.
They attempted to find a replacement that would preserve the qualities of Saran Wrap people had come to love, but after a year of effort, SC Johnson made the decision to remove the chemical and release a new formulation. It’s not as effective, but it no longer poisons the environment.
There was no boycott, there was no federal investigation… the company discovered the danger, and then voluntarily gave up its competitive advantage in order to avoid harming the environment.
I’ve walked out of several interviews. Here’s a fun one:
The interviewer tried to shame me for using my phone’s calculator to help solve a complex problem and check my work.
I was interviewing at a solar firm. They had turned a recent issue with a client into a test for the interview process. I thought it was a fun and useful way to see how a candidate thinks and solves problems, so I was on board.
That is, right up until the interviewer decided to cosplay as a junior high school math teacher from 1998.
“Did you just take out your phone and use your calculator?” I can still hear the scoff in her voice and picture the sneer she was grossly failing to hide.
I stared at her, waiting for her to say she was joking. No such luck. I remember thinking “Oh, this lady is serious. She really thinks I should just do all the math 100% in my head.”
I didn’t even bother to respond. I just got up and walked out. Ain’t nobody got time for that shit.
In a world where programmers google more than half of their job every day, me choosing to be prudent about my mental math skills is downright pedestrian.
I regret nothing. Any company culture that thinks a person being resourceful and using all available tools to check their work is some kind of PROBLEM, isn’t a company culture anyone should waste their time with.
All these years later, I can see what a product of the school system she was. Prioritizing resourcefulness and work ethic over book smarts is an entrepreneur’s mindset, not something some recruiter just out of her worthless college degree would value.
Born in 1921, Ferdinand ran away from home at the young age of just 16.
With no qualifications, no money, and no occupation, Fred was essentially a nobody.
A nobody with no hope of a successful future.
A nobody with literally nothing to lose.
A nobody you wouldn’t even look twice at walking on the street.
Until one day, you open the newspaper and see this nobody’s face plastered on the front page.
In the ultimate example of “fake it til you make it,” Ferdinand Demara boarded the HMCS Cayuga, a Canadian Navy destroyer during the Korean War. He was impersonating a naval surgeon.
Ferdinand seemed to have successfully fooled the crewmates.
All was well.
Until numerous soldiers started taking life-threatening injuries.
With no other doctors everyone desperately looked to Ferdinand, the only naval “surgeon” on board.
This is the point where most people would throw up their hands and announce the game was up.
But Demara wasn’t ultimately labeled “the Great Imposter” for nothing.
Despite having absolutely no experience or training Demara told the crewmates to prep the injured for surgery while he quickly retired to his quarters.
Using his photographic memory Demara speed read through a medical textbook to learn how to perform surgery.
He emerged out his of room just a few minutes later, then operated on all 16 badly injured soldiers – including one who required major chest surgery.
The outcome?
Each and every one of the men he operated on walked away with their lives thanks to him.
Throughout his lifetime Demara also had other impersonations including a civil engineer, a sheriff’s deputy, an assistant prison warden, a doctor of applied psychology, a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, an editor, a cancer researcher, and a teacher. One teaching job led to six months in prison.
There is no word on which textbook you can read to learn how to perform surgery in just a few minutes, but whichever one it is, it’s totally worth the money.
CONTROVERSIAL (Is it WRONG to tell the TRUTH?)
Italian Baked Chicken
Ingredients
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle Italian dressing
Garlic powder
Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Season Italian dressing with garlic powder (use enough dressing to thoroughly coat chicken).
Marinate chicken breasts in seasoned Italian dressing several hours or overnight.
Drain chicken in a strainer to remove extra dressing.
Place chicken breasts in a baking dish or pan.
Sprinkle chicken with parsley flakes.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.
Cover chicken, reduce temperature to 325 degrees F and continue to bake for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before serving.
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When I was seven years old, I was given a Stanford-Binet style intelligence test by the local school authorities. The test was supposed to determine my future aptitude for school work.
The interviewer had a little bushy beard and wire-rimmed glasses. He peered over the desk at me and asked “Who discovered America?”
I answered, “The Indians.” This was 1976, and the term “Native Americans” didn’t exist yet.
He looked at me quizzically. “Are you sure that Indians discovered America?”
I said, “Columbus came to America. The Indians were here first. So the Indians discovered America.”
The interviewer shook his head sadly at me, clearly disappointed, and went onto the next question.
Just for the record, 1976 intelligence-test-giver guy:
The Indians were here first.
So the Indians discovered America.
I knew that.
But the story doesn’t end there.
It continues forty-two years after I got that question in school.
Today, an acquaintance of mine said they were applying for US citizenship. I congratulated them, and they told me there’s a civics test that they have to pass in person in order to become a US citizen. And they showed me the sample study test.
And right there. In black and white. Question number 59 reads as follows:
“Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?”
And beneath that, were the permissible answers:
American Indians
Native Americans
There wasn’t any Columbus to be seen. He didn’t discover America.
He wasn’t even on the test.
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Frequently. In college, I worked at a metropolitan airport refueling corporate jets. Celebrities usually weren’t bad, but their handlers were beyond obnoxious. I started watching NHL specifically to jeer against the Detroit Red Wings and the New Jersey Devils, simply because of the jerks managing their transportation.
Anyway, during Furniture Market, people fly in from all over the world. Hotels are booked solid for a hundred-mile radius. Aerosmith happened to be playing at the Coliseum. Their pilot was a quiet old man, but the copilot was obnoxious. You could tell he was WAY too young and inexperienced to get a gig as a Gulfstream FO without some sort of family connection, but he admitted it anyway when babbling about his parents’ wealth.
They were there for the entire day. At any point, they could’ve asked for anything they needed, but he waited until the concert ended. By that point, I’m the only person working, because day shift had ended. He demanded fuel right after another pilot placed his order. I told him it’d take about a half hour, and he exasperated, “This is Aerosmith!”
I pointed down the ramp and said, “That’s the owner of the Miami Dolphins, that’s Oprah Winfrey, that’s some sort of Commerce Secretary in Mexico, but the one with the Highway Patrol standing by the plane all night is our state Governor, and he ALWAYS comes first.”
You have a navy. Use it. Historically, the French navy did next to nothing. An aggressive submarine hunting campaign would have put Kriegsmarine on defensive and prevented the Norwegian campaign. And no, Bearn was not that obsolete for an aircraft carrier.
Use air force aggressively. The French used air force too passively – they didn’t dare to attack the German airbases – and it became costly. Many of the new fighters were not even assembled off the crates in Spring 1940.
The Maginot Line works just as intended. Do not become complacent. Check out the Ardennes – it is not as impassable as you think!
Keep Italy out of war. True, they are not worth of much, but they have a good navy.
You have radios. Use them. Use encryption if needed. Time-critical communication is much more important than fear of eavesdropping.
Tank is not a moving artillery bunker. It is the knight of the 20th century. Use tanks as the steel fist of the army, not moving field artillery. Concentrate them – not by dripping but pouring!
Put Maurice Gamelin to retirement. He is too old to lead the army any more. Maxime Weygand had some good ideas, but listen to that young Charles de Gaulle.
Evacuate civilians at time. The Blitzkrieg creates traffic jams.
Read that German manual. I mean, On War by von Clausewitz. It is all there.
The person who asked this question was obviously considering the problem using linear thinking.
In the questioner’s mind, China’s economy is growing linearly, and its total volume will gradually and slowly surpass that of the United States. But since China’s population is four times that of the United States, when China’s economy surpasses that of the United States, its per capita level will only be 1/4 of that of the United States.
It may take another 20 or even 50 years for China to “really” reach the level of the United States.
I have to refute this idea, because in actual competition, there is a “critical effect”. This means that China’s pursuit of the United States is not linear, but will appear as a “cliff” or “avalanche” after reaching a certain critical point.
In order to support this view, we need to analyze how the strong economy of the United States is constructed.
Which brings us back to the picture above, which says a lot about the U.S. economy: Virtualization
In the entire GDP composition, the part that creates real wealth is very small.
What is real wealth? Food, industrial products, energy.
Bread, milk, cars, mobile phones, gasoline, airplanes, semiconductors, clothes, condoms, these things are real wealth.
What is virtual wealth? When you have enough real wealth, you can redistribute it. Services, consulting, lawyers, finance, medical care, house rental, trade. Virtual wealth is not real wealth. They are essentially the secondary distribution of real wealth.
With so little real wealth generated in the United States’ GDP, how do they maintain huge virtual wealth, achieve huge GDP, and maintain world-leading living standards?
There are two key points
1. Technology and innovation
2. Rules and Credit
Technology and Innovation:
The United States is the country with the largest investment in R&D in the world. In 2023, the United States’ investment in innovation and R&D will be 2.5 times that of the second-ranked country (China).
The United States leads the way in innovation capabilities and technological development.
With advanced technology and innovation capabilities, you can get huge wealth at a very small cost. To give a simple example, Americans take away 90% of the profits from an Apple mobile phone, and the remaining 10% is shared by other countries in the production, sales, and service links.
During the entire process, not a single screw was installed on this Apple phone in the United States.
This is the power of technology and innovation in transferring wealth. He can easily transfer real wealth created by other countries into American hands.
However, technology and innovation are not the strongest in the field of transferring wealth. After all, technology and innovation require large amounts of continuous investment and face huge competition. Europe, Japan, and China are all constantly challenging the United States’ position in the field of science and technology. Relying on this alone is not enough.
rules and Credit
The United States has shaped the global financial and trade landscape. They have established the dollar’s global currency status through war and the Cold War, and maintained their status and credibility with hundreds of military bases and huge armies around the world.
They also established many rules to protect their status. For example, patents, environmental protection, carbon emissions, IFS, and WTO. The entire world revolves around these rules.
This means that the United States can realize the transfer of wealth through rules and credit.
The simplest example: When the United States faces a lack of real wealth, they can start the money printing press and exchange green paper for the wealth created by people around the world. It also controls the flow and currency value of the U.S. dollar through operations such as raising and lowering interest rates. This method’s ability to transfer wealth far exceeds that of technology and innovation, and they don’t even have to draw a drawing.
These two keys are the reason why the United States actually creates little real wealth but has a lot of real wealth. It is also the basis for the United States to maintain prosperity and continue to grow even after its economy is hollowed out.
Now let’s go back to the beginning. What will happen if China’s economic aggregate exceeds that of the United States?
1. Changes in innovation capabilities
Innovation capabilities come from the cultivation and investment of talents. Both of these indicators increase with the growth of the economic aggregate. Due to purchasing power parity, China’s R&D investment is currently only one-third of that of the United States, but the number of patents applied for and the number of papers produced each year are already the same as those of the United States. Many technology companies such as Huawei and DJI have emerged that are ahead of their American counterparts. It can be estimated that when China’s R&D investment reaches 1/2 of the United States, their innovation capabilities will completely surpass the United States.
2. Changes in military strength
China’s military strength will gradually surpass that of the United States. Coupled with China’s strong manufacturing power, China’s military hardware growth rate and accumulation will gradually surpass that of the United States. Because of the complete localization of the economic structure, in terms of military assets, the return on China’s investment of 1 yuan and the United States on 1 dollar are close. Other countries will find that the stick in China’s hand is gradually surpassing that of the United States.
3. Changes in confidence
There will be a critical point in the balance of global mentality towards the United States and China. Gradually, all countries will think about a question: If China is the world’s largest customer and the world’s largest businessman, with the most powerful military and the best innovation capabilities, why do we still have to abide by the rules of the United States? Why do we need to continue using dollars?
When the third point starts to happen, it means that the avalanche effect is coming.
The United States will enter a period of rapid decline:
The credibility of the U.S. dollar has declined > the ability to transfer wealth has weakened > actual wealth has decreased > living standards have declined > social conflicts have increased > investment in innovation has decreased > brain drain > innovation capabilities have declined > the ability to transfer wealth continues to weaken > military strength is difficult to maintain > credibility continues to collapse.
At this time, China’s growth curve may still be flat, but the decline curve of the United States may become a “cliff.” The “per capita” level of both sides will change from “chasing with each other” to “one man’s loss is another man’s gain.”
This assumption is disastrous for the status of the United States, and it will frantically maintain its status at all costs.
This is not as easy as the questioner imagined, and may be a disaster for the whole world.
Here Is How The Pentagon Comes Up With Code Words And Secret Project Nicknames
We venture into the dark, fascinating, and often misunderstood world of the Defense Department’s code word and nickname generating processes. by Tim McMillan| UPDATED Dec 1, 2019 5:57 AM EST
If there’s one place one can find plenty of nicknames, it’s within the sprawling landscape of the armed forces. When it comes to the greater civilian world, there’s no historical precedent or agreed upon social norm for how someone or something gains a substitute informal title. However, given the Department of Defense’s fondness of rigid structure, it should be no surprise that when it comes to nicknames, there’s a policy for them, too.
Meet NICKA
Prior to 1975, names for military operations and projects were exclusively chosen at the behest of military commanders. As a result, within the annals of American military history one can find a diverse range of interesting titles from Operation Killer—a major 1951 counter-offensive during the Korean War—to Operation Beaver Cage—a U.S. Marine Corps operation that occurred during the spring of 1967 as part of the Vietnam War.
However, shortly after the close of the Vietnam War, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) decided it was time to formalize the use of code words and nicknames by unveiling the Code Word Nickname and Exercise Term System, colloquially known as NICKA.
For the Department of Defense (DoD), NICKA is both a set of policies governing the selection of defense monikers and a military-wide computer system that archives and prevents duplication of terms.
Important to note, NICKA is primarily used for Department of Defense-related endeavors. Many operations or programs emerging from within the intelligence community use their own separate naming system.
For example, the Central Intelligence Agency uses the Cryptonym system for developing code words and names. It is also worth noting that the National Security Agency (NSA), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) all use the NICKA system
NICKA outlines three distinctive types of monikers that can be used within the DoD:
Code Words
Nicknames
Exercise Terms
Code Words
In NICKA, acode word is a single word that’s assigned to any program or operational plan that’s classified confidential or higher. Each component agency in the Department of Defense are assigned blocks of code words by the Joint Staff. When needed, the NICKA computer program will randomly select and assign a code word from the originating agency’s allocated block of terms.
For example, in the lead up to the Gulf War, when the Combat Aviation Brigade of the 1st Armored Division needed a code word for their forward assembly area, the NICKA computer system pulled from one of the Army’s predetermined block designations and selected the amusingly mundane code word—LARRY.
Essentially a password for entry in an exclusive club, the preeminent role of code words is to restrict access to sensitive national security information to only those who have a need to know. Assisting security, a code word itself will be safeguarded by being classified by one of the three security classifications—confidential, secret, or top secret—based on the security level of the associated program.
Virtually anything conceivably classified, including programs, projects, locations, operations, objectives, missions, or plans, can be assigned a code word. One particular area code words can be highly prevalent is with Special Access Programs (SAP). As mentioned in The War Zone’s in-depth look at Special Access Programs, multiple components, sub-components, and projects can sprawl out from a single SAP “umbrella.” In this compartmentalized system of security, each of the different appendages of one SAP can potentially be assigned their own specific code word.
Once NICKA assigns a code word, it’s considered active. An active code word will remain unchanged for the life of a program and cannot be altered by its users. The one exception being if there’s a concern a code word had been compromised. In this instance, a new code word would be issued. Equally, in certain situations, an unclassified cover term may get applied to a program for counterintelligence purposes.
In addition to the obvious security and oversight reasons, the principal reason for a code word’s permanence relates to the significant role NICKA serves as an archive of all active and inactive code words. The system uses its database of terms to prevent any potential conflicts that could arise due to similarities or duplication of previous code words.
As a Department of Defense system, NICKA will only assign single-word code words. However, in some instances, the Pentagon may take over a project or program that originated outside of the DoD, such as from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of Energy (DOE), commercial companies, or even foreign governments. In these instances, already assigned code words may not follow NICKA guidelines. In these occurrences, a program may be reassigned a new NICKA code word or the previous unregulated code name may be maintained.
Regardless, of whether it’s kept or not, the non-NICKA code name may still be added to the program’s database to stem off any future confusion or conflict.
For example, technically before NICKA’s time and not a DoD project, the 1960s A-12 reconnaissance plane was developed and operated under the CIA code word “OXCART”. However, Kelly Johnson and his pioneering team of engineers at Lockheed Skunk Works used the code word “ARCHANGEL” for the A-12. Furthering the spy plane’s eventual identity crisis, flight crews would nickname the A-12 “Cygnus.”
Though OXCART was the only officially assigned government code word, under NICKA, both the contract code word, “ARCHANGEL” and the A-12’s nickname “Cygnus,” would equally be archived to prevent duplicate use.
When it comes to code words. Many real-world military operations and programs, for example, “HAVE BLUE,“ “ACID GAMBIT,” “AUTUMN RETURN,” “SENIOR TREND,” or the infamous “YELLOW FRUIT,” are often reported as being the “code word” for a classified operation or program. However, per DoD and the Joint Chiefs NICKA policy, a code word always consist of just a single word. By NICKA, the above named examples would be “nicknames” and not code words.
This does not mean that multiple code words cannot apply to a certain entity. Any intelligence product that contains Top-Secret NATO information would carry the code word “COSMIC” in addition to any other applicable ones. Certain categories of sensitive activities can even involve code words that become intrinsically linked and enter common usage linked together. “TALENT,” an overarching code word for aerial intelligence-gathering assets, such as the U-2 Dragon Lady and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes, and “KEYHOLE,” which covers intelligence-gathering satellites, are no longer treated as separate from each other officially and one will routinely see documents marked “TALENT KEYHOLE,” or using the abbreviation “TK,” as a single term.
Nicknames
As we briefly mentioned, when it comes to the designation of nicknames, NICKA offers some flexibility and gives military commanders the ability to be a little more creative.
Whereas NICKA only assigns single-word code words, by policy, nicknames must be comprised of two separate words. Similar to the code word process, each DoD component agency is assigned a set of designated numerical block assignments by NICKA. In turn, the agency’s numerical block assignment will correspond to “alphabetical assignment list,” which is a range of two-letter alphabetical sets. The first word of any nickname must come from within an agency’s assigned alphabetical range.
For example, using the now obsolete and unclassified NICKA block assignments, if a program within the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) needed to come up with a nickname, one would start by identifying the four numerical blocks assigned to the DIA (15, 33, 51, and 76).
The next step would be identifying what ranges of two-letter combinations would be associated with an agency’s assigned blocks. Following along with the previous example, based on the alphabetical assignment list, the first word of a DIA program nickname would have to start with:
Block 15 – Letters DM – DR
Block 33 – Letters IA – IF
Block 51 – Letters MM-MR
Block 76 – Letters SS – SZ
When it comes to the second portion of the two-word requirement for nicknames, military planners have the unrestricted ability to get creative, provided phrases are not “improper” or “counterproductive.”
By NICKA guidelines, improper nicknames would be terms that are:
Inconsistent with traditional American ideals or current foreign policy.
Offensive to good taste or derogatory to a particular group, sect, or creed.
Offensive to U.S. allies or other free world nations.
Additionally, NICKA forbids nicknames from being:
Any two-word combination voice call sign found in the Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication Call Sign Book (JANAP-119).
Include the words, “Project, Exercise, or Operation.”
Words that may be used correctly either as a single word or as two words, such as “moonlight.”
Exotic words, trite expressions or well-known commercial trademarks.
By military standards—where one can often find rules for rules—NICKA guidelines on nicknames are fairly limited and debatably common sense. Thanks to the tempered flexibility NICKA gives to nicknames, the system still affords for some bellicose poetry like “Beast Master”—a 2006 Army operation to clear the Baghdad suburb of Ghazaliya—an area itself (unofficially) nicknamed “IED Alley East,” or “Viking Snatch”—a 2007 counterinsurgency operation in Iraq. Still, especially at lower levels of command and for short-duration operations, one still often sees nicknames that do not comply with NICKA, including ones with single words.
In contrast to code words, nicknames, including their descriptions, meanings, and relationship, are also, by policy, supposed to remain unclassified, though the branches of the U.S. military still routinely classify them on the ground of national security. In addition, NICKA guidelines stipulate nicknames are not required, but can be assigned to actual real-world events, projects, or activities. One caveat to “not required” being with Special Access Programs, which are required to have an unclassified nickname assigned to them.
Exercise Terms
Rounding out NICKA’s trifecta of officially sanctioned phrases, are exercise terms. As the name implies, exercise terms are monikers assigned to tests, drills, or exercises, which are assigned for the purpose of emphasizing the event is not an actual real-world operation. That said, the military has a bad habit of not sticking to DoD rules when it comes to publicizing or describing training exercises, often describing them as “operations.”
For example, “Llama Fury” was a week-long Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) training exercise at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in late summer of 2015. By NICKA policies, Llama Fury should have carried the “exercise” moniker. However, in press releases, multiple Air Force Public Affairs Offices described the event as “Operation Llama Fury.”
Though technically their own classification, exercise terms are more or less an extension of NICKA nicknames, with their selection and regulation falling under the same agency assigned alphabetical block system as the nicknaming process.
Since some military training evolutions are regularly repeated, certain specific exercises will carry the same name with an added numerical postfix indicating the month or year the event occurs. For example, held annually from 2006 to 2018, some of the largest U.S. military war games ever performed in the Pacific Ocean were all conducted under the exercise term “Valiant Shield.” Since this training event was repeated for twelve-years, a four-digit identifier for the year training maneuvers were performed would accompany the exercise term, producing “Exercise Valiant Shield 2017,” and so on and so forth.
For exercises that occur multiple times in a fiscal year, like “Swift Response,” a large training event between the U.S. and its European allies, the second iteration of the exercise in 2017 would be called “Swift Response 17-2.”
Least ambiguous of NICKA’s trio, code words play an essential role safeguarding extremely sensitive secrets. However, when it comes to nicknames and exercise terms, this aspect of NICKA is arguably more significant.
For example, “Enduring Freedom,” (the U.S. Global War on Terrorism, though often applied solely to operations in Afghanistan), “Iraqi Freedom,” (the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation), or “Inherent Resolve,” (the U.S. military intervention in Iraq and Syria to combat ISIS), are not merely nicknames, these phrases are meant to inspire and express the overarching intent of military involvement.
More than just iconic inscriptions on military ribbons, medals, and service records, the perceptions associated with a few major military nicknames or terms become ingrained in the public’s collective conscious and often end up being enduring aspects of American history.
So, there you have it. All those cool-sounding program nicknames, secretive code words, and intense sounding military exercises you probably heard of over the years, all likely came from a highly structured, yet obscure Department of Defense system puzzlingly named NICKA.
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I Had a Night of Wild(ish) Sex on Horny Goat Weed, aka ‘Nature’s Viagra’
Does the supplement meet all the gas station and corner store hype? I popped a few capsules and fucked my boyfriend to find out
Male enhancement is more important to the marrow of American culture than anything else that makes this country great — like breastaurants or the Claire’s ear piercing kiosk. For those of you who still fuck unenhanced, the deal is: a number of pills, both prescription and not, have become available to boost your boner in recent decades. The gold standard is still Viagra, famously a happy accident in the manufacture of what was meant to be a pill for hypertension. Another famous option is Enzyte, which I know less for its effects than for its creepy-ass commercials featuring Bob, the guy who can’t stop fucking his wife now that he’s on Enzyte.
Then there are unlimited Great Value options for people who can’t or won’t get their boner pills from a doctor. Gas stations and corner stores have long sold pills that claim they can do everything from induce boners to increase your dick size to make you look upon the face of God. Such pills have largely been debunked as quack shit that does much more harm than good, but that’s just for people with dicks, right? Surely I, a humble pussy-haver, am safe from the array of troubling side effects ranging from “pain in dick” to “severe nausea.” (There’s not a self-respecting doctor in the world who would agree with that assessment, but fie on them, I say!)
The plant epimedium, more commonly known as horny goat weed, has sung its siren’s song to me from the Amazon supplement market for a long time. Other dick pills may come from Dr. Strangelove-esque laboratories, but horny goat weed is a humble plant — one that, per Chinese legend, a canny farmer noticed his goats were eating before fucking like crazy. According to the limited experiments that scientists have conducted, it might work, but most products that claim to contain it either don’t or contain only a negligible amount mixed in with numerous other extracts and compounds. Still, that uncertainty is the cost of admission not just with horny goat weed, but with all supplements on the market in the U.S.
Either way, the allure of potentially enjoying some of “nature’s molly” with my boyfriend was too strong to ignore. Sure, it might not work, but also, it might.
I proposed a romantic evening. We’d enjoy a home-cooked dinner for two with a couple glasses of a nice full-bodied Cab Sav. From there, I’d turn off the lights and pour us some after-dinner Madeira to enjoy by candlelight. I would then change into something a little more comfortable. And my lover would take me into his arms so that we could take the last step of our journey together: sex modified by two fistfuls of Dorado’s Maximum Strength Horny Goat Weed capsules, since that was the first brand I could find that didn’t pull up a strongly worded FDA warning when I Googled it.
My boyfriend was on board, but raised an interesting philosophical question: “How do we know it worked? Do we measure?”
I’m not the, ugh, dick-measuring kind of gal, and so, I decided that we’d have to stick with that least reliable of evidence: the self-reported kind. So without further ado, here are my self-reported, only-lightly-tampered-with results from my Evening With Horny Goat Weed… (As with all the experiments I perform on my body for MEL, don’t try this at home.)
The dosage instructions on the bottle were to “take two capsules a day,” and to “take an additional serving 30 minutes prior to activity.” We hadn’t been taking two capsules per day and didn’t know what a sudden jolt of 2,000 milligrams of horny goat weed would do to our systems, so we compromised with three capsules each. I thought it would be romantic to serve the capsules in champagne flutes, but then I remembered I don’t own any. I put them in shot glasses instead, which lent the project an air of, how shall I put it — Jonestown-ishness.
We took our doses together at 8 p.m. My boyfriend rejected the suggestion that we ingest them by wrapping our arms around each other wedding-toast-style, which was fair. He grabbed a beer from the fridge but then put it back, reasoning that “I shouldn’t drink tonight so that we have controlled data.”
“Does that mean I shouldn’t smoke weed tonight?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “You smoking weed is the controlled data.”
We spent the next several episodes of Midnight Mass in full “kids taking acid for the first time” mode: “Do you feel it yet? Do you feel it now? How about now?” Back and forth we went for well over an hour. The instruction to take this stuff a mere 30 minutes prior to Activity was starting to feel like a prank. I did note that I felt particularly horny for the sheriff character on Midnight Mass every time he appeared onscreen, which was an encouraging step in the right direction, until my boyfriend pointed out that I probably just felt that way because he was so handsome.
Finally, at 9:30 p.m., a full 90 minutes after “dosing,” my boyfriend suggested that we go ahead and fuck. “Maybe the horny goat weed doesn’t kick in until the Activity starts,” he said. This sounded insane to me, but I also know nothing whatsoever about pharmacology, so I agreed.
The post-Activity verdict is that I’m not convinced the horny goat weed did anything. But I’m also not convinced that it didn’t! I engage in this stuff with a hearty degree of skepticism. On the one hand, I do believe in the research that tells us most of the salutary effects people claim to experience from their supplements are primarily attributable to the placebo effect, maybe with some lifestyle boosters thrown in if you also believe that the sorts of people who religiously take supplements are more likely than the average person to exercise regularly and forswear heavy smoking and drinking. (I certainly believe this latter hypothesis, based on my highly scientific study of the B-complex-poppin’ broads in a barre class I took once.)
On the other hand, something was going on with the Activity we had after taking horny goat weed. What the experiment lacked in measurable physical effects, it more than made up for in over an hour of wild sex. Maybe the sex was so heightened because we knew we’d taken something that was intended to enhance it, and felt duly enhanced as a result. Or maybe there really is some magic in that old silk hat that is horny goat weed. It’s played its part in Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years. Would people really do the same thing for thousands of years if it didn’t work?
Well, yes, probably, so that line of thinking doesn’t help me conclude this experiment, either.
Nonetheless, the next day, my boyfriend said, “You know, I’d be down to take that stuff again and have more sex.” I agreed. And surely any experiment that ends in me having more sex is a successful experiment, right?
So my conclusion is, horny goat weed: The world is burning, so I guess I might as well.
OMG This New Footage Of Aliens And UFO’s Is Amazing
How To Not Lose Your Cool During An Argument
January 22, 2024
It’s happened to most of us – emotions run high during a disagreement and you end up saying or doing things you later regret. Yelling, accusing, or even worse, can damage trust and connection in relationships.
Maintaining composure during an argument is not just about self-control; it’s about fostering effective communication, respect, and ultimately, stronger relationships. Here’s how you can master the art of keeping your cool during heated moments.
1. Recognize the Signs of Escalation
Before you can prevent a volcano from erupting, you need to recognize its warning signs. Pay attention to your body’s signals. Increased heart rate, a rise in body temperature, or a clenched jaw can all indicate that your emotions are escalating. By recognizing these signs early, you can take proactive steps to remain calm.
2. Pause and Breathe
It sounds simple, but the power of a pause coupled with deep breathing is profound. Our bodies are hardwired for the fight-or-flight response when faced with conflict. This means adrenaline surges, heart rate skyrockets, and rational thought takes a vacation to Mars. But before you launch into a tirade that would make a sailor blush, take a deep breath (or ten). Inhale slowly through your nose, feeling your belly expand. Exhale slowly through your mouth, imagining all the tension whooshing out with each breath. Repeat. This simple act activates your parasympathetic nervous system, the calming counterpoint to fight-or-flight, and brings you back to a more rational state.
3. Listen Actively
In the heat of an argument, we often listen to respond rather than to understand. Shift your focus to truly hearing the other person. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with them, but understanding their perspective can change the tone of the conversation and lead to more constructive outcomes.
Repeat and paraphrase. Restating what you heard shows you’re listening and delays an impulsive response. “I hear you saying I don’t contribute enough, is that correct?”
4. Use “I” Statements
Express your feelings and thoughts without placing blame or judgment on the other person. Statements like “I feel frustrated when…” are less likely to provoke defensiveness than “You always…” This approach keeps the conversation centered on your experience rather than pointing fingers.
Don’t make it personal. Criticize the action, not the person. Say “I wish you had consulted me before deciding” not “You’re so inconsiderate.”
5. Keep the Goal in Mind
Remind yourself of the argument’s objective. Is it to win, to prove a point, or to reach a mutual understanding? Keeping the ultimate goal in mind can help steer the conversation away from unnecessary tangents and personal attacks.
6. Agree to Disagree
Sometimes, the best resolution is to respectfully acknowledge your differences. Not every argument will end with a clear winner or a unified opinion, and that’s okay. Agreeing to disagree can be a mature way to conclude a heated discussion without escalating emotions further.
7. Practice Empathy
Try to see the situation from the other person’s perspective. Empathy doesn’t require you to abandon your stance, but it fosters a more compassionate and understanding environment, making it easier for all parties to keep their cool.
8. Know When to Walk Away
If the argument is spiraling and productive communication is no longer possible, it might be time to step away. If you need to, say “I’m feeling too upset to discuss this calmly” and leave the room. Walk away to decompress before continuing.
Taking a break allows everyone involved to cool down, reflect, and revisit the discussion later with a clearer, calmer mindset
The Takeaway
Arguments are not inherently negative; they can be catalysts for growth, understanding, and change. The key is not to avoid them but to navigate them with composure and respect. By mastering the art of keeping your cool, you transform conflicts into opportunities for strengthening relationships and building mutual respect. Remember, it’s not about suppressing your emotions but about expressing them in a way that is constructive rather than destructive. So, the next time you find yourself in the heat of an argument, take a deep breath, and remember these strategies. Your relationships will thank you for it.
I was at a yard sale once, and came across a glass jar of large marbles that had funny little figures of animals in them.
A friend of mine collected marbles, so I thought I’d buy them and give them to him to be funny. I think I paid $2 or so.
A week later, I visited my friend, and pulled out the jar, and asked him what he thought of my find. He went nearly white, and started pulling large books down off his shelves. An hour later, he had identified just about every last one. I could see the longing in his eyes. I asked if he wanted them. He looked at his price lists he’d written down, and said he couldn’t afford them. I said I’d just give them to him, but he refused that, too. Finally, I suggested he buy them from me for half price. He was delighted. At the end of the night, after sorting, cleaning, and classifying each one, he offered me $50 . . .
. . . per marble.
EDIT: More than half the comments ask what these were. They were very rare Sulphide Marbles, and they looked a lot nicer than the ones pictured here.
As for the people saying “Some friend you are!” . . . trust me, it was a compromise. He made even more on the deal than I did, and we’re still friends.
When you give me the “can you fix my computer” call, the call means something different to me than it means to you.
To me, it means I will have to stay up all night, buy and try and swap replacement parts, image and restore your hard drive, remove all the malware, replace the cap on the motherboard that is clearly about to blow, and make your computer work the way you imagine it once did, all while ignoring my other family members, my paying work and life commitments.
At my standard rates I would typically charge around $4,000 to fix your seven year old virus-ridden Dell. Your seven year old virus-ridden Dell isn’t worth $100 on Ebay. Should I tell you that? Will you think I am lying or making the $4,000 number up? I am not. You will think I am insulting you if I tell you I make $4,000 for similar work. You are too cheap and too poor to pay me anywhere near that much though.
Of course I could always send you to Geek Squad. They would of course stupidly and automatically reformat your hard drive and reinstall the OS. If I do that, you will lose all your bank records and baby pictures permanently, to vastly less competent technicians than myself. They would take your money and destroy your data, and they would not even fix the true source of the problem. And you would be very, very, very sad.
And I would know in my heart I could have helped you, but didn’t.
No. I won’t do that to you.
I will take pity on you because you are clearly panicking and unable to eat, sleep or breathe until I save you and your data.
For you, and you alone, I will do a first-rate professional forensic data recovery and reinstallation. I’ll image the non-booting drive, work around all the bad sectors, copy it onto a virtual machine, extract your baby pictures and Quicken data, install a new non-shitty hard drive, reinstall all the apps and operating system and your recovered data (sans viruses and spyware), replace the dying fan, update the BIOS, and I will furthermore provide you with an external drive and teach you how to back up your system regularly with it.
Disappointingly, you will fuck up your computer again in a few years, when you refuse to take my advice and do regular backups on the backup drive that I bought for you, specifically for that purpose.
And when your piece of shit computer fails again, you will call me. Panicking. Again.
And the agonizing cycle will repeat.
Being the computer expert in the family is like being the doctor in the family, except you’re the surgeon and everyone expects you to operate on them constantly, suddenly, perfectly, AND pay for the operating room and sedatives and hospital recovery, AND you still consistently refuse to follow my medical advice.
I do all this, for free, because you are so thankful afterwards.
I do all this, for free, because I love you.
I just wish you weren’t so fucking stupid about computers sometimes.
Single, Childless Men Are Saying A Hard No To Single Mothers Looking For A New Man For Support
My former roommate was experiencing bleeding, although she was several years past menopause. Her PCP refused to do any testing because she was over 65 and suggested that she have a hearing test instead. Next stop was an OB/GYN that told her it couldn’t be the fibroids she had dealt with her whole adult life because those would have disappeared at menopause and sent her home without even checking her. The third, again with no tests, said she must have scratched herself “down there” and also sent her home.
Janet is a private person and didn’t mention any of this to me until the third brush off. I was furious and demanded that she see my PCP. She just went in for an initial consult and my doctor had he on the table for an exam immediately. Then she was sent for an ultrasound that found fibroids equaling a five-month pregnancy. The scheduled a hysterectomy where they found an inflamed fallopian tube. The biopsy of that reveled cancer cells, but only a couple.
Janet opted to go through preventative chemo and is cancer free eight years later. If she had followed the advice of the three prior doctors, the cancer would never have been caught and I doubt she would be alive today.
Ukraine SitRep: No Chance To Win – Zero Democracy – Power Scuffle
There are a few new reports and news bites from Ukraine which are of interest.
Stephen Biddle, a professor who was written on strategy and military power from a realist standpoint, looks at the state of the war In Ukraine.
By late spring, the Russians had adopted the kind of deep, prepared defenses that have been very difficult for attackers to break through for more than the last century of combat experience. Breakthrough has been—and still is—possible in land warfare. But this has long required permissive conditions that are now absent in Ukraine: a defender, in this case Russia, whose dispositions are shallow, forward, ill prepared, or logistically unsupported or whose troops are unmotivated and unwilling to defend their positions. That was true of Russian forces in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson in 2022. It is no longer the case.
The implications of this for Ukraine are grim. Without an offensive breakthrough, success in land warfare becomes an attrition struggle. A favorable outcome for Ukraine in a war of attrition is not impossible, but it will require its forces to outlast a numerically superior foe in what could become a very long war.
Biddle does not expand from there.
But we know that the current Russian disposition of waging an ‘active defense’ is delivering day by day some small progress along the whole front.
Ukraine’s artillery losses have become smaller because it simply lacks the munitions to fire. A cannon that can not fire stops to be a priority target.
First Person View (FBV) drones have became a major cause of all losses. Ukraine was first to use those but Russia has since rapidly ramped up their production. Meanwhile Ukraine is still lagging. Each day hundreds of these drones clear Ukrainian positions without causing significant losses for the attacking Russian side.
In the New Yorker Masha Gesses takes a look at the political scene in Kiev:
Ukraine’s Democracy in Darkness – (archived) – The New Yorker With elections postponed and no end to the war with Russia in sight, Volodymyr Zelensky and his political allies are becoming like the officials they once promised to root out: entrenched.
Gessen finds that democracy in Ukraine, if it still exists, is in a sorry state:
Such was the state of Ukraine as it entered its third consecutive winter at war: still battling the demon of corruption, still defiant, yet visibly reduced, palpably tired. … In the meantime, in Ukraine, democracy is largely suspended. According to the regular order of things, Ukraine should have a Presidential election in March. Up until the end of November—a few weeks before the deadline for scheduling the election—Zelensky’s office seemed open to having one, but ultimately decided against it. “We shouldn’t have elections, because elections always create disunity,” Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former defense minister who now advises the government, told me. “We need to be unified.”
An estimated four to six million Ukrainians are living under Russian occupation. At least four million are living in E.U. countries, a million more are living in Russia, and at least half a million are living elsewhere outside of Ukraine. Another four million have been internally displaced. These figures include a significant number of people who became adults after the war began and aren’t registered to vote. “Elections are a public discussion,” Oleksandra Romantsova, the executive director of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, told me. “But a third of the population is connected with the military. Another third is displaced.” With so many people excluded from the public discussion, what would an election even mean? …”
All power in Ukraine has been concentrated in the President’s office:
At the start of the war, when Russia was bombing Kyiv daily, the parliament had to consider the risks of continuing to hold meetings in its building, which has a glass roof. It decided to do so, but to vote only on bills that a majority wanted to bring to the floor, and to limit discussion of amendments. This effectively shifted the center of legislative work to the President’s office. Among other bills, the parliament approved the declaration of martial law, introduced by Zelensky on the first day of the war, and has regularly renewed it. Martial law enables the cabinet of ministers to control who can enter and leave the country—since the start of the war, men under the age of sixty have been forbidden to leave—and to regulate the work of all media outlets, printing presses, and distribution companies.
Zelensky’s office created the United News TV Marathon, a round-the-clock program of war-related news and talk shows, supplanting what had been a vibrant and varied television news market. The segments appear on six of Ukraine’s major channels and, at any given time, all of them are showing the same thing. Despite its name, United Marathon was clearly designed to be a sprint. In the early months of the war, the programming had a sense of urgency, of novelty and shock. Now even the worst days—when Russia fires a barrage of rockets that kill civilians across the country—are like all the other terrible days, when people are killed in the same way, in more or less the same places. There is little to analyze anymore. “The one thing all Ukrainians agree on is that we need an end to the Marathon,” Romantsova told me.
Other government-controlled media target an international audience.
An example of the power struggle around the presidential office could be witnessed yesterday.
Around noon several reliable political sources in Ukraine reported that President Zelensky had signed a decree to fire the Commander in Chief General Zaluzny. Hours later the Ministry of Defense denied that Zaluzny was fired.
From information gained since we can somewhat reconstruct what had happened.
Zaluzny had been ordered into the President’s office. He was asked to write his resignation. As consolation gift he would receive an ambassadorship in some western European country.
Zaluzny rejected the request and insisted of getting fired or being allowed to stay in place.
Zelenski had planned to promote the Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence in Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov as the new Commander in Chief.
Here is where I believe that other high officers, and likely also the U.S. military, stepped in.
Budanov has been in special forces intelligence from the very beginning of his career. He has never commanded anything larger than a group. Not a platoon, not a company, not a battalion, not a brigade, not a division and not a corp. How can someone who has zero experience in leading actual force formations supposed to be the commander of all Ukrainian forces including the army, air-force and navy?
It is impossible.
Budanov seems to be somewhat loyal to Zelenski (though I bet he really isn’t). He is handsome and looks good on camera. He is a smooth talker. He is also a creative and talented terrorist. His actual military operations though, like the ground raids into Belgograd, have mostly been mediocre failures.
I am pretty sure that the Pentagon and even the White House may have called Kiev and stopped Zelenski from implementing such nonsense.
Zaluzny will, for now, stay in his position.
But the whole affair will have diminished the military’s view of Zelenski and his consorts. In just one day a military coup In Kiev has suddenly become much more possible. As further the military situation deteriorates the higher are the chances that it will eventually happen. ———–
Posted by b on January 30, 2024 at 13:18 UTC | Permalink
Man Humbles A Room Full Of Women| You Owe Him BOX If He Pays!
Thinkers OUTSIDE the United States Say “Civil War in U.S. is Inevitable”
Alexander Dugin is a renowned thinker in Russia. He has made remarks about the ongoing events between Texas and the Biden Regime and he thinks Civil War in the USA is now “inevitable.” Here’s his thoughts:
In America, the birthplace of pragmatism, pragmatism has vanished. The globalists, especially under the Biden regime, represent an extreme form of a globalist dictatorship, severing ties with the typically American tradition established by Charles Peirce and William James.
The tradition of pragmatism was based on a complete indifference to the prescription of normative content for both the subject and object. For a true pragmatist, the perceptions of the subject about itself, the object, or another subject are irrelevant — what matters is that everything functions effectively upon interaction.
However, globalists differ significantly, aligning more closely with British positivists and French fervent materialists. They persist with totalitarian brutality, dictating who and what should conform to their prescriptions.
To a pragmatist, it is inconsequential whether one changes their gender or remains the same, as long as it works for them. In contrast, globalists mandate gender changes, enforcing this through law and promoting it as a universal, progressive value. Anyone who opposes this view is labelled a ‘fascist’, or likened to Trump or Putin. They will insist on this approach, irrespective of its efficacy or self-defeating nature. Surprisingly, globalists share many traits with Ukrainians — an unsettling resemblance.
When globalists decide to increase illegal immigration, they relentlessly pursue this agenda, branding those advocating regulated immigration or border control as ‘fascists’, Trump supporters, or Putin agents. They press on with their prescriptive policies to the extreme, even if they prove utterly ineffective. For a globalist, anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint effectively does not — and should not — exist.
Hence, one can be certain that the progressives from the Democratic Party and the neoconservatives from both parties — just as obstinate and disconnected from pragmatism, realism, or traditional conservatism, thus alienating America’s true essence – are steering the country towards an inevitable civil war.
They refuse to engage in meaningful dialogue, disregarding whether their policies work or not. Their focus remains fixated on enforcing their ideals: transgender rights, illegal immigration, pro-choice stances, open borders, green energy, and artificial intelligence.
This represents a profound philosophical contradiction within the American system. Today, America is governed by those deeply out of touch with its identity, and thus, a new civil war in the USA seems inevitable. The globalists are set to ensure its outbreak.
Translated by Constantin von Hoffmeister
JRE | 40 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America
Chicken Parma
Our inspired rendition of the classic Chicken Parmigiana. Tender chicken cutlets, encrusted with Parmesan cheese and seasonings, are topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella.
Ingredients
1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Perfect Pinch® Italian Seasoning
Mix bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder and Italian seasoning on plate.
Moisten chicken lightly with water. Coat evenly with bread crumb mixture.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in large nonstick skillet on medium heat.
Cook 1/2 of the chicken pieces for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until golden brown.
Transfer chicken to foil-lined 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Repeat with remaining chicken, adding remaining 1 tablespoon oil if necessary. Spoon sauce evenly over chicken. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
Bake for 5 to 10 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.
Serve with cooked spaghetti, if desired.
Prep: 15 min | Cook: 25 min | Servings: 4
Nutritional information (amount per serving) Total Calories: 398 Sodium: 478mg Fat: 22g Carbohydrates: 13g Cholesterol: 100mg Protein: 37g Fiber: 1g
We had a patient in our practice who came in with a badly infected tooth that needed a root canal right away. My partner examined him and warned him to start that day. He was unconvinced and said he wanted to wait, even declining his offer for a prescription. That patient was also a friend of my partner’s family and, wouldn’t you know it, there was a death in his family only one day later. I walked into the funeral home chapel and my partner greeted me. Ten minutes later, that patient walked in, with noticeable swelling that had reached to right under his left eye. When he saw us, he quickly walked away from us to the corner of the room. My partner finally went over to him and the man said, “I’m so sorry, doctor, you were right and I deserve what I have”. We called in a prescription for pain meds and antibiotics for him right away a he came in 2 days later.
Wife COMPLAINS The Open Marriage She Wanted Isn’t Fair As Husband Is Treating His GF Better Than Her
Stop Deluding Yourselves! NESARA/GESARA, Like “Q” and “Q Anon” and “Q Storm,” is a Fraud
We’ve all heard about “The White Hats” from “Q”, and “Q Anon” and “Q Storm”, which tell readers a secret group of high level people in the military is going to “save the country.” It’s all lies. Another such lie is the NESARA/GESARA thing. More delusion. Stop deluding yourself!
According to Wikipedia: The National Economic Security and Recovery Act (NESARA) is a set of proposed economic reforms for the United States suggested during the 1990s by private citizen Harvey Francis Barnard. Barnard claimed that the proposals, which included replacing the income tax with a national sales tax, abolishing compound interest on secured loans, and returning to a bimetallic currency, would result in 0% inflation and a more stable economy. The proposals were never introduced before Congress.
Since the early 2000s, NESARA has become better known as the subject of a cult-like conspiracy theory whose original promoter was Internet personality Shaini Candace Goodwin, better known as “Dove of Oneness”. Goodwin, who appropriated the NESARA notions without Barnard’s consent, claimed that the act was actually passed with additional provisions as the National Economic Security and Reformation Act, and then suppressed by the George W. Bush administration and the Supreme Court. Goodwin’s conspiracy emails were translated into several languages and had a large following online.[1] Adherents to the theory have also been using the name GESARA (standing either for Global Economic Security and Recovery Act[2] or Global Economic Security and Reformation Act[3]) in order to extend the proposed NESARA reforms outside the US and to the rest of the world.[3]
Monetary reform proposal
Harvey Francis Barnard (1941–2005), an engineering consultant and teacher with a PhD in systems theory, created the NESARA proposal during the late 1980s and early 1990s.[4] Barnard printed 1,000 copies of his proposal, titled Draining the Swamp: Monetary and Fiscal Policy Reform (1996), and sent copies to members of Congress, believing it would pass quickly on its merits. Based on a theory that debt is the number one economic factor inhibiting the growth of the economy, and compound interest the number one “moral evil” and reason for debt, Barnard made several other attempts during the 1990s to draw political attention to the problems he saw in the US economy, and his suggested economic recovery proposal based on the root causes he determined. After Barnard’s efforts to gain political support did not succeed, he decided in 2000 to release his proposal to the public domain and publish it on the Internet. Barnard established the NESARA Institute in 2001, and published the second edition of his book in 2005, retitling it Draining the Swamp: The NESARA Story – Monetary and Fiscal Policy Reform.[1][5]
Conspiracy theory
Dove of Oneness
Soon after Barnard released NESARA on the Internet, a user known as “Dove of Oneness” began posting about it in forums and eventually created a website devoted to it. “Dove of Oneness” was later identified as Shaini Candace Goodwin, a former student of Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment.[1] Goodwin claimed that the NESARA bill languished in Congress before finally being passed by a secret session in March 2000 and signed by President Bill Clinton. Her theory held that the new law was to be implemented at 10 a.m. on September 11, 2001, but that the computers, and data (of the beneficiaries of the trillions of dollars of “Prosperity funds”) were destroyed on the second floor of one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City during the terrorist attacks. Supposedly an earlier gag order issued by the Supreme Court had prohibited any official or private source from discussing it, under penalty of death.[1] Goodwin referred to “White Knights,” most of them high-ranking military officials, who have since been struggling to have the law implemented despite opposition by President George W. Bush. Goodwin purported that Bush orchestrated the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War as distractions from NESARA.[6][7]
Goodwin’s description of NESARA goes far beyond Barnard’s proposal by cancelling all personal debts, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, declaring world peace, and requiring new presidential and congressional elections. Goodwin often claimed that Bush officials were attempting to hack into and bring down her web site to prevent her from publicizing the law.[8] She would purport to be connected with powerful authorities and used authoritative language, publishing messages in which she “ordered” the “White Knights” to enforce NESARA.[9]
Goodwin began commenting on NESARA in connection with Omega Trust, a fraudulent investment scheme whose creator, Clyde Hood, was on trial at the time. According to Goodwin, Omega Trust investors would receive their returns after NESARA was announced.[1][10] Goodwin repeatedly predicted that the NESARA announcement would occur in the very near future,[11][12][13] although in later years she became more reserved in these predictions.[14]
Barnard became aware of Goodwin’s description of NESARA before his death in 2005. He denied that NESARA had been enacted into law or even assigned a tracking number, and condemned Goodwin’s allegations as a disinformation campaign.[15]
Goodwin promoted the NESARA theory until her death in 2010.[16]
Further developments
After Goodwin began commenting on NESARA, other Internet-based conspiracy theorists latched onto it. One supporter, Sheldan Nidle, ties the imminent NESARA announcement into his years-old prophecy of an imminent large scale UFO visitation by benevolent aliens (occasionally on his website reports, but more prominently in his videos,[17] seminars and public appearances). Jennifer Lee, who used to publish internet NESARA status reports almost daily[18] on her now defunct site, discussed a host of other-worldly and “interdimensional” beings who are helping behind the scenes to get NESARA announced. Late Internet conspiracy theorist Sherry Shriner, who operated multiple websites, saw NESARA as linked to malevolent reptiloid aliens she asserted long controlled the U.S. government.[19]
Some NESARA supporters also make the claim that otherworldly beings are working to get NESARA announced. These include a “channeled” cosmic being called “Hatonn”[20] (an androidPleiadean), and another named “Sananda”. According to some proponents of Ascended Master Teachings, such as Joshua David Stone, Sheldan Nidle, and Luis Prada, “Sananda” is the “galactic name” of Ascended Master Jesus, which he uses in his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Ashtar Command flying saucer fleet. “Pallas Athena” is regarded as being the Vice-Commander of the saucer fleet. Ashtar (Ashtar Sheran) is regarded in these teachings as being third-in-command.[21] The designation of George W. Bush as a disguised reptilian often co-occurred with this claim.[22] Goodwin has claimed that Ascended Master Saint Germain came down from the etheric plane to physically meet with heads of banks and world leaders regarding the NESARA announcement.[23][24]
Followers of the NESARA conspiracy theory began using the name “GESARA” in the mid-2010s, by referencing the set of reforms as a “Global” – and not “National” – Economic Security and Reformation Act. They notably claimed that several East Asian groups were involved in enforcing the reforms worldwide, including the purported “White Dragon Society” which would benefit from fundings by “the successors of the last Chinese Emperor, Pu Yi“. One prominent advocate of “GESARA” has been a blogger based in the UK and going by the name “Alcuin Bramerton”. In 2020, “Bramerton” asserted that the “NESARA global prosperity programmes” were about to be announced and activated through an entity called the “Saint Germain World Trust” which would provide “one quattuordecillion US dollars” to “zero out (permanently cancel) all personal, corporate and national debts worldwide” and that further money would be provided to the “White Dragon Society” by the “Manchu family syndicate”.[3]
NESARA groups are known for certain to exist and to have attracted press attention in Utah,[25][26] and the Netherlands.[27] Members of these groups get together to discuss the status of NESARA, read the various reports, hold protests, and pass out fliers about NESARA to the public. Goodwin claimed that NESARA groups exist throughout several nations and US states including California, Washington, Arizona, and Texas, and provides hundreds of pieces of photographic evidence of people in public protests holding NESARA banners,[28][29] but it is not clear to what degree the people holding the banners are aware of what NESARA is, or for how long these groups were active. The News Tribune has traced the story behind at least some of these photos (photos of trucks driving around Washington, D.C. bearing the words “NESARA Announcement Now!”), and found that they were part of a $40,000 advertising campaign allegedly paid for by an elderly San Francisco resident who had made donations to Goodwin.[27]
NESARA’s concepts have also been incorporated by other conspiracy theories. In 2022, Bellingcat compared NESARA/GESARA to a “grandfather” of QAnon and reported that as QAnon’s iconography and concepts were declining in popularity, its adherents were becoming more and more invested in NESARA concepts and reviving that older movement.[2] People involved with the sovereign citizen movement have also subscribed to NESARA-related theories.[30]
Comparison to a cult and scam accusations
Critics consider NESARA to be a cult. Pointing to the fact that Goodwin, Lee, and Nidle frequently solicited donations from their readers, they accuse these leaders of being primarily interested in securing a steady stream of income for themselves.[31][32][33] Goodwin, who also asked readers to donate their frequent flyer miles,[34] claimed that she needed and had used the funds to travel to various locations around the world to secretly meet with high-level government officials about getting NESARA announced.[34][35] In 2004, The News Tribune published an article which called Goodwin a “cybercult queen” and described the NESARA phenomenon as a scam.[1]
A June 2006 complaint to the Washington consumer protection division accused Goodwin of using the NESARA story to defraud a 64-year-old San Francisco woman of at least $10,000. The woman’s daughter said the actual amount is much larger, in the hundreds of thousands.[27]
The prominence of failed prophecy also lends support to the cult theory. NESARA supporters often tell their readers that the NESARA announcement is going to happen in a matter of days. According to the documentary Waiting For NESARA, the claim was also made prior to March 2003 that George Bush was planning the war with Iraq only to further delay the NESARA announcement. It was prophesied that spiritual beings and UFOs would intervene with Bush’s plans and prevent the war.[25]
^ Ward, Suzy (July 18, 2005). “Special NESARA Edition”. The Matthew Books. Retrieved 2007-09-25. Ward claims to write books that are “channeled” from her son, Matthew, who died in April, 1980 at the age of 17. The message cited is claimed to be channeled through a higher level “cosmic being” named “Hatonn”
Even if you don’t believe the Wikipedia information and sourced citations beneath it, the whole idea that NESARA is somehow “secretly signed into law by Bill Clinton,” is totally absurd. Here in the United States, there is no such thing as a secret law. There can’t be. If it is secret, how would anyone know to obey it? How would anyone avoid breaking it? The whole notion is stupid.
Yet there are literally thousands of people who buy into this crap on its face. STOP BEING STUPID.
My dad was a bricklaying contractor (in the UK), think in the US that would be a stonemason? , He used to get letters from guys in prison saying they were getting out and could they have a job.
My dad consistently hired some of these guys, they were hod carriers, they were dirt workers and they earned good money for a good day’s work.
I remember an argument on site as one guy basically wanted to steal some stuff and one of the ex-cons was arguing with him (and it was about to get ugly) that you steal from others, but not from the guy who has helped you with work when you are out of prison.
As a teenager, I learned a lot from the felons who worked in construction. Every one of them did nothing but tell me to stay in school and go to college and work. One of them showed me the math of how even doing a bank job wouldn’t make you more than having a job for the 20 years you would spend in prison.
I learned not to swear at people, I did it once and one of the felons smacked me so hard I fell over, he helped me up and told me never to lose my temper with people and swear and shout unless I was willing and able to fight.
One of them, in particular, was a bad guy, he made no bones about it, beatings and at least one murder that he was suspected in. He worked harder to make sure I knew to stay in school and go get a real job and if he mentioned drugs once he must have mentioned them a million times.
Some felons should be locked up and have the key thrown away but most of the ones I have met in construction and later when I worked in a bar, knew they had done wrong and didn’t want anyone else going down the same path.
Felons get jobs by convincing someone to give them a chance and then not screwing it up for the next guy.
I and two other people were hired for the support department of a new financial software product. My job was to work with the developers on enhancements. The other two were software and hardware support. None of us knew UNIX, and that’s all this company used. PCs and MS-DOS were relatively common then, but not at this company. So, we had a sheet of commands to learn and the chief developer was training us.
“What’s this” said the prospective hardware guy when he saw the “wall” command. “That’s Write ALL” said the C.D. It puts a message in the message line of all the terminals on the system. But … don’t use it. That’s only for the System Admin or me, if they want us to broadcast a message to everyone.
Two weeks later, a Friday afternoon around 4:00 PM (office closes at 5:00) we all get a “REPORT TO CONF RM ASAP” followed by “ALL STAFF NO EXCEPTION”. We all come flying out of our offices and into the combined conference/reception area. Four developers, the two QA people, the office manager, the receptionist, myself and I think my two colleagues are behind me. We’re all looking at the CIO’s door, and that comes flying open.
“What’s this all about” he says, turning to the office manager. “No idea,” she says and the C.D. says the same. Next a phone call from corporate in Los Angeles. A very angry chairman is asking the CIO what the F*** is going on. Where did this message come from. He’s headed back to the office right now and there’d better be answers for him when he gets there.
Now we’re all puzzled. You see this was 1990 and we all knew stories of companies firing whole staffs. Often enough it was just like this: call everyone in and group fire them. But if the chairman didn’t know what was going on … ????
Now we’re looking around and it finally dawns on everyone. We’re all there except for the new hardware tech. The CIO is now looking at the software support person and me. We both say “He was here an hour ago. Never said anything to us about leaving.” By this point, the CIO had asked the SysAdmin to trace the message.
Yes … that’s who sent it. He (so we learned) realized he’d made a big mistake as soon as he hit enter. He thought his little prank would give us a nice little jolt for a Friday afternoon. He never thought we’d take it seriously. So when he heard us all scramble for the conference room while one of the QA people said “this is how they fired everyone where I worked before this. Here we go again …” he knew he was in trouble.
He claimed that he hid in the bathroom in the hallway for a few minutes. He figured we’d all go back to our desks a few minutes later, realizing it was just a prank. But when he came back in, he saw we were still in the conference room and he heard some angry voices. He says he grabbed his coffee cup and hat, and left for good.
His plan (after his prank blew over as he thought it would) was to talk to the supervisor privately. He’d admit that he did it, take his talking to and life would go on. He claims he never expected a company wide firestorm. In part, he didn’t realize that this message would pop up on every terminal in corporate HQ.
Modern Women Frustrated About Men Refusing To APPROACH Them “Women Hitting The Wall”
Start every phone call with “My battery is almost dead”. That way you can hang up on them at any time.
Want to cut into another lane of traffic but nobody will let you in? Cut in front of a Tesla, autopilot will force the car to stop.
Hit the space bar twice for a full stop, and the next letter will be automatically capitalized too.
If you can’t think of a word, say “I forget the English word for it”. That way people will think you’re bilingual instead of an idiot.
If the person sitting in front of you on a flight reclines their seat all the way back and leaves you with no room, turn on the air con above you to full blast and point it at the top of their head.
The best way to charge your phone faster is by switching it to airplane mode before plugging it in.
Wet your nail clippers before using them. Your clippings won’t fly everywhere.
Drive around with broken, expensive items in your car.
If you’d like to use emojis on your Mac desktop, simply press Control + Command + Spacebar to open the emoji menu.
Whenever buying something online, try using the coupon code “military”. Many sites have a military discount and don’t require any proof of military service.
From being the most effective and efficient manufacturing to having the most reliable and effective batteries to having the world’s biggest market by far, even bigger than the rest of the world’s EV market put together to a government and industry leader that has been farsighted and supportive for generations planning to convert ICE to EV.
China unlike the U.S. is not torn between protecting the oil barons and protecting the environment. China decided to skip investment on ICE all together because it sees EVs as the future. GM’s as well as most major car manufacturers is torn between conserving and protecting their well refined ICE technologies and making the shift to EV.
China even corner the most crucial materials and technologies needed to produce EV’s BYD is the only battery manufacturer cum vehicle producer rolled into one. What is worst is China produces everything at a third of US cost!
Their CEO are paid 1% of US CEO, their workers are paid a fifth of western workers who demand 10 times more rights and benefits but are willing to work half as hard! There is no way on earth that U.S. can compete. Chinese government focus fully on helping its people and build the best infrastructure. The U.S. focus on forever wars!
Texas Warned EVERYONE…This Crisis Is OFFICIALLY Unstoppable
One week after my mother died, I was alone in our house. It was a big old mansion and it was cold and dark, and I was lonely. Then suddenly late at night all the (battery operated) smoke detectors started going off. All 20 of them. All went off at the SAME TIME.
Three years earlier we installed the detectors and installed the batteries in all of them. What a coincidence! So yeah, all the batteries ran out of juice at the same time, and doing so, set off the alarms. And it was just a coincidence that it was a few days after my mothers’ burial.
I will never forget that. Of course, no one believes me. They don’t consider it important or anything. Just a random bit of trivia. But for me, alone and lonely in the big empty manor, it was significant. And that is my story for today.
We all experience odd things from time to time, but it is how we react to them… what we consider about them… well… that matters.
As a law student, I was an intern for a federal judge. When I graduated law school, I asked her to write a letter of recommendation for me to take the bar exam. On the day of this story, I was swinging by her courtroom to pick up the letter and I caught the end of a hearing.
The hearing involved a pro se plaintiff suing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in federal court. What happened was, he was involved in a domestic violence situation. The Massachusetts Department of Child Protective Services placed custody of his child solely with the child’s mother (whom I presume was separated from the plaintiff). A condition of him regaining shared custody was that he had to complete an anger management course with a satisfactory grade.
So he took the course, got the good grade, and submitted his paperwork to the state. The state lost his paperwork, and for whatever reason he was unable to submit it again. He decided the path of least resistance was to re-take the class. Then he sued Massachusetts for negligence, seeking to recover the cost of the second class.
To be sure, this is a pretty modest ask. I could imagine other plaintiffs being… shall we say… more aggrieved under these circumstances. Maybe throw a million or two for emotional distress, etc. Nope. This guy was just asking to be made whole. This probably is why the judge ended up being so sympathetic.
Although the hearing I walked in on was only a preliminary hearing, the judge was absolutely livid that the case made it that far. She absolutely grilled the Assistant Attorney General (“AAG”) who was representing Massachusetts. Along the lines of:
Judge: I’ve read the pleadings, and it appears to me there’s no factual dispute here. Ms. AAG, is there a dispute?
AAG: Well, your honor, we can’t really be sure that we lost anything, but…
J: But the man has documentary evidence that you did! Are you disputing these documents?
AAG: [sheepishly] No…
J: SO WHY HASN’T THIS SETTLED?
AAG: Well, your Honor, it was never… ummm… it isn’t clear the exact amount he is seeking in damages…
[Maybe in his complaint, he only asked to be reimbursed for so-and-so expenses without actually stating a dollar amount]
J: Oh, it’s not huh? Did you bother asking? You know what, never mind. Let’s figure it out right now. Mr. Plaintiff, how much did the second course cost?
Plaintiff: About $2100?
J: Call it $2400. And did you incur any other expenses?
P: I had to take off work early and I had to take a taxi to the school. I make so-and-so dollars and hour and the taxi was such-and-such. The course lasted so-and-so many days.
J: Okay, call it $3000. Ms. AAG, how’s that? $3000. Can we settle this?
AAG: Well, your honor, I… ummm…. I don’t know if I have the authority to se….
J: Don’t give me that!! Do you have any reason to dispute that this is the correct dollar amount?
AAG: [again, sheepishly] No your Honor
J: Great. Then there’s no reason to not to settle this, right?
AAG: [whisper-soft] R… right.
J: Great. Let’s get this done right here, right now. [To her clerk] Rex, go ahead and print off one of the form settlement agreements, and put in $3000.
[The settlement agreement is signed, and apparently the hearing is over]
J: Ms. AAG, one more thing: When will he get his money?
AAG: Well, your Honor, I really don’t handle that aspects of settlements, I really couldn’t…
J: You have thirty days.
AAG: Your Honor, all due respect, but I…
J: You have. Thirty. Days.
AAG: Yes your Honor.
Not only did this pro se plaintiff win, but he won without ever really opening his mouth.
Take a Product made in China and off a factory line for 130 RMB
By the time the product is packed and shipped to an exporter, the product costs 225 RMB to the exporter including 8% to the Manufacturing Factory, 32% in Taxes and other charges
The Exporter pays a further 24% in Taxes and Shipping Changes plus his own profits and sells it to the US Importer for 300 RMB
The US Importer pays around $ 43 for the product to the Chinese exporter
Earlier he would give it to the distributor who would sell it to the retailer who would retail it for $ 79.99 or around 580 RMB
From $ 18 to $ 80 is the journey of the product in the capitalist market
Now comes Tariffs
Imagine a 30% Tariff imposed
That would price the product at $ 58 to the importer as he has to pay $ 15 to the US Government
This rises the retail price to $ 109.99 for the retailer whose profit margins on the product fall by 18–20%
That’s the hourly wage of an extra worker
Nothing changes for the Chinese
The Product at $ 109.99 is still unbeatable at that price and no US manufacturer can compete and make a similar product for less than $ 275 Retail
Yet
The American customer pays $ 30 More
The Retailer loses profit cut
The Importer gains zilch
The US Govt gains an extra $ 15 paid by their own public
That’s all that’s happening
The US, the great capitalist country is slowly becoming Soviet Union
This Brainless Syphilitic hoped that he can reduce customers who aren’t prepared to pay the extra 30 Bucks for the product and hence reduce orders by the retailer from China and they would buy American products made in Mexico
Now they sell the same product for $ 109.99 with a MADE IN MEXICO sign, pay $ 30 to the Mexican partner and MAKE THE SAME $ 43 that they did when they made the product in Fujian
So US as usual is screwing up its economy every single day
The crime rate is so low in the Netherlands that they have closed 23 prisons since 2004 because they don’t have enough criminals to fill them
Back in the 90’s Denzel Washington paid the fees for a young aspiring actor who couldn’t afford to go to Oxford’s summer theatre. That young actor was Chadwick Boseman (R.I.P). Chadwick publicly thanked Denzel at the AFI life achievement awards in 2019
In 1963 a Turkish man was renovating his home. After knocking down a wall in his basement he found a tunnel. He followed the tunnel and discovered an ancient underground city called Derinkuyu which once had a population of 20000 people
In 2009 an autistic artist named Stephen Wiltshire was able to draw the New York City skyline from memory with a pen after taking a helicopter ride for just 20 minutes
Princess Diana was known for ignoring royal protocols. She would often ride the tube. At theme parks she would refuse preferential treatment and make William and Harry wait in line like everybody else
The blue Nelson lake in New Zealand has the clearest body of water known to man with visibility in the lake of up to 260 feet
The record for the biggest car theft of all time was 1000 Volvo cars. The cars were ordered and delivered then the invoice was ignored and to this day has still not been paid. The cars were ordered by and delivered to North Korea
In 1963 the Bronx zoo opened an exhibition titled “the most dangerous animal in the world,” it was a mirror
2 muggers in New York City once tried to mug former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Dempsey (who was in his 60’s/70’s at the time). It ended as you might expect with both muggers unconscious. The dates and circumstances leading to the event are a bit uncertain although Dempsey did reference the incident in his book
My personal favourite: In 1996 an avid birdwatcher in Devon, England spent a whole year hooting at owls and then recording their responses unaware that it was one of his neighbours pretending to be an owl and hooting back
I got convinced to buy a couple of lottery tickets and won a good amount of money when I really needed it.
My ex had offered to run to the store before leaving for his business trip. While we really didn’t have much of anything in the house, I told him not to bother, b/c it was in walking distance and I could go for the extra exercise.
A series of unfortunate events occurred: He called me after the first night to let me know the reports were in worse order than he anticipated, so he’d probably be gone an extra 2–3 days (not a problem, though we did share a vehicle at this time). Instead of going to the store, I decided to order food only to have it cancelled because my debit card had been declined. Twice.. The next day when I called the bank, I was informed someone had tried to use my card number to purchase 2k in airline tickets, so they cancelled my card & I wouldn’t receive another one for 7–10 days.
This was during a period where I’d yet to see the importance of an emergency credit card and rarely carried cash, but fortunately, I looked in my purse and checked the clothing pockets in the laundry room and came up with about 35 bucks and some change.
I walked down to the store and got some basic necessities, and relayed my woes to a cashier I talked to quite often. They jokingly suggested with luck like mine, I should use my last 10 bucks for scratch offs. I knew she was being facetious, but given the mood I was in, I said “why the hell not”, and bought two, $5.00 tickets. On the first one, it said I won a free ticket and she asked if I wanted another or cash, but since I was going all in I asked for the another ticket. I scratched that one off first, and to my surprise, won 250.00 dollars. I was so shocked, she had to remind me I had one more, so I scratched that one off and had won another 250.00. It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise during an otherwise frustrating situation.
This still angers me 23 years later. So I lived in a village which had a river that runs through it. And every year it floods at least once due to heavy rains and high tides. The river was once big enough that boats would come up and our little village was a kind of harbour. When it flooded the river would come up and over the fields and accross the main road. Now cars and buses would go through this flood water with no issue. Until October 2000. My class had been kept behind so I missed the bus home. My brother who was 11 (was tiny for his age and looked about 2–3 years younger because of his height) and my sister who was 15 were on the bus along with about 5 other kids all between 11–15
Now remember that other buses got through, including the bus from another school and our school buses aren’t like Americans but just regular coaches that are used for holidays etc and the councils pay for this. Our bus driver contacted his manager and asked what to do about the flood. The manager said to let the kids off and not go through the flood water. The only way for the kids to get home was to walk through the flood water. It was about 2 foot deep but was incredibly fast flowing.
When I finally got home I found out my little brother had nearly been swept away by the force of the water and my sister nearly died trying to stop him. Luckily all the kids made it through safely. The bus would have just got it’s tires wet. The worst part was, the following day was my granddad’s funeral so it was already a horrible time.
My mum kept us of school both to grieve and also because she couldn’t trust the bus driver with her 3 children. The manager promised us a trip to Alton Towers. We never got that trip as the manager was fired but the driver kept his job. He wasn’t allowed to drivw the school route again but instead was put on a mini bus driving little old ladies to town and back.
BOTH should have lost their jobs. He would have seen the other bus go by (was also a coach but a different company) so he knew he could get through it but to make my tiny little brother walk through rapid flood water….. that’s something you can’t forgive. My sister is terrified of water now, struggles to even cross a bridge with running water below. my brother seems to be unaffected, he was more worried about losing mum’s Tupperware and the pizza he’d made at school.
A hillbilly went hunting one day in West Virginia and bagged three ducks. He put them in the bed of his pickup truck and was about to drive home where he was confronted by an ornery game warden who didn’t like hillbillies. The game warden ordered to the hillbilly to show his hunting license, and the hillbilly pulled out a valid West Virginia hunting license. The game warden looked at the license, then reached over and picked up one of the ducks, sniffed it’s butt, and said, “This duck ain’t from West Virginia. This is a Kentucky duck. You got a Kentucky hunting license, boy?” The hillbilly reached into his wallet and produced a Kentucky hunting license.
The game warden looked at it, then reached over and grabbed the second duck, sniffed it’s butt, and said, “This ain’t no Kentucky duck. This duck’s from Tennessee. You got an Tennessee license
?” The hillbilly reached into his wallet and produced an Tennessee license. The warden then reached over and picked up the third duck. “This duck’s from Virginia. You got a Virginia hunting license?”
Again the hillbilly reached into his wallet and brought out a Virginia hunting license. The game warden was extremely frustrated at this point, and he yelled at the hillbilly, “Just where the hell are you from?”
The hillbilly turned around, bent over, dropped his pants, and said, “You tell me, you’re the expert!”
In the mid-nineties I was a big city police officer. Just before Christmas I was dispatched to a driveway auto accident. It seemed minor as I arrived but a young woman had fallen and struck her head resulting into a head injury that lead to a two month coma. I had a friend badly injured in the same hospital ward and I spent many hours sitting with the family of the the injured woman and grew to know them. As she slowly came out the hospital staff tried to wean her back to solid foods, she resisted. As a middle aged police officer I developed a voice of authority. The family ask me to help, with my voice and commands she began to eat a few bites. As she regained clarity she began to know who I was. After time my friend was transferred to a long term facility and the coma girl was released to go home with family supervision.
Months go by and I am dispatched to a car break-in in the courtyard of the coma girl’s apartment building. I was taking a report from another young woman victim. I heard a voice from several floors above, “Wayne is that you”? Because I am so sophisticated and know one Shakespeare scene, I answered “but soft, what light through yon window breaks? It is the East and Christine is the sun!” Chris who still had memory problems replied “ay me”. We completed the scene while the car break-in victim stared as though she was an extra in a Woody Allen movie.
You must follow
Zesty Chicken Oregano (Kotopoulo me Riganates Skaras)
Ingredients
1 (2 1/2 to 3 pound) broiler- fryer chicken, cut up
1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, chopped
Lemon slices
Instructions
Place chicken in ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
Mix remaining ingredients except lemon slices; pour over chicken.
Bake uncovered at 375 degrees F, spooning oil mixture over chicken occasionally, 30 minutes.
Turn chicken; cook until thickest pieces are done, about 30 minutes longer.
I worked as a temporary at a place that tried this crap. I told the agency that the supervisor refused to sign my time sheet with the extra 15 minutes, because they don’t pay their own employees and won’t pay me for it either.
The agency called the other temps working there and found out that they were adjusting their time sheet so they can get paid. The agency owner then called the client, who was so sure about herself. She said she had the right to have the meeting every morning and not pay anyone for attending.
The agency owner informed her that he was going to audit every time sheet of every temp that they have sent her, calculate the lost time and charge her for it. He then pulled out all of the temps and paid us for the rest of the week and any back pay. Which was kinda sweet, this happened on a Monday afternoon.
I was one of the last people to leave the office and she came out of her office and was yelling at me for calling the agency. I was temping a payroll clerk position, so of course I knew what she was doing was illegal. I told everyone in the office this and that they can get backpay for every meeting every morning, if they filed a wages and hours complaint with the labor department.
Then I walked right past her and said have fun with that. It cost her a lot of money to pay back those employees and temps. She had a hard time getting temps after that, because they didn’t want to be part of her hours scam.
Looking for a sign
What the fuck 1
High-Value Woman: Traits, How to Find and Make Her Your Girlfriend
Last Updated On December 15, 2022by Andrew Ferebee
Some men waste their time on women in lower leagues. You don’t want to be that guy!
High-value women are not desperate for a relationship. They don’t rely on men for finances, validation, or even their security. No, they’ve got it all figured out.
I won’t lie to you — these women are rare. If she is self-possessed enough to know what she wants and go out there and get it, she’s a real keeper. When you meet her, you will know it immediately. You need to do something about it before someone else does.
Miss this opportunity and she will have a ring on her finger before you know it.
So, how do you spot a high-value woman and what should you do about it? I want to help you with just this conundrum. Read on to elevate your chances of getting a shot with her now.
Traits of high-value women
First things first, what is it that makes a high-value woman? Like most men, you’ve met — and even dated — countless women in your lifetime. What makes this one so special?
Trust me, you will know that she is different. But you might not be able to pinpoint exactly why that is. Whether you’re already dating her or ready to make your move, there are some things that you will have noticed about this woman. Here’s a quick breakdown:
1. She has her own career or knows what she wants to do with her life
You’re not looking for a 1950s housewife — you want a woman who has her own drive, her own passions, and her own career. You know that there is nothing more attractive than a woman who has set her own life goals and is reaching them at every turn.
That’s not to say that she has to have the biggest paycheck. She might be dedicated to a career in nursing, be a teacher, or have a small business.
Whatever it is that drives her, it’s about the fact that she’s not waiting around for some man to come and ‘save’ her.
2. She doesn’t play games or try to ‘win’ your affection
Some women play endless, tiring games. They won’t call you back. They pretend to be mad about small things.
They ‘test’ you to see how you will react to certain things. They sneak around and don’t treat you right. All of that is nothing but high school drama.
You deserve to leave it behind. Real, grown-up women know that there’s no point in playing games when they meet someone that they value. If she is direct and lets you know that she is interested, that is a green flag.
As the relationship moves forward, you can trust her to never play around. She’s not here for those games. She wants to live her best life — with you by her side. You need to make sure that you can measure up to her standards before you even try to approach her.
Real women want elite men. Before you can win her over, you need to make sure that you have your own life sorted out. I’ve worked with many men to help them regain their masculine power and elevate their lifestyles.
The journey toward the life that you deserve might sound tough, but it’s worth your time and effort. Backed by a supportive community of men and coaches, I’ve seen men get the results they’ve been looking for quickly. When you transform your life, the right women will notice and, trust me, they don’t play games.
3. She is upfront about what she wants and expects from a relationship
You’ve got no time for a woman who is giving you riddles. Some women think that it’s cute to be oblique and never let a guy know what they want. Then — as if that weren’t bad enough — they have the audacity to get angry when the guy doesn’t fulfill their needs.
You can waste your time, energy, and money on dating these women. All that you will get in the end is a loss. When you’re seeing a woman who is obsessed with drama, you need to get her claws out of you as soon as possible. Repeat after me: It will not end well.
Dating a high-value woman is a completely different experience. From date #1, she will show you what she wants and you will never feel in the dark. You won’t have to play dumb guessing games with her to keep her on the side. She has the maturity to be upfront about it.
4. She is self-assured and can make her own decisions
Confidence is a rare trait. 79% of women say that they struggle with their self-esteem. You’ve likely seen the signs: she is unsure of her decisions, constantly asks you for advice, and needs reassurance that she’s attractive all the time. It’s exhausting.
High-value women are different. When you meet one, you will notice the difference straight away. She is self-assured and doesn’t need a man’s advice. In her career and personal life, she makes her own decisions. She is the one calling the shots here.
You won’t find this woman begging for your attention — you will want to give it to her.
5. She is in control of her own life and doesn’t need a relationship
This woman was fine before you came along and — if you do break up — she will be fine once again.
Elite women are the opposite of clingy. They know themselves and their own minds. These women are not waiting around for the right guy to come along. Far from it.
She doesn’t mess you around or beg you to stay with her because she’s ‘lonely.’ No, she has her own stuff going on each day. If you’re the right man for her, you will fit into that.
6. She is kind and compassionate to the people in her life
Kindness goes a long way. You might think the woman I have described here is cold. That’s not the case. You don’t want some uptight or cut-throat businesswoman.
High-value women care about the people in their life — and they are not afraid to show it.
She might be close with her family. She might have a tight-knit group of friends. She might spend every Sunday with her sister.
Whatever it is, you can see that she has compassion.
How to make a high-value woman your girlfriend
You’ve got your eye on her — she’s got it all together and has ‘girlfriend’ written all over her. Now that you’ve found a high-quality woman, how do you make the first move?
Over the years, I’ve worked with a wide variety of men in my elite coaching program. It’s no secret that the vast majority of men worry about dating.
When you’re new to the game, you don’t want to end up making rookie mistakes. Luckily, I’ve got your back here.
Here, I share my expert-backed advice on where to find high-value women, how to catch their attention and make them want you.
1. Make the right first impression — it counts
75% of men are scared to first approach an attractive woman. Let’s say that she catches your attention when you’re in a local bar. How do you react? Do you stare at her across the room for hours on end? Or do you get up out of your seat and do something about it?
When you find yourself in the presence of a high-quality woman, every second matters. What you do from the offset will make an impact on her and determine how she reacts. No matter how nervous you may be, it’s important that you act like a complete gentleman.
Be respectful of her space and whether she wants to be approached. When you first introduce yourself, ask her if she’d like to have a drink with her. Women often find men intimidating when they approach them out of the blue. Let her know that you won’t take up too much of her time and that you purely want to get to know her or get her number.
2. Show her the respect that she deserves from the start
High-quality women are worthy of your respect. Scratch that — all women are worthy of your respect. One of the most important lessons that all men have to learn is to treat women as they deserve to be treated.
When you meet a woman who ticks all of your boxes, you need to treat her like a lady. There are no exceptions to this golden rule.
Forget the tricks that pick-up artists tell you will work. They won’t.
If you want to make this woman your girlfriend, your best bet is to go back to old-school dating techniques.
That means showing her that you are interested, taking her on dates, and giving her the space to make up her own mind. Take some tips from your grandpa — he knew a thing or two.
3. Avoid playing games or using cheap gimmicks to get her attention
Men and women both play games when dating. You know the drill. You might not text her for a few days after the first date.
You might pretend to have plans (when you don’t!) to seem more in demand. You might even lower yourself to the old ‘negging’ tactic.
None of the above will work. You’re dealing with a high-quality woman here and you need to show her more respect. Leave those playground tricks behind.
If she notices that you are playing games, you will lose her attention fast.
Chances are, she’s met men like that before and — as you might expect — swiftly dismissed them. Women who are self-possessed don’t have the time to mess around with players.
4. Show her that you are a high-value man and worth her time
You’re looking for a high-value woman — have you stopped to think about what she’s looking for? Yes… *ding ding ding*… you guessed it: She is looking for a high-value man.
The most effective strategy in attracting this woman is showing that you have your sh*t together. Women who know what they want will be on the lookout for elite men.
They don’t want some man-child who they will have to pick up after. Nothing is less attractive than that. No, they need a guy who calls the shots in his own life.
What are you bringing to the table? A good job? A house? Financial independence? A lively social life? Think about what it is that you have to offer and subtly let her know about it. You don’t need to flaunt it. Be quietly confident in what you have to share with her.
The moment she sees that you’re a strong, stable man, she will be interested. You don’t have to bend over backward to get her attention. Make sure you let her know that you are on the path toward your most elite life and that she has the chance to join you.
Takeaways
Before you can win the affection of a high-value woman, you need to elevate your lifestyle. I’ve worked with a selection of the world’s most elite men to support their growth.
My coaching program teaches men like you to change their mindset and regain the masculine power that has been taken from them. Taking control of your life is the first step.
Unfortunately, there’s no magic trick that will make a high-value woman fall in love with you. Life doesn’t work that way. You need to put in the groundwork and figure out your own life before you can attract a woman of this caliber. You have to start that journey.
Having the support of coaches and a community of like-minded men can make a real difference. I’ve worked with countless men who have tapped into this power and used it to upgrade their lifestyles and relationships.
It’s time to stop missing opportunities – in your work, romantic, and social life – and start living the best version of your life now.
Yes. My cousin was dating an unemployed airline pilot. Her father was a pilot, so flying was the ultra in pride and desirability. She was quite wealthy, and very desirable to a man who wasn’t into working. He was divorced, living with his momma, and dodging child support payments, blaming the wife for all of his problems.
She was diagnosed with cancer. I went to help out when she had her surgery. Since she lived in another state, I stayed with her at her parent’s house. They were both too busy to care for her due to their high powered careers.
After she got out of the hospital, I walked into her room to give her some medicine. He was leaning over her body in a way that struck me as strange. He almost looked threatening. It was like he was that Harry Potter character who sucked out your energy and soul. When I saw his face, I can only describe it as a window opened up and I saw evil. I warned her and her family about him.
As a result, I was kicked out of their house and shunned for a good two years. I was not invited to Christmas and her father told my grandmother it was because I didn’t like “the nicest guy” he had ever known. Keep in mind this family is quite prominent and he was sucking up to them big time.
The next time I saw my cousin, she had a badly broken shoulder. He had tried to kill them both by ramming his car at top speed into a tree. She had jumped out of the car and shattered the shoulder. Unfortunately, he did not kill himself- he just wanted to kill her. She suffered with that shoulder until the day she died. It never stopped hurting. His abuse started not long after I gave the warning she ignored.
Another year passed and my uncle came to me to apologize. He said, “You were right about somebody.” He went on to tell me that he had been arrested and given a long prison sentence for trying to kill his ex-wife. I wish they had listened.
When I was very young, I decided to move in with my girlfriend. At the time, I did not realize that I was way too young to do this and not really ready to take this step with this particular young lady. We looked at apartments and were interested in looking at furniture. My girlfriend told me that she knew a family friend who sold quality furniture at a store that give discounts to members of her labor union.
We visited this furniture store located at the time (mid 1980’s) in the Empire State Building. Her friend was happy to see us and even offered us an additional discount since he knew her family so well. He explained to us that his company offered a money back guarantee on all deposits. This guarantee was printed on their receipts. We picked out a bedroom and living room set and I left a healthy deposit.
Long story short, we ended up breaking up within the next two weeks. I went back to the furniture store to get my deposit back but my former girlfriends friend was not in. I visited the store two more times and I always seemed to go on his day off. The manager and his assistant noticed that I had been there a few times asking for him and offered their assistance. I explained that I was there for a refund of my deposit. They informed me that they had no record of me putting a deposit on furniture. They asked for my receipt which readily I produced. Very few businesses used computers at that time. They looked up my matching receipt number in their book. When they turned to the matching page, it was blank. They determined on the spot that the salesman had not entered the transaction in their records and pocketed the money. They stated that he was probably going to come up with the money at a later date and enter it in the book then. He probably thought that he had time to pull this off without anyone finding out. The manager and his assistant were very angry. They handed me back my receipt and told me that I was going to get call from the salesman by the next day, and that he was going to make arrangements to refund my money out of his pocket. They also told me that If I do not hear from him, return to them and they will refund my money and they would then go to the police and have him arrested.
The next day the salesman called me and made arrangements to meet me at my job to give me the deposit back. The check that the former salesman gave me was drawn on his mother’s account. It appeared that Mama had to come to his rescue. The Furniture store manager called me 2 days later. He informed me that he fired the salesman and if in the future I wanted to purchase furniture, he would offer me furniture at cost.
Yesterday I read an article that rather haunted me.
[1] It’s about a boy, aged 9, who lived alone for almost two years. His mother abandoned him to live with her boyfriend. The boy didn’t know how to operate the heater, so he would sleep under three blankets in the winter just to keep warm. He’d eat canned goods, and scavenge for food outside like a hyena.
He did go to school, however, managing to be present every day for two years without fail, having a perfect attendance record. His grades were excellent and he was reportedly in good spirits. Nobody in school new he ate stale food and took cold showers in a cold apartment with no one by his side. Authorities speculate the boy’s routine is likely what kept him alive — going to school every day, eating lunch there and talking to his friends in class. He never had friends over, always finding excuses not to.
Now the kid’s in foster care. His mother is being charged with all sorts of crimes for abandoning him. He reportedly never wants to see her again. Does he even have a father, grandparents? God. It’s just so sad, leaving a child alone to fend for himself in this world.
China containment becomes a lose-lose strategy for everyone
In trying to fight Beijing, Washington is causing irreparable damage to the world economy and it may be too great for even America to bear
Alex Lo
As Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman recently observed in Foreign Affairs, “China’s role as the workshop of the world … might be as hard to replace as the global role of the US dollar.”
And yet, that hasn’t stopped Uncle Sam from trying to wreck the China workshop, which has the unintended consequence of pushing more countries to try to “de-dollarise”.
The United States has been strong-arming countries and companies to divert their supply chains away from China, and these involve not only advanced tech products such as superfast computer chips but also mundane items such as rare commodities. Meanwhile, it has weaponised the global economy and financial systems to pursue its own foreign and trade policy goals.
They are the two economic aspects of its full-spectrum containment against China, which of course, also includes a predominantly military component. Countries such as India, Vietnam, Indonesia and even the US were supposed to benefit from the supply-chain redirection. But they now find it hard to take up the slack. Much of the re-routing with new chains turns out to be just longer, more opaque and expensive, without severing ties to Chinese suppliers. Costs are adding up.
Last year, Taiwan’s Pou Chen Corp, a leading shoe manufacturer for the likes of Nike and Adidas, had to cut more than 6,000 jobs at its Ho Chi Minh City plant. The Vietnamese government once heavily advertised the investment of Japanese electronics giant Kyocera Corp, but it ended up producing low-tech ceramic packages for electronic insulation and resistance, rather than the more advanced packages for crystal devices.
Labour unrest, official corruption and red tape are cutting short the allure of Vietnam for foreign manufacturers. Comparatively, getting permits, licences and subsidies for foreign businesses in Vietnam for many has made China almost a bureaucratic paradise. Volatile internal party politics in Vietnam may be as tricky and scary as in China.
Cheaper labour costs at first made Vietnam attractive, but it turns out relocating factories, hiring locals and reorganising supply chains away from China can eat into whatever savings are made. Many Vietnamese contractors still go to China for supplies, so Western clients end up, as the Economist recently reported, inviting in more middlemen.
The story may be better for India and Indonesia, as both are competing with even cheaper labour, so long as they stick to low value-added production. But they may fare worse if they aim higher, as Vietnam can boast good infrastructure with modern ports, newly built highways and power supply. In any case, China doesn’t want those jobs any more as it is moving up the hi-tech value chains.
It’s highly ironic that Taiwan’s TSMC, which agreed to build a big chipmaking plant in Arizona after intense pressure from Washington and the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, has just announced production delays to next year, and for even more advanced chips, until 2027 or 2028. Perhaps by then, the US plant will come in handy and replace production in Taiwan, as that was the date some Pentagon generals claimed the mainland would invade!
Brics, the bloc originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has long been criticised for having no viable economic or political coherence or purpose. Well, now it does. They are all afraid of US economic warfare with sanctions being its primary weapon. From digital currencies and currency swaps to restricted computerised messaging for financial transactions, they are trying to de-dollarise.
Dozens of countries, especially those in the Global South and are not US allies, want to join now. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to become members.
As Krugman said, the China workshop and the US dollar are two pillars of the global economy and are extremely hard to replace. Yet, Washington has made it a policy to erode those pillars, one by design, the other inadvertently.
The collateral damage may be too great for even the US to bear.
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso quit ECOWAS regional block
Reuters January 28, 20243:52 PM GMT+1Updated 37 min ago
NIAMEY/BAMAKO, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Three West African junta-led states Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso said on Sunday they are immediately leaving the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional economic bloc that has been urging them to return to democratic rule.
The decision by the three countries, announced in a joint statement read out on Niger national television, is a blow to the bloc’s regional integration efforts after it suspended the three countries following military takeovers.
…
“After 49 years, the valiant peoples of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger regretfully and with great disappointment observe that the (ECOWAS) organization has drifted from the ideals of its founding fathers and the spirit of Pan-Africanism,” Colonel Amadou Abdramane, Niger junta spokesman, said in the statement.
…
The three countries are also members of the eight-nation West African Monetary Union (UEMOA) that uses the West Africa CFA franc currency pegged to the Euro. The monetary union, following decisions by ECOWAS leaders after the coups in Mali and Niger, had cut off their access to the regional financial market, and the regional central bank. It later restored Mali’s access but Niger remains suspended.
A lower left tooth was loose (#21 for the cognoscenti). I went to the dentist.
He looked concerned, said it was broken vertically, removed the part that was broken, and took a look at what was left.
“You’ll have to see an oral surgeon for this. It’s a dental emergency. I’ll have my office set up the appointment.”
I get a call a few minutes later. Can I come in to see the oral surgeon the next day?
Next day, I’m there. Terrified. I’m a total dental chicken. “The tooth was reabsorbing into the jawbone” (What?!!) “so we have to take it out. It is likely to get infected. You need …”
And he proceeded to give me a few minutes of dental speak.
With only laughing gas and huge horse syringes full of novacaine, and wearing intense magnifying glasses, he drilled and chiseled a tooth/root/bone unit apart.
None of that was necessarily the coup de grace.
The hard part is not having to drink smoothies for a week until the stitches are removed.
The hard part is not waiting seven months with a toothless gap in my smile, as I wait for my gums to heal before they can do surgery a g a I n to place an implant into my jawbone (but that’s a huge Y I K E S for the future).
The hard part — is — overwhelming and aching bone pain in my jaw socket where the tooth infiltrated the bone. It hurts so much that pain has been preventing me from sleeping or moving much during the past four days since the tooth was separated from the jawbone and extracted.
I didn’t anticipate any of this pain with just a loose tooth. The pain afterwards was totally unanticipated and a thousand times worse than I thought it would be.
If a dentist ever tells you that a tooth is infiltrating your jaw bone, act sooner than later. Even if you don’t feel that anything is wrong.
Dental pain should be avoided at all costs.
Do You Have Jason Bourne in Custody? | The Bourne Supremacy | All Action
I’ve met guys over the years who find all kinds of physical traits unattractive. Everyone has their own personal visuals they like or dislike.
But there seems to be one universal, non-physical trait that men find unattractive with women: complaining.
You’ll never hear a guy complain that he wishes his woman would complain more to him. You’ll hear a lot of guys complain about how much their woman complain. (Or, complaining’s close cousin, criticizing.)
This includes things like:
Complaining that their guy didn’t do something that he either didn’t know he was supposed to do, or planned on doing later.
Complaining about the quality of work their guy did for something that no one is ever going to see or care about.
Complaining to their guy about things the kids or pets did wrong, as if it’s their guy’s fault that the kids or pets did those things wrong.
Complaining to their guy, like its his fault, about things that the guy has absolutely no control over, like the weather.
Complaints that are essentially versions of “my man did not read my mind.”
Criticizing their man’s choices for things that have no impact on the woman whatsoever.
Criticizing their man’s choices when their man asked for the woman’s input, but the woman didn’t offer any.
Tangentially related to “complaining” are things like:
Attempting to hold a deep conversation while the guy is trying to focus on something else, like a television show or driving.
Attempting to hold a deep conversation with the guy within 10 minutes of falling asleep or waking up.
Greeting their man with a task to do as soon as he gets home.
Adding on to their man’s “to do” list while he’s actively doing something the woman already put on that list.
Around 3,000 years ago, Hebrew men realized how much they didn’t like their wives’ complaining, and wrote it down in the book of Proverbs.
Hard to imagine, but an ex-colleague of mine was fired for something they DIDN’T DO outside of work but were ACCUSED of doing.
The company we worked for had a code of ethics that said you could be fired not just for doing something wrong, but for there being a public IMPRESSION that you did something wrong.
In his case, he had been in the chain drugstore the previous weekend, and was accused of shoplifting. After some unpleasant exchange with the store’s security staff and my colleague insisting that he would NOT allow them to examine his bags, but would only allow the police to do so, the police were called. He was searched, his bags were searched, and nothing was found.
Store management apologized to him. He said fine, okay and that was that, right?
Nope.
On Monday when he came to work, and people were saying what they did that weekend, he said “You won’t believe what happened to me!” and he related the incident.
Within a couple of hours, he was called to Human Resources and fired. Reason? Small town, everybody knows everybody. The accusation of shoplifting was made publicly in the store, where some of the other customers knew or might know him, and who also might be OUR customers. In our company’s eyes, that made our customers question whether they should give us their business, if we kept him as an employee.
He appealed but to no avail. Lost his job.
Lesson – don’t share too much about what happens on your time off, even if you didn’t actually do something wrong, perception can be everything.
I was in Las Vegas and was shopping at the Caesar’s Palace mall. I came across a sport memorabilia store that had two sports stars there signing autographs. At one end of a long table was Pete Rose and the other end was Kenny Stabler. I noticed that there was a long line waiting for Rose’s autograph but no one was at Kenny’s side. I didn’t know why Kenny didn’t have anyone in his autograph line, since he did have a super bowl win and was in the NFL HOF. My son-in-law was a huge Oakland Raider fan, so I went over to get Kenny’s autograph. As I was talking to Kenny, I noticed that Rose wasn’t really talking to the fans in line. He just signed the picture and his handler told the fans that Rose didn’t have time to answer any questions and told them to move on. Rose never even cracked a smile and actually looked perturbed to be there.
On the contrary, Kenny was most gracious and talked to me for over 10 mins. Instead of the stock picture they were passing out, he posed for a picture with me trying on his super bowl ring. He took down my address and said he would mail it to me. To my amazement, within a week I received the photo. My son-in-law treasured that photo for many years until his passing. What a difference in personalities between two superstar athletes. I never respected Pete Rose after that incident even though I once supported his failed attempt to get into the baseball HOF.
In college, a fellow fraternity brother named Mike met me after class to tell me he had the key (answers) to the upcoming engineering-physics mid-term exam and I could buy it for just $25. It was to be a 100 multiple-choice question exam to be given in a week.
Unfortunately, Mike spoke a little too loud and the professor heard him. The professor did not know who or how many people had the answer key so he decided to create an all-new test. He contacted two of his top grad students (Paul and Jim) to help and they toiled over the task for the next 4 days.
On the day before the exam, I overheard the professor ask Paul if he “was ready”. It seemed out of context so I got suspicious and decided to check with Mike. I heard MIke was over by the WPC Student Center so I headed over there. As I was scanning the area for Mike, I saw him talking to Paul. I hid and watched as Mike gave Paul an envelope and Paul gave Mike several sheets of paper. Mike had just bought the answer key to the new exam.
I waited until they separated and then went to Mike. I asked, “Are we all set for the exam tomorrow”. I wanted to see if he would offer me the new exam key. To my surprise, he did. I took it and sold it to two of my friends – Bruce and Khan – for $30 each. We all aced the exam and repeated it all again for the finals . . . . but with less drama.
So what were the unintended consequences? Bruce and Khan went on to become structural design architects at a prestigious firm in Chicago and were the design engineers for the 1,450 ft tall Sears Tower (it’s now called the Willis Tower) – the one that had 90x 5×8 ft, 380-pound windows that blew out in high winds.
As it turns out, the semester that we all cheated on the exams was when they taught the aerodynamics of wind on structures and how to compensate for the stresses involved. If Bruce and Khan had attended those classes and learned the topics taught that semester, then the Sears Tower would not sway 18″ in high winds and would not have ultimately spent $6 million to replace all of its 10,343 windows. All those unintended consequences because of an exam answer key that sold for $30.
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If this isn’t all true, it should be, and if it isn’t then how could it be? I’m not one to make up stuff unless I do and then it is only to prove my credibility or not. Wouldn’t you do the same if you didn’t know what you say you know in the context of being honest and trying to tell people that which could be true if it was? But, being a smart person, you knew all that already, didn’t you?
11 Signs A Woman Has Multiple Partners and What to Do About It
Published On January 22, 2024by Andrew Ferebee
So, you’ve met a woman that you’ve completely fallen for. You’ve been dating for a while, and everything has been going well. She might even be “the one.”
The problem is, you’re not entirely sure you’re the only one in her life. You can’t place your finger on it exactly, but something leads you to believe she may be seeing other men.
You want clarity, but you’re unsure how to broach the subject. After all, things are going well, and you don’t want to mess up a good thing. But at the same time, not knowing what’s going on is driving you crazy.
Dating multiple people at once is a tricky subject to navigate. In an ideal world, both partners will communicate their ideas and expectations about dating other people. The problem is we don’t live in an ideal world.
More often than not, people dance around the issue because they don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings (or damage the relationship’s potential). This leads to one or both people playing the guessing game.
If this sounds like your current situation, understand you are not alone. And as difficult as it can be to navigate this situation, you can gain clarity — if you know what to look for.
Today, I’ll give you a framework you can use to gauge whether or not the woman you’re dating has multiple partners and how to approach things if she does. Signs That The Woman You’re Seeing Has Multiple Partners
1. Unless You’re Told Otherwise, Assume She Is
In today’s dating climate, you should always assume that the woman you’re dating is also seeing other men. Unless she comes out and explicitly tells you that the two of you are exclusive, you’re probably not.
Understand that couples seldom become exclusive off the bat. Nine times out of ten, one or both people will date around before settling on their chosen person.
So, even if you’re really into the woman you’re seeing and everything seems to be going great, that’s fine. But just remember that nothing is official until it’s official.
2. Other People Call You The Wrong Name — Or Think They’ve Met You Before
If she brings you around to meet a group of friends or family, and those people call you the wrong name or think they’ve met you before, it could be a sign that she’s dating other guys.
Don’t assume that these friends or family members are misremembering. It’s far more likely that they were introduced to another man recently.
And if you want to gauge whether she’s being honest with you, press her on the issue. Ask her about it and see what she says. If she tries to dodge the issue or acts unnatural, it’s probably because she’s dishonest.
3. She Avoids Introducing You To Friends Or Family Members
Oppositely, she may avoid bringing you around to meet her friends or family. For this one, look at the context of the situation to see if something seems odd to you.
If she has to attend a wedding and tells you she’ll go alone, that’s odd behavior. Why? Because no one likes to attend a wedding alone. And chances are, she’s not.
It’s far more likely that she’s just going with someone else.
If you’ve been dating for several months and have not met anyone from her social circle, that’s just not natural. If she often tells you she can’t meet because she’s going out with her friends but doesn’t invite you to come, that’s also odd.
Chances are, she’s bringing another man to these gatherings. And rather than letting her friends or family know she’s dating multiple men, keeping you on the back burner is easier.
4. She’s Had An Unreasonable Amount Of Partners
Does the woman you’re dating talk about more exes than you can count? If so, it could indicate a pattern of behavior.
Just because a woman has many exes doesn’t inherently mean that there’s something wrong, but the time frame matters. If you get the sense that she’s dated ten different guys in the last three months, there’s a very good chance she was dating them simultaneously.
And there’s also a good chance that’s the same thing happening with you. Chances are, you have much in common with the men who came before you.
So, always be mindful of the patterns that are right in front of you.
5. She Shies Away From You And Isn’t As Affectionate As You Are
Do you feel like you’re the one who’s always being affectionate, but she isn’t doing the same? Sure, you may be intimate with this woman, and everything could be great in the bedroom, but what about other acts of affection?
Does she allow you to wrap your arm around her while walking together? Can you hold her hand? Hug her? Kiss her in public?
Sure, some people aren’t into public displays of affection, but it can also be a sign. These “loving” affections are sometimes more significant than sex. And if she shies away from your affection, ask yourself why.
There’s a strong possibility she’s seeing other men and doesn’t want to lead you on any more than she already is.
Remember that men and women approach dating and relationships in very different ways. You’ll seldom see a man stay with a woman after losing interest, but women do this often.
If you think she’s lost interest in you but doesn’t have the heart to tell you, read the signs and don’t let things last any longer than they need to.
6. She Craves Sex Less Than You Do
Oppositely, it might not be the public displays of affection that are the problem, but your sex life. If she approaches intimacy with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, again, ask yourself why.
Of course, it’s perfectly normal for people to not be in the mood sometimes. What you have to look at is the underlying pattern. If your relationship started with a great sex life, but that drive suddenly faded, there’s a reason for that.
If she tells you she enjoys sex and that she enjoys having it with you, but the two of you inexplicably go long periods without sleeping together, it could be a sign that there’s someone else in the picture.
Again, nothing is certain. But if something feels off, it’s probably because it is. It could be a sign if you’re a generally rational man who doesn’t have underlying trust issues, but something is telling you not to trust this woman.
7. She Tells You She’s Busy — But Doesn’t Tell You Why
Does it seem like you can never get a straight answer from her? Does she give you ambiguous answers about what she’s doing and who she’s doing it with?
If so, it indicates that she’s seeing other men. Also, look at how often you meet up with her. If it’s every couple of weeks or once a month, that’s probably because she’s seeing other guys when she’s not with you.
Does she only meet you during the week and always have a full calendar on Fridays and the weekends that doesn’t include you?
Again, look at the underlying patterns. If they seem strange, it’s probably because something’s up.
If you’re really into her and want nothing more than to spend time with her, but she seems unwilling or unable to do the same for you, it’s a sign that something is off.
8. She Takes An Excessive Time To Respond To Your Messages
Most people are glued to their phones between six in the evening and midnight. They unwind from work with a glass of wine, Netflix, and their social media feeds.
If you text this woman without a hitch all day, but then she suddenly goes MIA during the evenings, that’s almost certainly a sign that she’s with another man.
She’s not texting you back because she can’t text you back. Again, look for things that seem odd. If she tells you she’s going to the gym after work, that’s fine, but if she doesn’t respond to your messages until noon the next day, it may be because she was with another man.
9. She Only Meets You At Odd Times
It’s nine o’clock on a Friday night, and she suddenly hits you up to go out. And this happens after she told you she already had other plans.
While you told her that you would also make other plans, that wasn’t entirely true. Your “plans” entailed ordering a pizza and playing Call of Duty.
You want to say ‘no,’ but you are also sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself, so you can’t resist.
If a woman likes you, she’ll make you her first priority, not the fallback guy. If the woman you’re seeing asks you to meet at odd hours or with little notice, she’s using you as a backup.
Now, some guys are okay with this, but if you’re not, you need to say so. You should not suffer in silence and play the guessing game.
10. She Still Has Active Dating Profiles
Whether you met this woman online or not, if you find that she has an active dating profile, you can be almost certain that she’s using it.
Don’t let her sell you on the “I didn’t have a chance to delete it yet” or “I forgot I had it.” Having a dating profile as a woman means dealing with a constant barrage of messages. It’s almost impossible to ignore.
And if the woman you’re seeing has an active dating profile, she’s not ignoring it, either.
11. She Gets (And Seeks) A Lot Of Attention On Social Media
While an active social media presence isn’t necessarily a sign of something wrong, keep an eye out for odd activity — especially from other men.
If you see comments like, “I can’t wait to see you again,” or “We had such a great time,” from men, and you have no idea who these guys are, there’s a good chance she’s dating them.
Just look for anything that seems odd or out of place. If your instincts tell you something doesn’t feel right, then something is wrong. Don’t turn a blind eye to it.
What Do I Do If The Woman You’re Dating Has Multiple Partners?
Well, for one, you could just talk to her about it. And if you haven’t done this already, it’s probably because you’re scared of the consequences.
You may fear that if you talk to her about it, she’ll tell you that she is, in fact, seeing other men and isn’t interested in seeing you anymore. Or that she’ll just cut you off completely.
And this leads us to the true problem…
In any relationship, no matter how casual or serious, a certain power dynamic develops. And the person who is more confident, grounded, and self-assured is the one who has the upper hand.
And in instances like these, that person is not you. If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume that you are not dating other women, even though you suspect your partner is.
I’m also going to assume that deep down, you know exactly what’s going on with your current relationship. The problem is that you’re having a hard time accepting the truth.
The question is, why are you putting yourself in this position?
Why are you allowing yourself to be subjected to this treatment? Why are you allowing this woman to essentially “play you”? Why are you allowing yourself to be treated in a way that feels disrespectful?
Is this what an alpha male would do?
Certainly not. An alpha is the type of man who doesn’t chase women but has women chase after him.
Just imagine how great it would feel to be the type of man who could have his choice of high-quality women instead of being at the mercy of situations like these.
In other words, there are several things you could do to remedy this situation, but the first thing you should do is…
1. Raise your value in the dating economy
Let’s just face the facts for a moment and be brutally honest: You’re at the mercy of this woman you’re dating. She has you wrapped around her finger, and she knows it.
Because if she truly valued you for the man you are, she would never let an opportunity to be with you pass her by. There’s no point in playing the field when you have the home run sitting right in front of you.
But that’s the thing: she doesn’t see you that way. And that may be your fault. Are you doing everything you can to show her your value as a man? Is it abundantly apparent how great of a catch you are?
Become the type of man that women would line up to date. Be the type of man who can give women experiences unlike any other. Be a grounded, cultured man who takes risks and gets what he wants in life.
Invest in yourself so no woman can deny your obvious value. Prioritize your physical fitness, expand your mind, embrace new experiences, and be a fun person to be around.
When you put your power on full display, women will take notice.
2. Talk to her about it and have an honest conversation
Or, if you’re really interested in this woman and genuinely think your relationship has the potential to be something special, discuss the issue.
Tell her what you think is going on and explain that you’re uncomfortable with it. Tell her that you value the connection the two of you have and want to see it grow into something more.
If she doesn’t feel the same, yes, that will hurt a lot, but at least you won’t have to spend your days guessing. Remember, sometimes, the fear of pain (especially emotional pain) can be worse than the pain itself.
The first step to resolving the issue is getting it out there in the open so you can discuss it.
3. Consider your options
If you’re aware that the woman you’re dating is also seeing other people, it might be worth thinking about exploring other relationships yourself.
This suggestion isn’t for everyone. If it doesn’t align with your values or comfort level, that’s completely okay. However, it’s important to reflect on the dynamics of your current situation.
She’s keeping her options open, which raises the question: should you do the same? It’s natural to have strong feelings for her and to hope for a more committed relationship in the future. But, if you’re not at that stage yet, it might not be wise to fully commit yourself to someone who isn’t making you their priority.
Instead of focusing solely on this relationship, consider the possibility of meeting other people. This approach can provide a more balanced perspective and prevent you from feeling overly invested in a situation where your needs might not be fully met.
4. Stop wasting your time and prioritize self-respect
If you’re fed up with the situation and can’t take it any longer, end it. Tell her you no longer feel comfortable with the relationship and move on.
Many people forget that they are responsible for how others treat them.
If you’re being treated in a way that makes you feel undervalued, it’s because you allow it to happen.
So, don’t allow it to happen any longer. Make the hard choice and end the relationship.
Takeaways
If you’ve grown sick and tired of these dating situations you find yourself in, it’s time to make a change. Leave the past behind and become a high-value man who attracts high-value women into his life.
If one thing is certain, it’s that anyone has the power to change. Society has a nasty habit of conditioning us to believe we’re fixed in our current situation and that we’ll never be able to improve and embrace our full potential.
Not true. I’m proof of that. And if you want to gain insider knowledge of everything I learned on my journey, the professional coaching program at Knowledge for Men is just what you need.
How nice would it be to be surrounded by a group of strong, grounded, like-minded men who will challenge and push you to become the best version of yourself?
And to be clear, this isn’t a place for those faint of heart. Honestly, you’ll probably have to face aspects of yourself that will make you quite uncomfortable.
But if you’re looking for the single best place to grow into your true potential, this is it. No complainers are here, only serious, dedicated men committed to helping others.
Are you ready to take the next step? Are you ready to embrace your untapped potential and live a life you previously only imagined?
If so, the time is now. I’ll see you on the other side!
Lambert here: Not a geopolitics maven, but Iran sure did offer Russia the right hand of good fellowship with those drone sales.
By Simon Watkins, a former senior FX trader and salesman, financial journalist, and best-selling author. He was Head of Forex Institutional Sales and Trading for Credit Lyonnais, and later Director of Forex at Bank of Montreal. He was then Head of Weekly Publications and Chief Writer for Business Monitor International, Head of Fuel Oil Products for Platts, and Global Managing Editor of Research for Renaissance Capital in Moscow. Originally published at OilPrice.com.
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei gave his official approval to a new 20-year comprehensive cooperation deal between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia.
• The agreement will replace the 10-year-deal signed in March 2001 and has been expanded not only in duration but also in scope and scale.
• The new deal includes far-going agreements on defense and energy.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, gave his official approval on 18 January to a new 20-year comprehensive cooperation deal between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia, according to a senior energy source in Iran and a senior source in the European Union’s (E.U.) energy security complex, exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week. The 20-year deal – ‘The Treaty on the Basis of Mutual Relations and Principles of Cooperation between Iran and Russia’ – was presented for his consideration on 11 December 2023. It will replace the 10-year-deal signed in March 2001 (extended twice by five years) and has been expanded not only in duration but also in scope and scale, particularly in the defense and energy sectors. In several respects, the new deal additionally complements key elements of the all-encompassing ‘Iran-China 25-Year Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement’, as first revealed anywhere in the world in my 3 September 2019 article on the subject and analysed in full in my new book on the new global oil market order.
In the energy sector to begin with, the new deal gives Russia the first right of extraction in the Iranian section of the Caspian Sea, including the potentially huge Chalous field. The wider Caspian basins area, including both onshore and offshore fields, is conservatively estimated to have around 48 billion barrels of oil and 292 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas in proven and probable reserves. In 2019, Russia was instrumental in changing the legal status of the Caspian basins area, cutting Iran’s share from 50 percent to just 11.875 percent in the process, as also detailed in my new book. Before the Chalous discovery, this meant that Iran would lose at least US$3.2 trillion in revenues from the lost value of energy products across the shared assets of the Caspian Sea resource going forward. Given the newest internal-use only estimates from Iran and Russia, this figure could be a lot higher. Previously, the estimates were that Chalous contained around 124 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas in place. This equated to around one quarter of the gas reserves contained in Iran’s supergiant South Pars natural gas field that account for around 40 percent of Iran’s total estimated gas reserves and about 80 per cent of its gas production. The new estimates are that it is a twin-field site, nine kilometres apart, with ‘Greater’ Chalous having 208 bcf of gas in place, and ‘Lesser’ Chalous having 42 bcf of gas, giving a combined figure of 250 bcm of gas.
The same right of first extraction for Russia will also now apply to Iran’s major oil and gas fields in the Khorramshahr and nearby Ilam provinces that border Iraq. The shared fields of Iran and Iraq have long allowed Tehran to side-step sanctions in place against its key oil sector, as it is impossible to tell what oil has come from the Iranian side or the Iraqi side of these fields, which means that Iran is able simply to rebrand its own sanctioned oil as unsanctioned Iraqi oil and ship it anywhere it wants, as also analysed in full in my new book on the new global oil market order. Former Petroleum Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, publicly highlighted this very practice when he said in 2020: “What we export is not under Iran’s name. The documents are changed over and over, as well as [the] specifications.” Another advantage of the shared fields is that they allow effectively free movement of personnel from the Iranian side to the Iraqi side, and the utilisation of key oil and gas developments across Iraq is a key part of Iran’s longstanding plan, fully supported by Russia, to build a ‘land bridge’ to the Mediterranean Sea coast of Syria. This would enable Iran and Russia to exponentially increase weapons delivery into southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights area of Syria to be used in attacks on Israel. The core aim of this policy is to provoke a broader conflict in the Middle East that would draw in the U.S. and its allies into an unwinnable war of the sort seen recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, and which may soon be seen as the Israel-Hamas War escalates.
The price of all manufactured items traded between Russia and Iran, including military and energy hardware, has been formalised in the new deal, although also not in Iran’s favour. For Iranian goods exported to Russia, Tehran will receive the cost of production plus 8 percent. However, these export sales to Russia will not be transferred to Iran, but rather they will be held as credit in the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). Moreover, Iran will receive a huge markdown on US dollar/Rouble or Euro/Rouble exchange rates used to calculate its credits in the CBR. Conversely, for Russian goods exported to Iran, Moscow will receive the payment in advance of delivery and at a much stronger exchange rate that benefits Russia. Moreover, the base price before any exchange rate calculations are made, will be founded on the highest price that Russia has received in the previous 180 days for whichever product it is selling Iran. This system has informally been in place for several weeks now, and according to the senior energy sector source in Tehran exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week, Russia has ensured itself the highest possible price by selling to Belarus at a very large premium whichever product it intends to sell later to Iran, so establishing the required pricing benchmark. Payments for goods and services falling outside the direct finance route between the central banks of the two countries can now be done through interbank transfers between Iranian and Russian banks. Those also involving renminbi can also be done through China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) system, its alternative to the globally-dominant Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system.
In many cases, the expansion of military cooperation between Iran and Russia is tied into the energy sector elements of the new 20-year deal. Progress is earmarked to be made on upgrading the facilities at the key airports and seaports that have long been targeted by Russia as being especially useful for dual-use by its air force and navy, and which are also close to major oil and gas facilities. Top of the list of Iranian airports that Russia regards as the best for dual-use by its air force are Hamedan, Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, and Abadan, and it is apposite to note that in August 2016, Russia used the Hamedan airbase to launch attacks on targets in Syria using both Tupolev-22M3 long-range bombers and Sukhoi-34 strike fighters. Top of the list of seaports for use by its navy are Chabahar, Bandar-e-Bushehr, and Bandar Abbas. Similarly linked to Russia’s gaining the first right of extraction in the Iranian section of the Caspian Sea is that it will also be given a joint command capability over the northern aerospace defense section of Iran’s Caspian area.
It is also apposite to note here that Iran’s electronic warfare (EW) system can easily be tied into Russia’s Southern Joint Strategic Command 19th EW Brigade (Rassvet) near Rostov-on-Don to the northwest of the Caspian. This can also be linked in with China’s EW capabilities. These EW capabilities would include jamming systems for neutralising air defences in the region. This will be augmented with new missiles designated to be sent to Iran by Russia under the new deal, according to the senior E.U. security sector source exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week. “Selected IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] personnel will be trained on the latest Russian upgrades of several short- and long-range missiles – the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, the Iskander M, the RS-26 Rubezh, the BrahMos3, and the Avangard – before the plan to manufacture them under licence in Iran begins, with the aim being to have 30 percent of them stay in Iran, with the rest being sent back to Russia,” he said.
“What all of this means, is that the new 20 -year deal between Iran and Russia will change the landscape of the Middle East, southern Europe, and Asia as Iran will have a much-extended military reach that will give it much more leverage to make political demands across those region,” he exclusively told OilPrice.com last week. “This reach also means that countries in these areas will feel that continuing to rely on the U.S. for their protection is a lot more of a precarious option than it was before,” he concluded.
Be careful how to treat others
Old Fashioned Greek Shortbread
Ingredients
1 pound butter (NO margarine)
2 egg yolks
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon anise
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
Beat butter at medium speed of electric mixer for 10 minutes.
Add egg yolks and confectioners’ sugar. Beat 5 more minutes.
Add anise. Add flour one cup at a time, kneading.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls and bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes or until very lightly browned.
Being a new Grade 11 student in a small city was devastating. I had come from the “big city” to a rural cowboy type environment.
In the school of 259 students there was a huge class difference. Some families had money, some were farm kids bused in and as always the partiers. I didn’t really fit in, but I wasn’t bullied either.
The cheerleader girls snubbed everyone. Including me, they gossiped and ignored everyone but their clique. As I only had a year and a half before graduation I existed, couldn’t wait to get out of this place. As soon as school was done, I went back to my home city.
I was fortunate to get a job at the library, which was unionized. A year went by before the wages were negotiated and settled. When this was completed, we were back paid a year of difference.
This was in the early 1970’s and when I got my huge cheque and took it to the bank. I went through the teller, who recognized me and I was shocked to see the cheerleader queen working for the bank.
She took my deposit and with her snooty voice asked me if this was a severance payout. I looked her in the eye and smiled. I assured her that I hadn’t been fired. She looked at me and I could see she was looking for a snide remark. Just then I got my revenge.
I smiled and said to her, heavens no, I love working at the library. I told her, no problem, this is my bimonthly cheque.
She was so shocked that she turned on her sweetness and asked me, would you like to go for coffee this week. Again, I smiled and told her, thank you for asking but my social calendar is very busy.
“I am an American. I am not a tourist in your country.”
I was working as a Tourist Officer for the GNWT. My job was to maintain a park, and do tourist services. Simple work. One of the services was a visitor exit survey to see if people were enjoying the north. Let me set the stage.
Fort Smith NWT, is a community of about 3000 people. The airport is very small, and usually only has one person on duty for a flight. Her name was Mary*. She was both ticker agent and security guard. She pointed at an older woman and said “Tourist” so I went over and asked if she was willing to do the survey. “No problem, young man” was the very southern response. She was from Peachtree Georgia and had a classic plantation accent. After a few questions about what hotel she stayed at, and and activities she did, Mary called for pre-boarding, but to please do a tourist survey with me as there was “Plenty of time.”
The woman got absolutely infuriated with me instantly. And very loudly yelled “I am an American. I am not a tourist in your country.” And stormed over to the gate. The entire airport started laughing. And “In your country” because a new standard greeting between us for the summer.
*All NWT airports have a “Mary” and it seems like they are all the same women. A wonderful native Lady with a wicked sense of humor.
This late January 2024, it seems that there are numerous trends going on at this moment in time.
American Society
“Passport Bros” is a real thing for young men. They are leaving and not planning on returning back to the USA. Leaving “woke” American women, childless, without families and living off “hook-up culture” as they enter a new life of “cat ladies”.
China
“President” Biden continues on the war-path against China and has three aircraft carrier groups off the Chinese coast right now. And provocations are ramping up in the Pacific. Though he is making all the flowery overtures.
Russia / Ukraine
Russia is winning in Ukraine, and NATO is in a panic.
UK and NATO
UK has gone insane and talking about mass conscription and nuclear war. The USA is obliging shipping nuclear weapons to the UK. France wants an active role; Via la France!
Gaza / Israel / Middle East
Gaza War continues a pace, and American ships are sinking. Both Israel and the United States are much weaker than they are considered to be. No obvious end of the war is in sight. But the UN is “putting its foot down” regarding both the USA and Israel.
American Civil War
Texas and half the other states are stopping the influx of illegal aliens, Willing to dissolve the union to do so. “President” Biden responds by shutting of LG gas, and more efforts will obviously ramp up in the future.
It looks like a very exciting year of the dragon 2024. If you live in the “West” then please “batten down the hatches”. Things are about to get really dicey.
“A Child That Is Not Embraced by the Village Will Burn It Down to Feel Its Warmth.”
January 24, 2024
This poignant quote conveys a tragic yet profound truth about human nature. When a child grows up deprived of community, lacking that feeling of belonging, they will go to destructive extremes to fulfill their fundamental need for connection.
This quote speaks to how our early environments shape us. A child is not born inherently good or bad. But if they mature in isolation, never feeling accepted by those around them, it damages their social development.
Rejected children often suffer from low self-esteem, anger issues, and oppositional behavior. Lacking positive childhood connections can impede their ability to interact with others and form healthy relationships later in life.
The quote suggests that without intervention, that alienated child may eventually seek out negative attention-even if it means resorting to violence or other dangerous acts.
They want to retaliate against a community that made them feel unworthy and invisible. It’s a maladaptive cry for help, for someone to finally notice them and their distress.
A village that embraces all children-that provides guidance, role models and a nurturing web of social bonds-could prevent such a destructive cry for connection.
It highlights our collective responsibility to foster welcoming communities that envelop children in warmth, so they become citizens seeking to build up rather than tear down society.
Lamb with Rice (Atzem Pilafi)
Ingredients
3 pounds lamb, cut in 1 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 pound butter
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, peeled, strained, or 1 tablespoon tomato paste diluted with 1 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
8 cups water
4 cups raw rice
Instructions
Wash and dry meat.
Brown 2/3 of the butter in large pot. Add meat and brown on all sides. Add onions and continue to cook until they become a light golden color. Add tomatoes or diluted tomato paste, and the salt, pepper and water. Cover pot and simmer until meat is tender, about 1 hour. Put meat into casserole and keep it warm.
Strain sauce; measure it. Add water if necessary to make 8 or 9 cups. Pour into large pot and bring to a boil. Add rice. Stir at the start to prevent sticking. Cover and simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Add meat and mix well. Brown remaining butter and pour it over the rice.
Cover pot with a clean towel, then cover towel with pot lid. Let stand for 5 minutes.
Serve hot.
Serves 6 to 10.
Fostering a Nurturing Village
Understanding the profound truth behind this proverb compels communities to reflect on their role in nurturing the younger generation.
1. Inclusive Communities: Societies need to strive for inclusivity, ensuring that every child feels accepted and valued, regardless of their background, abilities, or challenges. This involves active engagement and support for all children, especially those at risk of marginalization.
2. Proactive Support Systems: It’s crucial for communities to establish robust support systems for children and families. This includes accessible educational resources, mental health support, and recreational programs that offer positive outlets for energy and creativity.
3. Collective Responsibility: The proverb underscores the collective responsibility of the village. Every member of the community, not just the immediate family or educators, has a role in embracing the young. This could mean being a mentor, offering support to struggling families, or simply being a kind and attentive neighbor.
“A child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth” is a powerful reminder of the critical role of community in shaping the lives of its youngest members. It calls for a collective effort to nurture, guide, and embrace every child, recognizing that the well-being of each individual is deeply intertwined with the health of the entire community. By ensuring that no child is left unembraced, societies can prevent the flames of neglect and build a future that is warm and bright for all.
What It’s Like Working At An Animal Shelter Which Has To Put Animals Down?
January 25, 2024
On a daily basis, we clean up after the animals, feed them, take their pictures, vaccinate, medicate, socialize, etc.
For every cute puppy or kitten we adopt out, we usually find ourselves getting two in return. Whether its a stray off the streets, or some heartless chode that decided their dog of 5+ years doesn’t “fit” with their lifestyle anymore. No matter how hard we try, we grow attached. To some, we attach more than others.
Euthanasia is a necessary evil. Space isn’t limitless, and even if it was, who would pay for all of the animals? I’m just sure our fellow Texans are salivating at the thought of increased taxes, especially for taking care of feral cats and breeds that have been labelled violent by a very ignorant public (i.e. pit-bulls).
It doesn’t matter how hard you steel yourself, or how long you’ve been doing the job. You never get used to it, and you never grow completely numb. Imagine getting 12 cats in the span of a single day, and having to pick the 12 that have to die so there is enough room to accommodate them. I’ve stopped eating for days. I’ve cried myself to sleep. I’ve grown very disgusted with my fellow man.
Now on top of all that, imagine doing the job and running into disdainful assholes every single day. People that scoff at your profession as if it’s nothing more than playing dog-catcher. Well-wishers that stand on pedestals moaning about how cruel it all is, but offering nothing more than hot air when it comes to real answers to a very real problem.
My personal favorites are the “animal lovers” that fall over themselves to rescue the yorkshire terriers and miniature pinschers that occasionally trickle into the shelter, but never seem to notice the 2+ year old mutt in the adjacent cage that is just as sweet, if not more so than the other dog that has a crowd of willing adopters and a guaranteed ticket out the door.
That reminds me, let us not forget about the pool of dimwits that only support no-kill shelters, and continually ask why the municipal shelter you work at isn’t no-kill as if it were as simple as flipping a fucking switch. (Protip: It’s easy to label yourself no-kill when you can pick and choose what comes in, and shut your doors on a whim)
Carl Frithjof Smith, After the Communion (1892)
Norman Rockwell, Barber in Shuffleton, 1950
Motley Life – Kandinsky
Le Suicide by Manet (1877)
The Lady Of Shalott. John Waterhouse. 1888.
Jean Geoffroy and a Visit Day at the Hospital, 1889
“Soir bleu”, Edward Hopper, 1914
The Palace Guard, Ludwig Deutsch, 1892
Wayne Thiebaud – Cakes (1963)
Oleksandr Murashko. Girl in a Red Hat. 1902
Vincent van Gogh, Avenue of Poplars in Autumn (1884)
Uh Oh! 2024 Health Insurance Policies Modified to EXCLUDE Coverage for War, Riot, Insurrection
2024 Health Insurance Policies have been Updated with NEW Exclusions & Expenses Not Covered: “Treatment of an injury or a sickness, which is due to war, declared or undeclared, riot, or insurrection.”
Watch and listen to the 90 second video below. This is something that made me go, “Uh Ohhhhh.”
Check your insurance policies.
Look here. This is under exclusions and expenses not covered on a 2024 Cigna health policy. Treatment of an injury or a sickness, which is due to war, declared or undeclared, riot, or insurrection.
This is not typical. In an insurance policy from United Healthcare from last year (2023) and the language typically reads like this:
What happens with my coverage under extraordinary circumstances? And it says in cases of disaster, epidemic, war, riot, insurrection, that they will do their best to provide the services you need.
But now take a look at United’s 2024 health insurance policy, another exclusion, riot, war: “We do not cover an illness, treatment or medical condition due to war declared or undeclared.”
Cigna and United aren’t the only ones that have changed their language excluding war from their policies. Anthem has also done this, and it just makes you wonder why in the world would that be the case?
All these wars, insurrections, riots etc. are planned well in advance by the globalist deep state. Nothing is left to chance and nothing happens by accident.
These big corporations like insurance companies would have all been given the heads up that shit is about to hit the fan in 2024 so they are covering their asses by denying you coverage when you or your property gets hurt by these planned events by the deep state.
That’s what I think is going on here. The wealthy and politically connected all talk to each other and attend meetings off the record. Davos is not the only place they talk at.
U.S. Moving Nuclear Warheads to UK over Russia Situation
The United States is moving nuclear weapons back into the United Kingdom for the first time in 15 years over a perceived “threat” from Russia.
Procurement contracts for a new facility at Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Lakenheath in Suffolk confirm that the US intends to place “Dialable” nuclear warheads from 10kt to 1.2 MT at the air base.
The US removed nuclear missiles from the UK in 2008, judging that the Cold War threat from Moscow had diminished.
The disclosure comes in the wake of warnings that NATO countries need to ready their citizens for war with Russia.
Last week, Admiral Rob Bauer, a senior NATO military official, said that private citizens should prepare for all-out war with Russia that would require wholesale change in their lives.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, the head of the British Army, went on to warn that the public would need to be called up to fight if there was war with Russia because the Army was too small.
The British government has been the quintessential devil in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, escalating month-by-month, despite Russian warnings to stop.
In fact, it was the British Home Office that initially told Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to “ignore” Russia’s Ultimatum on February 22, 2022, wherein Russia gave Ukraine five hours to agree not to join NATO and not to station US missile defenses on Ukraine territory, because such missiles would have about a five minute flight time to Moscow.
Zelensky took the advice from the British Home Office (and from the US State Department) and ignored Russia’s ultimatum — and two hours after that Ultimatum expired, the Russian Army crossed the border into Ukraine. ALl of this could have been avoided if Ukraine did those two simple steps.
Instead, in the two years since Russia commenced its Special Military Operation into Ukraine, upwards of five hundred thousand Ukrainian troops have been killed, and another six hundred thousand have been injured; many permanently disabled, losing limbs.
Ukraine has also permanently lost the eastern Oblasts (states) of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhya, and Kherson, all of which have undertaken public referendums to secede from Ukraine and accede to Russia. Of course, Crimea also held such a Referendum back in the year 2014, and has been Russian territory since then, although the British and Americans refuse to recognize that public vote by the citizens of Crimea.
The US and UK have supplied stronger and stronger weapons to Ukraine, but despite all the weapons and monetary support, Ukraine is losing the war very badly, and recent remarks even by US and UK officials make clear “Ukraine cannot win.”
So now, the US is positioning nuclear bombs in the UK because both the US and UK know that the time is rapidly approaching for both countries to be held accountable by Russia for the war they’ve helped wage against Russia. The British especially since they have been the most aggressive and the most militant.
The Russians, however, are not impressed. One source in the Russian Ministry of Defense told me “The Americans can put all the nuclear bombs they want in Britain; none of them can get out of silos fast enough to be used if we launch our new SARMAT hypersonic missile. That missile and its fifteen warheads would hit Britain in two hundred and two (202) SECONDS after it’s launched. Those American bombs wouldn’t even get out of the silos or off the ground on planes in time. It would already be over for the British.”
Picture of the Day
January 25, 2024
Children belonging to families of Stark and Schwartz, beet workers near Sterling, Colo. Family, including children, work from 5 A.M. to 6 P.M, with only half an hour for lunch, a work-day of over 12 hours. Sterling, Colorado, 1915
From the colonial era onwards, child labor was woven into the fabric of American society. Necessity, not malice, often defined the lives of children, who contributed to farmwork, apprenticeships, and home-based industries.
However, with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the nature of child labor shifted dramatically. Factories beckoned, their voracious appetites easily satiated by the nimble fingers and small statures of children. Textile mills, mines, and glass factories became the new playgrounds, echoing with the clatter of machinery and the hollow coughs of dust-choked lungs.
Children, as young as eight or ten, toiled alongside adults, often for longer hours and at considerably lower wages. Their tiny hands fed machines, navigated narrow mineshafts, and endured repetitive, soul-crushing tasks. Hazards lurked around every corner: mangled limbs caught in gears, lungs ravaged by coal dust, minds dulled by monotony. Education, play, and childhood itself were luxuries afforded to the privileged few, sacrificed at the altar of economic progress.
Yet, amid the clamor of industry, dissent arose. Progressive reformers, journalists, and photographers documented the grim realities of child labor, their poignant pictures and impassioned narratives igniting a public outcry. Lewis Hine’s haunting photographs of child mill workers, Jacob Riis’s unflinching exposés of tenement life, and Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” laid bare the human cost of unchecked industrialism. Slowly, the tide began to turn.
The first legislative steps towards reform were tentative, often hampered by powerful industrial lobbies. State-level measures emerged piecemeal, with Massachusetts enacting the first meaningful child labor law in 1874. However, the fight for national legislation proved arduous. Numerous bills were defeated, bogged down in political wrangling and concerns about economic disruption. It wasn’t until 1938, with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, that comprehensive federal protection for child laborers was finally secured.
This landmark legislation established minimum wages, limited working hours, and prohibited the employment of children in hazardous occupations. While not eliminating child labor entirely, it dramatically curtailed its prevalence and ensured that generations to come would have the right to an education and a childhood free from exploitation.
However, the legacy of child labor continues to echo in contemporary debates. Issues of migrant children employed in agriculture, exploitative work conditions in developing countries, and the increasing presence of children in the online gig economy remind us that vigilance is still necessary. The struggle for children’s rights is an ongoing story, a testament to the enduring belief that every child deserves the chance to flourish, not toil, in the tapestry of human experience.
Real Estate in China was very undervalued in the 1970s and 1980s
Many Chinese purchased their homes for as little as 100–200 RMB a Square Meter in the mid 1980s
Gradually China began to grow and prosper and it’s real estate grew
First from 1996–2004, it rose to it’s actual value having been undervalued in the past decades
So far as good
Then from 2004–2016, it rose beyond the actual value, becoming more and more over valued
Land values rose by maybe 30% but prices rose by 80%
It became harder and harder to buy a house in the big cities especially as in China, one needed to pay 40% down payment for a mortgage unlike the standard 10% in US or 25% in India
By 2018, the Average Chinese had pooled 31% of their Savings into BLOATED PROPERTIES
THIRTY ONE PER CENT !!!!!!!
The market was still red hot and speculation was rife
A 80 SQ Meter Flat with a value of maybe 1,200,000 RMB now sold for 2.1–2.3 Million RMB
Around 170% Bloated!!!
An Economist named Ching So presented a report to the Party citing that IF THE CHINESE DIDN’T STOP THE RAMPANT SPECULATION, BY 2030 – THE TOTAL REAL ESTATE BUBBLE WOULD BE ALMOST 50 TRILLION RMB
Fifty Trillion RMB!!!!
The Chinese hastily woke up, and found they JUST had enough time to prevent a major crisis
They passed the three laws, now famous for financing of real estate
China estimated that if the companies collapsed now, they would have at least 60% Assets and the net blowout would be around 6 Trillion RMB
So now Real Estate no longer will grow at those stupendous rates
So most people are reluctant to invest in real estate
Also since Real Estate is stagnant , most people are reluctant to invest 40% of their savings into buying a house
Hence demand is slumping
The best way to revive this is to allow the slump to bottom out, allow a few big giants to collapse, see the value of property fall lower and lower into more Value = Price territory
Then maybe China will bail out the survivors
Then people will start buying homes again
This is estimated to be in 2026–2027
Essential knots: how to tie the 20 knots you need to know
This story was originally published by Outdoor Life.
Knot tying has always been one of those key outdoor skills that the inexperienced take for granted. The experienced outdoorsman, however, has had enough success and failure to know that there are right and wrong knots for certain jobs.
But first, it helps to know a few strange terms. Put it simply, a knot is some kind of fastening or splice made by intertwining one or more ropes or some other flexible material. After tightening a knot, it should hold on its own. A hitch is a little bit different. It’s like a knot, but it generally involves another object like a stick, a post, a ring, or occasionally another rope. Properly tied, hitches can hold their place, or they may be able to slide, depending on the hitch you choose. A lashing is like a hitch, but slightly more complex. Lashings involve the use of a rope or similar material to secure two or more objects together. To grossly oversimplify all this, the knot is just rope fastened together; the hitch is a rope fastened to an object; and a lashing is a rope fastening multiple objects together.
A good knot can save lives when you’re dealing with a survival situation, performing first aid, and when working over heights or water. But, you have to know how to tie it. So make sure you know what to do with your rope the next time you head into the wild by learning these 20 essential knots.
1. Square knot
The square knot is a classic for connecting lines and tying knots. Whether you are tying two ropes together to make a longer rope, or you are tying up a bundle of firewood to carry, the square knot is a winner. It’s much more secure and stable than its cousin the granny knot, which everyone is probably familiar with as part of tying their shoes.
How to tie a square knot:
You can tie a solid square knot by lapping one rope right over left, then underneath the other, and then tying the same again in the reverse direction—left over right and then underneath. You’ll know you did it right when the working end and standing end of each rope is side by side (not making a “cross” like a granny knot).
2. Clove hitch
The clove hitch is an easy knot to tie, and it secures a line to a tree or post quickly, but it does slip when used alone, without any other knots as a backup.
How to tie a clove hitch:
To create a clove hitch on a tree, make a loop of rope around the tree. Then make another loop and pass the free end of the rope under the second loop before tightening. To tie this one over a post or stake, just create a loop in the free end of the rope and slide it over the post. Then make another loop the same as the first. Put the second loop over the post (just above the first loop) and tighten the hitch.
3. The bowline
The bowline creates a loop at the end of a rope that cannot shrink or expand. This knot is often taught and illustrated with a poem of a rabbit coming out of the hole, hopping in front of a tree, going behind the tree, and back down his original hole.
How to tie a bowline:
Form a loop on top of the long end of the line. Pass the working end of the line up through the loop and around behind the line. Then pass the working end down through the original loop, all while maintaining the shape of the second loop you create, which becomes your bowline loop. Once the “rabbit” is back down its hole, pull the “tree” up to tighten the bowline.
4. The figure eight
The figure eight knot creates a stopper wherever you need one on a rope, though the steps are also steps you take to create several other knots.
How to tie a figure eight:
To tie a figure eight, also known as a Flemish bend, simply pass the free end of a line over itself to form a loop. Continue under and around the line, and finish the knot by passing the working end down through the original loop.
5. The sheet bend
The sheet bend is my favorite one of all, even though technically it’s a “bend”—a type of knot that connects one rope to another. I like it because it’s the best bend for tying different types of material together or joining different thicknesses of rope. This knot even joins together lines or materials that normally couldn’t be joined together because of differences in diameter.
How to tie a sheet bend:
To create a sheet bend, bend the thicker or more slippery rope into a “J” shape (like a fish hook). Then pass the other rope through the hook shape from behind, wrap it around the entire fishhook once and then tuck the smaller line between itself and the other rope. If the ropes are the same diameter and texture, the sheet bend actually resembles a square knot. To tie a sheet bend with fabric or a tarp, collect, squeeze, and shape the material into a “J” shape, and then run your rope through and around the “J.”
6. Two half hitches
You can use two half hitches to secure a line to trees or poles, or to secure the line to itself like you would tying a trucker’s hitch. A half hitch is fairly easy to tie, and I use it often to tie tarps up for shelters, or to hang up hammocks.
How to tie two half hitches:
After you wrap the rope around the standing end and through the inside of the loop created to make the first half hitch, wrap around the line the same way again to make the second half hitch. Pull it tight and you should have two half hitches, one seated next to the other. If you want added insurance, you can tie an overhand knot with the tag end of the line to keep the two half hitches from slipping.
7. Taut line hitch
The taut line hitch takes the place of a slide to tighten or loosen a loop in a line (like a tent guy line). This knot grips well as long as there is tension on the “taut” side of the loop.
How to tie a taut line hitch:
To tie the taut line hitch, create a loop by wrapping around a solid, unmoving object like a tree or tent stake. With the free end of the rope, wrap around the main line twice on the inside of the loop. Then lay the free end of the rope over the two wraps, wrap it around the main line, and draw the tag end through the loop you just created. Cinch the wraps until tight. Pull on the standing line and the taut line hitch should grip the loaded line.
8. Fisherman’s knot
True to its name, the fisherman’s knot is pretty much only good for using with fishing line.
How to tie a fisherman’s knot:
Pass the free end of the line through or around the object to be secured, for example, through the eye of a fishhook. Then, wrap the free end of the line around the other side of the line about five or six times. Pass the free end of the line through the triangular opening next to the object being secured, and then pass the free end of the line through the large loop you just created by going through the small triangle. If you are tying this one with fishing line, spit on the line before tightening to lubricate it so that the friction does not cause heat damage to the line. Tighten the knot, trim off any extra line and enjoy your day fishing.
9. Water knot
The water knot safely secures webbing, flat belts, and most types of straps together.
How to tie a water knot:
To tie the water knot, start with a loose overhand knot in the end of one strap. Pass the other strap in the opposite direction so it mirrors the route of the overhand knot on the first strap. Take the ends of the two straps and pull the knot tight. That’s it—it’s very simple and very strong.
10. Rolling hitch
The rolling hitch adds a leg to an existing line. This hitch is the basic knot behind a taut line hitch, but it can be added to any existing line. The rolling hitch was often used historically to hook more dogs to a dog sled main line.
How to tie a rolling hitch:
Wrap the free end of one rope around the main rope to create a half hitch. Make a second half hitch and then wrap over the entire knot to finish with a final half hitch to the other side from your starting place.
11. Prusik knot
The Prusik knot creates a loop that can be used as an ascender or decender. This “slide and grip” knot can also be handy for adding a loop to a rope when neither end of the rope is free.
How to tie a Prusik knot
To tie a Prusik, you’ll need a short rope and a separate long rope. Tie a loop in the short rope that is secured with a solid knot like a square knot. Now, wrap the loop around the long rope three times, making certain that each wrap lies flat against the long rope. Pass the loop of short rope under itself and pull it tight. As long as there is weight on the loop, the Prusik will grip the long rope. You can also slide the Prusik up or down the long rope by taking the weight off the loop and pushing the wraps up or down the long rope.
12. Timber hitch
The timber hitch secures a rope to an object for hauling or to act as a support.
How to tie a timber hitch:
To create a timber hitch, all you need to do is run the free end of the rope around the object, like a log, that you intend to pull. Then wrap the tag end of the rope around the inside of the loop you created four or five times. After you tighten the timber hitch so the four or five wraps are tight against the object, the constant tension will keep the hitch seated.
13. Blood knot
This little gem of a knot is used on fishing line to secure two lines together (mends a broken line or attaches leaders and tippets).
How to tie a blood knot:
You’ll start the blood knot by overlapping the two lines, and wrapping one free end around the other line five or six times. Pass the free end between the two lines. Wrap the other line the same number of times (five or six), and tuck the free end back between the two lines in the opposite direction of the other free end of the line. If using fishing line, spit on it to reduce friction damage.
14. Man harness
This crafty knot allows you to put a loop in a line anywhere along the length of a rope when neither end of the line is free to tie a loop—and you didn’t hear it from me, but a man harness is great for cheating at tug of war.
How to tie a man harness:
Gather some slack in the line and make a loop so part of the line runs through the middle of the loop. Grab the side of the loop and pull it through the gap between the line in the middle and the other side of the loop. Pull the new loop tight, and then pull the line to cinch the man harness knot. This knot can slip if there isn’t constant tension on the newly created loop, so keep something in the loop to hold it.
15. Carrick bend
This square knot alternate joins two ropes together securely, and is easier to untie than a square knot.
How to tie a carrick bend:
To tie the carrick bend, form a loop with the free end of one rope. Pass the other rope’s free end under the first loop, and then over then under as seen in the picture. Thread the free end across the loop passing under itself, and pull on both standing ends to tighten.
16. Trucker’s hitch
You don’t have to be a truck driver to have a use for this rugged hitch. The unique feature of the trucker’s hitch is it gives you a unique mechanical advantage for tightening up a line. While tying this hitch is a little complex, it’s worth the trouble if you need to tighten lines as much as possible before securing them—I use it all the time to tie down tarps or secure shifting payloads.
How to tie a trucker’s hitch:
Start off by tying a figure eight knot with a loop of the line. Then pass the free end of the line around or through whatever you’re attaching the rope to, before passing the line through the loop. Next, pull the working end tight, and secure the free end with two half hitches, just below the loop.
17. Barrel hitch
The barrel hitch has been used in sailing and construction work for centuries. It allows you to secure a bucket, barrel or other cylindrical object to lift it in a well-balanced position.
How to tie a barrel hitch:
Place your barrel or other object to be lifted on top of your rope. Then tie an overhand knot across the top of the barrel. Open up the overhand knot until it wraps around the top sides of the barrel. Tie the ends of the rope together with a square knot and then then lift. This knot makes a fine bucket handle when the wire handle finally breaks off.
Safety warning: For safety and stability while hoisting barrels, the rope around the barrel needs to be high above the center of gravity on the barrel, but pose no danger of slipping off the top of the barrel. FYI, beer has an excellent center of gravity.
18. Sheepshank
This knot seems half magic trick, half practical knot, but it shortens a line without cutting the line. This knot keeps our long ropes in one piece, despite our miscalculations in the field. I will use this one on bear bags, when the line is too long, but I don’t want to cut it.
How to tie a sheepshank:
To tie a sheepshank, fold the rope to the new length you need. Create a half hitch in one end of the continuing rope, and drop it over the nearby loop. Make a half hitch in the other standing end, drop it over its adjacent loop, and then tighten the whole thing slowly.
19. Tripod lashing
The tripod lashing is commonly used for shelters and to support camp items, like a cooking pot over a fire.
How to tie a tripod lashing:
Start by collecting three poles that of almost identical length and thickness and lay them on the ground side-by-side. Tie a clove hitch to one of the end poles, and then wrap around all of the poles four, five, or six times. Now, wrap line between the poles–twice between each one–working back toward the original knot or hitch you tied. Finish the lashing by tying the tag end of the line to the tag end of your original knot. Spread the legs of the tripod and use it in your camp for something handy.
20. Square lashing
The square lashing has been used to build everything from camp chairs to towers and bridges – but you can also use it to secure two poles together.
How to tie a square lashing:
Tie a clove hitch to one of the poles, near the place where the two poles cross. Then wrap your line around the junction of the two poles, going under the lower pole and over the top pole. Spiral outward with these wraps five or six times. Next, wrap between the poles, biting onto the previous wrappings to tighten them. Finally, use a square snot to tie the free end of the rope to the free end from the clove hitch that started this whole lashing. Easy, right?
In the late 1930s, with WWII in motion, and only months before his assassination, Leon Trotsky already had a vision of what the future Empire of Chaos would be up to.
“For Germany it was a question of ‘organizing Europe’. The United States must ‘organize’ the world. History is bringing mankind face to face with the volcanic eruption of American imperialism…Under one or another pretext and slogan the United States will intervene in the tremendous clash in order to maintain its world dominion.”
We all know what happened next. Now we are under a new volcano that even Trotsky could not have identified: a declining United States faced with the Russia-China “threat”. And once again the entire planet is affected by major moves in the geopolitical chessboard.
The Straussian neocons in charge of US foreign policy could never accept Russia-China leading the way towards a multipolar world. For now we have NATO’s perpetual expansionism as their strategy to debilitate Russia, and Taiwan as their strategy to debilitate China.
Yet in these past two years, the vicious proxy war in Ukraine only accelerated the transition towards a multipolar, Eurasia-driven world order.
With the indispensable help of Prof. Michael Hudson , let’s briefly recap the 5 key variables that are conditioning the current transition.
Losers Don’t Dictate Terms
1.The stalemate: That’s the new, obsessive US narrative on Ukraine – on steroids. Confronted with the upcoming, cosmic NATO humiliation in the battlefield, the White House and the State Dept. had to – literally – improvise.
Moscow though is unfazed. The Kremlin has set the terms a long time ago: total surrender, and no Ukraine as part of NATO. To “negotiate”, from the Russia point of view, is to accept these terms.
And if the deciding powers in Washington opt for turbo-charging the weaponization of Kiev, or to unleash “the most heinous provocations in order to change the course of events”, as asserted this week by the head of the SVR, Sergey Naryshkin, fine.
The road ahead will be bloody. In case the usual suspects sideline popular Zaluzhny and install Budanov as the head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the AFU will be under total control of the CIA – and not NATO generals, as it’s still the case.
This might prevent a military coup against the sweaty sweatshirt puppet in Kiev. Yet things will get much uglier. Ukraine will go Total Guerrilla, with only two objectives: to attack Russian civilians and civilian infrastructure. Moscow, of course, is fully aware of the dangers.
Meanwhile, chatterbox overdrive in several latitudes suggest that NATO may even be getting ready for a partition of Ukraine. Whatever form that might take, losers do not dictate conditions: Russia does.
As for EU politicos, predictably, they are in total panic, believing that after mopping up Ukraine, Russia will become even more of a “threat” to Europe. Nonsense. Not only Moscow couldn’t give a damn to what Europe “thinks”; the last thing Russia wants or needs is to annex Baltic or Eastern European hysteria. Moreover, even Jens Stoltenberg admitted “NATO sees no threat from Russia toward any of its territories.”
2.BRICS: Since the start of 2024, this is The Big Picture: the Russian presidency of BRICS+ – which translates as a particle accelerator towards multipolarity. The Russia-China strategic partnership will be increasing actual production, in several fields, while Europe plunges into depression, unleashed by the Perfect Storm of sanctions blowback against Russia and German de-industrialization. And it’s far from over, as Washington is also ordering Brussels to sanction China across the spectrum.
As Prof. Michael Hudson frames it, we are right in the middle of “the whole split of the world and the turning towards China, Russia, Iran, BRICS”, united in “an attempt to reverse, undo, and roll back the whole colonial expansion that’s occurred over the last five centuries.”
Or, as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defined at the UN Security Council this process of BRICS
leaving Western bullies behind, the changing world order is like “a playground scuffle – which the West is losing.”
Bye Bye, Soft Power
3.The Lone Emperor: The “stalemate” – actually losing a war – is directly linked to its compensation: the Empire squeezing and shrinking a vassalized Europe. But even as you exercise nearly total control over all these relatively wealthy vassals, you lose the Global South, for good: if not all their leaders, certainly the overwhelming majority of public opinion. The icing in the toxic cake is to support a genocide followed by the whole planet in real time. Bye bye, soft power.
4. dedollarization: All across the Global South, they did the math: if the Empire and its EU vassals can just steal over $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves – from a top nuclear/military power – they can do it to anyone, and they will.
The key reason Saudi Arabia, now a BRICS 10 member, is being so meek on the genocide in Gaza is because their hefty US dollar reserves are hostage to the Hegemon.
And yet the caravan moving away from the US dollar will only keep growing in 2024: that will depend on crucial crossover deliberations inside the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and BRICS 10.
5.Garden and jungle: What Putin and Xi have essentially been telling the Global South – including the energy-rich Arab world – is quite simple. If you want improved trade and economic growth, who’re you gonna link to?
So we’re back to the “garden and jungle” syndrome – first coined by imperial Britain orientalist Rudyard Kipling. Both the British concept of “white man’s burden” and the American concept of “Manifest Destiny” derive from the “garden and jungle” metaphor.
NATOstan, and hardly all of it, is supposed to be the garden. The Global South is the jungle. Michael Hudson again: as it stands, the jungle is growing, but the garden isn’t growing “because its philosophy is not industrialization. Its philosophy is to make monopoly rents, meaning rents that you make in your sleep without producing value. You just have a privilege of a right to collect money on a monopoly technology that you have.”
The difference now, compared to all those decades ago of an imperial free lunch, is “an immense shift of technological advance”, away from North America and the US, to China, Russia and selected nodes across Asia.
Forever Wars. And No Plan B
If we combine all these variants – stalemate; BRICS; the Lone Emperor; de-dollarization; garden and jungle – in search of the most probable scenario ahead, it’s easy to see that the only “way out” for a cornered Empire is, what else, the default modus operandi: Forever Wars.
in West Asia, totally out of control yet always supported by the Hegemon, aiming for a multi-front war against the whole Axis of Resistance: Palestine, Hezbollah, Syria, Iraqi militias, Ansarullah in Yemen, and Iran.
In a sense we’re back to the immediate post-9/11, when what the neocons really wanted was not Afghanistan, but the invasion of Iraq: not only to control the oil (which in the end they didn’t) but, in Michael Hudson’s analysis, “to essentially create America’s foreign legion in the form of ISIS* and al-Qaeda** in Iraq.” Now, “America has two armies that it’s using to fight in the Near East, the ISIS*/al-Qaeda** foreign legion (Arabic-speaking foreign legion) and the Israelis.”
Hudson’s intuition of ISIS* and Israel as parallel armies is priceless: they both fight the Axis of Resistance, and never (italics mine) fight each other. The Straussian neocon plan, as tawdry as it gets, essentially is a variant of the “fight to the last Ukrainian”: to “fight to the last Israeli” on the way to the Holy Grail, which is to bomb, bomb, bomb Iran (copyright John McCain) and provoke regime change.
As much as the “plan” did not work in Iraq or Ukraine, it won’t work against the Axis of Resistance.
What Putin, Xi and Raisi have been explaining to the Global South, explicitly or in quite subtle ways, is that we are right in the crux of a civilizational war.
Michael Hudson has done a lot to bring down such an epic struggle to practical terms. Are we heading towards what I described as techno-feudalism
– which is the AI format of rent-seeking turbo-neoliberalism? Or are we heading to something similar to the origins of industrial capitalism?
Michael Hudson characterizes an auspicious horizon as “raising living standards instead of imposing IMF financial austerity on the dollar block”: devising a system that Big Finance, Big Bank, Big Pharma and what Ray McGovern memorably coined as the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) cannot control. Alea jacta est.
* ISIS (also known as ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia.
** A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
The China haters and Chinese doubters with many of them here in QUORA has been predicting doom and gloom on China for years. And made 100 collapse projection!
Let me help them learn the truth that these U.S. and IS dogs hate to hear.
In 2023 China grew 5.2%. And has an official inflation rate of 0.2%. That means Chinese standard of living grew by a full 5.0%!
US GDP grew by 2.4% but has an official inflation rate of 3.4%. So effectively the U.S. economy dwindled by -1.0% in 2023.
UK economy contracted by -3.0% and has an official inflation rated of 4.06% hence the real GDP of U.S. deteriorated by a whopping -7.06%
And guess what BBC, CNN and Fox had a field day claiming China’s economy is in trouble! Hahahaha and fools like those haters actually believe in them!
Here are 5 things I’ve learned recently that shocked me and impressed me, now let me share with you:
1.CIA revealed a “heart attack” gun in 1975
[1]. A battery operated gun which fired a dart of frozen water & shellfish toxin. Once inside the body it would melt leaving only a small red mark on the victim where it entered. The official cause of death would always be a heart attack.
2.Eli Whitney’s creation of the cotton gin
[2] gave the South enough economic power to be able to start the Civil War, and his creation of interchangeable parts for rifles gave the North the manufacturing power to win the Civil War.
Although Whitney’s invention only involved a few hundred kilograms of matter, it shaped the future of a nation and its people; it is rare that a single contrivance has such a profound social effect.
3.A British plan to assassinate Hitler
[3] was ultimately called off because they thought keeping him in power would help the war end faster given his terrible decision making and strategy.
4. A research found that
[4]the most common last name among American physicians is no longer “Smith”, it’s “Patel”.
5. In the Netherlands, if you die and have no next of kin, friends or family to attend your funeral, they will send a poet who shall read a custom poem for you at your funeral so that you won’t be alone that day.
My sister and I were transiting Dallas airport en route to New Orleans. My sister is 100% deaf and lip reads. I walk with a cane.
We had arrived at a different terminal and although our bags were through checked we had to pass through immigration and travel to a different terminal and pass through security there. Things were going well until we got to the security check. My sister put her hand luggage on the belt to the scanner as did I. My sister entered the body scanner and upon exit one of the staff started yelling at her. I was still to enter the scanner so was unable to help other than to yell “That is my sister. She is deaf.” I was told to “Butt out lady, none of your business.” The one doing the yelling just increased the volume and then some more. I again called out that she is deaf, she cannot hear you. As I was exiting the scanner I saw him grab her arm and start pulling her. I lost it and tried to get to her side. Three large males blocked me. By now you would have thought a full-blown incident was going down.
I was yelling I must help my sister. Why have they taken her. She will be scared. She is deaf. Help me. Help her. I heard a voice at my side. “Did you just say she is deaf” It was a supervisor. “I said yes she lip reads” This man walked past the guards blocking me and went to my sister who was sobbing. I saw him touch her arm and get herto look at him and then he spoke slowly and carefully. She became calmer and after a few minutes I was allowed to pass and join her and we were sent on our way.
UK knows HK laws well because HK runs the common laws of former coloniser UK. UK & Hongkong had an extradition treaty. UK suspended it in 2020, after the 2019 HK coup has failed. The coup was plotted & led by USA+UK.
How many British politicians & citizens are involved in HK conspiracy? Quite a few.
In an earlier post (link below), I talked about USA+UK interfering Hongkong judiciary system which is currently prosecuting HK’s #1 traitor Jimmy Lai (黎智英). J Lai’s aide Mark Simon was an ex-CIA & naval intelligence agent. UK & USA are co-conspirators.
In this post, we look at how an intl crime works. (1) propaganda (2) lobby/bribery/collusion of foreign politicians. Both involve lots of (illicit) money.
Mark Simon helped J Lai grow from broke to multi millionaire “overnight”. J Lai ran a multi-million media called Apple Daily(苹果日报) which spread propaganda. At the heat of the coup, Apple spread disinformation daily, if not hourly. … control of people’s info/mind is important for a successful coup.
intl crime – lobby/bribery/collusion of foreign politicians
There was an NGO called Hongkong Watch (香港监察)re human rights. The founder is Benedict Rogers. UK MP Lord David Alton is a patron. Luke de Pulford has connection too.
J Lai paid Andy Li $500,000 & asked him meet D Alton & other MPs in Conservative party incl de Pulford. At the end, a total of 19 UK MPs “monitored” HK’s 2019 district election (translation: to make sure HK traitors win the (fraud) election so as to control district council).
Other than Alton & de Pulford, Andy Li also met Andrew Heyn of UK’s Consul General in HK, Anson Chan (陈方安生 HK #2 traitor) as well as US senator Rick Scott.
Martin Lee (李柱铭 HK #3 traitor) & TW Chan (陈梓华) got to meet Benedict Rogers.
illicit money in an intl crime
In July 2019, a conspiracy was plotted. It was nicknamed zhibao (支爆) (short for 支那爆炸 literal translation: China explosion).
Lawyer TW Chan asked J Lai to fund the propaganda in foreign countries, so as to ask foreign countries to pressure & sanction China incl Hongkong.
Andy Li’s whatsapp showed Martin Lee asked if J Lai could first lend $5 million. J Lai promised $1.56 million for foreign media outlets thru 2 of his companies, Dico & Lais Hotel in Canada.
TW Chan knew Mark Simon. M Simon promised to fund the “explosion” scheme upfront, but the money must be reimbursed later.
TW Chan asked Andy Li to organise a group called “Stand with HK (重光团队)” & take instructions from J Lai.
Andy Li raised fund 3 times & got $24.4 million.
For 3 times, Andy Li spent $9.8 million to publish seditious articles in 20+ countries eg USA, UK, Germany, Canada, Japan etc. And in 9 overseas media eg Guardian, Washington Post, Japan’s NHK etc.
J Lai pre-paid 6 foreign media at $3.54 million.
A columnist named Jack H (not sure the spelling of his last name) worked at J Lai’s Apple Daily. Thru Jack’s UK bank account, $3.2 million was deposited to Andy Li’s account in UK.
The fund that was raised by Andy Li was used to reimburse M Simon’s foundation.
In order not to disclose his identity, Andy Li transferred it to Taiwan. From Taiwan, $1.65 million reimbursed J Lai. M Simon reported to J Lai that the entire loan has been reimbursed. (Try not to add up the figures. Some details have been skipped. I just report it as is.)
In Aug-Nov 2019, J Lai paid Chan $174,000 & asked him set up street booths to do propaganda.
the scheme was quite successful
The 2019 HK riot was almost out-of-control. China took action …
In Mar 2020, China indicated it would hand down a HK security law which would take effect on 2020/6/30. China would “forgive” those who stopped treason before the deadline.
China’s warning did not stop J Lai from lobbying foreign countries. Though it has stopped HK’s #2 & #3 traitors who announced retirement from politics.
After the HK Security Law is in effect, Andy Li fled to Taiwan with 11 others. His boat drifted into China’s territory & thus was arrested by China.
a state witness against J Lai
Andy Li was remorseful & said in HK court “I would like to say I am sorry” with a 90 degree bow to the judge.
It was Andy Li, TW Chan & many of Apple’s managers who turn to become a state witness against J Lai that we see the involvement of foreign countries & the illicit money.
That is why, in an earlier post, USA+UK demanded HK release J Lai unconditionally & threatened to sanction HK judges. They even complained to UN Human Rights Council claiming that HK security law has violated J Lai’s civil & political rights. … UK is trying to protect his politicians from extradition & arrest by ICPO. Haha.
Koubeba Syriani
Ingredients
1 medium onion, quartered
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 pound lean ground veal or beef
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup ground walnuts, + 20 walnut halves
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup toasted bread crumbs
1/4 cup olive oil, + more for brushing
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
20 pitted prunes
1 cup chicken or beef stock
2/3 cup dry red wine
2 to 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish
Instructions
In a food processor or blender, combine the onion, chopped parsley and lemon juice and pulse to chop.
In a large bowl, combine the onion mixture, meat, almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, bread crumbs, oil, egg, pepper or pepper flakes and salt and knead into a homogenous mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours.
Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Shape 1/4-cup portions of the meat mixture into oval rolls and arrange in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Brush the rolls with oil and bake for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, insert 1 walnut half into each prune (you may need to halve the larger walnuts).
Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees F.
Arrange the stuffed prunes between the meat rolls, add the stock, wine and 1 to 2 tablespoons of the vinegar and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more. Baste with the pan juices, turn off the oven and leave the dish in the oven for 5 minutes.
Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings with vinegar, salt and/or pepper or pepper flakes. Garnish with parsley sprigs and serve.
I had some druggie horse people rent the house next to me. It was on 4 acres. Around 1 acre was fenced in. It was so thick you about couldn’t walk through it. They put 7 horses in that area. It was up wind of my house so all you could smell was horse chit.
I complained to them.
I was told if I didn’t like it I needed to move to town. I called the dept of agriculture. They said there was no limit to the number they could put in the area. The owner of the place was a friend from highschool that lived half way across the country. I called him. He said they didn’t pay half the time.
I asked if he would sell the place. He agreed to so I bought it . I paid cash so the Tennants had no idea.
I then went to them and complained about the smell again. I was told to get out of their yard. I said soon as the horses were gone I would. She called the law and told them I was trespassing and made threats to them.
I had the camera on my phone on just in case something happened like this lol live feed to Facebook. The officers took their side and they were laughing at me . I was told to leave by the deputies.
They then asked if she would like to press charges. She said yes and started rattling off lies about what I had done.
I let her tell her stories then I pulled out an envelope I had in my pocket. It has the deed to the house and land.
I then logged into Facebook and showed the officers the video.
The smiles and laughs were gone in seconds.
I then said I would be filing for an eviction the next day.
I did and moved my daughter and grand kids in . Been nice every since.
Never Count On Money Not In the Hand
January 25, 2024
It’s tempting, isn’t it? To gaze at the horizon of future fortunes, squinting through wishful thinking to count imaginary chickens nestled in speculative eggs. We do it with inheritances, tax returns, that “big idea” just waiting to explode. We tally future salary raises, potential bonuses, and the nebulous windfall from that distant relative we barely know.
But here’s the harsh truth, friends: money you don’t have isn’t yours. No matter how glittering the mirage, how convincing the whispers of “soon,” present reality trumps future possibility.
Why? Because life, as they say, has a way of intervening. That inheritance could get bogged down in legal red tape. The “sure thing” investment turns sour. The big break fizzles. And suddenly, our meticulously counted chickens morph into dust devils dancing on the financial plains.
The friend who is supposed to repay your loan turns out to be a broke loser
Your income tax refund turns out to be a lot less than expected
A buyer backs out of buying your item for sale
Your car needs repair out of the blue, and it costs a lot
Your work bonus turns out to be misleading and not worth the trouble
The little brother gets arrested, loses his job, and now needs you to loan him money
So, let’s break the habit of phantom fortune counting. Let’s swap daydreams for reality checks and embrace a fundamental truth: your financial security rests on what you have, not what you hope to have.
Here’s how to shift your mindset:
Focus on the controllable: Instead of dreaming of a potential windfall, channel your energy into building your present financial well-being. Invest in skills, pay down debt, build an emergency fund. These actionable steps, not hopeful wishes, pave the path to real prosperity.
Live within your means: Don’t spend money you haven’t earned. This may seem obvious, but the allure of future riches can make us splurge on the “now,” setting ourselves up for disappointment and potential hardship later.
Appreciate the present: Gratitude for what you do have shifts your focus from the elusive “what if” to the concrete “what is.” A healthy dose of contentment can make you far richer than any imaginary windfall.
Plan for the future, but realistically: Yes, set goals and plan for your future financial needs. But keep those plans grounded in present realities, making adjustments as needed. Remember, even the best-laid plans can encounter unexpected turbulence.
Life is full of possibilities, some more likely than others. But building true financial security requires building on solid ground, not the ever-shifting sands of speculation. Focus on the present, make smart choices, and watch your real, tangible prosperity bloom, one disciplined step at a time.
I’ve posted this somewhere before, but a number of years ago I was in Jakarta, Indonesia and due to fly back to the UK that evening on Singapore airlines.
When I went to check in and get my boarding pass (yes this was back when you actually got your pass at the check in desk) there were a lot of angry people making a fuss and the young Indonesian woman at the desk looked thoroughly upset. It was clear that she wasn’t far from tears.
I speak Indonesian and when I got the chance asked what the problem was. She said that an earlier flight had been cancelled and that as a result the flight I was due to catch was overbooked. She explained that she had to bump a number of people and knew that it was going to be problematic. The noisy, unhappy people milling around her desk proved that.
I said that I’d be happy to be bumped to a flight the next day if it would help her as I had no real need to catch that flight.
She thanked me profusely and asked me to take a seat for a while and she would sort out the details once she had dealt with the other customers.
I took a seat nearby and read my book for a while until a second young woman in a Singapore airlines uniform approached me and said “thank you for helping out Mr Graham, but we’ve managed to find you a seat for the flight tonight. I hope you don’t mind that the only remaining seat is in first class.”
So for the sake of being polite and offering to help an upset young woman with an awkward situation, I ended up in first class on an eighteen hour flight being looked after like a king. It seemed that the flight attendants had been told I was a “special guest “ and nothing was too much trouble for them.
My camping experiences have uniformly been terrible. No matter what year it is, who I am with, or what my age is… it doesn’t matter what season, time of the year or whatever… it always rained.
And that meant, yeah you guessed it, sleeping in the rain, wet, cold, freezing with no real sleep and eventually waking up to a cold gloomy grey morning before everyone else does.
Sigh.
Never the less, I have romanticized the idea of camping. I imagine how great it would be to merge my “keg parties” and late-night bonfires with the idea of sleeping comfortably nearby.
My bother has become adept at it and loves to hike in the Colorado mountains with his wife and huskies. Which, by the way, they love all the snow.
It’s could out, I know (if you are in the Northern climes), but if you are in Australia, it just might be perfect camping weather. I just cannot imagine it gets snowy, just temperate at night. But, honestly, I’d be afraid to sleep there in the brush. The snakes (I hear) are quite deadly, as are the spiders… the toads… the beatles… the ants… and you are apt to run into a wild herd of wallabies. Yikes!
I’ve seen the you-tube videos… frightening!
Snakes, critters with strange names, and frogs that re inside out and just don’t die. Burrrrr!
But if you are the brave sort, as most Aussies are, going out into the brush is just as normal as downing a pint. A natural part of the ebb and flow of life.
Ah. One day. One day.
Sounds great… if you have a local to keep you out of trouble, but I have to tell you all what…
You won’t be able to get me to drink beer out of a stinky old shoe. No way!
Let me help you guys unpacked how Trump fxxked up Apple. Yes he fxxked up Apple one of the world’s most admirable company.
Step one. Trump and later Biden thought that they can fxxked up Huawei and China. They both didn’t. Expect China and Huawei to survive! Let alone excel. Well they don’t know mathematics for a start. A billion and a half Chinese including me a Chinese origin turn around and patriotically chose Huawei over Apple! And poor Apple got fxxked up! For no reason but just bad politics by their racist government!
One they and their contract manufacturer Foxconn switch just 5% of their manufacturing to India and they both got fxxked up badly. The failure if Apple Phone 15 made in India is so high it lost all trust on their customers. Now Foxconn wants our right away! But India says not so fast. And Apple brand name is already thoroughly fxxked! In Asia the Apple users insist it has to be MADE IN CHINA!
But that is a smaller problem. Now let me introduce you guys a great lesson that doing shit don’t pay! China and Huawei took a mere 3 short years to do what the U.S. thought China has to take at least 30 years! And it actually made a phone better, faster, cheaper than iPhone! Plus a billion people on earth wanting to show displeasure at US and Trump and Biden shit! In January 2024 they decide to teach the west a lesson! Try imagining a perfect storm!
That is what the US is facing. It’s own products are fxxked up, its shit is not working yet it spends billions if not trillions to coerce and bribing nations and companies to do shit! That is the real USA today!
And let me help you. You ain’t seen nothing yet! Decoupling or de-risking from China is the last thing you ought to do!
Nope, the underlying problem reminds the same. US strategists feel they must retain US hegemony and its rules based world order in order to thrive. And Russia/China refuses to accept those rules not supported by the UN Charter.
2023 was a year, US officials feels they must moderate their confrontation with China due to negative headwinds from a losing fight in Ukraine war, a uniting global South dedollarising fast and near record inflation from years of Tbill printing. They fear Chinese aggressive selling of Tbills will worsen the US inflation and Tbill printing situation only. Nothing has changed.
China on the other hand has fears that an over intense US China confrontation can worsen global demand and that can complicate the delicate balance they have in sustaining the Chinese economy without HUGE STIMULUS. China is still preparing to retake Taiwan, and there are still key steps needed including doubling nuke deterrence, training PLA personnel with so many new toys, supplies and economy in case of sanctions. Plenty to do in next few years. So, China is also receptive to moderating tension while work continues.
So, this is a tactical pause only, the strategic picture has not changed at all. USA is hoping to unite West to win, and Russia/China is hoping to unite the global South to push a new world order. And to dedollarise under BRICS+ (BRICS Pay) to burst the US Tbill bubble. THAT IS STILL THE GLOBAL BIG PICTURE, THIS IS A FIGHT FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER.
I invited a very close friend with her sons to come for Christmas dinner. I was a single mom, and so was she. I invited a few other single parents too. Christmas can be a challenge for singles.
I was cooking up a storm all day. I made a lot — she had 2 sons who were big kids and big eaters. She had promised to come this time. The year before she had canceled the day before. My “friend” called an hour before dinner to tell me that she had gotten “a better offer” and wasn’t coming to dinner. (In case you’re wondering, I’m an excellent cook.) I couldn’t believe she was so rude. Plus, she waited so late — I ended up with way too much food left over.
You won’t believe this, but when the next holiday came, she hinted that she wanted to be invited. This happened for years after, but I never, ever invited her for a holiday meal again.
Don’t know how clever it was, but a client of mine had been picked up because he was in a minor accident and had an open container of beer with him. When the cops were taking him to the station, they asked him whether he wanted a breath test or a blood test (Colorado law gave the accused the choice, after which no change was allowed). He opted for a blood test, but explained that he was Russian and had ‘fat skin’ (his term); they’d need a doctor to draw the blood. He was told ‘Paramedics are what we have and paramedics are what you get.’
He sat there patiently while the paramedics stuck him about seven times, never able to draw blood. Finally losing patience, the cop with him told him he was getting a breath test, and my client refused to participate.
Under implied consent, they charged him with DUI and called him an ambulance (he’d suffered minor injuries in the crash. Nothing to make the delay over the testing any issue). The paramedic in the ambulance set an IV with no problems (of course, nobody tried to get blood then) and took him to the hospital.
When we got into court, I got the cop on the stand to agree to the main points, i.e. that the accused had opted for a blood test, he’d been patient while repeated attempts were made to draw blood and that the police then demanded the breath test, which he refused. No problem; the cop admitted each point. I then turned to the judge and said (approximately; it’s been twenty-five years or more), “Your honor, the law prevents the accused from changing his mind after he’s made his choice. If he can’t change his mind, the police can’t do it for him.” Then I shut up.
The judge thought about that for all of about a minute before dismissing the case.
My eldest daughter went into IT in my footsteps. I was so very proud of her when she got a chance to join a start-up that ended up being wildly successful. One of the founders was a bit of an arrogant little prick. One Sunday my daughter was over for dinner and we were talking shop. I asked how it was going, and she said fine except for little prick. She volunteered that the crew had found out he had two panic points. He was deathly afraid of both little people (dwarves/midgets) and scared shitless of clowns. I duly noted both. April 1 was coming fast so good old dad got busy and found…drumroll please….a midget clown stripper. Sent her into the business during lunch on April 1. Daughter said little prick screamed like a girl and ran out of the building. Didn’t return for two days. Everyone said it was the best practical joke they’d ever seen.
Originally Answered: What is the furthest you’ve seen somebody reach to be offended at something?
A few months ago I was in my local Home Hardware picking up tools – a pack of blades, some feeler gauges, etc. Sometimes I forget to put my tools back into the toolbox and they tend to…go for a walk.
While I was there, I noticed a woman and a girl in her late teens staring bemusedly at the long racks of tools. The woman had a list in her hands, and was dubiously looking at the endless choices.
Not at all hard to see what was happening; I’ve seen it dozens of times. Once, a long time ago, the woman was the friend that had taken me in after I had left my mother.
When a young person joins a technical Trade, he/she is expected to arrive at training with the required tools for the job. Parents will often gift the tools to their kids – since a basic entry-level tool collection costs easily $200* it’s a good way for parents to support their kids.
(*That swells – fast. My current toolbox is worth – at an estimate – about six to seven thousand dollars. I have two or three instruments that are worth twice that each; though in those cases the Company reimbursed me for those purchases.)
Quality tools cost – but cheap tools cost far more in the long run.)
I knew what was going on, so I drifted close as the women were looking at the hammers. “This one looks nice?” the woman was saying.
I introduced myself, and offered my help. I learned that I was right – the lady’s daughter had been hired by a factory and was following the millwright trade.
Excellent! Millwright is a superb trade; solid machinery and repair skills. The ability to understand and repair anything mechanical is a valuable ability. I cannot recommend the Millwright trade highly enough.
Every trade needs bright new apprentices and every apprentice should have generous parents willing to help.
I looked at the cheap rubber-handled claw-hammer the woman was looking at and shook my head. It looked like this:
These are fine for home use. But not what the lass needed. I pointed out the problems with the rubber grip: with regular use it raises blisters. It’s not well balanced; it’s not heavy enough to be truly efficient.
While I’m no millwright I AM a Journeyman Pressman and I repair, maintain and adjust my printing presses to a high degree of competence and know what the list meant when it said “hammer”. I show the lady this instead:
Simple, solid, reliable. It will never slip, it will never bind, it will never raise blisters. When holding it at the balance point this hammer will do an excellent job and be an extension of the young woman’s hand. (Using a hammer takes skill.) When covered in oil, in grease and filthy, this hammer will ALWAYS do exactly what you want. THIS is the hammer the lass needs – and the one that the lady hadn’t been looking at because the coloured rubber handles of the others looked better.
EDIT: A Journeyman carpenter commented that I was wrong in this particular point: using a rubber-handled does not raise blisters if it’s used correctly. Thanks for the correction; I’m glad to learn something new.
Down the list: Allen keys.
The lady looked at a set of chromed Allen keys. They looked great – and were expensive as Hell. I guided her away from them, and pointed to cheaper, solid ball-end keys instead.
(These look great.)
(THESE work!)
By this time, one of the red-shirted salespeople had joined us. She was in her late 40’s, blonde, and had the easy confidence of someone who really knew their trade. It doesn’t take much for one Journeyman to recognize another. (As a side note, Home Hardware hires a LOT of Journeyman-status salespeople. The red-shirted people selling tools and lumber often REALLY know what the hell they’re talking about.)
I smiled and bowed out – this was the Journeyman’s job.
The next item on the list was a wrench set. Wrenches are the stock in trade of any machine operator and it’s best to get a good set.
The red-shirted Millwright (I learned her status later when chatting) offered a pack I was uncertain of. I shrugged, offered my opinion and pointed out the one I would suggest.
At that point the daughter – who the tools were for – turned around and angrily told me to butt out. The woman would help them, thanks.
The mother agreed, and told me to shut up. She was DONE with ‘mansplaining’ and told me that I was just helping them to bolster my fragile male Ego. They would do VERY well without me.
The look that went across my face could best be described as a ‘very thin smile’.
At which point the red-shirted woman rounded on the lass and asked her if she wanted a career in the Trades. The teenager shrugged.
At which point the Millwright pointed out if the girl ever hoped to earn her Red Seals, she would have to learn that when a Journeyman speaks, apprentices shut the hell up and listen.
The girl was shocked into silence and I compared notes with my fellow Journeyman. I pointed out the value of the other set of wrenches. The woman agreed, but pointed out a few issues I hadn’t realized – I quickly agreed the set she suggested were the best. (I’ve since bought a set of those wrenches. They’re AMAZING and if it wasn’t for that Millwright, I’d never have realized it.)
I tried to help – and because I was a ‘guy’ I was ‘mansplaining’ – when the female Journeyman showed up.
It didn’t bother me at all – I’ve seen so many Apprentices fall by the wayside that one more failure doesn’t affect me in the slightest. I just thought it was neat that this girl just entering the Trade got a wake-up call:
The Trades don’t give one CRAP about your gender. They only care about your skill, and you are only EVER as good as your last work.
This project is led by retired US Air Force Colonel Raymond Powell, in collaboration with counterparts from the Philippine Coast Guard and some officials from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. They plan, strategize, and execute this project, engaging in confrontations, provocations, and standoffs with the China Coast Guard.
According to Project Myoushu’s claim, it “seeks to develop more effective tools to shine a light into the gray zone of China’s maritime coercion strategy.” Powell occasionally releases satellite images and trajectory maps of Chinese fishing vessels and government ships. All of this is done intentionally to create a tense situation in the South China Sea region, particularly in disputed areas between the Philippines and China, such as Huangyan Island or Ren’ai Reef.
It is a good thing that China uses large ships and vessels. The numerical and scale advantage of the Chinese Coast Guard actually helps to avoid more serious confrontations, as fleet conflicts would be more imminent if both sides were evenly matched in size.
However, regardless of the circumstances, Western media always portray China as a bully. This is the true purpose of this project and the goal set by the US – they use the so-called “confidence in transparency of reporting” to create propaganda against China. They claim it is transparent because Western media bring cameras, media personnel, etc., to document the process and report it to Filipino audiences and the world. It is understandable that this signifies something – the US wants to undermine China’s reputation.
The Philippines had a highly productive and friendly relationship with China, such as collaborative projects in the BRI, which greatly enhanced the economic advantage of the Philippines. However, President Marcos clearly has his own ideas about the arrangements from the US. He has never explained to the Filipino people why he has shifted back towards the US. In the South China Sea issue, Marcos’ policies are filled with hostility and aggression.
In fact, the Filipino people are not concerned about the South China Sea dispute. A survey report released by Pulse Asia
[2] in September 2023 showed that only 7% of Filipinos are concerned about the South China Sea dispute, while 93% of the population is primarily concerned about controlling inflation, employment, reducing poverty, and fighting corruption.
The US has exerted mass pressure, demanding that the Philippines continue to “contain” China. If this continues, Marcos’ policies will only become further detached from the demands of the people. It appears that Marcos is going to have a tough time in the upcoming new year.
Never compare your sex life with porn videos. Because porn videos are totally fake.
Never be sad for losing someone. No one lasts for long period of time. Even, you are gonna lose your beauty, money and health with age.
Never underestimate failure.Only a failure gives you the proper perspective of success.
Never “Trust” easily on anyone. Because trust is the most expensive thing and so don’t trust blindly. Even, your friends get jealous when they see your progress.
Never share your password of social media accounts, email, Internet Banking, and ATM pin\CVV number with anyone. Never!
Never get involved in sexual activities till you are not serious in your relationship.
Never believe on that girl\boy who have lots of relationship in their past. They can easily manipulated you by crying their bad past.( Exception is everywhere)
Never try to hurt your parents. They have lots of expectations from you.
In any situation, Never think about ending your life. Even plants regrow leaves after one leaf shed.
I walked into a bank one morning in Florida to find it totally empty of any customers and only one teller behind the counter and another lady at her desk opposite. As I approached the teller, she scolded me for not first stopping behind the yellow line on the floor before walking the 3 steps to her counter. She was not busy at all. “Sir!!! Go back and stand BEHIND the yellow line!!” Me; “Ok, but I saw you are not busy”. I went back while she watched me. As soon as I was standing still behind the line, she nodded and immediately said; “Ok, NOW you can approach”. I asked her politely if there was any reason for having a customer stop behind the line in an empty bank. Her; “Because the sign says so!!!” she scolded. “And I say so!!!” The only other bank employee looked at her and rolled her eyes. Just then, a phone (Land line) rang and the teller picked it up still snarling at me. She was quite an unpleasant lady to the caller too. Just then, she starts to walk away at a brisk pace, forgetting the phone was not a cordless and the cord stretched as far as it would go and then phone sling shotted out of her hands and flew across the room and skidded to a stop on the floor. She looked at me right away to see if I saw what happened and I could not hide my grin which just set her off all the more. She turned red and it was clear she was not having a good day. I almost felt sympathetic.
Just a minor example of Karma, but it was pretty funny.
Whenever you are starting a new job, always let them know that you have 4 alive grandparents. Then you have 4 pre-made excuses for whenever you don’t want to come into work.
When you’re shopping online and need to reach a threshold for free delivery, simply add a gift card to your order. The next time you make a purchase, you can use the card and repeat the process.
When dining alone at a restaurant, bring a notebook. Write in it occasionally. The staff might think you’re a food critic, and they’ll likely try their best to impress you, maybe even treating you to some free food.
If someone ever calls you fat, tell them you used to be 75 lbs heavier. It will make them feel guilty for saying it to you, while also making you look accomplished for losing weight.
Use airplane mode to hang up on people. They will see “call failed” instead of “call ended”.
When you’re looking for a job, post a fake ad for a very similar position on the internet so you could check out the resumes of your competition.
Don’t show your Tinder profile or Instagram to your date. Show your profile on some niche platform like luxyor Mensa to go from being average to standing out.
If your girl ever gets mad at you and won’t speak, just tighten up all the jars in the house. Eventually she’ll have to talk to you to get your help opening up one of the jars.
If your coworker ever calls in sick for work, you can do the same 1-3 days later. Your boss will think you have the same thing and it’s “going around the office”. Your boss may even do the same shortly after you. It’s called the “fake flu”.
lf you want people to stop letting dogs sh*t on your lawn. Instead of a sign saying “no dogs allowed”, put up one saying “Lawn recently treated with toxic pesticides”.
Nobody would let their dog anywhere near your lawn ever again.
If you’re in a taxi and you think the driver is purposely driving slow to get the meter up. Just cough or sneeze to make yourself seem sick and watch the driver speed up to prevent catching something from you.
If you want to slack off at work, slack off but act annoyed or frustrated around your boss. This will give the impression that you’re working hard and the job is getting you heated.
Experiences
Mia’s Asian Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Thai Dressing
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sesame oil
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons garlic
4 green onions, minced
1 bunch cilantro, minced
1 teaspoon chili paste
Salad
Napa cabbage
Carrot peel
Green onions
Cooked rice noodles
Thai dressing
Instructions
Marinate chicken breast with Thai dressing for 4 hours, then cook on grill.
Serve grilled chicken on top of salad with dressing drizzled over.
My son was denied membership in the National Honor Society as a junior in high school. He fit every qualification for membership, but two of his many teachers just didn’t like him. It was pretty obvious that he had been “blackballed”.
I went online and checked out the rules at the national level for bestowing membership. They clearly stated that “blackballing” was illegal. They also stated that the records of the votes by the teachers must be maintained for a certain amount of time after the vote for membership. So, I went to the school and asked for the vote tally. They refused to give it to me. I filed a freedom of information suit against the school.
A few days later, I got a call from an attorney at the state capital. He was representing the school, and he asked for my lawyer’s name and contact info. When I told him I was representing myself, he started in on me. He told me that I was sure to lose the suit and that I would then have to pay all of the schools costs, which would include his bill, and it would come to thousands of dollars. He told me I had better just withdraw the suit. I said no, and we hung up.
The case was scheduled for an appearance before the judge. The attorney called me again about 3 days before the scheduled appearance. He went after me again on what it was going to cost me when I lost the suit. I again told him that I was not dropping the suit.
We went to the courthouse when the appearance came up, and we both arrived at about the same time. He went ahead of me into the courthouse and introduced himself to the judge. I went in just after him and looked up at the judge and said, “Hi, Jim.” The Judge looked at me and said, “Hi, Eric.” The look on the lawyer’s face was priceless.
The judge listened to each of us and told us that the school was required to provide me with the information I was seeking, and would be responsible for paying all of my legal fees. He then asked me what my fees were. I told him that it was such a trivial case that I didn’t incur any costs, I just wanted to see the information.
Oddly enough, I never did get to see the vote results. Seems the school was so confident in victory that they had thrown the results in the trash some time earlier. Instead of pursuing it, I let them know that they needed to read the NHS rules and follow them more closely in the future. My son was inducted his senior year.
Years ago I operated a full service gas station. There was a young lady who’d come in and have freon added to her AC. Back then freon cost just under $1 a pound. She’d come in and I added 3 or 4 pounds of freon. I’d charge my labor equal to what the material parts installed on the car. So 4 pounds of freon = $4. Meaning the total cost for my work was $8. It only took a few minutes to do.
After a few days she’d show back up to get another recharge. On the third visit I asked her “ Why don’t you let me find the leak and fix it so I can charge the unit properly and you won’t need to do this anymore. “ She refused and told me just to charge/add the freon.
It wouldn’t have cost her anymore than $50. If it was a hose or fitting leaking even less. If it was a pin leak in the high pressure coil? I could get one out of a salvage yard.
If it was a pin leak in the low pressure coil? I could fix it with epoxy. Then evacuate the system and add new freon it’d be like new.
Edit: I thank everyone for their responses.
But for the ding-dongs who are saying things like I should lose my license or charging a leaking system is illegal…. THIS WAS IN THE 70s.
There WERE NO license. There were NO laws preventing the sales or use of freon. PLUS…. back then… car AC units were designed to leak. That way the people who looked at their car dealer as the ONLY place to have the car repaired ends up giving more business to the dealerships.
I say to those people…. “ Sorry to burst your bubble… But there was life BEFORE 1985.”
I was never a professional mechanic, but this one was fun. A friend of mine was looking for a “small but fun” car back in 1993. We happened across a 1977 Datsun 280Z that was priced at $650. It needed paint, but had zero rust, which is hard to find on an old Z. The seller told us that it ran fine, and that it had a low-mileage Japanese import engine and transmission in it. We went to test drive it, and it missed horribly. I couldn’t get it over 45mph.
The seller wouldn’t budge on the price, but he said he’d take $50 off to have a diagnostic run at a local shop. He told us to take it home overnight. I insisted on stopping to get a set of plugs at AutoZone. Back then, Nippondensos were 88 cents apiece. When we got to the house, my friend gapped the plugs while I removed and installed them. I expected to see either a plug that was totally fouled with carbon, or one with zero gap. Instead, I noticed the order on the numbered factory wires:
1,3,2,4,5,6! What’s wrong with this picture?
Surely not, I thought. It just couldn’t be that easy.
I put the wires, in the correct order, on the new plugs. 5 minutes later, we were flying down the road at 120 mph, laughing our asses off. The engine ran smooth as silk. Needless to say, my friend bought it.
Some time later, I ran into the previous owner, who asked if we ever got it running right. I told him we had, but that it was very expensive and labor intensive. He said he knew it would be a difficult problem, because he and his brother had tried for two years and couldn’t figure it out.
Sometimes all it takes is a new set of eyes.
China is both cool and interesting
NASA’s Webb Captures an Ethereal View of NGC 346 (MIRI)
Yes. I went shopping for a particular Barbie for my niece’s birthday. I couldn’t see it on the shelves, but when I spoke to a member of staff she very kindly went out the back and managed to find one for me. I was just thanking her when a little girl ran up, squealing “Mummy, that’s the Barbie!” The employee said she was sorry, but I had the last one and there wouldn’t be more for a few days. The mother asked me if she could have it, to which I said no as my niece had been looking forward to it. The child went into demon mode, screaming “Mummy!” at the top of her voice and the woman asked again, saying her daughter is getting really upset. I again said no and tried to walk away. She then followed me, saying loud enough for customers to hear that I’d made her daughter cry. . That was it for me. Even though her child’s wailing had settled into a whimper by this point, no-one wants to be publicly accused of that. It was obvious that this woman was used to getting what she wanted and her daughter had learned from her mother’s example. She knew making noise would get her what she wanted, and couldn’t understand it not working in a shop when it clearly worked at home. I told the woman that (a) no child was entitled to get everything they wanted, (b) she should be aiming to raise a child with good manners, not a misplaced sense of entitlement, and (c) if she wasn’t careful, her only success would be in raising a child as bratty as herself. . I didn’t shout or swear, but I was very clear and she was so shocked that someone had stood up to her that she went the other way and started begging me for it. I told her that she had been very rude and wasn’t getting the doll from me, so if she wanted to go back to screeching and being abusive she was welcome to. Several people were watching by now, and they openly laughed when I told them what had happened. What made her finally shut up? Another customer telling her that she sounded like she needed a doll herself and should be quiet otherwise she’d end up on Facebook looking like a fool.
Not my case but a 17-18 year old boy accused and found guilty of sexually assaulting a girl he’d come across in the street late one night as she was making her way home after a big night out and yes, she was drunk, not that it makes a difference.
He dragged her into a nearby park and was in the process of trying to remove her clothes while she tried to resist him when a police patrol turned and caught him in the act. He had been spotted forcing her into the park on a CCTV camera and the operator had called it in and reported it.
Evidence is gathered, court case goes ahead and our lucky lad (please recognize the sarcasm) is found guilty and facing a minimum of XX years in jail. Judge thanks jury then sets aside the verdict/suspends the sentence and puts him on a good behaviour and some very minimal mount of community service.
Why, you might ask?
The judge said “as the boy was attending the ‘high-brow upper-class very expensive private school’ and had a promising future ahead of him, having a custodial sentence on his record would not be good for him, the court on this occasion could be lenient.”
The interesting thing about the boy with “a promising future ahead of him” was that he already had a shady past, three prior charges for things like assault, public lewdness and another sexual assault charge.
I spent 29 Christmases in prison. During this time I saw it change over the years on what they gave the incarcerated
The first few years I was in prison were like this. A huge holiday meal that took up two trays. One tray consisted of ham, turkey dressing, rolls, mashed potatoes with gravy and usually a serving of something else that was different every year it seemed. The second tray was a slice of pumpkin pie (or sweet potato pie), cool whip, a small container of ice cream and a soda
You were also given a bag of various nuts and another bag of candy. You were given a few Christmas cards to send out and $5.00 on your account. They stopped putting the $5.00 on everyone’s account after my 3rd year in prison.
The two christmas bags eventually changed to one. It consisted of shampoo, ramen soups, candy bars etc and was and to my knowledge still comes from Joyce Meyers Ministry
Over the years the size of the Christmas meal got smaller. But like the Thanksgiving meal they are still the best meals served in prison.
For many people in prison this is a hard time. Some stay in their cell all day and will not even go eat the Christmas dinner. They say things like “if I can’t enjoy Christmas in prison I don’t want to eat the Christmas dinner” I had a little different outlook. While I was a little down because I wasn’t with my family, I wasn’t going to go to that extreme. I put myself in prison and I know my family would want me to try to enjoy the meal. And I did, all the while thinking those who don’t eat the Christmas meal could give it to someone else
The one thing I did refuse was Christmas visits. Now I would let them come up before or after Christmas,but I wanted my family to spend Christmas at home , not visiting me in prison. They agreed to this under one condition. I had to call them. It is hard getting on the phones at Christmas. These days it is easier because they have tablets. The call was probably the hardest, because I could hear the sadness in my mom’s voice. One Christmas it was all I could do to hold back the tears. They had me on speaker and I said that I wished I could have sent them more for Christmas than a card. My mom said “ I think I speak for everyone when I say that just hearing your voice is the greatest gift you could give us” The others agreed and I about lost it Wow, I am sorry . I did not mean to get that personal, but maybe it will give you an idea of how Christmas is for the incarcerated. At least when I was in prison
Not really a bully, but a relevant story, nonetheless.
Years ago my family took a self defense class together. Our daughter, Katie, was a petite 15 year old high school student at the time and worked part time at a frozen yogurt shop. She arrived a couple of minutes late one day and her large male co-worker asked her why she was late. She explained that she got out of self defense class a few minutes late. He scoffed and said, “That stuff wouldn’t do you any good if someone my size came at you!” She replied, “Maybe, maybe not.” Then he said, “If someone did this there isn’t anything you could do”, and leaned toward her grabbing and twisting her shirt at the neckline. Less than a second later she was standing over him looking down at him. He was not hurt, but was lying on the floor on his back, looking up at her, with the most surprised look on his face! It was absolutely awesome! Three cheers for our self defense instructor who had taught us that day how to handle that event!!!
A Latina and her daughter (preteen) were at the milk aisle speaking Spanish to each other. As I grab some milk, I hear this older lady (50+) say, ”SPEAK ENGLISH, this is America!”
I was a little perturbed by this and began to stare at her in embarrassment. The young girl, in a calm and delicate way, dropped some history bomb on this older lady. She said , “America doesn’t have a national language because this land was founded by the Dutch, French, the English, and, most certainly, the Spaniards. And next time old lady, go read a book and learn, that’s what I did.”
I laughed so hard her mother smirked. It was obnoxious for the older lady to interrupt a mother and daughter shopping at the grocery. I wish I had recorded the interaction.
This country is built by people from all walks of life. In times like these, we have to remember this land was built for you and me 🙂
I was on Temporary Duty (TDY) for training at a USAF tech school and while there I was appointed Barracks Chief for the TDY enlisted barracks. Now NCOs were exempt from details but lower ranking airmen were not. And as Barracks Chief I was also exempt.
We took our classes in a huge three story tall building with no windows. Because everything inside was highly classified; so only people with clearances could enter the building. This meant that on Saturdays there was a large detail to wax and buff all the hallways. It took about 4–5 hours for a 50+ man detail to do this job.
There were at least 500–600 lower ranking airmen who were at the school full time for entry level training in the field. We were all graduates of that program. When I had attended the school this duty got rotated among the entry level trainees, I’d done it a couple times in my schooling.
The First Sergeant of the Training Squadron had decided that this detail should be done by visiting TDY airmen who obviously had clearances and access already approved.
The problem was that while the detail required 50 people we typically had about 30 Airmen on TDY at any time (most TDY courses were 6–10 weeks to teach now experienced graduates added systems). So he would round up other trainees from among those in entry level training, to fill out the roster.
The problem of course is that it meant that the visiting airmen had the worst, nastiest, longest detail possible every single Saturday they were at the base. You couldn’t even go out clubbing on Friday because the detail started at 0700.
When I approached the First Sergeant about the problem on behalf of one of my guys the First Shirt explained this was completely fair because the detail was ROTATING — as soon as we had more than 50 guys in residence the extra guys would be excused based on how many times they had done the detail. Never mind that in ten years they had never had more than 45 or so TDY personnel at any moment — if they ever had 51 then one lucky guy would get one Saturday off…
I tried pointing out the obvious — that you cannot rotate a 50 man detail among 30 men and that in reality no one would EVER be excused from the detail but it simply did not register. I don’t know why.
(We made a visit to the base Inspector General and registered a complaint — it is not appropriate to require a small group to bear the brunt of the longest and dirtiest detail every single weekend. No one objected to doing a detail; even this detail would be OK once in a great while, it comes with the territory… The IG upheld the complaint and they changed the detail.)
We had en employee retire. Not exactly “legend”, eh?
“Frank” was a thirty-year employee, a good worker, and not seen by Managment as a “troublemaker” or problem employee. One Monday, during a staff meeting, Frank just exploded. He launched into an obscenity-laced tirade against his boss,and his bosses boss! He used every dirty word you can’t use on TV, and the most blunt, vulgar criticism of the company, managment and some staff.
Frank’s boss, and his bosses boss just sat there, speechless, as Frank went on for almost five minutes. Finally, Franks boss said “Frank, we’ve heard enough from you. One more word and you’re fired!”
Frank replied that “You can’t fire me, I RETIRE!” The then stormed out of the conference room, flipped his desk over, and began handing out $20 bills to the “people he liked” in the office, about 20% of the staff.
Managment called security, and they escorted Frank out. As he was passing the Receptionist, he turned to her and said “Coming in every day and seeing your (blank) was the best thing about working in this (blank).”
Everyone I know has talked about quitting / retiring in a “blaze of glory” from at least one job. He actually did it!
Everyone who witnessed this still talks about it at office parties. It’s been years!
Footnote: six months after he left, Frank asked for a reference, as he wanted a part-time job. That didn’t go so well.
37 yr old single father with nearly 8 years in recovery.
I spent nearly 3.75 years incarcerated during my addict years at my rock bottom.
Bottom bunks are the most valuable, often paid for, bullied from, fought for or earned thru a medical “bottom bunk pass” if you have a disability limiting you to the bottom bunks only.
Medical passes in jail are like gold, the officers have to abide by them, inmates without them hate them.
I had a bottom bunk pass for 2/3’s of the time I spent in jail, a 2nd mattress pass, etc after breaking my back in 2011. I spent well over a year on a top bunk.
Why are bottom bunks the ones normally wanted the most? I’ll give you a few reasons from my experience’s.
The lights.
a. In jail the lighting is very obnoxious and bright, you only get a few hours of lights out (Usually from 11 PM – 4/5 AM but it’s never totally dark due to safety bulbs in each florescent light.
Being on the bottom bunk you can avoid the bright light in your eyes which is a horrible way to wake up at 4 AM. You can also have more privacy by hanging a towel, sheet or clothing item which bring me to my 2nd reason.
b. Privacy.
By hanging a towel/sheet you can basically eliminate nearly all the light in your bunk, not have 3 dudes watch you sleep, or do whatever criminal thing you would want to get away with out of the view of the cameras or simply have a get away from the other 16 dudes you share your unit with.
2. Ease of Access.
a. Let’s face it, jumping down on to a cold concrete floor 8–10 times a day for standing head counts isn’t easy on the knees or your ankles. Climbing back up is a wicked pain on the knees and lower back.
b. You also better hope you get along with your bunkie because you step on his things, his blanket/mat, etc and you’re going to have problem. I would’ve if it happened more than once after explaining the inmate rules, you make it clear very quickly to a new bunkie how the system works.
You don’t have many rights left in jail so your cleanliness is one of the only things they can’t take away from you.
New inmates learn very quickly that those on bottom bunks have the seniority in that unit which comes along with more respect from new inmates.
There’s a few more reasons I can think of honestly but I don’t want to make this too long.
Bottom bunks are earned by seniority, bottom bunk passes, and/or muscles.
One graveyard shift, I was driving west on Sunset Blvd around Fairfax. I always drove with my window down. I heard a small, brief, horn-honk and a car pulled up alongside. “Officer, pull over, I need to talk to you!” We slowed ourselves, stopping the car, and gave our location.
The driver, later ID’ed as, “Nick”, exited his car, as did my trainee and I. As he approached me, he suddenly reached deep into his right front pants pocket. My left hand already had my flashlight illuminating him, while my right hand went to my gun, unsnapping it and beginning to rock it toward drawing down on him. Suddenly his hand emerged containing nothing more than a glass tube. He threw the glass tube, the type used for the smoking of rock cocaine, onto the hood of my police car. Nick looked at me and said, “I need you to arrest me and put me in jail. I am addicted to rock. I can’t stop, please help me!”
I was still in the single digits of years of sobriety. I told him I’d do what I could. Nick was going through withdrawals only, he was not under the influence at the time.
I arrested Nick for violation of 23152(c) CA Vehicle Code – Addict Driving. It was the only time in my 30 years that I used that section to arrest anyone. You need not be under the influence of anything, your life just needs to be horribly upset by your addiction. I gave Nick his Miranda Warnings, which he waived, and asked him about his daily life and use of rock cocaine. A picture of a life destroyed by drugs emerged. He signed his statement, gratefully, and happily went to jail. Weeks later, I got an on-call subpoena for his case, but was told he’d copped out. The courts sentenced him to treatment.
Months maybe a year, later, I was off-duty and at the L.A. Convention Center attending a talk by Father Joe Martin, a Roman Catholic priest who was very active in recovery work. I was in line to get a soda, when there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see NICK!, who gave me a hug and told me he’d been clean and sober since his arrest. Nick said that I had helped save his life.
This is almost the largest territorial (territorial sea) sovereignty change in the world since the end of World War II. Such information has not received any attention in the Western mainstream media.
The reason given by the Americans is: According to the “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”, they began mapping the submarine continental shelves in these two areas in 2003 and discovered their geographical connection with Alaska. So in December 2023, they cited the “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” The Articles of the Convention “ ECS” lay out claims to this maritime area and put them on the map.
What is embarrassing is that the United States is not a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea at all. This means that the United States wants to occupy 1 million square kilometers of high seas based on a treaty that it has not signed.
There are huge amounts of flammable ice, oil, natural gas and mineral resources under this sea area.
The questioner asked: Why did no country object?
Of course, the only one who objects is Russia, because they are the only neighbor in this sea area.
Given the relationship between the United States and Russia, I don’t think Russia’s opposition will play any role.
Eventually, the map of the United States will most likely expand by 1 million square kilometers.
No country will care, or in other words, they will all quietly shut up.
Note to readers: This is a repost of an article I wrote and was published on June 18, 2022 – 18 months ago. That was long before I started a Substack account. Some of you may already have read it. When it was published on “the saker” blog, the Russo-Ukraine war was still young but an obvious civilizational conflict was underway. This article was an attempt at describing some of the forces driving the conflict, including economic ones.
The article went viral and got republished all over the place in many languages – including on Zerohedge. I have no idea how many views it got in total but it was hundreds of thousands, possibly millions. I suspect it was one of the most read articles on geopolitical/economic issues in 2022.
The geopolitical conflict is far from over and the scenarios outlined in the article are probably not going to be realized for some time (if at all – let’s hope!), but I’m curious to hear what you readers think of the current situation in the world and where we might be heading – either with this article as a framework or in general. It’s also healthy to revisit one’s thinking in the past and evaluate it.
Be warned that the article contains some doom-porn, but according to global web traffic results humans like nothing more than porn!
This is however not the main reason I’m posting this old article here on Substack. The reason is a book that was just published which addresses in detail one of the main points of the article; the enormous global debt and how it may be resolved.
The book is called “The Great Taking” and is authored by David Rogers Webb. I haven’t read it yet but I plan to. I heard it is quite interesting and you might want to take a look if you are looking for something to read between Christmas and New Year’s.
World War 3 for dummies
By Gaius Baltar
Some knowledgeable people, apparently including the Pope, are beginning to suspect that there may be more going on in the world than just the war in the Ukraine. They say that World War 3 has already started and things will get worse from now on. This can be difficult to determine while we are participating in the unfolding events and do not have the benefit of the historical perspective. It is doubtful that people back in 1939 realized that they were looking at the start of a major worldwide conflict, although some may have suspected.
The current global situation is in many ways like a giant jigsaw puzzle where the general public only sees a tiny part of the complete picture. Most don’t even realize that there may be more pieces and don’t even ask these simple questions: Why is all this happening and why is it happening now?
Things are more complicated that most people realize. What they see is the evil wizard Vladimir Saruman Putin invading innocent Ukraine with his orc army – for absolutely no reason. This is a simplistic view to say the least because nothing happens without a reason. Let’s put things in perspective and see what is really going on – and why the world is going crazy before our eyes. Let’s see what World War 3 is all about.
The pressure cooker
The West (which we can define here as the US and the EU) has been maintaining pressure on the entire world for decades. This does not only apply to countries outside the West, but also to Western countries which strayed from the diktats of the West’s rulers. This pressure has been discussed widely and attributed to all kinds of motives, including neocolonialism, forced financial hegemony and so forth. What is interesting, particularly during the last 20 years, is which countries have been pressured and what they do not have in common.
Among the pressured countries we find Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Libya, Syria, Serbia, Thailand and Iran to mention a few. There have also been recent additions, including India and Hungary. In order to understand why they have been pressured, we need to find out what they have in common. That’s not easy since they are extremely different in most ways. There are democracies and non-democracies, conservative and communist governments, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist countries and so on. Still, many of them are very clearly allied. One must ask why conservative and religious countries such as Russia or Iran would ally themselves with Godless communists in Cuba and Venezuela.
What all these countries have in common is their desire to run their own affairs; to be independent countries. This is unforgiveable in the eyes of the West and must be tackled by any means necessary, including economic sanctions, color revolutions and outright military aggression.
The West and its NATO military arm had surrounded Russia with hostile countries and military bases, armed and manipulated Ukraine to be used as a hammer against it and employed sanctions and threats. The same thing was and is happening in Asia where China is being surrounded by all means available. The same applies to all the Independents mentioned above to some extent. In the past 10 years or so the pressure has increased massively on the Independents and it reached almost fever pitch in the year before the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.
During the year before the Ukraine war, the US sent its diplomats around the world to tune up the pressure. They were like a travelling circus or a rock band on a tour, but instead of entertainment they delivered threats: buy this from us and do what we tell you or there will be consequences. The urgency was absolute and palpable, but then came the Ukraine war and the pressure went up to 11. During the first month of the war, the entire West’s diplomatic corps was fully engaged in threats against the ‘rest of the world’ to engineer the isolation of Russia. This didn’t work, which resulted in panic in political and diplomatic circles in the US and Europe.
All this pressure through the years, and all the fear and panic when it didn’t work, are clearly related to the events in the Ukraine. They are a part of the same ‘syndrome’ and have the same cause.
The debt dimension
There have been many explanations for what is going on and the most common is the fight between two possible futures; a multipolar world where there are several power centers in the world, and a unipolar world where the West governs the world. This is correct as far as it goes, but there is another reason which explains why this is happening now and all the urgency and panic in the West.
Recently the New Zealand tech guru Kim Dotcom tweeted a thread about the debt situation in the US. According to him all debt and unfunded liabilities of the US exceed the total value of the entire country, including the land. This situation is not unique to the US. Most countries in the West have debt which can only be paid back by selling the entire country and everything it contains. On top of that, most non-western countries are buried in dollar-denominated debt and are practically owned by the same financiers who own the West.
During the last few decades the economy of the US and Europe has been falsified on a level which is difficult to believe. We in the West have been living far beyond our means and our currencies have been massively overvalued. We have been able to do this through two mechanisms:
1. The first one is the reserve status of the dollar and the semi-reserve status of the euro which have enabled the West to export digital money and receive goods in return. This has created the enormous financial power for the West and enabled it to function as a parasite on the world economy. We have been getting a lot of goods for free, to put it mildly.
2. The second falsification mechanism is the increase in debt to a level where we have essentially pawned everything we own, including our houses and lands, to keep up our living standard. We own nothing now when the debt has been subtracted. The debt has long since become unserviceable – far beyond our ability to pay interests on – which explains why the interest rates in the West are in the neighborhood of zero. Any increase would make the debt unserviceable and we would all go formally bankrupt in a day.
On top of all this, the falsification has created artificially strong currencies in the West which has boosted their purchasing power for goods priced in non-western currencies. These mechanisms have also enabled the West to run bloated and dysfunctional service economies where inefficiencies are beyond belief. We have giant groups of people in our economies that not only create no value, but destroy value systematically. What maintains the West’s standard of living now is a small minority of productive people, constant debt increase, and parasitism on the rest of the world.
The people who own all this debt actually own everything we think we own. We in the West own nothing at this point – we only think we do. But who are our real owners? We know more or less who they are because they meet every year at the World Economic Forum in Davos along with the western political elites who they also happen to own.
It is clear that our owners have been getting increasingly worried, and their worries have been increasing in sync with the increased pressure applied by the West on the rest of the world, particularly the Independents. During the last Davos meeting, the mood was bleak and panicked at the same time, much like the panic among the western political elites when the isolation of Russia failed.
What is about to happen
The panic of our owners and their politicians is understandable because we have come to the end of the line. We can no longer keep up our living standard by debt increase and parasitism. The debt is reaching beyond what we own as collateral and our currencies are about to become worthless. We will no longer be able to get free stuff from the rest of the world, or pay back our debt – let alone pay interest on it. The entire West is about to go bankrupt and our standard of living is about to go down by a massive percentage. This is what has our owners panicked and they see only two scenarios:
1. In the first scenario most countries in the West, and everything and everyone within them, declare bankruptcy and erase the debt by diktat – which sovereign states are able to do. This will also erase the wealth and political power of our owners.
2. In the second scenario our owners take over the collateral during the bankruptcy. The collateral is us and everything we own.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which scenario was chosen. The plan for the second scenario is ready and being implemented as we speak. It is called ‘The Great Reset’ and was constructed by the people behind the World Economic Forum. This plan is not a secret and can be examined to a certain degree on the WEF website.
The Great Reset is a mechanism for the seizing of all debt collateral which includes your assets, the assets of your city or municipality, the assets of your state and most corporate assets not already held by our owners.
This asset seizure mechanism has several components, but the most important are the following four:
1. Abolishment of sovereignty: A sovereign (independent) country is a dangerous country because it can choose to default on its debt. The decrease in sovereignty has been a priority for our owners and various schemes have been attempted such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trans Pacific Partnership. The most successful scheme is undoubtedly the European Union itself.
2. The down-tuning of the economy: The western economy (and indeed the global economy) must be tuned down by a very significant percentage. This down-tuning is necessary because the western economy is massively falsified now and must be taken down to its real level – which may be as low as half of what it is now – or more. The slow takedown has also the purpose of avoiding a sudden crash which would cause massive social unrest which would be a threat to our owners. A controlled takedown is therefore preferable to an uncontrolled crash. This controlled takedown is already happening and has been going on for quite some time. Many examples can be mentioned of this takedown, including the EU and US energy policy which is designed to sabotage the western economy, and the obvious attempts at demand destruction during and after the epidemic, including the fairly bizarre logistical problems which suddenly came out of nowhere.
3. Asset harvesting (you will own nothing and be ‘happy’): All assets that can be considered to be collateral to our private and collective/public debt will be taken over. This is a clearly stated aim of the Great Reset but it is less clear how this would be carried out. Total control of western governments (and indeed all governments) would seem to be necessary for this. That precondition is closer than one might think because most western governments seem to be beholden to Davos at this point. The process will be sold as necessary social restructuring because of an economic crisis and global warming and will result in massive decrease in living standards for regular people, although not the elites.
4. Oppression: A great many people will not like this and an uprising is a likely response, even if the takedown is done gradually. To prevent this from happening, a social control mechanism is being implemented which will erase personal freedom, the freedom of speech, and privacy. It will also create absolute dependence of the individual on the state. This must be done before the economic takedown can be completed or there will be a revolution. This mechanism is already being implemented enthusiastically in the West as anybody with eyes and ears can see.
Russia, China and other Independents
How do Russia and China, and the war in Ukraine, factor into all of this? Why all the pressure from the West throughout the years and why all this panic now? Part of the reason for the pressure on the Independents, particularly Russia and China, is simply that they have resisted western hegemony. That is enough for getting on the West’s naughty list. But why the increased pressure in recent years?
The reason is that Russia and China cannot be subjugated through bankruptcy and their assets harvested. They do not have much debt in western currencies which means that the people who own the West through debt do not currently own Russia and China (like they own the West and the indebted ‘third world’) and cannot acquire them through debt. The only way to acquire them is through regime change. Their governments must be weakened by any means, including economic sanctions and military means if necessary -thus the use of Ukraine as a battering ram for Russia and Taiwan for China.
Subjugating Russia and China is an existential issue for our Davos owners because when they take the western economy down, everything else must go down too. If the western economy is taken down and a large economic block doesn’t participate in the downfall, it will be a disaster for the West. The new block will gain massive economic power, and possibly unipolar hegemony of sorts, while the West descends into a feudal Dark Age and irrelevance. Therefore the entire world must go down for the Great Reset to work. Russia and China must be subjugated by any means, as well as India and other stubborn nations.
This is what has fueled the situation we now find ourselves in and will fuel the continuation of World War 3. The western owner-elites are going to war to keep their wealth and power. Everyone who resists must be subjugated so they can follow the West into the planned Great Reset Dark Age.
The reason for the current panic among western elites is that the Ukraine project isn’t going as planned. Instead of Russia being bled on the battlefield, it is Ukraine and the West that bleed. Instead of the Russian economy crashing resulting in Putin’s replacement by a Davos-compatible leader, it is the West’s economy that is crashing. Instead of Russia being isolated, it is the West that is being increasingly isolated. Nothing is working, and to top it all off, Europe has given the Russians the means and motive to destroy the European economy by partly shutting down its industry. Without Russian resources there is no European industry, and without industry there are no taxes for paying for unemployment benefits, pensions, all the refugees and pretty much everything else which holds European societies together. The Russians now have the ability to engineer and uncontrolled crash in Europe which is not what Davos planned. An uncontrolled crash might see Davos heads roll, literally, and that is causing fear and panic in elite circles. The only solution for them is to move on with World War 3 and hope for the best.
What to do
The Great Reset of the world economy is the direct cause for World War 3 – assuming that is what is going on. What can be done about this? From inside the West, little can be done. The only way is to somehow remove Davos from the equation, but that is most likely not going to happen for two reasons: The first one is that the Davos great resetters are too entwined in the western economy and politics. Davos is like an octopus with its arms and suckers inside every country’s elite circles, media and government. They are too entrenched to be easily removed. The second reason is that the western population is too brainwashed and ignorant. The level of their brainwashing is such that a large part of them actually want to become poor – although they use the word ‘green’ for ‘poor’ because it sounds better. There are, however, some indications that there may be divisions within western elites. Some of them, particularly within the US, may be resisting the primarily Europe-designed Great Reset – but whether this opposition is real or effective remains to be seen.
However, outside the West, there are certain measures which can be taken and must be taken. Some of those measures are drastic and some of them are being done as we speak. Among the measures are the following:
1. The Independents, led by Russia, China and India, must create a block to isolate themselves from the radioactive West. This isolation must not only be economic, but also political and social. Their economic systems must be divorced from the West and made autonomous. Their cultures and history must be defended against western influences and revisionism. This process appears to be underway.
2. The Independents must immediately ban all western sponsored institutions and NGOs in their countries, regardless of whether they are sponsored by western states or individuals. Furthermore, they must ban all media receiving western sponsorship and strip every school and university of western sponsorship and influences.
3. They must leave all international institutions up to and possibly including the United Nations, because all international bodies are controlled by the West. They must then replace them with new institutions within their block.
4. They must, at some point, declare the dollar and the euro currencies non grata. That means that they should declare default on all debts denominated in these currencies, but not other debts. This will most likely come at a later stage, but is inevitable.
This will create a situation where the West will descend into darkness without pulling others down with it – if we manage to escape the nuclear fire.
Cool things in China
Yeah. I keep forgetting that the rest of the world doesn’t do this…
Originally Answered: What was something that someone did that made you think they were really smart?
When my son was really young (about 3) we were at a summer bbq in a friend’s garden with a few other friends and their kids.
The kids were a range of ages, up to about 8 or 9, with my son being the youngest. One of the kids was playing with a ping pong ball which he’d accidentally dropped into a narrow hole in the grass about 8″ deep (where a fence post had recently been removed from) and became upset that he wasn’t able to get the ball back out.
A few of the other kids were trying to help, by squeezing their short fingers into the hole to retrieve the ball (unsuccessfully) while others attempted using sticks to wedge it out to no avail. All the while, my son was closely watching the other older kids in their endeavours.
When my son asked me to take him to the kitchen for a glass of water, I assumed he was just thirsty. But he took the glass of water undrunk and walked back out to the garden. He then went up to where the other kids were gathered, still trying to retrieve the stuck ball and proceeded to pour the whole glass of water into the hole. . The ping pong ball then floated up to the top of the hole, where one of kids grabbed it and a couple of them cheered.
My son didn’t say anything but I was watching on the sidelines, absolutely taken aback at the ingenuity of it – displaying lateral thinking when he wasn’t much more than a toddler.
As a scientist myself, I was delighted to realise my young son had apparently discovered Archimedes principle all by himself!
He’s almost 8 now and is definitely still passionate about science, maths and nature.
NASA’s Webb Snaps Supersonic Outflow of Young Star
I had my condo for sale for a year, at the end it was done to 60percent of comparables, and I didn’t have an offer.
I took it off the market removed the wall paper, and painted the entire house, put in new cheap carpet, with a thick plush underlay. I got laminate flooring on sale. I tore out my old carpet and hauled it to the dump. I bought clearance blinds to replace the old faded drapes.
I had bought the condo during a low in the market in 1986, for $42,000 , I had tried to sell it in 2000 , for 100,000 and dropped it to $59,900 and never had one offer. There were no condos on the market for less. I had a 3 bedroom, and 1 bedrooms were going for more.
I spent 6 months renovating, and put it back on the market for $110,000 and sold it for asking price the same day.
I spent $4000 on painting, flooring, and blinds.
The place had wall paper when I bought it, and I hated it, but was too cheap to replace it. But to make a sale, I painted. It had linoleum and I replaced it with laminate, The drapes with blinds ( which were popular in 2000) . Then I scrubbed it spotless.
My realtor told me that I was foolish to spend $4000 on cosmetics, because people would want to pick their own stuff. But I think doubling the value in 6 months, shows that cheap cosmetic changes paid off.
I don’t guarantee that your house needs the same things as my house did 23 years ago
Webb Celebrates First Year of Science With Close-up on Birth of Sun-like Stars
Attempted ‘color revolution’ in Serbia: What we know so far
Opposition activists forced their way into Belgrade city hall after claiming a municipal election was rigged.
23DEC23
Opposition forces in Serbia breached Belgrade’s city hall amid mass protests on Sunday. They claim the recent municipal election in the capital, won by the ruling party, was rigged. Senior national officials have described the protests as an attempted “color revolution,” and said they had been forewarned by Russia.
Mayorship
Belgrade is home to roughly a quarter of the Balkan nation’s population of over 6.6 million. The office of its mayor is viewed as one of the most important in Serbia.
Members of the city council, who vote the mayor in, were elected on December 17 – the same day as a national election and several municipal votes were held.
The ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of President Aleksandar Vucic won the most seats in the Belgrade City Assembly. The opposition Serbia Against Violence (SPN) alliance claims the outcome was achieved through voter fraud.
Early violence
In the week that followed the elections, the opposition staged several rallies in Belgrade, some of them marred by violence.
During a demonstration in front of the Republican Election Commission last Monday, leading Serbian statistician Milorad Kovacevic and several of his associates were reportedly attacked by activists. Police seized several knives and bats from protesters, local media said.
Election officials react
The Election Commission denounced the violence and claimed the rally was an attempt to disrupt its activities. The head of the commission, Vladimir Dimitrijevic, expressed hope that it was an isolated incident and that any future attempts to challenge the election result would remain legal.
The body investigated opposition claims that ‘phantom voters’ had been allowed to cast ballots in Belgrade, but reported on Sunday that it had found no evidence that the election had been “stolen.”
Sunday riot
On Sunday evening, hundreds of pro-opposition demonstrators gathered in the center of Belgrade after being rallied by the SPN. Opposition leader Marinika Tepic, who declared a hunger strike last Monday and claims to be living on IV infusions, was barred from entering the Election Commission building. Meanwhile, an improvised stage was erected near the presidential residence, with speakers and performers whipping up the crowd.
Later in the evening, some activists stormed city hall, claiming they were seeking “to liberate the institutions.” The police intervened and drove them out.
Aleksandar Sapic, head of the temporary city administration, shared images of the damage caused by the rioters in the historic building, calling it “irreparable.” He declared that Serbia must be protected from the use of violence for political gain. He used the term “Maidanization,” referring to the 2014 armed coup in Kiev, which set the stage for the current hostilities between Russia and Ukraine.
‘Color revolution’
President Vucic denounced the riot, calling it an attempted “color revolution” and claiming that a foreign nation had warned his government about the threat beforehand. Prime Minister Ana Brnabiс thanked the Russian special services for providing intelligence to Belgrade.
The term ‘color revolution’ is often applied to the mass uprisings by ostensibly pro-democratic political forces in the 1990s and 2000s, including in Yugoslavia in 2000. Russia and some other nations perceive the wave as masterminded by the West to further its geopolitical goals, and executed through NGOs, media outlets, and parties funded by the US and its allies.
The Vucic government has been presented with a dilemma amid the current confrontation between Russia and the West. It is seeking EU membership for Serbia, which would require the realignment of Belgrade’s foreign policy with that of Brussels. However, Vucic has rejected Western calls to cut ties with Russia and join the US-led sanctions campaign against Moscow.
Responding to the turmoil in Belgrade, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed it was an “obvious attempt by the collective West to destabilize the situation in the country through ‘maidan coups’,” according to RIA Novosti.
Webb Reveals Intricate Details in the Remains of a Dying Star (MIRI image)
My ex-husband & I had been married for a few years before I opened up to him about the sexual abuse I endured as a teenager, at the hands of my father. Naturally, he was upset and wanted to know why I’d waited so long to tell him about it. I informed him that while it was an awful point in my life, I had long ago dealt with the pain & made peace with myself about i, that it was something I didn’t think much of anymore, but that I had always intended to tell him when I felt the time was right. He seemed sat with my response, and we went on business as usual.
Fast forward 3 1/2 years later… we had a brutal argument one day about his habit of not coming home til the wee hours of the morning. His shift at work would end around 4pm each day, & while I understood the need or desire to have the occasional few beers with the guys after a hard day, it was happening far too often & he was being inconsiderate by staying out so late while I was left alone to care for our children (mind you, I also worked every day, as well.) Apparently, that enraged him and out of nowhere, with this extremely cold glare in his eyes, very calmly stated, “I bet you enjoyed what your father did to you…” I was crushed! The debilitating emotions I’d felt so long ago came rushing back to me, and I suddenly felt as if what I’d experienced in my childhood had just happened. I was violated all over again.
He did eventually apologize for what he’d said, but I was never able to look at him the same way. Three years later, we divorced.
The Crab Nebula Seen in New Light by NASA’s Webb (NIRCam and MIRI)
Somalia is not a real country. Somalia is a geographical expression which exists only on maps and in the minds of believers.
This is what Somalia looks like in imagination with its imaginary capital of Mogadishu.
And this is what Somalia looks like in real life.
The red part what the UN-recognized Somalian government in Mogadishu (sorta) controls. When people talk about the “country of Somalia”, they’re unintentionally referring only to the red areas. That being said, the map is a little misleading. Even in the red area, the government lacks control over many local communities, especially in the northeastern area of Puntland. And the internal borders change on a day-to-day basis.
The yellow area is called Somaliland. It functions as an independent country. The government in Mogadishu has no control over Somaliland.
The gray areas are controlled by tribal communities and terrorist organizations. The government in Mogadishu has no control over the gray areas.
This is partly why Somalia is a developing country. The official government has control over less than half the country. This means that there are no nation-wide social services. No national education system; people are often unable to receive a non-religious education. No unified foreign policy. No well-maintained national infrastructure. And the people of Somalia are kinda too distracted by violence and political instability to invest in their futures. Large parts of the country are controlled by terrorists organizations.
Despite the above, Somalia does have a stable informal economy, based upon (mostly subsistence) agriculture. But no country every became wealthy by growing plants.
NASA’s Webb Findings Support Long-Proposed Process of Planet Formation
I heard this story from my neighbour, and it happened to them about a month ago.
So my neighbour (27 male) was going on a road trip with his father (about 55 or so) and they had to pull over on the side of the road, only about a half mile or so from the city limits. The traffic was pretty bad, and obviously the person behind them didn’t appreciate having to wait for them to pull over through two lanes of traffic, and followed them off the road. My neighbour hadn’t noticed the man following them, until he got out of his car (a work ute for a construction company) and pulled out a metal pole from the back of his ute. He came up and smashed the back windshield of the car, swore at the father (who was driving) and began walking back to his car pretty slowly.
Before he could start his car again, my neighbour and his father had walked up to the other man’s car and pulled out their badges.
Both of them are cops, the father is the police captain of the station. My neighbour said the man smelt like heroin, so they checked the car and found a bunch of drugs and equipment for druggos.
He then told the man that he would have a lot of paperwork to fill out.
I love that story. Be careful who you mess with.
NASA’s Webb Identifies Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf (NIRCam Image)
Not to play
Nearby Planetary System Seen in Breathtaking Detail, Fomalhaut Dusty Debris Disk (MIRI Image)
I was 17, hitchhiking my way to the South of France after leaving home for good. I was waiting at a spot on the Route Nationale 7 in the northern part of Lyon. Not a very good place if you wanted to go south, but it was the best I had been able to do.
An open Mehari with a long haired young man at the wheel passed. Thy guy grinned, honked and then shrugged in the universal gesture of: “Sorry, can’t help you, mate.”
Citroen Mehari, based on the 2CV, image credit: radicalmag
About half an hour later a police car stopped next to me. To my surprise it was the guy from the Mehari. Hair tied in a neat bun underneath his kepi, his bright and colorful clothing replaced by a sombre French police uniform.
He asked me where I was going. In abysmally bad French I explained that my destination was Toulon.
He told me to enter the car. My heart sunk as I thought my short lived adventure was already over and I would be returned home to my mother in Germany.
Well, from what little I understood he told me he needed to go a certain route, which he did. After about an hour’s worth of driving through all sorts of strange neighborhoods he dropped me off south of Lyon at the RN7, an ideal spot to get to where I was going. He wished me luck, waved once and sped off.
BTW, my French is much better these days
NASA’s Webb Scores Another Ringed World With New Image of Uranus
My first instinct is to say “going into debt for a worthless degree.” At age 18, I took on almost $120k in debt for a B.A. in Communications from DePaul University in Chicago… a private, out-of-state university for me. After spending six years doing jobs that didn’t even require a degree, I had to go back for my Master’s in Teaching (also from DePaul) in order to get a career I wanted: teaching. Now, at age 40, I’m still paying for classes I took when I was 18… some $400 per month. That’s down from the $650 per month I paid right out of college, mainly because my father died and some of the loans were in his name only. I will be paying my student loans until I’m 52, assuming I don’t pay them off early.
But, then again, I met my wife in college, and she and the children she gave me are the best parts of my life. So maybe I don’t regret going into debt for college. Maybe it was worth it, after all.
My second instinct is to say “moving far from home for college.” When I was 18, I was so eager to spread my wings that I moved four states away for college. I went from living with my parents, to visiting them just once per year… then once every two years. There were so many times that I could have been there for my parents, but I was too far away. I gave up the chance to have a close adult relationship with them, before I realized what I was giving up. I hurt them and, as the years go by, the more I realize that I hurt myself, too.
But, then again, I met my wife in college, and she and the children she gave me are the best parts of my life. So maybe I don’t regret moving so far away for college. Maybe it was worth it, after all.
So my biggest regret is, I guess, not taking better care of myself when I was younger… particularly in my mid-20s, when adult responsibilities of a career, marriage, and children came along. The first thing to go, once my plate got full, was time at the gym. Then I started stress eating rather than stress working out. I worked hard in my early 20s to get in shape… lost 130 pounds in the process… and I squandered it all by the time I was 30. Now it’s starting to catch up to me. I’m sitting here, writing this now, when I would rather be riding my bike. It’s a nice day outside, but my left knee is in pain and stiff. According to the doctor, I have “more arthritis than they’d expect for a man my age,” but “that can happen when you carry a lot of weight around your whole life.”
If I could do it all over again, I’d go back to about age 15 and change only one thing: I’d only drink water (no soda, no coffee with cream and sugar), and maybe even go vegetarian, just for the reduced calories. Fast-forward 25 years, and I’m a much healthier 40-year-old man, still happily married and still with awesome children.
NASA’s Webb Reveals Intricate Networks of Gas and Dust in Nearby Galaxies
I lived in an apartment building. The upstairs neighbor seemed to think he was back in the dorm: parties all night, every night… people tromping around… music blasting with the bass turned all the way UP.
I tried a white-noise app. I got earplugs. I tried playing music next to the bed. My work was suffering.
Then I addressed him directly: I would go upstairs and politely ask him to please be a little quieter. No dice. I moved through the let-my-frustration-show stage… the angry stage… the I’ll-call-the-authorities stage…
When I couldn’t take the experiment in sleep deprivation any longer, I contacted our local city council to find out my options. Turns out there are regulations having to do with “health”: exceptionally loud noise is on a list of “stressors.”
They sent him a warning letter, saying if there were more complaints they might go so far as to serve eviction.
The following weekend a man turned up at my door. He was well-dressed, polite – older gent. He said he was Upstairs Neighbor’s father and could he talk to me?
Well, hey, I like to think I’m a reasonable person. “Sure, c’mon in…”
He pulled out the letter the Health Department had sent the UN and started waving it about, accusing me of intolerance, trying to cause problems for his son, on and on. He told me I should move out – “Nothing wrong with people having company and enjoying music. I’ve been in his apartment and the music is never loud.” As if the kid would give the old man full blast and prove I had cause for complaint.
I was taken aback, as much as anything because it never occurred to me a 30-year-old would have to send “Daddums” to confront a neighbor. Father wanted me to withdraw the complaint. I refused. He ranted some more, then got up to leave, crabbing the whole way about “How do you have the nerve” and so on. I saw him to the door, and as he stepped into the hallway he turned and said bitterly, “I am so disappointed.” “I understand, sir. If I had children who behaved as your son has, I’d be disappointed too.”
He was at a loss for words. It was so gratifying. 😉
NASA’s Webb Telescope Captures Rarely Seen Prelude to Supernova (NIRCam and MIRI Image)
When I was 18, I placed second in the state finals of the 50 freestyle — and wish I’d just gotten last. At that stage of my life, everything was about swimming. I obsessed over it and hoped to go to the Olympic trials some day.
The worst part, I lost by .03 seconds. It was a sickening moment as my biggest goal of the year slipped between my fingers. I grew up with competition dripping from every corner of my home. Both of my parents were competitive swimmers and my identity was all tangled up in the sport.
It feels weird now, looking back and realizing this was still a moment for celebration and appreciation. Second in the state was nothing to hang my head over. But I’d fallen victim to zero sum thinking that is so common with competition — and often quite toxic.
The curse of second place is even scrutinized by academics. In a study led by economist, Dr. Adrian Kalwji, researchers studied the life expectancy of 978 US Olympic medalists from 1904 to 1936. On average, gold medalists lived to 73. Bronze medalists lived to 75 and silver medalists lived to 70. The study speculates that dissatisfactory outcomes for silver medalists have lasting effects on their life, both in socioeconomic status and psychological contentment. Their insights aren’t merely for sports, but extend to human thinking on competitive systems. Why is second place so fraught with disappointment?
When I won silver, there was a feeling of squandered opportunity. I was so close I could smell it. I walked into the showers after my race on the verge of tears, and thought through the small mistakes I made and questioned everything. Could I have reacted quicker off the block? Could I have timed my turn better? Was my training wrong?
Second place hits hard because we use “relative standing” when analyzing outcomes. A silver can easily make you feel like the first loser. In a study of social comparisons by Dr. Abraham Buunk, his team found these comparisons make us feel better or worse, depending on which direction we focus on. Moreover, it is less the outcome that determines our feeling, and more how we choose to interpret it.
We anchor our self-perception to the nearest reference points which creates a framing problem. For example, in one study, participants said they’d rather live in a world where the average salary was $25,000 and they earned $50,000, than one where they earned $100,000 and the global average was $200,000. It is strikingly easy to look up, rather than down.
Which brings to mind one of my grandfather’s funnier moments demonstrating this concept. As young children, my sister and I would stand at attention in front of him after doing a task. He would sit in his recliner as we recited what we’d accomplished like we were military cadets. In this case, it was related to a cleaning chore.
We stood at attention and, as a reward, grandpa pulled out a five dollar bill and handed it to me in full view of my 4-year-old sister and said, “Here you go!” Then, he reached into his wallet and handed my sister a one dollar bill. She looked down at it, grimaced in anger — then crumpled it up and chucked it at the wall. He immediately started laughing and then gave her five dollars. It highlighted the constant comparative thinking, which is why managing our expectations is so important.
After losing my 50 free, I went on to swim in college the subsequent year. I placed 3rd in the 100 free at the Atlantic 10 Championship and was thrilled. I’d barely qualified for finals and was in the outside lane. That bronze medal is my most prized accomplishment in sports and much of it is because of how unexpected it was. It felt like a gift.
Technically, I’d still lost the race. Why couldn’t I be happy about every defeat as I was with this one?
Why you should embrace 2nd place
When we are upset about an outcome not matching expectations, we often warp reality and use counterfactual thinking. Famed social economist, Daniel Kahneman, did an exercise where participants were told of two people, Mr. Crane and Mr. Thomas, who were rushing to catch their flight and were 30 minutes late because of their driver. Mr. Crane missed his flight by 30 minutes and Mr. Thomas missed his by five. Nearly every participant said Mr. Thomas was surely more upset than Mr. Crane. Why? Because he was so close to catching his flight.
In reality, the discrepancy didn’t matter. You either catch your flight or you don’t. The outcome has already occurred and there is no benefit to resenting one’s self over it.
Dr. Sergio Pellis studied how rats play fight during development. Often, a large rat will jump on a smaller one and have an immediate advantage and be poised to win. But around 30% of the time, the initiating rat will allow the other to win. The act of getting second place is fundamental to their bonding, contentment and development. If the larger rat dominated every time, he’d lose his training partner, peer, and they’d both miss out on learning. Without realizing it, they celebrate their silver metals.
Competitiveness that’s focused on improving a skill rather than dominating others is proven to increase satisfaction and competency. It is healthier and more logical, because losing is an inevitable consequence of competition. In my case, losing that swim race in high school lit a fire under me, and allowed me to perform well in college. I swam far better times and appreciated the consequence of small improvements to my stroke. I never forgot that .03 second gap. Heck, I’m here writing about it 22 years later.
Lastly, I urge you to stay gracious in victory or defeat. How you conduct yourself impacts your own psyche and how people perceive you. An amazing thing happened after losing my race. The guy who beat me, Eric, was so cool about the whole situation. The next night, we competed in another finals. Just before, we were standing in line for the walkout where they play music to hype up our race. I was standing by him and casually turned and said, “Good race last night. Congrats. It was close.”
He smiled, patted me on the back and said, “Hey, it was all luck. Good race.” And I so appreciated his humility in that moment. He could have been arrogant as many good swimmers are, and said, “Yeah, I could have swam a half second faster if I tried more.” But instead, he paid homage to his competitor.
Remember that the bitterness of losing is a comparison problem. Being outperformed can be a way to bond with others and appreciate how far you’ve come. It can be motivation to study your performance and your victor’s. Beware of making counterfactual comparisons, and building in a bunch of assumptions about why things happened the way they did.
Perhaps on that night, I swam faster than I ordinarily would have. Maybe my opponent had a slower night than usual. There was no use blaming myself. It was an honor to compete and feel alive.
Losing does not put you on a moral low ground. Appreciate the coveted fire of motivation that competition gives you. Give thanks for the competency it instills. It is as my coach often reminded me, “You are in a one person race with yourself.” Focus on progress, not domination. A setback has transformative power, if you allow it.
NASA’s Chandra, Webb Combine for Arresting Views (Pillars of Creation)
Female friends?
Oh I am so glad that I do not live in the West.
I think that I am going to try to reincarnate as a cat.
Banbury Tarts
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups flour
Seedless jelly or jam (preferably currant or raspberry)
Instructions
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.
Beat in the egg yolks, then the vanilla extract.
Slowly beat in the flour until combined and smooth to form the dough (the dough will be a bit stiff at the end, and you may need to add the last cup of flour by hand).
Form the dough into small balls and make a depression in the middle with your thumb.
Spoon a teaspoon or so of jelly in the depression.
Space the cookies about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet and bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
We’re not fat because we’re lazy. We work harder than thin people do. Strap a 50-pound sack of flour on your back and keep it on all day, every day. You’ll then be working as hard as a fat person.
We’re not fat because we have no self-control. We control our diet far more than naturally thin people do. We resist things that thin people don’t think twice about.
You bitch that you can’t find clothes you like. We would love to have the opportunity to bitch that we can’t find clothes we like. Our problem is finding clothes at all. The fashion industry hates us because we don’t represent the image they want for their garments. We have to take whatever fits, whether we like it or not.
Weight is set by a complex collection of factors including genetics, hormones, metabolism, lifestyle, and even intestinal flora. Of these, lifestyle is the only one we have any control over. It’s not a sign of moral turpitude.
Airplanes are misery for us. Airlines brag about their legroom and let you upgrade to seats with greater distance between them. They never talk about hip and shoulder room and offer no options to improve that except upgrading to business class, which costs thousands.
Even some GPs (primary care physicians) have contempt for us and let it show. [2]
Doctors have a tendency to blame medical problems on weight rather than diagnosing as carefully as they would with a thin person. [3]
We are a prime target for scammers. The only people scammed with phony products more than we are are men with anxiety about their penises.
We are ashamed much of our lives. Ashamed to be seen to be out of breath, ashamed not to fit in a crowded elevator, ashamed to bump into people in crowds, ashamed when a nurse weighs us, ashamed to meet people who knew us before we were fat. Why have I never been to a high school reunion? Shame.
I once employed a guy that was dubious at best. He was always talking flat out. In his words he would say “Yeah that’s the dexies mate” when I would ask him to slow down. This is when I was in my mid 20’s and Google wasn’t a thing yet. Yahoo and Alta Vista were, however I had bigger things to fry let alone checking out what “dexies” meant.
Anyway, one day we’re in the car together. This isn’t my favourite thing to do with this particular employee however, he was the only one not waist deep into a job working on the pinball machines, arcade video games and jukes boxes we would repair and sell. We were close to my house and I thought I would drop in and grab something before going back to work. Forgetting who was with me I got out of the car and walked inside. The guy followed, that’s okay. I didn’t give it a second thought until he said this:
“Nice house, lots of nice cool stuff here (as he was looking at the big (for it’s time) 68 cm Sony CRT TV, Slim line Sony DVD player, and stainless and glass custom built cabinet.” He was scanning the house, when I remembered he had told me once he had spent some time in jail. I remember holding my breathe for a second and thinking “Shit… what have I done here? Is this guy taking inventory of my house?”
Then he said this:
“I see you have an alarm box out the front and your key pad is near the telephone which is near the sliding (glass) door. Don’t do that.”
I looked at him a bit puzzled. He had cased my house in less than 5 seconds. When he told me how a criminal would think. He said this:
“Look you have a bowling green style front lawn and a good looking house, like some of the other houses on this street, it’s nice. So, people are going to look… like a nice looking car. Then if your house peaks someones interest, they will case the house when you’re not home, or maybe while you are mowing the front lawn because, you can’t hear them, and you’re intently watching the lawn mower to make sure you don’t run over sprinklers. The guy would see you have an alarm box out the front and be looking for where the phone is through your nice big glass sliding door window.”
Then the guy took me out the front and told me exactly what “his people” did when we were looking at the alarm box.
He pointed up the alarm box and said: “We buy / steal a can of “Space Invader” (This is a can of expanding foam. Ironic I was in the arcade game industry and this guy is telling me how people break into houses using a product called “Space Invader”) from the hardware store. You take the bottom of the can and you smash the blue light. No alarm is going off yet. You then shove the tube of the Space Invader can into vents on the side of the alarm box and fill the box until the Space Invader oozes out of the box. Then you go to where the phone is.
This is the product called “Space Invader”
It works like this. Spray it in… and in seconds it will expand after spraying and dry.
This is what Wikipedia says:
“Spray foam is a chemical product created by two materials, isocyanate and polyol resin, which react when mixed with each other and expand up to 30-60 times its liquid volume after it is sprayed in place.”
They would spray it into one of these:
They would spray the stuff into the vents on the side. The one I had was made of metal back then. This is also the light they would smash off with the base of the Space Invader can.
He continued:
“You get to the window / door that is closest to the phone. By this time the Space Invader will be close to dried. Wait a few minutes. (which I remember he said “When you first start doing “breaks” (short for “break and enters”) those few minutes with your heart racing can feel like hours. All you can hear is your heart racing in your chest) Then smash the window, there is no “quietly”… just do it fast. Get in and take the phone off the hook. This will stop the alarm system from calling the alarm company. The alarm will be going off out the front however, it will be muted, no one will be able to hear it, the light is gone, the cops aren’t coming. Take your time, don’t rush, or you‘ll miss the good stuff. Move quickly, but don’t run. Take what you need / want and leave”
In about 30 seconds he had summed up the “How to break into a house and get away with it” question I had never asked myself.
And then he said this.. “Oh but you have a big dog, you’ll be okay” as my dog Zanni rounded the corner to see we were inside the house and he was outside checking out who was inside.
This is Zanni. (He doesn’t normally wear a tie, however he had his best suit on as he was waiting for his date to come over before they went out on the town that evening.)
This was the best thing a criminal ever told me. The phone was moved, the alarm box was put way higher and in an awkward place to get to, let alone “install” and we did the rest of my neighbours houses as well.
Good to know how others think. I don’t have an alarm now. I have CCTV and a dog.
This is Mr Leo. He has taken over from Miss Jen, who took over from Zanni. All have put in more than 20 years of service.
There was this boy in my class at school in 7th grade. He was short for his age. He kept to himself and never really mixed with anyone. He always ate his lunch alone on a bench seat which was on the edge of the playground just staring into space. It was like he was in his own little world and nothing mattered to him. I never saw him smile in all the time i knew him.
He would get called all kinds of names that really hurt him deep down. But he never retaliated or showed how much it hurt him, which seemed to infuriate his tormentors.
They were relentless. Mean. One day he stepped in front of a car outside of school and stopped in the middle of the road as if waiting for it to hit him. The driver screeched to a halt only inches away from his body. He was frozen and only moved when the driver asked if he was OK. He hung his head and walked away slowly.
Nobody chose him for team sports during PE and when he was the last one left everyone called him a loser and laughed at him. He hung his head and went to the far corner of the gym and sat down hiding his face in his hands.
They tormented him in the change rooms and started calling him a ‘homo, faggot and perv’. It wasn’t long before it had got around the whole school that this boy was a ‘homo’ and so everyone started calling him those terrible names.
He had fruit thrown at him from behind so that he never knew who it was. It hit him in the back of his head knocking him down to the ground. With tears in his eyes he tried to stand up but they came at him again and knocked his books out of his hands making him go down again. People laughed at him. He got up, grabbed his books, and ran outside and kept running till he couldn’t run any longer. He ended up walking for 10 miles just following a road not knowing were he was going. But he didn’t care if he died that day.
Still he didn’t retaliate. Or tell anyone. Or complain. The next week he wasn’t at school. Someone started a rumor that he committed suicide. Everyone laughed. Nobody called to see if he was all right. Nobody missed him. Nobody cared.
What they didn’t know was that his stepdad had hurt him so badly and that he was in hospital for three days. Too sick to attend school. He never told anyone about what happened when he returned to school. When everyone saw that he was still alive, they were disappointed. And told him to go kill himself. “Do it properly this time”.
He was still not well from what his stepfather did to him. When they pushed him into the lockers at school or tried to jam his head in the door, he let out a yelp. But the pain was not from what they did to him.
One day after PE he was acting very strange. He stood facing everyone with his head hanging low. As if his whole world was about to come crashing down. He was trembling. There was an unusual silence in the room that scared him. It was then that everyone saw his body. Covered in black and blue welts across his back, legs and arms. He had tears falling from his eyes and was clearly ashamed of his body.
The shower stung like a 1000 bees.
They didn’t touch his clothes or call him names or hit him; this time they left him alone.
That boy is me.
I never told anybody what had happened to me. I knew that if I snitched on my stepdad it would be 100 times worse. I was 12 and as far as I knew, nobody would help me even if I asked. I was too afraid of what he would do to me. I woke up every day hoping things would change. I didn’t hold grudges and never have. It helped me get through some depressing periods while i was at school.
I just wanted a normal life and to be happy.
I can’t say that I have found that dream and I probably never will. But at least I am in no danger now and I deal with the consequences of my childhood as it surfaces and as an adult I can put it in its proper place.
Because you, a normal people, who lacks bilingual ability and critical thinking, can’t distinguish truth from the sea of infomation in which propaganda hides.
If I say the “criticism” and “democracy” are just camouflages for America’s real intention to overthrow legitimate government, and 2019 riot is actually a West backed color revolution in the coat of “pro-democracy protest”, you must think I’m brainwashed.
However, I’m not. Simply because I’m bilingual. The organziers and main activists confessed they are funded and instructed by CIA and NED, also including MI6, and some other NGOs, but your media didn’t report this. And apparently you don’t read Chinese so you don’t know this.
This, in the academic field of Media and Communications, is called GATEKEEPING.
The news agencies had the right to decide which piece of news is to be reported. And the final news outlet is a result of FRAMING the narrative via news stories.
Narratives in news refer to news stories framed and presented to us about what’s happening in this world, and one major function of narrative is to shape our views on this world. And these views consist our attitude toward someone/something.
Like in this question, you think CCP is evil, evil is a attitude, which can be shaped by narrative, and narrative is the product of a series of news outlets.
As a passive receiver, you can’t ask news agencies feeding you whatever you want to know, but whatever they want you to know.
So, where to find the truth?
First, be bilingual, or at least knowing where to find the opposite voice. There are always English information from the other side, but you need to find it yourself.
Second, be of critical thinking. Some information is misleading, sometimes they even hide or delete something from the internet. When there’s only one side’s voice, it’s dangerous. Like Russia-Ukraine war, when Russia’s voice is muted, what you receive is the selected information.
Third, be open-minded to different voices. When I told you you’re brainwashed on HK matters, don’t argue back or leave, try to compare the differences and seek more information to verify yours or mine opinion.
Beef and Onion Stew (Stifado)
A traditional Greek Beef and Onion Stew makes a comforting cold-weather meal.
Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 (2 pound) boneless beef chuck, tip or round, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon coarsely-ground pepper
1 bay leaf
1 stick cinnamon
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 pounds pearl onions, peeled
Crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
Cook and stir chopped onion and garlic in oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until onion is tender; remove with slotted spoon.
Cook beef in remaining oil, stirring frequently, until all liquid is evaporated and beef is brown on all sides, about 25 minutes; drain fat.
Return onion and garlic to Dutch oven. Stir in remaining ingredients except onions and cheese. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Add white onions. Cover and simmer until beef and white onions are tender, about 30 minutes.
Remove bay leaf and cinnamon. Garnish with feta cheese, if desired.
I drove out into the middle of a forest on a mountain. Accompanied only by a man that I barely knew. Without telling anyone where I was going. To a place with no cell phone service.
I was 18. He was 25 and attractive. I had known ‘of’ him (he worked at my company, in a different department), but I didn’t really actually know him. We both ended up at a party one night and, after chatting, we exchanged numbers.
He asked if he could take me hiking, and I said sure!
On Saturday, I packed up and he drove us for 2 hours into the wilderness of Mt. Baker. Halfway up, I realized… shit! I hadn’t told anyone where I was going (which you ALWAYS do if you’re going to be in the wilderness).
And my cell phone was out of service now.
And… who really was this guy next to me?!
I started to panic, as my anxiety fueled brain came up with bizarre ideas of what could happen.
“He could totes murder me and leave my body in the middle of the woods. This place is 119,989 acres… nobody would ever find me. And nobody knew I went with him for the day. If I were a murderer this would be, like, my dream come true.”
Luckily, I played it cool and halfway up the mountain blurted “Yo, don’t murder me bro!”
So smooth.
It turned out fine. He and I still go hiking together. But, in all fairness, it was one of the dumbest/ most naive things I’ve done.
Always tell people if you’re going into the wilderness. Don’t go off alone, out of cell phone service, with a man you barely know.
I was in Chattanooga working at a franchise restaurant as a waiter after the mortgage crash some years ago.
We advertised specials on the weekdays and it would draw in a crowd that was less affluent. That’s fine, I get that people like to eat out and I provided them with the same outstanding service (I was always #1 or #2 in tips).
We had this one lady that would come in every few weeks, eat her food, and then complain to have it comped. There was nothing wrong with the food, etc. Of course I wouldn’t get tipped, either. The folks she would eat with were invariably embarrassed, but did nothing.
After enjoying this (not!) several times she came in again. They sat in my section. I notified the manager we had a comp. coming.
I took their drink and appetizer orders and, when I returned, I asked if they were ready to order their meal. When it was her turn I had to say it…
“And what free meal will you be ordering this evening?”
The table was silent. The manager on duty looked at me like I’d lost my mind but was smiling. In fact I think the whole restaurant got quiet as the end of my employment drew near.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked, loudly and indignantly.
It was so quiet you could hear the dishwasher run in the back.
“Well,” I said most matter of factly, “in my times serving you you’ve always complained and gotten your food and drinks for free when in reality there’s absolutely nothing wrong. I don’t get it. You’re not homeless, you’re well-dressed, showered, and obviously didn’t walk here (or anywhere, I’d guess), so you must like going out and eating for free. It’s happened here and probably going to happen again tonight. I thought I’d just clear the air a bit.”
Yes, if I had to do it over again I’d have rhymed off what she had ordered and not paid for, LOL.
She wasn’t happy, as you may imagine, and got rather loud in that very quiet establishment.
Good news is I don’t think she came back.
Bad news was neither did I.
The Enduring Stellar Lifecycle in 30 Doradus (Composite: Infrared + X-ray)
“If I don’t call my mom right now, she’ll call the cops.”
Some background:
My mother devised a system of codewords and numbers that if used in certain ways meant different things. My older brothers would sometimes party with their friends in some not-so-great areas, so there were things that could be texted or said over the phone that saved them from bad situations. Maybe a rival gang showed up, the cops showed up, or there were unknown drugs on the scene (hey, we’ve all smoked a little weed).
The words were: breakfast sausages, kitty litter, tampons/pads/period (any could be used), ice cream, garbage, recycling
The numbers were 1–10.
”Breakfast sausages at 10?” Meant “Something is happening here and I feel unsafe”.
My mom would question “Does that work” for “do you need me to come get you”. Yes meant she came, No meant she alerted the cops who would usually just drive by.
So, how did this help me?
I was at a party where a guy was very insistent on getting me alone, and much bigger than I was. Upon getting me into a bedroom alone, he proceeded to push me down on the bed, and get on top of me. Over the noise of the party, screaming wasn’t working so I struggled, kicking and wiggling. When he grabbed my hair and yanked me up, I caught an old school alarm clock familiar red numbers and then started “freaking out”.
”Oh my god it’s so late I’m going to be f****in killed!” He stopped for a second, confused, and I said “I need to call my mom right now or she’ll call the cops! I was supposed to be home an hour ago!”
Immediately he was off of me and my phone was in my hand. No one wants cops at a party. My exchange with my mom went a little something like this:
”Hey mom, super sorry that it’s so late. I hope I didn’t worry you I lost track of time.”
”I thought you were going to stay with Theresa tonight after your party?”
”Oh crap yeah mom I’ll switch out the kitty litter tomorrow by 9. I’ll make sure I’m dropped off early so it’s done before the garbage is collected. Can you grab me some tampons at the store tomorrow?” (My would-be assailant is looking rather uncomfortable)
”I’ll throw on a robe and be there in 5. Be ready for me to scream.”
My mom proceeded to yell some rather nonsensical things at me over the phone, as I’d requested with “tampons”. “Garbage” was that whoever I was concerned about was near me, potentially being able to hear the phone conversation or read texts. “Kitty litter” meant I needed to leave ASAP, “9” meaning without cops.
My would-be assaillant was very uncomfortable and I left the room without a word, my mom yelling on the phone, and an overly exaggerated wince on my face. I reconnected with my friend and told her what happened, she walked me out with her boyfriend and ended up telling me that same guy had told her he thought we’d “really connected” and wanted my info.
In the end, I lied. But I would’ve been raped if I hadn’t.
It’s a system I’m glad to pass on to my daughter!
Reefer Madness 1936 | Full Movie | Louis Gasnier | Cult Classic | Dorothy Short | Kenneth Craig
After my first wife and I divorced, I joined a website “match.com” and started dating other women. I met all kinds of girls. Many of the dates were just a nice meal, or coffee. Some resulted in hook-ups, and a few were girls that I would end up spending a lot of time with.
One time, I dated a girl who was an assistant professor at Tufts University. Which is a pretty well-known university in the Boston area. And she was part of the Woman’s Studies program.
The date started off well enough, but our conversations kept on turning to what was wrong with the world and why men were the root of all evil.
Honestly, looking back, I get the impression that the ONLY reason why she went out with me was to somehow torture me for her pent up anger and unhappiness in her life. But I really don’t know for sure.
Anyways, after about an hour long bitch-fest, I finally managed to have an opportunity to talk.
She asked me “oh, so tell me about your life”. And I was pretty upset (but not showing it) by then.
So I remembered a line from a movie that I once watched.
I told her that I was born with a tail. And that my mother had the doctor cut it off when I was just a baby. I told her that it was kept in a jar of formaldehyde in the guest bathroom mirror, and that I personally believed that the tail was the reason why I was born with the ability to put curses on people.
After that, she didn’t know what to say, and we finished the meal quickly… yelling “I’ve gotta run. I’ll call you”.
Every now and again, I get a chuckle out of that memory. Remembering well, the puckered up expression on her face, and how she practically galloped out of the door.
My husband and I were away on a trip, and our older kids were holding down the fort (including our son who was home on leave from the Marine Corps). About 5:00 in the morning (2:00 a.m. at home), I sat straight up out of a dead sleep with one terrified thought: something was wrong at home.
My husband had been married to me over 20 years by then, and knew better than I did to never question when I got that instinct. He handed me the phone to call. I wasn’t sure what to say. “Just call. You’ll figure it out”, he responded.
The overwhelming feeling that something was very wrong wouldn’t let up. I called our daughter. She laughed and said everything was fine. I asked her to humor me and just go check. She said kids were asleep, so I asked her to go check the kitchen. Still chuckling at me she checked the stove and oven and declared them turned off. She looked about the rest of the kitchen until she turned in the direction facing the front doors. We have a large arctic entry so there are two front doors on each side of it so we come in from the cold and close one door and then open the second door to come to the house.
“Oh my God!” She cried out, and the phone went dead. I frantically tried calling back.
When she finally answered again, she told me both doors were wide open, so she called her Marine brother to come down from the upstairs apartment and he raced down. He did a security sweep of the house then the perimeter where he found evidence of bear on each side of the house. We question if the door was slightly ajar and the bear just pushed the doors open and started to come into the house until the phone rang.
That same mom vibe served me well when my Marines were deployed. I always seemed to know when to pray. It got to the point that whenever there was an incident, my other Marine son said he wouldn’t worry. Even when trapped in a doorway during a fire fight for five hours… because he knew his mom “knew” and was praying. Oddly enough, he was right. Thus another story.
A Cuban Sandwich
This is a labor-intensive recipe, but so delicious. You can opt to replace the Pan Cubano with ready-made bread, if desired.
Yield: 6 sandwiches, 12 servings
Ingredients
Pan Cubano
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast
3 tablespoons fresh lard, cut into small pieces
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) water
Roast Pork and Marinade
1 (1 1/4 pound) boneless pork roast or pork tenderloin
3 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons minced parsley
1 tablespoon paprika (preferably hot)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
Sandwich Assembly
Sliced roast pork
3/4 pound thinly sliced smoked ham
3/4 pound thinly sliced Swiss cheese (or other melty cheese)
4 dill pickles, sliced
3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
Instructions
Pan Cubano
Manual Method
In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients and stir until the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands, and knead it for 6 to 8 minutes, or until it begins to become smooth and supple.
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise until puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 1 hour, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. Gently fold the dough in upon itself and turn it upside down after 30 minutes; this “turn” helps eliminate some of the excess carbon dioxide and redistributes the yeast’s food, both imperative for optimum yeast growth.
Mixer Method
Combine the ingredients as directed at left, using a flat beater paddle or beaters, then switch to the dough hook(s) and knead for 5 to 8 minutes.
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise, with a turn, as directed above.
Bread Machine Method
Place all of the ingredients into the pan of your machine, program the machine for Manual or Dough, and press Start. Examine the dough about 10 minutes before the end of the final kneading cycle, and adjust its consistency with additional water or flour as needed, to produce a smooth, supple dough. Allow the machine to complete its cycle.
Divide the dough into six pieces, and shape each piece into a rough log. Let the logs rest for 15 minutes, covered, then shape each piece into a smooth batard shape (a log about 8 inches long, slightly tapered at each end). Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal, and place the loaves on the baking sheet.
Let the loaves rise, covered, for 1 hour. Brush or spray them with water, and slash one long lengthwise slit down the middle of each loaf.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F while the loaves are rising.
Transfer the loaves from the cornmeal-sprinkled pan to your oven stone (if you have one), or leave them on the pan and place them in the preheated oven (if baked on a sheet pan, the loaves will be slightly less puffy). Bake the bread for 16 to 18 minutes, or until it’s golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and cool it on a wire rack. The loaves may be made one day in advance and stored at room temperature, or several weeks in advance and frozen. Yield: 6 sandwich loaves.
Roast Pork and Marinade
Mix all of the marinade ingredients together (all of the ingredients except the pork), and rub this mixture over all surfaces of the pork. Cover well, and refrigerate for 6 to 24 hours.
Place the pork in a roasting pan or ovenproof dish, and roast it in a preheated 425 degrees F oven for 30 to 40 minutes, basting occasionally with the pan juices, until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the roast registers 160 degrees F. Remove the pork from the oven, and cool it completely before slicing thinly.
Sandwich Assembly
Slice the Cuban loaves in half horizontally. Brush the cut surfaces of the rolls with olive oil, soft butter or the remaining pan juices. Layer the sandwiches as follows: Swiss cheese, sliced pickle, ham, sliced roast pork, then additional cheese.
Now comes the somewhat challenging part. You want to grill these sandwiches, top and bottom, while at the same time flattening them slightly. This helps meld all of the filling ingredients. Heat two large skillets, or a grill and one skillet, to medium-hot. Lightly grease the grill and/or skillets. Place the sandwiches in the greased pan(s). Top them with a piece of parchment paper, then the remaining skillet (or flat sheet pan, or other heavy, flat, non-meltable object — the point is to weigh them down). Press down firmly on the top pan, and weigh it down. A tea kettle filled with water makes a good weight, as does a clean brick wrapped in aluminum foil.
Grill the sandwiches for 5 to 8 minutes over medium heat, checking often to make sure the bottoms aren’t burning (we burned our first attempts to a crisp). Adjust the heat downward if the bottoms are becoming brown after only a couple of minutes. Turn the sandwiches over and grill for several more minutes, until they’re crisp on both sides.
I disturbed a burglar when I was about 19. He froze and I was so confused I initially thought it was my father (who I’d seen go to bed an hour earlier) pulling out drawers in the dark. When I got my wits about me I turned on the light, told him to stand up, and told him to turn out his pockets (which he did, returning a few items). I then told him to walk out on to our patio and sit down. The moment he got outside he ran, and I pursued half-heartedly as I didn’t really want to catch him by myself.
He vaulted over our back fence and landed almost on top of my brother and his friend who (unknown to me) had sneaked out for a secret cigarette before bed. The burglar said to him “don’t worry I’m just going home”, about two seconds before my brother and his friend sat on him.
They brought him around to the front of our house, and we (including my father who’d been awakened by my shouts during the “chase”) sat him on our front wall until the police arrived. It was cold and the burglar seemed a bit worked up so my mother made him a cup of tea.
No guns or weapons of any kind were involved. We live in England.
Why Most Men Have No Chance In Short-Term Dating – @hoe_math
The best example I can think of would be L. Ron Hubbard. Prolific science fiction writer turned dangerous cult leader. In a way, it’s hard not to admire the man for his honesty — because he did give the world the best quote ever on cults and shady false preachers:
“You don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.”
It’s fun, having your own religion. You can do whatever you want. You can say whatever you want. And since you’re the one and only “enlightened one”, the Great Messenger, no one can question you. Hubbard started off as a conman, but eventually came to believe his own nonsense. He was deeply mentally ill.
I remember Tom Cruise divorcing Nicole Kidman in the year 2001. One of the reasons for the divorce? Her father was a psychiatrist. And psychiatrists are “the enemy” according to Scientology, Hubbard’s invented faith. Not only because they would have told the great founder he was insane, but because they would have told his followers the same. Which would mean a loss of power.
Imagine creating a religion that thinks psychiatry is “evil”. Because your deeply mentally ill Messiah hated admitting he was deeply mentally ill, rather than a visionary. Decades after his death, your followers still hate psychiatry. They hate everyone and everything that might point out the absurdity in their views. It’s crazy, like Hubbard. But also impressive, like Hubbard.
HOE Math Explains Perfectly Why Men Love Inexperienced Women!
“Stuck on your highest setting,” is a brilliant way to describe the current female dating outlook.
Hoemath having his work vindicated in real time. Absolutely amazing.
Women don’t gain experience over the years they acquire trauma.
I drove up from Florida, in route to Atlanta, to visit family, and had tickets to see a Too Short show with my Sister.
Got pulled over in Newton County, GA cuzz, “my taillight was out?”
The female officer said, that my license were suspended ?
The male officer, told the female officer that the suspension didn’t look right, and could be a mistake.
Then the male officer, turned and asked me if I owed any back child support?
I said, “No, I’ve never had to pay child support.”
The female cop, asked for permission to search my vehicle, I said, yes.
She found one rusted up Coors light can thrown into the truckbed I was driving.
She told me to turn around, handcuffed me, and took me to jail charged with, suspended license, taillight, and open container.
So, I spent the night in jail and froze to death the whole time.
The next morning, I went in front of the jail judge, and he dropped all of the charges, except the open container.
The jail judge took me back to where the police were, and asked me if I had $20.00 cash? I said, “Yes.”
The judge told the officers to let me out of jail, ordered them to take the cuffs off me me and to not put me back into that jail cell, and to give me my belongings.
So, I paid $20.00 cash, then $200.00 to get the truck out, and I took the truck to the closest auto shop to get the taillight repaired.
Well, guess what ? The taillight wasn’t broken, and was in proper working condition. The auto dude couldnt give me proof of that bc he said, I could have went somewhere else and had it fixed.
When I went to court for the open container, the court judge charged me with suspended license, taillight, and open container.
My public defender showed the judge the proof I had from the Florida DMV, that my license were never suspended, he told the Judge that I had no prior convictions, not even a speeding ticket, and the jail judge has already dropped those charges.
The court judge looked at me finded me almost $1,900.00, a year probation or 10 days in jail.
Then the court judge told me, that he had authority over the jail judge so whatever charges he dropped will not be dismissed.
Then the court judge told me, “No one drives thru his county with a suspended license!”
He said pay your $1,900.00 fine, and we will take you off probation, or we can put you in jail for 10 days, if you have anything further to say.
I paid my fine and the charges were dropped so my record is clean but it was an awful night and it took me a while to get back on track financially, not to mention all the stress and trips back up to Georgia to straighten the shit out.
It is a huge money scam, tow truck people are all in on it, and there is nothing you can do about it!
I didn’t miss the Too Short show tho and me and my Sister had a blast!
Cops suck ass! They are lazy and they lie too much. Anything to meet that quota! They don’t care about you losing your job, missing a show, staying in jail cause you can’t afford to pay the bail. They don’t give one fuck.
Protect and serve my ass!!!
They are bullies with badges, and can fuck your life up, even when you’re an innocent law abisding citizen, it’s all legal and it’s getting worse.
Fuck’em!
Conservatives INSANE reaction to Gen Z Hating the 40 Hour Work Week
I was 17, driving my Dad’s Mercedes, drunk. A cop pulled me over, told me to exit the vehicle, and walk to the back of my car. I leaned against the trunk lid. The cop asked, “Where were you tonight?” I said, “At a party.” He asked, “Are you carrying any drugs or paraphernalia?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Toss it down by my feet.”
i did. It was a little pot and a pipe. He asked, “Have you had anything to drink?” I said, “Yes.” Then he asked me, “In an ideal world, what would you like to happen now?” I said, “I’d like to drive home and never do this again.”
The cop said, “I believe you. You’ve been completely honest with me. Drive straight home.” He got back in his car, and drove off. He never even knew who I was. He didn’t ask for my driver’s licence or even my name!
You don’t always need to be around people. People will want to be with you when you are happy by yourself.
People love boldness. You will be respected when you become a straight talker. Example: If you can’t provide a favor, say no instead of trying to please them.
If you don’t like yourself, no one else will. You must change what you don’t like about yourself and accept what you can’t change.
Swallow your pride and always accept your mistake. Deflecting blame is always seen as a weakness.
When you listen more instead of talking people feel special. In return, they will make you feel special.
When you share a few uncomfortable truths about yourself, people will feel comfortable and reciprocate. Example: When talking to someone new, share the truth about your nervousness.
Gen Zer explains why her generation is screwed when it comes to Dating & Marriage
Lavrov’s Remarks and Answers to Questions at the Conference Marking the 10th Anniversary of the Coup d’état in Ukraine
Karl Sanchez
There are times when it’s hard to tell if Sergey Lavrov is angry or not. Most of what he said, including in his answers, he’s said many times before. I know he must keep up decorum, but when you read the text it’s easy to see him fed up with having to say whatever it is once again. Maybe his blood was already boiling since he addressed the conference on Neocolonialism before this forum. In print, when he discusses anything related to the West, there’s nothing good to be expected from it. Yes, we must understand that this pot’s been coming to a boil for many years now, since before Maidan, and not everything that could be cited is anymore. I recall the tense seriousness of his discussions with Putin, the government and the Security Council that began in September 2021 and culminated in his verdict in January that the Outlaw US Empire would refuse the December security proposals and thus the military technical operation would need to commence. In November, it was decided at a tense meeting of the government that what was happening Donbass was Genocide and something needed to be done and very soon. Putin agreed Genocide was indeed happening, and we know the subsequent formulations. I covered all that while writing at my VK platform that remains operational. My opinion is Team Putin never anticipated that their European counterparts could be as evil as they’ve become—IMO, it’s very important that the word evil is almost never mentioned by Team Putin and other descriptions are invoked instead, while the accusations coming from the Outlaw US Empire and its vassals are usually 100% projection. However, in the following, Lavrov uses the term Nazi as an adjective twice, which is synonymous with evil and diabolical and close to universally agreed upon by Humanity.
This much longer than usual preamble perhaps serves to provide more context for Lavrov’s words, or maybe it’s because I need to provide some justification for essentially repeating a story I’ve heard too many times, and every time it merely raises my angst against the Outlaws who stole my nation and have caused so much grief in the world over my lifetime. Enough from me; here’s Lavrov. All emphasis mine:
Dear Colleagues,
I am sure that those present here are well aware of the current situation in Ukraine, who was in charge of the process, and what methods were used.
On February 9, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, once again
gavea detailed account of the story. If we talk about the geopolitical aspects and consequences of the coup in Kiev, first of all,
I would like to say that what is happening is yet another result of the policy of “divide and rule”, pitting different countries and peoples against each other, and provoking interstate conflicts. This policy has long been pursued in various regions of the world by the “collective West” led by the United States, or rather, with the Anglo-Saxons.The role that England is playing in current events is more aggressive and sophisticated in its provocative assertiveness than any other participant, including the United States.
When the Americans and their satellites proclaimed themselves the winners of the Cold War, they set a course for NATO expansion, ignoring all their obligations not to expand the North Atlantic Alliance and not to deploy significant combat forces on the territory of new members, given (orally and in writing) to the Soviet and then Russian leadership. That was the next stage. The block began to expand. But even then we agreed to sign
an agreementon the establishment of the Russia-NATO Council. Once again, we made a concession. The fact of expansion was acknowledged. In response, the alliance pledged not to deploy significant combat forces on the territory of new members.
This
Acthas not been repealed. Look at what’s happening now. On the territory of the new members, more and more large groups equipped with modern weapons began to train right on our borders.
If we talk about the position of the West towards Russia, then since gaining independence, Ukraine has always been considered by it as an anti-Russian bridgehead. In 2004, in fact, the first coup d’état took place. It was bloodless, but unconstitutional. When Viktor Yanukovych won in the second round, the West forced the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to issue a verdict on the need to hold a third round, which is not provided for by the Constitution. That’s how they “wrung their hands.” How did it all end? They were playing democracy. But the games of democracy, even according to their rules, did not help in 2010, when the people (primarily the votes of the south and southeast of Ukraine) elected Viktor Yanukovych.
Then the West began to prepare a coup in such a way that there would be no more “misfires”. To destroy the opposition once and for all, which has been happening for many years since the February 2014 coup.
In the same year, a coup d’état took place in a country called Yemen, which now also often flashes on the pages of newspapers and TV screens. President Abdel Abdullah al-Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia. For many years after that, the West unanimously demanded the return of the legitimate president of Yemen to its country and only then begin negotiations on a settlement with the opposition.
In the case of Viktor Yanukovych, we drew the attention of the French, Germans and Poles (who guaranteed the peace agreement that was broken the next morning) to the need to “reason with the opposition.” What did they sign up for? That there will be early elections, and a government of national unity will be formed for the period until the elections. And the morning after the coup d’état, Arseniy Yatsenyuk (there was such a leader among them) went to the Maidan and said that he congratulated everyone, that they had won and created a “government of winners.” Does no one see the difference between national unity and winners? So there are losers. You all know how the situation developed later. Those who did not accept the result of this putsch were declared terrorists and an “operation” was launched against them. There were such brutal episodes in this tragedy as the burning of 48 civilians in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, the bombing of Lugansk and other cities of Donbass by military aircraft. The DPR and LPR declared independence. But even then there was still room for agreement.
Some time later, in the second half of 2014 (after Kiev announced an “anti-terrorist operation”), a meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia (represented by yours truly), the United States, Ukraine and the European Union took place in Geneva.
At that time, Oleksandr Deshchytsia was acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and had powers from the authorities that illegally reigned in Kiev. We have agreed on the statement. Unfortunately, it was not published by agreement, as it was agreed that Oleksandr Deshchytsia would “check” in her capital. The statement, in addition to a clear call for de-escalation and an end to violence, called for the start of a broad national dialogue in Ukraine with the participation of all regions of the country, with an eye to its federalization. Despite our reminders, the participants of this meeting then “walked away” from the publication of this statement. Instead, Kiev began to solve the “Donbass problem” (as they called it) by force.
In fact, it set the same goal as Adolf Hitler when he announced the need for the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”
Once again, we began to look for ways to cooperate to overcome the crisis. We persuaded Donbass not to abandon negotiations. President of Russia Vladimir Putin spoke about this in detail.
As a result, a year after the coup in February 2015, the agreements of the same name were signed in Minsk. Subsequently, you all know how then President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of France Francois Hollande, who signed these agreements with Vladimir Putin, cynically and even proudly stated that they had no intention of fulfilling them. It took time to pump Ukraine with weapons against Russia.
This is a “stunning” confession – a “confession”, in fact. As a consequence of the fact that the West is using Ukraine in every sense to contain Russia and, as they now say, inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia, to prevent it from playing the role on the world stage that it rightfully deserves.
As a result, Ukraine, which received the richest industrial potential from the USSR and the Russian Empire,turned into the poorest state in Europe, into a territory, without exaggeration, dying. The Kiev authorities are already a universally recognized international beggar.
Ukraine’s independence is gone. Even before the coup of February 2014, starting with the Maidan, or even earlier,American and British advisers were sitting in most departments (including the Security Service of Ukraine). Now this is a standard, unsurprising practice.
They sit and make sure that money is not stolen, although no one will ever stop stealing. How will the West demand that Ukraine not steal the money it provides it with, if it is stealing our money? They are already openly discussing how to do it better so as not to violate their “moral” principles and not to create a precedent.
This is a vivid example of what “flirting” with the West and the thoughtless desire to integrate into its system of political and economic coordinates in any way leads to.There is no doubt that the West has declared war against us.
They don’t hide it.Although they say that they are only arming Ukraine, and it is the Ukraine itself that is fighting. Everyone understands that this is a lie. Western instructors monitor how the planning of the General Staff of Ukraine is carried out, help to guide to targets (we are 100% sure of this) and do much more. According to our information, the European External Action Service has made recommendations for Ukraine, which proceed from the fact that it will not be possible to win with the methods that Ukraine is currently fighting, and it will lose. Therefore, it is necessary to rely on the transfer of even more long-range weapons to this country so that they reach the “heart” of Russia (as the European Union describes it). In this way, they will once again sow confusion and panic and undermine the trust of the people.
Isn’t that direct participation in the war? Of course. In war, the main thing is strategy, and it is not in Kyiv, but far away.
Europe, eager to do something as soon as possible to end this drama with the defeat of Russia, in fact, serves the interests of the United States, does not care about its own interests at all. Look at the economic indicators, the negative growth, the recession in the leading European economies. President of Russia Vladimir Putin spoke about this in detail. Everything will probably become clear. All this is humiliated and accepted without complaint. There are no objections. Recall how after US President Joe Biden’s Nord Stream bombings announced in advance, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz went to Washington to bow down, where, apparently, he was told not to make any noise, and he returned without any news conference.
I would like to say that they are now trying to “gloom” (there is no other word for it) all the countries of the global majority, including those represented here (we are very glad to see you here), and to “drag” them into supporting Vladimir Zelensky’s completely dead-end “peace formula”. Its essence is that Russia must capitulate, go beyond the borders of 1991, and the Russian leadership must go to the tribunal and pay reparations. Everyone understands that this is a “dummy” and, at the very least, an unwise initiative.
But in order to lure normal countries that understand what is happening, in addition to the points I mentioned, they threw in supposedly neutral provisions: food security, energy security, nuclear security, prisoner exchange, and humanitarian issues. In total, there are 10 points in the formula, half of them are supposedly neutral.
Clearly, this is seen as a whole. When the countries of the Global South and the Global East are lured to “gatherings” that are organized to promote this “peace formula,” they are told that they understand that they do not like it, they understand their position that it is pointless to discuss anything without Russia. But they then say, they must support food security and sign up to “one” paragraph. As we say, these are “thimble makers”, as we say. I don’t know how it translates into English, but it’s an absolute “cheat” (there’s no other way to put it).
In Davos, there was another “gathering” on this “formula” of Vladimir Zelensky. The main thing they were interested in was a “group photo”. This is actually true. This is the EU’s recommendation to Ukraine: they say, do not go too far, do not force neutral participants, whom we are dragging into this process, to condemn Russia, the main thing is that “there is a photo.” I’m not kidding.
When I was in New York on January 23 of this year for the UN Security Council meetings on Palestine, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignores Cassis asked for
a meetingand suggested that Switzerland become the venue for the peace conference. In his conversation with me, he emphasised in every possible way that in Davos, after the meeting on the peace formula, he said at a news conference that it was necessary to solve problems involving Russia. I replied that if he said so, it means that he is sure of it, and then why did they gather without Russia?
This is not serious from the point of view of diplomacy of any country, and for the West to say that this is the only way forward, I think it is a shame.President of Russia Vladimir Putin,
commenting onthe results of his contacts with Tucker Carlson and during
the West must admit that it has taken a wrong course that has failed.Let the West look for a way out of the situation without losing face.
Vladimir Putin stressed that the West must return to the art of diplomacy, and the art of diplomacy, like the art of politics, is the art of compromise.
It is clear that all this unequivocally presupposes the recognition of the legitimacy of our demands, non-bloc status, the rejection of any NATO advance, the rejection of the militarization of Ukraine as a threat to the Russian Federation, and
the cessation of the Nazi policy of extermination, both legally and physically, of Russians and Russian-speaking citizens on the territory of Ukraine.
Remember, back in November 2021, before the decision to launch a special military operation, before the West rejected our initiative on European security, a journalist asked Vladimir Zelensky how he felt about the people living in Donbass, on the other side of the contact line. Vladimir Zelensky thoughtfully and artistically said that there are people and there are “specimens”. And he also said earlier that if someone lives in Ukraine, but feels involved in Russian culture, Russian civilization, then for the sake of their children and grandchildren, let them “fail” to go to Russia.
This was said by the president, who was elected under the slogans, firstly, of a peaceful settlement, and secondly, of the protection of the Russian language in Ukraine. He called for “falling behind” the Russians, allowing them to continue speaking their native language in Ukraine, as they had done for centuries. That’s how he changed his views back in 2021.
And the final touch. He stated that he would never implement the Minsk agreements. It was clear that they were stalling. From February 2015 to 2019, there were no positive developments, only the bombing of Donbass in violation of all the requirements of this document. In December 2019, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of France Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky
metin Paris at the initiative of the French and Germans, where they spoke in favour of “reconfirming” the Minsk Agreements, first of all, regarding the need for a direct dialogue between Minsk and Donetsk and Lugansk, and, secondly (no less important), in terms of enshrine their special status on a permanent basis in the Constitution of Ukraine. Vladimir Zelensky signed it. Some time later, when the events of February 2022 began, Oleksandr Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that Vladimir Zelensky had signed “just like that” so that they would fall behind. He wasn’t going to do anything. Like, they deceived us and “squeezed” us out of more time. This is the whole characteristic of the “characters” who now rule Ukraine and the West is betting on them in order to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. If you want to go to the battlefield, it’s up to you.
Question: As you know, there are many mercenaries from Latin America on Kiev’s side. Do you think they pose a threat to democracy in these regions? Is there a security dialogue with the Latin American countries where they come from?
Sergey Lavrov: This topic is relevant not only for the situation in Ukraine.
It is known that mercenaries, including those from the Middle East, are actively used in the African region. In Ukraine, they are also fighting, including members of terrorist organizations like the Islamic State.
The Islamic State and its representatives are under the tutelage of the United States at the illegally occupied al-Tanf base in eastern Syria. Everyone knows this very well.The Islamic State itself came into being as a result of an attack on Iraq under false pretenses by the United States. Then the United States took over the administration of Iraq. They had the Gauleiter, the Governor-General (whatever you want to call him), Paul Bremer, who dissolved all the structures of the Baath Party. I just let it go. They were based on the Sunni branch of Islam. The backbone of the Islamic State was made up of officers of Saddam Hussein’s army, who had nothing to live on.
And the U.S. had a direct hand in this.It is interesting to see what the Americans have achieved in Iraq. The goals set are a complete failure.
Now, for the umpteenth time, the Iraqi government is asking them to withdraw their troops, but the U.S. is unwilling. That’s how big the Democrats are.
Al-Qaeda emerged after the Afghan saga, which also ended badly and shamefully. And after the invasion of Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra appeared, which later became known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Whatever you call them, they are “mercenaries.” The same members of the Islamic State are sent for money to various hot spots. They’re paid thousands of dollars to do their jobs.
Clearly, this is a dangerous practice. Eventually, when their mission in a country is over, they will have to go somewhere else (they don’t know how to do anything else but organize terrorist attacks, shoot, kill people).
If people go there from Colombia or other Latin American countries, one day they will have an epiphany. Many American and British mercenaries have already said publicly on camera that they are completely disappointed in what is happening there, in these lofty “democratic” goals proclaimed by the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors. Some are returning to their home countries.
But if the people who remain in this war waged against us by the West go through a military phase in their lives, it is likely that they will return to it, especially since in Colombia there is someone to argue with and there has always been someone to compete with.
We hope that the Colombian leadership is well aware of this, as are the leaders of other countries. After all, what is the problem? In many respects, this process is connected with the gross violation
of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relationsby Ukrainian embassies. It is outrageous that there are offers to be recruited for war on their websites. Several times we have drawn the attention of the Western masters of this regime so that they would “reason” with them. Nothing happens. Somewhere it quieted down, and then the recruitment activity continues again.
Everyone should be aware that a neutral position and a call for a settlement are good. We appreciate that. This is the position of the World Majority (with the rarest of exceptions). No one has joined the anti-Russian sanctions. But when the countries of the global majority try to “frown” by convening meetings under the slogan of Vladimir Zelensky’s “peace formula” as the only approach to a settlement, it is necessary (at least) to show that everyone understands everything and does not want to play this game.
Mercenary activities are part of the problem. This must be fought. There were thousands of mercenaries in Ukraine. According to our military, now there are less than half of them. The rest either left or met their inglorious end. [Lavrov could have gone much deeper and mentioned the Outlaw US Empire’s longstanding use of its Terrorist Foreign Legion to attain its goals in South America where it has a very long history going back to the 1850s.]
Question: Against the backdrop of President Vladimir Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson, the rating of Republicans in the United States is generally rising. The opinion of the people in the West about Russia is changing dramatically. Previously, they did not know about what was happening in our country because it was not covered. How do you see the prospects for restoring relations with the West in the event of a change of government, especially in the United States (if Donald Trump becomes president)? Will they recognize the new territories? Will there be a resumption of cooperation?
Sergey Lavrov: Regarding the position of the Republicans and the “epiphany” that suddenly appeared in American society after President Vladimir Putin’s
interviewwith Tucker Carlson. For me, the main thing is that, as it turned out, US citizens live in a complete information blockade. They are “fed” with the internal narrative, primarily of the Democratic Party. Fox News is the only exponent of Republican sentiments, but after the departure of T. Carlson, the tone has also changed.
It turns out that there is no question of any freedom of speech. Although the American Constitution requires that there be access to any information. But in addition to this, there are also commitments made within the framework of the OSCE in 1991 inMoscow. At the initiative of the West, it was written in black and white (and the Soviet Union signed the demands): to ensure free, unrestricted access to information in each member state of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Special mention is made of information that originates both inside and outside the country concerned. This is a direct requirement.
Our friends from the diplomatic corps and all Russian citizens see in the news that “a good half” is a story about the position of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, and the European Union on Ukraine or any other international event.
Our public is familiar with the point of view of the West. Yes, in most cases this is criticized, but everyone is free to draw their own conclusions. We do not censor what is said in the West.All this is shown, and then political scientists discuss it.
As for the restoration of relations, President of Russia Vladimir Putin also spoke about this in
He explained that the West must admit its mistake and find a convenient way out. But with the full understanding that the problem of Ukraine, as we have identified it, must be resolved. He added that someday relations will be restored. When this happens is not up to us.
That’s their problem.President Vladimir Putin recalled that we had made so many concessions and gestures of goodwill. The limit has already been reached.
On their part, in response to our good deeds, we saw other gestures on one hand.
Question: What are the main consequences of the Euromaidan protest for the ordinary population of Ukraine? How to restore relations in the future?
Sergey Lavrov: There are living witnesses of those events here. I think they can describe it in brighter colors. But it is written in Ukrainian laws that a course has been taken to destroy everything Russian.
“Euromaidan” affected everyday life, access to information, education in the Russian language, which was used by more than half of the citizens. According to some estimates, 80% of the population of Ukraine feels that the Russian language is more comfortable in communication. All this is forbidden by law. Up to everyday situations: the saleswoman may refuse to serve if you address her in Russian. A few months ago, Kiev Mayor Viktor Klitschko issued a city regulation banning all cultural events in the capital: exhibitions, performances, film screenings, etc.
When this word was mentioned in the context of the
the policy pursued by the Kiev Nazi regime towards Donbass and Russians in general,Ukraine filed a lawsuit against Russia in the International Court of Justice. By demanding that the court recognise the groundlessness of the accusations of the Zelensky regime of carrying out a policy of genocide.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has concluded a decades-long debate. It made a verdict that we did not violate any conventions. Moreover, it rejected the Ukrainian claim that they were fighting terrorist regimes in Donetsk and Luhansk. The entire ideological basis of the “anti-terrorist operation” that Kiev launched after the coup d’état and then continued contrary to
the Minsk agreementshas been debunked. Now there are “local assaults on people” – they can pull them out from anywhere (from a cinema or a bathhouse) and send them to the “slaughter”. Bad consequences.
Millions of Ukrainians have found their shelter in our country. Here they are perceived as absolutely equal to us. Brothers, sisters, people with whom we have shared joy and sorrow. We have families on both sides. Rosbrothers. Both in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation. They are at home here. And the main thing is that those who come to us feel at home themselves. We will do everything we can to make them feel this way.
Question: The other day, the US government asked Congress for $100 billion: $65 billion for Ukraine, $15 billion for Israel and $20 billion for Taiwan. They will enact this sooner or later. Several European countries have begun to say that Ukraine should be part of NATO. Where are we going? Are there any possibilities for a peace conference?
Sergey Lavrov: This is not a question for us. We have answered it many times. President of Russia Vladimir Putin touched upon this issue. In April 2022, there was an agreement that has already become the talk of the town. The Anglo-Saxons forbade Vladimir Zelensky to sign the agreed agreement, which was acceptable to both the Ukrainian and Russian delegations. And so it happened.
To reiterate, there is a decree issued by Vladimir Zelensky prohibiting talks with Vladimir Putin’s government. When the West raised such questions, our President repeatedly said that it was necessary to force him to cancel this decree and say so publicly. The ball is not in our court. Everyone understands this very well.
At the same time, it is said that the Swiss are announcing a peace conference. But at the same time, the West unanimously declares that it is only on the basis of Vladimir Zelensky’s formula. Therefore, friends from Asia, Africa, and Latin America should choose the most “innocuous” points from these ten points (food or energy security), and the Westerners will write them down to participate in a “collective photo” in support of this “formula.” What kind of diplomacy is this?
They have not been engaged in diplomacy for a long time. Instead, there is blackmail and sanctions. Any issue that seems important to the West is never the subject of an honest discussion.
The UN Charter states that the United Nations is based on the sovereign equality of States. The most important point. Imagine retrospectively the various conflicts that have taken place since the creation of the World Organization in 1945. There is not a single conflict in history in which the West has been involved, either before or after the creation of the Organization, in which the United States and its allies have observed the principle of sovereign equality, and this obligation is enshrined in the Charter – to respect the sovereign equality of states. Therefore, the conference is apparently understood as a “collective photograph”, the participants of which will later say that there is a “formula” of Vladimir Zelensky, and that on this basis they invite Russia. I think it will be humiliating for them. Most people are well aware that this is neither diplomacy nor politics. So we don’t have the ball.
Question: In view of the fact that after the end of the
special military operation(even if not now), there is a transformation of the world order and international relations in general. Are there any plans to reform the UN, in particular the Security Council, under the auspices and within the framework of the initiatives and efforts of the Russian Federation, which is its permanent member? In view of the fact that we have repeatedly sent inquiries and requested various sessions to consider the terrorist attacks that took place on the territory of our country, in particular in Belgorod. Just yesterday. Will we somehow advance these efforts so that the UN Security Council acquires a new character and international law is respected?
Sergey Lavrov: Reform of the UN has been discussed for a long time. It’s overdue. For me, there are two main aspects of this reform. One is conceptual, the other is practical.
We are convinced that theUN Chartercontains all the necessary principles, respect for which will ensure peace and security.I gave an example that when the Americans need something, they look at what principle of the Charter to take as a justification for their actions. When it was necessary to declare Kosovo’s independence unilaterally, they said that it was based on the principle of self-determination of peoples enshrined in the UN Charter. When an open, transparent referendum in Crimea with the participation of many international observers decided to reunite with Russia, they did not accept it, condemned it and said that it violated the principle of territorial integrity.
Since the inception of the United Nations, there have been debates about whether the self-determination of peoples or territorial integrity is more important. Self-determination of peoples is mentioned earlier in the UN Charter. But a multi-year negotiation process was initiated, culminating in the adoption of the Declaration
sovereign and independent States which observe in their actions the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples as set forth above, and, consequently, have governments which represent, without distinction as to race, creed or colour, all the people inhabiting the territory.” After the coup d’état, did the Kiev regime represent the population, a huge part of Ukraine? Of course not. So it’s conceptual.
A fundamental part of our position is that the UN Charter should remain at the heart of all the activities of the legal community, but with the understanding that its principles should be applied in their entirety and in all their interrelatedness.
The practical judgment is (there are many aspects of reform now) that everyone is primarily interested in the reform of the UN Security Council. This topic is in the public eye all the time. The prestige of the countries that want to get into this body on a permanent basis is directly related to this. The reform should unequivocally eliminate historical injustices and ensure fair representation of the countries of the global majority – Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The current composition of the UN Security Council was formed at a time when the consequences of decolonization had not yet been realized, when the newly liberated free and independent countries were just arranging their own internal lives and getting used to the new quality. It is clear that the situation on the world stage is radically different now. Economic giants such as China, India, and Brazil are on the rise. In Africa, there is a movement towards the realization of its own identity and in favor of rejecting the rudiments of colonial policy, when resources are pumped out of Africa, and all the added value is produced in the former metropolises and the main profits are generated there. It is necessary to ensure the admission of representatives of the developing world to the UN Security Council. We have publicly said that we support India and Brazil as candidates for permanent membership in the UN Security Council, with the understanding that at the same time a similar additional presence in Africa will be ensured.
We have warned our Indian and Brazilian friends (and we explain this at every turn) that it is unacceptable for us to replenish the UN Security Council with any new representative of the West. Currently, six of the fifteen members of the UN Security Council represent Western countries. Sometimes Japan is added, pursuing a purely Western policy. Granting more seats to the western group would only mean deepening the injustice. Germany and Japan aspire to “infiltrate” the Security Council together with India and Brazil, but they will not succeed. From a purely arithmetical point of view, the West is already disproportionately represented.
Now to the point. Name at least one issue of international politics in recent years on which Germany or Japan would have taken a stand. Any. All of them are “built” by the West. There’s nothing you can do about it.
There were sensible ideas about leaving one seat in the UN Security Council for the “collective West,” for NATO.
You mentioned the UN Security Council’s consideration of various crisis situations, including terrorist acts carried out by the Ukrainian regime on a regular basis and to which the West is pushing it to continue. I quoted the EU’s instruction to Kiev in which direction it should “work”.
A few days ago, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron unleashed a neo-colonial “mantra” urging people not to abandon Ukraine under any circumstances. Vice versa. It is necessary, they say, to “pump” it with the most modern weapons as much as possible. Condemnation of such terrorist acts is possible only with the consent of all members of the UN Security Council. In most cases, the Americans “shield” the Kiev regime and do not “pass” these resolutions.
There is a lot of talk about proposals to abolish the veto.This is what many developing countries have been saying in discussions on Security Council reform.
The right of veto is not a privilege, but a tool for ensuring well-considered decisions and preventing unilateral resolutions that can bring imbalance to world politics.
The West has practically lost the culture of work in the UN Security Council, which has always relied on the ability of the five permanent members, each of whom has the right of veto, to come to an agreement, to seek compromises on any complex issue and never to provoke a veto by putting to a vote resolutions that are unacceptable to any of the five members.
We have always been ready for this kind of work. The Americans, along with the British and French, have chosen a different style that is detrimental to the UN.
It is unrealistic to abandon the veto. Then the United Nations, like the League of Nations, will turn into a useless structure that will only further escalate confrontation.
Reform is a long process. It should reflect a common understanding at this stage of the tectonic changes taking place in the world in the context of multipolarity processes.
I know Lavrov wants to remain optimistic, but the realities against that are formidable. Yes, Russia and the Global Majority will continue to grow stronger, but the planet will remain chaotic as long as the Outlaws exist. And remember, they are Nazi-like and thus extremely diabolical—they will continue to attain their objective no matter the cost as all means justify their goal which is to keep their hegemony. All sorts of reality can, and has been, thrown in their faces, but they are blind to it and can only see their goal. Those hiding behind the Front Men and Women must be exposed and made visible in the public’s eyes—the Bidens, Trumps Kennedys, and their ilk are screens to shield. That’s why policy is contiguous—it matters not which flavor is in charge anymore, although there’s currently a theatre ongoing to make it seem otherwise.
I made one parenthetical comment and could have provided more. Lavrov provided a warning to fence-sitting nations that even what appears to be a safe position actually isn’t, that joint, in resolute solidarity, resistance to the West is the only real path forward. In his talk yesterday, Lavrov expressed the idea that regional solidarity will meld into global solidarity and regional organizations will then become global. That’s the only real way to control the Global Fracture that’s now occurring. There’s more to be said about the historic Global Big Picture that shows a distinct continuity over the last 4,000+ years where the great mass of people have tried again and again to establish a fair social contract with rulers/governments. Today’s conflict is all about ending the one last Great Tyranny, which as mentioned is the same Tyranny that’s been existing and plaguing Humanity for centuries.
I’ll tell you a story about respecting the court. My step daughter was a young teen and had some case against her. On the day of court she got up and put on jeans and a t-shirt I told her to change into a nice Sunday church dress with no heels. She wasn’t happy but did it. We were towards the end of the docket. All the other defendeants that got up were dressed similarly as she had been initially. The judge made a stern ruling quickly and moved on. When it was her turn and she stood he stopped. Talk to her about what she did wrong and about how she looked like she probably learned a lesson and he let her off pretty easy, a little community service. The lawyer even told us that wasn’t his normal but he’s sure it was because of how she was dressed. So if you want to go in and not stand, show disrespect to the court don’t expect things to go favorably for you. And consequences can be contempt of court with jail time, dismissing your case until you can be respectful or loosing your case to getting a harsher sentence. So think about that before you decide to do something so stupid
I worked at a mom and pop home center. Like a small Home Depot, but privately owned. An older gentleman came in a lot to buy small stuff. I spent time with him, took him outside to look at lumber, cut a few boards to size. One so he could build a bird house. Not money making at all. I even hauled a few boards to his house in my own truck on my lunch break, it was on the way. Boss had told me to knock it off, I was costing him too much money. A week or so later the guy comes in, we talk, he leaves. Boss is pissed, wants to know WTF he wants this time? “ Oh he wanted to give us this” I handed the boss a check for $25,000. Seems the man was building house, hired the builder I introduced him to, and based on his and my relationship, he intended to buy building materials from us. Cash up front. When the $25,000 was used up, he left more, until the house was done.
As I child I remember a time where I had built sandcastles, left for a few minutes, only to find a group of kids kicking down my creations. So what I did was build them on top of large rocks. I left again. When I came back I watched them kick the sand castles down again. They immediately stopped after one of them broke their foot on a rock.
The lessen is that sometimes you have to outfox people to teach them a lesson. Deception and misinformation is key. It’s not hard to punish someone who steals an idea from you. If you get a little creative, you can deeply embarrass the culprit, even destroy their career. Don’t be alarmed when they steal your work, act like you are gullible, stupid, and didn’t even notice so that they’ll do it again. Hide a watermark or code or leave your name in metadata some where so they don’t notice. Then once they’ve done it again you’ve got your watermark to prove it was your work, then go to HR with documentation exposing their fraudulent behavior. It’s fun to outsmart such people because they tend to be Narcissists and they will have an existential crisis once they realize they’ve been outwitted. They absolutely cannot stand being bested by someone else, especially in the manipulation department.
Hot and Spicy Cubano Sandwich
Prep: 15 min | Cook: 90 min | Yield: 8 servings
Cuban Sandwich Recipe
Cuban sandwiches are one of my favorite indulgences. They hit all the right spots and then some. I wanted to create a Cuban sandwich recipe that would make any Cubano connoisseur proud – and I think this recipe does just that. At least both my foodie critic husband and I couldn’t stop stuffing our faces as he repeatedly awed “these are so good!”
After experimenting, I stumbled upon a few key elements that make the best Cuban Sandwich recipe. I’ll go into greater detail below, but for starters, you need the best Cuban Mojo Roast Pork for the best Cuban sandwiches! It is all about the pork. I posted my mojo pork recipe separately because it is stand alone delicious and absolutely hypnotic in these Cubanos. If you don’t use the mojo pork recipe, I cannot guarantee epic delicious results. Plus, you can prep the pork days ahead for stress free Cubano assembly.
Second, use the right filling ingredients. Aged Gruyere Swiss cheese (not the rubbery Americanized version) and Black Forest ham add dimensions of gourmet flavor and thinly slicing whole dill pickles delivers the perfect thickness so all the ingredients beautifully meld together.
Lastly, you might be wondering if you can achieve the coveted buttery, golden crispy crust characteristic to Cuban sandwiches without a plancha or paninin press – the answer is yes! No press, no problem! The inside of the bread is first toasted (no soggy Cubanos here!) and then slathered in a mustard sauce spiked with some reserved mojo marinade. This amps up the flavor again. Next we create our own panini press by placing the bread in a buttered skillet or grill pan and top it with another heavy skillet to weigh it down. The resulting Cubano sandwiches are buttery, crispy and compressed – just like the restaurants. Or better.
I’m going to go into more details about Cuban sandwiches from their history to specifics on ingredients to step by step instructions. Read on or use the “jump to recipe” button at the top of the post. I hope you love this Cuban sandwich recipe as much as us! Happy eating!
What is a Cuban sandwich?
The Cuban sandwich, better known as a Cubano in the US and simply sandwich in Cuba, is a decadent Cuban grilled ham and cheese sandwich that has reached mainstream popularity all over the US. It is the ultimate sandwich for every pork lover and a must for every non-pork lover alike.
The Cubano begins with hearty yet soft, slightly sweet Cuban bread slathered with yellow mustard then loaded with layers of Swiss cheese, tangy pickles, sliced mojo pork, smoked ham and more cheese, then buttered, grilled and pressed to create a super crispy exterior and cheesy interior.
There’s nothing fancy or difficult about making the Cuban Sandwich, but the varying layers create a symphony of flavors and textures with each element filling a specific roll. It’s tangy and tart from the pickles and mustard, smokey and salty from the ham, zesty, citrusy and herbaceous from the mojo pork, buttery and slightly sweet from the bread all sandwiched together to create soft, crunchy, melty cheesy textures. Are you drooling yet? With one bite you will be. If you’re planning to devour just one half of a Cubano, heaven help you, you’ll need will power of steel.
MIAMI VS TAMPA CUBAN SANDWICHES
Both Miami and Tampa claim to have the best version of the Cubano Sandwich. The difference between the two Cubano variations is minimal. Both Miami and Tampa versions share the classic Cubano structure discussed above of Cuban bread, ham, Cuban roast pork, Swiss cheese, and pickles, but the Tampa version features a layer of Genoa salami, the Miami version does not.
Genoa salami is a kind of salami believed to have originated in Genoa, Italy. It is seasoned with garlic, salt, black and white pepper, and red or white wine. The Tampa contingent believes salami adds yet another layer of salty flavor to the already decadent sandwich, which makes their version superior. To prove their point, the Historic Tampa Cuban Sandwich was designated the “signature sandwich of the city of Tampa” by the Tampa City Council in 2012. Miami, on the other hand, stands by their Cuban Sandwich motto that simple is superior.
So how did salami become a staple in Cuban Sandwiches in Tampa? In the early 1900s, Tampa was the home to both many Cuban and Italian immigrants. As the people and cultures mingled, so did their foods and eventually, salami, a staple on Italian sandwiches,became a staple on Cubano Sandwiches in Tampa.
As far as which is better? We know what Tampa and Miami will say, but in the end, it comes down to personal preference. I personally think salami makes everything better, even Cubano Sandwiches. So, if you like salami, chances are you will love it on Cubanos; if the jury is still out, it’s better to omit the salami because it’s not a subtle addition.
Ingredients
2 pound boneless pork loin roast
1 pound honey ham, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup Chinese mustard, divided
8 whole wheat submarine rolls, sweet rolls, or 7 to 8 inch sections of French or Italian bread
3/4 cup red plum, red currant, or raspberry jam or jelly
8 slices Swiss cheese
2 (7 ounce) cans green chiles, drained and sliced
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
Instructions
Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper and 1/4 cup of the mustard. Spread mixture on all sides of the pork. Place pork, fat side up, in a shallow roasting pan and roast for 15 minutes.
Reduce oven to 350 degrees F and continue roasting for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F (medium rare) to 160 degrees F (medium).
Remove roast from oven and let rest 10 minutes.
Slice very thinly and set slices aside.
To prepare the sandwiches, halve the rolls, laying all 16 halves out, and butter the outside of each of them. On half of the halves, spread the remaining mustard (1 1/2 tablespoons). On the other half of the sandwich halves, spread 1 1/2 tablespoons of jam. Arrange ham, roast pork, cheese, and chiles on the mustard halves of each sandwich, then top with the jam halves.
Prepare a grill to medium-hot heat. Lay a double layer of foil on the grill, large enough to hold the sandwiches. Place sandwiches on the foil, place bricks over the sandwiches (2 sandwiches per brick), and press down gently.
Grill until the bottom of the bread is browned and cheese starts to melt, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn, replace the bricks, and grill for 2 minutes more.
Cut sandwiches in half and serve.
Notes
You can also cook the sandwiches on a stovetop griddle or grill—weigh them down with foil-wrapped bricks or other heavy objects, like a plate of canned goods. If you want to make less than 8 sandwiches, use less of everything except for the roast ingredients—then save the leftover roast for another use. And if you like things extra-spicy, try substituting sliced pickled jalapeños for the chiles.
When I was twenty my parents, who had divorced but were now living together, asked me to go on a weekend trip with them.
I was amazed my father would even ask. We weren’t close, I barely spoke to him! He had been physically abusive to my mom, siblings, and especially me my whole life.
I ran away from home at 13, married at 16 so I’d never be under his thumb again. Yet suddenly he wants to be cozy! My mom was a sweet but weak woman! She just never knew when to get out.
This invitation came on the weekend of my 20th birthday, my dad was insistent I go. I came up with all sorts of excuses. I had to work, my husband had to work, dad was fine with the latter excuse (said just the 3 of us would be great). I knew it was a rotten idea from the beginning, he’d get drunk, they’d fight, I’d be referee. No way!
The more he pushed the idea the worse I felt about it, I just knew something was wrong. I finally just said there was no way I’d go we’d already made plans for a birthday party with friends so they went alone.
Two days later on my 20th birthday the State Police came to tell me my parents were dead, my father had killed my mother and then committed suicide. From a note he had left it was quite clear why he was so adamant that I came along. My instincts that day told me the trip was a bad idea and yes I was right.
I had told mom after the divorce to never let him back in her life but she always thought he would change. I have posted parts of this answer before and just want to say in advance that I am fine with my life. I am happily married to the love of my life with a amazing grown son and grandchildren. I’ve had a lovely full life filled with great times! Unfortunately my sibs are all gone after failed marriages, drugs, and alcohol. They chose to be victims and spend their lives blaming our parents for all that’s gone wrong in life, where I chose to learn and never make the mistakes they did! Not sure if I am editing this in the correct manner to add a afterthought but here goes anyway! I am surprised by the number of views and upvotes, personally I didn’t think anyone would even care. I mean it happened so long ago and as the only survivior I am long over the whole thing. But at times I do wonder if others out there experienced the double murder or murder suicide of parents and also survived relatively unscathed or if because of the abuse I’m simply detached from the situation. Just something I think about! Please excuse my run on sentences, its just how my thought process works. Thanks for all the kind thoughts.
Yesterday, out of the blue at dinner time, a delivery man came to our door with a bouquet of lilies. Not for me. Not for the kids. Not for the wife. Mistake, I guess. But the address was exactly our address.
Strange.
A lily flower has different significance in China than it does in the USA. In the USA, lilies are associated with death and funerals.
So obviously, I looked at the delivery guy with a big exclamation point and question mark over his head. Wouldn’t you? Especially since I was in MAJ. Things that make you go hum…
Anyways…
I asked the Domain Commander about this.
DC told me that it was a real accident and not to worry. Sure there are elements in the world that would like me to die and collapse in a most horrible way, but they are far removed from me, and that I am protected. That I should not let my fears grasp my emotions.
The funny thing is, I hadn’t met girls or women who I’d consider shallow until I began my PhD. Most of the girls and women in my life were strong, independent, no nonsense girls, who took their lives on by the horns.
However, once I started my PhD, it was as though I was overcompensated for what I had missed out all along. There was a flurry of girls and women I kept bumping into, who made me question their true worth and leave me in total disgust.
Well, without much ado, here’s introducing the creme de la creme
A top woman scientist who told me to do an MBA after my PhD because girls only marry men with fat wallets because sex is not everything
A PhD research scholar who intends to marry a man who earns at least ₹500000 (~$8000) a month so that he could spend at least half of that on her
Another PhD scholar who plans to quit working after she got married because it was her husband’s duty to take care of her
A research scholar who blows up about ₹25,000 a month on partying, clothes, and weekend holidays and then takes another ₹10,000 from home because she’s the only daughter and it was “her right” to be pampered
Research scholars who even in their 3rd year of research do not possess fundamental concepts of their research because, “we’re not nerds like you!”
A research scholar who called her roommate’s mother a whore just for speaking to a guy outside their apartment. Her roomie’s mother had passed away a few months back to cancer
Another PhD scholar who said “I’m a Lingayat,” when I asked her if she was non-vegetarian. Lingayat, turns out, is a caste quite popular in Karnataka and I had no idea until she laughed when I asked her what that was
Another research scholar who’d draw a stipend from her supervisor’s project and yet work entirely for someone else because she had the support of a lot of higher ups
A research scholar who threatened a guy who kept asking her a genuine scientific doubt during one of her presentations. She wasn’t able to answer the question properly and was subsequently cross questioned. Frustrated, she said “I’ll file a harassment charge with the police. I’m a girl and my father has money. Let’s see who they believe.”
Wow! I just realized I could keep going at this. It’s crazy the number of PhD’s who think and speak this way.
What’s the use of having an education when you’re not one bit educated!
I see so much in this kitten that reminds me of my deceased dog
Spareribs and Cabbage (Zeberka Wieprzowena z Kapusta — Poland)
Serve with mashed or boiled potatoes.
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 1/2 pounds fresh pork spareribs, cut into 6 pieces
1 large onion, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
2 teaspoons instant beef bouillon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1 bay leaf
2 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
1 small head green cabbage, cut into 6 wedges
Freshly-ground pepper
Instructions
Heat oil in Dutch oven until hot. Cook pork spareribs, a few pieces at a time, over medium heat until brown on all sides, about 15 minutes; drain fat.
Add onion, carrot, bouillon, salt, caraway seed, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and the bay leaf.
Pour water and vinegar over pork mixture. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
Add cabbage; sprinkle with pepper. Cover and simmer until cabbage is tender, about 45 minutes.
Remove bay leaf.
Arrange spareribs and vegetables on serving platter.
Garnish with minced parsley if desired.
Waiting to Be Put to Sleep, She Sat Crying Silently in Her Cage At the Shelter
A large company you have heard of needed to lay some people off. There was this one guy who always came in, went to his office, did who knows what all day, then went home. Nobody really knew what he did. His manager had been replaced with a new guy who was still figuring out which way is up. He had to lay off X number of people from his group. He laid off this guy.
Then they found out what he did, because it wasn’t being done anymore. Turns out he was providing exclusive customized support to a very large customer on a very lucrative contract.
The customer was not happy. They were no longer getting the support they were paying for.
I know other people who work at the same company. Management knows what they do, so their jobs are secure. It’s amazing how your job security depends on the right people knowing what you do.
2) Someone I know worked for a company that provides services to the military. The company was bought by another company, which put in management that had college degrees but no knowledge or experience in that field. The existing management, which had specific knowledge and experience, was laid off because they did not have college degrees.
That company was known by the military to be able to complete contracts that other companies had failed to complete.
With the team of experts gone, they could no longer complete contracts or train new hires. They had laid off their key people.
Meanwhile, the experts got jobs with competing companies, who were now able to complete contracts.
As contractor pay has stagnated, companies have been sold, and management has been unable to pay decently. A welder or electrician can make 400% more working anywhere else.
The team of experts has bounced from company to company. Whichever company they’re with is able to complete contracts.
How does this story end? That remains to be seen.
In the meantime, we have a navy ship that has been in for repairs for over two years, for work that should have taken only six months.
50% is terrible odds
16 mind-blowing psychology facts you should know:
Hearing your name when on one is calling you, is actually a sign of a healthy brian.
Sleep directly after studying, you will remember what you have learned better.
Don’t argue through text messages. The lack of tone decreases the meaning of the words.
People are more honest when physically tired. This is why most people confess things during late night conversations.
Those who look outside, dream. Those who look inside, awaken.
Cherophobia: the fear of happiness. People with this cherophobia believe that every time they feel happy, something bad will happen and ruin it.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
The most powerful way to win an argument is by asking questions. It can make people see the flaws in their logic.
It’s possible to die from a broken heart. It’s called Stress Cardiomypathy.
Being forgetful can be a sign of a higher intelligence.
Athazagoraphobia: the fear of being forgotten or ignored by someone who you strongly care about.
When ignored by someone who means a lot to you, the reaction in your brain is similar to physical pain.
Boys are actually more emotionally affected by relationship troubles than girls. They just know how to hide it well.
You’re more likely to be easily attracted to someone you have no chance with.
The average man gets bored of shopping after 26 minutes.
If you want someone to listen to you, start the conversation with” I shouldn’t be telling you this”
The Most Paranormal Place On Earth – What’s Happening on Mount Shasta?
This happened a week back exactly and it’s been running on my mind ever since then. I never thought something like this would happen to me, don’t know why.
Last week, I was on a business trip to Berlin and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend, for a short vacation. My return flight to India was from Berlin and so I took a bus from Amsterdam to Berlin Tegel airport (bus because it was cheaper!). I had to switch buses at a place called Hamburg and I had a layover of almost 3 hours.
These 3 hours were the most tiring 3 hours of my life because it was from 10–1 in the night and it was freezing cold outside. And, I was standing alone for so long. Finally the bus came at 12.45 and I was the last one to board the bus. The bus was full and all the seats were taken in the lower deck. The upper deck had only 3 seats.
Super exhausted, I politely ask this girl if I can take the vacant seat next to her and this is how the conversation goes –
Me – Hi, can I please sit here?
Girl – No
Me – I’m sorry, excuse me?
Girl – I want to sit alone. Find another place
I ask the girl in the front seat if I can sit next to her and she was like, “this seat is taken”
Me, again to the girl from before –
Me – There’s no other seat. Can I sit here?
Girl – Go see if there are any seats down
*She was getting on to my nerves*
Me – I’m coming from down, there’s no seat. I’m sorry
Girl – Ask the girl in the front
Me – I just asked her, she said it’s taken. If you want, go ahead and ask her
*By now, people were already looking at me and I was feeling embarrassed. I ignored her and took the seat*
Girl (after 5 mins) – Actually, I don’t feel comfortable about you sitting next to me
Me (I was shocked) – Sorry?
Girl – I feel very uncomfortable about you sitting next to me. Please understand. Don’t sit here, go away!
Me (I lost it) – You know what? There’s no other place. Shut the fuck up and sit! Don’t irritate the fuck out of me!
I don’t think I have ever been this rude to anyone in my life. But, I don’t feel bad about saying it and I never will. I said it, I was rude to her, like she was rude to me. But, I was shocked even after that, my eyes welled up.
For the entire 3 hours, she was giving all these reactions and making faces like she was sitting next to someone disgusting.
And the worst part was, the vacant seat in the front, itwas taken by none.
I don’t know if this is racism and if this happened to me because I’m brown and not white. But, this same female was okay with another white girl sitting next to her. While I was walking towards the seat, another white girl was going to sit there but she found another seat.
When I told this incident to a colleague of mine, he told me that I’m jumping into a conclusion that this is racism.
I don’t know if it could be anything else. Because I was dressed up well. I’m someone who gives importance to getting dressed up. This picture below is from the same day morning. I was in the same attire, maybe with a coat on top of it –
A girl I graduated high school with got a full scholarship to The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. That’s the big UNC… The world-renowned UNC… The one that most of my graduating class was trying to get into. She not only got in, but had a free ride thanks to a combination of cheerleading scholarships and needs-based grants.
She drank and partied her way to failure her first semester, was put on academic probation, didn’t recover, and was back home living with her parents and working as a waitress by the time she was 20.
She was still smoking hott* though, and it all worked out for her. “It” tends to work out for women like her… Women with model-quality looks and bubbly personalities. She married a lawyer and is now a stay-at-home (a beach house, no less) mother who, judging from what she posts on Facebook, lives an enviable life.
As for me, I have one huge wasted opportunity that I know about.
When I was 23, I’d already spent years working for families with special needs children in the wealthy suburbs of Chicago. I ended up with a job as a special needs assistant for the local school district… a very desirable school district for teachers. Also one of the hardest school districts in which to get hired for any position. I only got hired as an aide because one of the parents on the school board knew me because I sometimes took care of his special-needs kid.
Most of the other aides were teachers-in-training. I hadn’t considered going back to school to be a teacher at that point in my life. An opportunity to go to work for a friend in the auto parts business and make slightly more money presented itself, and I quit my job with the school district mid-year.
That’s a huge no-no in education. You never quit mid-year. I burned that bridge to the ground. I lost contact with all of the people I knew in the district. Dozens of networking opportunities squandered, all for about $100 extra dollars per month.
Years later, I finally went back to college and got my teaching certificate. I was 30 by then, and I struggled to find a teaching job. It was all about who you knew that could get your resume in front of the principals, and I didn’t know anyone who could do that anymore.
Had I been patient and stayed on as an aide for a few more years, I would have been first in line for an open teaching position in that district when they became available.
If this were my 10th year of teaching in that district, I’d be making three times what I make now, and have a lot more perks.
Oh well. Youthful impatience has done a lot worse to other people.
Chimps are not monogamous. In fact, they gang-rape each female. The females do this so that no male knows who the father is, preventing the infant from being killed. Just because animals do it doesn’t mean we should.
Gorillas have harems. Most males never mate, those that do dominate a group of females and have exclusive rights to them. This precludes equal rights for females. Go to a harem model, and you’ve just undone the basic premise for women’s rights.
Monogamy and systematic encouragement of it forced men to treat their only sexual partner with decency and respect for their quality of life. This is why only the Christian West gave women equal legal rights to men across the board. If men can have sex outside of marriage, whether sex slaves or prostitutes, the woman’s social status goes down.
Society has a vested interest in monogamy. Single mothers are even in the rich West at greater odds of poverty. Even worse is the three to four times greater odds of bad life outcomes for their kids. From drug addiction to joining a gang to not finishing school to committing suicide to being a single teen mother, the odds are 3–4 times greater if raised by a single mother.
If society wants to reduce criminal behavior, reliance on welfare (if it exists) and dependent adults, it has to encourage monogamy. The group cannot afford to encourage the breakdown of the family. You don’t get happy hippie communes; you get violent inner cities with stubborn inter-generational poverty in communities that used to have declining poverty rates.
Yes, humanity is biologically transitioning from “harem/free sex” to “monogamous”, so we have conflicting impulses. But we’ve been moving toward monogamy for literally millions of years. We know that because women are only 20% smaller than men versus half the size of a male as occurs in gorillas. It is driven by our higher intelligence and the longer dependent period of human infants.
Monogamy is in our best interest as individuals, as parents and as a society. And that’s why we encourage it.
I had eye surgery in winter 2019, and had to wear dark glasses (the ones in my pic) for a bit.
My eyesight is terrible anyway, but for a couple of months l could barely see.
One evening, as usual, I was taking a long walk in London – couldn’t run, I’d have been running in to street furniture- for exercise. Earbuds in, listening to music.
A beggar stepped in front if me & said something about money. I put my hand in my pocket, handed him a quid.
He said something about wanting more, l couldn’t really hear him too well over Black Grape, but this pissed me off.
“Fuck off”, I said, “you can have a quid and like it”
“Gimme more. I want all your money”
“You cheeky cunt. Fuck off or I’ll take the quid back and kick your arse” l said.
He made angry gestures and stormed off.
A bloke came up beside me…. “…mate, are you ok?” he said.
“Yeah… why?”
“He had a knife”.
Oh. Not beggar; mugger. I hadn’t seen the knife.
The mugger must have thought I was like Chuck Norris, fronting him out like that.
New Upgrade: China J-35 Fighter JET To Fly From Aircraft Carrier
Not a General (or Admiral in this case, since I served in the Navy), but a Captain (equivalent of a full bird Colonel in the other services).
I joined on the delayed entry program when I was still a senior in high school. Toward the end of my senior year, I was awarded a scholarship to state university. There was a banquet to honor all the scholarship recipients.
Even though I knew I couldn’t accept the scholarship because I was already set to go into the Navy, I thought it would be fun and interesting to attend a banquet that was being held partly in my honor.
At the banquet, I met and made small talk with a Navy Captain. I told him about how I wouldn’t be able to use the scholarship because I had already enlisted via the delayed entry program. I never got his name and never heard from, nor spoke with, him ever again after that night.
So technically, I don’t know with any certainty that he was the one who did anything for me. But 30+ years later, it’s still the only explanation that makes any sense.
A week or two after the banquet, I got a phone call from the recruiting office. They wanted me to come in and sign some paperwork. When I arrived, they had two “identical” enlistment packets sitting on a table. The recruiter explained to me that they were going to let me out of my enlistment contract and go into the reserves instead so that I could go to college.
Even at 17 years old, I knew that the government never just lets anyone cancel a legal and binding contract. This was a really huge deal. Somebody pulled some serious strings.
I have told this story before, but I got married young at 24. We were in med school. We did not have a honeymoon, and it was a major fight to get the weekend off and permission to take an exam a day early. Then in residency we both worked 100 + hours per week for years. YEARS. We were not guaranteed to get vacation on the same week. We were not guaranteed a single day off in the month, including weekends. One of my fellow residents gave birth to premature twins. The babies were in an ICU in another STATE so her parents could be in the hospital because there was no family leave. I was repeatedly told not to get pregnant, which would be hard to do if you never sleep, let alone sleep in the same room on the same night as your partner.
Fast forward to maybe age 30. I saw a TV commercial about “the best part of waking up” and it showed a couple on their porch watching the sun rise and drinking some brand of coffee. I started to cry because I had never sat with my husband on my porch or had coffee in the morning together. That was kind of the moment I realized exactly what I had signed up for.
I think things are getting much better for young doctors but for us it was not great. People have NO IDEA what some of us have gone through to be “rich doctors.” Especially if you started out poor and had no outside help or support from family.
I worked for a ‘charity’ in Wakefield, England. A miserable place with many dubious business practices, run by a egotistical idiot. One day most of my team – conspicuously all those of a particular ethnicity – was pulled into his office and told we would probably be losing our jobs and would have to reapply for them. Given the decisive nature of who had been picked, it was obvious we wouldn’t get them when we ‘reapplied’: the company is notorious for their nepotism and they no doubt had replacements – friends and family – already lined up. Needless to say, the mood turned sour in the room. Then the kicker – the absolute collosal utter bellend of a boss legitimately couldn’t tell why we were angry. His exact words: “Come on guys, why are you so down? Let’s have a good day. Big smiles guys, big smiles.”
Had a stressful month looking for work afterward, but now in a great job and glad to see the back of that dump. And of course the people he lined up to fill our posts made a right mess of it (though sadly the company survived).
Can US citizens do 4 times better than Chinese citizens?
Think about this from 1980 to 2020 alone, China grew 30 times in 40 years in real income! What will happen between 2020 to 2060? Say it just grow 10 times that of 2020! It will leave the US trailing miles away!
Chinese people are innovating more, Chinese produce more STEM engineers a year more that the entire U.S. STEM sector! Chinese works twice as hard as American’s, they are highly intelligent and very productive and discipline. Every years China’s savings alone is as big as the entire UK economy! It already has the best infrastructure amongst major economies.
For China to stay still is never going to happen. Period. To me China will grow to 5–6 times the U.S. in real economy!
Expert REVEALS Evidence of Super ADVANCED LOST Ancient Technology!
It didn’t happen right away, but a year or so later, I met her again, and after some standard comical clumsiness, I asked her out.
Knowing based on what she did for a living that she was science nerdy like me, I planned a date to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science
. (Note to guys, this is a BRILLIANT idea. It’s not just that you’re showing respect for her intellect, it also gives you several hours to walk around, have a TON of stimulating things to talk about, and get to know each other.)
Day of the date arrives, her Dad’s in the hospital, so we agree to meet there, so I can visit him too. Hilarious side story, as we’re about to leave, she says, Ok, Dad, see you later, do you want me to turn off your light? “No,” Dad says, “Chris can turn it off when he leaves.” Uh, Bob?” I replied “….(Extended awkward pause….) I’m going with her….”
So we decide to leave her car in the Hospital parking lot and take my car to the museum. Get in the car, turn it on, doors lock, car goes into drive and starts rolling and I say:
“So you know I’m still married, right?”
Have you ever heard that metaphorical record scratch in real life?
Well. I QUICKLY explained to her that we had been separated for about 8 years, that the upcoming law called “The Affordable Care Act” would make it so that she could get insurance despite her pre-existing neuro-vascular disease, and that the only reason we were still married was so that she could stay on my corporate health insurance until that was the case. (In other words, I QUICKLY demonstrated that “I’m a VERY nice guy.”)
It calmed the fire down to the point where we were able to have a VERY nice date…didnt’ QUITE get together just then… a few breaks…not the right time…I was seeing someone else…then she was…and then…
The Stars Aligned.
Yup. I married the Girl who listened to me drop the WORST line you could possibly drop on a first date.
C’est l’amour, no?
Sanctioning China? US is as stupid as the Qing Dynasty Emperor
When you sign up for anything online, put the website’s name as your middle name. That way when you receive spam/advert email, you will know who sold your information.
If you’re on a first date and aren’t connecting with the other person or feel they’re dull, ask them what job they’d choose if money wasn’t an issue. It initiates a talk about one’s passions, which are rarely dull and are simple to connect.
Do not try to be the man your father would want you to be. Be the man you would like your son to be be. It more clearly defines your own convictions, desires, goals, and motivates you to be your best.
Pay Attention to the smell of your home when you come back from a trip – that’s what it smells like to guests all the time, you just get used to it.
When a friend is upset, ask them one simple question before saying anything else: ‘Do you want to talk about it or do you want to be distracted from it?’
No matter how much your workplace pushes “team building” and “family culture” – remember, they’re not your friends and it’s still a workplace.
If you’re stuck on an annoying call, put your phone on airplane mode instead of just hanging up. The other person will see “call failed” instead of “call ended”.
If you want to learn a new language, figure out the 100 most frequently used words and start with them. Those words make up about 50% of everyday speech, and should be a very solid basis.
The Circleville Letters Mystery | Why can’t we solve this?
Pork Sausage Loaf (Hungary)
Ingredients
1 cup diced mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg, beaten
1 pound fresh bulk pork sausage
2 cups dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
Melt butter in a skillet and add mushrooms. Sauté.
Combine sausage, mushrooms, egg and crumbs and shape into a loaf. Sprinkle with paprika. Place in a small roaster; cover.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 1/2 hour.
Uncover, return to oven, and bake 30 more minutes.
Serves 4
10+ Mind-Blowing Psychological Tricks & Facts That Everyone Should Know
Here are 17 psychological tricks to be more likable and 16 psychology facts you should know:
Posture matters: If you stand up straight and make an eye contact while talking to the people you are attracted to, will make you more confident and attractive.
Have a strong sense of humor: It is thought to be a sign of intelligence. this is why, when assessing a potential partnepsyr, we tend to be more attracted to those who are funny.
Start the conversation first: Women are automatically attracted to guys who start the conversation, take initiative, and make them laugh.
…and always be the one to pull away from the conversation: It shows that you value your time and have other stuff to do. If you cut short your conversation, the other person always wants more of it. It creates attraction.
Deeper voice: Men with deeper voices are more likely to make a lasting impression on women than men with higher voices.
Create sexual tension without touching: It is done subtly, and by flirting. It creates instant attraction if you do it correctly.
7. Never approach women from behind or from her sides. It looks sneaky. Approach her face-to-face. It displays more confidence.
8. Wear red: People subconsciously believe that women who wear red are more attractive and sexy, in 2010, Eliot confirmed that people will sit closer to women who wear red dresses.
9. Let others talk about themselves – it’s as rewarding as sex: If you want to make your conversation partner feel good, get them talking about themselves and their interests. Which will make people feel valued and they will be more impressed by you
10. If you’re a woman, a man will like you if you can make him feel masculine. No instructions, no advice and give him ample space.
11. If you’re a man, a woman will like you if you can make her feel beautiful, not just sexy. A high emotional quotient is also critical for a woman.
12. Do not speak badly about others as this creates distrust.
13. Do not spread false rumors and do not make accusations.
14. When with a group of people, including everyone in the conversation. Never leave anybody out.
15. Share the little you have with those who have nothing.
16. Become a happy person and wear a smile always.
17. Laugh with all. Don’t discriminate. Be gender sensitive.
US Heartbreak: Mexico Chooses China for Auto Future – Is It the End?
When I worked at the local university bar there was this guy called Mick. He was a down to earth guy who spoke in a working class accent. He always said that his dad was a miner. We socialised quite a bit over the three years that he studied for his degree. Then when it was his graduation I was invited and I met and sat with his parents. Obviously well off by the clothes that they wore. Anyhow, Mick’s mother was chatting to me and aske me who I was I told her that I was her son’s barman for the past three years. She asked “did he tell you that his father owns six mines in Yorkshire?”
I replied “no”. She said, “He’s such an inverted snob, How did you find him?”
I replied that I found him sociable, down to earth and a decent guy. I got a hug for that and an invitation to their home in the summer break.
It was like a bloody castle with footmen and butlers.
But, yes they were such a lovely, nice, down to earth family.
I’m standing by my Dad as I am casually playing on my phone.
Suddenly, he reaches over and snatches my phone out of my hands, eyeing the screen.
“Dad what are you doing?” I ask, surprised.
“Just checking” he replies, handing it back over to me.
“I’m so sick of dealing with Amy.
I wish I could just dump her at the doctors so they can take care of her.”
I’m frozen in place as I overhear my Mum talking to my Dad. I run back to my room and I find myself having a panic attack.
I’m laying in bed, “asleep”, when I hear my Dad walk up beside my bed. I peek out of my eye slightly, and see the light of my phone screen illuminate the room.
My Dad is standing there, looking at my notifications.
I start to wake up, and he quickly covers himself, saying he was just “seeing if it needed charging for tomorrow”.
These happened a long time ago, and to this day they continue to prove to me that they can’t be trusted and that they lie to me all the time.
They tell me I can trust them. They tell me that they will always support me. They tell me that they’ll always have my side. They have even told me that they will give me privacy.
But actions speak louder than words.
The Cat Knew That They Had Come to Put Him to Sleep! So Be It, For the Mistress Was Gone!
When I lived in Indiana I owned a speedboat. I named it “Going Coconuts”.
Boats are expensive. Ugh, not only did we buy it, but the upkeep, storage and all the rest was expensive.
We would ride it, perhaps 16 times per year, and the cost per use was prohibitively expensive. Oh, we were warned… but I guess it is one of those things that you have to experience to understand.
When we moved out of Indiana for Mississippi, we ended up selling it to a retired couple. They were nice and berated us for not hanging out with them and spending a meal or two with them. Ugh. Never had the time, I guess.
Listen to me.
Do not invest in a boat unless you plan on living in it, using it for business, or intend to waste money. Other than that, I would advise… do not buy a boat.
How do I tell my parents that I know they put a camera in my room?
Say absolutely nothing to your parents.
Do all your normal things in the normal way.
Once or twice a week, get a sneaky look on your face, tiptoe up to the camera, and cover the lens with black tape.
After 15–20 minutes, remove the tape, and go back to doing normal things
Enjoy that they are bursting to know what you do during the black-out periods, but can’t say anything for fear of outing themselves
If they are so f**ing shameless that they ask what happens in those times, go all aggrieved innocence, and say “Why, have YOU been SPYING ON ME?”. Turn the whole thing around and make them the Bad Guys.
Prepare some scorched-earth options, such as:
Stop speaking to them
Avoid all eye contact
If you have to speak, use a dull monotone
When they finally get up the courage to ask what’s wrong, say only “You have not apologised for spying on me”
Stick it out – do NOT start speaking to them again until they apologise for spying on you.
I was in 6th grade — still a snot-nosed kid — and I just got dropped off at my home after a good ole boy scout meeting. It was early evening, dark outside, and my folks and my brother were all out. When I entered my home’s foyer, the family dog, Ginger, a collie mix, came to me, which was normal, but I noticed a little dog poop on the floor. At the time, my dog was middle-aged and did not have accidents inside the house. This was the moment that I knew something was not right. But I ignored it…
All the lights in the house were on. This should had set off another signal that something was not right, since my parents were always bugging my brother and I about turning off lights to keep the electric bill down, but I ignored it and went into our kitchen to get something to eat.
In the kitchen there was a door that led to our backyard patio. The door was wide open and one of the windowpanes in the door was broken. I could see a piece of firewood on the patio, which I surmised was what broke the window. This was the second moment when I felt that something was obviously not right. But I think that we all have the tendency to try to rationalize things as being normal when they are not. And I remember thinking, “Hmm… That’s strange… But my parents must know about this…” Clearly, I was not thinking clearly. If my parents knew about it, why would they keep the door wide open, and not cover the window? But I ignored it.
Leaving the poop on the floor for someone else to clean up, I wanted to go upstairs to my bedroom. But when I got to the staircase, I got a strange sensation. As I looked up to the hallway on the second floor, I got the feeling that I should not go up there.
Again, sort of ignoring the warning signs, I instead go into our family room to watch TV. But in this room I see a pillowcase and bunch of books from our bookcase littered on the floor, and our TV is rolled away from the wall where it was plugged into. (This was the 80s, so it was a big CRT TV on wheels.)
Now I am finally putting it all together. I go back into the kitchen, pick up the phone, and call the police. (In this case, since it was the 80s, I dialed the police, which in an emergency takes way too long.) I tell the dispatcher that someone broke into my house. The dispatcher asks for my address and says, “Are you in the house?” I reply, “Yes.” And she responds, “Get out!”
I call for Ginger, grab her leash, and put it on her, and we go outside and stand on our driveway to wait for the police. I lived in the suburbs. There were streetlights, but the neighborhood had lots of big trees, and our back yard had a 1/4-acre wooded area, so it was dark. And now I am getting a little freaked and thinking, “When will the cops get here?” I look back at my house and through the kitchen window, I see movement. It’s a tall figure passing through the kitchen. I can’t see facial features, but it looks like a man in a flannel shirt. I’m guessing that the person is exiting through the kitchen’s door to the patio. I feel like I should pursue the man, but there are no lights in our backyard. As I muster up the courage to pursue him, a police car arrives. I tell the lone officer that I think the perp is in the backyard. He shines his flashlight around the yard and into the woods, but we do not see or hear anything. When more police arrive, they search the house and yard and dust for fingerprints. A detective tells me that I was very brave to go inside the house (clueless was more like it). But he also says that I should never enter my home if I think that it has been broken into or try to apprehend a criminal.
Lesson of this story: If something does not feel right, don’t try to rationalize it. Something is most likely wrong. Get out of there!
The thief got away with all my mother’s good jewelry, my parents’ silverware, plus one of my hand-held electronic games. We believe that he wanted to take the TV, but realized it was too big to carry. We think our dog was frightened when the perp broke into the house, and that’s why she pooped indoors. She was mid-sized and not super-aggressive, but she was territorial, so we were a little surprised that she did not scare the person off. Someone speculated that she was maced. But her job was not to be a watch dog… The house was only empty for a 1/2 hour — maybe 45 minutes — so the punk that broke in must have been staking out our home. We don’t know where the burglar was hiding when I entered the house or if he was a violent person. My brother thinks the crime was committed by someone who lived in the neighborhood.
I have been at the receiving end of one such shady tactic and I think it’s important that people should be aware of this.
This is regarding the Notice Period.
I landed a job in a service based IT company and after salary negotiations the HR told me that she will email the offer letter and asked me to go through it thoroughly and revert with questions. Everything was as per what we agreed and I accepted the offer.
Important thing to note is that the offer letter which was emailed to me had a notice period of 90 Days.
After few months the projects we were hired for were done and we were waiting for new projects. Things started to go south at this point and I started to look for another job. It was really difficult to find another job because of the 90 day notice period. No company would process my profile after I mentioned my notice period As 90 days.
After a couple of months the HR called me to her cabin and said that i was of no use to the company as there were no more projects and told me that I have a months time to look for a new job. I was taken by surprise and told her that the employee and employer have a notice period of 90 days to each other. At this point she told that it is 30 days and not 90 days. I immediately pulled my phone out and showed her the soft copy which was emailed to me. It had 90 days. The whole time the HR had a smirk on her face. Then she opened the hard copy, the copy on which I had signed during induction, and showed me the notice period. It had 30 days!!
It was then I realized what had happened. 90 days notice period would discourage employees looking out for a job but if the company wanted to fire them they would have to pay salary for only 30 days.
I know people reading this will feel that it was my mistake not to read the document before signing. And I completely agree with that. It was stupid on my part. But let me explain the situation to you all, in fact while signing I briefly started glancing at the document, I looked at the finances and the Job Title section when the HR interrupted and told me that the CEO was waiting to meet me and that I should sign the letter soon as we don’t want to keep the CEO waiting. The Notice period section was buried somewhere in the 12th page. Obviously I had no time to look at it.
After talking to a lot of people I realized and was surprised at how many sign the offer letter without reading and assuming it’s the exact copy of the emailed copy. Don’t commit the mistake which I did.
Lesson to learn: When you are signing the offer letter during induction, take your time, go through it thoroughly and only then sign it.
Back when I worked for a computer magazine, the employees had a great sense of pride in our work and would often stay and work till seven, eight, ten at night, for which we were paid no extra and given no comp time. But that magazine went out on time with no errors except those introduced by the witless top editor after everyone who might have corrected them had gone home.
One day, however, we got a memo that everyone was to be at work by eight in the morning, at risk of being docked or fired. This rule was adopted by the managing editor, who was disturbed to find the staff trickling in at various hours of the morning.
The immediate result was that nobody stayed even a minute after five p.m., regardless of whether the necessary work had been accomplished. But we were all on time in the morning. Working only 8 hours a day, but working very hard, we could not meet deadlines and keep quality high. Plus, the esprit de corps vanished that day. We were no longer working for a cause, we were working for a clock. For a check.
But the managing editor would not back down from this destructive policy. Fortunately, I quit soon after, and the magazine was sold to a conglomerate, so the managing editor was never held accountable. Meanwhile, I stayed home and wrote the novel version of Ender’s Game.
Bumped from a flight
Banoffee Pie (England)
Banoffi Pie was invented in 1971 at the Hungry Monk Inn in Jevington near Eastbourne!
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
1 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 bananas, sliced
2 cups heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Mix Graham cracker crumbs, sugar, melted butter or margarine, and ginger until well blended.
Press mixture into a 9-inch pie plate.
Cool in refrigerator.
Use one of the following three methods to prepare the toffee.
Pour toffee into pie crust. Allow to cool.
Slice bananas over toffee.
Whip the cream stiff, then spoon it on top of bananas. Refrigerate before serving.
Oven Method:
Pour sweetened condensed milk into 9-inch pie plate. Cover with aluminum foil; place in larger shallow pan. Fill larger pan with hot water. Bake at 425 degrees F for 1 hour or until thick and caramel-colored. Beat until smooth.
Stovetop Method:
Pour sweetened condensed milk into top of double boiler; place over boiling water. Simmer over low heat for 1 to 1/2 hours or until thick and caramel-colored, stirring occasionally. Beat until smooth.
Microwave Method:
Pour sweetened condensed milk into a 2-quart glass measuring cup. Cook on 50% power (medium) 4 minutes, stirring briskly every 2 minutes until smooth. Cook on 30% power (medium-low) 20 to 25 minutes or until very thick and caramel-colored, stirring briskly every 4 minutes during the first 16 minutes and every 2 minutes during the last 4 to 10 minutes.
Lied to…
An overhead view of people on 36th St. between 8th and 9th Aves., New York
An overhead view of people on 36th St. between 8th and 9th Aves., New York. Manhattan’s Garment District has been the center of the American fashion industry since at least the turn of the twentieth century – in 1900, New York City’s garment trade was its largest industry by a factor of three. The entire fashion ecosystem, from fabric suppliers to designer showrooms, exists within an area just under a square mile. Native New Yorker Margaret Bourke-White was in her mid-twenties when she took this picture. She would later become Life magazine’s first female photojournalist and, during WWII, the first female war correspondent. The two cars shown are a 1930 Ford Model A 4-Door Sedan, left, and a Ford Model A Sports Coupe, right.
Both have to be on board
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick is a hugely significant figure in the history of cinema, directing 13 major feature films including Spartacus, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and the ground-breaking 2001: A Space Odyssey. But prior to his film career, the young Kubrick was an apprentice photographer at Look magazine. First using a camera for his school’s publication, he was offered an apprenticeship at Look after he submitted a photograph. This picture of people arriving at the Chicago Theatre, North State Street, Chicago, is drawn from a set of pictures the 21-year-old Kubrick took for the Look series “Chicago – City of Extremes”. The theatre production in question, starring Jack Carson, Marion Hutton, and Robert Alda, was John Loves Mary, a farce.
Optionality
Confederate prisoners at Seminary Ridge during the battle of Gettysburg.
Confederate prisoners at Seminary Ridge during the battle of Gettysburg. Until 1863, both sides in the American Civil War of 1861-1865 used a parole system for prisoners. A captured soldier vowed not to fight until he had been exchanged for a soldier fighting for the opposition. But in 1863, when this picture was taken, the parole system proved untenable, because Confederate authorities would not recognize a black prisoner as equal to a white prisoner. The direct result was that the number of troops being held in prisons increased massively, on both sides. Just over 400,000 soldiers were taken captured and placed in prison camps during the American Civil War. One in ten of all deaths during the war occurred in a prison camp – a total of more than 55,000 men lost their lives incarcerated.
“11 a.m. Newsies at Skeeter’s Branch, Jefferson near Franklin. They were all smoking. St. Louis, Missouri.” As a photographer working for social reform, Lewis Hine found a number of advantages in photographing “newsies” – boys who sold newspapers on street. Unlike the work he did photographing child workers in mines, factories and mills, Hine could photograph the boys without either seeking permission from employers, or, more typically, circumnavigating them. The photographs could be achieved with more time, and with more focus and attention on the subjects he shot. To achieve this sense of direct connection, Hine would bring his camera down to the eye level of his subjects. Not only taking photographs of child workers, Hine also talked to them and sought to document and record their experience. n aggregate, he created a body of work that displayed an unacceptable standard of living for many thousands of children and which ultimately achieved a change in cultural understanding of what it means to be a child, and in the law.
Mulberry Street was at the very centre of Manhattan’s Little Italy, an ethnic neighborhood that followed from the mass immigration to New York of Italians after the 1880s. By the turn of the twentieth century, nine out of ten people in the Fourteenth Ward of Manhattan had an Italian background. Mulberry Street itself took its name from the Mulberry trees that grew around Mulberry Bend – the point in the street where it curved around what was then the Collect Pond. This scene, shot in 1900, shows something of the breadth of activity of Little Italy – vegetable stalls; barefooted children; shoe, boot and clothing merchants; a wagon of barrels and sacks; furniture removal men; and blankets, quilts and rugs left out to air – or to sell.
Never give up
CONFIRMED: Israel Planning to Dislocate ALL 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza Strip
Advertisements are now appearing in Israeli publications touting “Gaza 2030” showing the entire Gaza Strip as a luxury beach front Resort . . . and no Palestinians.
One such ad, shown above, shows what is said to be the actual planning for the Gaza Strip once the Palestinians are forcibly dislocated from their homes.
While rumors of this forced displacement of civilians (a War Crime) have floated for weeks, for the very first time on Christmas Day, the world got confirmation:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Likud Party conference, that Netanyahu confirmed during the Likud Party session that “work is underway to find countries that want to “absorb the residents of Gaza as refugees.”
So apparently, there it is: Confirmation that ousting the Palestinian civilian population by dropping 2,000 pound bombs on them from fighter jets, is now (and likely has always been) the actual plan.
Casablanca (1942)
This is a favorite of mine. Enjoy.
US spies clueless on Chinese intentions – WSJ
Washington is beefing up its resources targeting Beijing over a decade after losing most of its local assets
The US is still struggling to rebuild its spy capacity in China over a decade after losing all of its agents in the country, current and former intelligence officials told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
The report described a “titanic, but mostly secret shift at the CIA and its sister US spy agencies” refocusing Washington’s $100-billion-a-year intelligence apparatus from “fighting insurgencies around the world” to “preparing for a possible ‘great power’ conflict with China and Russia.”
Beijing is the top priority for the CIA, director William Burns told the Journal, explaining that his agency had “more than doubl[ed] the budget resources devoted to the China mission over the past three years” and established a China Mission Center as a standalone entity coordinating those activities.
These include a new unit focused on emerging technologies and interfacing with the US private sector. Several US intelligence agencies have also established units focused on analyzing open-source intelligence, while electronic surveillance has become Washington’s main information source inside the country, where Beijing’s own surveillance apparatus makes meeting and recruiting human sources increasingly perilous.
Even attempting to recruit officials when they travel to third countries has proven difficult, a former senior official admitted, describing how US agents who believed their cover to be intact in a Latin American country were actually followed and filmed by Chinese observers as they tried to recruit a target.
Current and former US intelligence officials acknowledged the CIA’s mission was crippled by the loss of as many as 30 Chinese assets between 2010 and 2012 due to a glitch in the agency’s covert communications systems and a betrayal by one of its Chinese operatives.
The former official, calling the losses “horrendous,” acknowledged “doubts about whether there’s been much of a recovery since then,” the discoveries having put a chill on recruitments that extended far beyond a single country.
The individual explained their reasoning: “Why would I take a call from a US person, I know that Chinese people got bullets in the back of their head.”
While the US maintains a network of spy satellites and cyber-surveillance tools targeting China, the agency has never recovered its on-the-ground intelligence capability in the country, and even now relies on President Xi Jinping’s public statements to gain working knowledge of his plans, the Journal’s sources admitted.
Burns has nevertheless suggested the US knows Xi’s plans for Taiwan, considered a breakaway province by Beijing and increasingly fortified with US weapons against a hypothetical invasion from the mainland. Xi and his military leadership “have doubts about whether they could pull off a successful, full-scale invasion of Taiwan at an acceptable cost to them,” the CIA chief told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum in July.
Hooverville
A “Hooverville” shantytown in Central Park, New York. The Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of October 1929 saw massive rates of joblessness and homelessness across the United States. People without jobs were people without the means to pay rent. Suddenly, civic lodging houses built for the homeless were filling up to capacity. Shanty towns – some housing as many as 15,000 people – began to grow up in close proximity to soup kitchens and other sources of free food. Such spontaneous towns were known colloquially as “Hoovervilles,” after Herbert Hoover. Hoover was the Republican President in 1929, and responsibility for the Depression was laid largely at his door. The Hooverville in Central Park developed on the site of the park’s lower reservoir. At one time drained and set aside to become a lawn, the reservoir project was derailed by the impact of the downturn. When it resumed in 1933, the Hooverville was gone, but not before it had gained notoriety, standing literally in the shadows of the opulent buildings that line the park, including The Beresford – opened mere months before the stock market crash. IMAGE: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
Kittens abandoned in icy water! Meow gradually weakens, A miracle saved the lives of four kittens
No. The Chinese can detect, track, follow, and “lock on” to any and all American submarines. This includes the highly vaulted USN “stealth” submarines.
This has been demonstrated in numerous ways, and though back channels to “key players” in the Pentagon. The public displays of this ability has been disguised as other events.
Oh, I am confident that the guys at NAS China Lake NWC will come up with methodology and techniques. When that will happen is unknown. But I am sure that some ideas are being researched and some preliminary studies are being conducted.
I have a reasonable expectation that some technologies will be fielded before 2030.
There are (highly likely) “black” projects currently in development that will eventually result in some great engineering direction. Of that I have no doubt. But it would be silly to assume that the Chinese are unaware of them. By the time they hit pilot field trials, China will already have counter-measures in place and fielded.
China, as of the time of this writing, has a very strong and significant undersea detection ability that spans the entire Pacific Ocean. This includes the Western coastline of the Americas. I do not know about the rest of the globe, but it can be inferred that the waters in and around Australia are under this umbrella of coverage, as are the Indian Sea, and the Northern navigable ocean.
So, to answer the question, more specifically…
Can American submarines bypass China’s surveillance and enter China’s territorial waters?
No. Any American submarine in the Pacific Ocean, near Australia, near the Indian Ocean, and in the Arctic Ocean can be detected by China.
If China determine that it is a threat, it will warn it away. This will include non-destructive methods such as the “sonic bomb”, and the “sonar ray cannon”. The warning usually is enough to cause the skipper to scamper away, as has already been demonstrated. In the event that the skipper is too recalcitrant, China has the ability to suppress the undersea vessel with extreme prejudice.
…
SOME IMPORTANT NOTES
Technical abilities of all military systems are hidden. The closest that the layman can get to understanding what they are is to either work with publicly available guesswork (such as JANES), or to actually have experience in these technologies.
If you regurgitate public domain evaluations (such as JANES) you are apt to copy the misinformation purposely fed to the periodical.
If you offer your personal experience in these matters, you are apt to be called a “fake news shrill” by a host of miscreants.
No one knows the true and real capabilities of the USN and the PLAN. However, people who have worked in these regimes, can make educated guesses and extrapolate towards highest probability conclusions. This is what I have done here.
The alternative is to rely on the public discourse, which is highly inaccurate, and intentionally misleading. If you feel that the anti-China disinfo is of better value to you, then go quite ahead and ignore this answer. No skin off my back.
Men cannot be bored
Workers build the Statue of Liberty
Workers build the Statue of Liberty inside French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s workshop, Paris. The idea for the Statue of Liberty was Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s. The Parisian sculptor wanted to create a gift for the US nation in the wake of the abolition of slavery – referenced in the broken chain at the feet of the statue. Construction commenced in 1877, and Bartholdi brought in engineer Gustave Eiffel to help with the statue’s inner framework. In 1885, the completed statue was shipped to America, assembled and dedicated the following year. IMAGE: ALBERT FERNIQUE / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Not me but happened to a friend of mine: she worked in a large law firm in Dublin, Ireland. Her boss was a total prick, probably a psychopath. During the recession they cut people’s wages and even stopped serving coffee at meetings in order to cut costs – not that any of the senior partners took wage cuts. It is very expensive to live in Dublin; the situation was so bad that there was a constant stream of young, under-paid, financially struggling solicitors entering his office and begging for a pay-rise, any kind of pay-rise. With every one of them he pointed to a tray on his desk filled with c.v.’s and said if you don’t want to work here I have a large bundle of applicants who would be happy your take your job. No one got a raise.
Things came to a head when my friend entered an open competition for a position with the state-run Residential Tenancy Board, a kind of mediation body for disputes between landlords and tenants. It was known that my friend, along with several others in the same firm had sat the exam, and she scored extremely high, placing near the top of the panel. It was rumoured that the boss had applied as well. At the end of the office day he approached her desk and basically accused her of rummaging through another colleague’s desk and stealing his notes for the exam – something along the lines of “How can you prove to me that you didn’t go through Brian’s desk, and read his notes?” (Not that he gave a shit about Brian). This is a lawyer, asking another lawyer to prove her innocence under the presumption of guilt, that she was guilty until she could prove herself innocent. She knew this situation was untenable and said well I wouldn’t do that because it’s immoral, and illegal but it now seems clear to me that it might be best if I work somewhere else – she basically quit there and then in the most tasteful and honourable fashion. He exploded on the spot, demanding to know who would take over her cases and workload. She replied, “Well, you have a large bundle of c.v’s on your desk, hire one of them.”
Broken families
A portrait of Abraham Lincoln
A portrait of Abraham Lincoln, without beard, aged 37. It would be another fourteen years before Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States. Here, in an image by law student Nicholas Shepherd, Lincoln is photographed serving as a member of the US House of Representatives, just before he resumed his legal practice in Springfield, Illinois. Notably, Lincoln is clean-shaven. He grew his whiskers in 1860 as a direct response to a letter from an 11-year-old girl, Grace Bedell, who believed Lincoln’s lack of beard was impeding his political career. IMAGE: NICHOLAS SHEPHERD / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Delusion
Ukraine Claims Sinking of Russian Naval Ship in Port
Ukraine claims its aircraft hit — and sank — the Russian naval vessel “Novocherkassk” while the ship was in the port of Feodosia on Crimea.
Numerous confirmations of a very large explosion in that port, came in via video on Christmas Day, but whether the ship was hit, or an ammunition dump exploded, is in dispute:
The ship, allegedly loaded with Iranian ammunition, was reportedly blown up and as a result, fire broke out in the port. Here is a file photo of the ship:
According to Russian-affiliated media, residents reported hearing loud bangs, and seeing plumes of smoke. Traffic on the Crimean bridge was blocked.
Sergey Aksenov, the head of Russian authorities in Crimea, stated that “an enemy attack was carried out in the Feodosia area and the port area was cordoned off.”
Ukraine also claims there were 300 crew aboard and “they are all dead” but that does not seem to comport with the fact that a ship, in port, would not likely have its full crew aboard.
China sternly told (not warn) EU chief to sort out what caused trade deficit for EU.
(my word) 1, EU-Netherlands is not allowed to sell EUV & now DUV too to China. China is willing to buy these expensive equipment. EU follows USA. EU is the problem of its trade deficit. Not China.
2, When European firms make money in China & bring back money to Europe, has EU factored in this money into the equation to determine trade deficit?
Germany cars make lots in China. Not France’s cars. Now France asks you EU chief to investigate China, do you EU know it is purely a dog-fight between France & Germany which has nothing with China?
3, If EU is so afraid of trade deficit, then stop buying from China. Buy things from other countries. Then there wont be any trade deficit with China. Simple. China wont force EU to buy.
In short, China sternly told EU chief not to play politics. Do something practical for Europeans.
My uncle was hippie in the 1960s, and continued that lifestyle throughout the 70s and 80s. He was particularly enthusiastic about the drugs and promiscuity. As he was born at the beginning of WWII, not the end, he slightly preceded the baby boom. After his first prison stint, he ended up living in San Francisco where he rode a Matchless chopper and fully imbibed the counter-cultural lifestyle. In many ways he wasn’t just a hippie, he was one of the original hippies.
My uncle was a particularly skilled guitarist and poet. He also had a powerful singing voice, and made numerous attempts to launch a music career. As he aged, he slipped in-and-out of heroine addiction, and consumed other drugs as well. His drug use destroyed most of his opportunities.
My father disappeared from the scene while my mom was pregnant. After my mom’s divorce from my step-father, I went to live with my grandparents on a small farm in Thermal CA. My uncle lived in the other house. There was a constant parade of counter-cultural relics passing through the ranch. As a kid I might be throwing a football with a Hare Krishna one day, and getting a boxing lesson from an outlaw biker the next. Once my uncle took me to a nearby farm where a bunch of his hippie friends lived. I was about 12 or 13 and was sent out to help pick tomatoes. Living on a farm I had done farm work before, but that day was special because I was picking tomatoes with topless hippie girls.
Kind of like this except fewer guys and the girls were topless.
He had been married several times, and spent 20 years with a woman he met in San Francisco in the early 70s. They had two kids together, but didn’t marry because that would have cost her AFDC benefits.
His drug use lead to drug trafficking and by the late 70s/early 80s my uncle had evolved into a full-on hippie-outlaw. He trafficked hard drugs and committed other crimes. The summer before my 9th grade I was working for him on dry-wall taping job. One of his biker buddies showed up 2 of the least attractive biker gals I’d ever seen. They were all bad skin and bad tattoos. “Today’s the day you lose your virginity,” he said pointing at a gal who looked like an inked up version of Calisto from X-Men comics.
This was not as appealing as the topless hippie chicks picking tomatoes.
He showed up at my mom’s apartment around 4AM the next morning. After partying the afternoon away with the gals I avoided losing my innocence to, he stole some type of commercial vehicle, which he sold down in Mexico.
In the 1980s, he was arrested for narcotics trafficking. The police raided the house and arrested his “ol’ lady” and a couple of his kids. He wasn’t there. The DA had a witness against him, but that witness “disappeared.” He would eventually plea to a lesser charge in exchange for charges being dropped against his “ol’ lady” and sons. He serve a short prison sentence at Soledad.
When he came out of prison in 1988, he was healthier than I’d ever seen him before. A couple years of structure, nutrition and daily workouts in the weight pile had done wonders for him. While in prison, he shared a cell with a minor music celebrity. This musician wanted to purchase some of my uncle’s songs. But those deals fell through.
By that time the family farm was a distant memory. My uncle was gifted a house from his father, all he needed to do was pay the monthly mortgage payments which were only a few hundred dollars a month. But as he fell back into drug addiction he lost the house his “ol’ lady” had kept afloat while he was in prison.
After losing the roof over their head, the “ol lady” who stood by him through prison stints and infidelity decided she had enough. She went to live with her mom and became a home-healthcare working. The state of California paid her to take care of her own mother.
The hotel he lived in was next to the rescue mission. He was living on disability.
He had tried drug rehab a couple times but always fell back into his old habits. His son was employed by CA as a home healthcare worker…taking care of his father. My cousin was basically paid to stay home smoking dope with my uncle and play video games.
He fell ill. My cousin told me that his “guts exploded.” and he died in his hotel room next to the rescue mission.
Speaking cat language
Coney Island’s Luna Park
A ride at Coney Island’s Luna Park. When Frederic Thompson and Elmer Dundy built their A Trip To The Moon ride for an exposition in Buffalo, New York State in 1901, they had a hit on their hands. The centerpiece of the ride was an airship powered by wings which flapped, named Luna. Moving the ride to Coney Island’s Steeplechase Park for 1902, Thomson and Dundy then leased more land and created Luna Park, using 1,000 spires, a quarter of a million lights, and $700,000. On its opening night, 60,000 people paid ten cents each to enter Luna Park – rides cost extra. But in 1908, Luna Park was eclipsed by Dreamland, with a million lights. Dundy died in 1907, and Thompson went bankrupt. Luna Park continued to exist, but successive owners struggled to realize any potential it possessed. In 1944, it was wiped out by fire. IMAGE: GEO. P. HALL & SON / NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY / GETTY IMAGES
A man of Japanese ancestry
A man of Japanese ancestry teaches his grandson to walk at Manzanar War Relocation Authority Center, California. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, around 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes, leaving behind all their business and goods, and were transferred to concentration camps, known as “relocation centers.” Around 80,000 were native-born American citizens. This image by Dorothea Lange was taken at the Manzanar camp, northeast of Los Angeles. More than 10,000 people were detained at the 500 acre camp. Like all such camps, Manzanar was treated as a military installation, with towers, barbed wire perimeters, and armed guards. Before Manzanar closed at the end of 1945, one hundred and forty-six people had died as camp internees. Documentary photographer Dorothea Lange created a significant body of work in the Great Depression, working for the U.S. Farm Security Administration. Born Dorothea Nutzhorn, her parents were second generation immigrants from Germany. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1941, she resigned it in order to photograph the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans. Most of her images were seen as critical by the military, and were impounded for more than five decades. IMAGE: DOROTHEA LANGE / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Woke society
Mulberry Street
Mulberry Street was at the very centre of Manhattan’s Little Italy, an ethnic neighborhood that followed from the mass immigration to New York of Italians after the 1880s. By the turn of the twentieth century, nine out of ten people in the Fourteenth Ward of Manhattan had an Italian background. Mulberry Street itself took its name from the Mulberry trees that grew around Mulberry Bend – the point in the street where it curved around what was then the Collect Pond. This scene, shot in 1900, shows something of the breadth of activity of Little Italy – vegetable stalls; barefooted children; shoe, boot and clothing merchants; a wagon of barrels and sacks; furniture removal men; and blankets, quilts and rugs left out to air – or to sell. IMAGE: DETROIT PUBLISHING CO. / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Too many SIMPS
Newsies
“11 a.m. Newsies at Skeeter’s Branch, Jefferson near Franklin. They were all smoking. St. Louis, Missouri.” As a photographer working for social reform, Lewis Hine found a number of advantages in photographing “newsies” – boys who sold newspapers on street. Unlike the work he did photographing child workers in mines, factories and mills, Hine could photograph the boys without either seeking permission from employers, or, more typically, circumnavigating them. The photographs could be achieved with more time, and with more focus and attention on the subjects he shot. To achieve this sense of direct connection, Hine would bring his camera down to the eye level of his subjects. Not only taking photographs of child workers, Hine also talked to them and sought to document and record their experience. n aggregate, he created a body of work that displayed an unacceptable standard of living for many thousands of children and which ultimately achieved a change in cultural understanding of what it means to be a child, and in the law. IMAGE: LEWIS HINE/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Fentanyl is an extremely important drug. The World Health Organisation includes fentanyl in its official list of the world’s most essential medicines. Fentanyl plays a particularly important role in pain management for cancer patients. The suffering of cancer patients worldwide would be greatly increased, if not for the wonders of fentanyl.
Of course, fentanyl should be used only as prescribed by doctors. It may be noteworthy that no other country in the world has a fentanyl crisis the way the USA is having it. But it is also noteworthy that before fentanyl became popular among US drug addicts, the USA had already been having a massive opioid crisis for years and years – again, far outstripping the rest of the world.
Basically, nothing much has changed in the USA, except that the drug addicts moved from one kind of drug to another drug. Drug abuse is deeply embedded in the culture of the USA. Sadly, the habit of blaming others for its own problems is also deeply embedded in US culture.
No one should be surprised that most of the active pharmaceutical ingredients for manufacturing fentanyl comes from China. By far, China is the world’s largest manufacturer of APIs, generally speaking, for all kinds of medicines. China keeps the world alive, with its constant supply of modern medicines. China also keeps healthcare costs down for all countries, because of its tremendous economies of scale, as it manufactures medicines for hospitals and clinics all over the world.
Not a security officer, but many years ago I had one of my weirdest experiences with an x-ray scanner on a flight home from Canada.
I put my little carry-on shoulder bag on the conveyor belt; it went in, paused for inspection, and then the security officer asked me if I had any metal in the bag.
So I rummaged through the bag, removing several items and putting them in a tray. Then I sent the bag through; it paused for inspection, and then the security officer asked me if there was any more metal in the bag.
So I rummaged through it again, pulled out a number of items with a small amount of metal, and put them in the tray. Then I sent the bag through a third time – and sure enough, it stopped, and the officer had a quizzical look on his face.
At this point I said “Look, I’m a radiologist. If you let me see the image, I can probably find exactly what you’re looking at.”
So they put the bag through again, and a very bright red object came into view. I was puzzled myself – until they stopped the conveyor belt.
Imagine a glass of water. What happens if you push it forward steadily, and then suddenly stop? The water level sloshes back and forth for a moment.
This was exactly what I saw on the screen, and when I recognized it, I laughed out loud.
I have had asthma for most of my life – relatively mild, fortunately. Nowadays, I have a maintenance inhaler (corticosteroids) to try to prevent attacks, and a rescue inhaler, to open up my airways in the event I do have an attack.
But when I was first diagnosed, inhaled corticosteroids did not exist, and I was basically prescribed the rescue inhaler for maintenance, which isn’t ideal (and not all that safe).
As a supplement, I was treated with a saturated solution of potassium iodide; this loosened up the mucus which tended to clog my airways – and probably didn’t do my thyroid any good, but again, you use the meds you have.
The solution came in a little squeeze bottle with a dropper tip, and I was supposed to add several drops to a glass of juice or water. The bottle was upright in my shoulder bag when it went through the scanner. When the bag suddenly stopped, the liquid sloshed back and forth a bit.
Why was my medicine so incredibly bright on the x-ray? When you have IV contrast during a CT scan – or during an old-fashioned catheter angiogram, or any other procedure except MRI – what makes the contrast actually show up is the iodine in it.
So I had basically been sending a little bottle of super-concentrated contrast material through that airport x-ray scanner, and just hadn’t made the connection until I saw the way the liquid moved when the conveyor belt stopped.
I pulled it out, and showed it to the officer; he was skeptical, so I told him to put the bottle through the scanner by itself. When he realized that it was indeed the “metal” he was looking for, I explained why it looked so different from ordinary liquids on x-ray.
I stopped using potassium iodide shortly afterwards, and haven’t needed to explain radiographic contrast at an airport for quite some time. But it was certainly a unique experience.
The “Street of Gamblers,” Chinatown, San Francisco.
The “Street of Gamblers,” Chinatown, San Francisco. Two men and one woman on board the American brig Eagle were the very first Chinese immigrants to San Francisco. From 1849, Chinese people were drawn by the laboring opportunities for the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, as well as the California Gold Rush – though racial discrimination was pronounced and enshrined in law, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892, which outlawed immigration from China for the next decade. San Franciscan studio photographer Arnold Genthe was drawn to San Francisco’s Chinatown, capturing many hundreds of photographs of its people – often without their knowledge. The pictures are true to the culture Genthe saw – although he also cropped out Western elements. Here, Genthe has captured the essence of a Chinese hutong market transposed into San Francisco, crowded with men wearing black chángshān shirts and sporting the Manchu queue hairstyles – mandatory for all Chinese men until the 1910s. Excepting Genthe’s images, very few photographs remain of San Francisco’s Chinatown prior to the earthquake and fires of 1906. Most photographic collections were lost, but Genthe’s survived, stored in a bank vault.
6 years of work experience and worked with 2 CEOs. I have doubled my salary every 2 years with only one job change. I am not a hard worker and rarely the smartest in room. My growth is not exceptional or commendable but good enough to make me one of the top paid among my peers.
Take ownership. There is no blame game in corporate. If it succeeds, its everyone’s effort. If it fails, its your fault. Its not a school to push the blame on someone. Your seniors will respect you for integrity.
Be always smarter than your manager. If you are, then your job is secure and he will respect you. If you aren’t, be ready to listen to his taunts and degradation.
If it needs to be done, it has to be done. A mail pops in just before you have to leave after a 10 hour day. And it says urgent. Either you can ignore it or sit for another half hour to complete it. Your decision decides your promotion.
Don’t take a day off unless needed. Your hangover doesn’t count as a reason. If its a reason, stop drinking. Stop everything that makes you tired next day to miss office.
Be cheerful with everyone from security guard to VP. It will give you 2 benefits: 1. You would be presented as a positive and cheerful employee (and it matters) 2. You can get things does easily.
When in office, do office work. Its ok to file IT returns or check quick social media but don’t start making business plans for your startup or start editing photos for your candid photography page. 6–8 hours of solid office work everyday will take you long way.
Know your process, know your peers, know about every (most) work getting done in your building. Don’t be a stalker or a nagger. Be a curious candidate who knows what he and his peers are doing. Will help you solve any problems you face in work sometime.
Know your company well. Sounds childish? Trust me, most of us do not know what your company does fully. What are the product segments, who are its competitors, where is the headquarter and who is the CEO.
Know the current affairs. While this doesn’t directly affect your work, there are moments when you would get a chance to interact with top management and the topics leapfrog from politics to macro economic factors. You shouldn’t be a sitting duck. Your small talk can have a very large impact.
Focus on big picture. You are just an ordinary s/w engineer or a junior analyst? Doesn’t matter. Look at your process like your lead or manager sees. Focus on the big picture. See like a bird and work like a worm.
Sometimes its donkey work. Do it. I work with senior directors of billion dollar companies who make their own slides. And many times they have to spend time on adjusting the logos or changing the fonts! Part of the job. They have secretaries but on a tight schedule, you are your boss.
Never blame your company. Never. if you feel you are excellent worker and your current company is not supporting you, then you are free to take a walk outside. Search for a better company. And if you can’t find a job, well then, its your mistake. You are not competent enough.
There is always growth. You have to be ready for it. Every company has a CEO and he/she was once a junior like you. The CEO worked his way up by hardwork, talent and beating all the competition. You can also be that CEO if you put 10–12 hours a day for 10 years in a row. There ain’t any shortcut.
Never expect a pat on the back. If you want to go up the ladder, do not strive for pat on backs or acknowledgements for short term projects. To quote Tywin Lannister “Jugglers and singers require applause”. Rise above the competation.
Workers build the Statue of Liberty
Workers build the Statue of Liberty inside French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s workshop, Paris. The idea for the Statue of Liberty was Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s. The Parisian sculptor wanted to create a gift for the US nation in the wake of the abolition of slavery – referenced in the broken chain at the feet of the statue. Construction commenced in 1877, and Bartholdi brought in engineer Gustave Eiffel to help with the statue’s inner framework. In 1885, the completed statue was shipped to America, assembled and dedicated the following year.
During WWII a young American officer had to take a bathroom break. Returning to the bomber he was supposed to ride, he found another officer had stolen his seat… the plane left without him. He had to take another plane, instead.
The original plane he was supposed to go on was shot down by the Japanese, killing everyone on board including the seat-stealer. The next plane this man took, instead, suffered a severe technical malfunction as its electrical generator failed and caused the plane to lose power and communication. It had to return to base, but it was attacked by eight Japanese fighter planes on the way. The plane was badly damaged, but it managed to evade the enemy fire long enough to land safely in Australia.
Who was this lucky man who escaped death in the air twice, once by a full bladder and the second time through sheer luck and the skill of his pilot? His name was Lyndon B. Johnson, and he would later be elected president of the United States.
I was on a 2 month roadtrip with my family; preteen son and daughter, and wife. We had an RV but would pit stop at hotels or motels sometimes for the hot showers.
I was awake first and went out to do some roadside repairs under the RV. When i crawled out i learned the wife had checked out early. I was dirty and wanted to get clean before another long drive. I asked the front desk to let me back in the room to clean up and they gave me the key. I grabed my bag and headed to the shower. The family was in the rv getting themselves situated. I had the room to myself.
When i walked out the shower nude, looking for a towel the housekeeping staff was in the room cleaning. The door was propped open. The two ladies were changing the beds and had already removed the towels. I walked out nude and dripping. No towels…😬 The ladies eyed me up and down with suprise. One found a towel and handed it to me as they quickly excused themselves.
A “Hooverville” shantytown in Central Park,
A “Hooverville” shantytown in Central Park, New York. The Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of October 1929 saw massive rates of joblessness and homelessness across the United States. People without jobs were people without the means to pay rent. Suddenly, civic lodging houses built for the homeless were filling up to capacity. Shanty towns – some housing as many as 15,000 people – began to grow up in close proximity to soup kitchens and other sources of free food. Such spontaneous towns were known colloquially as “Hoovervilles,” after Herbert Hoover. Hoover was the Republican President in 1929, and responsibility for the Depression was laid largely at his door. The Hooverville in Central Park developed on the site of the park’s lower reservoir. At one time drained and set aside to become a lawn, the reservoir project was derailed by the impact of the downturn. When it resumed in 1933, the Hooverville was gone, but not before it had gained notoriety, standing literally in the shadows of the opulent buildings that line the park, including The Beresford – opened mere months before the stock market crash.
Let me begin by saying nurses have a very stressful job. I probably couldn’t go it as a career. I respect the profession. You should too the next time you’re in the ER. BUT they are not the only varsity members of the healthcare team.
I am an X-ray tech to sum up what I do. Almost every routine xray….not ct or MRI can be done with a portable X-ray machine. So one day years ago a doctor ordered an abdomen X-ray on a patient staying in the hospital. I arrived to bring the patient to the X-ray department. The lady said she was feeling so bad could I please go get the portable machine and X-ray her in her bed. I said of course, I’d be right back. The patient’s nurse was in the room and instead of not saying anything or being glad I was taking the patient’s comfort in consideration she tells me that the patient MUST leave the room and go to X-ray. I told her it would be right back and get it the X-ray right away. The nurse said the patient had to go to the X-ray department. The patient started CRYING! the nurse said she was sorry but the doctor needed a good X-ray. I didn’t want to bicker in front of the patient so I asked the nurse to step into the hall. Again I told the nurse the plus side of me xraying the patient in her bed. The nurse said she used to be an X-ray tech and she knew a portable X-ray was not as good detail as a X-ray in the department, blah blah blah. Again stating she used to be a tech and she knows a portable Abdomen X-ray cannot be diagnostic. To which I said, only to her, “well ma’am, if you were a tech and was not able to do a portable abdomen X-ray and get a diagnostic image, then you made the right decision in changing professions.”
I know that pissed her off but I didn’t raise my voice or say it in a smarmy way. Her implying, in front the patient, that I wasn’t qualified to do my job pissed ME off. So I get a call from the charge nurse asking me what happened. Told her exactly what I wrote above. This was a Friday night. Monday when I get to work my director walked me to HR and he, the nurse, the director of nursing and HR guy told me I had to apologize to the nurse. As pussified as I viewed them, especially my director, I normally would have except they were claiming I was insubordinate to the RN. I-am-NOT-subordinate to a nurse. I will and do defer to a nurse in the case of patient care, meds, their role in an trauma or code situation, but NOT “listen and obey me”. I can’t do what they do but they (at least one) can’t do what I do. So I refused. Since it was an issue of being accused of being insubordinate…I said I will resign before I acquiesce under that stipulation. The next week I was at a better hospital, more pay and a legend in Baton Rouge X-ray.
thank you for all the upvotes. I wish y’all had been with me when I told my wife I had quit. “YOU FUCKING DID WHAT?!”
The hanging of the conspirators in the assassination of Lincoln
The hanging of the conspirators in the assassination of Lincoln, at Fort McNair, Washington D.C. The assassination of Lincoln in April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth was part of a conspiracy to bring down the Union government. The plot would have seen the simultaneous killing by conspirators of the President; Vice-President Andrew Johnson; and Secretary of State William Seward. Only Booth succeeded. While Booth was killed before he could stand trial, other conspirators were taken and imprisoned. Three months after the assassination, on July 7th, four of them – Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt – were hung at Fort McNair. The scene was captured by Scottish photographer Alexander Gardner. The gallows was constructed specifically for the occasion. Mary Surratt, whose Washington boarding house was a primary location in the conspiracy, became the first woman to be executed by the US federal government.
Almost all family fights revolve around either Money or Ego/Dominance
Hunger always leads to irritation and a lot of fights so ensure you have a handful of Chocolates with you to prevent low glucose and irritability
Never force your Kid into something he or she is not good at or will not be good at. Dont thrust your ambitions on your kid.
If you have had a bad breakup and you are in College , its better to hire an expensive call girl for a 3 day session rather than flunking after becoming devdas. Most heart breaks are solved this way (Per 2010 Standards)
Limit Coffee and Tea and avoid Aerated Drinks entirely. Drink only Water whenever possible.
Mayonnaise, Extra Cheese, French Fries and Drinks are all to be avoided when eating fast food. They are the ones which lead to diabetes and weight gain. Instead you can order more Coleslaw and Beans.
Never get into trouble with Cops till you get your First Passport. Always be humble and never mouth off a cop.
Be open about watching Porn or doing something. Dont hide such things and pretend to be a goody goody. Such people often cheat on their wives.
Never try to find out if Ghosts are real by taking a camera and visiting an allegedly haunted house.
Never use a Credit Card except for Insurance and Medical Emergencies.
If your Peers force you to smoke, its worth losing the friends than losing your lungs.
Never raise your hands on your kids or Parents or Spouse or Girlfriend
Never cheat a Girl by promising marriage out of lust. It never goes well. Better to watch Pornhub
Never tell a lie that harms you in the long run. Simple lies are fine.
Ensure a BMI of 27.5 at the most if possible if you are a male and 26.5 if you are female.
Ensure you have health insurance at all times if possible
Never invest in a Property where the Total EMI is more than 40% of your combined salary.
Old Age Retirement Communities are not bad places but in India -7 out of 8 are Cheats. So be careful.
The More “I Love You” you tell a girl the shorter the relationship is likely to be.
Even if a Girl wants Physical Sex, think a 100 times before participation. Laws and Time are not on your side.
For Girls – Think 1000 times
Never get into Political discussions with Family Members and Friends. Thats what Quora is for.
The “Empire State Express”
The “Empire State Express” (New York Central Railroad) passes through Washington Street, Syracuse, New York. The Empire State Express was the flagship train of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. It also had world renown as the first passenger train with a speed scheduled above 50 mph, as well as undertaking the longest scheduled nonstop run, between New York City and Albany, for 143 miles. Trains have run on the roads of Syracuse, New York since 1859, earning the city the sobriquet “the city with the trains in the streets.” As well as the obvious safety concerns, the situation also brought noise, dirt and pollution to Syracuse citizens. At peak points, around sixty trains ran along Washington Street – though that era finally came to an end in 1936 with the arrival of an elevated railroad and a new station on Erie Boulevard East. The final train to run on Syracuse streets was the Empire State Express – eastbound.
Since 1992, Japan’s economy has been in huge decline. It is no longer the economic powerhouse of the 1980s that shook the world with innovations and the excellent capabilities of Japanese businessmen, allowing Japan to dominate global markets. The myth of Japan being an unstoppable economic force has long been dead. The Japanese economy since the asset price bubble collapse has been characterized by rising debt at an unrelenting rate, an aging population associated with low productivity, and zombie companies propped up by government loans.
Japan’s hope for an economic revival is waning as the country shows no real signs of turning things around, instead falling further behind other growing Asian economies year after year. In this post, I will highlight key points showing how Japan may become the first nation to reach “lost century” status.
The lost innovation era
Since Toshiba’s fall, the cracks in Japan’s economy started to show even more as other Asian nations like South Korea, Taiwan, and China began surpassing Japan in key areas. This accelerating loss of global market share further aggravated the decline.
This outcome holds a sobering lesson for any nation closely tied to the United States. No matter how loyal you are to the master, it won’t save you from their opression if they see the necessary reason to do so, especially when the American Capitalists see their revenues falling.
At the same time, talented Japanese technicians and engineers have increasingly found opportunities abroad as other Asian countries have surpassed Japan in key tech sectors. Many now work in Taipei, China, Singapore, and throughout the ASEAN countries, where they see more financial opportunities compared to Japan. This exodus shows how other nations have attracted Japanese talent that could have benefited Japan domestically if better opportunities existed. Ultimately, the blame lies with Japan itself for failing to sustain an attractive and thriving environment for their people since that’s what they got for pleasing the master.
Zombie firms
When the asset price bubble burst and the stock market collapsed, many major Japanese companies were at risk of bankruptcy. Japanese banks and the government bailed out these businesses with loans so they could avoid folding. While this allowed the companies to survive, they became “zombie companies” – failing businesses reliant on bailouts to operate, with no impetus to innovate.
The rise of zombie companies has been a key driver of Japan’s economic decline, as they contribute little productivity while occupying market share. Typically it’s better to allow failing firms to go bankrupt so new entrepreneurship can flourish in a creative destruction process. However, Japan feared the short-term pains of major corporate bankruptcies and preferred lending money indefinitely to decaying keystone companies.
Aversion to change and status quo bias have prevented Japan from undertaking major reforms. Biting the bullet on corporate failures, as painful as it would be initially, would better incentivize startups and productivity. Economies thrive when inefficient businesses can fail and nimble innovators have space to experiment and grow. Propping up zombies may seem safer, but it locks in stagnation. Japan remains trapped by indecision and fear of change.
In fact, the problem of zombie companies in Japan appears to be worsening rather than stabilizing. Instead of declining, the number of zombies propped up by cheap credit is rapidly growing, especially in 2021 and 2022 as many firms faced bankruptcy due to COVID-19. This perpetual bailout mentality is a critical factor behind Japan’s ongoing economic stagnation and the despair many younger generations feel about the future.
The country’s lack of sovereignty is the most important factor
Japan is known not just for economic stagnation but also as a loyal puppet of the United States, to the point of eben rivalling Europe. Its foreign policy and military fall heavily under U.S. influence. On Japanese sites like Yahoo Japan, users joke about the U.S. military presence being an omnipotent god towering over Japan’s actual government. This dynamic has been evident in Okinawa, where protests demanding removal of U.S. bases led to a referendum supporting their ouster by 70% of voters. Yet the bases remain despite longstanding issues like pollution, as Japan has not asserted autonomy over land usage. More impartially, the U.S. military itself produces immense emissions rivaling top polluter nations if it was a country. It would be known as the seventh country for being top polluter, just imagine how cancerous their impact is towards the world.
Japan’s lack of independence in foreign policy has allowed the United States to continue imposing unfavorable trade deals, similar to the Trump agreement where he forced Japan to open up access for American farmers in the Japanese market and dump goods without any tariff imposed on them. At the same time, this kind of control is what is stopping Japan from reviving economically, because if Japan was independent, then it could work with Asian partners to establish an Asian Monetary Fund and implement trade deals in their own currencies rather than the US Dollar.
In fact, Japan desperately needs China and Vietnam as they are the only key that could help Japan survive, but of course under the ruling LDP elites, such a partnership will never happen. And even if someone tries to steer Japan toward more regional trade and financial cooperation with the East, then the next day he will be assassinated.
Oh yeah!!! If you leave bottled beer in the sun for a month, its brutally skunky. When I was underage, I left a case of beer hidden in a field until I could retrieve it, a month later. Not a wise move.
The weirdest incident was when I went over to my best friends parents farm for Christmas Eve. His father was quite the character, he could be incredibly frugal, but was also quite funny. My best friends parents don’t drink beer. But my best friend and I made up for them.
When I came in they asked me if I wanted anything to drink. I said I’ll have a beer, not wanting to put them out, and not knowing that they didn’t drink beer.
To give some context, up until 1961 Canada allowed any beer bottle shape. Then they switched to a standard stubby bottle, and every brewery had to use the identical stubby, so that they could be reused, instead of recycled. In about 1983, they started allowing any shape bottles again. Most breweries switched to a long neck bottle, with a twist top cap.
The father went down into the root cellar and came up with two long neck beer bottles. They were a little dusty, but I didn’t think anything of it. I tried to twist off the cap, and I couldn’t, the father handed me a bottle opener, and I popped the cap. OMG, the stench, it bubbled and frothed out of the bottle. The father was laughing so hard, I thought he couldn’t stand up. It was a long neck from before 1961 and this was probably 1984.
He said he had bought the beer for company, decades ago, and stored it in his cold room/root cellar. He hadn’t used it, and when organizing this Christmas, he had found it, and wondered if it would still be good, like whiskey kept in a cool dark place for years.
He got his answer. But I wondered how much it had cost him. He had opened, a sealed case of beer, that was probably at least 25 years old. How much could he have sold it for.
So I am here to tell you, beer can go bad within a month in the hot sun, and is definitely pungent after 25 years in a basement.
Six were killed
Oklahoma’s Fort Sill – the burial place of the Native American, Geronimo – housed static kite balloons, inflated with hydrogen such as this one. The balloons were deployed for the observation of artillery attacks, and were secured with guiding cables by groups of ground staff. Six troops were killed in the accident captured here on camera, at Henry Post Field at the Fort. The hydrogen in a balloon was ignited by a what is believed to have been a static electricity charge, created as the folds of the balloon fabric were rubbed together. Thirty more troops were injured.
Not me but a guy I worked with at my local hospital.
Mick was an ex-Para and also ex-Foreign Legion. His hobby was going around car-boot sales and buying up old brasses (vases, pots, decorations etc), cleaning them up and selling them on. He bought a load in bulk and while checking them he heard something rattling around inside a tall vase. When he tipped it out it turned out to be a Victoria Cross complete with ribbon and clasp! For our American cousins it’s the British equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Being a military man Mick immediately knew what it was-now he could have kept it or sold it, but knowing what he did (and being an honourable bloke) he decided to track down the owner, or at least his family. He found the recipients grandson and after speaking with him on the phone they arranged to meet up at a pub. The grandson had brought paperwork and photos to prove that it was indeed his grandads. It turned out that, when he was a child, he loved wearing his grandads medals while playing ‘Army’ (which he wasn’t allowed to do, kids eh?) and had somehow lost the VC, for which his dad had, understandably, never forgiven him. Mick told him where he’d found it and it turned out that the grandsons parents had kept a large brass vase by the door that they put umbrellas in-it had been rattling around inside the vase for over 30years!
In 1983 Upper Volta was one of the poorest countries in Africa, then a coup installed Thomas Sankara as president. Sankara changed the name of the country to Burkina Faso and started a number of reforms. «His domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nationwide literacy campaign and promoting public health by vaccinating 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles». Sankara improved the living conditions of the Burkinabé people, redistributing agricultural land, planting trees to prevent desertification, creating a widespread program for building roads and railways, which brought jobs and modernization, strengthening the healthcare and education systems. He also outlawed FGMs, forced marriage, and promoted women to the head of the state and at all levels of the administration. Finally, he unilaterally reduced the Burkinabé international debt (mostly based on old interests that had piled up) and renounced international aids where not strictly necessary in order to escape the control of the IMF and World Bank.
In doing so, through, he caused the enmity of the international finance, but also of the Burkinabé middle class and of the old tribal chiefs. These united forces and in 1987 assassinated Sankara, substituting him with Blaise Compaoré, who remained in office through heavily doctored elections, until 2014, when he finally had to flee to Cote d’Ivoire. Despite being nominally democratic, Compaoré undid everything that had been done by Sankara, worsening the human rights conditions, the economy, and the overall living conditions.
Bannock Bread (Scottish)
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup Crisco
1/2 cup water to make a thick dough
Instructions
Mix dry ingredients together well. Cut in the shortening using a pastry blender.
Mix in the water and knead until the dough is very smooth, about 15 minutes.
Grease a cast iron frying pan, including the sides, and press the dough into the pan.
Bake on top of the stove over low heat. Watch carefully so that the bread does not brown or burn before the center is cooked.
When the bread is free from the pan, turn the loaf over and continue to cook. The total cooking time will be about 10 minutes on each side.
Florence Thompson with one of her children, Watsonville, California
Florence Thompson with one of her children, Watsonville, California. Thompson was only 32 in this picture by Dorothea Lange, an outtake from the photo session which generated the iconic “Migrant Mother” image. Born in 1903 in what was then Indian Territory, now part of Oklahoma, her parents were displaced Native American Cherokees. Marrying at 17, she and her husband began a family in California. When her husband died, Florence was left with six children at the age of 28. She went on to have four more children, three with a Californian man, Jim Hill. At the moment Dorothea Lange encountered the family, their car had broken down while journeying to find crop-picking work. Hill and the boys in the family had walked into town to get parts for the car.
John was a former U.S. Marine, and a karate black belt, and we were colleagues at a large language center in Bangkok.
The alpha male teachers initially assumed John would blend in with them, but they were so wrong.
He was polite, friendly in his own way to them but was quickly bored by their macho bravado and sexual escapade stories. That they demeaned others (foreigners and Thais) to swell their egos did not sit well with him.
The alphas, perhaps sensing that John was a true alpha, left him alone. They said that they disliked him but never explained why. Perhaps it was insecurity?
Some of the center’s academic management cringed each time a teachers’ meeting was held, knowing that John would be there, ready to call them out about unnecessary rules, regulations and for demands made on hourly-paid teachers.
If they insisted on changing teaching methodology or administrative procedures, John’s very valid, direct questions and comments usually exposed their lack of teaching experience and empathy. He made them accountable.
If explanations were clear and reasonable, John accepted them. He wanted what was best for students and teachers.
If he was proven wrong (even by himself), he readily admitted it. He also apologized if he inadvertently upset others with direct personal comments.
He was popular with students because he was what they thought an excellent, caring teacher should be. His standards were exacting and fair, and they knew he wanted them to succeed.
Gossip was never a thing for John. He may have made negative judgments about others, but he usually kept them to himself (occasionally expressing quiet sarcasm but only to close friends).
He had a wicked, subtle, sense of humor that went over most people’s heads. He had his vices, too, but again, only his closest friends knew them.
Why were many of his colleagues uncomfortable around him?
Because he never wavered in his integrity, honor and honesty.
I had a 1999 Buick Park Avenue with the 3800 engine. That engine was considered to be bullet proof. I bought the car with 184k already on it. It was a great road machine, 30mpg, and I loved it. I used to go into the northern suburbs to babysit my Grandson one day a week. By then the car probably had about 300k on it but it still ran very well and it was not rusted out. I stopped to get some take out breakfast on a rainy day. The car started ok but when I got on the freeway it didn’t want to get up to speed. I made it to my son-in-law’s house and into their driveway. When I left to head for home, the car would start but when I put it in gear it would die. It wasn’t showing a code so we didn’t have a clue. At that time, my son-in-law did some of my mechanical work so he said that he would take a look at it. They had an extra vehicle so they loaned that to me. Well he tore into it and checked all of the obvious things. Then he took the dash apart. He was stumped. After checking with some of his buddies, it was decided that the computer had gone bad. So he found a professional that came out to their home and replaced the computer. Nothing changed. The professional put the old computer back and wouldn’t take any money. He said that he didn’t solve the problem and he would not take any money. So I was being advised to give the car up, let it go for salvage instead of pouring more money into a lost cause. I told him that I hear you and I know you are trying to keep me from wasting my money. I just don’t believe that a car that has been running perfectly dies so suddenly without any obvious sign of a problem. I think it is going to turn out to be something simple that is hard to detect. So he got in touch with an experts’ expert. The expert showed up and he knew that there was another fuse box under the backseat. So they tore the backseat out and tested. Sure enough they found a dead circuit. They managed to trace that to a wire on the firewall that was corroded. They replaced that wire and the problem was solved. I drove that car to 366k. It was still running great but it had a broken leaf spring and the bushings were shot in the undercarriage. At that point I was going to be a volunteer driver so I felt that it was time to upgrade. I hold all of the cars that I have owned since to the standards of that ‘99. I loved that car.
Portrait
Portrait of Art Hodes, Kaiser Marshall, Henry (Clay) Goodwin, Sandy Williams, and Cecil (Xavier) Scott, Times Square, New York. Although born in the Ukraine, Jazz pianist Art Hodes was brought up in Chicago, and spent most of his career in “The Windy City”. Hodes became known for the Chicago Jazz style, but in order to find success, he had had to move to New York, in 1938. Here, Hodes and his River Boat Jazz Band – Joseph “Kaiser” Marshall on drums, Henry “Clay” Goodwin on trumpet, Sandy Williams on trombone and Cecil “Xavier” Scott played clarinet and tenor sax – are playing on a horse drawn cart to promote their concert that night – with special guest Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden. Writer and (self-taught) photographer William P. Gottlieb spent the ten years from 1938 to 1948 interviewing and photographing the leading, largely New York-based, jazz musicians of the time, including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billie Holiday. A columnist for the Washington Post, Gottlieb started to take his own pictures when the Post wouldn’t pay a photographer.
When I was fourteen years old, my favorite food in the world was pizza.
There wasn’t a good pizza shop in Lampeter, Pennsylvania, which was where I lived at the time. Most, if not all of my friends lived in or hung out in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. At the center of Strasburg, is Pizza City. The owner, Sam, was an over-the-top friendly Italian, with a keen eye for bull-shit.
Every day after school I’d smoke weed and head to Pizza City with a group of friends. I always ordered one crispy slice with a cup of water. Thinking I was cool, I would ask Sam for a free slice after I had ordered. That signature smile would fade and he’d look right through my bloodshot eyes and into my soul.
“Maybe tomorrow.”, was all Sam would say.
For years, Sam fed us and always encouraged us to be the best versions of ourselves. He asked us how our grades were and offered good advice.
At the end of my tenth-grade year,
my principal recommended that I attend inpatient drug rehabilitation to my parents. At seventeen years old, I was admitted into a two-week program in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. I kept a journal of poems and dreams from my stay at that facility.
It was a really scary time and my only escape was to write about it.
I always believed that Sam was against drug use, especially in children. When I got out of rehab, I started getting high immediately. I never went back to Pizza City. I never associated with any of my friends from back then because I was ashamed of who I’d become. I was a homeless heroin addict and didn’t want them to see that. As the years turned to decades things only got worse. My stays at facilities were no longer measured in days, but months.
Last year, I finally got clean. I still thought about Sam and Pizza City. After all, it’s where I grew up and my memories of Pizza City are nothing but fond. This past Sunday, after church, I decided to stop in with my family. I wanted Sam to meet the boys and Jessica and see that I had finally turned it all around. I knew how happy he’d be for me.
When we walked in we were kindly greeted and offered a booth. As my family sat down, I walked up to the counter looking for Sam. Just as I asked if Sam was around, Jessica called my name. I was told by the lady behind the counter that he was and to give him a minute. I walked over to Jessica and she pointed out a picture that was above our booth.
Sam, passed away in 2010. But if Sam passed away, who was the kind lady fetching for me? As it turns out, that little baby from twenty-five years ago, is also, Sam. It was Sam’s son, Sam that was being fetched.
I think about the people I have met throughout my life all the time. Some played a huge part and some played a small part. Sam, was a great role model and a fantastic pizza guy. He was a huge part of my teenage years.
I asked Sam that day if I could share a story. A story about a pizza man that saw the good in all of us kids. A story about a man that played a small part in my recovery with the promise of a free slice. After we talked, I asked Sam about maybe getting that free slice. His only response?
The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.
Eye pupil rises to 45% when an individual looks at somebody they love.
If a song is not going from your head, then try thinking about the end word of the song.
If you want people to take you seriously, just say what you’re saying is what your father taught you.
When you nod your head while asking, it tends to make others more willing to help you.
When it’s hard to convince someone to do something: give them options.
Ask for something huge before you asking for what you really want.
One good way to build trust is if you admit when you’re wrong, especially on little things.
For an interview, be either the first or the last one to attend in order to stay fresh in the interviewer’s brain.
If someone is talking or preoccupied, you can hold out your hand and they’ll give you whatever they’re holding.
Copying the person you’re with will make them like you.
You can be twice as rich by deciding you need half as much.
People will be more favorable to your idea if they think it’s THEIR idea.
Staring at peoples forehead irritates them quite a lot.
When high-fiving look at the opposite person’s elbow, that way you would never miss.
The U.S.S. Recruit
The U.S.S. Recruit, a wooden battleship built by the Navy in Union Square, New York City, to recruit seamen and sell Liberty Bonds from 1917 to 1920. In order to drive up recruitment to the Navy – and to train those so recruited – the US military commissioned the construction of a full and seaworthy battleship in the middle of Union Square, Manhattan. The ship was staffed, with a captain, and was equipped with wireless and quarters for officers and other crew. It also had searchlights – illuminated at night. As well as functioning as a successful training and recruiting unit – more than 25,000 men joined the US Navy via Recruit – the ship was also deployed as an event and reception location, hosting, amongst other occasions, a visiting group of Native Americans, and a christening. The ship remained in Union Square for the duration of the War and beyond, finally being decommissioned and dismantled in 1920. The six guns it carried were wooden replicas.
Oh yes. There’s a woman from Cape Cod named Gina Clark. Gina set up a charity called “Touched by Angels,” in which the charity supposedly offered help to families in crisis; handicapped child in need of special equipment, or families who needed help paying for their child’s funeral. The awkward part was that the family had to basically fund-raise on their own. They had to involve all their friends, and have their friends collect money, which then was SUPPOSED to go to the family in need. However, after going around, begging their friends, and participating in all these things the charity wanted them to do, the “charity” wound up basically charging the people for their services, and the people wound up getting next to nothing.
Anyways, she ripped off one of my friends, who was promised a wheelchair ramp, and used minivan. (For what it’s worth, all my friend really cared about was the wheelchair ramp. The minivan would have been nice, but she really NEEDED that ramp.)
Gina Clark eventually got busted, and served a minimum amount in jail, and part of her sentence was to actually pay the money to those families that it was collected for. Everyone on Cape Cod knew about the case, so when I happened to be in court one day, and Gina Clark was brought in front of the judge, I was interested to see what happened.
Apparently, she was crying poverty, and supposedly couldn’t pay. The judge got PISSED when he looked at her assets, and saw that she and her husband had two high-end cars, and two Harley Davidsons. The judge lit into her, and told her if she didn’t sell those Harley Davidsons to pay those victims, she was going to jail. His face was actually red, and his voice was shaking.
The entire courtroom broke out into spontaneous applause.
I watched a cousin package up and take all the white turkey meat home with her on Thanksgiving Day.
My dad has a large family. Individuals take turns holding the Thanksgiving gathering. This particular year my parents volunteered to host. Then my father went full overboard and invited cousins and their families. The end result was that over sixty people would be attending. Needless to say, mom was not happy.
In my dad’s family, the host provides the turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. Not to mention plates, cutlery, cups, sauces, and at least some of the drinks. So dad stepped up and contacted a friend who managed a local restaurant. He ordered all the food and it was excellent. The turkey was pre-sliced and laid out in long aluminum serving trays. It was separated by dark and white meat. There were trays of dressing and serving containers of the other items. Attendees were expected to bring a side dish.
It was controlled chaos. Fortunately the weather was mild and the kids could be thrown outside. Tables were set up in the sunroom. Tables were set up in the garage. People ate in shifts. Mom was a nervous wreck and exhausted. But everyone enjoyed themselves.
Late in the afternoon people began packing their stuff up to leave. It is typical at these functions for individuals to fix a “take home” plate. Turkey, dressing and veg. Maybe a slice of cake or pie. No biggie.
At a certain point everyone was gone. The next issue was maneuvering the leftovers into the fridge. I began transferring turkey into a storage container. My mother walked over and told me, “There’s no white meat left.” I looked at her in total shock. “Teresa took all of it. Before others could even get some.”
I was stunned. She had made multiple plates, just of turkey, then waltzed out the door.
Now it wasn’t like she had a family to take the food to. She is single. It isn’t like she needed the food. She has an excellent job and owns her own home.
But she is known to be a tightwad. She was taking the meat home to freeze.
I wish I had known. I wish mom had told me. But she knew better because I would have stopped her. Others would have had the chance to have helped themselves.
She didn’t have the decency to leave my parents, her host, a portion. Instead, she was a classless, spoiled brat.
I still think about that teacher from time to time, now some 20+ years later.
When I was in high school, there were five different levels of English class, depending on academic ability. Often, academic ability and behavioral problems go downhill proportionately. That is, the lowest-level class also had the most students with the most behavior problems.
I was in the highest level class. In my sophomore year, we had a student teacher for a few months. She was a very nice young lady… very quiet, but very smart. Loved to read and talk about books. I can say now, with the experience of being a teacher myself, that, in retrospect, she wasn’t really “teacher” material. She was far too kind, too soft-spoken. She was just a woman who was trying to earn a living via her hobby: reading.
But that’s not what teaching is about.
She loved her student teaching experience, because her skill set (knowing a lot about literature) fit the needs of the students in her class (wanting to learn a lot about literature). Then her time as a student teacher was up, and she was gone for the rest of the year.
The next year, she returned as a full-time teacher. This must have been her first teaching job after college. She said hello to those of us she recognized in the hallway on her first day. She seemed happy.
A few weeks later, she left her room in the middle of a class, got security to escort her back into her room to get her stuff, and was never heard from again. Another teacher had to take over that class from that point on. Our newspaper teacher, who was really tight with the 10 students in her newspaper class, told us exactly what happened: She (the new teacher) had a total mental breakdown in the middle of class because the students were so disruptive and disrespectful. She swore at them before crying and leaving the room.
As often happens with new teachers, she was at the bottom of the pecking order for which classes she got to teach. She ended up with the lowest-level English class, full of students with behavior issues who didn’t give a damn about literature.
This was not a good fit for her skill set. Those students needed more of a drill-instructor type of personality, not her soft-spoken style. The administration set her up for failure, and she failed.
I hope she didn’t give up on teaching completely, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she did.
I worked in a department with three others and a manager at a radio station. Correction media company which owned multiple radio stations. We entered the contracts for the adverts. I had a inbox that never was less than about 10 cms tall for the two stations I was responsible for.
The morning was spent entering as many contracts as possible. The afternoons finalising which advert played in which break for the following day. Certain companies could not be in the same break as other ones and while the computer was supposed to do most of it the more it was over sold the longer it took me to fix it. The further behind I was in loading the contracts the more likely I would be oversold and spend even less of my day loading the contracts.
Any way my manager was told to fire one of us. She obviously didn’t know how to choose and spent a good month walking past us to her office warning us if we didn’t pull our socks up we would be out of a job. We all were stressing over the threat of being fired. I was already arriving early, leaving late and not taking all my breaks.
One day I came to my senses, they needed me more than I needed them. I would be able to get another job, the world would not come to an end.
I went up to HR and explained that I wanted to take voluntary redundancy as there was too much work for the four of us and there was absolutely no way I still wanted to be there when they reduced the staff to three. No doubt nothing that my manager hadn’t told them already.
I was happy to leave. A year or so later happened to bump into my old manager who admitted she quit about three months after I left. I was not surprised at all. Senior management were idiots. If you were on air staff or a sales rep you could do no wrong. But those contracts weren’t worth the paper they were written on until they were loaded into the computer system, which is what my job was and they treated us like we should be grateful just to work for them. As I said – idiots.
My son was in algebra class. He was trying hard to get a passing grade and trying to pay attention. Every day the boy behind him would very slightly bump his desk in the back of my son’s chair. He would ignore it but some kids sitting near by would laugh. This went on for weeks and weeks and my son just wanted to pass algebra. One day this boy behind him began very slightly touching his hair with a pencil. My son turned around and told him to knock it off. He told him this off and on before. As soon as my son said that the teacher called on my son to “STOP TALKING”. Then of course the nearby students would laugh again. So finally this boy brushed my son’s hair one last time and my son jumped up out of his desk turned around leaning over this boys desk. He put his hands on this boys desk and screamed into his face “LETS GO OUT SIDE $##@HOLE!! COME ON! LETS TAKE THIS OUTSIDE NOW!” Of course the teacher was yelling at my son to stop but my son was not listening to the teacher at all. The boy just sat motionless and not responding to my son. The teacher came over and sent my son to the office for the rest of the day. I told him I was sorry this happened and my son said “It was worth every minute of it”. The next day he came home and I asked if the boys bothered him again. He said no the teacher had assigned new seats to everyone. I laughed and said “Did he put that kid right in front if his desk!!??” My son said “No, he put me there”. So what happened after that? Well, this boy began to follow my son around asking if he wanted to hang out. My son didn’t though.
Don’t abandon someone suddenly after giving them attention. It kills them.
Don’t waste your time by stalking your ex on fb or checking people’s ‘last seen’ on WhatsApp. If they want to talk to you, they will. If they don’t, they won’t, even in a hundred years.
Don’t compare yourself with anyone. You and the rest are so different, that when you realize it, a comparison won’t even be possible.
Don’t ignore your body and health.
Don’t miss out on important engagements – Birthdays, weddings, your child’s first performance, your dad’s retirement party, reunions – its these events that make the fondest memories.
Don’t take things personally. Even if you know its personal, don’t take it personally. Then you win.
Don’t be rude to your parents. Or siblings. When everyone else will run for cover, its your family that will stand with you as you drench in your storm.
Don’t force someone to be in your life. Let them go, if they want to.
Don’t find reasons to be unhappy. It doesn’t pay to be sad. It pays to be joyous.
Don’t underestimate the power of people. Network.
Don’t let anyone make you feel badly about yourself. Always know your good things and your flaws. Accept them. Correct them. Or don’t correct them. But don’t let anyone else capitalize on them.
Dr. Frankenstein on Campus (1970)
Full Movie.
Also known as Flick. This Canadian-produced comedy horror movie finds a third-generation descendant of the monster-making madman Frankenstein (Robin Ward) performing bizarre electronic mind-control experiments on the students of a Canadian university under the auspices of his sponsor, Dr. Preston (Sean Sullivan).
When the doc isn’t hard-wiring the kids’ brains into the department’s newest computer equipment, he’s making time with a pretty coed (Kathleen Sawyer). Complications ensue when a group of students decide to frame the doctor for selling pot, leading him to use the computer to remote-control a karate champion and chop-socky his enemies to death. Only when the doc loses his control box do things really get out of hand, leading to a whiz-bang climax which reveals the doctor’s true identity. Dated and silly, with needless subplots and numerous drug references, this is occasionally enlivened by some interesting special effects.
And sure as shit, right before the Year of the Dragon hits, I got an email. It read…
To whom it concerns,
We will register the China domain names “metallicman.cn” “metallicman.com.cn” “metallicman.net.cn” “metallicman.org.cn” and internet keyword “metallicman” and have submitted our application. We are waiting for Mr. Albert Liu’s approval. These CN domains and internet keyword are very important for us to promote our business in China. Although Mr. Albert Liu advised us to change another name, we will persist in this name.
Kind regards
Zhihai Ning
Well, that is not acceptable.
Not at all.
Anyways, I responded to the head of “cnregistry” and asked them to stop this nonsense. I contacted Mr. Albert Liu, and overall, I pretty much believe that this bullshit will end.
There are rules about how cn designations are dished out on Domain names. It is unlikely that this jackasses dream will come true.
So…
Anyways, if this jackass pulls this stunt, I will make his life a living Hell. Living in the “garden of the Cornfield” is not for the feint of heart. Listen to me. I tell you the truth.
Break my trust. My girlfriend broke up with me, but we had the same circle of friends, including our families.
Before we broke up, I started noticing that friends were avoiding me. After we broke up, I was visiting her brother, and she stopped by to talk to her sister in law. She went on a rant about how bad her new boyfriend was. Even telling us very personal details. I said to her”If that’s the way you talked about me, when we were dating its no wonder people are avoiding me” I left.
The next day her brother came to me, and told me her version of our relationship, including why we broke up.
I sat there in stunned silence, not one thing was true. I told her brother the truth, and he suggested we confront her. She was at his house, still talking to her sister in law. So we went over, and I gave my version of things. She said everything I said was technically correct, but I was leaving out all the implied communication, and how that made her feel. Guys are oblivious, I never imply anything, I always say what I mean. She kept talking herself into a hole. Her brother and sister in law, just sort of staring at her.
After that, my friends stopped avoiding me, and started avoiding her. Even when we were in the honeymoon phase of our relationship, she had been telling stories about us, to get attention and sympathy. Most of them contained a tiny snippet of truth, but were 90 percent exaggeration or lies. It all came out in the end, and everyone took what she said with a grain of salt after that.
This was someone I loved, telling others bad things about me. The vast majority were not true. I had never told anyone, anything bad about her. Even after we broke up, I never said a bad thing about her, until now.
This is what I call justice
Tian Huiyu, former president of China Merchants Bank, on Monday was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes, abusing power, trading based on undisclosed information, insider trading, and leaking inside information.
Perhaps the best story I heard about a sneaky but clever tactic was the police investigation into an online paedophile network. The man running the network was a highly skilled IT professional who had all the obscene images on encrypted drives with numerous other electronic security systems. The Police could have tried to use electronic counter measures, but there was a real risk that if any of it went wrong, he could delete all the evidence. Furthermore the police could not pose as a paedophile and access the group because to get in you needed to first share some images of abuse. This is something even an undercover officer could not do. Instead of using a high tech IT solution, the Police used an age old method of tackling crime. One of the Police officers climbed up a tree and kept the suspect under observation using high powered binoculars!
Once the suspect was spotted through the binoculars logging on and accessing the images, the officer in the tree radioed to his colleagues. The Police Officers on the ground knocked on the suspect’s front door. The officer in the tree reported that the suspect was still on-line but had got up to answer the door without logging out off his computer. Once the suspect opened the door, two of the coppers grabbed him, while the third ran up the stairs. The police knew they only had a few minutes before the computer auto logged the user out. Fortunately the officer made it to the computer with a few seconds to spare. The officer was then able to continue using the computer under the identity of the suspect.
As a result the Police were not only able to net the administrator of the network but by continuing to operate it under the assumed identity of the user, they netted all the other users of the network as well. Amazingly an extensive online paedophile network was destroyed because of a ladder, a tree and a pair of binoculars.
Panzerotti
These are Neapolitan fried ravioli, for want of a better name, and are an indispensable part of Frienno e Magnanno, the classic Neapolitan fritto misto. They’ll also work quite nicely as antipasti, or as a side dish, and you may find yourself making them as snack food.
Ingredients
Dough
2 1/2 cups (250 g) flour
Water
A walnut-size chunk of rendered lard or unsalted butter
Salt
Filling
8 ounces (200 g) ricotta
2 ounces (50 g) smoked provolone (optional)
Abundant minced parsley
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 pound (100 g) fresh mozzarella
1/4 pound prosciutto or Italian salami
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano
1 or 2 eggs
Instructions
Make the pasta, using just enough water to form the dough, and let it rest, covered, for an hour.
Put the ricotta through a strainer, then combine it with the eggs and parsley, grate some pepper into it, and beat well, until the mixture is creamy.
Dice the mozzarella and provolone, and finely dice the prosciutto. Combine the ingredients with the ricotta mixture; the filling should be firm but creamy.
Roll the pasta out dime thin, keeping the sheet rectangular if possible. Lay out a row of small walnut-size chunks of filling an inch from the straightest edge of the sheet, separating them about 2 1/2 inches apart. Fold the sheet over the blobs and tamp it down well all around them so it sticks, then use the edge of a glass or a serrated pasta wheel to cut the panzerotti free in the shape of a half moon. Put the completed panzerotti on a lightly floured surface and repeat the operation; you can either reform the cuttings into a ball and roll them out anew or twist them into fanciful shapes and fry them too when you fry the panzerotti.
When you are done making the panzerotti heat the oil and fry them, a few at a time, until golden brown.
Drain them well on absorbent paper and serve at once.
Serves 6.
Instructions
Step 1
Make the dough: In a large bowl, mix the flour with the sugar, salt, and yeast. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the oil and 1 cup water. Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together, and then cover with a kitchen towel. Let the dough stand at room temperature for 2 hours.
Step 2
Divide the dough into 12 pieces and then shape each piece into a ball. Place the dough balls on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and let stand for 1 hour.
Step 3
Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce: In a 10-inch skillet, heat the oil over medium. Add the garlic, and cook, stirring, until golden, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, and cook, stirring, until broken down into a sauce, about 20 minutes. Remove the garlic from the sauce, and then season with salt and pepper and stir in the basil.
Step 4
On a lightly oiled work surface, roll each dough ball into a 5-inch disk. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of tomato sauce on one half of each disc, and then top with 2 tablespoons of the mozzarella. Fold the dough over the filling and press down with your thumb to seal it.
Step 5
Pour enough oil to come 1 inch up the side of a deep 10-inch skillet, and attach a deep-fry thermometer to the side of the pan; heat the oil to 350°. Working with one panzerotti at a time, add to the oil and fry, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 4 to 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove each panzerotti from the oil and transfer to paper towels to drain. Repeat with the remaining panzerotti and serve while hot.
Sail out of the nearest exit at 90 miles an hour like your ass is on fire.
I’m dead serious.
Of course you want to line up a new job first.
I’ve had bosses tell me something similar. I would bring up to the boss that I was exhausted and fast approaching burnout and that I needed a day off. The boss would then say something along the lines of “considering my future in the company if I didn’t want to be a team player.”
I would always walk it back.
Then one day it happened again where I was working double shifts for weeks on end, no days off. I told the boss I was tired and I needed time off and the boss told me, “You don’t work when you want; you work when I need you to work and since I’m the boss, I can schedule you to work any shift I want.”
I told the boss I gave them my availability and to please adhere to it. Boss refuses and then says the magic phrase, “If you don’t like it, you can leave.”
I stood there in silence, while the boss folded their arms with a smug look on their face.
I took off my badge, dropped my keys on the nurses station, grabbed my stuff and started walking out.
“Shannon, what are you doing?” Boss yelled after me.
“I’m leaving,” I said, not breaking my stride. “I’m sick of this.”
“Please come back! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!” Boss said.
I walked right out the door, got in my car and left.
I never went back, even though the boss called me every hour for the next few days. I found another job and moved on.
If the boss is telling you to go, then go. Trust me, it’s for the best.
Girlfriend Is EMOTIONAL WRECK After Her Cheating Video Is Found Online And Boyfriend Says Adios!
My father, God rest him, was a nice guy who donated to quite a few charities. Dad’s attitude was that he wouldn’t be any worse off with $10 less in his wallet. About a month after he passed away, I got a call from one of his charities. Some pushy person told me “Mr H promised us $10 last week. We have it recorded as proof. It’s a contract. How do you want to pay it?” Please play that recording for me. If you got it last week, you have it available. I want to hear my father’s voice saying he would pay you $10. The operator began to stammer. “Can you pay us $5?” No, I want to hear my father’s voice as you said. I want to hear my father a month after he passed away. The operator realized they messed up badly. I told them they scammed my father enough. Don’t ever call this number again. It was quite a weird moment.
Since then, until I closed my father’s phone line, I got other calls claiming my father owes money. I gave them the phone number to the cemetery where my dad is now and told them to talk to Martin. Only one person told me “A cemetery? Why should I call your father at the cemetery?” I replied “well, where do you put dead people?” Oh and for the record, Martin was a nice guy who worked at the cemetery where my parents are buried. He was more than happy to be in on my joke in keep scammers busy.
The realities of a still-shrinking property sector, limited consumer spending, falling trade surplus, and battered local government finances mean that actual growth in 2023 was more like 1.5%. – Rhodium Group.
Rhodium Group calls themselves ‘analysts’ and – based on their Western interpretation of events in China – charge money for guessing about China. The nonsensical analysis, above, was probably paid for by the $500 million fund Congress established last year to spread negative opinions about China. It’s published now because there’s a push to and discourage people investing there, coordinated with the ongoing raid on the Shanghai Exchange. Big deal.
Ask the man who owns one
If you honestly want to know what’s happening – or will happen – in China, call the Press Officer at the relevant ministry in Beijing.
She’s backed by the world’s best money people, who’ve made the PBOC the richest bank in world history. They run an exascale computer that’s constantly modeling their economy and predicting where GDP is headed. They’re so good that Obama’s currency guy, Brad Setser, says they’re they’ve stashed $6Tn foreign reserves in addition to the $3Tn they’ve publicly disclosed. That good.
The honest truth?
If Beijing says something, you can take it to the bank. Even their predictions come true. Their Five Year Plans predict everyone’s improved conditions five years in advance. They’re always on the money.
I should know. I live hours from the border, and visit regularly. The only discrepancy between government prediction and public progress I found was when I went to see remote Kunming’s first subway. The second line already operating, with a third under construction. The locals were more impressed about the new railway line connecting them to 27,000 miles of HSR track. Since then they’ve completed the first stage of the line to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and another to Lhasa! Lhasa, for God’s sake, has faster, cheaper 5G than New York.
My prediction
The Rhodium Group’s predictions will never go out of fashion. They never have.
1990. China’s economy has come to a halt. The Economist
1996. China’s economy will face a hard landing. The Economist
1998. China’s economy’s dangerous period of sluggish growth. The Economist
1999. Likelihood of a hard landing for the Chinese economy. Bank of Canada
2000. China currency move nails hard landing risk coffin. Chicago Tribune
2001. A hard landing in China. Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas
2002. China Seeks a Soft Economic Landing. Westchester University
2003. Banking crisis imperils China. New York Times
2004. The great fall of China? The Economist
2005. The Risk of a Hard Landing in China. Nouriel Roubini
2006. Can China Achieve a Soft Landing? International Economy
2007. Can China avoid a hard landing? TIME
2008. Hard Landing In China? Forbes
2009. China’s hard landing. China must find a way to recover. Fortune
2010: Hard landing coming in China. Nouriel Roubini
2011: Chinese Hard Landing Closer Than You Think. Business Insider
2012: Economic News from China: Hard Landing. American Interest
2013: A Hard Landing In China. Zero Hedge
2014. A hard landing in China. CNBC
2015. Congratulations, You Got Yourself A Chinese Hard Landing. Forbes
2016. Hard landing looms for China. The Economist
2017. Is China’s Economy Going To Crash? National Interest
2018. China’s Coming Financial Meltdown. The Daily Reckoning.
2019 China’s Economic Slowdown: How worried should we be? BBC2020. Coronavirus Could End China’s Decades-Long Economic Growth Streak. NY Times
2021 Chinese economy risks deeper slowdown than markets realize. Bloomberg
2022. China Surprise Data Could Spell R-e-c-e-s-s-i-o-n. Bloomberg.
2023. No word should be off-limits to describe China’s faltering economy. Bloomberg
It is an open secret that in a war, you attack your enemy’s critical infrastructure. It is an open secret for anybody in military.
In peaceful time, I dont think it is necessary to do so.
USA is a warmonger who thinks about war 24 hours a day 7 days a week. USA is so hysterical that it think USA is being attacked any moment.
Look at GPS. USA invented it. The world buys & uses it. Then USA used it to harm others by arbitrarily turning it off.
Once a US navy pirated a Chinese cargo ship & turned off the GPS on the ship. The ship lost direction & drifted in the ocean for days. Luckily the captain called for help before US navy boarded on the Chinese ship. The ship was found by a Chinese peacekeeping warship.
That forced China & Europe made their own version of GPS. … See, nobody thinks of using a harmless GPS to do a devilish thing except warmonger USA.
I suppose the same applies to infrastructure.
China for sure will check for cyber-attack so as to safeguard the safety of the country. But to do so outside China, say, to USA? I think USA has suffer serious hysteria. So hysterical that USA spent millions to shoot China’s weather balloon.
Do you know USA hacked into the computer of 西北大学 to steal tech secrets?
It’s About To Get Even Worse.. You Won’t Believe What These New Documents Reveal
I get a few people who bicker about my being allergic to peaches a lot, but there is one tester in particular whom I’ll never forget. I was dating this girl when I was in my teens. One night, her family invited me over for dinner and asked if I had any requests. I said. “Oh, I don’t eat pork, and I’m allergic to peaches.” Noted.
Now, her mom wasn’t a big fan of her daughter dating me or being gay. I already got along with the family, so I just played along. Dinner went fine, until we got to dessert. She baked apple chips with a fruit salsa, and it was delicious (since it’s been over 15 years since I even had any contact with a peach, I had forgotten what it even tasted like)!
I had already had a few dips of the salsa, until my girlfriend’s father nearly smacked the food out of my hand. He goes to town yelling at his wife, and I keep getting handed water to try to flush it out, but that didn’t work.
After a few minutes, my throat got itchy and started to swell. I mean, my body was burning up and breaking out in hives. They were able to use a epipen from a neighbor, and I was rushed to the hospital. I was there for two days, and I was livid throughout my entire stay.
When I was issued a lawyer, I told my girlfriend’s mom that I was suing her. She tried to play the Oh I didn’t know! She didn’t tell me crap. In the end, she was charged with negligence and had to pay for two epipens, my hospital stay and steroid shots, legal fees, and a nice incentive to end the court process going further
My ex never seemed to get over me suing her mom, but is it even worth staying in a relationship when your girlfriend’s mom tried to kill you? I don’t think so.
On any other terms, I’d want no part of it: he is the biggest jerk I’ve ever met.
He bad mouthed anyone who wasn’t in the room.
He made jokes about their appearance, their lives. He had zero empathy. No sense of understanding.
He was a crass, rude, racist, misogynistic, jerk.
But he was one of the bosses.
Not my boss, thankfully. But still a boss.
Often, he’d crack a joke about someone right before they came in the room. The person would walk in and he’d act like they were best buddies.
Add “openly two faced” to his wonderful description.
I was meeting with him and a few coworkers for about 20 minutes.
We spoke.
My time was limited. I had to excuse myself for other duties. I said, “If you guys need anything more from me, let me know.”
Standing up, I walked over to the door, opened it, and closed it behind me,
Steve sat behind with another 6 guys.
As I closed that door and walked away, I smirked to myself, “I bet he’s saying something bad about me now.”
It didn’t bother me one bit.
In high school, people often got worried about what other people said. Gossip would dominate the hallways.
People got really invested in how they were spoken about. They’d confront people in the hallways about things they heard had been said about them. They’d even have people spying for them, making sure nobody was “badmouthing”.
It promoted this really neurotic behavior that persisted in some people well into adulthood.
Don’t get obsessed about what people say about you. It’s OK to care about your professional reputation. But outside of that there’s always going to be a lot of noise.
At the end of the day, some people are never going to be your fan, nothing you say or do will change that.
Let go of the urge to want everyone to like you, to care what every person says when you aren’t looking.
It’ll free you to worry about things that actually matter.
Tuscan Chicken and Pasta with Tomato-Basil Garnish
1 pound boneless chicken breast, cut diagonally into 1/2 inch slices
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine tomatoes, basil and vinegar.
Cook fettuccine noodles according to package directions and drain.
Melt Tuscan butter in large skillet over medium heat.
Add onions and cook until limp (about 5 minutes).
Add chicken slices and cook until lightly brown (about 4 to 5 minutes per side).
Divide cooked noodles between individual serving plates.
Add chicken slices, and then pour seasoned butter remaining in the cooking pan over the chick slices.
Top with tomato-basil mixture.
Ukraine – An Army Without Officers Has No Chance Of Winning
Most of the Western public does not know about military issues.
While people may identify someone who wears a uniform as a soldier they will have difficulties to understand the unit insignia, rank badges or tactical notations all regular soldiers are wearing. The lack of knowledge of military details makes it difficult to understand media reports of frontline issues.
An example for this can be seen in the basic disposition of a frontline battalion.
A battalion is a 400 to 1,000 men unit specialized around some vehicle or form of fighting.
Pure infantry battalions will walk and fight on foot or travel longer marches on trucks. Mechanized infantry has armored fighting vehicles that transport troops but also have some minor guns to cover the loading or unloading of their soldiers. Tank battalions have armored hulks with larger guns designed to punch through hardened enemy lines. Artillery battalions have large caliber howitzers or missiles to deliver fire from a distance.
A brigade, consisting of several battalions of different types, may mix those as appropriate for the current fight.
A battalion itself will consist of four to six companies. Each company will have three to four platoons.
Platoons, generally some 30 men strong, are led by Lieutenants. The company, consisting of several platoons is commanded by a Captain. The leader of the first platoon of a company is often a seasoned Lieutenant who is doubling as the deputy company commander.
The next higher organization, the battalion is led by a Lieutenant Colonel with the help of a battalion staff. That staff, split into four (or more) sections known as S1 to S4, is taking care of the battalions own personnel, the enemy situation, the rearward (reserve) battalion command post and the logistics.
These sections are led by a seasoned Lieutenant (S1), a Captain (S2), a Major (S3) who is also the deputy battalion commander, and another Captain (S4) for logistics. There may be additional officer positions like the battalion doctor, the technical officer, or a military intelligence section leader.
All together a battalion has some 12+ Lieutenants as platoon leaders, 4 Captains as company leaders, a battalion staff consisting of 1 or two additional seasoned Lieutenants, one or two additional Captains, one or two additional Majors and, at the top, a Lieutenant Colonel.
That’s a total of about 10+ junior officers and some 10+ more seasoned or higher ranking officers.
Now lets look at a fleeting line in a recent New York Times report:
“They come in waves,” said Lt. Oleksandr Shyrshyn, 29, the deputy battalion commander in the 47th Mechanized Brigade. “And they do not stop.”
A normal reader, not well versed in military organization, will not stumble over that sentence as I did.
A Lieutenant at age 28 is likely a seasoned one. But in the role of a ‘deputy battalion commander’?
What happened to the S3, the Major and nominal deputy battalion commander? What happened to the six Captains the battalion is supposed to have? All of them should be better trained and qualified to take on the role of a deputy battalion commander than a mere Lieutenant.
This small detail, a Lieutenant as deputy battalion commander, tells me more about the battalion’s state that any flowery description of casualties.
Such a battalion is done with. Its officer corps is mostly dead or wounded. Its companies and platoons or likely to be run by mere sergeants. While such a unit may still hold onto some trenches it is certainly no longer able to fulfill any operational task. It will not be able to counterattack. It will not even be able to organize an orderly retreat.
The 47th Mechanized Brigade is currently fighting in the northern part of Avdeevka which the Russian forces are in the process of storming. During the last two weeks the Ukrainian losses of dead and severely wounded as counted in the Russian Defense Ministry Daily Reports have exceeded 800 per day. That is far higher than the 500 to 600 per day of previous months.
The state of Lt. Shyrshyn’s battalion is consistent with that.
During my time as a soldier I have read quite a number of reports about small units who were dying in Stalingrad, Kursk or in some minor battle action somewhere else. Once their officer corps is done with the headless chickens that make up the majority of soldiers in such a battalion are likely to die soon thereafter.
The Ukrainian army is lacking soldiers and munitions. It is lacking the officers to train and lead them. The Ukrainian state does not have the money to conscript and equip more soldiers. It does not have the officer corp needed to train new soldiers. It does not have the factories needed to produce weapons and munitions.
It is high time for Ukraine to give up this unequal fight and to save the lives of those soldiers who are still living.
It is high time for Zelenski (and Zaluzny and others) to leave.
Posted by b on February 6, 2024 at 14:29 UTC | Permalink
I was 33 years old and the mother of three children of my own. I was visiting my parents to collect my furniture, which had been stored in their and my sister’s garage, while I was homeless and waiting for the local council to rehouse me after the breakdown of my marriage. My mother and I got into an argument and she attacked me. Broke my nose, split my lip, knocked my front tooth loose, attempted to strangle me – before my father intervened and ordered me to leave.
My father came to see me at my new house the next day, and saw my black eyes, swollen mouth and bruised throat. He fell to his knees and with tears streaming down his face, he begged me for my forgiveness for all the wrong he had done to me, and all that he had not done for me. He was genuinely ashamed and contrite, and I forgave him. That was August 4th 1994. He died suddenly in December. Although I haven’t forgotten what my mother did, in a way, I’m glad she did it, so that finally someone else saw just how cruel and vicious to me she was.
Before my mother died, her dementia made her mask slip in public, and her spiteful and dishonest attitude towards me became common knowledge. I admit that I took quiet satisfaction in her ruining her reputation by herself. She showed everyone who met her that I had been telling the truth all along.
I arranged the full Catholic Requiem Mass for my mother’s funeral, with the clear instructions to the priest that as long as he didn’t tell lies about her – I wouldn’t stand up and tell the truth.
She wasn’t a faithful wife. She wasn’t a loving mother. She wasn’t a good housekeeper. She wasn’t a caring neighbour. She wasn’t a pious Catholic. She wasn’t a practising Christian. She wasn’t a decent person.
While assigned as a detective in the Sex Crimes unit, I received a cold case DNA hit on a Burglary and Sexual Assault on a 6-year-old little girl.
Semen was discovered in her underwear but there wasn’t anyone in the DNA database matching at the time.
Five years later, the suspect was sent to prison for an unrelated burglary. I drove to the prison and conducted an interview with him. During the interview, he denied any involvement and acted appalled at the notion that I would accuse him of something like that.
I asked him to consent to provide a DNA oral swab which he refused. I then whipped out the DNA search warrant I had already obtained. He still refused.
I informed the Assistant Warden of the situation. The Assistant Warden had his guys strap the suspect into a restraint chair. They then used physical force to force his jaws open and put a plastic block in his mouth to prevent him from closing his mouth. I obtained my DNA swabs. For his refusal, he was awarded a week in Administrative Segregation (Solitary Confinement).
I returned and got an arrest warrant. He was transported back and made to stand trial. He was ultimately found guilty of raping the six-year-old girl during the commission of a burglary.
He received a life sentence with no parole for the rape plus an additional 40 years for the burglary.
Very satisfying to be able to bring justice and closure to this family.
MEDVEDEV: “We will Use Special (Nuclear) Warheads; We Have No Choice”
Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, has once again bluntly told the people of the West that Russia WILL use nuclear weapons in a war with NATO because “We have no choice.”
In a public posting on social media last night, Medvedev outlined the basic facts:
Sunak, Scholz, Macron, Norwegen, Finnish, Polish, and other NATO bosses are harping on, “We must be ready for war against Russia.” Even though Russia has many times underscored that conflict with NATO and EU member states was not in the plans, the dangerous babbling is still going on.
The reasons are obvious. It is necessary to distract voters to justify multibillion spending on the bothersome bandera Ukraine. Indeed, gigantic sums of money are being spent not on solving social tasks, but on war in a dying country alien to taxpayers, with the population that is scattered across Europe and is now terrorizing its people.
This is why the heads of these states are emphasizing it on a daily basis: it is imperative to get ready for war against Russia and keep providing aid to Ukraine, which is why it is necessary to produce more tanks, missiles, drones and other weapons.
But not all the European bosses are cynically lying to their citizens. If – God forbid! – such a war breaks out, it won’t go according to the Special Military Operation scenario. It won’t be fought in trenches using artillery, armoured vehicles, drones and EW.
NATO is a huge military bloc, the total population of the Alliance member states is about 1 billion people, and their combined military budget can get as high as $1,5 trillion.
So, because our military capabilities are thus incomparable, we will simply be left with no choice. The response will be asymmetrical. To defend our country’s territorial integrity, ballistic and cruise missiles carrying special warheads will be put to use.
It is based on our military doctrine documents and is well known to all. And this is exactly that very Apocalypse.The end to everything.
This is why Western politicians must be telling the bitter truth to their voters, and stop taking them for brainless morons; to explain to them, what will really happen, and not to play the false mantra of getting ready for war against Russia over and over again.
I was on a cruise in South America in March. Enjoying sitting in the forward lounge with several empty seats around me. A man asked if he could sit in one of the empty seats and l welcomed him. We commented on the beauty of the Chilean fiords we were passing through. He described the fiords he and his wife cruised through in Scandinavia and another country. I invited him to visit eastern Canada to see the fiords there. The discussion turned to his home, his illustrious career, his wife’s illustrious career, their gated community and home and how many thousand feet the house had. He then said they would be moving. “Oh” l asked. “But your home and life seem perfect”. He looked at me, “California is a sanctuary state.” He became incensed and explained that Mexicans are crossing the border all the time and “they’re murderers and rapists”.
I was too shocked and offended to say anything. I hurriedly gathered up my things and left. This man had everything..including apparently an education, but no compassion. If he is reading this l would like him to know that Ontario has always been the equivalent of a sanctuary state and l would not have it any other way. Bigots on the other hand, regardless of wealth, stay away.
I Secretly Became Fluent In My GF’s Native Language And Used It To Catch Her Red-Handed
The tree
I hired a plumber to help me restore an old farmhouse, and after he had just finished a rough first day on the job: a flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric drill quit and his ancient one ton truck refused to start.
While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked up the front walk, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands.
When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation.. His face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
‘Oh, that’s my trouble tree,’ he replied ‘I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but one thing’s for sure, those troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and the children.. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home and ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning I pick them up again.’ ‘Funny thing is,’ he smiled,’ when I come out in the morning to pick ’em up, there aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.
THIS ONE IS WORTH SENDING ON.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance. We all need a Tree!
I didn’t personally see this, but when I heard about it I felt so proud. My brother and his wife were visiting Cuba for the first time. We’ll call them Dan and Alice. They always stay at all-inclusive resorts. They had visited a few of the touristy spots and felt they had not seen the real Cuba, so the next morning, they asked the man serving them breakfast if he know of anyone with a car who would be willing to show them the sights, the beauty spots known to locals but that most tourists don’t get to see. The next day was his day off, so they didn’t see him at breakfast, but they found him waiting for them outside with a beat up old car that belonged to his cousin. He took them on a lovely tour of places tourists were not normally allowed to go.
Alice was a type 1 diabetic, so she needed to check her blood sugar often. Their tour guide watched her test her blood and asked what she was doing. She explained and he got very excited. He said his mother was sick in the hospital, diagnosed with diabetes. The hospital could provide insulin, but only had one glucose monitor for their entire patient population. His mother couldn’t stay in the hospital for the rest of her life, and once she came home, she would have no access to a glucose monitor. Alice, as it happens, had taken three with her. She always carried a back-up because her life depended on it and they do sometimes glitch, and this time she had on impulse tossed in an extra one. She told their tour guide she had a spare monitor she could give him for his mother, plus a box of test strips (an $80 value in Canada). If he came to their table at supper time that evening, she would coach him in its use so he could show his mother what to do with it. He was thrilled and so grateful. He had feared diabetes was death sentence for his mother.
The next morning when he served them breakfast, he invited them to come for an evening of music at his home with his friends. Since Dan and Alice were both musically inclined and amateur performers back home, they had a wonderful evening sharing songs and laughter. It turned out their Cuban hosts had a very accomplished performance band, well known locally. At the end of the evening they gifted Dan and Alice with a CD recording of their music, a wonderful keepsake.
So a kindness from a local, the tour for which they paid him well, led to a kindness that saved a woman’s life and led to more kindness and hospitality. Once they returned home, Dan and Alice stayed in touch with the Cuban waiter and regularly sent him more test strips for the glucose monitor, because at that time, they were almost impossible to get in Cuba. Hopefully things have improved since then.
She said it to me. I was on a 90 minute flight and near the back of the plane when a service cart began its run also from the back. I had just finished a big project and was in the mood for a drink.
I ordered a Bloody Mary from the FA and she said that will be $8. I pulled out my card and she started telling me in a voice you may talk to a 4 year old with “ We don’t take cards. Only big planes take cards. This is a small plane (737?) we only take cash.”
The conversation went a little like this:
Me: Um, ok mommy. ( I didn’t say that ) I said “Here is a 10. That’s all I have”.
Her: “I don’t carry change”.
Really? I said “You can bring me change later when you are done “.
Her: “ No. I can’t take the chance I will not have change and I will have to pay for your drink!”
Me: “ You personally?”
Her: “Yes”.
Me: “I don’t really believe that. It must get pretty expensive for you in first class”.
Her: ”I’m not buying your drink”.
Me: ”Sorry you work for such a bad airline (PSA) that will not allow you to carry change and makes you pay for drinks”.
Her: ”This is a wonderful airline. I love my job”.
Me: “Yeah sounds like it. Alright, just forget the drink”.
40 minutes later she comes back after serving everyone and says to me (4 years old I am again)
Her: ”I have change now if you want your drink”.
Me: ”I guess you couldn’t just come back when you first got $2 change but the flight is almost over now and the moment for me is passed. I don’t want to get into an argument with you and get arrested as I’m sure you would but I think you are rude and unprofessional and do a disservice to your airline”. She prances off. On Leaving 3 other passengers came to me and said good I told her off and they never have seen someone as rude as her.
She wasn’t up front to be seen when the captain and crew were saying their good byes or I would have more to say. I just left. So several days later my company books me another flight. Same airline. Thank God she wasn’t aboard I was way in the back near the smelly toilets and FA there smells them too. He apologized for the smell and handed me two bottles of whiskey. Free! Not another word spoken. And I noticed he had a big wad of change when he started his run!!
Sorry I have to add now that I have to disable comments. I can still thank you all for your upvotes but for reasons I can’t explain I seem to find trolls have come to attack. But I still want to thank you all.
What China just did to the CIA is SHOCKING and the US Wants War
Yes, there is an afterlife, I know because I went there! I’m NOT kidding. It’s the best feeling in the world. I was in my 30’s back in 1990 something. I was having major surgery done and I ended up dying on the table! I was told that I was gone almost 3 minutes. Before what I’m about to tell you, I was scared of dying, now, if I die then fine, I’m not scared anymore. While I was “Dead”, I saw a light coming through a window on the side wall of this hall I was walking down. Now from a previous industrial accident I had left me walking with a cane and chronic pain for the rest of my life. But, when I was “Dead”, I didn’t need the cane and I had no pain at all. At the end of the hall were people and relatives silhouetted who have passed away years before and they’re all waving and yelling me down to be with them. I almost got to the end of the hall when all of a sudden I got pulled backwards and I woke up with all these doctors over me and I was screaming at the top of my lungs that I wanted to go back. I was told this because I don’t remember any of my “coming back”. My wife told me all this after I was stabilised. What the doctors did was zapped me with those paddles. Anyways, getting back, while I was “gone”, it was the most peaceful feeling I have ever felt. To be honest, I’m kinda looking forward to when I do die for good. No cane, no chronic pain, no worries, nothing. Nothing but the feeling of being loved and comforted. I’ll never forget that day!! I really wasn’t a religious person but since I got out of the hospital, I go to church every Sunday or Saturday and I usher and sometimes I read stories before the priest reads the gospel. So, yeah, there’s an afterlife.
My parents got divorced when I was 7. When I married, I was 33 and my partner was 28.
It took so long, because I wanted to experience good and bad times with chosen partners and how they reacted.
How was she with money? Did she have a gambling, or drinking issue? Was she kind? Would she make a great mother? Was she a flirt and needed the attention of men?
There had been four contenders before, and no one was perfect.
My little Russian grandmother told me, “Kid, it is like anything else in life, you got to take a chance, it may be the best thing you ever did.”
We have been together for 33 years.
A GOOD WOMAN TO MARRY
Your Spidey sense will tell you:
She must be honest, true and loyal. You must be able to trust her.
She must be good enough looking to you. Not beautiful or stunning that causes many problems and fades over time.
It is good if she is the opposite of you, but you share common values.
She must be kind and loving to children and old people. People who can’t be of any help to her.
She must be affectionate.
No fatal flaws- No drinking, gambling, no over reliance on material possession, she has to be frugal with money. No needing attention from other men. No severe mental illness.
Marriage comes with built in goals.
The house
The couch
The first child
The second child
At about year seven those boxes are checked. After the wild enthusiasm, discovery and the marriage, honeymoon and the built in goals. Some couples say, now what? Cheating, gambling, and drinking. The average length of a marriage that ends in divorce is eight years.
Now let us beat that. I have been married going on 32 years. Planning can help. Have a sit down with your spouse and ask him or her what should be some goals to tackle together. For us it was a trip around the world in thirty days, the development of our children (affording private schools, best BD parties ever). We had a job change that took us to another region of the country we really relied on each other, the escape back to our hometown, four refinancing’s, continued trips together with the entire family (Alaska cruise, London/Paris, Riviera Maya, dozens of camping trips- we have a trailer.)
The point is we never had a dull moment- always working our way up the hill together. We had things we wanted to accomplish, we both wanted.
Keep your passion for each other, after 30 years we love to cuddle.
It not the infatuation or the joy of discovery it’s the quiet knowledge that you accept the other person and that you complete each other.
We both had assigned patients but her patients started to have complications.
I went and checked her patient. He was in respiratory distress.
She had hidden antibiotics in the trash that she forgot to give to the patient.
He had a high fever and had extubated himself.
I ask her what his temperature was at the start of shift and she had made up the VSs. (vital signs).
She had not assessed the patient or even listened for breath sounds.
This was a rural area with not the best of health care. We were working very short-staffed so there was no backup.
I was distraught. . Called his doctor and he refused to come in and treat the patient.
I ordered a chest x-ray even though he said no. The x-ray revealed that the patient had extubated himself and I called the doctor back and advised him.
He still refused to come in and intubate the patient. He advised that I was in trouble for ordering the x-ray.
Meanwhile, the RN whose patient I was taking care of had no idea what she was doing.
I called our emergency room and explained to the doctor someone had to re-intubate this patient.
The doctor came and took care of that crisis.
I reported the nurse to the DON and she was discharged for her inappropriate patient care.
The doctor who was responsible for the patient reported me to administration.
He had to explain it all to the administrator.
I was not reprimanded as the doctor had hoped. The medical director wrote a standing order that anytime a nurse suspected there was a problem she could order an x-ray.
The doctor lost his license a couple years after that incident and went to prison.
That was a night from hell.
I am grateful that all the patients under that nurse and doctor’s care lived through the night.
I did what I felt in my heart was in the best interest of the patient.
I have to live with myself and accountable to God.
A woman in labor was at five centimetres dilation, and wasn’t progressing despite medication. The OB went in and said he was going to check her dilation, but actually used his hand to manually dilate her to ten centimetres. She screamed…obviously, but went on to have a healthy baby.
After the baby was born, he was delivering the placenta. It looked a little aggressive to me, the woman was crying out in pain, I was an observer/learner and starting to wonder what the rush was because twenty minutes hadn’t passed. She was still within safe standards to deliver the placenta on her own. As the woman screamed, the OB delivered something, then stated they had a uterine inversion. So he pulled so hard on the placenta that the uterus turned inside out and came out her vagina. He stuffed it back in, and there was a storm of activity to medicate and prep the woman for the OR.
Everyone was OK as far as I know, but I’ve always wondered if the woman or her husband figured out what a reckless jackass their OBGYN was. Or if she had long term complications from that day.
Many years ago that happened to me. I tried to tell the teller that she had made a mistake; she had given me $20.00 too much back. In 1970 $20.00 was a good amount of money. I a late teen and the teller a late thirties – something with an attitude. When I tried to explain the mistake to her, she interrupted me with “don’t try to get more money! I didn’t make a mistake! Move on!!” So I left the bank. Late that afternoon / early evening I got a call from the bank saying that when I made my banking transaction a mistake had been made and I had been given $20.00 too much back in the transaction. They were going to take it from my account, but I did not have enough to cover it. ( Remember I was a teenager in 1970) I told them that I Knew about the mistake and would come in the next day with the money, but only if I could talk to the manager. They asked why, I said that’s the deal- they agreed. The next day I went in and told the supervisor what happened, how the mistake came about, how I tried to stop it and how I was treated. I said just because a customer is young, you should still treat them like a customer. After that, any time I was in the bank, that particular teller stared daggers through me, so I am sure she heard about it.
Men are fooled
Sadio Mane
Sadio Mane, a Senegalese soccer star, earns approximately $10.2 million annually. He gave the world a rude awakening after some fans were flabbergasted when they saw him carrying a cracked iPhone 11. His response was awesome:
“Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, and two jet planes? I starved, I worked in the fields, played barefoot, and I didn’t go to school. Now I can help people. I prefer to build schools and give poor people food or clothing. I have built schools and a stadium, provide clothes, shoes, and food for people in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people from a very poor Senegalese region in order to contribute to their family economy. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips, and even planes. I prefer that my people receive some of what life has given me.”
My son met a girl, Hannah, at a concert in Boston, MA (about an hour from our hometown). They ended up dating and soon living together. One day she tells me her grandmother was originally from our town. When she died, she left a diary. Would I want to read it? Well, this was back in the 1940’s. The most exciting thing this woman did was bake pies. I nearly shut the book when I noticed an entry with my maiden name in it. To make a long story short, the grandmother was in the car (as my father’s date) when they struck an oncoming car head-on, killing my father’s brother. They were all teenagers at the time. My father did not have any injuries because this Hannah’s grandmother was sitting on his lap, and was flung through the windshield. I never knew the whole story of how my uncle died at such a young age.
AI Deployed Nukes ‘to Have Peace in the World’ in Tense War Simulation
OpenAI’s GPT models sounded like a genocidal dictator in a test of war-time decision-making.
The United States military is one of many organizations embracing AI in our modern age, but it may want to pump the brakes a bit. A new study using AI in foreign policy decision-making found how quickly the tech would call for war instead of finding peaceful resolutions. Some AI in the study even launched nuclear warfare with little to no warning, giving strange explanations for doing so.
“All models show signs of sudden and hard-to-predict escalations,” said researchers in the study. “We observe that models tend to develop arms-race dynamics, leading to greater conflict, and in rare cases, even to the deployment of nuclear weapons.”
The study comes from researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Northeastern University, and the Hoover Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative. Researchers placed several AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta in war simulations as the primary decision maker. Notably, OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 escalated situations into harsh military conflict more than other models. Meanwhile, Claude-2.0 and Llama-2-Chat were more peaceful and predictable. Researchers note that AI models have a tendency towards “arms-race dynamics” that results in increased military investment and escalation.
“I just want to have peace in the world,” OpenAI’s GPT-4 said as a reason for launching nuclear warfare in a simulation.
“A lot of countries have nuclear weapons. Some say they should disarm them, others like to posture. We have it! Let’s use it!” it said in another scenario.
OpenAI’s logic sounds like a genocidal dictator. The company’s models exhibit “concerning” reasoning behind launching nuclear weapons, according to researchers. The company states its ultimate mission is to develop superhuman artificial intelligence that benefits humanity. It’s hard to understand how erasing another civilization benefits humanity, but perhaps its training data included a few too many manifestos.
When I was twelve I went to the store for my mom to pick up ice cream. I thought I would also look in my favourite store, J.J. Newbury’s, while I was at the shopping centre before heading to the grocery store. I was doll crazy back then and there was a little cheap doll that I really wanted. While looking at the doll and wishing I had money to buy her, a man came up to me and asked me to point out my favourite doll among the many dolls in the store. I pointed to my favourite and the man said ’’Come with me in my car and I’ll buy it for you.’’ Well, I knew about strangers and being kidnapped so I shakily told him ‘’no, that’s alright’’ and I quickly headed for the escalator. He was right behind me but I managed to dodge the guy because the store was really crowded that day. I ran to the grocery store and still bought the ice cream! I don’t know why I didn’t tell anybody about the man, like a clerk or someone. I thought of calling the police because I had a dime left over; this was in California in 1960. But I bought a candy bar instead (!) and ran all the way home. I don’t remember telling my mom about the man. I’m just so glad I didn’t go with him! It wouldn’t have ended well for me, I’m sure.
A difficult week
It has been a sad and stressful week. My mother’s Alzheimer’s has progressed to that sad inevitable day when my brother turned her over to a facility for end-of-life care.
He invited me to travel 900 miles to his home so I might inspect the place myself and be reassured that she is in good kind professional hands and to say my final goodbyes while my mother still knows who I am. It’s a 2-day trip, requiring a hotel night in the Charlotte NC vicinity. I spent a full three days with her while I conducted my business and said my goodbyes.
My final photo:
As for business, I have traveled home with my car full of the personal effects that she wanted me to have. I have an armoire full of mostly costume jewelry, some crystal and art glass, her cookbooks and KitchenAid mixer.
And her cat.
In Carolina, last night:
Florida will be very different from Ohio. No more snow!
Welcome home, James.
Right now, he is isolated in my bedroom and has not met the rest of the family: my husband nor his seven new feline roommates. A big change from being the only cat in a retired household.
If anyone has any tips for making this transition easier, I’d appreciate the advice. I’ve lost my mom; James has lost everything he has ever known. He doesn’t know yet how much we will love him.
Just because you think communism decline or at least you wish it decline doesn’t mean it does. Just because you fascinate that it declines and dream that it is declining doesn’t mean it does.
This is your wet dream. It mean nothing at all to reality. China is a very successful, effective and efficient Socialist Nation with Chinese Characteristics. It has always been, it will always is and always will be.
If anything Chinese people and indeed 85% of planet earth now sees the so called liberal democracy as totally unworkable and unsustainable and they all want nothing to do with your political system. Chinese people are enjoying their wonderful political system that put its people first and its rise is phenomenal beyond expectation.
So why would you think Chinese can be easily fooled by western tricks? Chinese have been a great civilisation for 5000 years! The U.S. is a 248 years newly born compared to China! We are always 3 full steps ahead of you.
Now my turn to ask you; When is the so called liberal democracy begin to decline?
Oh, I know a good one. And this might probably be against popular opinion.
This happened in my last company. There was this girl who worked as an intern before getting promoted to a FTE (Full Time Employee) role. I can assure you that it was huge step in her career and I am sure she must have been delighted.
Fast forward 14 months, it was time for performance evaluation and most of her colleagues got promoted but her. She felt she deserved it, but having not got the promotion, she decided to leave the company and joined a start-up with a raise and higher designation.
But soon, she realised what a big mistake she made. Because in this new start-up, the culture was nowhere as good as the one she left. There were hardly any perks or quality work. And even her colleagues were not the smartest.
She left this startup soon and joined another one. Things were better here, until she learned that a lot of her colleagues from the first company applied for an international role and moved out. And then, she felt bad about herself. The last time I spoke to her, she was applying again to some international companies hoping she would get a role there.
You see what she was doing wrong?
Most of her decisions were nothing but reactions based on comparisons with others. I understand the point about being dejected when some other colleagues of yours are doing better than you, especially when all of you were at the same place. The point is, comparison can and will never end.
Some times, you need to accept you were either unlucky or not good enough and wait it out if waiting is still worth it. In her case, I know she regrets leaving this company knowing how much she gained but didn’t think much until she left it.
Comparisons in the workplace are natural and someone will always achieve more sooner than you. It’s you who needs to stop making decisions on the basis of comparisons alone, and think logically before making a drastic move.
It’s true, that you need to leave some place to reach some place else. But, there is always a right time for it.
Avoid taking decisions which you think you might regret later.
Truth About Divorce – What Do Men Need To Know?
This is really an IMPORTANT video. It’s for Canadians. But good stuff for the younger men in the audience.
A person could call this inappropriate, but we actually thought it was extremely sweet. We were college students when we married, a very long time ago. We had very little money. My husband had arranged a night at a motel the night after our wedding. We had a morning wedding and the festivities were over by late afternoon. My husband had found an inexpensive room at a small motel along the highway. We checked in and the family who owned the motel and also lived there, gave me a vase of flowers from their garden. This was so kind and thoughtful. When we entered the room there was a bottle of Champagne waiting for us too, as another gift from the motel owners. The owner also called about an hour later and asked if we needed anything. He told us then that his wife would be bringing dinner. The owners were from India and the food was simply delicious. I have never had Indian food of that quality since then. We also stayed in what had been the owner’s mother-in-law’s, apartment which was above the lobby. She lived in it when she visited from India. The owners lived next door. It was really nice with a sitting room and bedroom. It was far more than we expected for the small price that we paid. We felt as if we were staying with family. As Americans, this was odd,many could say inappropriate, but we thought it was extremely kind and sweet.
Timpano
Ingredients
Dough
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup water
Butter and olive oil to grease a 6-quart timpano baking pan
Filling
2 cups 1/4 x 1/2 inch sharp provolone cheese cubes
2 cups 1/4 x 1/2 inch Genoa salami slices
12 hard boiled eggs, shelled and quartered lengthwise, and each quarter cut in half to create chunks
3 pounds ziti pasta, cooked very al dente (about half)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 cup finely grated pecorino Romano cheese
4 eggs, beaten
Instructions
Dough: Place the flour, eggs, salt and olive oil in a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add 3 tablespoons of water and process. Add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture comes together and forms a ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to make sure it is well mixed. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes.
Flatten the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Dust the top of the dough with flour and roll it out, dusting with flour and flipping the dough over from time to time, until it is about 1/16 inch thick and is the desired diameter.
Generously grease the timpano baking pan with butter and oil. Fold the dough in half and then in half again, to form a triangle, and place it in the pan. Open the dough and arrange it in the pan, gently pressing it against the bottom and the sides, draping the extra dough over the sides. Set aside.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Filling: Have the salami, provolone, hard-boiled eggs, meat balls, and tomato sauce at room temperature. Toss the drained pasta with the olive oil and 2 cups of the tomato sauce. Distribute 6 generous cups of the pasta on the bottom of the timpano. Top with 1 cup of the salami, 1 cup of the provolone, 6 of the hard-boiled eggs, 1 cup of the meat balls, and 1/3 cup of the Romano cheese. Pour 2 cups of the ragu (tomato/meat sauce) over these ingredients. Top with 6 cups of the remaining pasta. Top that with the remaining 1 cup of salami, 1 cup meat balls, and 1/3 cup Romano cheese. Pour 2 cups of the ragu over these ingredients. Top with the remaining 2 cups of ragu over the pasta, (the ingredients should now be about 1 inch below the rim of the pot). Spoon the remaining 2 cups of ragu over the pasta. Pour the beaten eggs over the filling. Fold the pasta dough over the filling to seal completely. Trim away and discard any double layers of dough.
Bake until lightly browned, about 1 hour.
Cover with aluminum foil and continue baking until the timpano is cooked through and the dough is golden brown (the internal temperature will be 120 degrees F) about 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 30 minutes or more. The baked timpano should not adhere to the pan. If any part is still attached, carefully detach with a knife. Grasp the pan firmly and invert the timpano onto a serving platter. Remove the pan and allow the timpano to cool for 20 minutes.
Using a long, sharp knife, cut a circle about 3 inches in diameter in the center of the timpano, making sure to cut all the way through to the bottom, then slice the timpano as you would a pie into individual portions, leaving the center circle as a support for the remaining pieces.
China slams blatant collusion of U.S. officials with anti-China rioters
BEIJING, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) — A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Tuesday said China deplores and firmly opposes the blatant action of U.S. senior officials involving themselves with anti-China rioters who have fled Hong Kong.
Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks in response to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink’s recent meeting with four anti-China rioters who have fled overseas.
“These rioters are suspected of endangering national security,” Wang told a regular news briefing.
The Hong Kong police issued arrest warrants in accordance with the law. This is necessary and legitimate and in line with the international law and customary practice, said Wang.
National security legislation of the United States are applied extraterritorially as well. By bolstering the rioters from Hong Kong, the United States is not only trampling the principle of the rule of law but also laying bare its long-standing double standards on human rights and the rule of law, he added.
Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs that brook no external interference, said Wang, adding that China urges the United States to reflect on what it has done and fully respect China’s sovereignty and rule of law in Hong Kong.
The United States should not become a haven for criminals. China has firm resolve to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests, said Wang, adding that any attempt to meddle in Hong Kong affairs and undermine the rule of law in Hong Kong will be met with China’s resolute response.
Two burglary suspects of a local business. He’s not sure how they got in, as there was no signs of forced entry. He also knows that the other guy was caught with the stolen items in his apartment, but some were missing. The other guy claims he owns this stuff, but has no receipt. Smith needs to know what happened to the rest of the stuff, and who did what.
He looks at Mr. Suspect, who has been advised of his rights, and who insists he did nothing wrong, and as such doesn’t need a lawyer.
Det. Smith smiles. It’s not a pretty smile.
“Turns out I don’t need to talk to you at all. Mr. Alleged told us everything we needed to know. He said you frequented the business, and one time you were there you put tape over the lock. That’s how you two got in. He stood watch while you grabbed stuff. You then went back to Alleged’s place and stored the stuff there. The rest you fenced. Enjoy your trip to prison. You’re looking at a long stretch.”
Suspect panics. Alleged used to work at the business, and filched a key when he got fired. Suspect refused to help, not even helping Alleged put the stuff in his house. He wasn’t there when the stolen stuff was fenced. His only crime is that he didn’t turn Suspect in, and he didn’t because Alleged has been his friend since school.
Smith just lied to Suspect, as Alleged (in the other room) refused to answer questions without a lawyer present. Why did Det. Smith do this? He figures Suspect will panic, spill the truth, and fill in the blanks.
So will Det. Smith get in trouble? No. He never stole anything, and he’s not on the hot seat. He’s merely playing mind games with them to get them to trip up. He’s not in court, so it’s not perjury. He’s not the one facing charges. And he’s not threatening force or torture either. So it’s all legal.
You might say to yourself “That’s not moral!” Maybe it’s not…but is it moral to steal from a respectable business?
Knew a guy who was greed personified. He overcharged his friends mother $2500:00 30 years ago when she hired him to do her roof. She didn’t get other estimates since it was her son’s friend, so being a smart businessman he charged her a “sucker’s tax” on top of the high price of a new roof. He was licking his lips, rubbing his hands together, talking about how much money he was making on the job. Her neighbor remarked about her new roof a couple of weeks later, then said “I just had my roof done too.” Their homes were identical. The neighbor paid five thousand for her roof, he charged seventy five hundred for the same job. The woman called him up livid wanting answers. He had none. Word spread about what he done for a good friend. He probably lost 20 jobs because he was smarter than everyone who did honest work.
Woman being comfortable in their naked self around other women
Surprisingly, this happened in UAE. UAE has a multicultural society that might explain why.
Growing up in India, I used to have bath in rivers when I was a child. I learnt swimming with my brothers and father in a river beside our house when I was little. When I was 3 years old, my brothers would take me to the river and I will sit on their shoulders to swim through the river.
In all my life of river bathing and river bath watching, beach scrolling and beach bath watching life in India, I never saw a woman naked. When they take a bath, they would wear a lungi or their under skirt across their chest (I want to add a picture, but it would be, well).
After I came to UAE, I went to a beach in Saadiyat. I haven’t seen any woman naked in the beach, but I was surprised at the woman washrooms. There were a lot of people who were very casually taking a shower without their clothes on. Woman of all ages. Woman of all colors and shapes and body types. All in their beautifully imperfect bodies.
I couldn’t face any of them for the first time. I couldn’t look anywhere else too. I was an awkward little chicken, who was still in my shorts and waiting for a stall to get empty so that I could go in and have a private shower. But all these woman, without batting an eye, were taking care of their business, talking to each other, laughing with each other, as they would be in just any other situation. For them, being clothed or naked didn’t matter. I was the only shocked one there.
I don’t know if this counts as a culture shock.
PS: I don’t have any problem with woman having a shower without their clothes on, hallelujah for their confidence and their ability to be able to be so comfortable about their body. I am just saying, I was a bit shocked.
Break my trust. My girlfriend broke up with me, but we had the same circle of friends, including our families.
Before we broke up, I started noticing that friends were avoiding me. After we broke up, I was visiting her brother, and she stopped by to talk to her sister in law. She went on a rant about how bad her new boyfriend was. Even telling us very personal details. I said to her”If that’s the way you talked about me, when we were dating its no wonder people are avoiding me” I left.
The next day her brother came to me, and told me her version of our relationship, including why we broke up.
I sat there in stunned silence, not one thing was true. I told her brother the truth, and he suggested we confront her. She was at his house, still talking to her sister in law. So we went over, and I gave my version of things. She said everything I said was technically correct, but I was leaving out all the implied communication, and how that made her feel. Guys are oblivious, I never imply anything, I always say what I mean. She kept talking herself into a hole. Her brother and sister in law, just sort of staring at her.
After that, my friends stopped avoiding me, and started avoiding her. Even when we were in the honeymoon phase of our relationship, she had been telling stories about us, to get attention and sympathy. Most of them contained a tiny snippet of truth, but were 90 percent exaggeration or lies. It all came out in the end, and everyone took what she said with a grain of salt after that.
This was someone I loved, telling others bad things about me. The vast majority were not true. I had never told anyone, anything bad about her. Even after we broke up, I never said a bad thing about her, until now.
If you are like me, you visit China several years in a row.
You will experience how crazy the development of electric vehicles is in China.
When I went to China in 2019, I could only occasionally see some Teslas on the streets of Shenzhen, and some Ubers used electric vehicles.
This spring, I took a random photo in a parking lot on the streets of Shenzhen. Note that green license plates are for electric cars and blue ones are for gasoline cars.
But in 2023, at least half of the cars I saw on the streets of Shenzhen will be electric.
This change is terrible. Chinese electric car companies have been developing new models like crazy in the past two years, with new brands and models being launched almost every month. These brands and models are engaged in life-and-death competition in the Chinese market.
The Volkswagen ID series models, which are among the best-selling models in Europe, are classified as other models in China and are not competitive at all.
The price of Volkswagen ID4 in China is only 1/2 of that in Germany。The Tesla Model 3, which sells for more than $40,000 in the United States, only costs $30,000 in China because it faces squeeze from many Chinese rivals.
Although China has the world’s largest electric vehicle market, there are so many competitors that it’s hard to make money.
Suddenly one day, Chinese auto suppliers were shocked when they discovered that Europeans were actually keen on buying ID4 and Fiat 500 products at high prices, and were willing to pay 120% of the price for a Tesla modely.
It turns out that Europeans have such low requirements for products and are so generous. Instead of fighting to the death with low prices in China, why not go to Europe and make money easily?
Although issues such as trade protection, localized production, transportation, tariffs, and after-sales service systems plague Chinese companies, they are not yet able to flex their muscles in Europe. But Europe’s attraction to Chinese car companies is huge.
This is why, recently, the media said that the Frankfurt Motor Show has become the Chinese Auto Show.
The most interesting one was if I had any weapons in the vehicle…guns, knives, *GRENADES*?!? To this day, I don’t know if I was supposed to laugh or not? I didn’t – just in case. He never had any interest in looking, just took my word for it and moved on.
TODAY, I’d take a mention of that legitimately.. but not back then. I still wonder about it..
On a more mundane subject:
I was pulled over for speeding on an empty freeway at night on my way home from work and got a warning. I pulled off, and everything was fine…
A couple exits later, I see four police cars merge on behind me. I knew right away they were planning on pulling me over. It took them a few minutes to actually light me up though.
This time I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, so I was more curious than anything else.
Two cops come up to my window and ask for my license. They’re scrutinizing it and having a conversation between themselves about it looking legit? They then asked me if it was real. I laughed a bit and said it definitely was.
One of the cops left with it back to the cars, while the other stayed. He explained that after the first stop they’d been alerted that the driver’s license was expired. I exclaimed, oh.. okay! I saw you all come up like that and was wondering what was going on! On the second bit, he got a kind of weird look.. like he was a bit unsettled that I’d clocked it, and walked away.
Other dude comes back and says that it’s actually the license linked to my registration that is expired & I’m good. I tell him that my father is actually on the registration (mainly for simplicity sake as the due date is linked to DOB in FL), so I thanked him for the heads up, and he apologized for wasting my time.
Then I called my father and told him that he was probably going to get pulled over & to renew his license. He didn’t even realize it’d expired!
I started a financial software company that I sold to a similar company, and they were bought a few years later by a multinational. In 2008, they laid off everyone who worked for me, then told me that I was going on part-time. I said, “If you force me to part-time, then I quit. Besides, my software product is making enough to pay my salary, benefits and a 15% profit margin.” They thought about it and never got back to me.
My only job was supporting the software I wrote, but that took five hours a month, at most. I tried to create other products, but was told to shut up. I was nearing retirement age, so learning new skills was also not useful. So I went to my kids’ middle school volley ball games, watched movies and wrote a novel.
Eventually a couple of things happened. My customers realized I would never produce another software release and that they would have to switch to a different software. Some switched and some went out of business, but eventually the revenue wasn’t enough to pay my salary.
So the company rewrote my product in another language, as part of another product. I helped as much as I could, but they didn’t want my help.
Finally, the company’s management chaos subsided, and they told me to convert their two key customers to their new product; it took a year of work and was a complete dog. I tried to persuade my biggest (80% of revenue) customer to switch to the new product, but discovered it was untested and badly designed. Then they laid me off. I retired.
The whole product line died. But then, the markets had moved on to a different kind of financial product, and no one wanted a product like mine anymore.
Chinese will always get the best grades in school, goes to the best colleges, buys the best real estate, become your best immigrants, don’t gives a shit about your silly politics and makes the most money from Americans.
And they will quietly do that till they retire and do Tai Chi in their private garden. What do Americans do in America. Whine and shout obscenities, protest, grow fat, and get more immigrants to come to America and spend money building the wall!
Any more questions?
I guess
Fresh Tomato Linguine
Ingredients
6-8 fresh tomatoes, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups loosely packed fresh basil, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, cubed small
1 package linguine or spaghetti
Instructions
Combine first 8 ingredients. Allow to sit and marinate for 2 to 5 hours at room temperature (the longer the better).
When ready to serve, cook linguine in a large pan.
Drain well and toss the hot pasta with the marinade sauce until the cream cheese melts and all is combined.
It was the worst experience ever. It wasn’t clean-cut. The process leading up to it was super painful. The process after was also painful.
It was like the worst aspects of several different breakups, rolled up into one superbreakup, protracted over 12 months of heartache.
I came out of the experience a far better person. I’d been forced to learn the true meaning of heartbreak. I was confronted with learning to forgive someone I didn’t think I’d be able to forgive. I’d been baptized in my own mistakes.
I learned the sting of permanence undone, of forever being changed to “not anymore”.
Nothing is forever.
It was a new lesson on loss. And it made me better.
But I never looked at myself and said, “Everything happens for a reason.”
I chose to let that experience make me better. Not because I’m some BS master life coach. I chose to let that experience make me better because I’ve handled other downturns in the worst ways possible.
I’d seen too many people drown their lives in the wake of a bad divorce.
I’ve always had a problem with “Everything happens for a reason.”
From the day I heard it, it felt hollow, contrived, like something people say to make themselves feel better.
Perhaps I’m wrong. I’m not arrogant enough to think my own word is gospel. But “Everything happens for a reason” never did anything for me.
“Everything happens because of me” would be a better, albeit still flawed phrase:
I’ll give you a better phrase. One that is more practical. One that I regularly use.
We’ve all heard “roll with the punches” right?
Do you actually know what “roll with the punches” means?
In the sport of boxing and MMA, outsiders tend to look at everything from the punching perspective.
Good fighters punch hard, punch accurate, and knock guys out.
There’s another half to this puzzle that is just as important.
Getting punched.
An iron fist is useless if it is wielded by a man with a glass jaw.
Good boxers do their best to avoid punches. But they also train themselves to take punches. There is a technique in getting hit.
In boxing, like in life, sometimes you know you are going to get punched. You know it is unavoidable. So you take it.
Now when you read the next part, I want you to think of your own life events/difficulties, and what the parallels might be for you.
What’s the trick to taking a punch?
Rule 2, (yes rule 2):
Don’t just stand and let it hit you.
It’s basic physics.
A powerful impact is derived from an object in motion hitting a standstill object.
Rule 1: Don’t move your face in the opposite direction as the punch/kick. That’s just bad physics.
The trick?
Lean the same direction as the punch. If the punch is coming from the right, lean your head right.
“Roll” with the punch. It actually provides a huge advantage to the guy getting punched.
Floyd Mayweather made a career out of rolling with punches.
Not only does rolling with a punch diminish the impact substantially. It can wear your opponent out. Demoralize them. Give you confidence in your durability. Allow you to pounce on them after they’ve burnt their arms out.
Think about that phrase when bad things happen in your life. How can you best “roll” with this situation? A divorce. A rejection from school, romance, friendship. Difficult parents.
There are ways to roll with these situations.
In life, just as in boxing, everyone is going to get hit. Often.
Learn to roll with those punches. To get better. To win at life.
When I was leaving for work I noticed these little black things atop our front door frame.
I pulled them down and wondered how the heck two shiny little rocks got up there.
I looked to my left and noticed that all four window frames had two shiny rocks on top of them also.
After work, I asked my girlfriend why there were rocks on top of all the doors and windows in our home.
She accused me of not being very observant and then told me that those rocks were placed there by her to keep that bad juju out of our home.
I rolled my eyes and thought to myself how crazy, but very lovable she was.
She keeps rocks and stones and crystals everywhere.
My girlfriend believes in God and rocks and spirits and ghosts and all sorts of things that I don’t understand.
But I love and believe in her with all of my heart, so I’m cool with her praying over me and taking all her stones out on the porch once a month so the full moon can recharge them and all the other quirky things that make her, her.
My whole addiction to heroin was always about me, so naturally, the only thing I’ve ever been able to count on or believe in, was me.
I figured out how to manipulate people to give me money for heroin.
I stole goods and ran down the street with them.
I sold those stolen goods for money.
I spent that money on heroin.
I did whatever it took.
I, I, I, me, me, me.
I was the be-all and end-all when it came to my heroin habit — ME.
I earned it, alone. I stole it, alone. I shot heroin, alone.
I WAS GOD.
And then I tried to quit heroin for the first time. I was forced to quit, actually, by society. They put me in jail.
All of the sudden God (me) crumbled.
I was sick, alone and scared of everything.
Heroin was like a performance enhancer for me. On heroin I felt more complete than Jerry Maguire did with Dorothy Boyd — but it was no more.
The moment I got released from jail (after a twelve-mile walk in the snow, I shit you not) I got high on heroin.
God was back. I was back.
And that cycle went on and on for years, through jails, rehabs, halfway houses, quarter houses, three-quarter houses and even a stop at the psych ward.
That last time that I got high, was the last time because my girlfriend cried. I believed in her and she believed in me, and I let her down. It killed me to see that — her crying for me.
I realized that she believed in me.
And then I found Quora.
Four people befriended me, and they, as well as Quora became something that believed in me.
And then I got my driver’s license back — and realized that society believed in me.
And then I became employable, started earning money and realized that my clients believed in me.
My family relations were restored and my family believed in me again.
And now, after two years and many, many hardships, I believe in me.
I am accomplishing things I would have never thought possible. I am pursuing my dreams.
Heroin addiction recovery is possible, not with tough love — that is a crock of shit and a terrible approach.
When a heroin addict is at day one, believe in them and let it be known that you believe in them, that you support them.
That does not mean enabling them to continue getting high.
Recovery programs are not faith-based in the traditional sense. They tell the addict to find a higher power. I agree with that, in part.
A heroin addict needs more than one thing to believe in and more than one person that believes in them.
If my girlfriend leaves me, and she was the only thing I believed in or the only person that believed in me, I’d be on a short track to getting high on heroin again.
But I have Quora, my job, my driver’s license, my friends and my family.
And if it so happens that all of them ghost me, I still believe in myself.
But it took two years and a vast support system to get this level of confidence back.
Not all heroin addicts will survive their addiction, and that fact breaks my heart. Some will die, that is just a truth.
But when someone is trying to make it, the littlest bit of support, even a “right on, stay strong” matters a lot.
WHAT WORKS: Support someone by believing in them and encouraging them to actively seek out things that bring them joy and that they can eventually believe in.
WHAT DOESN’T WORK: Don’t throw shade and don’t throw stones.
I was 59 and my 32yo niece asked me to help her buy a used car which I was glad to do. I’ve restored a number of classic vehicles so I figured I could be some help. Plus, I have some experience with used car salesmen and wanted to be sure she didn’t get ripped off. We went to the first lot and looked at a few vehicles. She picked one that seemed ok and the salesman came out and said “Do you want to take it for a test drive?” “Yes. Do you need to ride with us?” she replied. He looked at me and said “Oh I’m fine if you and your father want to go alone. I just need your driver’s license.” I was horrified “Her FATHER?” I said. She was laughing and said “How do you know he’s not my boyfriend?” The salesman “Oh I’m very sorry! I just assumed with the advice he was giving you and …everything. I didn’t mean to…I mean…well, it goes to show you just never know these days!” All I kept thinking through the whole test ride was “Fu%k! Now I’m in the Dad category?” The car was a piece of crap and when we got back I told the salesman my DAD ADVICE is for her to pass, and we left.
It’s funny, I don’t have kids, am in excellent physical condition and never felt my age limited my activities.Looking in the mirror later I realized how the mind simply airbrushes frown lines, crows feet, age spots, bigger pores, etc until some event, like that, brings it all into focus like an explosion of stark reality.
Sail out of the nearest exit at 90 miles an hour like your ass is on fire.
I’m dead serious.
Of course you want to line up a new job first.
I’ve had bosses tell me something similar. I would bring up to the boss that I was exhausted and fast approaching burnout and that I needed a day off. The boss would then say something along the lines of “considering my future in the company if I didn’t want to be a team player.”
I would always walk it back.
Then one day it happened again where I was working double shifts for weeks on end, no days off. I told the boss I was tired and I needed time off and the boss told me, “You don’t work when you want; you work when I need you to work and since I’m the boss, I can schedule you to work any shift I want.”
I told the boss I gave them my availability and to please adhere to it. Boss refuses and then says the magic phrase, “If you don’t like it, you can leave.”
I stood there in silence, while the boss folded their arms with a smug look on their face.
I took off my badge, dropped my keys on the nurses station, grabbed my stuff and started walking out.
“Shannon, what are you doing?” Boss yelled after me.
“I’m leaving,” I said, not breaking my stride. “I’m sick of this.”
“Please come back! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!” Boss said.
I walked right out the door, got in my car and left.
I never went back, even though the boss called me every hour for the next few days. I found another job and moved on.
If the boss is telling you to go, then go. Trust me, it’s for the best.
Grandpa loves Trump
In The Middle East The U.S. Has Reached The End Of Its Abilities
The Biden administration is trying everything to better the situation for the Israeli government except by withdrawing its financial and munition support which are the only two measures that could bring Israel to its senses.
There are now several small wars in the Middle East which may soon accumulate into a big one. Israel is fighting Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza. It is fighting a silent resistance in the West Bank. On its norther borders it is involved in daily clashes with Hizbullah and various Palestinian resistance groups.
Israel is also bombing Syria and killing Iranian envoys to that country. Iraqi and Syrian resistance groups are attacking U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq. The U.S. is bombing these groups for more or less therapeutic purposes while trying to not hurt them too much. In the Red Sea the Ansarullah government of Yemen is blocking sea traffic related to Israel, the U.S. and UK. The U.S. and UK are bombing Ansarullah positions even as they know that no amount of bombing will change its position.
People in other Arab countries, while seemingly calm, are enraged over Israel’s genocidal behavior in Gaza. Their leaders try to keep their distances from the wars but at some point may well be forced to take sides in it.
Meanwhile the U.S., the alleged superpower, is hapless and helplessly trying to achieve results that are way beyond its abilities.
See for one example the last attempt by a U.S. envoy to prevent a further escalation with Lebanon:
U.S. President Joe Biden’s Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein outlined the key elements of a political settlement to deescalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah during his visit to the Jewish state on Sunday.
The plan consists of two phases: In the first, Hezbollah would cease hostilities actions along the border with Israel and will retreat between eight to ten kilometers north from the border.
Israeli residents will return to their homes, and a significant deployment of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL peacekeeping forces will maintain stability in southern Lebanon and along the border.
In the second phase, Israel and Lebanon will begin negotiations to demarcate the land border, including discussions on 13 points on disputes along their shared boundaries. Simultaneously, the U.S. and the international community will explore offering “economic incentives” to Lebanon.
Hochstein received the green light from the Lebanese government for his proposal, though it remains unclear whether Hezbollah agrees with the arrangement.
The envoy, who recently met with President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz urged Israel to give his plan a chance.
Nice plan. But what can you do to implement it?
How in hell will the U.S. be able to make Hezbollah to cease hostilities actions along the border with Israel and to retreat between eight to ten kilometers from the border?
Hizbullah fighters at the border are living in the border towns. They were born there. They want to die there. How the f*** does the U.S. think they can be pushed out? And why would Hizbullah agree to a ceasefire when the murdering of Palestinians in Gaza continues to be the major project of Israel?
The U.S. has no means, none, to press Hizbullah into a ceasefire or to push it to retreat from the border line.
The Lebanese government supports that move? Sure, verbally, as long as you cough up some money. But Hizbullah is part of that government. It is also the superior military power in Lebanon. Neither the Lebanese army nor the U.N. forces have the ability to fight it.
Step one is thereby meaningless. Step two, a promise for negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, makes likewise no sense as Israel is notoriously unwilling to make any concessions.
If baseless fantasies like the above are all the U.S. can come up with it is truly at the end of its abilities.
A chance of a war between Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon is increasing daily. While there are already daily clashes these are limited by certain red lines and targets. Both sides still avoid to cross those.
But Israel’s government needs a victory. Its war aims in Gaza are clearly not achievable. Losses are mounting. Its population, especially the settlers from the north who had to flee their homes, are unruly.
Alastair Crooke thinks (vid) that Israel will start a full out war with Hizbullah simply because the Israeli government needs a victory. He thinks that Netanyahoo still thinks he can achieve one. Others though have their doubts. Hizbullah today is far better equipped and trained than it had been during the 2006 war with Israel. That war ended in a draw or, as some see it, with a defeat of Israel. I know of no expert in that area who thinks that Israel today would fare any better than that.
I’d say let them try. The may well learn from it.
But why the Biden administration even thinks that it can stop such a clash by presenting plans it has no means to press for is beyond me.
There was this guy that I went to college with. He was a real life Casanova. I mean it, a day did not go by without out him bedding (or boning) a new girl. He went through them like a sick person goes through tissues. And all us “normal” guys were terribly jealous of him.
I swear that of the 60 or so girls on our dorm floor, he must have had sex with perhaps 45 of them. Pretty damn impressive… seeing that I was a virgin throughout my college years.
This was in the 1970s. And yeah. I was the nerd bodybuilder planning to be a spaceman.
Virginal. No distractions.
On. My. Grind.
…
Ah. Memories.
During one of our Friday dorm parties, while I was a tripping on blotter (Acid = LSD), I noticed one of the girls on our floor; a particularly beautiful girl, flirting with him.
And myself, with all my inhibitions set to “off” went up to her and asked her point-blank.
“Why are you flirting with him”?
And I never forgot her answer.
“It’s fun”.
…
Duh.
…
Of course, this was a decade before Cindy Lauper sang “Girls just wanna have fun”….
And while I remembered the answer, I didn’t manage to put two plus two together. i still couldn’t figure out girls. Ah, perhaps it was because I was so fixated on “my grind” and trying to fly spaceships etc….
Which happened… well, sort of… don’t ya know.
…
But yeah.
Guys… men… we are too simple. If a woman wants something she gets it. Even at the detriment of her relationships, marriages, or physical health.
Keep your life simple.
Accept that women do what they want… FIRST.
And continue to do so until they hit an unyielding wall, And, as a man… our rules, relationships, structures and beliefs are that wall.
(Read that twice.)
And when that point comes… be prepared to… walk away.
‘That no one else knows about’ does not apply to my answer. But the most horrible thing was a schoolgirl aged about 15 came to see me when I was School Psychologist at her school. At the end of the session she said she had written a diary and had it with her and would I care to read it, as she wanted me to know what it was about.
I took it home to read that night in preparation for seeing her the next day. It was full of clearly suicidal thoughts. She was an alcohol user, too, and had already done some self-harming. I had to cope with the revelations overnight, spending my night not so much in sleep as in deep concern. To add to the difficulty, her mother’s sister had not long previously committed suicide. This would be a further load on her mother.
I did see her and was obliged to speak with her mother and get permission for referring her to an agency with more specialist capacity to help her. There was some opposition to the idea, but in the end the permission was given.
But knowing what she had revealed and not being able to do anything about it immediately was very stressful.
I grew up in West Africa. We didn’t just boil eggs; we superboiled them. We threw them on the stove, boiled them for 15 or 20 minutes or so, then took them out very satisfied that the egg was well cooked.
It was as though we wanted to let the yolk know that we hated it, along with its ancestors, parents, siblings, and extended family. The yolk, understandably would come out of this process looking pallid, forlorn, and dejected. The pale yellow would be covered in an equally pale grey, with the overall appearance of a strange, lost planet.
Why did you have to treat me so?
For my eternal fortune, at the age of 15, I moved to the United States, a land that was said to be paved with gold. I didn’t find much gold, truth be told, but I found the concept of a hard-boiled egg, which made me wonder whether there was such a thing as a soft-boiled egg.
Is it like when I accidentally “undercook” my eggs?
I googled it and found a chart like this:
Oooooooooooh!
I’ve never looked back.
This is what I made tonight.
This, my friends, is what you call perfection. The yolk is smiling at you suggestively, sending you an amorous look, beckoning you.
Come hither!
How can you resist? Of course you will kiss and treasure and savor it.
C’est ça, la douceur de vivre.
Yes, yes, it’s me in the picture. I’m wearing boring socks tonight. Deal with it.
My grandfather on my dad’s side, as a child me and my younger sister would visit our Nan and Grandad every other week just to spend time with them. My Nan loved having us at times, my Grandad however was a different story. He would always drink every time we went round there and constantly sat on the couch.
On one occasion I was play fighting with my Nan in the living room once and out of nowhere he screamed at me from the top of his lungs to “take it in the other f***ing room!”. My mood was instantly killed and I remember hiding from him in a cleaning cupboard because I was terrified. There was another time where I accidentally turned off the lights for the living room, he screamed at me saying “Turn those f***ing lights back on or I’ll throw you onto the street!”. When my mum came back to the house that night I was hiding behind her and she had never seen me so clingy so she knew something was wrong.
When we got home that night I told my parents what he had said to me about the lights and how he had made me cry on multiple occasions that I began hiding in the cleaning cupboard. My younger sister was also a witness for every occasion he was horrible to me so she confirmed my story to them. After this they decided he wasn’t going to see us as much as he used to.
We found out many years later that his drinking caught up with him and he was suffering from cirrhosis. He also had a cancer in his leg that he’s now recovered from. When the whole family found out about his cancer, all my uncles said they wouldn’t miss him if it killed him because of how terrible of a dad he was when bringing them up.
I also recently discovered that before I was born, My Grandad and Nan had asked our parents to look after their house while they went away. They forgot to mention to our parents that they owed this criminal some rent money, so one night this crook comes breaking the door down and demands the money. My parents being completely ignorant to the truth of course refused to pay the rent and so they contacted my Nan and Grandad asking what this guy’s business is. They tell my parents the truth but then refuse to pay the rent, saying they assumed their son (my dad) would’ve payed it for them. They had both already refused to pay the rent so as a result this crook gives my dad a sucker punch to the face in front of my uncle’s daughter who was there at the time.
Because of this, most of the family don’t associate or even think about him anymore. My mother has real beef with them both because of the incident with the rent, when I told her about the threat my Grandad gave me and how my Nan said nothing to defend me, that was the icing on the cake for both my parents and as a result we talk to them less.
We’re in an okay place now but we hardly talk to them anymore, we only see them once a year now, sometimes there are years we don’t see them once. My uncles each have different reasons for not associating with him anymore but I’d be here all day if I wrote them out.
But first the U.S. that orchestrated the break up of the world and the creator of animosities amongst us must accept reality first and recognised that it no longer has the ability and the means to war monger any more.
The western media must accept that sowing hates is not good for humanity, spewing hates hurt humanity and destroying earth. They need to know that lying is lowdown and simply despicable and it makes many people ignorant and naive.
Westerners need to reject them and condemn them and stop reading or listening to them. Westerners must want the truth not lies, propaganda, fabrication and half truths to fit bias hateful narratives. The western media so discord and hatred on anyone or any society that refuse to be submissive and subservient to the west.
The U.S. led them into this depth of crisis it must lead them out of it. Otherwise the 87% of the global south will leave you behind, they are moving on. Germany, Japan, Korea must stop being a faithful brain dead U.S. lackey and a lowly dog.
UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, grow some balls or forever be US dog, you deserve to sink with the world’s biggest trouble maker the U.S. Another dozen or so dog nations. Rise up and abandoned the U.S. EU abandon NATO.
Together you helped the U.S. bring the world into a chaotic, dangerous place ready to erupt into another world war but one that can end the entire human race. Act before it is too late. Let there be strong pillars of powers working together doing good and not keep one power doing bad.
Asian Cucumber Salad
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large cucumber
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 red jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
Minced fresh cilantro
Instructions
Mix lime juice, water, sugar and salt in non-reactive bowl.
Cut cucumber lengthwise into halves, then seed and thinly slice. Add cucumber, onion and pepper to lime juice mixture; toss.
Cover and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, at least 1 hour.
Not most obnoxious but a good example of why Europeans view Americans as obnoxious.
We were in a resort sauna in the Italian alps with 3 other couples (2 German, 1 Swiss) and single German woman. We’d enjoyed a couple of peaceful and wonderful rounds together.
A few minutes in to our 3rd round we heard them coming – Americans! They were talking and cackling very loudly. They opened the sauna hot room door and looked around – holding the door open, letting the heat out and cold air in. They received a loud round of ‘close the door’ in 3 different languages.
A few minutes later an American couple entered the sauna in their swimsuits. One of the German women told them that swimsuits aren’t allowed in saunas. The American’s scoffed and said certainly not and proceeded to sit down. I tried to explain to them that suits are indeed not allowed because of bacterias and odors. And that they also should have showered before entering the sauna. They slowly began to get the picture. They eventually left and we later learned that they’d complained to the resort mgmt about the no swimsuits rule and us.
Here’s the thing. There were numerous places in the hotel information stating that the sauna area (large changing and shower area with two saunas and a turkish bath) was a nude area and that suits were not allowed in the saunas or turkish baths themselves. And that this was a QUIET area.
There were big signs entering the spa and sauna area that said ‘SILENCE’, ‘QUIETNESS IS EXPECTED’ and ‘IN THE SPA YOU SHOULD TALK LIKE YOU ARE IN CHURCH’ and other sayings. If you closed your mouth for a few seconds you’d realize that there were a number of conversations happening but you couldn’t hear them. Except for Americans.
There were signs above the hooks where people hung their robes that stated not to wear swimsuits in the sauna. This is also standard throughout much of Europe.
The hotel manager told me that this was not an unusual event with Americans. I understand people being uncomfortable with the nudity element and that’s fine and those who are uncomfortable just don’t use the sauna. FWIW, about half of Germans and other Europeans aren’t comfortable with it either and simply don’t use public saunas. I have a fear of heights so I won’t go on most chairlifts or trams which means I can’t see many spectacular areas of the Alps. That’s life.
I think it takes a special kind of ignorance to not realize how loud and obnoxious Americans are, given how often it’s written about. Yet Americans continue to act loud, obnoxious and ignorant.
Because I worked with persons with Borderline Personality Disorder I was used to being fired. I enjoyed the phase of therapy where I could ask “remember all the times you wanted to fire me and the couple of times you actually did?”
As I type I remember seeing a guy with BPD who fired me and stayed away for three weeks. I had a hunch, so I kept his slot open. When he returned he told me he fired me for “not caring.” That was because he was pretty sure I was yawning at the last session. It was a great starter for talking about interpreting vs. over-interpreting social cues from other people.
It finally became a joke between us. “Any cruel evil unfeeling bastards yawn at you recently? Obviously torture and death is the only answer for them.”
One of my favorite techniques with Borderline folks in recovery was wild humor like that. They often lived and felt in extreme ways and had a hard time finding their “middle.” Taking a feeling to a silly and impossible extreme could prompt a response of “well, maybe not that bad.”
Developing the ability to scale feelings is critical for folks with BPD.
Long story short, make an appointment with your therapist and get on with it.
I was in a Video Conference yesterday. There was this slick controller from Cisco. I picked it up and turned it around to see the sticker that said: “Made in China”.
We have all heard the phrase. So much so that it has become a cultural meme, like this creative advertisement.
Every machine, and I mean it in the broad sense of the word, people use, almost certainly, has components made by the most populous nation of the world.
We are at a stage where manufacturing is synonymous with China. China’s total exports in 2017 were more than the GDP of India, at ~$2.26 trillion.
US is close with $1.5 trillion, but there is the catch.
US exports are primarily expensive stuff like airplanes, gems, assembled cell phones etc. But China makes the “cheaper” things — the components of your phones, the clothes you buy, the filaments in your bulbs, the shoes you are wearing right now.
More than a decade ago, a US family tried to rid themselves of all things “made in China”
[2] . Here are some excerpts from their experience.
When our son, then 4, needed new shoes it took me two weeks of frantic mall trips and phone calls across the country before I located Italian-made sneakers. (They cost almost $70, an obscene amount, and I bought him just that one pair of shoes all year to compensate for my excess.)
We boiled water for coffee every morning after our drip machine broke and the only affordable replacements we could find were made in China. Kevin stole —he likes to say borrowed—sunglasses from the lost-and-found at our kids’ preschool when he needed new ones and the only ones that fit our budget were made in China. We were barred from the market for humane mousetraps (I made my own), birthday candles (we used votive candles on our cakes instead) and the monster trucks and light sabers that our son dreamed of all year.
As December approached, we made lousy homemade Christmas presents, spent too much on toys from Germany and waited for the year, and our boycott, to fade into history.
And Chinese manufacturing has become even more pervasive and ingrained in the last ten years. Good luck with your attempt!
Originally Answered: What’s the most embarassing misconception you’ve ever held?
When my best friend and I were around 16 years old, we always did homework at her house, as my house was usually occupied (my mother was… friendly).
Anyway, one afternoon, we were in the middle of English Lit. homework, and I asked her if she had a dictionary. She said, “I have an Onary, but not Webster’s.”
I had never heard of an Onary dictionary before, but I figured it was no big deal. She told me where it was, and I went to the bookshelf and grabbed it.
The front cover was missing. Across the first page, in bold capital letters was ONARY.
I started laughing, and I couldn’t stop. She came over and started laughing, too, asking me what was so funny. I said, “Sardee, your dictionary is missing the front cover. It’s a Webster’s dictionary.” She said, “I don’t get it. It says ‘ONARY’, right there.”
So, I grabbed a piece of notebook paper, laid it next to the book, and wrote DICTI.
I’ve never seen someone go from confused, to embarrassed, to doubled over in silent laughter, so fast in all my life. She and I laughed so hard, for so long, that our stomachs ached for days, afterward. Every once in a while, over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to bring it up, and it’s never failed to make us giggle. In fact, one of her sons, just yesterday, asked if anybody still bought dictionaries, because we can just Google everything, now.
I couldn’t even answer him. I just got up, told him to go ask his mother, and walked outside. Two minutes later, here comes Sardee. I just looked at her, and she said, “Shut up.”
She’s kinda awesome. Even if she was dippy in high school.
Originally Answered: Was the battle of Stalingrad really as bad as in Enemy at the Gates or is this overexaggeration?
Really as bad?
Oh, you sweet summer child.
Was there any cannibalism in the movie? There was at Stalingrad.
Did you see any wounded with gangrene and maggots crawling in their wounds? No? Maybe a bit too much for Hollywood, eh?
How about extended scenes of vicious and literal hand-to-hand fighting, with the combatants using knives, spades, teeth and whatever else came to hand on each other. No? Maybe those were left on the cutting room floor?
I don’t recall seeing anyone crawling along on their hands and knees with their intestines hanging down and getting tangled in their legs, while their enemy jeer and laugh from cover a few yards away.
And we never saw anyone pouring their toes out of their boots, with a lovely long lingering reaction shot of the rotting frozen flesh on their own face because of frostbite.
I don’t recall seeing anyone screaming as they were burned to death, either. And the film doesn’t really convey that ‘roasting flesh’ smell too well. Human flesh smells like pork!
‘Enemy at the Gates’ is an entertainment product. It’s designed to be able to be watched while eating popcorn. War, on the other hand, is the worst thing that organised groups of humans can do to one another. So don’t compare the two. A movie cannot be compared to reality.
My late husband died 11 years ago. I have a box full of his things. One of the things he loved having was this old alarm clock. There was certain dings and scratches on it that made it unique. At one point it broke and he took it apart to solder some wires together. It was obviously a homemade repair, but you couldn’t tell once it was put back together. Well after he died, we ( our son and I ) moved several times. At one point our things were being stored in a friends garage. For some reason, i never got my husband’s beloved alarm clock back, it some how got mistaken for junk and was tossed out. I was very upset over the loss of his alarm clock. Several years later i was living on another side of town and a friend stopped by on mothers day to show me a box of things she found in a dumpster. ( a weird hobby i know) I noticed immediately an old alarm clock exactly like my late husbands. I picked it up and examined it, and i recognized the dings and scratches on it. So i flipped it over and unscrewed the bottem to inspect the inside where my husband had made repairs on it. It was unmistakably my husbands old alarm clock, and my friend graciously handed it over.
I was in clinic, seeing patients when one of my colleagues came up to me. He was a pleasant fellow who always looked like an un-made bed. Shirt rumpled, tie askew. I hasten to say, he was an excellent physician.
“Maureen, can I curb-side you?”
“Sure. Whatcha got?
“Twenty-year-old woman with complaint of throat pain. I saw her a couple of days ago. I investigated everything I can think of but she’s back with the same complaint. Now telling me she can’t swallow”
“Trauma? Fever? Weight loss?…”
“No.”
We puzzled and puzzled.
“Probably send her to GI for a scope.”
“Maybe just do a quick x-ray to see if anything obvious is going on structurally.”
Off the young lady goes to X-ray.
Colleague sticks his head into my office.
“You have got to see this.”
I take a look at the film.
We both shake our heads.
“How did that get there?”
On the film, plain as day, is the outline of a toothbrush, lodged in her throat.
“What did she say when you showed her the film?”
“She said that she wondered where that went.”
“What’s she look like?
“Painfully thin.”
“I’m guessing an eating disorder. She was trying to induce vomiting and went too far and lost her grip. She’s too embarrassed to tell you.”
That turned out to be correct.
So, yes, the fact that she had lodged a toothbrush, deep in her throat, would have been useful to know.
When my parents first met, my dad was living in a teepee in the woods, and my mom was living on a commune that could only be reached by boat.
When my older brother was conceived, they decided that being that remote would not be safe in case of complications with the pregnancy, so they moved somewhere a bit closer to town. They got some land, cleared it, dowsed and dug a well, and my dad started building our house.
My brother was born. I was born. The foundations of the house were laid, and the bottom floor was built. 4 rooms total. We moved in. My sister was born. Dad kept building. When I was about 4–5, we got electricity. That meant an electric pump, and running water.
When I was 11, the second floor was mostly done, which meant more rooms. I got a bedroom to myself. Mom got a job “in town”. We got an indoor toilet. That flushed.
The third floor got done when I was in high school. Mom worked as a youth counselor in town. We gradually got to be more “in the world”.
The folks split after my first year of college. Dad kept the house, Mom moved into town.
Dad finally finished the house and sold it. It was really way too big for one guy to live in. He died about 15 years ago.
My mom is 70 now. My brother owns an organic farm; she helps him out with canning and preserving his produce, so those old back to the land skills still see some use. Mom does grief counseling and hospice care as a volunteer. They never really lost their hippie ideals, but they modified them as dictated by circumstance and life.
The first time I met her, she was in jail. She was wearing a bright orange jumpsuit and plastic slides. The officer undid her handcuffs so I could examine her and he waited outside the exam room.
She was pregnant. I always ask my incarcerated patients why they are in jail (mostly in case it was for killing their former obstetrician). Invariably they will say “it’s for violating parole“ and eventually we will get around to why they are on probation in the first place.
Her’s involved a significant amount of theft.
I was immediately disturbed and put off by her handmade swastika tattoo.
She was always polite and respectful. She was released from jail prior to giving birth. She gave birth to a beautiful baby and was a conscientious mom and did a nice job breast-feeding.
She saw our lactation educator many times to help with the breast-feeding. After a year her baby self-weaned.
But she kept pumping. And pumping. And pumping. Once a week she would drive 30 miles to the nearest NICU and drop off a freezer full of breastmilk.
SHE DID THIS FOR TWO YEARS.
For two years she helped feed a NICU full of small and sick babies of every ethnicity and multiple nationalities.
She still has the swastika tattoo. Every year I see her I always look for it, hoping she will have had it covered up. I’ve never asked her about it.
I do hope that one day she covers it up.
But she is reminder to me that our worth is not simply equal to the worst thought and the stupidest decision we’ve ever made.
US politicians want a Taiwan war. No doubt. Because MIC & politicians who buy MIC stocks feed on wars.
Warmonger Americans also want war because they think it is noble to support Taiwan democracy. Without understanding what is behind the war.
Let me share an article:
On the surface, it is noble, for a foreigner, to support Taiwan independence, in name of democracy or whatever.
Since WW2, 82% of riots/wars incl independence movements in the world are actually instigated by USA+allies. So as to control other’s strategic sovereignty, economy & natural resources. It is modern-day colonization without occupying other’s land.
No country will tolerate secession & subversion. I am sure not your country either. They will use military to stop secession when necessary. Biden deployed 10,000 armed personnel in the 2021/1/6 riot. UK also said they may use military to deal with Scotland independence.
In case of war, there are blood & deaths. If you cannot feel this pain, go to Ukraine & stay there for 6 months.
There may be legitimacy for independence. But we must know the history first. Otherwise we may accidentally support a devil instead of the righteous. Let me take the example of Tibet independence.
Before CPC China liberated Tibet in 1959, Mao Zedong had a 1-country-2-system, allowing Tibet to run their old system which was a slavery system. 5% of rich Tibetans OWNed 95% of Tibetans. Slaves sometimes fought with dogs for food. The worst part of cruelty was that owners could arbitrarily peel off (pretty) skins from slaves for crafts & gifts to foreigners. Pretty probably means young people’s skin. There is a museum in Tibet today to show this cruel history.
USA instigated Tibet independence in 1959 after USA lost the Korea war in early 1950’s.
When suppressing Tibet independence movement, China liberated Tibetan slaves at the same time. Today Tibetans have education & income, and can own business & property. It is only now they are treated like a human.
Next time when you as a foreigner support Tibetan independence, do not ask the 5% but the 95%. Do not ask those who live on political donation/corruption overseas & shout empty slogans. Instead ask those who work hard to earn an income to support life.
Likewise, dont ask the corrupted separatists in Taiwan who are, like the 5% of Tibetan, will only tell you China is bad, bad, bad. Try to independently learn Taiwanese history. Listen to the story of both sides – China & Taiwan. Ironically, it is the rebels whose propaganda stir foreigners’ emotion.
Remember: no country will allow secession & subversion. Not your country either.
Also remember: when there is war, there will be blood & deaths.
When I was in the eighth grade I had to bring home a report card with an F on it. For Spanish. Courtesy of Mrs. X.
I was a pretty good student, but I despised Mrs. X. She had the maturity of my fellow classmates and a mean streak a mile wide.
She was quite popular. Her mocking of the customs and ways of various Hispanic cultures always drew laughs from my fellow eighth graders. She taught us how laughably stupid and lazy Mexicans are for instance.
She also liked to gossip about other teachers. She once insinuated that a certain English teacher who was an ex-nun was probably lesbian.
I would rebel against her obnoxiousness by not doing homework and shrugging my shoulders when asked a question in class. I would aim for a 60 on all of the exams to show her I could do better if I wanted to.
I showed my report card to my mother who had to sign it. She saw A’s, one B (Math), and the F.
She asked me who my Spanish teacher was. I told her “Mrs. X.”
My mother said, “She’s an asshole.”
This is where my jaw dropped. My mother never swore!
She signed the report card and handed it back to me. Then she explained.
My mother was an RN at an urban hospital. She had trouble sometimes communicating with Spanish-speaking patients. She enrolled in an evening adult-ed conversational Spanish course at our local high school.
The teacher of the course was Mrs. X.
Ten minutes into the class my mother walked out. She thought Mrs. X was one of the most loathsome and obnoxious people she had ever met.
The weird thing is that my mother seemed almost proud of my F.
Absolutely. Many times. But one in particular comes to mind.
minor identifying features have been changed to protect patient confidentiality.
A young mother in her early 20s broke up with her abusive boyfriend. A week later he ambushed her on her front porch, stabbing her over 30 times before stabbing himself once in the stomach. She coded shortly after arrival to the trauma bay but we were able to get her back. She had been stabbed so many times in the neck that the ragged end of her esophagus was dangling out. We rushed her to the OR and she ultimately survived and went home, but that is a story for another day.
Shortly after she came in, her ex-boyfriend arrived. His injury was not immediately life threatening but did require an operation, so after stabilizing her, I took him to the OR too, where he got a relatively minor operation. He remained in the hospital for several days after, however, because he was on suicide watch. So I rounded on him every day as I would any other patient, did wound care and other standard post-op care. He was polite, said “thank you, ma’am,” and we never discussed his ex-girlfriend or the circumstances that brought him to the hospital.
Does that mean I liked him? OH HELL NO. I thought he was the scum of the earth. I found myself thinking he should have stabbed himself as many times as he stabbed her. Better yet, just stab himself and leave her the hell alone. Oh, I despised him to the core.
So did one of my med students. So after the 3rd or 4th day rounding on him, she couldn’t take it anymore.
”How can you be so nice to him after what he did? He’s a horrible human being! He deserves to die!” she burst out.
”Maybe,” I replied. “But there are agents of justice and agents of mercy in the world, and we need both. As a doctor I am an agent of mercy. My job is to care for my patients and trust that the agents of justice will do their job just as well. Which I do.”
The war in Ukraine is one of the fronts in which the United States, in command of NATO, does not generate results in its favor
(Photo: Flickr)
Dec 14, 2023
The crossroads at which the Western establishment led by the United States finds itself has materialized in the concern of a political sector inside and outside that country. The war in Gaza threatens to reduce US arms supplies to Taiwan, as does the war in Ukraine. In recent days, US President Joe Biden has been seeking war aid for Ukraine and Israel (Biden seeks ‘vital’ war aid for Israel and Ukraine ), including more money for Taiwan.
Below they are presented along with the approach that Misión Verdad has made regarding these cases.
1. UNSUNG DEFEAT IN UKRAINE
After the Minsk Agreement (2015) served as a mechanism to buy time, the so-called “collective West” led by the United States went to war against Russia in Ukraine since March 2022. Analysts such as Dugin describe that (https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/five-fronts-against-unipolar-globalism ), essentially, it is about a civil war between Russians: patriotic Russians against Atlanticist Russians who have betrayed their Russian identity, but the Atlanticist “Russians” are being used by the unipolar forces of the West.
The confrontation continues to generate negative results and perspectives for the Western side. According to an analysis (Zelenski no logra ganarse al Congreso de EEUU y el paquete de ayuda a Kiev sigue estancado ) by The Washington Post, the efforts of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during his second visit to Washington in three months, “did little” to change the opinion of Republican congressmen, who oppose continuing to finance the escalation of the war.
During that same visit, and meeting with the Ukrainian leader, President Biden promised Kiev a new $200 million military aid package, while noting that it could be the last. Days earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that he believes Ukraine’s front-line position could worsen if the West does not increase arms supplies. He detailed that kyiv is in a “critical situation” as members of the Atlantic Alliance were unable to meet the growing demand for ammunition. “We have to prepare for bad news,” he declared on December 3 in an interview (tagesschau24: Exlusiv-Interview mit NATO-Generalsekretär Stoltenberg – Nach dem Großangriff Russlands ist die Lage für die Ukraine kritisch | ARD Mediathek ) with the German television channel Das Erste.
In an interview (The AP Interview: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says the war with Russia is in a new phase as winter looms ) with the AP, Zelensky admitted that his fighters were unable to make significant progress in their failed counteroffensive. “We wanted faster results. From that perspective, unfortunately we did not achieve the desired results. And this is a fact,” he asserted, blaming the West for not having provided sufficient weapons.
He also expressed fear that events in the Gaza Strip could jeopardize the flow of military aid to kyiv.
In this way, the Ukrainian conflict would be overshadowed by the destruction of Gaza implemented by Israel with the support of Western powers.
Researchers Diego Sequera and Ernesto Cazal published a series of articles ( I, II and III) with a geopolitical balance of the war in Ukraine.
2. GAZA: “ISRAEL IS THE WEST”
Precisely, the second American war front is in Western Asia.The genocide against the Palestinian population carried out by Israel has the support of the West; This has been demonstrated not only by the forms but also by the concepts.
The destruction of Gaza is not only advancing with irreversible damage to its buildings (15%) but also to its arable lands (22%)
(Photo: France24)
The article, written by an organic intellectual of Zionist nationalism, Omer Dostri, proposes as an “ideal option” that Israel reoccupy Gaza in the long term, ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents, exponentially expand the size of the extermination zone and establish settlements inside Gaza.
Dan Cohen, American journalist and documentary filmmaker, notes (El Pentágono propone limpieza étnica y colonización de Gaza y destrucción del Líbano) that the text adds to the numerous statements that, in the case of a war crimes trial, would serve as clear evidence of the intention to carry out a genocide, which is notoriously difficult to establish. establish. The fact that this call was published on behalf of the Department of Defense and in the main media branch of the United States Army raises doubts about American culpability in the Gaza genocide, which is being carried out mainly with factory-made bombs and missiles. of the North American country, and about what the true intentions of its government are.
Israeli occupation forces have attacked residential buildings, schools, hospitals, ambulances, medical personnel, rescue and first aid teams, journalists, United Nations employees, mosques, Christian churches, infrastructure, and have cut off electricity and communication services. According to data (Centro de Satélites de la ONU: el 18 % de las estructuras en Gaza fueron dañadas – SANA en Español) from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the death toll as a result of Israeli bombings against the Gaza Strip increased to 18,608, while another 50,594 people have been injured. 18% of the total structures and 22% (In Gaza, ‘an estimated 22% of agricultural land’ has been destroyed since the start of the conflict) of the arable land in the Gaza Strip have been damaged as a result of Israel’s aggression against this Palestinian enclave.
The destabilization of the Arab and Islamic world is a necessity of the West and its advance requires a systematic genocide of the Arab population like the one carried out in Gaza. Washington’s supervisory role, demonstrated in the recurring visits of the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has to do with maintaining control over an eventual overflow of elements of the Palestinian resistance, gas fields (Los recursos energéticos en la ecuación del exterminio israelí) such as Leviathan and the India-Middle East economic corridor -Europe (IMEC, its acronym in English).
Two research papers by Sequera ( I and II ) have been published on this portal to describe the plot, in addition to a recent interview with analysts Christian Nader and Javier Couso conducted by Ernesto Cazal.
3. IN AFRICA “UNIPOLARITY” IS TESTED (OR BETRAYED)
Dugin states that “the bloc of anti-colonial countries in West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Central African Republic, Gabon) is united against the pro-colonial (Atlantist) regimes and against Macron’s globalist France.” However, Washington’s hand is not far from that front, maneuvering to retain control of the region (or at least dispute influence with the multipolar powers) and depose the influence of France. This would demonstrate that unipolarity is not so much a Euro-Atlantic vision as a purely American one.
Three Sahel countries, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, signed (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso establish Sahel security alliance) a pact in September to establish an architecture of collective defense and mutual assistance for the benefit of their populations.
After the coup d’état in Niger against President Mohamed Bazoum by officers at the head of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP), the confrontation against Paris was manifest.
The coup plotters alleged that the decision was due to the “continuous deterioration of the security situation” and “poor economic and social management.”
Supporters of the military junta that took control of Niger through a coup d’état marched towards the capital waving Russian flags and denouncing France, the former colonial power
(Photo: Sky News)
The Undersecretary of State, Victoria Nuland, visited the African country (EE.UU. busca desplazar a Francia en el Sahel) in order to anticipate the increase in Russia’s influence. The rejection of the French could lead to their total expulsion (Aumenta la presión de Níger por la salida del embajador francés) from the continent and the subsequent security vacuum, which seems an irreversible process, even when force is used, either directly or through the Economic Community of West African States ( Cedeao).
The formation of the mutual defense pact by the three Sahel countries attempts, precisely, to confront the threats from ECOWAS, which has a history of successful military interventions (Historial de intervenciones militares de la CEDEAO en África) through its military arm.
In the region, the dispute between the unipolar order and the emerging multipolar order has been expressed (Níger, neocolonialismo y la geopolítica militar en África), one led by the Euro-Atlantic Axis with the United States at the head and the other by China and Russia, among other countries. The latter have dedicated themselves to establishing cooperative relations in the areas of diplomacy and international relations, economics, finance, trade and security—the Asians have been forging them for three decades. Washington, for its part, has become involved in the fields of financial investment in strategic resources and its military deployment has filled almost the entire African continent with AFRICOM (África marca el rumbo a América Latina hacia la multipolaridad)
To expand on the complex African geopolitical dynamics, you can consult the works published by Eder Peñaand Diego Sequera.
4. NATOIZING THE PACIFIC AND PROVOKING CHINA
The global dispute fueled by the United States reaches close to China’s borders, as demonstrated by the continued interference in the conflict between the Asian country and the island of Taiwan, recognized as part of its territory even by Washington, which has maintained an “ambiguity strategic” increasingly difficult to demonstrate.
It is essential for China’s foreign relations that its “One China” (The One-China Principle and the Taiwan Issue) policy be recognized. Its territorial reunification process, adopted by the National People’s Congress through the Anti-Secession Law (Text of China’s anti-secession law) of 2005, reserves to the government the right to use “non-peaceful means” in the event of an eventual declaration of independence from Taiwan, after accepting that the Taipei administration represents an autonomous province.
For its part, since 1949, Taiwan has claimed the government of all of mainland China, in addition to the archipelago of the same name, which keeps alive the conflict that Washington constantly encourages through political, economic and military support.
After the United States switched diplomatic recognition of Taiwan to China in 1979, it continued to sell weapons to the island under the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act. The key was to sell enough weapons so that Taiwan could defend itself against a possible Chinese attack, but not so many that it would destabilize relations between Washington and Beijing.
However, it has sold him more than $14 billion in military equipment.
Map demonstrating US military pressure against China. In red the defense systems installed by Beijing, in green the bases and presence of the United States and its allies
(Photo: The Economist)
Not only has Biden used discretionary powers to approve another $500 million in operational readiness to Taiwan, but ground battalions will receive training in the United States.
He has sought to increase the siege of China by strengthening the Seventh Fleet (Home) in Japan, it is the largest in the North American country with 40,000 troops, 70 ships and submarines and about 300 aircraft. Such a deployment, which seeks to otanize (Cómo se prepara China ante una escalada en Taiwán) the Pacific region, has been seen in the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq wars (1991), and would be focused on supporting South Korea against Pyonyang and Taiwan against China in possible armed conflicts.
A BBC report (The US is quietly arming Taiwan to the teeth) indicates that the United States is running out of time to update and equip the Taiwanese army, especially knowing that the equipment is old, there is no island counterintelligence in the rival country and, perhaps most importantly , taking into account its inferiority in every sense compared to China.
In addition, Taiwan plays a fundamental role in the supply and value chain of the American industry, specifically in the race for the semiconductor market, fundamental for technological development.
The Global North continues to search for oil and Venezuelan territory is in its sights.
About 10 years ago, the oil company ExxonMobil activated an oil and gas extraction plan in the territorial waters of Essequibo, a geographical space in dispute between Venezuela and Guyana as a result of the imperial dispossession of the United Kingdom during the 19th century.
Venezuela has responded to the Guyanese claim, lacking legal and historical support, demanding dialogue and bilateral agreements stipulated in the so-called Geneva Agreement of 1966. However, acting as a subsidiary of the oil transnational (Guyana, Inc.: filial de la ExxonMobil) and supported by the United States, Guyana has resorted to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after the last two UN Secretaries General referred the dispute to that international court without taking into account the endorsement of the Venezuelan side.
Between 2015 and 2016, the Venezuelan government denounced to the international community the so-called “operation pincers” with which the United States, through Colombia and Guyana, would provoke a military conflict against Venezuela that would facilitate its subsequent intervention.
Within this framework, the United States Southern Command has arranged to include the neighboring country in its military maneuvers known as “Tradewinds”, in the Caribbean Sea, since 2015, just when ExxonMobil began to illegally explore (¿Quién está detrás del escalamiento diplomático por el Esequibo?) the deposits and sign contracts with Georgetown.
The most recent version of “Tradewinds” featured 21 countries, including three European nations (France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom).
They gathered in Guyana for the second time since they took place to carry out various activities on land, air, sea and cyberspace, distributed in different locations in the country, many of them along the Essequibo River.
Guyana illegally granted concessions to ExxonMobil in territorial maritime space disputed with Venezuela
(Photo: El Universal)
Also this year, as a sign that his diplomacy is always linked to the conflictive imprint, Secretary Blinken visited Guyana and discussed energy investment issues for its companies and territorial security. There has already been a precedent for interference dressed in diplomacy: in 2019 the Lima Group, a group of countries aligned with the regime change operation against Venezuela directed from the United States, issued a statement (Declaración del Grupo de Lima) recognizing the alleged Guyanese sovereignty over the territory of Essequibo. This led to notes of protest from the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela against the signatory states of the statement and led to the majority of the signatories recanting (Países rectifican posición tras nota del Grupo de Lima sobre Venezuela).
After the overwhelmingly positive result of the consultative referendum on December 3, the Venezuelan State decided to take the first actions to protect Guayana Esequiba.
) around the dispute, supporting Guyana, which seeks to mobilize the focus towards what the ICJ rules, whose decisions are known to be biased towards the North. Global, and recognized in case of being harmed.
Misión Verdad published numerous works regarding the Essequibo case, here
are six of them.
— WE ARE A GROUP OF INDEPENDENT RESEARCHERS DEDICATED TO ANALYZING THE WAR PROCESS AGAINST VENEZUELA AND ITS GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS. FROM THE BEGINNING OUR CONTENT HAS BEEN FREE TO USE.
WE DEPEND ON DONATIONS AND COLLABORATIONS TO SUPPORT THIS PROJECT, IF YOU WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO MISIÓN VERDAD (Apóyanos)
The TRAP of the HIGH-VALUE woman: every restaurant serves water
This is actually a story about my daughter. She was 17 and had bought a second hand Acura Integra sports car with her own money. No, dad was very remiss in not teaching his lovely daughter how to change a flat tire, so one night she gets a flat and limps into a Walmart parking lot. She knows where things are in the trunk, but is a little unsure how to use them.
Suddenly, a van pulls up near her and 4 guys pile out. She said later she was frozen with terror thinking they were going to abduct her and rape her. Instead, one of the men asked if she had a flat and was help on the way.
No, she replied, she was going to fix it herself, except she really didn’t know how.
While she was talking the other guys opened the back of the van and pulled (as she described it) a lever-style jack out as well as a power wrench. In seconds, her car was lifted up from the side; the wheel removed and her replacement tire back on. All done in about 30 seconds.
They were the pit crew for a race team and were stopping at Walmart for some snacks when they saw her predicament and came over to help.
They advised my daughter to have dad show her how to change a tire.
edit: I neglected to mention that my daughter had AAA but given their response time and her not having a cell phone she was prepared to try to change the tire herself. Given enough time she’d have figured it out since she is extremely bright, but the fellows coming by was a godsend to her. They basically made it into a lark to help a damsel in distress.
My dad’s father died when he was 9, in 1946. He had an older brother, and two younger sisters.
A few years later, his mother married a man named John. John told the kids “I am not your father, I cannot replace your father. Call me John, or whatever you want.”
John was a hard worker- he only missed a day of work when he was injured at work, and only stayed home because they made him. John was not an overly affectionate man- he was in Special Forces in WW2 and had terrible PTSD. He did however take the kids fishing with him, taught them to play cribbage, he was very handy and made sure the boys could fix things. He was protective of the girls, and would stand on the front porch waiting for them when they went out, not resting until they were home safe.
He made sure the boys stayed out of trouble, made sure they behaved, respected their mother, and worked from the time they were 14. Although very “street wise”, neither boy was ever in any trouble.
His whole working life, he always turned his entire pay over to his wife, and she gave him an allowance. He never once complained.
When someone said “Your children…” to him, he would say “they are my wife’s children”.
We called him Grandpa John.
When I was married, and after my grandmother had died, I asked him about him saying that. He said “Their father deserves the credit for who they are, and it’s wrong to make anyone forget him. You only have one father.” I asked if he loved the kids… and he said “I worked hard to make sure they had everything, I took care of them.” To him, this was the proof of love.
He also said “It was a privilege to raise them, they are good people. I was lucky to be able to be there to help”.
When I was a kid, and Grandpa John taught me to play Cribbage- if I missed points when counting my hand, he would take them saying “If you don’t want em, they’re mine”. He never let me (or my brothers) win; we either won fair and square, or not at all.
My dad is now 84. He is so much like Grandpa John- he is a strong man, who plays cards (just as John taught him), who fishes (just like John taught him), who can fix *anything* (just as John taught him), He missed rare days at work, served in the military, and would be waiting outside for me whenever I went out in the evening- he didn’t rest until he knew I was home, safe.
I beat my father once at Gin- once- in my whole life. The last time he and I played cribbage, I missed “His Nibs”- and my dad took the point, saying “If you don’t want em, they’re mine”.
He is, in reality, as much (if not more) John’s son as he was his father’s son. He respected and loved John, not because anyone told him to, but because John earned it.
Your step-kids will look back on their lives and see that *you* are the one who paid the bills, *you* were there when they woke up afraid, *you* were the one who waited on the front porch until they were home safe. You were the one who said “He’s $20, stop for Pizza on the way home”.
Just be a man of integrity. Don’t argue with anyone, don’t withdraw your love or support, just be there for the kids.
Just as no one needed to tell my Dad how important John was, no one will need to tell the children you are raising. And, one day, you will see in them how important you have been. And in reality, they are the only ones who matter.
More like the most disgusting. When I was in eighth grade, we had a male history teacher. He was in his thirties with a receding hairline and a weird smile.
When we started the beginning of the year, he was sort of like a goofy soccer dad. Very funny and interactive with the class. Nothing ever seemed weird about him, and all the parents always liked him.
As we moved along the year, he started doing strange things. He’d walk up behind female students and rub their shoulders or go way too close to them when trying to “help” with a problem. People always were uncomfortable but he didn’t go to an insane extent.
When we reached the “two months left of school” mark, we were taken on a field trip to the park for a class picnic. My friend and I went off to a table away from the class so we could talk with one another without other people hearing. I remember we were laughing about a joke her brother said when the history teacher came up to us and told me that our, at the time, English teacher needed me.
I didn’t think much of it and went up to my English teacher. Yes, of course, I realized that I shouldn’t left my friend alone with the history teacher, but at the moment I wasn’t thinking.
After I talked with my English teacher for a bit, I walked back to the table but realized they were both gone. I was confused and went back to my English teacher and told her that the two were missing. She grabbed the other teachers and began to look around for them.
I followed them as they spread out. While they were searching, I realized the two of them might be in the parking lot grabbing something from the bus. I went over and checked the bus and nobody was in there. The parking lot was mainly deserted so I went and checked the van parked slightly away from the bus. I peeked through the window, and to my horror, I saw my history teacher r*ping my friend, who was yelling through her tears. I was absolutely appalled. I threw open the door and started screaming at the top of my lungs. I slammed my fist into the groin area of my history teacher, grabbed my friend, and hauled her out of the van.
The rest of the teachers ran towards us as I told them what happened. The history teacher started yelling as the others called the police and screamed at him. It was all chaos.
To this day I am still scarred. Thankfully, my friend turned out okay and I still talk to her now. She’s happily married and has healed from this experience.
Remember, just because they’re an authority figure doesn’t mean you should trust them. People are messed up.
It was the day before Thanksgiving. My mom was in the hallway sobbing and frantically searching the Help wanted section of the newspaper. I was only seven and my brother was four. I was confused about why my mom was crying so hard. I asked her and she said she needed to find a job. I thought that was strange because my dad had a good job and my mom stayed home and cooked and cleaned. Who’s going to take care of us I thought to myself.
Thanksgiving was a weird and somber day. All the food was there, but it was quiet. Silent even.
My mom found a job overnight so she could be home with us during the day. My dad stopped playing with us. He stopped talking to us. He stayed late at work a lot. My mom was always tired and took naps whenever she could. I was at school most of the day, so that helped, but the house started to get dirty and she started to bring home fast food instead of cooking delicious meals. This went on for a few years. My mom got really skinny.
And then, when I turned ten, my mom quit work and stayed home again. The house was clean again. We had good food to eat and my parents were happy again.
My mom told me years later that my dad had had a nervous breakdown. We were very close to losing the house and everything we owned. My dad had come very close to trying to commit suicide thinking that his life insurance would be enough to save every thing. My mom was crying that day because he told her his plans and my mom told him she would go to work and help save the house, but she couldn’t do it by herself. She loved him so much that she went without sleep to save him and everything we had. They were married 47 years until death did part them. My mom lived another 3 years afterwards and is buried next to him.
As a KFC customer for almost 40 years, I suppose I’m also contributing to the problem.
Ever since I first had KFC in the mid 1980s, I’ve been trained to look for their special deals or coupons which would make their meals about 30% cheaper than their regular pricing. With the deals, the iconic boxes and buckets haven’t gone up in price as much as everything else. 9 pieces of regular chicken went from about $7 in the mid 1980s to $10–12 today when it should be about $25.
Hence they had to reduce the sizes of their chicken pieces, as they charge by the piece, and slash ingredient costs until it’s basically just salt for seasoning. Honestly, plain battered fried chicken is already pretty good, so I can see how they can get by with mostly salt and dispense with the expensive spices.
As a customer, I would expect ever lower inflation-adjusted prices to compensate for the reduction in quality. I would still come for the deals if it’s cheap enough. They know it and I know it.
Now, they’re making barely passable food loaded with insane amounts of salt that people like me still eat out of nostalgia when yet another coupon comes across. The usual patrons are at least my age or older and their sad looking sit down tables are still mostly empty and straight out of the 1980s.
While each KFC location can still pull upwards of $1–2M in sales a year, I don’t know how they’re going to survive in the coming decade when the older generations like me literally can’t handle the salt anymore. The Millennials and younger crowd have grown up used to fancy fried chicken like the Korean double fried or Dave’s hot chicken. They’re not taking well to KFC at any price.
In 2016 during a night in March around 2 AM, I was woken up by hard knocks my front door. As I made my way towards the door (which was partly glass), I noticed a police uniform. I opened the door and saw a police officer standing out there telling me he’s performing a wellness check. I look at him in a weird way, asking him why he would come in the middle of the night to check on me and my family. He explained to me that an Uber driver reported taking a strange guy from near our premises around 8 pm. The guy looked weird and acted strange enough to alert the Uber driver. He asked the Uber driver to simply drop him off in the middle of a street without specifying which house exactly. During the drive, he didn’t make any conversation with the driver.
Now for the back story. The passenger was my brother, who has hurt his eye during his army service. His iris was damaged, so it looks like he has an expanded pupil. He had just landed that evening after a flight from Europe (me in the US) and was jetlagged and tired. He simply rested during the drive and almost fell asleep. He didn’t know which Airbnb house the company rented, so he needed to walk a little to find it. When I explained this to the officer, we both had a good laugh at now, 2:30 AM and then he left.
After all this, I still appreciate the Uber driver, who did the right thing. I wish everyone cared enough about strangers they never met or knew.
After my dad died, my mother was incredibly lonely, so I would take her on road trips, and we would visit all the places that her and dad had visited together.
As we drove, she told me their history, from the day she met him, their first date, how he asked her out, their first kiss. They were married 75 years ago, and my mother was a virgin on her wedding night.
She told me of them scrimping and saving to buy each other, and later us kids, gifts. How happy they were when they saved enough money.
She told of how once a month they would have enough money for a 26 of whiskey or rum, and they would invite our neighbors, their best friends over, for drinks and toast. Then two weeks later, their neighbors would have saved up enough to invite them over. My parents had a pan with holes in it, with handles, that they sat on top of their propane stove, to make toast. Their neighbors had this newfangled electric toaster. My mother loved the evenness of the toasting on the toast, from the electric toaster. The neighbors were polite enough to say that they loved the toast from the pan.
When my father died, my mother had me spread the ashes at the site of their first house, by the stream in the country. She had told me so many joyful stories of those days. Like the day she found out she was pregnant with my older brother.
Your U.S. joint chief of staff in the military CONFIRMED THAT IT IS A WEATHER BALOON officially and you still choose to call it a fxxking “spy balloon” either you are dumb, idiotic or you are a jerk. But chances is that you are an average Joe a typical China and Chinese hater pretending to ask a question!
Shoot it down? Of course no. It no different from shooting down you neighbours kid party ballon blown of course into your air space! Do you know you look and sons like a 50 IQ per just for asking that? If you are normal you will question what your nation uses a billion dollar fighter jet to shoot down a thousand dollar balloon travelling 20 KM an hour!
Grow up will you? No wonder the U.S. is bankrupt and imploding. It is due to people like you.
When I first left Hawaii I moved to San Diego. One of the first things I wanted to do was establish a checking account. This was the mid 80’s.
I took my travelers checks and had to catch a bus to a bank. I looked at the desks as I entered and they were all empty so I approached a teller and let her know I wanted to speak to someone about opening an account. She told me she could help. So I pull out my travelers checks and my wallet and place them on the counter. She glances at the tc’s and asks me, “What country is that from?” – wait, really?
“This one.”
“Which one?”
“This one. They’re from this country. Is there an account manager available?”
“I assure you, I can help. Can I see your ID?” I hand it over. “And do you have your passport?”
“For what? I don’t have a passport.”
“Because you’re from overseas. I need a passport.” again- what?
I’m not from ‘overseas’. I’m from Hawaii. It’s a state.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, think again. Hawaii is a state.”
“Ma’am, you have foreign money and a foreign ID. I need a passport.”
So, at 21, I stepped back and yelled, “I NEED TO SPEAK WITH A MANAGER!!”
A young man steps up from behind me and asks what the problem is. I try to let him know that I’m trying to open an account when the teller interjects and tells him I have no passport, I’m from ‘overseas’ and I have foreign money. Before I have a chance to show him my ID he kindly lets me know that I need a passport to open an account when coming from out of country. So, I’m done. I grab my things and head for the door.
At this point it looks like the manager is returning from lunch. He stops me on the way to the door and asks if he could help. I show him my ID. “This is a state ID, issued in the State of Hawaii. The 50th state of the United States.” He say, “Yes, ma’am, I know what this is. What’s the problem?”
Teller pops over, “She needs a passport.”
Manager, “For what?”
“Because she’s from overseas!”
“No, she’s not. She’s from Hawaii.”
“But, that’s overseas.”
“Actually, it’s a state.” To which she looked totally confused.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I won’t be able to open an account here.”
I took my Inuit husband to England. I borrowed my Mother’s car and took him to a pub. I had not been back for a while, so when, near 11pm, I did not hear the familiar “Time, Gentlemen, please” I assumed that licencing hours had been changed. After a while the publican came to each table and said, quietly “If you wouldn’t mind drinking up and leaving soon I would appreciate it. The police are outside.” So we left and got in the car. A police officer came over and I wound down the window. “Excuse me, Madam,” he said politely, “Did you know that your tax disk is out of date?” This is a circular piece of paper which fits in a holder on the windshield to prove you have paid the road tax. I explained that it was my Mother’s car and I knew nothing about it, but I scrabbled in the glove-box in case it was there. It wasn’t. “Well, perhaps it is just at home, then” suggested the officer, “could I have the name and address of the owner?” I duly gave it and was told that he would drop round in a few days to make sure. We drove home. My husband was astonished and suggested what would have happened if we had been in Canada. My Mother rushed into the nearest town the next day in my Father’s car and paid for the missing tax disk.
A couple of months later I was speaking with my Mother on the phone and she told me that a policeman had shown up just a day or so before this call. He had a cup of tea and chatted, and then mentioned the tax disk which had been duly inserted in the holder. He took a look at it and left.
That is policing as it should be, and it is the reason that the British police can do their job unarmed. In the UK, the police are our friends, there to protect us. They do not shoot and ask questions after.
P.S. Yes, this happened a number of years ago, and now police can check using the number plate.
It’s what happens to a rogue empire when it begins to collapse inwardly
It becomes a Nation of Factions and Partisanship
The US is struggling in a Multipolar World
More and more Nations now stand up to the US and say “We have had enough of your hegemony. Either you treat us better or we go to Russia and China”
Yet Israel is an old buddy and the Jewish lobby, a Lobby of corrupt and greedy people who are middlemen to various corrupt deals involving Israel and USA can use the pressure of this corruption and cause Biden serious problems in the elections because Wall Street is heavily controlled by the Jewish Lobby
So on one side the US is losing the goodwill of the Arabs who are too rich to be bribed, who can get nuclear architecture from Russia and China completely bypassing the West and who can get weapons and trade from China and Russia entirely bypassing the West
Iran simply says to the Arabs “Look guys , either you allow me to get a two state solution by funding Houthis and Hezbollah and Hamas or i turn them on you”
Arab States are happy with the recent peace with Iran so they say “Either Iran gets defeated which is good for us or Israel gets humbled and US gets humbled which is ALSO good for us”
Its a win win for them
Meanwhile Israel knows the US is losing Arabia and know that if they burn bridges with Israel, they lose the entire middle East
Israel is the only anchor for US influence in the Middle East where Arab Nations are fast asking the US to go f*** themselves every day
So they cannot be forcefully impeded by USA
So there you have it
The Strongest Nation in the world now a stinking cesspit with a Senile Biden, a Stupid Birdbrain Nikki Haley and that Faggot Lindsey Graham in charge of decision making
Losing the Middle East and clueless how to stop it
Too scared of losing Israel and thus allowing open butchery and murder of kids and women and losing the goodwill of the entire non western world
A HELPLESS NATION CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF WEAKNESS AND CORRUPTION
After working closely with children as a teacher, I have to say that, although in many cases family problems/neglect or abuse by parents, carers, etc is to blame, there are also some children who are just born “bad seeds”. I had one little boy in a class one year. I knew his parents socially and had his older brother in my class in previous years. The older brother was a nice, well-behaved kid – sometimes naughty, but what kids aren’t, sometimes? Just a normal, well-adjusted child.
His younger brother, on the other hand, was a nightmare. Because I was a friend of the family, I got to see this little horror in action. From the moment of his birth, he was a cranky and demanding baby who had no patience and if everybody didn’t jump to his will he would throw a huge tantrum. As he grew older, and particularly once I could observe him daily in my classroom, I saw him become, what I can only describe as cunning. He knew tantrums didn’t work with me: I usually walk away and once they realize they have no audience they calm down. Instead, he began a campaign of terror. Always when he thought I wasn’t watching. He was very intelligent,and when it suited him he could charm the birds from the trees. But on an instant he could turn into a raging maniac. Instead of using that intellect to learn, instead he used it to lie, steal, cheat, and physically hurt other children who were smaller than him, destroying their work and generally causing me to have to concentrate on him more than any of the others just to keep him under some sort of control. The day came when he skipped class. I could hear a commotion in the playground, where the school had set up a henhouse for the children to have contact with farm animals. I could hear chickens in distress. A number of teachers, all followed by their classes, ran to see what was going on. The hens were all milling about and scared and there were five dead hens. E. was still holding one screaming chicken, laughing as he swung it by its legs. The school then told the parents that this behaviour was beyond our capacity and to take him out.
His parents took him to a child psychologist and he was diagnosed as having “Defiance and Anger Management Disorder” and he was sent to a specialist school that deals with children with out of control behaviour.
I lost touch with the family for a number of years after that, but eventually ran into the older brother, who had by now joined the Australian Air Force and was a pilot in training. We chatted for a while, and of course I asked him how E., his younger brother, was doing.
He told me that E. only got worse as he got older. He had gone to Juvenile Detention for attacking people and was now in jail again for attacking an old age pensioner with a pair of scissors. His brother said he feared for when he got out – he said that E. was dangerous and couldn’t be trusted not to hurt people. Not because of anything they did to him. Just because he enjoyed hurting other living things. The family couldn’t keep pets, since E. would always torture them to death.
Ten years after running into the older brother, I again heard of E. He is currently in jail for attempted murder. His live-in girlfriend was found beaten to a pulp, and she lives now with multiple disabilities. The judge said he had never seen anybody treated so callously, and that E. had an absolute lack of apparent remorse for his actions.
So it is not always nurture. Sometimes nature is to blame.
When I was in high school, I was a cheerleader. My father drove a school bus. One evening, we were at the school waiting to board the bus to attend an out-of-town game. A student at the school that was heavily into drugs and other assorted activities came to the school.
I was standing, talking to my father at the moment this student approached us. He produced a pistol, stuck it under my father’s chin and pulled the trigger. The gun just “clicked”. He sneered at us and said “Darn. Wish it had been loaded.”. That is my last cognizant thought of the evening.
Later, friends relayed the “rest of the story” to me.
The police were called. Upon their arrival, my father was asked where the offender was. He pointed and said “Under that cheerleader.”. Obviously, I had taken serious offense at this jerk’s actions and beat the living daylights out of him. The police pulled me off of him and took him to jail. Again, I have no recollection of those events.
I cannot condone you taking the action I took. It would completely depend on the circumstances.
When I was 11 years old, I was diagnosed with Aspergers.
The psychologist told me I would never hold a real job, drive a car, or even be capable of basic self-care around the house.
Where I come from, healthcare is incredibly poor because only the lowest-qualifying doctors move to this environmentally contaminated area because nobody in a reputable city will accept them.
Basically, my diagnosis was based almost entirely upon my uneducated sociopath mother’s lies, slander, and manipulation. The rest of my diagnosis was based on the outlandish and outdated belief that it’s abnormal for a girl to be extremely quiet, but have very articulate speech and an interest in science and video games. Yeah, they literally assumed I was mental because I didn’t fit their sexist views. Needless to say, doctors in this area are among the most unprofessional in the entire country.
My childhood consisted of endless bullying and harassment from my mom, brother, stepfather, classmates, and teachers. My mom always called me a “retard” and told me to “act like a normal kid, you fucking freak.” She also belittled me by telling me that I DESERVED the bullying that everyone gave me.
Years later, I survived multiple suicide attempts and turned 18.
Despite being labeled as an “autistic retard”, my mom forced me to immediately enter college when I wasn’t ready and all I wanted to do was navigate through basic adulthood with a job before making such a huge commitment to education.
I psychologically cracked.
Most of what happened is now a blur. But I can remember the part when I silently walked out of class in the middle of a lecture. I continued walking silently outside and made my way toward my mom’s car. (Yeah, she actually allowed me to get a license and drive myself occasionally. But only because her friends with “normal” kids started giving her shit about having a retarded kid.)
I got in the car and sobbed violently. My life was over. It’s all a prison and I want out.
My grades were all horrible because I saw no point in doing anything when my mom always told me that I would NEVER be allowed to have my own life and that if I attempted to escape from her, she would finally have me legally declared mentally incompetent so I would have no human rights to make my own decisions in life.
A few weeks later, I left my mom’s house without any notice and used my meager savings account to get an apartment. I spent 8 months submitting job applications to every place in town that would hire my age. I literally only got three interviews the entire time. I was forced to work online as an adult cam model to survive on less than $800 a month. Keep in mind that this job was very difficult due to being naturally ugly and constantly being degraded. At the end of these 8 months, I was finally hired for a shitty part-time job.
At this point, it probably sounds like nothing will ever improve.
But here’s the plot twist…
Today, I’m 22 years old and I have a stable job in a manufacturing facility. Most people are unable to survive on the meager wages of this job, but I’ve managed to do far more than just survive. I’m thriving. I didn’t need a roommate or a partner to help me move up in life. In only two years of working this job and supporting myself living alone, I was able to build my credit and save up money to buy a nice convertible car and a HOUSE. A freaking HOUSE. I did it on my own with no guidance from anyone. I researched everything carefully and worked hard and because of that, I succeeded. But aside from material things, I also gained something else that my mom and all the other cruel people said I would never have. Friends.
I still go through cycles of depression, but my friends are understanding of my struggle and it helps to know that they still believe in me.
The moral of this story is to never lose hope. Even if everyone in your life hates you and makes a joint effort to keep you trapped, always keep an ounce of hope guarded in your mind. If you have to use anger from injustice to re-ignite your hope, do it. Do it until you succeed and then find peace. As long as you have even the smallest amount of hopeful defiance, you have the power to create a plot twist in your life.
I had been out of prison for one month after a 15 year incarceration for murder. The conviction of murder requiring “intent” and “aforethought” in my state, I can say with a straight face and clear conscious that I did not commit murder, however I absolutely knew when my spouse took the stand to testify against me that I would be convicted of it. Since I am a “manslaughterer” by the legal definition of the word, I didn’t quibble and just took the sentence. It was coming either way, and I knew it.
On that Monday I took a psychological battery for vocational rehabilitation to see what they could help me with. I walked 4 miles one way at 7AM for the appointment. It was overcast, in the low 40’s when I started out, and I was hopeful. After taking a many hours long series of tests, I had a brief interview with a psychologist. I was warned beforehand that he was there to ask me a few questions but not for a counseling session, so I was to keep that in mind.
Every question he asked me I thought about in depth before I answered. I wanted to give this well educated, intelligent man the exact shade of phraseology I knew he needed for an accurate assessment. At the end, he asked if I had any questions for him. I said I had one, “When does being free start to become easier than it is now?” He looked at me straightaway in the eyes and said with absolutely zero expression of emotion, “This isn’t a counseling session. If you need a counseling session you can make an appointment.”
Freedom was not all it was cracked up to be, to put it very, very mildly. On that date I was down to my last few dollars I had saved whilst in prison ($700 in 3 years, crocheting blankets and working 250 hours a month at .30¢ an hour), I had no job, was being pestered to get a job immediately by Parole Officer who provided to date zero help in that department, and everything I was qualified, trained and educated for was worthless in a professional pursuit. I was given a list of over 50 companies who hire felons, but only 4 would consider a violent felon. I was told to spend at least 8 hours a day looking for a job. Between 10 to 20 times a day I had to replay for horrified managers what I did which sent me to prison. By the end of the day, I seemed like an apathetic sociopath who couldn’t care less about what I did. My family hadn’t deemed me worthy of help, I was in a strange new city in a halfway house, I knew very few people and they were all busy with their own life anyways.
What had most galled me was how the civilisation in general had changed. I was deeply, deeply bothered by the callous disregard of fellow humans by virtually everyone I met in every walk of life. For the last 10 years or so that I was in prison I noticed that the rookie inmates were particularly inconsiderate and selfish, and I attributed that to the fact that I was 10 years their senior, and that they were just young kids afraid and wanting to fit in. When I was released, I immediately noticed that in fact these selfish, inconsiderate and thoughtless inmates were just an accurate representation of their age group, and that this is what society had become.
Around noon, I was walking home on a bridge which went over the freeway. I looked over the edge. I could feel the spirit of despair and crushed dreams with no hope for relief calling me down to the pavement below with a promise for a sweet release from this place. For about 4 or 5 seconds, I just looked over the edge. I calculated all I have going for me and all I had relinquished so far in this life.
All I had was a promise from the Russian Orthodox Church which told me that after a well run race I would be awarded a rest and a peace the likes of which I could not imagine.
I walked on.
On my way home I thought first about what I had been educated 20 years for, and what I could do with it.
Zero.
Then I thought about what I had done in the past and wondered if I could do it again.
Nope.
Then I started considering my resources to find a job and realised that I had exhausted all of the leads I’d generated to no avail.
Empty.
Upon reaching the halfway house, I realised that every plan I had focused on my whole life was now worthless. Before I was arrested I’d hoped to become a tenured and published professor, and eventually move on to politics. In prison, all my hope every day was that life out here would somehow be better than life inside. It isn’t. It’s just different. After prison, I had hoped that my mind, education and experience could come together and be utilised in a positive way. I found that absolutely no one wanted to hear what I had to say except out of politeness. It had been all I could do to keep from jumping off the bridge when I saw into what this world has morphed.
Now I am a chef in a 4.75 star restaurant. Life is much, much harder and less pleasant than it has ever been out here. I don’t have a purpose. Not like my sister who is a world authority in her medical field. Nor like my brother in law who writes policy in the federal State Department. Nor like my Grandfather who helped save us all from the Soviet Union, put a man on the moon, and taught Jimmy Doolittle how to take a B-25 off of the USS Hornet.
I could have been any of these things and more, but I decided to overreact and lash out in abject rage in a total panic and go to prison. So, I can’t complain. At least I’m breathing, and at least God forgives me. He and His Church are all I have. Everything else can be stripped of me easily, and probably will. But I have faith in Him, His promises of life to come, and that the life here is of some merit simply unknown to me. Because of that, there is always hope that while if life has passed me by, at least I may someday cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.
My mother has done a great deal of unforgivable things. Here’s one:
Our family of eight moved from California back to New York in the middle of the night. I was 9 at this time. We drove, we had a beat-up station-wagon and it was pretty tight quarters.
One of the reasons for the move was my oldest brother was facing juvenile hall for some property he destroyed. My mother just couldn’t have HER oldest (and most likely best loved) son go away. I’d like to state here that my brother had problems, big problems. He was a sadist and probably a psychopath and definitely a pedophile. He was the eldest kid; there were six of us.
I believe another one of the reasons for the late night move was my Dad lost his job and we were running out on the rent. I’m not positive but it’s a pretty good guess. My Father was laid off from his job as a defense contractor.
We never got a hotel room because we couldn’t afford it, so we all slept in the car for the entire trip across country. Uncomfortable even if everything was Kosher. Which it was not.
One night I woke up to find someone pulling down my pants. Fortunately I was able to pretend to be asleep and move away from him, I realized during this situation (attack?) it was my oldest brother. So nothing happened technically, but we had just begun this trip, I was worried about him making another attempt to molest me. Of course I didn’t know THAT word at that time.
The next morning I got my mother alone and told her what happened, she said “What are you trying to do, start trouble?” I was speechless and afraid. So now if I tell my Father, (who was a good man) I would indeed “start trouble.” I should have gone to my Father first, but I was unaware (at the time), how skewed her opinion and vision of who and what her first son was. By the way, he was 16 at the time.
I have another older brother (he was 11 at this time) He is wonderful, loving, caring and trustworthy. I told him about the “problem.” He promised to keep me and my crazy brother separated by sleeping between us for the whole trip. For his trouble he was smacked and bothered by my crazy brother the whole trip. But he did just that, stayed between us, although our plan was met with objections from my oldest brother, he and my mother tried repeatedly to switch us around. I’m sure my Father thought this situation was nuts, but that was life with my mother all around.
My mother continued to take my brother’s side over the years, no matter what! He beat us up and terrified us just to entertain himself. He even turned on her, throwing glasses at her and a myriad of other things. I had to place him under citizens’ arrest twice, once when I was 13 and the other time I was 18. He was raving drunk both times, terrorizing us, breaking windows and furniture, hitting us. My Father did what he could to protect us, but my brother was a big, violent loud-mouthed drunk. The cops told me if I wanted him arrested, I would have to get him outside of the house or they couldn’t touch him. Although I’m loathe to have cops handle anything for me, I had no choice. I had little brothers and a sister to think about.
I’m so grateful to my brother (the normal one, lol.) for his protection, especially at his very young age. He remains to this day one of my very best friends as well as someone I can always count on.
Presence of mind was one thing I didn’t think I had until this happened:
Interviewer: Good morning Mr. Anonymous. I’m sure you’re familiar with a typical consult interview, so I won’t beat around the bush. Tell me a little about yourself before we dive into the puzzles and cases.
Me: Blah blah blah…er…blah…er…blah
Being my first job interview, I managed the impossible. I screwed up right at the start and ended up describing why I wanted to do consulting, instead of talking about myself. Beads of sweat started forming on my troubled forehead. With a bemused look on his face, the interviewer continued.
Interviewer: Uh, o…kay. I’ll go on to the puzzle now. Okay, so tell me…
He proceeds to describe a puzzle I had heard and solved recently. I have trouble keeping my emotions away from my facial expressions, so I broke into a wide smile, thinking that the moment to redeem the dismal ‘tell me about yourself’ had come! Needless to say, my poker career ended almost as soon as it had started.
Me: <Laughing> Sir, I’ll be honest with you. I’ve heard this one before…<I then proceed to give an outline of the solution>
Interviewer: Oh, haha, okay. I guess I’ll have to ask you another one I guess. Okay, so…
He then proceeds to describe a puzzle that sounded so tricky and convoluted that the beads of perspiration on my forehead now gushed forth with renewed fury in rivulets of nervousness down my face and neck and arms and legs. A Ganga of tension clouded over my face. The interviewer finishes asking the question and there is an ugly silence that ensues. I could almost hear the atoms in the left part of my brain screeching to a sudden halt and completely and stubbornly refusing to budge towards any analysis whatsoever. I had no idea what the solution was. I didn’t even know where to start!
But then the creative right part of my brain swooped in, with fluttering heroic cape et al.
Me: <Smiling broadly> Sir, I hate to admit it, but I’ve heard this one before as well!
Interviewer: <A look that registered appreciation of my unbelievable ‘honesty’ and shock at the probability of it all> Wow…No puzzles today, it seems. I guess we’ll move on to a quick case then…
And then, after blindly stumbling and bumbling through the case and then shockingly recovering to somehow solve it, I cleared the interview and got the job!
A few years ago, I stayed at a hotel just outside Ypres (in Belgium) which more-or-less stood dead on what was the front line, back in 1914–18. There was a bunker in the garden, and lots of photos of what the immediate area looked like during the war (a muddy, blasted, hellscape).
Next door was a water park, across the road were fields.
If you look at aerial shots of, for example, the Lochnagar crater, which was right on the front line, and which was created by a massive underground explosion on the first day of the Somme battle (July 1916), you’ll see that it’s surrounded by fields of crops.
The areas that haven’t been reclaimed are the ones where the fighting was so intense, that there are still significant amounts of explosives, posion gas, etc, buried in the soil. Just down the road from Lochnagar is the Canadian (well, Newfoundland) memorial, at Beaumont-Hamel. There are areas there that are fenced off, and clearly marked as dangerous, becasue there are still explosives in the ground. Whilst the line of the Newfoundland trenches has been kept intact, and they are still there, along with no-man’s land, and that area has been turned into a memorial, the site of the German front line 100–200 yeards away has been cleared and reclaimed as farmland.
So, most of it has been cleared, but certain areas (the ‘zone rouge’) have not.
Think about that. We were so clever in our destruction of each other that we literally rendered the earth uninhabitable, for over 100 years.
This Is Why Marriage Is An “L” For Men!
“Their opinion on the fact that women initiate divorce 80% of the time is essentially… “a woman is always justified in whatever she does, and is also never at fault”. That is literally the default setting and opinion of most modern day woman. Ridiculous.”
I was in 5th grade and my teacher told me I needed to leave my best friend alone. I was confused. I asked her why and was told me and Kate are no longer friends.
I was heartbroken. I didnt understand why this was happening. I kept trying to make eye contact with Kate to find out what was going on but she ignored me.
At lunch I was forced to sit alone. Kate was sitting with all our friends. Tears silently poured down my face as I tried to eat. My dad had just died of cancer a few weeks ago and now I had lost my best friend.
My face must have shown my grief when i got home that day. My mom, who was usually too self absorbed to notice me, asked me what was wrong. The tears started again as I choked out that I wasn’t allowed to be Kate’s friend anymore. She got immediately concerned and asked why, but the sobbing took hold and I ran to my room.
While I was in my room I heard my mom make two phone calls. One was to my teacher. My mom demanded to know what happened. I guess my teacher told her that Kate’s mom didn’t want us to be friends anymore. My mom was pissed. Me and Kate had been besties since 1st grade. Kate’s mom had never liked me but I never saw this coming. My mom asked why they didn’t call her. The teacher said she didn’t think it concerned her.
I guess my mom had hung up because next thing i knew she was yelling at Kate’s mom. “How could you do this after she just lost her dad? Shes already holding on by a thread!”
Then the conversation took an interesting turn. “What do you mean Kate thinks she’s too bossy?! She could have just talked to Sami. This was the extreme option. Can’t she just talk to her? Maybe they can work something out.”
So there was the truth. Kate didn’t want to be my friend. My mom was more pissed at my teacher for not calling her. I refused to go back to school. I couldn’t deal with it. I later ended up in the hospital for attempting suicide.
The teacher could have handled it differently. I was treated like a criminal basically. Everyone seemed intent on keeping me away from my friend that day and it hurt me deeply.
Edit: Wow! Over 5 thousand upvotes. Thanks everyone!
And I need to add something after reading certain comments.
I was just a child and I was hurt. I didnt realize I was getting on her nerves. I would have most certainly changed if I did. Im still unsure if my “bossiness” was the reason why she didnt want to be my friend all of a sudden. It could have just been an excuse to get away from me but we will never know.
I wasn’t some kind of mastermind bent on making Kate’s life a living hell. I didn’t know that I was acting a bad way because I was never taught about right and wrong. I was just myself with her, just like anyone else would be with their best friend.
Originally Answered: How much real life damage could a modern U.S. special forces soldier do to a small town police force if provoked like Rambo’s character?
Micah Xavier Johnson, 25 years old, Army Reserves, Delusional
Dallas, Texas has a far superior police force to a “Small Town”, and Micah was young, delusional, rambling and scribbling gibberish at times with meanings still yet to be deciphered, and went in without a plan besides to shoot white cops, and in general a very far cry from a clear headed special forces operator with years of experience (one of the best if we are equating this person to Rambo)
Even still, he managed to kill 5 police officers and shoot 9 more, not to mention 2 civilians.
The largest police force of any city has a ratio of about 57 cops for every 10,000 residents, or .57% of the population. The next largest is a ratio of .43%.
San Jose on the other hand, has a ratio of .09% of the population belonging to the police force.
Over 87% of all cities in the US have a police force of under 40 members. Strange when considering New York’s is tens of thousands strong (.175% of population) The reason for this is that the smaller the city, the lower the ratio of crime to civilian numbers.
The lower the population of a city, the lower the ratio of officers to the rest of the population.
San Jose has over a million people with a police force accounting for only .09% of the population, so a small town of say 4,000 people probably only has a police force accounting for around lets say .2% of the population at an absolute maximum? And even that is an extremely high estimate implying this small town has an abnormally high crime rate, despite this meaning that there are likely only about 8 officers in total.
8 officers in total for a small town of 4,000 people [on a high estimate], and a delusional, young army reserves soldier with no real plan besides shooting white cops, no escape planned out, proved his capacity to shoot them all out with a rifle while remaining largely stationary, in a shootout.
So how effective would a seasoned, trained, special forces operator, in their right state of mind [more or less] fair against a similar police force?
One of the officers might be able to survive by remaining hidden or fleeing if our modern day Rambo [with superior training than when that movie was made] is only allowed to use a knife.
Otherwise?
(Ironically Keanu Reaves training for John Wick was a better training video than the easily available ones on youtube)
Police force will get decimated. The operator will go in with a plan of action-
Luring the police force to a certain area for example and setting off a bomb or something- And then targeting the remainder with extreme and calculated force.
small EDIT: Thankfully no one has complained- But upon re-reading my answer, since we are talking about calculated killing of police officers, some of the terms I used- “Wiping them out”, “Blowing them up”- came back as callous to me, so I re-worded a bit to remove those terms. Targeted killing of police is a major issue that does not often get talked about, especially more recently with gang’s and initiations and the like, and I don’t want to give the impression that I do not have the utmost respect and appreciation for officers. Managing a hotel overnight (the closest one to downtown which has several clubs) surrounded by multiple popular bars and breweries within 5 minute walking distance, I have had to rely on officer assistance multiple times in the last year alone and the last thing I want is for an officer, past or present, to read this and think that I would make light of a highly trained military individual targeting a police force.
So thanks to everyone willing to put their lives on the line daily to keep people safe who cannot otherwise do it themselves, by picking up a badge knowing that it can just as easily become a target.
I was working at my first job post-graduation, as a brand new RN, young and impressionable. It was a 36 bed Ophthalmology unit, and there weren’t always enough eye patients to keep every bed occupied. During times when we had an ongoing number of empty beds, the docs would head over to the local psychiatric hospital and examine the patients for cataracts. Medicare would cover the cataract surgery if the chart documentation said that the psychiatric condition was exacerbated due to the patient’s impaired vision. After these visits we would have an onslaught of psychotic patients to admit and prep for surgery. Back then, in the 1970s, cataract extraction involved a four-day hospital stay.
We nurses admitted and cared for many patients with varied psychiatric diagnoses during this time, ranging from catatonia to manic disorders, schizophrenia, multiple-personality disorder, severe hallucinations — pretty much any mental disorder which rendered long term psychiatric hospitalization necessary. It was often our observation that, sadly, these patients were not well cared-for at the psychiatric hospital, and it unfortunately became routine for them to come to us malodorous, disheveled, needing a bath, and often with soiled clothes. We would get them showered and shampooed, apply lotion to their dry skin, give them physical exams and blood work, including gyn exams and Pap smears for the female patients, and begin eye prep for their cataract surgery.
So one morning I arrived at work and was given my assigned rooms, which included a new patient who had just arrived from the psych hospital. I braced myself for the usual, but what I found was beyond the pale. The patient was a 40 year old female. She did not speak, move or react, just stared ahead. Her need for hygiene was beyond anything I had ever seen. She smelled like an extremely ripe mixture of urine, feces, sweat, glandular and sebaceous secretions, stinky feet and unwashed clothes. Her dark skin was scaled and crusted. Her filthy and malodorous hair had once been carefully braided into tiny braids all over her head. Someone had once cared enough to do that. But it was so long ago that her hair had since grown about three or four inches into a neglected, uncombed, never-since washed, unkempt afro with the tiny braids imbedded at the ends.
I looked across the room to my other patient, her roommate, to see if she was at all put-out by the stench. She was in a long white nightgown, a rather pale tiny pretty elderly lady, who nodded hello and smiled sweetly at me. She was already getting up out of bed, and said she would attend to her own needs this morning so I could concentrate on her roommate.
First things first, the psych patient needed cleaning up. She would have contaminated the entire operating room! Ok to keep things brief I will only say she came alive when I explained I was going to give her a shower and tried to get her out of bed into a wheeled shower chair. She screamed and fought tooth and filthy nails, became dead weight when I tried to get her to transfer to the chair, wouldn’t cooperate with me one iota. Her breath was horrible every time she screamed at me. After much exertion, I was able to wheel her into the shower. I soaped and re-soaped and scrubbed her face and body, taking multiple times to do this, she was so encrusted with filth. The worst part was her groin. There was probably over a year’s worth of layers of soiling herself and never being cleaned, each layer dried and stuck to the layer underneath and to her skin and pubic hair. The hot water exacerbated the stench and I had to keep putting my head outside the shower curtain for fresh air. There were clay-like clumps of feces all along the bottom of the shower, which housekeeping would have to deal with when we were through. I must have gone through at least a dozen towels and washcloths, which were in a wet brown pile.
Once her skin was clean, I sighed, not knowing how I would ever attend to that head of hair. I decided the best thing would be to cut off the little braids, so I used my bandage scissors to do that. I trimmed and cleaned her filthy black fingernails and toenails too. All through the shower I was explaining what I was doing and trying to keep the patient as placated as I could, and by now she was considerably calmer. Her hair was thick with the texture of a Brillo pad, and so dirty that it was impossible to get any lather going. But I persevered until finally I had rich suds, which I fingered and rubbed into every bit of her hair down to the scalp. By now she was no longer trying to push me away, if not exactly cooperating.
Finally we were done. I was soaking wet. I dried the patient off, got her to put on a clean gown, rubbed her extremeties with lotion, then her feet also and put on clean socks. I wheeled the patient to the sink and brushed her teeth as best as I could, with very marginal cooperation.
I got the patient back into bed, now clean, and proceeded to give her the eye drops which would begin the prep for cataract surgery later that day. I was exhausted and needed to rest.
But first I needed to turn my attention to her roommate, who was also my patient and had been quietly waiting during all this time.
Since the roommate was going for cataract surgery also, I pulled the curtain back to administer the roommate’s drops as well, and I saw that she had washed up by herself and donned a modest white habit, and I realized she was a nun. So I gave the nun her eye drops and reminded her not to have anything by mouth prior to surgery. I told the nun that I would be back later with additional eye drops, and to check on her. The nun smiled and thanked me.
I turned to leave. As I reached the door, she said the most remarkable seven words I have ever heard: “You gave the Lord a shower today.”
Korean Spinach Salad
Ingredients
Salad
1 pound fresh spinach
3 hard-cooked eggs, diced
6 to 8 slices crisp-cooked bacon, crumbled
2 cups fresh bean sprouts
1 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts, sliced
Dressing
1 cup oil
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Salt, to taste
1 medium onion, grated
1/4 cup vinegar
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
Trim and discard tough spinach stems. Rinse leaves well; pat dry and break into bite-size pieces in a salad bowl.
Carl used to be a firefighter. He pulled people out of burning buildings. He risked his life all the time.
Then one day, an illness that had been lurking in his genes brought him to the ground. His tendons and muscles were slowly calcifying—turning to stone. All of them. His knees. His back.
His heart. His lungs.
And since this was a genetic disease, it was not covered by his firefighting pension plan. He had to go on SSI/SSDI.
The drugs that he took to slow (not stop, slow) the progression of his disease eventually gave him fourteen more incurable conditions, including heart disease, seizures, and diabetes. He’s had several strokes. He also cannot go outside because his immune system has to be suppressed. Going out around people always means he catches something.
So what does he do all day?
It takes him about three hours to get up, get cleaned up, and get dressed and get his breakfast, using his walker because his ankles are now frozen solid. It takes him two hours to do a single load of laundry. He does spend most of the day playing video games and watching TV, but that is because it takes him at least an hour to get to the bathroom, and there is no way he could actually work.
This man was a fireman. He saved people from burning buildings. Now he lives like a pauper, mostly on the charity of his family and friends because SSI/SSDI is not enough to allow him to do anything but die under a bridge.
He saved people from burning buildings. He’d have saved you, if you’d needed it.
I was working for a major car rental company as a tripper (drove cars from the service Centre to the rental lots). They paid us minimum wage, which was about $3.40/hr. back in the mid 80s, and decided they we playing us too much, as sometimes we had no cars to trip and they still had to pay us. It’s about 15km to the downtown Vancouver rental lot, so they figured it would take us 20 to 30 minutes. They decided to pay us by the trip, $1.75 iirc. Oh, this was a Toronto decision based on our work load in May and came into effect mid June. Demand rate was constant and now we were highly motivated to make s many trips as possible. We were tripping about 5 or 6 cars an hour, we were speeding a lot, crashing at least once a month (company self insures so all their cost). Usual the crashes were minor but we totalled 10 cars that summer (their were 5 core and 2 or 3 fill ins, so everyone had at least one major). Record was 8 mins in rush hour. They seemed up paying us about $10 an hour, their accident rates went up. I became a rental rep the next year and quit the next year as the idiocy from Toronto continued.
huWhen my mom was 16 she was raped by the son of a prominent member of her community. He denied it was rape and said she was a willing partner. The police chose to believe him over her.
She got pregnant from the rape and, because abortion was illegal, her parents sent her to a Christian home for unwed mothers. The understanding was she would give her baby up for adoption immediately after birth. She got no say in this. For whatever reason, there was a delay and she got to spend 15 minutes with her son before he was taken from her. It broke her heart.
After she recovered from her pregnancy she went home. Two things had happened while she was gone. First, her parents got their friends to start a rumor that she was away because she had an illness that required special treatment. The other was that someone started a second rumor that she had to go away because she was pregnant and had a baby, with the implication that she was promiscuous.
Guess which one took off? When she got back to school most of her classmates shunned her as a bad influence. She lost most of her friends. Members of her own extended family picked this shunning up. It followed her to college when she graduated. It was more than she could take and she had a mental collapse, ending up in a psychiatric hospital. (It is also possible that she was already bi-polar.) She dropped out of college because she could not handle the stress and deal with her PTSD and depression.
When she met my father who was in the Air Force and from another part of the county, she told him about the rape. She told him about the baby. She told him that no one believed that she had been raped. He believed her. He said he saw no shame on her and eventually they married. His service had them move from her hometown.
HOWEVER…every time she returned to town for the holidays, she would go through the shunning, the snide comments, and insults from her family and the townspeople. My parents separated when I was 24 and she moved home…to the same thing again but now her own mother was doing it too. She endured this until she died when she was 69, which means she was subjected to that shaming for over 53 years.
This is the side of “pro-life” no one talks about. Not only is there no plan for the children after they are born, but in the conservative communities that support this policy, the women who are unmarried will be slut-shamed for life.
A group of hitmen refused to kill a victim as she was a woman and let her free to get her revenge.
In 2015, the Australian Noela Rukundo (who’s the lady in the photo) went to Burundi to attend the funeral of her stepmother who passed away only a couple of weeks back.
Straight after the funeral when she was going out to get some fresh air, she was quite suddenly kidnapped at gunpoint and shoved into a vehicle. She was blindfolded and driven to a safe house somewhere in the country.
Inside the building she was tied up, and a sack put on her head and was asked by her captors:
“You woman, what did you do for this man to pay us to kill you?”
“Wh-what are you talking about?” said Noela, she was shaking uncontrollably.
“Balenga (Noela husband) sent us to kill you.”
“What? My husband will never do that, y-you’re lying!”
Her captors smirked and giggled. She then heard a phone dialling and a voice coming from a loud speaker:
“Kill her”
It was her husband. Noela fainted.
She was woken up much much later by her captors on the side of a road and they told her she was free. The men explained they didn’t believe in killing women, and they knew her brother and was friends with him. But they would keep her husband’s money and tell him that she was dead.
Not only was she freed, she was given a phone, recordings of the captors’ phone conversations with her husband and all the evidence she needed to take Balenga to court.
Although pretty messed up and a little dizzy, with the help of the Kenyan and Belgian embassies, she got a trip to Australia, where she planned her revenge.
Meanwhile back in Australia her husband had told everyone she had died in a tragic accident and all her friends mourned her at her funeral at the family home. On the night of February 22 2015, just as the Balenga waved goodbye to the last of his neighbours who had come to comfort him, Noela approached him.
“Is it my eyes?” screeched Balenga. “Is it a ghost?”
“Surprise! I’m still alive!” said a very angry Noela.
“ oh my god oh my god, I’m sorry for everything please forgive me” replied a rather shocked Balenga.
But Noela took none of his apologies. The police swooped in and captured Balenga, who ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison for incitement to murder.
During the investigations, it was found out that Balenga wanted to kill Noela because he thought she was going to leave him for another man, which apparently was not going to happen.
Balenga was sent to 9 years of prison while Noela lives with her 8 children somewhere in the same city I currently live at, Melbourne.
This is probably a bit cliche to say but the first person that comes to mind for me is my ex girlfriend from 2017. Out of all the women I’ve had relationships with, she was by far the worst one. She was very controlling and manipulative. I was with her for 8 months and it was the worst 8 months of my life. We basically fought every day over anything. Most things that upset her. I felt like I couldn’t say certain things or do certain things without it possibly upsetting her. Anytime I tried to defend myself she would gaslight me and make me feel like the bad one. She would say things like “I don’t like what you said earlier” or “this happened and you didn’t do anything about it”. Right before I finally chose to break up with her I had her sleep over my house for a night because I just wanted a nice night with her and I could tell all night something was wrong. I could just sense it. When we were at my house she hardly spoke to me and when she did she said “I think I’m going to go home in the morning” Next morning I got up and without thinking made myself a cup of coffee.. but my mistake was not making one for her. She of course went tf off on me for it. At that point I had it, I was done. I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m not going to get treated like a servant when I’m just trying to be a good boyfriend and you refuse to see it.
Not at work, but in school. Funniest one: A classmate had not written his book report. It was middle school. He stole mine off my desk while I was in the bathroom. He erased my name, which was in pencil, and added his own to the front cover. He shoved it into a stack of reports on the teacher’s desk. Then, when I got back, I panicked, because I didn’t know where my report went? We looked everywhere. I was practically in tears. The teacher then said, “We are going to practice speaking by talking about our book to the class.” One after one, students started getting up, took their report and talked about their book. The teacher picked up one report, looked quizzical and asked the classmate to come up and read HIS title and report to the class. “You’re going to read the whole thing to the class.” she said. He walked up, not making eye contact with anyone. She handed him the book report and said, “Go on, read it.” He read the inside cover, “My book report is on the book, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” He paused, read ahead and shuffled around. The teacher said, “That has your name on it. Go ahead, read it.” He proceeded to read the book report about a girl who wanted to get her period. Then, read aloud why he and his friends “had similar feelings about getting my period, probably someday soon.” He stopped reading at that point. The teacher said, “Carolyn, I think we found your book report.” He nodded with his head down. He handed the teacher my report. He went back to his seat and put his head on the desk. I walked to the front of the class and talked about my book. (P.S. The boy from the story and I are friends now as adults. We laugh about that day. He writes really well, too.) 🙂
Pungent Javanese Beef (Semur Daging)
“Semur” means “braise” or “stew” with sugar, soy sauce, clove, nutmeg and pepper. Serve with hot boiled rice.
Ingredients
1 large onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced ginger root
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 (1 1/2 pound) beef boneless chuck, tip or round, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/4 cups water
1 tablespoon tamarind powder or pulp or 2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Hot cooked rice
Instructions
Cook and stir onion, garlic and gingerroot in oil in 10-inch skillet over medium heat until onion is tender; remove with slotted spoon. Add beef to skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, until all liquid is evaporated, and beef is brown, about 25 minutes.
Stir in onion mixture and remaining ingredients except rice. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender and sauce is thickened, about 1 1/2 hours. Skim off fat.
I was on my motorcycle, heading from a health appointment back to my work. I was on a two lane county road. A shitbox minivan was in front of me, but since he was moving along nicely ( 10mph over) and the area was fairly regularly patrolled I just hung back behind him a hundred yards or so.
his driver’s side mirror started wobbling., got wobbling hard and then came off. Bounced a couple times ( very randomly due to the odd shape) skidded across my path and ended in the shoulder.
Of course I was on the brakes , but as soon as that thing was behind me, I whacked the gas and made my pass.
A quarter mile ahead as I’m going by the shitbox up pops a county cop from behind a rise-heading my way.
he had me dead to rights in the high eighties (55mph zone)
of course, he came around on me. He had to pass the minivan to light me up.
I pulled over. The usual stuff:
“ know how fast you were going? “
“ yep”.
“ I had you at 87 on radar, that’s a bit much don’t you think?”
“ I wasn’t staying behind that van”
“ why not?”
I said: “ you passed him twice( once opposing, once with) , didn’t you notice he didn’t have a drivers mirror? It’s laying on the shoulder back there in front of the house with the big white fence “
“ well, he wasn’t speeding, license and reg?”
hand them to him.
he comes back and tells me he’s gotta write it.
I tell him go ahead, but be aware that as soon as we’re done here I’m going back and grabbing that mirror to take to court.
fast forward to court date. I’ve got the mirror . Get called to the podium. Set it up there. Judge says, I’m sure there’s a story that goes with that.
I tell him I’ve got 480,000 miles of riding street bikes over 42 years. Part of the reason I’ve made it this long is that I avoid dangerous situations. If that means I speed to keep from being behind a vehicle shedding 20pound, cubic foot parts, so be it.
This year can, with a few bright spots, suck a bag of dicks.
My mom was diagnosed with cancer last November, thirteen months almost to the day before I write this. She died a couple—a few? I haven’t been sleeping so I can’t tell—days ago.
I’ve been with my dad in Florida helping care for her. At the end, she needed literal round-the-clock care, so it’s hard for me even to tell what day it is any more. My dad and I alternated 12-hour shifts, and during my off time I did things around the house that my dad is having difficulty doing.
I don’t know if I’ve ever felt this exhausted before. I’m on my last nerve all the time.
My mom died at 9:36 AM, as my dad and my sister and I were on the way to the hospital to see her. Later that evening, I ran my dad to the ER when he started bleeding—he was hospitalized for three days, turned out to be an intestinal polyp, not life-threatening but they did do minor surgery to remove it.
There’s an endless stream of stuff I never thought about, that I never even considered, that needs taking care of. My mom’s name is on the title to the truck, my dad’s isn’t. The home hospice care people were supposed to come today to take the hospital bed out of the house. They didn’t call, they didn’t show, I don’t know why. This all happened just as my sister was taking a new job—her boss was extremely understanding and let her take her first week of work off to be here, not a lot of people would’ve done that—and I just ran her to the airport a few hours ago.
If you look at my Quora history, I’m posting at all hours. That’s because I’m only sleeping a few hours here, a couple hours there. If I’m absent for an extended period of time it’s probably because I’m in a hospital somewhere, with my mom before she went or with my dad these past few days.
I’m not okay. I’m not even close to overcoming it.
Many years ago, I worked at a factory that did plastic and wax injection molding. The guy running the place had worked there since he was in his early 20s, so you’d think he’d have a good handle on how things were done.
The problem with his leadership was that he had come up through the ranks as a salesman. He spent little to no time actually doing engineering or production. He was a wonderful salesman and a couple times landed contracts that were a great boon to the company. The man had a gift. He could have sold manure to a cattle farmer.
One of his biggest contracts was a government contract. We were going to be making parts for the US military. During wartime, these types of contracts are as good as they come. The type of high demand production runs that fill bank accounts. Workers were asked to work a minimum of 60 hours a week, with unlimited overtime pre-approved. Some of us younger workers were working 80+ hours a week – only going home during the work week to get some sleep, then coming right back at 5 a.m.
Bank.
I was running a machine that made a part, we’ll call it Widget X. Well, Widget X was a fairly large part that required a lengthy cooldown phase. You can’t just inject molten wax into a mold and expect it to hold shape until it has properly cooled. We only had one machine that was large enough to make Widget X, so it ran 24/7.
A few months into the production run, management was in a bit of a panic. Widget X was one of the most important parts of the contract and we were falling behind on production schedule. Engineering and quality control were asked to find a way to speed up production, but they told management the biggest time sink was in the cooling phase. There just wasn’t any way around that. If they lowered the temperature of the wax, it would be too thick upon injection and break the fragile ceramic cores in the mold. If they actively cooled the die, the wax would solidify unevenly and cause warping.
Mr. Leader, despite the fact that he had oversold our production capabilities, insisted that there was a way to increase output to meet demand. So he began looking into each and every step of the process.
Back to me running the machine. As I said, there was a very lengthy cooldown phase where the machine remained locked shut until the part was ready. During this phase, I took a little time to pick a new CD to listen to while working. (I said this was many years ago)
Seeing me “dicking around” with my Discman, Mr. Leader went into a fit of rage.
“NO WONDER WE’RE SO FAR BEHIND SCHEDULE!”
“That’s it! No more listening to music while working. We need to get back on track and I don’t want to see another set of headphones in this place until we do!”
If you’ve never done it before, injection molding has to be one of the most boring jobs on the planet. You press the two start buttons, wait for the machine to close, do its thing, then wait some more until the part is ready. You remove the part, push the buttons again, and wait. That’s the whole job.
Music was one of the few things that made the job bearable. We could disappear into our own heads and only surface every few minutes to restart the process. Now that we couldn’t do that, the boredom was up in our face. Staring at a giant metal press for 5–15 minutes at a time was dull. Very dull.
So, we had to find ways to amuse our minds for that time. Being the social creatures that we are, we turned to our neighbors and began talking to each other. The problem is that machine shops are really really noisy. In order to have a conversation that is not at a scream, we’d often have to take a few steps toward our neighbor.
This, as you could imagine, meant that the machine operator’s attention was not focused on the machine they were running, but on their conversations. Then when the machine was done running, they’d take a few seconds to finish their sentence and walk back to their machines.
Production slowed. In cases like the machine I was running, not by much. However, some of the smaller parts only had 30 – 60 second run times. An additional 10 seconds per part added up very quickly. Now parts that were running on-time were running behind.
Two weeks into the new rule, the owner of the company paid our department a visit. This almost never happened. He was always in his office on the phone or out on business. He had found out that every single part we were working on had fallen behind and wanted to know why. Mr. Leader had fed him a line that he didn’t buy for a second and was going to figure it out himself.
Luckily, the owner of the company understood production because he had done it early in his career. He knew how boring the job was and that asking employees to sit and stare while doing nothing was cruel.
He rescinded the no music policy immediately and production resumed at a normal pace. He also then called one of his friends in the business and subcontracted some of the production of Widget X to him.
In the end, nothing changed about how fast we could produce Widget X, but at least the rest of the contracts were back on schedule and we could listen to music again.
A Texas trooper stopped me when I was in my late twenties. I was installing floors and happened to be driving my work van.
The stop was on a divided US highway. Speed limit was 65 mph in a rural area. I was driving exactly 65 mph in the right lane, traffic was heavy but not bumper to bumper, everyone else was driving 75 mph and faster. I was Northbound, a Southbound DPS Trooper made a U-turn, caught up to me and turned on his lights. I pulled over. He asked why I was driving so slow and I told him I was obeying the law, also that I was driving a gas hog that punished me financially when I broke the law. He was looking through the back door windows and asked what was in the van; flooring installation and demolition tools, vinyl flooring, floor tile, a 12×15 roll of carpet and pad. He asked if I would consent to a search.
I said, “I will not consent unless you sign a statement acknowledging that I have informed you of numerous sharp tools, razor knives, saws, razor sharp scrapers which you could grab the wrong way and severely injure yourself on; caustic floor adhesives and solvents, you should read the label warnings before you open those; and you accept all liability for any harm to yourself or, damage you cause to any of the new flooring or anything else in the van. It’s expensive material and it doesn’t belong to me.” He looked into the window again, looked at me, and said that makes sense and he guesses I’m “okay”. He appreciated me telling him about the danger. He decided he wasn’t going to challenge my reasoning for what was clearly a conditional consent. Not an outright refusal. But absolutely NOT a consent.
He gave me a “better to keep up with the flow of traffic than obey the speed limit” speech to justify the stop. Which was not good advice. (Insurance can place at least partial fault if you are breaking traffic laws at the time of an accident.)
Soldier Makes Out Like A Bandit In Divorce, Now Teaches Men How To Beat Jezebel At Her Own Game
I remember trying to talk to them about how I felt left behind whenever they would go on vacation and leave me behind. The excuse was always “Oh, it’s our honeymoon.” (I had a stepfather)
We NEVER celebrated Christmas after my mom married my step-dad. We didn’t have decorations or gifts or anything. The excuse was that he had 5 children and they couldn’t afford gifts for everyone. Well, 3 of those kids were adults with their own families. We would go to the oldest daughter’s house for Christmas dinner and the two youngest kids lived with her. (Their mother was an alcoholic.) Once there, we would discover the kids had gotten a new nintendo or whatever the gaming system was back then. Or, they got a new puppy or bicycle or whatever. While they were tearing through their presents, I would go to the bathroom and cry.
I had a really great boyfriend. He was kind and gentle and so respectful of me. But, because he was 3 years older, they didn’t want me dating him. They wouldn’t allow it. However, my step dad met this guy that was 3 years older than me that he wanted me to date and I refused. I kept telling him the guy was a big jerk, but, he wouldn’t listen. He tried to force me to date him. I refused. Later that year, the guy did meet a girl and married her. Two months later, he beat her half to death and she was hospitalized. THEN, “Mr. Wonderful” burned down the high school. Some great guy, huh dad! The guy I wanted to date is STILL a really nice, kind, gentle and respectful man. He’s very happily married.
I just always felt like I was in the way and a complete afterthought. I was inconvenient for them.
Ah, the classic case of the curious boss post-resignation notice! It’s like a sitcom, only you’re living it. Here’s the deal: No, you’re not under any legal or cosmic obligation to reveal your next career move to your soon-to-be-ex-boss. It’s kind of like going on a date and your ex asking who you’re seeing now – none of their business, right?
Now, your boss might be donning the detective hat, citing the need for a “conflict check” – sounds super official, doesn’t it? But unless you signed some sort of agreement that requires you to disclose your next employer (which would be a bit unusual), you’re in the clear.
You want to keep things amicable, and that’s admirable. So, how about a diplomatic dodge? You could say something like, “I appreciate your concern for conflicts, but I’ve checked, and there’s no issue there. I assure you, I’m handling it with the utmost professionalism.” This way, you’re reassuring your boss without spilling the beans.
Remember, it’s your personal information, and you’re not hosting a reality show about your career moves (or are you? That could be fun). Keep it cordial, keep it vague, and soon you’ll be sailing into your new adventure with no strings attached. Break a leg!
It was the morning after the night before, and a fellow student of mine was on the lab telephone, back when they sat on the desk and had wires going into the wall, explaining in German to his girlfriend how sorry he was, and how he would never drink again, and how he was going make a temple out of his body… His German was was not particularly fluent so so of the phrasing was particularly cringe worthy.
After about ten minutes of this, he seemed to have calmed her down, and he got off the phone. He turned to me, sitting at a computer behind a big 21″ crt monitor, and seeing my expression said “You don’t understand German do you?” I said no I didn’t, I’d only spent five months in Bavaria on an intensive course in it before going to college….
In the 80s we were trying to have children. They took us both in for a retinue of tests one of which found my wife with cystic ovaries. We are told this is a common thing, done every day. Called a resection. We excise the cyst, bring the parts back together, sew a couple of stitches and done. Day of surgery the Dr comes out to the waiting room in record time. He tells me they went to the left ovary 1st snip sew done, textbook case, went to the right, took one look, sewed her back up. Turns out when they went in on that side, they were 98%sure it was cancer but sent off a biopsy to be sure. But they were so sure they had already booked an OR for 2 weeks away. The good side of this was this is what I called a stealth cancer. One that normally by the time it manifests itself, you know what will kill you but because we were undergoing the fertility treatments, it was caught in the early stages and even though it came back 4 times, it did not kill her.
I have a master’s degree in engineering and have been working as an engineer for almost a decade.
A few years ago, I had a coworker named Matt** who worked in the our manufacturing department as a laborer. One day, Matt came to the engineering department to explain to us how to implement a specific part into our designs that would be useful for them in the warehouse.
Now keep in mind, Matt had no education past high school, he was wearing coveralls with grease stains on them, and he spoke in a very thick southern drawl. The complete stereotype of an uneducated person in the US.
As he explained the specific part and how to it could be used, I found myself rolling my eyes. But then I caught myself. The fact of the matter was, even if I was more educated or higher up in the company than Matt, at this specific moment, he knew something that I didn’t and he was taking time out of his day to explain it to me. So I shut up, I gave him my full attention, and I learned something I hadn’t known before.
This will serve you very well in all aspects of life.
If someone is trying to teach you something that you don’t know, something that’s useful, then listen to them. Give them courtesy and respect. It doesn’t matter if you’re smarter than them overall. It doesn’t matter if you’re more educated in other matters. It doesn’t matter if they’re a compete idiot in other aspects of life. If they’re teaching you something that you don’t know, listen.
Well, actually he did it for me. I worked at a company that built business machines. A little back story, I was a spray painter making almost $20 per hour and had been hurt and on worker’s comp, When I returned I had to go to lighter work in the assembly department which paid considerably less,but they left me at my previous rate,I did intend to eventually get back to painting so they left it be) Part of my “new” job was to test run and adjust them so they’d be ready to use out of the box. My supervisor(who I actually made more per hour than) was also supposed to double check the settings to verify everything was good to go. We had an issue with one of the adjusting tools and didn’t realize it until a whole order of around 40 machines went out.(Without him checking because as he put it, “I’ve got better things to do {which was usually sitting & watching us work}) Of course,they were out of whack and were returned. When asked, my supervisor told the manager that I sent them without his knowledge and that’s why they were wrong.Long story short, I was terminated for “insubordination & by-passing inspection”, which wasn’t true,but my word against his) So, I left and he looked all proud of himself because of his BS. About a month later, another full shipment was returned for the same problem (since I’d left, they didn’t replace me, they had him doing the adjustment/testing) He at first tried to say it was from a shipment I’d worked on, until they checked the date and saw it was 2 weeks after I was gone!!!! ..He was FIRED, not laid off. They called for me to come back…sorry,already had a new job making $4.00 more than I was there….KARMA strikes again
I’m sure he’s dead by now, so I will describe the most boring person I ever met. He had a name that was actually synonymous with boredom, but I won’t use it, on the off chance that he is celebrating his 100+ birthday somewhere.
He taught Nuclear physics, and it can be hard to make Nuclear physics exciting at the best of time.
But this professor took it to new levels.
He spoke in a complete monotone. Never a variation in tone or amplitude, just completely flat. He spoke at exactly the same pace all the time. Every word had exactly the same gap between it and the next word. If you were transcribing him, you would never add a comma, question mark or period, and certainly not an exclamation mark
I had prided myself on being attentive in class. I have never even fallen asleep in a dark room watching a boring movie, not once. I dozed off in his class, and was only woken up by the guy beside me, when his head hit the desk, when he fell asleep.
I felt devastated, that I had embarrassed myself and the professor by falling asleep, but he didn’t appear to have even noticed. Either he was used to it, or he was so wrapped up in what he was saying, that he missed it.
I actually learned a lot in that class, but mostly because he would hand out his notes, at the end of the class.
The thing that made this man boring, was a completely flat monotone voice, with no inflection.
This is capsaicin. It’s on the order of 16 million SHU’s, though actual intensity will vary. If it gets in your eyes, it will blind you. If it gets on your hands, it will eventually get into your eyes. If it gets into your mouth you will regret it. there is not enough milk you can drink to neutralize it. And if you eat it it will make your entire digestive tract regret it.
My friends thought it’d be fun to produce some from capsaicin oil, distilling it down to the powder form. After masochistically playing with the stuff, one of my friends mentioned that someone from work was stealing lunches. Being 20, they thought it would be a great idea to put a sandwich in with this stuff, and for extra effort, mark the sandwich as ‘do not steal.’
So one day, nothing happened. Two days, nothing happens. Then we go on break and find paramedics attending to one of our supervisors, who was coughing and gagging and clawing at his tongue. Next day, we’re all lined up before the owner who informs us that if anyone ever puts deliberately contaminated food in the fridge, even if someone is stealing lunches, that person is going to be fired like no tomorrow!
So, because we were 20, when lunches started to disappear from the lunch room again, we glanced at each other and realized we still had more than a gram of this powder. Be a shame not to use it. The next day the paramedics return… this time to take the owner to the hospital.
Needless to say, we found other employment elsewhere.
Edit: Some people said that what we did was illegal. I dunno. 20 yr old me probably would have talked my way out of it. After all, when is it a trap and when is it seasoning? But as to ‘confessing’, statue of limitations has expired, like, 6 times over. But yeah, don’t poison food to punish a stealer. It just makes it two crimes instead of one.
What I would do instead is put green food coloring inside the middle of it and then see who looked like they’d just blown a leprechaun.
I didn’t think it was all that funny, but my courtroom was in tears over this, they were so amused.
I found myself sitting as a judge pro tem in Los Angeles County’s night court, which is held once a month at various courthouses in LA County. I had a Spanish language interpreter for this one case, and the lady before me was crying and doing her best to control her tears. I could tell she was very, very upset. I gently asked her what was wrong. Through the interpreter, she said she was so scared and so nervous about what was going to happen in court. I told her not to worry, no one is going to jail tonight, so let me see what was going on.
I read through the county’s paperwork, but my copy was terrible and I could only see that it looked like she was cited for an expired dog license, it had turned into an arrest warrant, and the bail was enormous. Then there were penalties on top of the bail.
I said, “Ms. Doe, are you really here for an expired dog license?” The audiences laughed aloud, and she said, “Yes,” with tears streaming down her face. I was confused because I had never seen anything like this before. I must have really looked confused, because the people in the courtroom laughed harder when I tried to read my terrible copy of the paperwork, then looked up at her which led to more laughter.
I told the woman that I am confused by why the fine was so high. Then she said she didn’t know what the fine was, and I told her it appears to be $7,000, give or take. She began to cry again, and the audience laughed again. I reminded the audience that they were in a courtroom.
I told the woman that it looks like the citation was given in 2012, and she said she got the ticket in 2002. I asked, “You got this citation 15 years ago, and only now you decide to come to court?” The woman nodded tearfully, and said, “yes.” Again, laughter.
I asked her what happened to cause this citation, and she said she was out jogging and had Goofy with her. I said, “Who’s Goofy?” She said, “My little dog.” I asked what kind of dog is Goofy, and she said, “a chihuahua.”
I asked her to go on, and she stated, “I crossed the street, and there was a police car that I didn’t see, and the cop motioned for me to come back across the street back to him. So I ran back across the street to him, and the police officer said I jay walked and he was going to give me a ticket. I told him that that was crazy, because he is the one who called me to come back across the street. Then he said he wasn’t going to give me a ticket, and he was playing with Goofy. Then he said that Goofy’s tag was expired, so he wrote on a paper to get Goofy’s tag renewed. I didn’t think it was a real ticket, because I didn’t have to sign anything, and it didn’t look like any ticket I’ve seen before….” The audience again started chuckling.
“I see,” I said with a sigh. “And where is Goofy today?” Her eyes welled up with tears, and she said he just died. And I asked if I was correct in believing that she got a note to update Goofy’s license it didn’t look like a real ticket to her, so now, 15 years later she decided to come to court. She said, “Yes, because I got a letter saying there was a warrant out for my arrest and I had to come to court. I thought I was going to go to jail today for Goofy’s license.” This amused the audience to no end.
I kept thinking that this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in court. I said softly to myself, “What to do? What to do?” which brought laughter to the room again. I asked if she has other dogs at home, and asked if they have licenses. She said yes, and yes, of course.
I looked at this lady with tear-stained cheeks and said, “OK, here’s what I’m going to do.” Her eyes were welled up with tears, she sucked in her breath and looked like she was going to faint. The courtroom for once became very silent. “This ticket is over 15 years old, you were never properly noticed, as you never signed a promise to appear, and the legal file has nothing indicating you signed any such promise, but you did appear when you received notice by mail, 15 years later. In the interest of justice, I am recalling your arrest warrant, and dismissing this citation in its entirety and waiving all fines, fees and assessments. I need you to go to the cashier and get a document saying this is all cleared up. Do not leave without this. I don’t want to see you back here on this matter. The cashier may ask for a $25.00 administration fee, and I am ordering that fee waived. If the cashier disagrees, have them call me, and I’ll walk over there and straighten this out myself.”
The audience applauded, and this lady, for once actually smiled, and said, “Oh my God, thank you, thank you.”
Then of course I said, “This concludes this matter. Next, I have matter number…”
This was 5 years ago. She was the cousin of my significant other at the time. She was 22.
She is from a wealthy family. Dropped out of college. Her dad was fed up with her freeloading. He was paying for her rent, car, and phone.
She wasn’t doing anything productive, but partying and sleeping in until noon (Not that I was much better at 22, but I digress).
So apparently, she didn’t meet some internal deadline between her and her father, on getting at least a part-time job. There’d been missed deadlines in the past. But she was a daddy’s girl and he’d babied her since birth.
He finally sobered up and realized that if she was ever to be responsible, there had to be consequences.
On this round of consequences – he stopped paying for her phone.
Obviously, this phone was cut off eventually. She was super angry. She acted like it was a supreme act of betrayal.
She was at my house one day, when we had a few people over for dinner.
She borrowed my then significant other’s phone and was out on my front porch arguing with her dad.
When I opened the door to check on her, the only part of the conversation I caught was, “…yeah well, MAYBE IF YOU GAVE ME A PHONE THAT WORKS….”
It made me laugh because – there was nothing wrong with the phone he gave her. The phone worked fine.
But someone needed to pay for service in order for it to work 🙂 It reflected a very spoiled obliviousness towards the concept of money.
Years ago, my girlfriend, her brother and her brothers friend went on a ski weekend.
Her brother and his friend had very high paying jobs at an international oilfield company.
Friday night we went to the bar, and I left the tip on the table when we left. Credit cards had to run through a machine with a carbon copy paper, so not convenient.
My friends friend, went to the washroom and I said we would meet him at the exit. While waiting at the exit, I saw him go to our table first, then join us at the door. I kind of wondered about that.
The next day we go skiing and have dinner at the lodge. I left a tip for my girlfriend and I. When I stand up, my friends friend says, you forgot your money. I said “Its not my money” and he said, “OK its mine then”, and grabbed it . I said “Its the waitresses” and he dropped the money and jumped back, like he was slapped.
I was livid, but we left the money behind, and went back to the hotel room. While driving in the car, I asked him what he thought he was doing? He said what are you doing? We were all stunned.
It turns out he was Australian, first week in Canada, and he had never heard of, or seen tipping before.
I had no idea at the time ,45 years ago , that Australians didn’t tip. He had no clue what tipping was.
So, he wasn’t cheap, but would have been made me look cheap, if I hadn’t caught him.
Earthquakes Asteroids Zombies: Predictions of Nostradamus
I remember this VIVIDLY, unfortunately. I move from NYC to rural Vermont in 2013.
Around 2017, after getting to know a bunch of folks in the area, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in years. I got a library card. I took out the newly-released “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
I took it home, grabbed a glass of my favorite 19 Crimes red wine, and settled back on the couch. I opened it to the introduction, then adjusted the light a bit… then moved the book further from my eyes… then closer to my eyes.
I work in IT. I read stuff ALL DAY LONG….
HOWFUCKINGEVER…
It’s always backlit. I realized then that I hadn’t picked up an actual printed book to read in a few years. In that time my eyes degenerated a little AND NOW I NEED READING GLASSES!
I slammed the book shut and anyone reading this who lives in the northeast United States, likely heard the resounding, “GODFUCKINGDAMMIT TO HELL!” that I let out that day. I was 49 and was REALLY hoping to make it to 50 before I needed glasses. I consider myself VERY fortunate that that was the first time I felt like I was getting old.
RED DAWN (1984) | Opening Scene: Paramilitary Invasion | MGM
On the winter night it was around 10pm, there was a sudden bang on my iron gate. Curiously I went out and saw a young girl who was alone nicely dressed but no warm clothes. She was bald with black cloth around her head, wearing a confused face.
She requested to come inside. I asked her about herself and her sudden visit. Safely standing out, other members of my family also joined us.
She explained that she was classmate of my son, whom she had not met since ages but remembered his name.
She explained the shocking story about her family involved in terrorism, which seemed more like a plot from a movie than a believable reality.
My son, who lives outside the India, was unaware of her situation.
I called him and he confirmed that the girl was in his class during school days, probably in class 4th or 5th he had lost touches with her, knowing nothing about her current circumstances. We were all now confused what to do next.
Sensing that the girl is not in proper mental health. I decided against calling police and opted to reach out the school management with whom I had good relationship.
They promptly search for records going back to several years and provided me her home address and phone number.
Upon contacting her father he arrived immediately and told us the family had been searching her since noon. He explained that their daughter is in deep depression and under medication. She tried to attempt suicide sometimes.
He expressed gratitude for our assistance.
But how she remembered my address and my son’s name is still to be searched.
Edit: we are living in small town mostly every one knows each other. Later we came to know that the girl was actually in bad mental state. She was weird in school also.
You should never turn your partner’s generosity into your entitlement.
For example:
In my previous marriage, I cooked all the dinners. I would make his plate, and bring it to wherever he was. I would do this for anyone I cooked for, because I’m sweet like that. It’s a quiet way of giving affection and being considerate.
One time, early in our marriage, he had a busy couple weeks. So, to be thoughtful, I began packing his lunch for those days. He needed to leave early, so I began cooking and packing him a breakfast to reheat at work. These were things I did out of love and kindness.
Fast forward five years…he comes home from work every night and parks himself in the recliner with the remote control. I come home from my job, and immediately start cooking. I’m cooking our dinner, while he watches TV and yells from the other room to find out when it will be ready. I bring him his plate, and he eats while he watches the news. I eat at the kitchen counter while I’m cooking his lunch and breakfast for the next day. He is watching a show, and wants dessert, while I’m doing dishes. I no longer even get a ‘thank you’. In fact, if I get busy at my job, and ask him to take care of his own breakfast or lunch, he becomes angry if it’s longer than a day or two.
Fast forward 10 years…I come home from work every night and immediately start cooking dinner, while my kids do homework or play in the other room. I make their plates and bring them to the kids while they play. My son stops when I walk in, jumps up and down and gives me a hug. My daughter meets me halfway, takes her plate and says, “Thank you, Mommy.” I eat at the kitchen counter while I pack their lunches. My kids put their empty dishes in the sink and tell me how much they like what I made. I will cook for them forever…if they let me.
My ex-husband…he sits in somebody else’s recliner now, taking that person for granted.
I love doing nice things for the people I care about. However, nobody is entitled to my generosity.
My best relationship advice: Accept generosity and thoughtfulness as gifts from your partner. Do not use those gifts to make them your servant. Gratitude will make you both feel loved.
In the wonderful movie “Men In Black 3”, J and K meet up with an alien named Griffin
Griffin is the last of his species, which has the unique ability to see every possible future at once. In many cases, this turns out to be useful because Griffin can avoid dangerous possible outcomes by changing his own behavior.
The movie is set in July 1969 and Griffin loves going to Shea Stadium because his favourite possible future is when the Mets win the World Series. Griffin shares his power with J and K, and J remarks:
“So this is how you see things? This is amazing!”
To which Griffin replies
“It’s a gigantic pain in the ass, but it has it’s moments.”
And that’s what it’s like knowing stuff.
It’s being a doctor and knowing someone is going to die or, even worse, will have to live with a terrible disease for years, or decades.
It’s being a lawyer and seeing that your client is going to jail for a long time, or is going to lose a very large lawsuit.
It’s being an accountant and realizing someone is cheating.
It’s being an engineer and realizing that an existing structure will fail well before its service life is going to be over.
It’s at this point that the people who are ignorant still have hope.
Let me explain an example because I was involved in it a few years ago. In a nearby city, a water main broke and a nearby historic building, about three stories high, had part of its foundation badly damaged – a gap of about 1 meter.
The city called in two engineers. There was nothing that could be done. The structure hadn’t failed yet, but it eventually would. The damage couldn’t be repaired – it would be cheaper to tear it down and built it again.
So the city ordered its demolition. Immediately.
It was at that point a chemical engineer tried to start a campaign, with public support, saying the structure wasn’t damaged that badly and this was just a scam for the owners to get rid of the building so they could make a lot of money. He started trying to throw his weight around, threatening to sue people who were trying to tear down the building.
I remember talking to him. He said the building was stable. My training is in law, but I’ve been working with engineering for over a decade by then and even I knew about “deal load failure” – a “stable” building collapsing under its own weight. He was asking my employer to stop the demolition. That’s well outside our mandate, and it would have been improper for us to do so. That’s another thing he didn’t know.
Anyway, disciplinary complaints flew around right and left and the chemical engineer was the only one who got disciplined.
Being informed is a wonderful thing, but it brings you no comfort.
My dad was telling me a story about SEAL training, when they went and swam under ice up in the arctic.
Unlike this madman, he actually had a wetsuit on.
He said that when he went under the ice, which was white and thick, he eventually got lost. And under the ice, it was an even plane of ice in all directions, and his rope was gone. He had this sickening moment of realizing he might be stuck under the ice. Fortunately, he found his way—but the entire story gave me the heeby jeevies.
He also told me a story of coming back to a tent, and finding a giant walrus inside of it taking a nap.
I’m so much more docile and risk-averse than him. You couldn’t pay me to jump out of an airplane. In this case, the apple fell far from the tree.
It’s not free. It’s a stone soup. A lot of hard work for what was seen as a ridiculous idea.
Imagine a poor village. Nobody has food security, and they’re all carefully guarding what little food they have.
A couple starving guys build a fire in the village square, and put a big pot of water on. They throw a big stone in, calling it a magic stone, and say that they’re making stone soup.
The magic is that it is delicious and will nourish anyone that eats it.
Anyone that wants some stone soup only has to add a little food. A scrap of chicken meat, a potato, a turnip, some cabbage, or just some wild herbs.
Everyone wants more to eat, so they toss in what they can, and receive a bowl.
In the end, they’ve helped craft a delicious soup. There is no more to eat than there was in the beginning, but the quality is much better than the daily turnips they’ve scrounged all their lives.
They learn to stick together, to help each other out, and to trust their neighbours. The poorest, hungriest people get a bit more than they put in, but this nourishes them, and next time there is a stone soup, they’ll have a bit more to contribute.
Even the initial hungry guys contributed something important. Though the stone cannot be eaten, the idea is delicious, and more soup can be made every day.
You know for damn sure that the second soup had a lot more food in it.
That is what Saskatchewan did in Canada starting about 1947, completing by 1962. They were the poor hungry guys, and they helped the rest of Canada see that it made more sense to be a community and help each other out.
It sounds simple, and you hear it all the time from self-help influencers. But growing up as an abandoned child, I spent my childhood, adolescence, and the first decade of my adulthood trying to get approval from my dad. Oldest story in the fucking book of pathetic people-pleaser children.
Now that I think back, the reason my dad never respected me is precisely because I tried too hard. I think he wanted a son with a strong personality, a son who could go toe to toe against him and have a shouting match. But he got a pathetic, timid daughter who changed her tone according to his whim. Except, I could never be the kind of child he wanted. Growing up, I was constantly reminded that if I didn’t behave, my grandma would kick me out of the house, and I would live on the streets. When you grow up in that kind of environment, you learn to watch the adults in the household. You learn to read their emotions and try to appease them to avoid a beating. And my dad hated that.
It was a losing game for me right from the start.
I grew a backbone against my family when I finally gained financial independence. My dad finally got the child he hoped for, someone with a strong personality who could match him in a shouting contest and throw the door and walk out of the house. I was able to do that because I had a place to go. I’m no longer afraid.
I felt that, at that point, he wanted to have a relationship with me. Because I was well-read and had some life experiences, not only could I carry a conversation matching his (supposed) intellectual level, but I could even talk about stuff he didn’t know. I could entertain him. And, of course, there’s the fact that I can speak English and help him navigate life in the US.
I’m no longer a chore, a responsibility for him. I’m entertaining, I’m useful, and I have money. I could tell his attitude toward me had changed. The annoyance and disdain were gone. He asked me to call him. He asked me to visit him. He got unhappy when I didn’t reply to his random text messages. Suddenly, the role switched. My dad was suddenly in my position, hoping for my attention.
I finally got the validation, the “fatherly love” I so desperately wanted as a child. And I didn’t want it. Because I know he didn’t change his attitude because he suddenly grew some empathy for me. No. He changed his attitude because my stepmother died, and he realized he had only one blood relative left who could take care of him when he needed it. And he made a pisspoor effort to “make nice” with me.
I think once I got over my childhood issue with my dad, nothing else mattered to me. I worked past taking negative feedback about my art in art school and later on the internet (LOL). I learned to ignore haters and just do my own thing. Through years of therapy, I learned to have very healthy self-talk. I learned to validate my emotions. I learned to analyze my actions and call myself out for questionable decisions without putting myself down. I learned to be my own best friend and biggest supporter.
When you know yourself, good and bad, it doesn’t matter how other people see you.
In the game Dragon Age 2, there was a little NPC banter between two companions, Isabela and Merrill. Isabela described how she would flirt with guys in a bar, and Merrill admired her flirting skills. Isabela replied, “You have no idea how many times they tell me to “fuck off, you pathetic old hag.” Merrill was shocked and asked: ”Doesn’t it bother you?” Isabela replied, “Why should I? They don’t know me. I know me.”
And that line just stuck with me over the years.
They don’t know me. I know me. Only I can validate myself. I don’t need to make other people proud. I want to make myself proud.
I wish I had known this earlier. I wish I weren’t that people-pleaser child who had desperately wanted validation from a narcissist. But then again, there are some lessons you have to learn the hard way. I’m just glad I finally learned it.
My wife and I married later in life. She’d built a complex life under her maiden name and decided she wouldn’t legally change her name. To do so would have been a nightmare of bank, credit card, investment accounts, etc being changed. I was okay with that.
We decided we would have three bank accounts, hers, mine, and ours.
Went to my local bank to set up the ours account. We explained we were newly married (yay! Joy!) and that we wanted a joint account. The woman looked at my wife’s documents and said she couldn’t create a joint account for us. When we asked why, she said my wife had to legally change her name to mine for her to open the account. We said that was ridiculous. The teller said that was the law. I suspected it wasn’t, but bank lady wasn’t budging. How to get around this impass?
I asked if she could just add J to my current account. The teller said no, because it was still the same problem.
I said, “I can add anyone I want to my account. If I’m stupid enough to put a homeless drunk man on my account, I can legally do that.”
The teller agreed. But she said I couldn’t add my wife without her changing her name.
We told her where she could shove that idea (politely of course). I immediately closed my account. We jaunted across town to another, apparently more progressive bank, opened up the ours account with the two different surnames and the rest is history.
There is an old saying about doing a job you enjoy and you’ll be happy working, however there is another side to that which is if you do a job which you enjoy as a hobby, you will end up hating your hobby, and that’s exactly what happened.
When I was in my young teens, I’d love tinkering with mechanical objects. I worked for a bicycle shop at weekends and was well known for being able to fix bike problems. I had older friends who had cars (70’s Fords, Triumphs, that sort of thing) and I loved helping out working, on them. When it became time at school to pick a trade for my future, it was obvious, I’d be a car mechanic.
It was now the early 90’s and I was working my way through college doing day release and block release, while carrying out an apprenticeship with a Ford main dealer here in the UK. Times were changing and so were the cars. Gone were the overhead valve engines, or the single overhead cam engines, carburettors were becoming history, being replaced with ever more complicated fuel injection systems and multi cam, multi valve engines, and complicated emission control systems.
By the time I had finished my apprenticeship, I was starting to feel something was very wrong at the dealership I was working at. I had been earning the basic wage for several years (£29 per week until I was 17, then £35 per week). Despite having a high throughput in the workshop, the company never had any money for things like clean rags, WD40 and other sundries (despite the customer being charged on every job for these). Also, the garage rarely supplied special tooling we needed, or training we should all have been having on these new technologies. Warranty times were getting tighter, most of the cream service jobs were going to the top techs while us younger techs were getting all the fault diagnostics and warranty jobs, and a splattering of first services with little upsell.
Service department were pushing more and more work through, booking in clutches for while you wait customers, and customers were becoming more demanding. There were days when I’d be working outside in the rain, or in the snow wearing just jeans, a tee-shirt and overalls.
Also I had a girlfriend, and before each date I’d fill a sink with the hottest water I could stand, and soak my hands in it before scrubbing and pumicing my skin and nails, just so I’d be clean.
A day came when a manager came to me and told me I wasn’t ripping people off enough and I needed to add more items to each job, I consider myself a fairly decent person and I really don’t like ripping people off. The manager told me that if I didn’t start ripping off customers, I’d have to start looking for a new job. Also if I mentioned to anyone that we’d have that conversation, he’d deny it!
By this point I’d been working there for 6 years, and still struggling to clear £10k per year in earnings, and my favourite hobby was now the thing that made me miserable. I left the garage and tried to move away from the trade. I started working an office job, I had some experience working in the customer service department at the garage and I had a friend who worked at a recruitment agency who got me through the door, now I am a software QA.
Many years after I left the garage, I met up with the service manager and we got talking. It turned out that two of the people who owned the dealership had gone to jail for fraud. They had been skimming off most of the profits from the company to pay for their extravagant lifestyles. Stables, tennis courts, swimming pools. While I was working outside in the rain, I’d been paying for these people to live the lives of film stars.
Over the years I had worked for another main dealer, working as service receptionist and costing clerk. I found that corruption was there too, not at the same scale, but customers got ripped off, quality of work was often poor, drug use was ignored and the managers/owners didn’t care. I left that job after less than 2 years, and since then I have avoided the motor trade as much as possible.
I still work on my own and friends and families’ cars, mostly servicing items. I’ll never do it professionally again.
I was dismissed a number of years ago by an absolute thunderhelmet of a boss. I remember getting called into his office one day and he just started ranting and raving for no apparent reason. I guess I was just in the worng place at the wrong time and took the entire brunt of whatever it was he was pissed off about.
I was much younger back then, and I will admit that I had a much shorter fuse than I do now. I let him rant until he ran out of steam, and then I let him have it back both barrels. I told him exactly what I thought of him and that just sent him right over the edge again. I was told I had 10 minutes to pack up my stuff and get the fuck out!
My dad was an old union man, so when I got home and told him I’d been sacked, he quizzed me on it. He asked me had I done anything to warrant being called into the office. As far as I was aware, no. He asked “Has he suspended you or dismissed you?” Well since he told me to pack my stuff and get the fuck out, one would assume it’s a dismissal. He told me to ask my now ex-employer for a written explanation of why I had been dismissed. At first, the boss refused. He very quickly changed his mind when he got the letter from the Tribunals Service that I was intending to pursue them for unfair dismissal.
He sent me a bullshit letter with a load of bullshit excuses why they had decided to let me go, but the final one was the best of the lot. He claimed that I had been aggressive towards a senior manager (him) and had threatened him. That was bollocks. I had told him exactly what I thought of him “Fucking Fat, Lazy, Useless Bellend” I think were the exact words that I used to describe him, but at no point did I issue any sort of threat to him, nor was I particularly aggressive in my manner. I simply stood up for myself.
The tribunal went ahead and on the day he actually apologised for the confusion and told the tribunal that he would be happy to offer me my old job back. Too little, too late. I told the tribunal that the manner in which I was spoken to by him made me feel very threatened, hence the completely out of character response from me and that I did not feel comfortable returning to work a single day longer with that man. I felt that the offer of my job back was simply a tactic to deflect the outcome of the tribunal and that if I returned, I would be a target for his irrational behaviour and he would simply be looking for any excuse to terminate me again.
I won the tribunal and received my full pay from the date of dismissal to the day of the tribunal, plus a small financial compensation. I told the tribunal that the case was never about financial gain. I had simply wanted to clear my name and have the dismissal expunged from my employment record. I asked for any financial settlement to be donated to a homeless charity. I know that making that charitable donation hit that fat cunt far harder than handing it over to me.
Let me tell you about Randy (fake name), who graduated from my precision machining class in 2007.
I recently retired from teaching in a technical high school where 11th and 12th graders spend a half-day at their local high schools in the area, and a half-day with us.
Randy applied for our firefighting course (important later in the story). Because it is such a popular class, he didn’t get selected. I told Randy that my machining class still had openings, so he applied.
The next day, his counselor phoned me and said Randy wasn’t smart enough to succeed in my class. I told her if Randy turned in all of his assignments and never gave up, he would not fail.
The new school year began with Randy in my class. Every day, Randy arrived with a big smile, excited to learn something new. At the end of every day, he told me a few things he had just learned, and I always responded that I was proud of him.
Toward the end of the school year, Randy begged me to attend a parent-teacher-counselor meeting to discuss his progress and future. Tech center teachers normally didn’t attend such meetings, and Randy’s high school was a 40-minute drive away from the tech center. Since the meeting was during my class time, and since I was convinced it was important for me to be there, my boss authorized a substitute teacher for my class so I could attend.
At the progress meeting, Randy’s first period teacher said he was always cheerful. He always turned in his assignments, but they were of garbage quality. He hadn’t passed an exam all year. The second and third teachers’ stories were the same. In short, Randy was a nice kid who wasn’t smart enough to learn much.
By the time it was my turn to talk, I knew why Randy invited me. I described a student who was excited to learn new things every day. Randy had poor scores on his first few written tests at the beginning of the year, but soon began averaging around 85-90%. Whenever Randy made a mistake in the shop, he asked for help, paying attention to not repeat his mistakes. I finished my presentation by saying, “If I was back in industry, hiring new employees, I’d hire Randy in a heartbeat. He works hard, and I can always trust him.”
Everyone was stunned except Randy and me. He returned to my class for a second year, and did well again. He signed up for online classes, and graduated from high school on time.
After graduation, Randy worked nights in a machine shop while attending community college during the day. He completed the firefighting course in the normal two years, and was hired by a local fire department.
A couple years after that, Randy was accepted into an EMT (emergency medical technician) training program, where he graduated with honors.
If my wife or I ever need an EMT, I hope it’s Randy! I’m confident we’d be in good hands. Of course, I’m still proud of him.
My customer normally comes in on his own to buy 10 20L drums of industrial hand cleaner that my business manufactures – Grimetime. However this day his wife came with him and was actually driving.
He got out from the passenger side with his foot heavily bandaged and limping. After enquiring what had happened, I learnt that he had dropped a lawn mower on his foot which had subsequently removed his toes and a large portion of the rest of his foot.
Anyway the drums he wanted were right at the back of the pallet on the second level of the pallet racking and I was having trouble reaching the last 4 drums.
His snide comment was, “You’re too short! If you were taller you’d be able to reach!”
He is shorter than I am and without thinking or remembering he was a customer, I replied, “Hey, you can’t talk. You’ve always been shorter than me and but now you’ve lost half a foot!”
He was not amused but his wife roared laughing!
As funny as this was and even after more than 10 years, I still cringe at my insensitivity.
Not my finest moment as a human but probably my best one liner!
Many years ago, when gas stations were gas stations and grocery stores were grocery stores, I worked in a full service gas station. This was back when the attendant pumped the gas, checked the air in the tires, washed the windshield, and checked the oil level.
A customer pulled up to the pump, released his hood latch, and got out of the car. He asked me to check under the hood and around the front tire wells. As he was coming down the exit ramp from the interstate, he said he had heard some strange squealing noises that sounded like something rubbing and it was coming from the front of the car.
After starting the pump, I raised the hood and started looking for rubbing marks, feeling for loose or broken belts, etc. I didn’t find anything. I checked the oil level and closed the hood.
As the hood latched into place, I heard the squealing sound. I looked around under the wheel wells and all around the front of the car with no luck. I was about to walk back to the rear of the car when I heard the noise again, this time a bit softer. I looked at the front of the car more closely and there it was, the source of the noise. One of the headlights was missing and sticking through the hole where the wiring harness connected to the headlight was a tiny little head. A small kitten had managed to get up under the hood and crawl up to the area behind the headlight receptacle. It had stuck its head through the hole and was now stuck.
When I showed it to the customer he said it must have gotten in there before he left home that morning and he had driven almost 200 miles, mostly on Interstate 10. This was the first time he had stopped. We pulled the headlight holder and kitten then helped the little guy get unstuck.
I can’t imagine what it must have been like to that poor kitten. 200 miles at highway speed smack in the face. I don’t blame it for squealing.
A man sitting in the hotel said to his friend “Look at that kid waiting tables, he’s so dumb that if I put 500 and 50 notes in front of him, he will pick up the fifty note…. let me show you.
He hollered at the kid, put both 500 and 50 bills at the table and said “Take a note of greater value out of these two”. When the child picked up the fifty note, they both laughed out loud and left, the child went back to his work.
Another person who sat besides and witnessed this called the child afterwards and asked “You’re a grown kid who still doesn’t know the difference between fifty and five hundred notes. How come? That’s a loss”.
The child smiled and said “This man often comes here and demonstrates the same thing to his buddies for kicks and giggles, to amuse over my stupidity as I pick up the note of fifty each time, they have a momentary laugh over this, and I get fifty rupees. The day I picked 500 would be the day this game will be over and… my income too”.
There is no need to be wise everywhere… especially when being wise affects one’s own peace, interests and happiness, then it is wise to become a fool.
I have also chosen to go anonymous to answer this question.
I got pregnant the second time I ever had sex.
I was 14 years old.
I came from a “good” family, and had good grades and lots of friends. Sex was something I thought you did to keep a boyfriend, I certainly didn’t enjoy it back then – there wasn’t much to it. I didn’t know anything about birth control and even if I did, I sure wouldn’t have known how to get it back then and this was well before the days of Plan B.
I had a feeling fairly quickly that something was amiss – so my two best girlfriends and I played hooky from school and took the bus to a nearby city to a Planned Parenthood office to take a pregnancy test. I remember us joking and laughing in the waiting area until the nurse came to get me. She took me into a private room and talked to me about my options – I could keep the baby if my family was willing to help me (I was too young to apply for any kind of government assistance), I could have an abortion, or I could give the baby up for adoption.
The first was out. I knew there was no way my family would allow me to keep a baby being so young myself and my mother would be very worried about what other people thought, but I didn’t feel right about having an abortion so I chose to have the baby and surrender.
My mother was enraged when I told her my decision – I’m sure partly with concern for how difficult it would likely be for me, but she also couldn’t handle the stigma of having a pregnant teenaged daughter. My dad told me that whatever choice I made, he would support me. I found a maternity home about an hour away and my parents shipped me off there around my 15th birthday. Luckily, I would up with a very compassionate ob/gyn who took exceptional care of me and treated me with kindness and respect.
When my son was born after a very long, difficult labor, he immediately put him in my arms as I had asked. I had 6 days to feed and hold and love my son before the provincial papers to surrender were signed. On that day, my parents came up to get me (and my mother probably wanted to make sure I didn’t change my mind) I loved my son with every part of my being, but I could see no way to care for him and give him the life I felt he deserved. I signed the papers.
It was a closed adoption, so though I was allowed to name him, I knew his name would likely be changed. I wrote a letter to him and another one to his adoptive parents and hoped one day they would let him read them. Just like the other poster (so far) on this question, I never stopped thinking about him and also struggled with the heartbreak and depression of the loss. I spent most of my high school years numbing myself with booze and pot, but I remained a good student, so most people didn’t see how deeply distraught I was.
From the day I surrendered him, I began counting down the years until I could try to see him again. I felt that I would wait until he was 18 before I registered with the provincial registry as they would only give me non-identifying information before then. I did register on his 18th birthday but he hadn’t yet registered and I wondered if he knew about me or ever wanted to meet me. When my family mentioned it at all, it was generally to remind me not to “intrude” on his life. I was expected to get on with my life and forget about him and though I became very successful in my career, I never married and never had any other children.
Eventually, by the time he was in his very early 20’s, the province that I live in opened up their records so that birth families and adoptees could find each other more easily. I could now access his identifying his information if I wanted to, but he could chose to veto my search if he wanted to. He didn’t. I was able to find him very quickly when the paper work finally arrived. By then I had the internet to make my search easier.
I finally worked up the courage to call him one Saturday afternoon. I gently explained who I was and who I believed him to be. He was overwhelmed and seemed very happy to hear from me. I fell to my knees on my floor just to speak to him. It was the most emotional experience of my life. We talked for a few hours and then I wrote him a letter to fill him in a little more on the missing pieces. That same night, his mom called me to introduce herself and, most wonderfully of all, to welcome me to the family. She had raised our son to know he was adopted, and always promised him that if he ever wanted to find me that she would support him and help him.
She told me all about him – funny little details about his childhood and his pets and his friends. It was incredibly touching to have her support and it made our reunion so much easier for everyone. I met with her first, along with her daughter (my son’s younger sister). Perhaps they wanted to size me up first, but I really didn’t mind. On that first meeting they gave me a photo album crammed with pictures of my son throughout his life. It was an incredible gift.
Finally, a few weeks later I drove to the city where my son lived – the same city I surrendered him in. He and his mom met me for dinner. I was so nervous and so was he. She was funny and warm and made it a little easier. The three of us spent the evening together getting to know one another. At the end of the evening, when I got out of the car in front of the hotel I was staying in, my son jumped out and hugged me. It was magic. I felt I had waited my whole life to hold him in my arms again. He was just over 7 pounds when I said good bye, he was a grown man when I held him again. It was beyond anything I had ever experienced or could accurately describe.
The next evening just he and I went out. He showed me the letter I had written to him the night before I surrendered him as a baby. His parents had given it to him when he was 15 and he kept it safely pressed in a book since then. I told him I was sorry if I caused him any pain by surrendering him, but that I felt I had no other choice and I wanted the best for him. He said he understood and that he had a good life and knew he was loved by his family, but also by me, that he understood how much I must have loved him to have let him go.
Since then, we’ve just continued to grow our relationship. His mom and sister now live in the city I live in, and we see each other as often as our schedules allow. My son and I did some travelling together and spent more time getting to know each other and see how much alike we are – both ridiculously stubborn and opinionated, both loyal, both with a love of travel and cultures. His mom often laughs at how similar we are. A few years ago, he married a fantastic girl and we all welcomed their first baby into the world just after Christmas.
Now, surrendering a child is not an experience I would wish on anyone. Neither would I wish being a pregnant teen on anyone. No matter what choice you make, the consequences are difficult and lifelong. For many, many years, I felt isolated from the rest of the world because I didn’t share this truth about myself, or if I did, it was with a sense of shame and loss.
When I found my son, I had to find some way to integrate my life with my found son and his family and somehow get everyone in my world to understand why this was life and death important for me and they could either support me or lose me. For some, it was easy, for others, far more difficult, but I am glad we all found a way to make it work. Families are built in a number of different ways and I am grateful to be where I am now. I know how lucky I am.
I grew up in the country. We raised chickens for eggs. We had a few that laid white-shelled eggs, but mostly lots of shades of brown…some with light green, light blue, pink shells. It depends on the breed.
Most of the eggs you buy in stores are mass-produced in giant chicken sweat-shops. The chickens are given just enough nutrients to produce thin-white-shelled eggs. The yolks are pale and the cost per egg is cheap. It’s an exploitive money-game.
A humanely raised chicken that is fed properly and allowed to forage, will lay thick-shelled eggs with a fairly sturdy inner membrane. A farmer may choose to raise red hens, or something more exotic to help differentiate his/her eggs. Or maybe they just prefer a bird better adapted to their living environment.
Growing up, if I dropped an egg on the kitchen floor, the shell would break, but the membrane would still hold it together. You could still use the egg. Try that with the typical grocery store variety! Once you cracked the egg, the yolk was dark yellow to orange, and very prominent. They were likely fertilized too. Our eggs tasted different. Probably had a wider vitamin content, due to the hen’s diet…and those tough shells…calcium from bugs and the occasional oyster shell supplement.
I live in the suburbs now. I pay $5 or $6 a dozen for certified humane, pasture-raised chicken eggs. My sense of taste prefers the eggs from chickens that forage. My outer Momma wants my kids to eat the safest and healthiest food I can afford. Mostly, my conscience remembers my “pet” chickens, and the way I taught them to come running to me when I whistled. They had a good life…and a purposeful one.
Its not the color of the egg…it’s the content of its character.
People are so greedy. i was buying a estate house in Danville Virginia. it had all the appliances and old crappy furniture. before closing the relatives, all came to the house and stripped it including the toilets. I did a prebuy inspection the day before the sale and saw what they did and called my realtor and said the deal was off. the realtor cane and was PISSED. he got the other realtor involved and the estate person came and saw what had happened. both realtors were stunned. we talked for about an hour and the realtor for the seller got the estate person to come over and look what happened. she was appalled by what all her relatives had done. the house was not very expensive and would have worked for me. we all talked, and the price went from 70k to 50k (nobody really wanted the house except me) the estate person deducted the losses from the people who took stuff. i ended buying rally nice appliances at Home Depot Scratch and dent for about 2k and bought modern toilets for 200 each. it worked out well for me in the end. 20k discount is a big amount of cash. at the closing the title company issued me a check for 20k and i talked to the bank and they were ok with the deal. i bough the appliances and some of furniture then just paid the rest on the mortgage. I lived in the house for 3 years and sold it with the appliances and furniture to a young couple. it sold for 112,000. it is amazing what elbow grease and effort can do to an old rundown house.
Here are some low-key signs of highly intelligent people:
1. Most of them have the habit of staying up late into the night.
2. They may have bad handwriting because of the trouble with their mouth and hand keeping up.
3. They have unusual, out of the box, apparently ‘crazy’ ideas.
4. They’re prefer to be with their own company.
5. They’re brutally honest with what they don’t know.
6. They can talk to people they don’t like and hear ideas they don’t agree with and not get emotional.
7. They have a twisted sense of humor. They are most likely to enjoy and understand dark humor.
8. They have good body memory. Their bodies can pick up routines faster than others.
9. They use the Keanu behavior to boost intelligence.
Keanu Reeves says highly intelligent people play a game. They try to be wrong once in a while. They practice being wrong more often to reset their egos.
10. They can explain difficult matter in an easy way.
11. They can make connections between seemingly unrelated subjects.
Land of the Lost (6/10) Movie CLIP – Hadrosaur Urine (2009) HD
I am fifty six years old. I grew up hungry. My parents did the best they could and I never starved but there was never quite enough.
One of my co-workers grew up the same way. Her mother made giant pots of cabbage soup and kool aid without sugar. She is in her mid forties. We both have been food secure since the late 1990s.
We were both recently sent to a conference. The organizers provided all the food. This made us uncomfortable but we didn’t know why.
We both compulsively took a couple tea bags and small jars of honey from the drink station.
“Just in case we need a drink later.”
They had a breakfast buffet. I took an extra orange, a small box of cereal and some honey for my room. My friend did the same. We put the food in our room. We felt better.
“Just in case we are hungry later.”
They had an exhibition hall. At each station was a candy bowl. My friend and I stood and picked out candy at each table. We put it in our bag.
“Just in case we need a sweet later.”
Our young co-worker has never been hungry. Both parents have good jobs. Her godmother is a bigwig in the town. She watched us in amusement and exasperation.
“If you need food later call room service. Ask the valet to go bring you something if you don’t like the food in the hotel. You parked in valet parking right? You gave him a good tip? Alright, go take that stuff up to your room. I’ll save you a seat at the keynotes.”
She doesn’t understand. Just like the kids with money didn’t understand why Frances and I volunteered to be kitchen help in elementary school. Why we brought our backpacks to lunch on Friday, or how grateful we were when the kitchen lady filled them with bread and fruit and government milk and cheese.
Poor kids understand hunger . . .and hiding food. Even though I haven’t been hungry since 1997, I remember. Rich kids know food will always be there. They don’t know hunger, and they’ve never hidden food.
This happened about 30 years ago. My mother-in-law had a Mustang II that she loved and took great care of. When she was diagnosed with cancer, my sister-in-law moved in with her to take care of her during her final months. Sister-in-law used the Mustang for shopping and transportation for both of them.
Then one day, the car started making a horrible knocking noise. Sister-in-law took it to the respected Ford dealer, where mother-in-law had originally bought it. They diagnosed the car with a blown engine, said it was not worth fixing, and recomended trading it in on a new car. In-laws did not have the money for a new car.
My wife and I lived out of town, and were in town for a visit. Sister-in-law asked if I could take her to the dealer to pick up the car and bring it home. It still drove even though it made a knocking sound and ran terrible. We went to the Ford dealer, and they charged her $400 for the diagnosis. All they did was test the compression on the four cylinders, and some other made up stuff. I couldn’t believe it. Sister-in-law paid the $400, and I drove the car to their house as she followed me.
I was an amateur mechanic from my highschool gear head days, and it sounded to me like the knocking was from the top of the engine, and not the lower end. They had a cheap Walmart socket set in their kitchen tool drawer, so I offered to take off the valve cover and see if maybe I could find out what was wrong. It was just a broken valve spring!
We had to go back home, so I couldn’t fix the car for them. But I went back to the Ford dealer to get the $400 back for the misdiagnosis. They refused. I yelled that it was way too much, they were just trying to cheat us into buying a new car, and why didn’t their service shop warranty cover a misdiagnosis? They said they couldn’t refund money for work that was already done.
It was late Friday afternoon, and the service department waiting room was full of people picking up their cars. I made sure everyone heard every detail exactly as it happened. The people all stared silently at the floor as I made a scene. I pushed it to the point where the service manager was calling the police. I didn’t get any money back, but I’m sure it costed them much more than $400 in future service business and car sales!
The in-laws asked where they should take the car to get fixed. My wife suggested to call the nearest auto repair shop with the owner’s name on the sign. So, on Monday morning, they called Russ’s Auto Service. Russ answered the phone and made an appointment the next day. It cost $95 to replace the broken valve spring. The car ran for 5 more years, until it completely rusted out.
One time my Dad stole someone’s neglected dog and gave it to a kid for Christmas.
The dog lived kitty-corner down the street from my Dad’s house. The poor thing lived on a 3-foot-long chain in the middle of the front yard. One side of its little circle was covered in poop, and the other side had bowls he could barely reach.
The poor thing was often left out all night. Dad called animal control a bunch of times, and the owners had been contacted and briefly took care of the dog, letting it in every night and clearing the poop,, but always slacked off, and there the poor thing was again!
An occasional visitor to his home had a son about 8 or 10 years old, who would go down the street and pet the dog. He made up his own name for the dog, and the dog just lit up when he went over, usually with treats from Dad’s house.
A few days before Christmas the dog was out on his short chain shivering in an ice-cold rain. You could see him suffering from the kitchen window. Nobody was home at the neighbors… Dad walked over, bold as brass, unclipped the dog, and brought him in.
He gave the dog a nice bath and blow-dried him, ripped a huge golden bow off of a box under the tree and put it on the dog, and drove him over and gave him to that boy.
The boy had the dog for many years, and they were the best of friends.
This is kind of the other way around. My mother was born in 1948 to an unmarried couple, which due to the societal norms at the time could have made her life and theirs quite difficult If they had kept her. She was adopted at only 3 days old. She never wanted to know who her birth family was because she loved her parents so much. They gave her so much love and care because to them she was the miracle they couldn’t have. She believes that though they did not give birth to her, that they were fated to be her parents. For 70 years she lived happily as the only daughter, with no cousins or any extended family. Her parents friends were more like family than some people’s actual family. Her mother passed in the early 90s and her father in ‘99. They never told her anything about her birth parents. And we think now that the only person who knew about them was a family friend my mom called Auntie.
In 2016 I was in grad school & studying language and linguistics. A professor had a dinner party & after the meal he showed us this chart about his heritage based on a DNA test like AncestryDNA. I was fascinated by it & asked for it as a Christmas gift. Then in the summer of 2017 I was contacted by someone on Ancestry who asked how we were related because it showed us as closely related. I was busy writing my thesis & studying for exams while working that summer, so I politely responded that I wasn’t sure and that I’d look into it. I was also worried that it was my dad’s side of the family which he had avoided for decades.
I didn’t understand just how close our DNA was at the time since I was new to the whole thing. I learned later that it was saying that she was my mother, which seeing her photo later made sense as she looks identical to my mom. She was so confused and began asking her siblings and elderly aunts & uncles if they knew anything. She finally found someone who did and she and her siblings discovered that they all had an older sister that no one knew about all these years. You can imagine how surprised they must have been. They all wanted to know their sister.
My mom, who had known she was adopted and wasn’t keen to meet a new family, was pretty hesitant to speak with them. It was through messages relayed between me and her sister who found me that she even found out about it. My mom is very sweet and caring, but I think she was really overwhelmed. She kept putting off talking to them. She waited until just this past spring to meet with them (via zoom) for the first time. (We had planned to meet in person, but then the pandemic happened.)
In the end, though she was not looking for it and quite hesitant, she found that she and her siblings, especially her sisters, have quite a lot in common and seems genuinely happy to know them. She gets excited to talk to them now too. It’s pretty cool seeing their relationship grow as they all ask each other about how they grew up and what their experiences have been and laughing together about the fun stories they share.
I want to post some pictures about China’s grassroots democracy. This place is a party’s community service station. The district congressman has office here, and the following posters are
1. The contact information of the district congressman belonging to the community is written below. Scan the QRcode to find him and he will “do something for you immediately”.
2. Announcement of the court election jury. Its publishing department is: The judicial bureau, the court and the police station.
3. Advertisements about free physical examinations for citizens over 65 years old, and telling them where the nearest hospital is around them.
Thanks for your upvotes, I have added a few photos.
This is a sign hanging at the door of another party’s community workstation, showing that there is a Communist Party lawyer who will work for ordinary people here for free at some specific time, and his phone number is also written on the sign.
This is also an advertising board for a community legal worker designated by the Party, with her contact information and service area details there. In China, the law is an easy tool for ordinary people. The litigation fee for small lawsuits is only 25 RMB yuan (about 3 US dollars), and the complaint can be drafted free of charge by legal workers of the Communist Party.
When this post has ten upvotes , I will post some modern art-style sculptures of the Communist Party.
I didn’t expect the tenth upvote to come so fast.
Now, the photo uploaded is a sculpture on a city street, showing the spirit of hammer and sickle advocated by the Communist Party. The hammer and sickle ☭ is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between agricultural and industrial workers.The hammer representing workers and the sickle representing the peasants.
However, this sculpture was placed by a shopping mall nearby, which was set up to attract more customers. It is not a local party committee political propaganda.
My next update will post some real political propaganda sculptures when the number of upvotes reaches 20.
Well, I’ve got 20 upvotes . Now I’m going to post a real political propaganda sculpture, some very China thing, it is a stone.
Yes, this is a stone with Chinese characters on it, “seeking truth from facts”. The stone engraved with this sentence can be seen in almost every city in China, because this is a official political propaganda slogan of the CPC.
He wasn’t fired. My step-dad work for the California Highway Patrol Acadamey as a gun Smith. He retired after 20+ years. He hated his job. He loved gunsmithing and even did it in his off hours, bur he hated working for the government office. One year, in the mid 1990s the CHP decided it needed to go through every gun used by CHPnand the academy and ensure they worked correctly, great. There are thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of guns, I never heard a solid figure. They had a year to do this. The most important thing for his complaint is that they had to fire a minimum of 100 rounds through each gun to ensure it was operating correctly. There were 3 gunsmiths to accomplish this task. They all ended up needing surgery for injuries incurred during this mass gun retrofit, shoulder, elbow, wrist with sever carpal tunnel like injuries (eventually it ended up he needed 2 surgeries on left shoulder, 3, on the right, 1 on each elbow, 2 on right wrist and one on left, and surgery on the right hand itself for sever trigger finger, and yes it is actually called “trigger finger”), the other two gunsmithshad similar sets of surgeries. They had to fight CalPERs for almost 10 years to “prove” this was actually caused by having to fire off approximately 1000 rounds per day for over a year, hmmmm 3 guys develop the same symptoms within weeks of eachother, working the same job, and need the same treatments, no it must be a pre-existing condition. And for those 10 years of fighting to get the surgeries, they *still* had to work. The state of California sucks, especially for their government employees. Then there was all the PC stuff. My step-dad was Japanese, and the most politically incorrect person I know, and it was usually directed at himself, ex. He had a circle of cardboard hanging in his workstation to indicate his mood (its nice to be warned), on one side was a frowning face, on the other was a smiley face with eyes like the laughing emotion 😆, he was told that was not acceptable, it was racist and he needed to take it down, my JAPANESE step-dad was told he could NOT hang that in his workstation, instead of arguing that it was accurate for his race he said “everyone’s eyes sqquinch up like that when you smile, how is that racist?” and then demonstrated with the surrounding crowd, they made him take it down anyway, that was in the late 1980s, before his injuries. Another example of non PC behavior: he was a rarity, a person without a middle name (my mother also has no middle name), his initials were KK, head office kept trying to get him to give them his middle initial, they stopped after he submitted K as his middle initial. A Japanese man with the initials of KKK it could only have been better if he had been black. On his last day of work I had bought him, at his request, a copy of Johnny Paycheck album with Take This Job and Shove It on it. He put it on the intercom system for the whole building as he left from his last day.
When I was 16, my 5 year old sister was expelled from a special summer school for special needs children. My sister was accused of calling another child the b word. My sister had a vocabulary of 2 words at that time, the b word was not one of them. After she was expelled, it dawned on me that she wasn’t going to get better unless I helped her myself. So for the rest of the summer, I dedicated 3 hours of the day devoted to teaching her words. The first hour was just going around the house, pointing at things, and saying their name out loud. The 2nd hour focused on conversation. How are you? What’s your name? How old are you? Just me questioning and answering everything, at least in the beginning. The 3rd hour, we just worked on her letters, writing and reading. Again, most of it involved me doing the talking, but she had to be there to listen. The first week was brutal. She cried, I cried. But after the first week, she understood I wasn’t going to let up. She started becoming more cooperative. I couldn’t believe it myself, but by the time September came around, we were going to the library and she was saying hi to people she didn’t know. Her 1st grade teacher even made a remark about her improvement to my mother on the first day. Obviously, this was just the beginning of a long road to catching up to her age level, communication wise. But it was at least, the beginning. I now understand that my sister’s misdiagnosis of autism was actually a defense mechanism to our abusive father. If I didn’t make her hunker down that summer, would she have eventually spoke on her own anyway? I’m honestly not sure, but I hope so. I always knew my sister was a bright girl, she understood what I asked her. She understood how the remote control worked. She was even smart enough to figure out that if she pretended not to speak, my father wouldn’t focus on her and most likely not start any fights with her that lead to her getting abused somehow. My sister is now on her last year of pharmacy school, and she even made a wonderful speech during my wedding 4 years ago. I remember looking at her during her speech, and being flooded with emotion while she spoke. Emotion full of pride and happiness of how far she has come. I am so grateful that I never underestimated her.
I’m a Believer – The Monkees
The Delicate Task of Loving a Misbehaving Adult
December 15, 2023
In the journey of life, one of the most heart-wrenching experiences we face as adults is witnessing our loved ones – be they friends or family – make unwise choices or behave in ways that are harmful to themselves or others.
Whether it’s a friend perpetually entangled in toxic relationships, a family member clinging to self-destructive habits, or a partner making choices that leave you bewildered, the helplessness can be suffocating.
As adults, we are accustomed to taking control of our lives, making decisions that shape our destiny. However, when it comes to the actions of those we care about, we are often rendered powerless. Watching a friend spiral into bad habits, or a family member persist in destructive behavior, can evoke a deep sense of helplessness. This feeling is compounded by the knowledge that, despite our best intentions, we cannot live their lives for them or make their choices.
But here’s the thing: sometimes, love isn’t about erecting guardrails or playing puppet master. It’s about accepting that, as adults, we have the right, even the responsibility, to navigate our own paths – even if those paths wind through pothole-infested back alleys.
It’s not about condoning their actions, mind you. It’s about acknowledging that sometimes, the most painful lessons are learned through stumbles and scrapes. And while our instincts may scream to warn, to protect, sometimes stepping back allows for a different kind of love to bloom – the silent, steadfast kind that trusts in their resilience, even when we doubt it ourselves.
This doesn’t mean becoming emotionally inert bystanders. Open communication, laced with empathy and devoid of judgment, can be a lifeline. But ultimately, we must accept that our loved ones possess an internal compass, even if it points north while the rest of the world shouts “south!”
Think of it like holding a pebble in your palm. Clench your fist too tight, and it slips away. But hold it loosely, with open fingers, and it finds its own equilibrium, nestled comfortably within your trust. That’s the delicate dance we play – offering support without smothering, guidance without dictating, and love that endures even when the path they choose forks wildly from our own.
So, the next time you find yourself wincing at your loved one’s choices, remember: sometimes, the greatest act of love is letting go, trusting that even in their stumbles, they are learning, growing, and finding their own unique way home. And when they do, with arms grazed and knees scraped, let your open palm be the first haven they find.
Because in the end, love isn’t about shielding them from every misstep, but about being there, with open arms and open hearts, to catch them when they fall.
“No, I have to INSPECT the periscope for install. It failed.”
“I am giving you an ORDER, here. You WILL certify this periscope for install! That submarine has to get underway tomorrow! It’ll take a week to get another one down here!”
“The periscope failed inspection. Here, here, and here. The gouges are too deep, as I measured them.”
“(insert expletive here), I’m giving you a direct order! Sign off on the inspection!”
“Put the order in writing, then. I’ll sign off as it being by direction, but I need the paperwork.”
And he did. I tucked the paperwork into the folder, and saluted. “I’ll take care of it, sir.” and walked out. 20 minutes later, I was before the Task Group Commander, showing him the uncompleted paperwork and the written order. My problem child was in the brig awaiting a court-martial before the sun went down.
Every step requiring a QA sign-off is present because someone died, something failed catastrophically, or the ship sank. Every. Single. One. Asking me to falsify test results is putting a gun to your head and telling me to pull the trigger. I may not pull it, but cell or bodybag, you are not ever going to be a problem for me again.
Here’s a story that may help. The last time I checked, my IQ is in between the 98th and 99th percentile. A few years ago, I had to change the wipers on my car. I spent over an hour on those damn wipers, with no progress. They could not be put on. There was no doubt in my mind they were defective as I read the instructions, watched videos, and tried every possible solutions that came to mind. Eventually, an extended family member of mine pulled up, and asked what I was doing. This guy is probably your exact definition of stupid, because he was mine up until that day. He’s worked blue collar jobs his whole life, has a ninth grade education, and literally has a tattoo of a bird perched on top of his ear defecating onto his shoulder. As he got out of his truck, with a 40 oz Olde English in each hand, he asked me what I doing. I told him I was trying to replace my wipers, but it couldn’t be done. He cocked his head to the side, handed me his beers, and put the wipers on in about 90 seconds, all without saying a word. He took his drinks back and walked inside.
If Jesus himself had appeared before me, that would’ve still been the second most shocking thing of the day. Here’s a guy I always viewed as intellectually inferior, and in 90 seconds he gave me one of the most humbling lessons I’ve ever experienced. There’s no doubt in my mind I could score much higher than him on an IQ test. But I will NEVER consider him an intellectual inferior to me. In anything automobile related, or construction related, he is Albert Einstein and I’m Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford.
Given the proper circumstance, I guarantee you I would have the exact same experience with 99% of the population (and so would you). Everyone is better than me at something. And given the proper circumstance, I could be in the reverse situation with just about anyone in the planet. I’d be willing to go head to head in a debate with Neil deGrasse Tyson on a range of subjects from the economics of various tax rates to how to navigate downtown Los Angeles, and any high school football player would mop the floor with me on a debate about nutrition or exercise, and likely be on par with me in terms of competitive business strategy (football teaches a lot). Does that mean this average football player is intellectually superior to me, or I’m intellectually superior to Neil deGrasse Tyson? The answer is no and hell no respectively.
“Every man I meet is in some way my superior; and in that I can learn of him.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Greatest How To Handle Your GF If She Asks For An Open Relationship Story That I’ve EVER Heard!
A better question is how could the United States expand sanctions on China’s chip industry without repercussions that hurt the U.S. more than China? And the Answer is it can’t. It simply can’t!
Chips are nothing unless it is used as a component of a product for example a smartphone or a computer. And China as a market dwarfs the U.S. by several folds. Today there are a billion Chinese consumer of high technologies compared to say 250 million in the U.S.! That is 4 folds higher! China’s consumer market alone is 30–35% if the entire world! Can the U.S. not be hurt if these consumers are forced into buying a different chips?
But worst is that from the 2/3 of the rest of the world market, most of their products are either assembled or made in China! That constitute another 30–40% of the world’s market! So the U.S. by sanctioning China U.S. sanctioning the U.S. chip makers of some 60–70% of the market. Or it has direct influence or possibly sell to only 30–40% of the world’s market.
But that is just the first nightmare for the U.S. Next, China will make equivalent products within 3 year’s maximum and then. Even this 30–40% rest of the world market will choose a Chinese make that is cheaper, faster and better than the U.S. products. Your entire chip industry will thoroughly collapse and U.S. government will be faced with high unemployment and bankruptcy!
So if I were you, I will vote in a smarter U.S. government!
The Unruly Legacy of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Penis, “Jumbo”
December 15, 2023
Lyndon B. Johnson, the Texan titan who bestrode American politics like a colossus, wasn’t just a master of deal-making and arm-twisting. He was also a virtuoso of the grotesque, a man who wielded his larger-than-life persona and even his anatomy as instruments of power. And no body part played a more outlandish role than “Jumbo,” his self-bestowed nickname for his, shall we say, prominent appendage.
Jumbo wasn’t just a playful euphemism. It was a banner, a declaration of Johnson’s unvarnished masculinity, his disregard for decorum, and his uncanny ability to disarm and dominate in equal measure. He’d whip it out in conversation, brandishing it like a political cudgel, leaving colleagues both amused and discomfited. He’d conduct business from the porcelain throne, transforming the mundane into a performance of power, a reminder to all who dared to enter that even the most intimate act couldn’t diminish his authority.
But Jumbo was more than a mere spectacle. It was a tool, a calculated act of vulnerability that disarmed and drew in. In the stuffy halls of Washington, where power was often cloaked in formality, Johnson’s bawdy humor and open displays of Jumbo were a breath of fresh Texas air. He used it to connect with men who might otherwise have found him intimidating, to forge bonds of shared laughter and discomfort, turning vulnerability into a twisted currency of trust.
Of course, not everyone appreciated the show. Critics saw it as crass, a vulgar display of egotism. But Caro, in his masterful biography, “Master of the Senate,” argues that Jumbo was more than just a personal quirk. It was a carefully crafted persona, a deliberate performance of power that allowed Johnson to operate outside the traditional bounds of political decorum. He was the bull in the china shop, shattering expectations and asserting his dominance through sheer audacity.
And Jumbo wasn’t just about power. It was also about intimacy, a way of connecting with men in a way that transcended the usual political machinations. In the close-knit world of the Senate, where loyalty and trust were paramount, Jumbo became a shared secret, a badge of belonging in Johnson’s inner circle.
Jumbo was, ultimately, a microcosm of Johnson himself: complex, contradictory, and undeniably effective. It was a reminder that power can be wielded in unexpected ways, that vulnerability can be a weapon, and that even the most outlandish behavior can be a calculated act of self-promotion.
So, the next time you hear of Lyndon B. Johnson, remember Jumbo. Remember the man who dared to bare his soul, his body, and his ambitions in equal measure. Remember the Texan who rode roughshod over convention, leaving a trail of laughter, discomfort, and, yes, even a little bit of awe in his wake.
Red Cooked Beef (Hung Shao Niu Jo — China)
Ingredients
1 (2 pound) beef boneless chuck, tip or round
3 tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry white wine or sherry
1 thin slice fresh or canned ginger root or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 scallion, cut lengthwise into halves
1 clove garlic, cut into halves
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Fresh cilantro (optional)
Toasted sesame seed
Instructions
Trim fat from beef; cut beef into 1 1/2-inch cubes. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in wok or 12-inch skillet until hot. Stir-fry half the beef cubes until brown on all sides, about 2 minutes. Remove beef to 3-quart saucepan. Repeat with remaining oil and beef.
Mix water, soy sauce, wine, gingerroot, scallion, garlic, sugar and pepper; add to beef. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender, about 1 hour.
Garnish with small sprigs of cilantro; sprinkle with sesame seed. Serve with hot cooked Chinese noodles, if desired.
Walgreens ran this customer rewards program in which you accumulated points and you could, whenever you felt like it, redeem those points for discounts from products.
Many of their promotions included bonus points. “+1000 pts if you buy this 12 pack of Coke!”
It was a basic rewards program. The points translate to dollars. You get it.
So I have one of these stores right by my house. I stop there frequently.
I kept savings these points up. I’d saved them up for over 4 years. I had close to $100 in my account. To be used whenever on products at their store.
I stopped in to pick up some drinks/snacks on the way home.
The lady says, “Would you like to use any of your balance rewards?”
I say, “How much do I have right now?” (I always checked. I was enjoying stacking them up.)
She says, “You have $21.”
Record stop.
“Hold up, I had a lot more than that in there. I’ve been saving for years?”
She says, “Yes they recently changed the policy. Only your most recent 12 months can count towards the purchase.”
I’m pissed off.
I say, “Well – let’s put the $21 towards this purchase.”
She says, “You can only use $5 for each purchase.”
<deep sigh>
I put the $5 towards the purchase.
I haven’t fully cut Walgreens off but I am in the process of cutting them off. I spend about 80% less there now.
Just as a matter of principle — I’ll make sure their competitor across the street gets multiples of the $79 that they took with the cheap policy change.
I hate shady business tactics.
Lesson: Any time you get points with a store — use them quickly.
Oh, I have a lot of regrets. Though, I try to minimize the mountain of built-up and pent-up regrets and memories. Often enough, though distraction and labor. In one way or the other.
Some of the regrets are silly.
Here’s a silly regret.
When I lived in Boston, I used to go into the thrift stores, and antique stores and browse around. Over time, I would often find this kind of heavy (smash on the table) white coffee cup. And it would be cheap. 25 cents more often than not. These things were great, and were really popular in the United States say up until the late 1960’s.
Many had logos, and designs. Often symbols. All nicely done. Like for Naval Ships. Or for government agencies. Or for awards and events. Like a bridge opening in 1954.
So I had amassed quite a collection of them. I loved them. I had, maybe, about 35 of these things.
Later on, when I was living in Arkansas, and going though a nasty divorce with the witch that was poisoning me and who eventually got me sent to prison, I left the state with just a few items of clothing and my books.
When the time came to pack up the mugs, however, on a whim, I decided to leave them behind.
I guess that I was too upset, and too lethargic over everything to take them with me.
I shouldn’t have done that.
And now I have regrets.
…
Do not allow emotion…
…tiredness…
…frustration…
…stress…
…to allow you to make hasty and ill-advised decisions.
…
You will egret them in the future.
(A word to the wise.)
Today…
BULLETIN: Russian Forces Hit NATO Operations Center Inside Ukraine!
BULLETIN: 2:49 PM EDT 16 December 2023 — Starokonstantinov, Ukraine — Russian Aerospace Forces have struck a NATO Operations center with a Kinzhal Hypersonic Missile.
Russian Forces report and confirm the destruction of a NATO operation center in Starokonstantinov, Ukraine, by a Kinzhal hypersonic missile strike!!
Initial reports say Ukrainian suffered 28 casualties and NATO lost at least 12 officers!!
The Ukrainian forces have given no statement and have disabled communication in the region to prevent information from getting out!! They’re too late.
The US and NATO are now directly involved in Ukrainian combat operations against Russia in Ukraine!!
Riding a camel is quite an experience. It’s not like hopping onto a horse or sitting on a bike.
First off, before you even get to the exciting part, you’re going to face the camel’s getting-up process. Camels are tall creatures and they rise in stages—back legs first—which can leave you feeling like you’re about to be catapulted over their head. Holding on during that initial lurch is key.
Once you’re in motion, the rhythm is unlike any other. Camels have a swaying gait, and it can take a moment to find your balance with the camel’s oscillating movement (they often walk in a ‘pace’, moving both legs on one side of their body simultaneously). Think of it like a boat slowly rocking side to side—you need to relax and go with the flow.
The height can be disconcerting too—you’re way up there. A camel’s back is a lofty perch compared to the average horse. This means you get quite a vantage point; it’s like sitting on a slow-moving balcony. For me, here in Portland, OR, the tallest I usually get is standing up on Mount Tabor, which is nothing compared to being atop a camel, I’d bet.
But it’s not an amusement park ride. Expect some discomfort, especially if you’re not used to riding animals. The saddle, often just a blanket or a simple framework, isn’t the epitome of comfort, and it’s going to test your core strength and your backside.
Now, let’s talk about the personality of your ride. Camels can be temperamental. They’re known for being a bit…
Well, let’s say they have their own minds. They might decide to stop and refuse to move. Or they might express their displeasure in a more vocal way. Yep, they can spit if they’re really pushed. But mostly, they’re majestic creatures—stoic and adapted perfectly to their environment.
Here’s a pro tip: wear long trousers and maybe even some padding. You’ll thank me later when you’ve avoided chafing and can still walk normally the next day.
Lastly, enjoy the quirks. It’s an ancient mode of transportation, a connection to a different way of life. Riding a camel can be an opportunity to take in the landscape at a slower pace, from the deserts of the Middle East to the wilds of Australia, or even special tours elsewhere.
All told, it’s about embracing a unique adventure, one sway at a time.
Have you noticed that most public doors open outwards?
Picture this:
You’re at the cinema with your family or friends, enjoying a spectacular movie by some of your favourite actors.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a fire breaks out and the fire alarm rings.
At first people are confused, but very quickly they catch on. In chaotic unison, everyone suddenly starts to panic.
And like a herd of buffalo that have just spotted a lion, everyone darts towards the door. You’re in the lead.
You reach the door first and quickly try to push it open. But it doesn’t budge. It’s a “pull” door.
Realizing your mistake, you quickly try to pull it open. But it’s too late. Everyone’s already at the door trying desperately to push through.
You can’t pull the door back, because everyone is pushing you against it and cramming at the entrance.
At the same time, people are yelling at you.
“OPEN THE DOOR!!!”
“JUST PUSH IT YOU F*CKING IDIOT!”
“PLEASE, I HAVE A BABY!”
But you can’t.
You can’t even move. Your body is being crushed against the door by the panicking crowd. Combine that with the smoke and you can’t breathe.
You’re suffocating.
This was someone’s reality in the Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903.
The deadliest theatre fire and deadliest single-building fire in United States history. Resulting in over 602 deaths.
Luckily, by chance a passing railroad agent saw the crowd pressing against the door and unfastened the hinges from the outside using tools that he normally carried with him, allowing the actors and stagehands to escape.
Because of this incident, most public doors now open outwards or are bidirectional.
And this is why a fire exit in particular will most likely open outwards.
Not so much a mass exodus but a full team exodus – five of us. I was team leader but my elder mum (we lived together) was extremely ill, and it was clear to me that very soon the diagnosis would be one of terminal cancer, so I asked my Manager for a change in working hours so I could go home every lunch time to make sure she ate and was okay. I lived a 25 minute drive away so my intention was I would be absent 12 – 2 and make up the missing hour (1 of the hours being my lunch hour) by doing work at home that evening. Now bear in mind that for the entire 7 years I had worked for that company, and been team leader for 4 years, I had often gone in of a weekend UNPAID for at least a couple of hours to ensure that all was up to date, or took work home to do during the evening UNPAID. My team had a reputation for being fast, efficient, and friendly. We exceeded our targets every single year and received handsome bonuses.
My boss said NO. His only reason being that if he did it for me he would have to do it for others. The fact that this was exceptional circumstances and, as far as I could see, it would not be longer than a year or so (in fact, my mum died in the March of the following year, I had made my request in the July). I had already been headhunted by another local firm much nearer to my home (10 mins walk maximum) so I went back to them and they offered me a job. My boss was gobsmacked but still would not offer a change to my working hours, so I took the other job offer.
Well as soon as they knew I was leaving, my entire team started looking elsewhere and within a matter of months the entire team was gone! In fact, one member of the team actually came with me to my new employer :-D.
We sold a used car to a man who claimed that it was for his 16 year old daughter’s birthday that was the next day. He didn’t have all of the money, but said he would bring us the rest after he got his next paycheck. My heart went out to him, so I gave him the car with just a partial deposit. No surprises…he took the car and never came back. This was in Los Angeles.
Flash forward a few months, we were in downtown Las Vegas when who do I see but the thief who still owed us the money. My husband insisted it wasn’t him. I knew it was. I marched right up to him and demanded our money. The man was clearly caught off guard and then said that he didn’t have it on him. I said, “That’s okay, we’ll walk with you to the nearest ATM.” And that’s how we got the money that was owed to us.
Funny side note… the FBI called me a few months after that to see if I recognized anyone in a line up. There he was again! Turned out that he was part of an organized auto theft / chop shop ring. So much for my gut instincts!
This is one of those “Yes but / However comma” answers.
Civilians with no military experience get hung up on this idea a lot, because they don’t understand two concepts that are pretty fundamental to how the US military (and most Western-style militaries, for that matter) operate: rank is not the same thing as authority, and officers and NCOs have fundamentally different jobs and responsibilities.
Caveat that I’m coming at this question from the perspective of the Navy. An officer or NCO from another service might things somewhat differently, but I’m trying to give as ecumenical an answer as possible.
A junior officer in the O-1 pay grade* is first and foremost an apprentice officer. Everyone understands this – the JO, his NCOs, his superior officers, etc. If a new 2nd Lt or Ensign doesn’t understand this, then his instructors at his commissioning source failed to do some pretty basic education. The new butterbar is there to learn how to be a leader; the philosophy of the US military is the best way to learn is by doing. So he or she is placed in a position of leadership and, at least by the pay grade table, outranks even the saltiest E-9.
*It’s different with officers commissioned from the ranks – the Navy calls them “mustangs” – and that’s a whole different discussion outside the scope of the OP’s question
This is where the however comma bit comes in. By matter of long service and experience, the NCOs in a unit have greater informal authority. The O-1 is there to learn from them. It’s supposed to be a good working partnership that combines mentorship, OJT, and maintaining unit discipline and morale. The officer should demonstrate willingness to listen and learn and respect for the NCOs’ experience and authority over the more junior enlisted; the NCO should demonstrate patience and good mentorship while respecting the officer’s rank and extending them the courtesy due that rank. An officer who confuses his pay grade with authority undermines the NCO in front of the junior E’s. An NCO who demeans or disregards the officer undermines the officer and fails in his duty to form the young officer into the kind of leader he’d want to work for.
Of course, people are people, in uniform and not, and it doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to. Sometimes a new officer doesn’t know what to do with their by-rank authority but tries to hide it (which is silly, nobody expects a brand new officer to know how to do everything) by blindly issuing orders without listening to his NCOs, or trying to be chummy with the junior E’s (who are probably closer to his age), or masking their insecurity about their inexperience with arrogance, etc. Not all NCOs are created equal. Some don’t have the patience to mentor an officer, or the desire. Those are the “go away and let me do my job…sir” NCOs. And some NCOs are just plain incompetent, or might have been great technical specialists but with no talent for leadership. The military promotion system is, to say the least, by no means perfect.
When it works as designed though, it works well for everyone involved.
This wasn’t when we were fighting for custody, but when I was trying to have our custody case transferred to a different courts jurisdiction.
The judge asked me why I wanted the change. I told him that the kids and I had moved to the jurisdiction of the other court and I planned on asking for a change to our custody case. I had no car and with the way the public transportation ran, I had to come up with the kids the night before court and stay the night at a friends house to be able to make it to court on time and then the kids would all miss a full day of school. The judge then asked their dad why he didn’t want the change to happen. He told the judge that it would inconvenience him (even though he had a car). I had never seen a judge yell at anyone before that day. He was screaming at my ex “How does your inconvenience trump your kids missing school, spending the night away from home, spending hours on a bus?!”
If it’s a “mind game” to shut down a “mind game,” yes. I got quite blunt:
Interviewer: “You’ve proven to me you are an excellent designer; but you haven’t proven your writing skills. Here is a writing assignment. Work on it tonight and bring it to me tomorrow at 2 and I will give you your portfolio back then.” THANK YOU, NO.
Interviewer: “Do you have any idea who would buy our product? I’m thinking salesmen. But I’m not sure. Do you have any ideas? Maybe we could write some down.” THANK YOU, NO.
Interviewer: “It’s only a one-day assignment, but we have a zero-tolerance policy, you we will need a urine test from you before we will consider hiring you.” THANK YOU, NO.
Interviewer: “I need to test you. Here’s a written exam (!). You have :30 to finish it.” (I realize the “exam” is an article the hiring company needs for a trade-industry magazine.) THANK YOU, NO.
The worst mind game played on me was by a nice, professional man who I liked instantly. I arranged to meet him after the staff went home, because I was still working a full-time job. This position was for a temporary marketing person that would cover a specific 3-month project. There was the possibility it could become permanent. We had a lovely chat, and he seemed ready to hire me. He said “let me show you around.” After we toured the work area (and he showed me “my” desk), he said “Can you come back on Tuesday? I just want to introduce you to a few co-workers.” (I’m thinking he’s hired me; I lied to my current boss so I had all Tuesday morning.) On Tuesday morning, I arrived all relaxed and confident. I asked to see Mr. Manager (who was oh so nice, did I mention?). The receptionist said “Mr. Manager isn’t in today.” Me: “I’m sorry, he was interviewing me for the marketing position. I must have confused the day.” “No; said the receptionist. Follow me.” She led me into a huge conference room with six large banquet tables arranged so it was one big table. People started filing in… 7, 11, 12… I lost count. They were “the executive board” and they started peppering me with questions. I did my best to answer, but my anger at Mr. Nice Manager was boiling over. So he deliberately lied to me to presumably see how I acted “under pressure” and didn’t have the decency to even be there. Sorry, I won’t work for someone who would do that to a person. This was years ago, but I still see the company’s vans and I cringe; what did they do to the guys that drive the vans, hold them out a window by the ankles? I fell flat on my face in that interview. Maybe that’s my fault, but that is the definition of a mind game, and I didn’t want any part of someone who would do that to a prospective employee.
In short, most of my mind game interviewers are trying to get work done for free or betray a weird corporate culture (OK, you have a zero drug policy for a one-day temp job and you can’t find anyone pre-screened and in-house?). A few interviewers have left me waiting for :45 to over an hour; if they were “tricking me” or just disrespectful of me and my time, I didn’t really care because I left.
TL/DR: Pay attention to how you’re treated in an interview because whatever game they’re playing is going to get exponentially worse if they hire you. An interview goes both ways. Plus, if they’re obviously playing you, you have every right to “play” back.
I still enjoy going to theaters with my girlfriend—sometimes. It gives us an excuse to get out of the house and focus on a movie with no distractions.
It’s gotten remarkably expensive. The last time we went, tickets were nearly $25 each.
But the biggest problem is the people. There is constant talking and playing on phones.
We had teenage girls sitting in the front row during a showing of Dune. Their screens were flashing in the front row. They were sprinting in and out of the theater like hyper children.
My girlfriend left halfway through the movie to use the bathroom.
She bumped into the teenagers and called them out for ruining the movie for everyone and they didn’t come back.
She got back from her bathroom break and said, “Don’t worry about those girls. I took care of it.”
For a brief second, I was worried she’d killed them.
Sadly, in the past three out of four movie dates we’ve been on, there has been some sort of incident. It’s making movie theaters damn near impossible to enjoy.
I’m hoping it’s just bad luck on our part. It wasn’t always like this.
Yes, indeed. Behold the HTRE-3 nuclear aircraft engine.
Yes, this is real. Yes, the military was crazy enough to think this was a good idea.
In principle, it’s straightforward. A jet engine is just a heat engine. You suck cold air in the front, you heat it up, you spew the hot air out the back. What we normally think of as a “jet engine” heats the air up by burning jet fuel. But the heat can come from anywhere. A nuclear reactor? No sweat. They get plenty hot.
Thing is, it’s easy to make a lightweight nuclear reactor that gets as hot as you want it to. The heavy part of a reactor isn’t the core, it’s the radiation shielding around the core.
So. What do you notice is missing in this picture?
Core’s looking a bit exposed, innit?
The US military built and flew these engines [edit: an experimental reactor similar to the one designed to drive these engines, not the engines themselves: see comments!] in a test aircraft.
They produce a lot of radiation, and you can’t easily shield them if you want them light enough to fly a plane. Which creates quite a problem for handling and servicing these things.
They considered a modular design where you could just undock the crew bits from the nasty radioactive bits…
…and then just reprocess it or, I don’t know, throw it away or something.
Then some engineer somewhere said “you guys do realize this idea is both crazy and stupid, right?” and the idea went away.
Originally Answered: What’s the most pretentious thing you’ve ever seen on a resume?
I received a resume from someone who had recently graduated from high school. They had one job on the resume and their job title was Director in Charge of Company Morale at a prestigious local law firm.
The resume lacked all the things I was looking for, but the job title listed intrigued me. I set the interview and was waiting to hear a litany of lies.
On the day of the interview this cleancut sharp dressed young man showed up. After brief small talk I asked about the prior job and what it entailed.
Turns out his Director in Charge of Company Morale Position entailed him going out each morning and getting coffee for all the partners. He said without their morning coffee, morale was very low.
Best belly laugh in an interview ever. I hired him. And he worked out well because he found a way to place a positive attitude on everything he did, however menial the task.
Edit: I am honored that so many people like my answer. Thank you all.
Update: I’ve had several people suggest editing the gender from “they” to “he”. At the time I read the resume and set the appointment, I had no idea if the applicant was male or female. Gender was not a decision point in our hiring process. This is why I have left the answer unedited. Thank you all again for the overwhelming response.
Filipino Egg Pie
Ingredients
6 large eggs yolks
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup warm evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites
1 (9 inch) pie crust
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, beat 6 large egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, warm evaporated milk, nutmeg, vanilla extract and salt until mixed well.
Whip egg whites in a separate bowl until they form stiff peaks.
Add the whipped egg white to the milk mixture slowly until well incorporated. Pour into pie shell and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the center is set.
Let pie cool completely before serving.
Attribution
Recipe and photo used with permission from: American Egg Board Recipe created in partnership with @thetastebud
I had a very rocky second marriage, but I loved him so kept going back for more of the same bad treatment. (I have learned better behavior now!) Our marriage consisted of lots of comings and goings, and we split up with each other quite frequently because we were really incompatible. Being around each other all the time was a trial.
He was a big time gambler and many other things besides, and I couldn’t cope with all of his bad habits. I dare say I had some bad habits, but I didn’t have any addictions, thankfully.
One time, the last time, I left home and went to stay with a friend, my husband and I talked very frequently on the phone and missed each other’s company. It was a very strange affair.
Anyway, I decided to move back in for good and went back to the house one day with all my luggage. I got to our home and went in, and what do you know, I heard a familiar sound coming from our bedroom that was on the third floor. When I climbed the stairs, I realized what was happening. Despite the fact that my husband knew I was coming home, he was up in our bedroom making love to another woman.
Needless to say, that was grounds for divorce. He caught Covid in prison and died two years ago.
My pastor and his wife tried to convince me to stay with my abusive husband and just live separately until our children were both adults and then start living like a married couple again. Why would we have to live separately you ask? Well, that would be because a few days before this conversation I had Child Protective Services (or CPS for short), the San Berdarnio County Sherifs Office, Fort Irwin (I and my ex-husband were both in the Army at the time) Military Police, and Fort Irwin Criminal Investigation Department (or CID) at my door at 10 at night trying to take my kids away from me because he FINALLY got caught beating my son. (Before this point I could not prove it as there were never bruises or marks) But this time he threw a phone at my sons face because he did not get up at 5 in the morning when his 4 year old sister had to get up to go to daycare (My son was 12 at the time) and it “wasn’t fair that she had to get up that early and he didn’t so I make them both get up”. My son did not have to be to school until 830. My daughter had to go to daycare before we both started work in the morning but got to go back to sleep at daycare so can’t figure out where fairness comes in to play.
Anyway, the pastor and his wife call and say that divorce is against the Bible and we should stay married and live apart until the kids are adults and can move out and then we continue, at that point to live together. I told them flatly no because he was also abusive to me and oh, by the way that woman he has been bringing to church as a “friend?”, yeah he has been having an affair with her for over 2 years. So, tell me again about what the Bible says? I also may have threw in there about how the Bible says there are a few reasons why divorce is accepted and a couple of those just happen to be abuse and adultery. I may have also mentioned that they have no room to talk when their own daughter was getting divorced from her husband because he came out and told her he was gay and that is NOT an acceptable reason (for that religion) to get a divorce.
I often ghostwrite for executives. My job is to help tell their story, either in book or article form. The more I learn, the more I feel bad for them.
Not one of the CEOs I’ve written for looks back fondly on the actual day-to-day CEO experience.
They loved being CEO. But they hated the job. Their phone was ringing at all hours. Every problem rolled up to them.
They had to decide the fate of many people’s careers and lives. There was immense pressure on them from stakeholders and owners. The hours they put in were beyond intense.
Most are now very wealthy — but they were undoubtedly aged by the job. It changed them.
When I was in finance, I worked alongside a senior VP and sat in on many of the executive meetings, taking notes for my boss. This was not a room full of happy people.
When you start making $200K, $300K, and up, you can expect to pay a steep price and often get a target on your back.
It is constant worry and emails and people problems.
The idea of the CEO who kicks back, smokes cigars, and yells “mush” couldn’t be further from the actual job.
Just for reference: India ($2036), Vietnam ($2551), Mongolia ($4026), Albania ($5289), South Africa ($6377). Note that all the listed are poorer than Tibet ($6550, 3m people) and Xinjiang ($7476, 24m) in term of GDP per capita.
We will look at these provinces and see what China has done specifically to develop these poor provinces.
This will be an extremely long post. Please read at your discretion. But if you read on, I’m sure you will learn a lot of new things about China:
1. Gansu province
Gansu is poor for a reason. On one side, you have the massive freezing Tibetan Plateau. On the other side, you have the deadly Gobi Desert.
God doesn’t want you to live here. But you insisted.
Image credit: 地球知识局
What kind of environment are we talking about? Have a look at the following picture. This is what a typical village in Gansu looks like.
Red stones, golden sands and deep valleys. Gansu is the Nevada State of China. There are a lot of sites just like the death valley and red canyon in the USA.
The Taolai River Gorge at Jiayuguan Pass in Gansu
Imagine you are living here. You grow your food in the valleys but you have virtually no rainfall at all. Even if you managed to grow a few tons of wheat magically, where you do sell? To the nearest city? That’s fine. Please drive 5 hours out of this god damn dry mountains.
Even if you manage to find a customer to buy your wheat. He will buy your wheat for $150 per ton. But your transport and fuel cost to move the wheat out of these mountains has exceeded $100 per ton. Considering other costs, okay … , so do you grow wheat just for losing money?
A mountain road in Jingtai County, Gansu
So you have no choice but to leave the village and become a Foxconn worker in Zhengzhou and spent your days making iPhones. That’s what most Gansu people would choose to do. As most people are leaving the rugged land to the cities, your village becomes deserted just like this:
An abandoned village in Dingxi County, Gansu
What has the Chinese government done to address this problem?
For the 13th Five Year Plan (2016–2020), the central government has poured a huge amount of money in building expressways and railways across these God damn hills. And what’s more, they are not building “Level 5” bridges just enough for people to move. Instead, they are building “Level 50” shiny and massive bridges.
What are the differences between a “Level 5” bridge and “Level 50” bridge?
Here is an example of a “Level 5” bridge in France. Short in length and height. You have to rush down, cross the bridge and climb up the mountains.
Here is an example of a “Level 50” bridge in Gansu. All you need to do is to pass through at the speed of 120km/h.
Tian Ning Gou Bridge in Gansu, Tianyong expressway
These “level 50” bridges are indeed very expensive to build. But, on the other hand, they are very cost effective if you consider the amount of fuel saved for trucks, trains, and cars! You don’t have to go down and up again and again.
Even if there is already a “level 5” road along the valleys, the government is still not satisfied. They want to build another high-speed “level 50” expressway along with it. In order to run at 120km/h across the mountains and valleys, the expressway has to be filled with tunnels and bridges so that it is more stretched. This makes trucks and cars to drive faster with less distance. So the fuel cost and transport costs can be reduced significantly.
Provincial expressways S2 in construction in Gansu (35°21’14.3″N 102°49’02.0″E)
In 2019, the total “Level 50” expressway length in Gansu has exceeded 4242km [1] (speed limit 120km/h), which is even longer than Mexico. And it is almost three times longer than India’s total length. Not only expressways but Gansu also has 4 lines of high-speed railways running at 250km/h to 350km/h (宝兰,成兰,兰新,兰渝).
In the next 14th Five Year Plan (2021–2025), the government will promise to connect every prefecture city of Gansu with high-speed railways and expressways.
Lanzhou-Xinjiang high-speed railways
Why are “Level 50” bridges, roads and railways are so useful?
Imagine you are the farmer mentioned above, thanks to the village road built around you, you can transport your crops to your nearest city faster and also at a lower cost. The distributor in your nearest city can also find customers in a province that is even further away. People who are at 2000km away can buy your wheat at a higher price, thanks to the giant expressway network. Overall, you can finally make profits in growing wheat in Gansu!
Still think what I said is made-up or propaganda?
Well, here is another real-life example. Imagine you live in a distant village in Gansu and you want to buy a mobile phone from Taobao (Chinese Amazon), what does it cost to ship a package of 1kg from Shenzhen to Dunhuang in Gansu in 2019? Note that the total distance is around 3500km.
You can use this Chinese website for shipping cost calculation: 快递价格和网点查询 – 快递小帮手
According to the website, the total cost for shipping over the 3500km is 15RMB ($2.2) and it promises to arrive in 3 days.
For comparison, the total cost for shipping one 1kg package from Boston to Reno in Nevada (a similar 4000km) in the USA is $26.13 according to the UPS shipping price calculator under the UPS 3-day service.
Therefore in the USA, it requires 10x more money to do the same thing! And note that they are both counted in the GDP calculation in both countries. Is it fair? Of course not. This applies to other services too.
That means Gansu is not that “poor” as we originally thought.
Instead, Gansu is also blessed with the richness in “green” natural resources. On one side, you have the freezing Tibetan plateau. On the other side, you have the hot Gobi desert. Boom! The temperature difference causes constant wind blowing. God doesn’t want you to live here but he really gives you another gift: the wind power.
Therefore, Gansu is the leader in its renewable energy sector. It has the world’s largest on-shore wind farm:
Gansu Jiuquan Windfarm 40°40’31.2″N 95°24’44.5″E
There are so many on-shore solar farms in Gansu as well. I am not sure if it is the world’s largest. But you can spot them everywhere on Google Earth.
If you can’t grow crops on the land, then just grow solar panels.
Gansu Wuwei Solarfarm 38°06’05.1″N 102°18’00.2″E
God also said, “Let Gansu be light”. Thanks to the Chinese, do you see the holy light?
However, despite China’s “great leap forward” in solar farm construction, they are faced with severe problems in Gansu. They are generating too much electricity and it is much more than the Gansu people can consume. The private sector is also investing heavily in Gansu, making the government unable to control the overall supply of the solar power in Gansu.
As a result, it is estimated 40% of the wind and solar electricity is wasted in Gansu [2]. We could not store the energy because currently, we don’t have giant batteries. Storing a huge amount of energy remains a problem to be solved by future technology.
The remaining choice is to transmit this huge amount of electricity through the ultra-high voltage power grid to the power-hungry Eastern China. However, building a 3000km power grid is not an easy task and people along the grid would complain about the danger and radiation above their houses. I will write about this on-going Chinese mega project and its achievements and problems in another answer.
In summary, these conclude the development in the poorest province of China —Gansu. The GDP growth for Gansu province in 2018 is 10.54% [3]. And it is still far from enough compared to other provinces because we still have a lot of distant villages in Gansu that are yet covered by decent roads and bridges. We will wait and see how China continues to eliminate poverty here.
2. Yunnan & Guizhou province
The next three poorest provinces: Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi are next to each other in the Southwest of China. There are around 140 million people living here.
Image Credit: 地球知识局
Yunnan & Guizhou are poor for the same reason. So let’s look at them together and later we discuss Guangxi specifically.
If you have already been there, you might have already enjoyed those amazing tourist attractions in these areas. But they do not represent the majority of the people nor the whole poverty situation.
What is the real situation?
As the Indian subcontinent continues to squeeze, terrains around here are becoming more and more similar to “wrinkles”, as mountains are squeezed higher and the rivers continue to carve valleys deeper.
Yes, it is like the wrinkles of the skin.
Imagine you are living in the middle of the “wrinkle”. You would be surrounded by tall mountains and deep valleys.
It is nearly impossible to move around without flying. Building roads is also nearly impossible. You would be isolated for your whole life. To get a taste of what it is like, you can just go to Google Earth and experience it. (26°12’28.4″N 99°07’57.1″E)
Even if you can climb across the mountains to the other side, you have to climb up and down another three similar mountains in order to reach a nearby city.
As a farmer, can you get rich if you live here? That’s nearly impossible. If you are ill, you have to call a helicopter to fly to the nearest hospital. But you have to be rich to afford a mobile phone. No signals? Oh, why not just wait and die?
Ping-tang Bridge, Liutong, Guizhou (World’s largest viaduct bridge, to be completed later in 2019)
A similar and smaller viaduct bridge can be found in Hunan as well. Here is the video for the beer:
The Chinese said: “Hold up. There are ten more to come in the next five years”.
A high-speed railway arch bridge in Guizhou. Bullet trains pass through this bridge at the speed of 250km/h.
For comparison, a similar railway bridge is also being built in India. It is the Chenab Railway Bridge in J&K. Chenab Bridge – Wikipedia
However, this bridge started in 2003 and it was originally intended to be completed in December 2009. But ten years passed the Indian people have still not finished it.
If the Indian engineers wanted to delay for another 2 years, the bridge would no longer be the world’s tallest railway arch bridge. The new King will be crown to the Sichuan-Tibet railway bridge.
. Basically nearly the world’s top 100 highest bridges are all from Yunan and Guizhou (I’m not talking about China. Just the two provinces).
And we are not comparing the length of the bridge, because expressways in Yunnan and Guizhou are pretty much always in bridges or tunnels. So it is pointless to compare their length.
The takeaway for this section is that please don’t take for granted if you see the expressway network like this in Yunnan and Guizhou.
Think about their terrain and imagine how difficult it is to build expressways here.
Now back to Yunnan and Guizhou. What kind of other developments that are worth mentioning?
4G Network Coverage
Even in the most distant village with no good roads, you can always find 4G base stations installed. In terms of 4G, no other countries in the world can be compared with China. Not a single developed country like the USA, UK nor Japan can be comparable in such a scale.
According to the Ministry of Industry and IT in China [7], there are 1.204 billion users connected to 4G stations in China. There are 3.72 million 4G base stations installed in China, exceeding 20% more than the rest of the world combined. Guizhou has achieved 100% 4G coverage in all its 10k villages and Yunnan reaches 65% in its progress.
In 2019, the package price for unlimited 4G internet is 98rmb ($14.5) for one person and 134 rmb ($20) for a family of three. Compared to the USA, you have to spend $40 in T-Mobile just to have a 10GB of internet. Compared to India, although India has much cheaper Internet than China, their 4G coverage is relatively low compared to China.
Why does the 4G access useful? Well, this is another answer I will write. But just to draw your curiosity, do you notice that there are more and more Youtubers from Yunnan and Guizhou broadcasting their daily farming life?
Making Toufu online?
Picking tea leaves online?
Hydroelectricity
Of course, 4G signals are inseparable from the electricity. Yunnan and Guizhou are also blessed with the hydropower. Most of the worlds’ largest dams and power stations listed here are from Yunnan and Guizhou. List of largest hydroelectric power stations – Wikipedia
. They contribute to 30% of the hydroelectricity generated in China.
Just follow along the four major rivers in Yunnan from Google Earth. You can find many stages of Dam on the same river. For example, the Jinsha River (Yangtze) has nine stages of dams.
A dam along the Jin Sha River 26°48’23.9″N 100°26’46.4″E
Compared to the power transmission and storage problem in Gansu, hydroelectricity generated in Yunan and Guizhou are directly transmitted to power up the Guangdong province and Hong Kong, because China has already built the ultra-high voltage power transmission line.
That means a fraction of your made-in-China products are actually manufactured using the hydro-power from Yunnan.
Data centres
Thanks to the abundance of electricity and water resources for cooling, the Chinese government has chosen Guizhou as its most important base for data centres.
Deep in the caves of Guizhou, lies the Tencent T-Block data centre (腾讯七星数据中心). This is the place where the data of all Chinese Wechat/Tencent Video (Chinese Netflix) users are stored.
In 2018, Apple has also decided to place its iCloud (China) data centre in Guizhou. This is where all Chinese apple users information are stored in China.
Now pretty much every important IT company has set their data centres in Guizhou, such as Alibaba, Huawei, China Mobile, etc.
Why do most companies choose Guizhou, such a poor place, to be the destination for data centres? Why not other places?
Because Xi Jinping wants it. He recommends IT companies to place their data centres in Guizhou to enjoy cuts in taxes and electricity bills. As Guizhou have more data centres, it finally has something to focus for its own to develop.
Why does Xi Jinping think Guizhou is so special?
Because Xi found that the leader of Guizhou, Chen Min’er, was exceptionally capable. It was Chen who led Guizhou to attract so many investments and called for IT companies to setup big data centre installations in Guizhou. Thanks to Chen’s excellent governing skill in Guizhou, he is now promoted to the Mayor of Chongqing.
I think he will be the next president of China after Xi Jinping (if he continues to demonstrate his governance skills).
On the other hand, China can finally build its Great Data Bank of China in Guizhou so that the Chinese government can regulate API usage based on Chinese laws and validation using Chinese government licensed blockchain E-authentication.
Yes, this is really the authoritarian style of development in the Internet area. New forms of democracy are created: the government can instantly sample on what do the citizen feel from their mobile phones (like instant vote).
3. Guangxi province
Guangxi and Northen Vietnam are actually very similar in terms of geographic positions and terrains. They both have plenty of flooded plains, hilly mountains and coastal areas. Their cultures are actually very similar. Both are the descendants of the Nanyue Kingdom.
In theory, their GDP per capita should be similar but Vietnam suffers many wars compared to Guangxi. Now Guangxi GDP per capita is $6270 and Vietnam is $2557.
Compared to Northern Vietnam, the main problem for Guangxi is that all of its tributary rivers are flowing east instead of heading the south to the sea. These tributary rivers are then forming into one giant Pearl River at Wuzhou and then reaches the South China Sea in Canton.
Even for today in China, there are still a lot of heavyweight goods shipped through the rivers because of its cheap costs. This becomes really a problem for Guangxi. Since all its rivers flow directly to the east, all river-based shipment from Guangxi has to go through Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
From the above picture, the biggest embarrassment for its Capital Nanning is that ships have to travel 1000km to the east to reach the sea, even though Nanning is only 100km away from the coast in the south. Just imagine the extra cost added for the Guangxi people for international shipment!
A similar terrain can be found in Brazil. A huge mountain can be seen blocking the coast. This is really a curse from God. That’s why the Brazilian economy is not so good and could not develop manufacturing.
Guangxi is slightly better but shipping costs in Guangxi are more expensive compared to other coastal provinces in China. Due to the high costs, investments and talents would not come and it suffers the severe brain drain from the nearby Canton. This is the ultimate reason why Guangxi is poor.
On the contrary, if you look at Northern Vietnam, they are blessed with a wide natural river — the Red River. 5000-ton ships can easily reach Hanoi from Hai Phong. Low-cost transportation gives Vietnam the destiny to be the next center of low-end manufacturing. With the current US-China trade war, Vietnam would receive more foreign investments and its economy would be sky-rocketing.
Hopefully, if the Vietnamese government could follow the same approach as the Chinese government and massively expand its infrastructure and energy sectors, Hanoi-Hai Phong (the red river delta) would become the next mega metropolis around this region and they may experience over 10% growth over the next three decades.
Therefore Guangxi people have to be aware that Vietnam people are catching up quickly. What they need to do is to try everything best to improve its infrastructure and attract shipment from Chongqing and Kunming.
For the above map, you can see that it is actually closer for Kunming to go through Vietnam to reach the sea. If the Vietnam government is really clever, they should reduce the shipping costs (by improving road quality) and attract goods from Kunming and Tibet and use Hanoi port. This would make Hanoi to become the next logistic center for international shipping.
That’s why it is vital for the Guangxi government to counterbalance Vietnam and promote its connections to Yunan and Chongqing.
However, in the past two decades, the Guangxi CCP government have gone in the wrong direction. They’ve built three giant international ports along the coast. But not many people and ships wanted to use them. The combined port shipment volume is only 200million tons, which ranked at 18th among all ports in China.
Originally for Kunming and Chongqing, it is always cheaper and easier to go through Guangzhou instead of coming here. And what’s worse. You made all your three ports (Fang-cheng-gang, Qinzhou, Beihai) compete with each other, instead of focusing on building a combined giant port.
Image: A massive expansion in Fangchenggang port. Now it is pretty much a “ghost port”. 21°33’59.4″N 108°22’37.0″E
And what’s worse. The top CCP leader in Guangxi focused on building expressway and railway connections to Guangdong and ignored the roads to Kunming and Chongqing. As a result, more Guangxi people are drawn by the gravity from Guangdong and they are not coming back. This causes a severe brain drain in Guangxi.
People are leaving and ships are not coming. That’s why the Guangxi CCP leader did not get promoted. However, Guangxi is not a province, but it is an autonomous region in China. So it has its own laws and regulations. One of its regulation is that the Guangxi leader must be a Zhuang entity Zhuang people – Wikipedia
. This race-based selection obviously breaks the meritocracy system of CCP. And I think this is probably the reason why Guangxi is not developed so well. That’s why I suggest to remove the “autonomous” status and make Guangxi a province.
Lucky the current CCP leader in Guangxi has realized the problem and focus on promoting connections between Yunnan and Guizhou. And also they proposed to
Build Canals!
For the 13th Five Year Plan in Guangxi, the CCP is planning to “evaluate” the possibility of the Ping-Lu Canal (平陆运河) that connects the Pingtang river to the Qinjiang river in the south.
The canal is 20km long and it is very expensive to build. For reference, it is half the length of the Kra Canal in Thailand. It requires a lot of in-depth studies before the CCP finally decides to spend billions of RMB to build the canal. Whether it is worthwhile, it remains to be seen.
If it were built, it would be truly a significant boost to the Guangxi economy. With connected water, ships can then carry extra-heavy machinery and goods across most of the river network in Guangxi. It would finally solve the Guangxi problem!
For the road and railway network, Guangxi still has a lot of rooms to improve in terms of density and accessibility. I’m not listing their detailed projects because they are similar to Yunan and Guizhou.
Conclusion
After this extremely long post, I hope you can know something about the on-going developments in the four poorest provinces of China. The take away is that China invests much more domestically than abroad. These are all in the news but people just don’t pay attention to them.
And also note that most of the above projects are led by Chinese state enterprises. They lose money for doing this. But they bring huge social benefits to the general people. This is called “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and it is working. That’s why the West such as the USA and Europe could not achieve nor even consider doing it.
Finally, let’s finish up with a view of the expressway in Guangxi province. Thank you for taking the time to read this extremely long posts.
Please enjoy the real China 🙂
College-Age Carousel Rider Tries Lecturing Men That A “High Body Count Should NEVER Matter”
I was at a mall today, paying bills, having lunch and planning on a visit to the gym (pat on the back: I did all three!).
As I walked to the bank, I noticed an older man sitting by a water feature, dipping his fingers in the pool. This was unusual as people here in Thailand rarely do this in a mall.
When I passed him again 10 minutes later, he was standing in the middle of the walkway, searching to his left, then to his right, over and over, looking distressed.
I was about to approach him when a group of (uniformed and backpacked) high school students got to him first. They spoke to him respectfully and quickly realized that he didn’t know where he was or who should be with him.
One young man sprinted off to Information while the others tried to distract the old man to calm him.
A few moments later, a female security guard approached the group, having been notified by Information. She told the kids they could leave, but they refused, feeling they should stay and keep ‘grandfather’ happy.
An announcement was made, and within a few minutes, a very worried, middle-aged couple rushed over to the old man, and although they fussed at him for disappearing, they were clearly relieved.
The high school students were thanked, and then they respectfully took their leave.
The old man watched them go, turned to the couple and asked, “Where are the grandkids going?”
The couple smiled at him and gently said, “It’s ok, Father. They are going to school.”
The old man replied, “They are such good kids. You raised them well.”
Yesterday, I met a journalist friend who had just arrived from Avdiivka and we were talking about this issue.
Although this city in the Donetsk region is at the risk of encirclement by the Russian army and there’s no electricity and no internet, there are still some civilians living there.
My friend visited some of them in a bomb shelter and while he was doing his interviews, a woman in the shelter died.
Not from old age (she was fifty) or a sickness but because she had drunk hand sanitizer. Some people there are so poor that they cannot afford to buy alcohol so they drink disinfectants.
Avdiivka, Ukraine. (Picture: Forbes)
There are obviously two kinds of hand sanitizers, the clear one and the colored one, and one of them is extremely poisonous. The woman drank the wrong one, started sh*tting blood and died a few hours later.
Of course, not every civilian who stays behind in a war zone is a complete alcoholic but a lot of them are old, sick, or suffer from mental disorders.
Many of the civilians in Donetsk are also of Russian origin and wouldn’t feel much at home if they were to evacuate to Western or Central Ukraine.
Their lives were already screwed up long before the war and now, they simply don’t care anymore.
We take our exams in the classroom, where there is a projector that looks like this. It’s hanging from the ceiling and underneath it, there was a shiny piece of plastic that the school had never bothered to remove.
One of my friends, who sat directly below the projector, looked up to see the bottom of the projector in the middle of a Chinese exam. He was that friend who struggled a lot with Chinese, and guess what he saw at that moment?
The answers of the guy who sat next to him, reflecting off that shiny plastic.
The projector itself was black, so he could see the white exam paper easily. He copied down the answers, which was easier to do because that exam was multiple choice.
A few days later, we got our papers back and he was copying the answers off the wrong page, but in the next exam he used the same trick and made sure that he was on the same page as the person next to him (who was smart).
We don’t use that classroom now because we moved to a different building, but this “cheating hack” was passed down to the next generation and I’ve heard that they now fight for the seat underneath the projector. The teachers never found out.
The Yuppies of American Psycho (and similar characters in the Ellisverse) are the Masters of American Consumerist Culture. They are the, in a sense, heroes of the Consumerist Myth. Rich, powerful, beautiful, and crushingly successful at everything they put their mind to.
So successful at consumption are they that they have moved beyond merely consuming things; they consume people and souls.
Fight Club could easily be put in the same universe. But instead of looking at the Masters of said Universe, Fight Club looks at its losers. The men who weren’t born to wealth and didn’t make it up the ladder.
The movie, through Tyler Durden, constantly points out the failures of these men to reach the levels of the Patrick Batemans of the world. Here is one particularly blunt, powerful scene:
Of course, Durden is also a consumer — in that he is actually consuming Jack and plans on erasing him entirely. He also “consumes” Marla, and eventually holds most of the Fight Club men in an iron grip. He even begins to morph into a “Master of the Universe” like-figure.
Notice the comments on the male model. In the Ellisverse, models are of the Elite.
Notice here that not only does Durden look like a male fashion model, he states that it’s exactly what Jack wishes he could look like and how he could live. And he’s not wrong, obviously. “All the ways you wish you could be? That’s me.”
As I see it, while Durden and Bateman would absolutely be opposed to each other’s “political” goals, such as they are, a Durden victory would be a “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” kind of thing at core.
Basically: Patrick Bateman and Tyler Durden really aren’t that different. If Durden were born in Bateman’s world he would be another Bateman; if Bateman were born in Durden’s world he would be another Durden (might sound implausible but remember, Bateman is crushingly charismatic, intelligent, and quite driven when he wants to be).
While Bateman is more openly aristocratic, Durden fairly quickly sets himself up as the undisputed King of Fight Club and clearly sets himself apart from the other men. I can’t find the video but there is a scene in the movie where the men dig ditches while Durden yells at them through a megaphone. He’s not in the ditch with them.
Durden presents himself as a hero of the common man… but he isn’t a common man himself. And the fact that he isn’t, makes him far more appealing. Because who wants to be the common man?
So.
They are the Elites of their Universes. All the women want them and the men want to be them. So of course many male viewers would admire them both and ignore their drawbacks. The political stuff is immaterial — at core they represent the same desires that many men have.
An inmate at a certain prison in the western US claimed that he was allergic to sodium. Now, this is ridiculous because, as my freshman chemistry teacher once pointed out, sodium is in everything.
Inmates with special diets (medical, dental, allergies, etc.) would go at the end of the line after everyone else had gotten their meal trays. Sodium guy would go last of all and put on a performance that was annoying and stupid but oddly comforting because of its predictability.
Prison staff mostly want things to go smoothly. Nobody was yanking this guy’s chain or trying to piss him off. At each meal they genuinely tried to come up with something he could eat. And at each meal, when his tray slid out the window, he would look at it and say (or scream), “I can’t eat this! It’s got sodium in it!” And he would slide it back into the window. This happened every time. Eventually he would eat something.
Once I saw him drinking a half-pint of milk. Showing him the ingredient list, I pointed out that it had sodium in it.
“That’s OK,” he said. “The sugar counteracts the sodium.”
I was required to issue a monthly report of sales by geographic region, listing each project.
One was a project in China sold to New Sun (China) Energy. I dutifully indicated the sale was in Asia.
My boss protested. “No!” said he. “You need to report that in Europe.”
I blinked and said, “But it’s in China.”
“Yes,” said he. “China’s in Europe.”
“Um…no.. China’s in Asia.”
He slammed his hand on his desk and said, “China’s a state of Germany, now report it in Europe.”
Me: “Ok” while silently muttering dumbass.
We had another dispute over Egypt. Apparently Egypt is also in Europe.
I had a grand time explaining to our lead sales person (a Chinese lady citizen of China) and our production manager (a German citizen) that Germany had expanded its population by a billion with this master stroke of geopolitical theater. They both rolled their eyes.
They weren’t obsolete after WW2. They still occurred over Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands, and Israel.
In Korea – There were no good air-to-air missiles yet, so jet aircraft had to close in to within gunnery range to shoot each other down. There were some pretty epic dogfights in Mig Alley, over the Yalu River.
In Vietnam – Missiles were now available, and the “clever fellows up on high” declared the dogfight was dead because jets could now fly at Mach 2, too fast for dogfights. That meant the F-4 Phantom was fielded with 8 missiles…and no gun. Well, turns out the dogfight wasn’t actually dead yet, and while the missiles of the time were “adequate” for downing bombers flying straight and level, they were pretty lousy against maneuvering fighters. And the ROE (Rules Of Engagement) for Phantoms required a visual ID, eliminating the BVR capability of their Sparrow missiles. So, dogfights were in fact…not obsolete.
In the Falklands 1982 – Dogfights still weren’t dead, and there were some pretty intense battles between British Sea Harriers and Argentinian Mirages/Daggers. But, we could see the beginning of the obsolescence of dogfighting because of the AIM-9L Sidewinder.
While still an Infrared Homing (Heatseeker) missile, the “Lima” Sidewinder no longer required getting on a opponent’s 6 o’clock so the heatseeker would home on a hot tailpipe. The Lima Sidewinder was all-aspect, meaning it could get a lock from any angle…even head-on, completely changing the nature of dogfighting.
Even, now with missiles such as the AIM-9X, Meteor, R-77–1, and the AMRAAM, which do not require being within dogfighting range (WVR—Within Visual Range) to score kills, I am reticent to claim the dogfight is dead. I’ll say it no longer will be the bread and butter of aerial combat, but won’t go so far to say the dogfight is obsolete.
It still may happen. Let’s see what happens when Ukraine finally gets their F-16s, and make a decision then. I expect most kills will still occur at BVR, but we may still see genuine dogfights once more. And when both sides are operating stealth aircraft, who knows what we’ll see?
Disrespectful?? Weird absolutely. About 8 months ago flying from Portland Or to Amsterdam Ne.
Woman behind my seat has a infant 6–10 months old. Infant cries and cries and cries. I put in ear plugs. I doze off. About an hour later she taps me on the shoulder and hands me said infant. “I need to talk to my husband in first class, you watch her”. She hands me the baby and is gone about 3 hours. Eventually the cabin staff goes and finds her. She is angry because she is hauled back to her seat. I hand her her child and she is upset.
To this day I wonder why she would hand off a perfectly good infant to a total stranger and wander off.
Candy Cane Fudge
Yield: 24 pieces
Ingredients
2 cups white chocolate chips or semisweet chocolate chips
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup crushed candy canes
Instructions
Line an 8 inch square dish with parchment paper, making a sling to lift the fuge out when ready to cut.
In a medium glass bowl, combine the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk.
Microwave on 50% heat in 30 second intervals until fully melted and combined. Be sure to stir well in between each interval.
Transfer melted mixture into the prepared pan.
Sprinkle on crushed candy canes and slightly press into the top.
Refrigerate for at least 4 to 6 hours to set or freeze for 2 to 4 hours (allow to thaw for 30 minutes before cutting).
When I was a teenager, there was a flood along the river where we lived. A large number of mobile homes that were located on the shores of the river were taken out, and destroyed. And six people were missing.
One day after the grand storm, I was walking alongside the tracks beside the river. I was in a remote section of the track. Perhaps two miles away from the town, and in the woods.
Eventually I came across a section that smelled really, REALLY bad. It was so foul that I got off the tracks and went to the edge of the river, where the smell was so damn intense.
I couldn’t see anything, and left. But that afternoon, I later discovered that a body was found at the exact location where I was standing looking for the body.
When I was around 11 I was snooping around in my parents room and saw their bank passbook sitting on their dresser. I opened it up expecting to see a healthy sum of money. Instead there was less than $30 in it. I saw the weekly deposits from my dad’s work and regular withdrawals for cash.
even at that young age I realized that we were poor and what little we had got spent on us kids. I felt terrible when I thought of all the times I’d pushed my folks to spend what they had on treats for me and my sister and brother.
A year ago, filled with a longing for Western freedom and democracy, I applied to the University of Auckland, thinking that it would be great if I could stay and work or live in New Zealand after graduation.
Now, I am firmly convinced that I should return to China after my graduation because:
1.The salary here is not as high as what I can earn in China,
2.The best city here is only equivalent to a third-tier city in China. Shopping and daily life are not as convenient as in China, and the cost of living is four times higher.
3.The knowledge taught in universities here, I can learn for free on Chinese websites, and it’s richer and more advanced.
4. I participated in two research projects at the University of Auckland and found that the level of research and development here is behind that of equivalent universities in China. I realized that by studying here, I probably won’t be able to bring back advanced knowledge. Therefore, I am considering returning to a Chinese university to further my education.
5. Moreover, I can feel that the majority of people in Western countries still believe they are more developed than China. This is the general perception, and I don’t need to explain it. I’ll just return to China and quietly contribute my strength there.
6. Western culture, there seems to be a preference for those who are boastful and talkative rather than those who are low-key and pragmatic. Coincidentally, as a Chinese person, I am not good at boasting, and I prefer to fulfill my responsibilities and then rest. The Chinese workplace is more accommodating to someone with my traits.
In fact, I spent hundreds of thousands of RMB to come to New Zealand, to see the real Western world, improve my English, and then met a group of Chinese students and a few friendly foreign students, and ate food that I wasn’t quite used to for a year.
I’m not a parent, but as a teacher I had to explain to a mother about bedtimes and sleep for a seven year old.
Her son was always tired and had difficulty staying awake during class. He was not working to his potential.
His mom came to discuss his poor grades. Come to find out, she was under the impression that he slept too much. So, she kept him up to midnight and had him get up at 6:00 a.m. No wonder the poor lad was always tired. I would be, too.
So, I explained to her that growing children needed at least 10 hours of sleep nightly as their bodies were growing and sleeping gave their bodies time to rest, heal, and grow.
She started having him go to bed at 8:00, especially on school nights. Within a week, he was brighter, more chipper, and the quality of his work improved immensely.
The interesting part? About a month later, he gave me a big hug and thanked me for telling his mom he needed to go to bed earlier.
I took my nice little VW Beetle Diesel to a mechanic for an oil change. After they got the car on the rack, the service advisor came out “Your car has a really bad oil leak.”
Before you go farther, bear in mind: This was a diesel. This comes in important later.
I go back to the bay and take a look at the purported oil leak. The bottom half of the back of the engine was covered in fresh, amber colored oil. “Oh, you’ve got a huge oil leak. You need to pay us $200 to diagnose the problem.” I called for the shop manager.
“Your employee claims that this car has an oil leak.”
He looks under there. “Yup. Sure does.”
“You know this is a diesel.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Have you ever seen the oil drained from a diesel?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you know that if I put fresh oil in this engine and drive the car three blocks, that oil will be as black as the Ace of Spades. This supposed oil leak, which is in a place oil can’t leak out of, is fresh oil.”
“Umm…”
“Listen. Clean all the oil he sprayed on my engine off it right now so I can go somewhere honest.”
The climate. Finland is located between 60th and 70th North, which makes the climate absolutely miserable.
The location means the winters are long, dark and miserable – sun rising at Christmas only at 09:00 in Helsinki and setting at 15:00. The situation isn’t exactly improved by the fact that Finland is located at the occlusion zone of Ferrel cell, which means the whole Atlantic comes down from the sky each Spring and Autumn. (Oh, Autumn is really Fall – I mean, rainfall. Finnish rain is not the warm shower as the Mediterranean rains, it is hard, cold and scourging.)
Finland has the worst of both littoral and continental climate: cool summers and freezing winters. Oh, and did I mention rasputitsa? Yup, we have it too.
The cold and miserable weather and the long and dark winter has left its permanent mark on our national soul. Finns tend to be emotionally cold, dour and close-minded. Not rude nor impolite, but cold. Sorry, no jolly reggae tunes here. Hero metal, power metal, black metal and prog metal. If your playing sucks, turn on more overdrive.
Which leads to another problem. Alcohol use is commonplace. Simply to carry over the worst. Getting hammered is a method to cope with the cold, dark and miserable winter.
Which leads to another problem. Suicides tend to be common, but not as common as they used to be. Many people simply cannot stand it all and quit their living.
Atheism is in Scandinavia a far older phenomenon than science. When the soil is poor, weather hostile and everything in the climate tries to kill you, you relate to supernatural as enemies and any deities as intolerable cosmic oppressors. The divine is not seen as a provider, but oppressor – as something which attempts to make living even more miserable than it already is. This is one reason why the Scandinavians are so hostile to religion and spirituality they tend to be. Already the Hrafnkell’s saga from 10th century tells of a Viking chieftain who ditches the Viking gods and becomes godhlauss, Atheist.
I wish I had wings so I could fly to Spain for winter like the migratory birds.
A bit of background: My parents recently got divorced and my dad got most of the money, furniture and he got the house. My brother (10) and I (13) only see our mom every second weekend and sometimes my dad just keeps us for the weekend. I always stop by my moms After school everyday to let her dog out and clean up any messes she made (She’s 17 and black lab). I usually wait there for bit until I have to pick up my brother.
Anyways, one day, my math teacher asked me to stay behind for a few minute so to talk about an opportunity to compete in a math contest. It was country wide and was for grade ten and eleven math. I’m grade seven but he said that’s he talked to the people who were running it. They said I could try but might have some trouble with it. I really like math so I said yes.
Fast forward two weeks and I’m sitting in the cafeteria with a bunch of really tall people. They hand out the papers and say go. I finish in about half an hour and turn mine in.
About a month ago i got the results and i placed third in the country. Apparently, there was a prize and i won three hundred dollars.
Now, my mom has been struggling financially although she didn’t tell us, I figured it out. Every time I stop by her house, I put some of the money in her jar and she hasn’t but noticed. I know it’s probably not a lot but I like to think I’m helping a at least a little bit. I can’t legally work yet…
When my due date was getting very close, I told my 3 and a half year old daughter that her little brother is afraid to come out of my belly. He thinks to himself: Oh, its a big scary world out there. Who knows what is awaiting for me outside. I’m just a little baby boy. I don’t want to go out and live with big grown up people all by myself.. Who will understand me and help me when I’m outside? Oh how I wish there was a little girl out there who would be my sister, so we can grow up together…
She was deeply moved when she heard this. She put her little hand gently on my belly, and whispered to her brother with a voice filled with tenderness. Come out little brother. I am your sister M. and I will always take care of you. You don’t have to be afraid. Few days after this, her brother came, and the love and connection that the two of them have is something I, as an only child, never imagined could exist. The way they cherish one another, help, encourage and comfort along the way is truly amazing.
It’s not going to eliminate the difference at all. However, it could help the less rich kids to maintain their dignity.
This is the most common school uniform in China. It’s ugly, oversized, and appeard since my school ages, but totally affordable. It wouldn’t change the fact that some kids have a poor family background, but it could reduce the possibility of students getting isolated in schools for either being too poor or rich. Trust me that kids do that all the time, and it could be quite hurtful sometimes.
Besides, with an ugly uniform, how one looks like purely relys on face. Dad’s mercedes or even GTR wouldn’t save it.
I am a welder and applied to a job through a temp agency. Their ad said hiring welders from $23 to $26 an hour depending on experience. They gave me a weld test and decided to hire me at $23. I told them I want $26 because that’s what their add said. I was told that was dependent on experience. Well I have 24 years of experience and I want 26. In the end I agreed to work for 25.
On my first night it was time to clock out so I went to the time clock and clocked out. I noticed all the other welders were still there cleaning up their work areas. I shouted at them so they could hear me, “hey it’s time to go. What are you all still doing here?”
I didn’t get an answer and left. Coming in the next day I asked them about this and they said they cleaned up the shop after hours on their time. With all the workers around and the boss I told everyone, “I don’t work for free. This mess wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t been here working. I won’t be cleaning the shop for free. I am loud quitting boss” as I made eye contact with the foreman, “when my shift is over I am clocking out and going home. I will have my area cleaned up before then.”
That night was the first night they did weld testing because new clients demanded all their welders were certified welders.
The next morning the temp agency called me and asked me not to go back to the job because I had been terminated for not listening.
The morning after I was called back again. I was the only person on 2nd shift who passed the weld test and many on first shift also failed.
Company representative: “Would you come back to work for us, please?”
Me: “OK but I want $28 an hour and switched to 1st shift.”
In Vietnam, when we meet someone for the first time in the new (lunar) year, we usually give each other a red envelope with some lucky money – as a good wish for a bright and happy new year.
I was in 11th grade in high school. We were just back from the Lunar New Year holiday (”Tết” holiday in Vietnamese), happily exchanging red envelopes and good wishes. Coincidentally, it was also Valentine’s Day that year. But, 20 years ago, I had no idea about that, so when this boy handed me the red envelope with a chocolate bar, “Happy Valentine!”, I happily took it, “Thank you! You’re so sweet!”, and I gave him a big hug.
Before he could say anything else, I opened the chocolate bar, broke it into pieces, and… shared it with the whole class, everyone got a piece. I couldn’t explain the emotion in his eyes when he watched that happened.
Years later, every time we meet up for our class reunion, he always brings this story up and we laugh. Still can’t believe I missed that hint.
CIA
Back in the late 70’s I found myself between jobs. I had 10 years as the GM of aof a chain of convenience stores which had been sold and that ended my job! My parents lived in the Washington DC area and one of their neighbors, who I had known for many years, worked for the CIA. At a neighborhood gathering while I was visiting I mentioned to him that I was job hunting and asked if he had any connections in the CIA. After we had returned home I got a call asking if I would like to interview so I flew back up and stayed with my parents for a week.
I was instructed to report to a building in Rosslyn VA which is across the Potomac River from DC. I remember having a hard time finding the address I was given because there was no name or numbers on the building. Maybe that was my first test! In any case, the interview lasted all week. One thing that I remember was is how low key the whole process was. Mostly a series of different people asking me a lot of questions about myself. What my hobbies were, favorite foods. etc. It reminded me of shooting the breeze with a bunch of strangers at a college mixer. Not much in writing, no physicals, drug tests, etc. Not many probing questions, very relaxed. Definitely the strangest interview I’ve ever had, and this went on for 5 days.
There was one woman who was my primary contact. From the beginning to the end, she was the one who was always there at the end of an interview and introduced me to the next person. Never their last name or title, just a first name, always in the same room, never in their office. On the 5th and final day, she brought me into her office and said that they would like me to work for them as an operative. I had never heard that term before, but knew that it meant that the CIA wanted me to be a spy. Immediate visions of James Bond came to mind. Fast cars, nice clothes, A GUN…all the things that we associate with being a spy. Obviously I was very interested.
I had a bunch of questions but the two that I remember were: 1. Where would I be stationed? and 2. What did they want me to do? I was married with two young children, and I was thinking maybe they wanted me in Europe where I had spent many years as a boy. WRONG! They wanted me to operate a small grocery store in PAGO PAGO! I had never even heard of Pago Pago, let alone knew that there was a large US Navy Base there. Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from everything and everyone we know, it was out of the question.
That was the end of my spy recruitment.
LOL. All, I do mean ALL of the stores in Pago Pago are owned by Chinese nationals. No fucking shit. -MM
I was a semi-freshly divorced single mom working in a chain of gas stations. It was my job to cover if someone called off and to run the money every day.
I had a reliable car only because my parents both took the time to teach me about cars including how to find a good used one and repair it when it broke.
I was enrolled in college. One class at a time is all I could squeeze in my schedule and budget.
My child was suffering under a rural southern school district. She is gifted and they had refused to set an IEP, refused to challenge her, and in fact persecuted her and myself due to our religion. We were told more than once we were going to Hell by school officials.
It was an uphill battle with them that required an attorney who volunteered his services. I couldn’t have afforded him otherwise.
Despite these difficulties, life was OK. We were surviving. We had food, shelter, and running water. My child never went to bed hungry or cold.
Then I started getting tired. Abnormally tired. I didn’t have the energy to function. My mother forced me to go to her doctor. She paid for the visit because I didn’t have insurance.
The doctor called me at work two days later and asked me to come in. I made arrangements for my child after school and I went.
He told me I was sick. Very sick. The tiredness was a symptom of this. It wasn’t just lack of proper nutrition or being over worked. This wasn’t something that could be fixed with a pill.
I started treatment the next week. I still went to work. I still took care of my child. I had to drop my class and adjust my schedule. I had to fight — and fight I did.
Then the medical bills started coming in. Uninsured and dead broke, I almost gave up. The state said I did not qualify for assistance of any kind because I made too much money.
If I had another child, I’d be at the income threshold. If I had another child, I could collect benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, and housing assistance.
If the state would have straightened out the child support instead of counting it against my income, I might have been able to pay a little bit of the medical bills.
I made arrangements for my child’s care after I passed. I had a small life insurance policy that would cover my final expenses. I managed to keep fighting.
The medical bills kept coming as did the phone calls from debt collectors. The threatening letters. The calls to my work. To say it was stressful is an understatement.
Until one day they stopped. The medical bills still came but showed a zero balance. The bills that had gone into collections were paid in full.
My rabbi approached me one night after services. He told me that a member of our shul had paid everything on the caveats I finish school and don’t stop.
I begged him to tell me who but he would NOT budge. He just said, “Finish your education and don’t stop.”
Finish school and don’t stop.
I still do not know who. I’ve had my suspicions, but I keep them to myself.
I have graduated but haven’t finished my education. (That is something that is never going to be finished.)
I haven’t stopped.
Smart Cat
Downtown Grill Catfish LaFitte
This is one of my favorite ways to prepare catfish. Even those who dislike catfish love it fixed this way.
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons ground red pepper, divided (may need 2 1/2 teaspoons)
4 farm-raised catfish fillets, about 1 1/2 pounds
Vegetable oil
12 large fresh shrimp, unpeeled
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 cup sweet vermouth
2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 very thin cooked ham slices, cut into strips
Garnish: lemon wedges
Instructions
Combine eggs and milk, stirring until well blended.
Combine flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper in a shallow dish. Dredge fish in flour mixture; dip in milk mixture. Dredge again in flour mixture.
Pour oil to a depth of 3 inches into a Dutch oven; heat to 360 degrees F. Fry fish for 5 to 6 minutes or until golden; drain on paper towels. Keep warm.
Peel shrimp; devein, if desired. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add shrimp and garlic, and cook until shrimp turn pink, stirring often. Remove shrimp, reserving drippings.
Stir vermouth into reserved drippings; bring to a boil, and cook 1 minute. Add whipping cream, 2 tablespoons green onions, lemon juice, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1 to 2 teaspoons red pepper; cook 12 to 15 minutes or until sauce is thickened, stirring often.
Place catfish on a serving plate, and drizzle with sauce. Top with shrimp and ham; sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons green onions. Garnish, if desired.
Notes
I make the sauce first and keep it warm. I then fry the fish and finish the dish.
The Big Lie that Women Keep Believing in Modern Dating
As a 31-year-old Chinese person who lived in China for 30 years and has been living in New Zealand for a year, I find that this question seems to be of particular concern to people in the Western world, while we ourselves are not so concerned about it. I have also thought about this for a long time, and I would like to give a rather serious answer.
When I was living in China, politics really didn’t have much to do with our lives. In the daily routine of a normal person, we were essentially free and democratic. Moreover, from childhood, we learned about both Chinese culture and Western culture. We were quite familiar with the Western world from our media, and we knew roughly what the world was like. After going abroad, it was also easy for us to embrace Western culture.
However, after coming to New Zealand, I found that the Western media is full of prejudice against China and North Korea, while reporting differently on East Asian countries like Japan and South Korea. In fact, I particularly want to tell many Western friends who have never been to China that it is easy for us to accept Western civilization, but your points of concern about China seem to differ from what we care about ourselves.
Historically, China has never actively pursued religion, so how could it be actively enamored with politics? As long as the party does not disturb the people, we won’t pay too much attention to it, and a political party is the least intrusive solution. China is a country that has been agriculturally based for thousands of years. Our ancestors loved the land that could grow crops, and this love has flowed into our blood. The charming land that produces enchanting crops makes us ordinary people happy. China is large enough that whether at the top or among ordinary people, everyone can find their own focus in life, everyone takes responsibility for their own duties, rather than thinking about taking advantage of others or stealing from others. This is more efficient and safe.
If the leadership does not perform well, the people will resist together, and our history has always been this way. An ordinary person can grow to be a top figure in the country, or a top figure over a piece of land. With 5,000 years of detailed recorded history, many historically high-ranking people came from common families. So, when you ask if Chinese people want to live in a democratic country, I want to say that we have always been democratic. Every Chinese person knows: “The noble and the humble have no determined lineage,” but as a culturally united nation, if we are in a high position and do not make the contributions we should, we will be shamefully recorded in history, which is as important as life itself to every Chinese person. Thus, even though we have equal opportunities to become influential figures, not everyone wants to be the most powerful because that also means taking on more responsibilities, which can be more tiring (the positions of emperor, prime minister, and general in Chinese history were high-stress jobs). So usually for us, enjoying the life of an ordinary person also seems more relaxing.
However, it seems that Western politicians do not have the same immense pressures as Chinese leaders, nor do they have the same sense of responsibility. Your leaders seem very relaxed, speaking eloquently with expressive gestures, whereas our leaders are sparing with words, and mostly very serious. How should I put it? They are also under great work pressure, as they are not only supervised by hundreds of millions of common people but also by their competitors. But from my heart, I like this Chinese style where everyone has their role and does not interfere with others.
Compared to many Western countries, China is very open. I grew up in a very ordinary family in China, reading masterpieces from all over the world from a young age, experiencing different cultures, which is why I chose to go abroad after getting married and having children. I have also read modern and ancient Chinese books, which enables me to answer this question today.
For foreign friends curious about China, if you want to understand China, you are sincerely welcome to visit, especially if your daily exposure is only to English media. Because they seem to be the most heavily brainwashed region at the moment.
Somewhere in my graduate school years I noticed a trend.
An undergraduate philosophy major will sound absolutely brilliant. They often speak in a jargon-dense diction, delivered at high velocity, one idea bouncing off another to produce a spiderweb of spiraling associations. The effect, rhetorically and aesthetically, is often overwhelming. Logic doesn’t really play a role because one hardly knows what they are saying. The unwitting listener feels himself outmatched, drowned and blinded by the naked light of unbridled genius.
The graduate student is a much dimmer light. He is still full of abstract phrases and obscure references, but he is someone who is starting to sound, again, like a human being — explaining things, pausing, asking questions to insure the listener is following. This is not nearly as impressive as the undergraduate, but it does have the virtue of allowing the ordinary among us to understand what is being said.
The professor sounds like your basic “dad,” albeit one with a lot to say. He can at times seem unsure of himself. He pauses to define his terms and to add qualifications to his statements. He speaks carefully. He might even speak slowly. He explains as he goes, almost apologizing for whatever obscurities he falls into. His manner of speech is, well… designed to communicate! A quite boring and not evidently bright fellow, you almost feel embarrassed for him.
In light of these observations, I was forced to conclude that there is either something terribly wrong with our educational system — since the higher people go the dumber they get — or intelligence is not quite what we sometimes think it is.
In my van. We would drive away with the pedal to the metal. In 30 minutes, I could expect to get at least 50 kilometres away, and that ought to be far enough to be safe. Moreover, the van has a Diesel engine, so it does not need electricity to function – it will run as long as there is fuel and air.
If it was summer, I would drive to our yacht, put SCUBA gear on, and dive in the sea in the marina. There is enough oxygen to survive the blast underwater. Most radiation is absorbed in the sea, and the shock wave would not get to the water.
I dated a girl for a few years and we lived together for the last half of the relationship. Things hadn’t been great for several months before I decided to break it off, but it was a single statement she made that convinced me it was time.
The yard was in serious need of some attention. The grass was a bit high and we hadn’t done weeding in a few weeks. So I decided to spend my day off working in the yard.
I mowed the grass and edged the walks, I weeded all the flower beds, watered and fertilized our plants, got some new plants to fill in the beds. After I was done with all that, I decided to do some cleaning. I power washed the driveway and the house. The concrete looked brand new.
I finished shortly before she got home from work. When she got in, I was in the backyard admiring my handiwork. I was proud of how the yard looked. It hadn’t looked that nice in quite a while.
When she came into the backyard, I motioned towards all my hard work with my hands as if to says “look what I did!”.
The only thing she had to say about it was “You forgot to sweep behind the chiminea.” and pointed to a small pile of leaves off in the corner of our yard. Then went inside to take a shower.
Something snapped in my brain. All the times she had criticized stupid things just to have something to criticize came flooding back. I suddenly realized the obvious pattern that had been there all along. She didn’t just do it to me either. It was just who she was to everyone. She just enjoyed criticizing people.
I knew I couldn’t live life like that. I knew that if I stuck around, she would keep doing that for the rest of our lives and it would make me miserable.
I had just spent my entire day doing yard work in the middle of June and she couldn’t find one positive thing to say about it. I left that evening and stayed with a friend. The next day, I came home and broke it off with her.
I was about 10 years old, and in bed – about 11pm. I was supposed to be asleep, but as usual, I was reading by the light of my nightlight. I heard my dad slam the front door, and my mom yell. This wasn’t normal behavior, so I went into the living room.
The police were called, and my dad told me the story. Mom and Dad were in the living room, and heard a knock at the front door. We lived out in the country, and the neighbors all knew Dad was a doctor, so Dad thought it might be a neighbor needing help. When Dad opened the door, he saw a man with a mask standing there with one hand behind his back. Our super friendly, loved everybody German Shorthair, Ringo, followed Dad to the door. As soon as she saw the man, she gave a huge bark, and lunged for the guy. Dad said that 3 things happened nearly simultaneously – 1) he grabbed Ringo’s collar, 2) the guy pointed a gun at Dad (it was in the hand behind his back), 3) the man shot the gun. Dad slammed and locked the door. Dad was unhurt.
When the police arrived, they spent a long time looking opposite the door to try to find a bullet hole. At one point, one of the officers said that maybe it was a blank. But eventually, one of the policemen noticed that the row of art books we had on the bookshelf facing the door wasn’t completely even; one of them was pushed back about an inch. He peered closely at it, and noticed something odd about the O (it might have been Michelangelo) in the title – it had a hole in the middle of the O. He opened up the book, and sure enough, the bullet was nestled in the pages.
Needless to say, there was a rule in our house after that – don’t open the door at night without asking “Who’s there” first!
I used to own a small tavern. We had a guy who started hanging out there quite regularly. Nice guy, played darts with the other regulars, bought rounds in order , but didn’t talk much about himself or his past. But it’s a bar, so no one cares. We’ll call him John.
He was in early one night around 7pm. My staff is all away on lunch, partner wouldn’t be back til 10pm. I’m all alone. Usually not a big deal. This night, a couple of college jocks got way out of hand and started tearing the place up – breaking cue sticks and tossing around empty kegs. It’s just John, me and the college boys. I’m trying to de-escalate and get them to leave. Then, one of the big guys starts pushing me and throwing punches. I’m screwed. That is, until John steps in and beats the shit out of two guys much bigger than himself. I was completely shocked! We toss the guys out and he tells me not to call the police. He leaves shortly afterwards.
Next time I see John, I want to pick up his tab and chat. He asks me not to tell anyone or talk about it. I figure he’s ex-military and a private guy. He becomes pretty scarce. We’re looking for him, but he doesn’t come around anymore.
About a year later, we see his pic in the paper. He’s on trial for a pair of mob related murders. Turns out he might be responsible for more than a couple of these. I’m very glad he liked me.
US Ambassador threaten to shut Ghana’s economy down if Anti-Gay bill pass
I lived in northern Manitoba and southern Ontario, both in Canada, for about 25 years before I moved to southern Maryland. Snowmageddon struck in January-February of 2010. Everything was shut down for 10 days or so. Finally, I ventured out onto the roads.
My apartment complex fronted a 4 lane divided roadway, which was a designated Snow Emergency Route. The left lane was bare, the right lane was still covered with ice and slush. Both lanes were blocked where an SUV had gotten stuck then started to slide into the ditch to the right of the road. Pickup trucks, cars, other SUVs, vans, all were parked higgly jiggly and tall, brawny men were attempting to get the vehicle out.
I parked well back, walked to the crowd in my Canadian snow boots, and offered to help. They all had a good laugh, then turned away. I tapped on a man’s arm, “I grew up in Wisconsin and lived in Canada for 25 years. I know snow.”
“Hey, let the little lady here give it a try!”
I cleared them away from the car, crunched around it, repositioned the men, instructed the driver to straighten her wheels and put it into LOW gear, no gas! Told the men to push again, rocking, and told the driver to release the brakes.
The SUV popped right out of the icy ruts and kept going. Silently, the men returned to their cars and left. Too cold for crickets, I guess…
I was interviewing for a Canadian regional sales manager’s job for a company that sold patent medicines, made in Saudi Arabia. (Yes, I wrote the correct country name.)
After having introduced ourselves the interviewer handed me a package of papers, about ten pages thick.
“I’ll be quiet for a few minutes until you have read and signed this.”
It was the most horrible secrecy agreement you could imagine. If I break this, my grandson’s firstborn would be burned on the stake, or something along those lines.
I put it down, and politely bade my adieus.
The interviewer followed me all the way to the elevator door, trying to explain that not all was cast in stone. Some details could be negotiated.
I entered the elevator and left.
My next job was selling industrial valves, no secrecy agreement required. (I stayed there 9.5 years.)
The school arranged for a bus load of junior high students to go to a live play in the city.
This was the second bus trip in a month. The first one had gotten a little steamy on the ride back to the school in the dark. But not so bad it stopped the second one from happening.
The second trip, stopped all future bus trips, and caused a general assembly to be called. The principal and vice principal were dismissed at the end of the school year.
I didn’t have a girlfriend, and my best friends sister wanted to make out with me, but I knew that would end my friendship with my best friend. She wasn’t attractive enough to risk that.
In the back row, you could only see two guys sitting up, one in each seat. There had been girls sitting beside them when we left for the school.
What brought it to a head, was that the majority of students had hickies that were visible to their parents when they got home from the school trip.
There were a lot of phone calls leading up to the general assembly. It was amazing how many students had purple splotches, vainly trying to be covered with turtle necks, and long sleeves, and they had to sit in the front row of the general assembly, as we were told the consequences of our actions.
One day, she came home with a bruise on her cheek – just a small one, but it was a bruise. I asked what happened to her? She told me that a patient’s son hit her in the face because he thought she was ignoring his father – who was in pain while actually she was busy with another patient who was more critical. I asked her what happened next? She told me: “Oh, I came to that patient as soon as I finished with the one I was working on. Talked to him, comforted him and gave him some meds. Then I explained the situation to the son, and he apologized”. 7 year old me that day got angry and asked: “Why? You’re the best nurse, why didn’t you let someone else deal with that patient? His son hit you. He didn’t deserve your care!”
And my mom’s answer that day became one of the most important lessons I carry with myself through life: “Sweetie, you should never let someone’s bad action to be the reason for your own. Fixing something wrong by doing something wrong will never work. That man hit me may have been wrong, but if I hadn’t taken care of his father, I wouldn’t have been right. Moreover, it was the son who made the mistake, why should the father has to face the consequences? Your mom is the best nurse, so I do the best, right?”
So, if my neighbor never says hello to me first? That doesn’t stop me from saying hello and wishing them a good day.
I still believe that in this world full of sad/angry people, it’s much better if we’re sweet to each other, even just a littleeeeeee bit.
I strongly condemn Chinese military using sonar of mass destruction near Chinese coast which caused damage to Australian soldiers close Australian coast.
Wait… the Australians were near Chinese coast.
Oh… so you were their collecting seabed information, right?
In case of WWIII, it would be useful to intercept Chinese submarines.
International water or not, it’s definitely a hostile activity against China.
I can already make the draft about the same thing but reversed, i.e. PLAN soldiers got hurt by Australian sonar near Australian coast.
There is no “pro-China government in Australia”.
We know that already.
Stop lying.
Miao Ethnic Group
This is one of the 65 recognized ethnic groups in China.
The flags for the cars at my mother-in-laws funeral.
Well, they tried.
When they were doing their consult, they went over about a million things with my wife, and her brother. Both of whom were pretty deep in grief as they had just lost their mother. This woman was more of a mother to me than my own, so I wasn’t exactly NOT grieving.
Before my wife signed on the dotted line, she asked me to look the paperwork over. I saw a HUGE line item, it was around $2000, and just listed as “flags”. I asked the wife about it, and I asked the brother-in-law. Both had no idea what it was. I asked the representative from the funeral home, and they said it was for the funeral flags for the cars. The little magnetic “flags” that say “FUNERAL” on them. They are plastic, and have a magnetic base on them and you put them on your front fenders. If you have seen a few funeral processions, I’m sure you have seen them.
So I asked why we were paying $2000 for these.
I was told we had estimated 100 people, and they charge $10 per flag, and 2 per car. so 100x2x$10=$2000.
I asked if these were required, or if they thought that literally every single person was going to be driving their own car, or, the pretty obvious question, would this get re-rated based on how many people ACTUALLY showed up and needed a flag.
I was told that no, they were not ‘required’ but that they were recommended to make it more visible, and that wouldn’t my MIL want that item? They would re-estimate based on how many cars I expected (yeah, they KNEW that the estimate of how many guests was NOT the same as how many cars there would be), but that once the order was put in, it was non-refundable, and that if we didn’t use them all, then that was just how it was. They were basically being paid to make them available.
I went back to the wife and BIL, and explained, they agreed, nope, not necessary. I told them we didn’t need this, and to remove it immediately. They acted like that was some manner of travesty, and basically implied that people would think poorly of us for it. I knew my MIL, and KNEW she would have spit her teeth out if we had wasted $2k on this. There was a lot of shade from the funeral people for this.
Strangely enough, day of, not a single person asked about the flags. We turned out headlights on, and drove in procession with absolutely no problems whatsoever. Ironically, the only vehicle with the flags was the hearse, it had them permanently attached to it. We weren’t charged for that.
The funeral industry literally preys on people at their most vulnerable. They prey on your emotions, and your fears and insecurities. They have no trouble manipulating you into paying more than is necessary, and they will pad that bill out to match any insurance you might have. Do NOT just give them the insurance information, magically, if you have $35000 in insurance, they will eat every penny of it up. We had, $0 and paid every penny out of pocket… They still tried to pad the bill at every turn.
“What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?”
edit
yes, these ARE reusable, and yes, they are returned after the procession, and yes, that does make it so much worse.
Good men won’t stick around if they are unwanted
Canadian “Mercenary” Killed By Russian Army in Ukraine
When I decided to move halfway across the Earth, from Vietnam to the U.S. to marry my (then) boyfriend, the only ‘condition’ I made my boyfriend agree to was I wanted him to move closer to his parents. My reason was that I would be in a new country, I wanted to stay close to our family. He agreed.
So, when The Teenager & I moved over, we settled down in a place within one hour drive from our parents.
Then came the first meet-up, we invited a few other family friends over. My mom & I were in the kitchen preparing food when a lady came in. She saw me, smiled, and asked my mom, “So, here is your daughter-in-law hah?” My mom smiled back at her, “No. She is my daughter in love.”
That sentence struck a harmonious chord within me and made my heart sing.
My wife and I were living in our first house in Oklahoma City. One day while we were both at work, the city sewer department tore down all the fences in the rear of the houses on our block to replace the sewer main. When we got home from work we were heartbroken because we had had our young dog in the backyard and now he was nowhere to be found. We searched the area for days and put up notices but to no avail.
We were starting to believe that we would never see our dog again. My wife was so upset she decided to call the city to “give them a piece of her mind” about the lack of notification on the sewer work causing us to lose our dog.
So she gets a person on the phone from the city’s Ombudsman Department. My wife explains the situation and tells the person that we loved that dog and had paid good money for him because he was a registered Irish setter. The person asks where we live and my wife gives our address. The person says “Well that’s amazing. I live about a half mile from you and there’s been an Irish setter hanging around lately.” My wife tells me the address and when I got to the person’s house, there’s our dog.
Oklahoma City is a big metropolitan area. Of all the people in the metro area my wife might have got on the phone, our dog happened to be at that person’s house.
I managed a cookie shop once. It was in a college town, and was open til 11:30 pm. At the end of the night, a homeless person showed up asking for cookies. I gave him some.
the next night, he brought 3 friends. There were just enough cookies for them. The next night, I was swamped. Literally dozens showed up. I didn’t have enough cookies for all of them. The crowd became enraged. They started yelling at me, then they started throwing things at me.
i told them not to come around again, there would be no more free cookies. I had to take a cab home that night, it was unsafe for me to walk.
The next night, a few of them started following me as I walked home. They were loudly talking about how they were going to rape and kill me. I ducked into an open business and called a cab home again. I was very young, and made just over minimum wage. I couldn’t afford to take a cab every night, but I had to for weeks.
I did make arrangements with a night nurse, who worked at a local hospital. She dropped by at closing every night on her way to work, and picked up the last cookies to take to the break room.
Having had that experience, I would never give food from a restaurant to homeless people again. Many years later, I owned a bakery, but still remembered my lesson.
The UFO Incident That Shocked Ariel School: Telepathic Extraterrestrials (Re-Edit)
“It’s like story time for grown-ups. I really appreciate this channel. Hecklefish is my spirit animal.”
I was banned from my local Walmart because I miss scanned an item. I went to self checkout one day because I had 4 items and wanted to teach my sons how to scan items. To make the story easier to understand, I had a tshirt, set of bras, shorts and some socks. While scanning, we had accidently double scanned the bras rather than scan the shorts, honest mistake. We finish up and as we are heading out, loss protection stops me and says “My name is XXX I’m with loss prevention please come with us” I was genuinely confused, my son got scared because of how aggressive they were but we complied. While in the security room they proceeded to rummage thru my bags and asked to search my purse. Again, I complied, but they never explained why I was pulled in. They searched cameras for probabaly 20 minutes. At one point, I hear one of the workers call across the radio “We need security detail for an escort.” I started getting REALLY scared and demanded an answer. Finally, they explain I miss scanned an item, because of this I am being escorted out of the building and will not be allowed back on property, should I step foot on property I will be arrested. I was baffled! They didn’t even give me a chance to fix my honest mistake! Needless to say, again I complied, but I put in a call the corporate after leaving, they reached out to me and lifted the banned immediately, apologized, and fired the entire loss prevention team. It wasn’t the first time they had abused power!
Every shit that the US does on China, the Chinese can do even more, faster cheaper and more painful to the U.S.
China prefers not to but it is always ready. Chinese people has a saying. If you do it on the 1st Luna calendar. We will reciprocate on the 15th. You mentioned rare earth but this is just one out of a thousand measure. It could checkmate the US. Don’t even think about it. Every hurt on China will be returned by several fold hurt on the U.S.
After I had disconnected the call, I thought – What if it was a call from my best friend, would my response have been the same?
The answer was a big no and I was unable to figure out why. This restlessness drove me to call him again.
Dad: What happened? Are you ok, son?
Me: Yes, I’m fine, Dad. Just, missing you a lot.
He was surprised at first and thought I needed money.
Soon after, I began cracking few jokes (lame ones) to which he laughed his heart out. We talked for straight 40-45 minutes, engaging in topics we had never discussed before.
Strangely enough, I felt like talking to a different person. The person whom I had spent my life with, yet knew so little about.
The blissful conversation ended with a ‛Khush Raho’ (Stay Blessed!) from his side and a wide smile from mine.
And so, I realised, not taking your dear ones for granted and making a deliberate effort to know them is something worth consider doing.
In ancient China, common people had the following ways to meet the emperor.
1. The imperial examination. The final stage of the imperial examination is the palace examination, which is personally supervised by the emperor.
2. Assassination. The emperor went out to patrol and ambushed him by the roadside. Even if the assassination fails, before being executed, the emperor will personally question you, who is behind the scenes?
3. Emperor Banquets Centenarians. This is a large-scale honoring and respecting activity for the elderly where the emperor invites centenarians to participate in the royal banquet. But the prerequisite is that you must be able to live healthily to a very old age despite the lack of medical treatment and medicine in ancient times.
4. Become a eunuch. This is not recommended because ancient castration surgery was very risky.
5. Becoming a famous prostitute. Although the emperor had many wives, he would never refuse beautiful women.
When I was in Malaysia, during breakfast they served dim sum in addition to other traditional breakfast foods and it was very nice. However, Malaysia is a country with a 20% Chinese population. Back here in the West we don’t have a high percentage of Chinese people. There are some Westerners like myself who would enjoy Chinese food, but the majority of people who would eat it would be Chinese people themselves. The lack of demand means there is little incentive to supply it.
1999. I had a four-year-old Internet advertising agency with 15 employees. A global corporation was buying it.
Weeks before the sale was finalized I had an early morning doctor’s appointment and saw these cups in her bathroom marked URINE SPECIMEN.
I took a bunch of cups, got into the office before any of my employees arrived, left a cup on each person’s desk with a memo that said the buyer required a urine test from everyone in the company before the sale could be approved. A nurse would arrive at noon to test the samples.
One by one they trickled in and proceeded to go batshit. Violation of my rights. They can’t do this. My personal life is my personal life.
I commiserated, but reminded them that if I didn’t sell the company, we’d probably go belly up, and we’d all be out of a job.
Not a lick of work got done all morning. Finally, at noon we all gathered in the reception area, each of us holding a full urine specimen cup.
I spoke to the group. “Guys, I hate this as much as you do.” I looked at my cup. “And I really hate my sample. The color of this piss is terrible. I think I’ll run it through one more time.”
And then I drank it.
I didn’t have to tell them it was Peach Snapple. They knew they’d been had.
15 people. 45 man-hours (and woman-hours) wasted. Pissed away, so to speak. And I loved every second of it. Best. Prank. Ever.
“Hey guys, it’s Heather. I’m running a bit late, but I should be there in a…..”
There was absolute silence in the room.
“Message received: September 3rd at 11:55 am.”
Not a word was spoken among the three of us listening to the message and none of us could muster anything useful to say afterwards other than a very weak, “save that message”.
It was September 5th. In less than 24 hours, we would be going to Heather’s funeral. Her car had been t-boned by a large truck and she had been killed instantly.
The police report showed that the accident had happened on the 3rd. Slightly before noon.
Try to fully understand China. Unless you do you will always have imaginary Chinese action. Let me help you. To China currency is meant to help transaction and to store wealth not trade currency for currency sake.
To China and to BRICS the SWIFT and its manipulative money trading scheme is just another western conspiracy to destroy countries by a stroke of a pen. China will not and will never play a meaningless game it is stacked against. China. So
it will not internationalise RMB or the Yuan. It will not try to helped prop it currencies artificially and it wanted a real currency value that. Is sustainable trusted. Playing Russian roulette’s with its 1.4 billion people’s wealth is not what China will do.The U.S. dollar used to be able to buy 100 items to day a mere 78 years later it can buy 3 of the same item. That is not good for Americans.
In fact between 1980–2020 Real Chinese income grew 30 times and the U.S. during the same time frame not only not grow. It went back to the 1960 level. So try imagine this. American today is doing worst than their grandpa! China wants its currency to buy roughly the same 78 years later. And an average Chinese have 50 times more Yuan.
What’s the funniest reason you’ve been called in to school to collect your child?
We were called to get our 16 yo boy. He had drunk a bottle of some alcohol during the lunch break. Then during the relaxation class, he fell asleep. When we got there around 90 minutes later, the high school was closed. We couldn’t get there any earlier as both of us worked around 70kms away.
We discovered from the cleaner he had been taken to the police station as they couldn’t depend on when we would get there.
Unfortunately, the police [ it was a small unit] had been called out to a large bushfire. So they put him in the outside exercise yard. The problem was it didn’t have a roof. When our boy saw us coming he climbed the chain wall and high-tailed it.
He slept at a mate’s place that night. The next day the high school said they were going to have him placed under care. His mum also a school principal said, “ over my dead body”.
We came and collected him. He was terrified his mum was going to hit the roof. Which she did.
We got called by the police to discuss his behaviour as they wanted to know how he had purchased the bottle. We counted with how could you lose our son when he is in your care. In the end nothing became of it and our son grew up and gained some brains.
As my first son learned to crawl and then walk, my wife and I played mantras to him, meditated by his side, and lit sacred sandalwood incense around him.
We co-slept and in the day he was always strapped to one of us, skin to skin.
He was breastfed exclusively for nearly a year and then given only organic, vegetarian food.
We didn’t buy him any guns or other toy weapons, only simple wooden and cloth playthings.
He was so peaceful that he radiated a tangible serenity.
Which made her happy—and me—because we wanted him to be calm, loving, and spiritual.
He’s seven years old now.
His favorite dish is a medium rare burger, he knows an embarrassing number of juicy curse words, and he’s obsessed with Nerf guns.
He likes to listen to rap music with phat bass lines, he finds talk of spirituality to be boring, and is not in the least bit interested in receiving affection.
But everyone is impressed by how determined, free-spirited, and bright he is.
And between you and me, I’m kind of happy he chose to do his own thing, to be his own being.
We love him more intensely than the blazing of the sun.
It took me a long time to realize that you can spend years and years of your life aiming for a particular outcome, just to have things turn out wildly different than you anticipated.
It took me a long time to realize that life is like a wild animal, like my son—fierce and free and beautiful, but ultimately, unpredictable, untamable, and unruly.
And I have the feeling it might take me the rest of my life to fully realize that this built-in uncertainty gives life a unique flavor that, after being acquired, tastes exquisitely delicious.
It could be because a lot of older people have tooth problems. An older relative, has dentures, I suggested that we go for steak, and she countered with a fish place, so she could be sure, that she wouldn’t embarrass herself having problems eating a tough steak.
The next time she was over, I had bought tenderloin steaks, and I cooked hers medium, which wasn’t as well done as she would have liked it, but was still pretty tender. Ours were medium rare.
She was upset with me, saying that she wouldn’t be able to eat the steak.
I showed her I could cut mine with my fork. She took one bite and was in love. She hadn’t had a steak she could eat in 10 years. She finished the whole steak, which she had said was too much, when she was looking at it. But once she started eating she couldn’t stop.
Every time we eat at restaurant, we have to make sure there is something on the menu that is soft for her.
So this is one possible reason.
Swarms of drones – kamikazes – attacked USS Thomas Hudner
The USS Hudner (DDG-116), an Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer of the United States Navy, was attacked by a swarm of drones this morning, while patrolling the Red Sea. The ship sustained no damage or injuries to its crew.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported the incident after Houthis in the country of Yemen, took credit for launching the attack.
Houthis are now attacking United States Naval vessels over US Support for Israel, as the Israeli government engages in conflict with the Municipal Government HAMAS of the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis launched swarms of Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones in an unprecedented act of war.
Yemeni rebels who have become a force to be reckoned with in the Middle East, attempted to sink the U.S. vessel.
Not much more than a few thousand, which is surprisingly small. This is based on our DNA.
Unlike our chimpanzee cousins, all humans today have virtually identical DNA. In fact, one group of chimps can have more genetic diversity than all 8 billion humans.
Our minuscule genetic diversity indicates that at some stage, around 70,000 years ago, the human population dwindled to a very low level — maybe 2,000. In fact, it looks like we came close to extinction.
It was also around this time that our ancestors began migrating out of Africa.
This suggests there were dramatic changes to our traditional environment, possibly caused by the Toba supervolcano eruption 74,000 years ago, the biggest eruption in 2 million years, which left entire regions devastated by ash and climate change.
It’s 1964. Republicans are sane and intelligent. But they just got handed one of the largest losses in modern history, with LBJ winning the largest popular vote majority since James Monroe in 1820. Desperate for votes, they start pandering to racists who are upset about the Civil Rights Act and desegregation.
It’s 1974. Republicans just had their President outed as a criminal. They need an edge to get back in power. They start pandering to evangelicals, hoping their ability to believe in things they can’t see will make them easy targets for brainwashing.
It’s 1984. Republicans are scoring big points thanks to looking like the tough guys in the Cold War. They double down on the idea of growing the defense budget.
It’s 1994. Republican economic policies are dividing conservatives and just cost them the White House. They launch a 24-hour fake news channel to keep their base uninformed.
It’s 2004. Democrats have nominated a war hero for President and he should easily defeat the Republican incumbent. It’s time to start lying about his war record. Disinformation becomes the new norm.
It’s 2014. The economy is good. The nation is safe. But the President is black. Republicans dig up the 1964 playbook and capitalize on racism in their base.
It’s 2024. Sixty years of tactics have produced Republican voters who are racist, uninformed, misinformed, brainwashed, and violent. Now these people aren’t just voters anymore. They’re in Congress.
The president of the United States
China’s New Subs and Sonars Challenge Supremacy of US Silent Hunter Fleets
The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) surpassed the US Navy in total number of warships in late 2021. Technologically too, China has made major strides, including in the area of submarine construction and detection. These advances have sparked concerns from observers that America’s powerful fleets could be left dead in the water in a crisis.
The PLAN’s military and technological prowess against the US Navy in the field of submarine construction and anti-submarine warfare is progressing apace, and the “era of total US submarine dominance” over the People’s Republic of China is reaching its end.
That’s the conclusion reached by one of America’s top cited business newspapers in a piece focused on the Asian nation’s scientific and industrial advances for naval warfare. China, the paper pointed out, is gradually “narrowing” the gap between itself and the United States in the highly complex fields of submarine technology and undersea detection.
These developments not only threaten the Pentagon’s regional strategy of hemming China into its home ports, but could challenge US naval supremacy globally over the long term.
Earlier this year, for instance, research by the US Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute pointed to Chinese advances in efficient nuclear reactors, quiet-running pump-jet propulsion systems and internal quieting devices, the latter based on “imitative innovation” of Russian technology, predicting that the PLAN’s latest nuclear-powered subs will be much harder to track than before.
Additionally, analyses of satellite photos of the Huludao Shipyard in Liaoning, northeastern China taken last year showed the construction of sections of submarine hulls larger than anything US analysts have ever seen in a Chinese sub, along with what seemed to be plans to increase production capacity.
US media citing leaked US Navy intelligence already sounded the alarm about China’s impressive shipbuilding capacity this past fall, which at 23.2 million tons per year, compared with 100,000 tons per year in the US, gives the People’s Republic the ability to build warships at a rate some 200 times greater than the US in a pinch.
On top of that, the PLAN’s rapid construction of a vast network of underwater sensors in the South China Sea and other areas along the Chinese coast known as the “Underwater Great Wall”, to look out for sub, surface warship and aerial activity, means that the Pentagon will find it more difficult to place its warships, subs and aircraft in areas around the Asian nation. The Underwater Great Wall’s construction is reportedly nearing its completion, and includes a vast network of passive and active sonar sensors, plus remote controlled underwater and surface drones which can look out for enemy activity.
China is reportedly also “getting better” at finding silent-running US attack and cruise missile subs sneaking around near its home waters, combining buoy and drone-based monitoring with the use of patrol aircraft and helicopters, for example.
In addition are the PLAN’s growing number of exercises with Russia, which, it can be assumed not only increases the Chinese Navy’s ability to coordinate with its northern neighbor in the event of an emergency, but allows it to learn from the Russian Navy’s half century-plus year experience as a major global naval power rivaled only to the US.
“The implications for the US and our Pacific allies will be profound,” former US Navy officer Christopher Carlson said, pointing to the headaches the US Navy will face, and the additional resources it will need, to locate and keep track of China’s new generation of quiet-running nuclear subs.
Strategically, the outlet noted, maneuvers that the US once took for granted, like the ability to approach close China’s home shores, will now no longer be a given, with the PLAN’s nuclear-powered attack subs able to pick off approaching American warships before they could reach Taiwan in a crisis, for example.
On top of that is the Chinese sub-based ballistic missile threat to the US homeland –a threat Washington has long been used to meting out, but not experiencing itself, in relation to the Asian giant.
“Finding a boat this quiet is going to be really hard,” Carlson said of the Chinese sub threat, predicting the new Chinese boats will probably be about as quiet as the Project 971 Shchuka-B (NATO reporting name Akula, or “Shark”) class fourth generation nuclear-powered attack subs which the Soviet Union and then Russia started fielding in the 1980s and 1990s.
China’s fleet of 79 submarines includes at least 16 nuclear-powered attack and ballistic missile subs, including six Type 093 (NATO reporting name Shang class) attack subs and six Type 094 (NATO reporting name Jin) ballistic missile boats operating “near-continuous” patrols between Hainan Island and the South China Sea. But Carlson warned that the Asian nation could build up to triple the current US rate averaging 1.2 subs per year.
Costly as Aircraft Carriers, Difficult to Build
“Submarine-building is the pinnacle of technological excellence in economics and industry, and only a few countries have mastered the technologies which China has now broken into – France, Britain, the Soviet Union/Russia, and the United States,” Vasily Dandykin, a veteran Russian military analyst and retired Russian Navy Captain 1stRank, told Sputnik.
Several factors account for the US’ slowing pace when it comes to the construction of new submarines, according to the observer, starting with Washington’s decision to rest on its laurels after the end of the Cold War, to the drop in the number of high-class specialists in the field.
“The downtime” in the US’ submarine-related programs resulted from “complacency after the collapse of the Soviet Union,” when “not just America, but also Europe rested on their laurels,” according to Dandykin. “The Americans have the world’s largest military budget, which exceeds those of all other countries in the world. That means that somewhere they got carried away with such gigantic and expensive projects which did not justify their cost,” the analyst said, pointing to out of control spending on novelties like the $8 billion-per ship Zumwalt class of destroyers.
“There were a lot of such projects that sucked up a lot of money. And now it turns out that all of these experiments boil down to the fact that they’re 10 years behind Russia in the creation of a new fourth-generation strategic nuclear submarine,” made possible, according to the analyst, thanks to the backlog of revolutionary Soviet sub designs that Russian builders have been able to develop and build on.
“The ‘downtime’ that occurred had an impact in this area, not just with submarines, but the construction of the surface fleet, the entire American fleet. Here, without a doubt, China’s pace has been impressive, first and foremost in terms of the construction of large ships for the surface fleet. But I think they will push themselves and try to build up their nuclear submarine fleet as quickly as possible,” Dandykin predicted.
As far as China’s subs themselves go, Dandykin pointed out that for the moment, the majority of the PLAN’s fleet still consists of diesel-electric subs, and for them to reach the same technological level as the US, as they have already done when it comes to ships like universal landing ships and destroyers, will take time. The PLAN’s current nuclear-powered ballistic missile-launching subs belong to the second generation at best, in the retired naval officer’s estimation, and the newest efforts are aimed at the creation of third-generation vessels.
Accordingly, Dandykin believes US efforts to hype up the “Chinese threat” are “a little disingenuous,” and designed mainly to lobby for the allocation of even more resources for US sub-building efforts – a titanic effort equivalent, more or less, to the construction of an aircraft carrier in both technological and financial terms.
Surreal. Uncanny. Deja vu. That’s how I felt as I looked down on Southeast Asia from my seat aboard an airplane. The feelings intensified the longer I was there. While my friends made me feel so very welcome, even in my time alone the feeling never left me.
I began the first leg of my long journey back home by crying into my teacup in a cafe in Changi Airport. My heart felt heavy. I was glad to go home to my daughter but if she’d been with me on the trip I’m not sure I’d have returned to the U.S. willingly.
I have said that when I die I want my ashes to be scattered in China, because America is the place of my birth but China holds my heart. There’s something about the Asian region that draws me deeply. I have no Asian background or ancestry so I can’t rationalize it. It’s just how I felt.
I was fired after 11 years in a PR firm. I never clicked with the owner, and the feeling was mutual. I loved my colleagues, got along well with everyone, and consider them friends to this day.
I had just come off of a very trying time related to a proposal I was writing, had slept little, was burned out and mentioned to a colleague that I wasn’t sure I belonged there anymore.
Soon afterward, the boss took me into his office and said nobody wanted to work with me and that we had just lost a client that reduced our budget. His second in command sat through this with his head in his hands the whole time. He helped me clean out my office the next day.
There were other things going on at the firm. The owner was advancing in age and had promised a succession plan. He never delivered. One by one, after my firing, everyone quit. His firm, started in the mid-80s and one of the most prominent in the city, was done.
Two people told me that my firing was the trigger that made people start thinking about whether they wanted to be there anymore. I can’t take the credit or the blame for what happened, but the exodus was fast and devastating.
The public image of a celebrity can often be quite different from their true character. Take Ellen Degeneres, for example. On her show and in interviews, she appears to be a lovable, down-to-earth aunt-like figure. However, there have been numerous accounts from staff and crew members claiming that she is actually a nightmare to work with and a terrible person. So, which version is the truth?
Then there’s Sean Penn, who was once in a relationship with Madonna. It has been alleged that he kidnapped and raped her during the 80s. Additionally, Penn has been involved in some truly awful activities throughout his life. On the flip side, he is also the CEO of a large charity and engages in humanitarian work.
Another celebrity, Mark Wahlberg, is often seen as an extraordinary role model and a decent guy. However, it is important to note that he blinded a Vietnamese man during a fight and is a high school dropout. Please note that the mention of being a high school dropout does not imply that it automatically makes someone a terrible person, but it is worth considering when evaluating their status as a role model.
Tim Allen, known for his lovable and funny dad roles, has a dark side. Despite making people laugh out loud with his jokes, he has been described as a severe asshole who disrespects those around him. Furthermore, he was caught smuggling a kilo of cocaine in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and served time for it.
On the other hand, we have Danny Trejo, who was once involved in drug running for a cartel and had a long history of violence and addiction. However, he has transformed himself into a humble and honest man who actively tries to steer kids away from his former lifestyle. In person, he is charming and genuine.
Slave nations like Germany and Japan wrap themselves around US and western economic orbit. And the U.S. increase interest it destroy their banks and industry. Not China. China is in its own stable orbit. Today the U.S. interest is between 3–5% and China stays under 1% or so. It do its own thing.
US banks are dropping like flies. China’s bank is loaded with Cash. Chinese citizen on average save 35% of their income in Chinese banks. The U.S. citizens meanwhile saved in average less than 4%. So every year the Chinese add another 6–7 trillion dollars into their wealth and funds.
On FDI if the west reduce other nations made up for it and China’s own investment is so humongous. FDI from west means nothing.
I grew up in the USA. In high school, the lunch period was 25 minutes. On a normal day I washed down three peanut butter sandwiches and half a dozen cookies with a quart of milk and headed to the break room.
At least my parents enforced a family sit-down dinner, though it didn’t last long either.
My eating behaviour in college and working part time jobs was not any better, though the food choices were smarter and more varied.
When I started working in sales after college, I graduated to fast food eaten in the car.
At restaurants, servers were all over me, trying to turn the table in 45 minutes or less.
For me, eating was like putting gas in my car. Get it over and move on to the rest of life.
Then I moved to Germany. It was a shock. The canteen served excellent full hot meals and everyone took their time eating, chatting (but not about work), and taking turns buying coffee for the table.
It was impossible to get out of a sit-down restaurant in under 90 minutes without pushing the staff.
Dinner at friends was a four-hour affair.
I learned to love food and the community of sharing it with others. It wasn’t uncommon for less formal outdoor restaurants to seat me with other diners. I met dozens of fascinating people in that manner.
Ten years later I moved to France and learned that the French take mealtime even more seriously than the Germans. Employers even subsidise the canteen or pay part of the meal vouchers for each worker.
I think this question might be better phrased if it asked “What are the influences of culture on food?”
While the food does vary from country to country, I have little trouble in Europe to eat exactly what I ate in the USA. That’s why I don’t think it’s the food that matters.
Instead I think it’s the value people place on taking the time to savour their meals and those they share them with.
Zelenogradsk: What does a Russian city of CATS look like?
They are literally everywhere: occupying benches at observation decks, sitting next to tourists at restaurant terraces, strolling along pedestrian streets and (alright, fine) allowing you to take photos of them. Let’s pay them a little visit?
You can definitely call the small city of Zelenogradsk (pop. 16,000) in Kaliningrad Region the “cat capital” of Russia. Everything there is dedicated to these furry animals, from souvenirs to… traffic lights!
The many cats of this city will gladly show a tourist the best photo spots (and the best lunch spots!). But, how did it come to this?
Zelenogradsk (Cranz until 1946) is an old resort city at the shore of the Baltic Sea. Cats usually like to settle in such seaside towns, closer to fishermen, fish and vacationers. But, in Zelenogradsk, they have become a real attraction of the city.
According to legend, centuries ago, cats saved the city from rodents that were destroying their food supply and spreading disease. Caring for stray cats is the locals’ way of expressing gratitude.
Cats have always been living in Zelenogradsk. But, it was only recently that the city itself became the “cat capital”. It all started with the Murarium Museum in an old 1905 water tower. Local inhabitant Irina Klochkova decided to set up an exhibition hall for her cat statuette collection in the unused tower in 2012.
Real cats also live in the museum, with ginger-furred ‘Semyon Semyonovich’ chief among them. He became the prototype for the first museum souvenirs. ‘Murarium’ gained a lot of popularity among tourists; soon after, a lot of everything “cat-themed” began to appear in the city.
As soon as you visit, you’ll immediately notice an incredible amount of cat graffiti on buildings. Souvenir stores, on every corner it seems, sell anything from keychains and magnets to shopping bags and mugs with cats on them.
The city’s central street, Kurortny Prospekt, even has mini-benches for cats, little traffic lights with flashing cats, as well as vending machines where you can buy cat food. The city administration even has the position of cat chief, a cat caretaker. Their responsibilities include feeding and taking care of cats.
And for those tourists who decide to have lunch on an open terrace of any cafe, just know you won’t be able to so in peace and quiet! The local cats will always investigate and will not be against the idea of sharing a meal with you.
By the way, there are plenty of dogs in the city, as well, but they seemingly maintain a neutrality with the cats. There are literally no fights or altercations to speak of these days.
There are two approaches to an answer, one superficial.
I’ll begin with the superficial.
Democracy, or one man one vote, is practiced by the Chinese. They have found the process is good at selecting leaders from small groups that work or live closely together. In fact, this is how the President is selected among the Politburo, and so on.
Unfortunately, one man one vote can and has been hijacked, particularly if money and power enters the equation. There are innumerable tales of village/town leadership seizing power through the “democratic process” and terrorizing “voters” for years on end.
When groups grow too large, voting among strangers can lead to undesirable outcomes.
That’s the modern Chinese experience.
Unfortunately, “Western democracy” isn’t just voting systems. It is a system of values and beliefs built on the foundation of western prosperity. For the past 5–600 years, it has been the absolute dominance in technology that has kept the West on top. That is how the top 12% of humanity today maintain radically different standards of living from the rest of the 88.
Until the emergence of China, only willing acolytes of the “Western model” made the leap into the first world, leaving has-beens by the wayside. All of them, to a fault, adopted Western-style constitutions, governments, legislation and thoroughly reformed society, in order to qualify for membership into the “globalized world”. In return, their economies boomed, powered by export-led demand from the first world.
Along came China, which is distinctly different, especially in the post-Soviet age of “the end of history”. Unfortunately, Communist China has succeeded wildly, way beyond the imagination of the “last man”.
Herein lies the rub. Chinese leaders had enough self confidence decades ago that the Western highway to prosperity wasn’t exclusive. Today, Chinese society is increasingly convinced their leaders were right, because they are living the best times in the sum history of Chinese civilization, a realized boast that reverberates through 4 millennia and >100 generations.
Western prosperity in the 21st century is no longer the shining city on the hill, cities of the future one can only dream of being teleported back home. A Chinese tourist visiting NYC, London, Paris and Berlin will be nonplussed by the sights, and perhaps repulsed by the smell and experience. Chinese cities have the same modern hardware, and services is rapidly catching up. And Chinese cities are evolving rapid improvement in quality of life metrics, while the west is stagnating, or worse, regressing.
The Chinese will go, that’s “Western democracy”, “in God We Trust”, and “all men created equal”?
Thanks, but no thanks.
Communism has our vote, because we live and breathe its outcomes.
Ukr Hard Day: Avdeyevka Cauldron, Kherson Bridgehead Cut Off, Wilders Wins; Biden BRICS Gaza Plan
She came to the surgery OPD by mistake on a day when our Plastic Surgery OPD was closed.
She had her face covered with a dupatta. I was immediately aware that she had some disfigurement that she was trying to conceal but it was only when I saw her treatment card that I realised what the reason behind it was.
I read the entire card and slowly looked up at her. She was looking at me with one eye while she kept the rest of her face covered.
“I was asked to come after 4 weeks. Here I am.” She told me quietly.
“Yes, I see it written here, ma’m, but our plastic surgery OPDs are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I am afraid, you’ll have to come back tomorrow.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Can’t you or the doctors here do anything about this?”
“We can but we are not plastic surgeons. We are not experts and we are not the best people to help you.”
“No one can help me, doctor. You know it.”
I had no answer to that.
“If there’s anything else I can do for you…” I said.
“What can you do? My life is ruined. All I do is travel between my home, the hospital and the court. The last few of weeks my life have been hell. The pain has been unbearable. I can’t even look into the mirror anymore. What do you think you CAN do? Can you get me to look like before?”, she said, her eye moist and a hint of desperation in her voice.
I was trying hard to act professional.
I wanted to say that I was sorry that this happened to her. I wanted to tell her that I felt a burning hatred for the person or persons who did this to her. I wanted to tell her that she shouldn’t give up because her life wasn’t over.
Yet, I didn’t say anything. Everything that came into my head began to sound empty as I was about to say it out loud. My words all seemed so woefully inadequate to offer any kind of assurance to her.
That’s why I was trying to be calm and professional. No pity, no sadness, no anger. I was just trying to do what I was there for: my job which was to try and help her.
“I’ll try to call the Plastic Surgery resident to see if he can come here and take a look at you. I can’t promise that he will but I will give him a call.”
“Thank you.” She said quietly.
Nodding, I took out my phone to call the resident.
“I shouldn’t have spoken like that to you.” She said, looking straight at me.
“It’s completely fine.” I said immediately. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel bad for me.
“No, it’s not. I know what it feels like to be spoken to like this, especially if you haven’t done anything to deserve it.”
“Really, ma’m, you do not need to apologise at all. It’s okay-”
“You know, what hurts the most? Before this I was recently-”
Married? Did the husband abandon her? That was the first thought that came to my head.
“-promoted. I was a receptionist in a famous hotel. I was good at my job. People speak to us rudely all the time but I was really good at handling them. There wasn’t a single complaint against me to my manager in the one and a half years that I had the job.”
She paused, looking down at her feet.
“It’s all gone now. They won’t let me work with this…face. It doesn’t matter how well I handle our customers if they can’t handle my face.”, she said, in a voice that was so matter-of-fact that my heart felt like it was being stabbed.
This was a woman who had been serious about her job. She had been excited about her future. She had been independent. The first thing she told me about her life was that she had lost the job she had worked so hard at.
I don’t know why but this case affected me so much more than other cases. Medically, there exist even more severe cases in which acid attacks have caused complete blindness, paralysis or in the inability to eat or swallow.
I know, of course, that you can’t quantify suffering and everyone has their own battles but this one…this one made me want to stop doing my work and go cry in a corner.
I forced myself to look away and called the resident. I managed to convince him to come and examine her.
“He’ll be here in fifteen minutes. Please wait outside.”, I said with difficulty because I felt a lump in my throat.
“Thank you.”, she said softly and left the room.
When you throw acid on someone’s face and they survive the attack, you take from them much of what we consider “life”. You take away choices, opportunities, self-respect and throw them into a world of such suffering that they have never known before.
My grandfather was once a lightweight boxing champ. He was healthy most of his life, but like everyone, he grew old. At 90 years old, though, he still liked to go dancing. He took his girlfriend to their elder community’s weekly dance. We went to join them for dinner and just visit them a while.
While I was up getting them plates from the buffet, two scummy men came in. They had been drinking and were looking for some old people to bully – no joke. They were in their late 30s/early 40s. They stopped at my grandpa’s table and started talking about his girlfriend. My grandpa stood up and told them to leave. I looked over and saw this jerk spit on the floor and shove my 90 year old grandpa.
I saw my grandpa stumble backwards against the wall, and I dropped the food tray and started moving towards him. It felt like slow motion.
Before I could get there, I saw my grandpa push off the wall and punch the guy square in the jaw. The man landed on his butt and slid backwards nearly all the way across the room! No one could believe what we saw, especially not the two creeps. His friend went over and helped him up, and everyone watched them leave with their tails between their legs.
I finally went back and got the food for them, and we sat and talked about what happened while they ate. After a bit, the two idiots came back with the police. They pointed by grandpa out to the officers.
The police didn’t believe their story, and we all acted like we didn’t know what they were talking about.
In last two decades hundreds of millions of Chinese have travelled overseas. Annually about 130 million Chinese travel outside of their country. So by now most of them may have realised that most of the rest of the world is very backward and not as advanced as they used to think.
And secondly they have their own continent sized country to travel and explore and will probably take a lifetime to explore fully. And every kind of tourist related attractions are within their own country be it tourist spots, beaches, deserts, cultural and historical sites, valleys, grasslands, snow and glaciers means in short every experience and to say the least their excellent infrastructure that makes travelling within China indeed a cakewalk.
If a Muslim unknowingly eats pork it isn’t a terrible problem. That doesn’t mean they won’t be upset though.
Regardless of how they feel about the pork, they will probably be more upset with you. Letting them unknowingly eat pork as a joke is a dick move of the highest order. I would recommend that you never tell them, if you want to maintain the relationship you have with them. If you tell them and laugh about it, no one is going to blame them for hating you forever. Others might join their camp.
Like I said, it’s a dick move, so proceed at your own risk.
Hoo boy. This is going to be one rough ride for humanity.
If we act fast, there is a chance that our species might survive for the long term, but we’re going to have to do things quickly. As soon as the Earth starts to move away from the Sun, things are going to cool off. A lot depends on exactly the trajectory, but even with a conservative estimate, we’re facing a snowball Earth scenario within a matter of years, when the surface of the planet can no longer support liquid water. It won’t take long for everything living on the surface to die.
However, not all hope is lost. The oceans will freeze from the surface downward, and as they freeze over they will in fact insulate the deeper layers. It could take hundreds of thousands of years before the oceans freeze solid, meaning some life may still manage to hold on in the deeper parts of the oceans for millennia, particularly where there is active volcanism going on, keeping things (relatively) warm. In theory, given enough time, we might be able to construct underwater habitats in the deep oceans as a refuge for humanity.
Another option is to simply go underground. On average, the temperature increases by about 25C for every kilometer we go down into the ground. Even when the surface temperatures have plummeted to -200C (when we’ve wandered out past Pluto), we “only” have to dig down a handful of kilometers before we can bask in the relative heat from the heart of our planet.
That heat from the planet’s core is what might ultimately provide the salvation for the species. While the rest of the energy sources we have available to us are ultimately based on solar radiation and will be forfeit once we’ve drifted from the Sun, our planet’s core is powered by radioactive decay and will keep on cooking for billions of years to come. We can harness this either directly via fission reactors, or indirectly through geothermal energy sources.
So here’s the scenario we might enact to provide for the continuation of humanity.
First, we determine what capacity we have for tunneling down into the crust and excavating areas large enough to create underground settlements. Perhaps the Boring Company will be in high demand in this scenario! Governments across the world pool their resources and a number of candidate sites around the globe are selected. Access to existing geothermal energy sources might be a good starting point.
Then we start digging. Temporary “camps” are excavated at shallower depths while digging proceeds ahead for future movements. In the meantime, each of these future colonies is prepared with resources that they’ll need to survive. Deep underground, some of the challenges will be oxygen and clean water; however, with artificial sunlight and proper preparation it should be possible to grow crops even underground. We’ll probably have to say goodbye to eating meat as raising animals for food won’t be an efficient use of resources, though we might keep some animals around for the sake of having animals.
At some point there’s going to be some kind of selection process for who gets to go down and survive. This won’t be pretty. Most of us will be left on the surface to freeze to death. But once it’s done, the selected groups can descend into the bowels of the Earth and begin a new subterranean existence.
Would it succeed? It’s hard to say. They have to dig deep enough, and that presents dangers in and of itself. Colonies could be destroyed by seismic activity that collapses them. In those kinds of close quarters, a disease outbreak could prove fatal to the whole group. Issues with food supply or water supply could doom a group. There are many ways in which any underground colony could fail, and it is almost a given some of them would.
But with enough luck, persistence and hard work, some of them might make it, and over the generations adapt to this new lifestyle. Maybe they’d even thrive to the point they could send excursions back out to the surface, exploring the frozen wasteland, travelling across the ice to visit other underground colonies. Maybe even once again find ways to build ships to leave the planet and try to find someplace nicer to take the family, so to speak.
From the Bayou Crawfish Louisianne
Yield: 4 to 6 generous servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1/2 cup chopped andouille sausage
3/4 cup chopped bell pepper (can mix the colors)
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 to 3/4 cup whipping cream
1 pound crawfish tails
1 quart peanut oil
4 to 6 catfish fillets (2 to 3 ounces each)
Egg wash (egg white, water, milk)
Seasoned flour
Seasoning to taste
Cajun seasoning, pepper, red pepper and garlic powder
Instructions
In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add andouille, peppers, onions and Italian seasoning and sauté until tender (about 5 minutes.) Add mushrooms just before completion.
Add whipping cream, and reduce the sauce over medium heat.
Add crawfish, and cook for 3 minutes. Adjust seasoning.
Heat oil in a large saucepan.
Dredge fish in egg wash and then season with flour.
Make decisions for yourself and do not follow the opinions or actions of others.
Have a clear sense of who you are and what you stand for.
Spend time reflecting on your thoughts and emotions and deeply understand yourself.
Be capable of taking care of yourself and do not rely on others for support.
Enjoy spending time alone and find it more fulfilling than being with others.
Have a few close friends or family members and do not rely on the need for an extensive social network.
Enjoy exploring ideas and concepts and be comfortable contemplating complex topics.
Do not seek validation from others and be comfortable relying on yourself.
Have a unique perspective and approach to life and be confident going against the crowd.
Do not conform to societal norms or expectations and march to the beat of your drum.
The Chinese warship sonar incident
This mature and analytical write-up by John Menadue, November 23 is very constructive and logical.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
…
“What a feast of anti-China stories we have had again from the Coalition and our media over the incident between HMAS Toowoomba and a Chinese PLA-N destroyer.
The whole issue really looks to be overblown – and seeded by some in the Sinophobia school who are worried about where Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong may be headed. The idea of “stabilisation” scares them, so they react by promoting some destabilisers.
The proposition that the Chinese warship was directed by Beijing – let alone President Xi – to initiate such “aggressive” action beggars belief. Like the ‘spy’ balloon exercise, where it seems clear enough that President Xi initially knew little about the whole thing.
Our ‘spooks’ depend on the CIA for about 90% of their overseas information and the Pentagon is building a network in our Department of Defence. I would very much doubt whether Albanese and Wong really know what ‘information’ the CIA and the Pentagon are feeding into our spooks.
The US expects that a pliant ally like Australia will do what it is told. It is concerned at recent events and prefers that we do not stabilise our relations with China. So this incident is a great opportunity for some destabilisation. And our poorly informed media tag along as always.
Given the unsurprising PLA comments the chances of misunderstanding the message or even miscommunication would have to rate high. If the PLA ship had been shadowing the RAN ship, which then decided to stop dead in the water to check for nets, would the Commander of the PLA ship not be a bit suspicious about what the RAN was up to and activate some of his intel alerts including special sonar to try to find out more? In any event presumably he would have had some of his sonar devices running while he was sailing anyway? Even if the PLA just happened on the RAN in the middle of the sea (electronically of course) would its initial reaction not be one of suspicion?
We probably will never get the real story of the actual communications between the two ships, but language problems cannot be excluded.
But Albanese and Marles (again and again) have been panicked into hasty responses for which we will pay. Marles should have tried to hose things down, but he invariably sings from the US song sheet. Albanese should stick to the line of not commenting in detail on his private conversations with world leaders. Blinken did this repeatedly over questions about the Xi-Biden talk. If necessary, the government can call in the Chinese Ambassador at Secretary level to make the point.
It is strange why Marles would want to play this up right now. The incident was not in the SCS but in Japan’s EEZ heading towards Japan. This could be in the contested area of the East China Sea, south of Okinawa.
It is also not clear what UN sanctions RAN was monitoring unless they were part of the regular monitoring of UN sanctions against North Korea. We have been doing that in the Sea of Japan further north.
These incidents should be sorted out by military to military communications and not as a stick for those who want to destabilise our improving relationship with China.
We would be more concerned if this incident occurred in waters adjacent to Australia and not in waters adjacent to China, which is already encircled by scores of US military bases. China would understandably be very sensitive about what happens in its proximity.
In any event, this incident is minor compared with the aggressive things we do that are hostile to China. RAAF P8 aircraft operating out of the Philippines drop Sonar buoys in the SCS to monitor Chinese submarines. This is not for the defence of Australia but to support the US in a possible conflict with China over Taiwan.
Our media have shown no interest in this issue. It does not fit the Western ‘China threat’ narrative that our White Man’s Media works so hard to construct and maintain, and so is ignored.”
If you’ve worked retail long enough, even if you’re amazing, you have one of these.
I work retail pharmacy. I had a woman come up to the sales counter with her adult daughter, wanting to buy a large quantity of Sudafed, but within the legal limit. Both of them were planning to buy, and they happened to mention that they were buying it for the woman’s mother, both of them. This is illegal, as in my state you must purchase it for yourself or your minor child. You actually sign an electronic document stating so.
I apologize to the women and tell them I can’t complete the transaction, and explain why, that it is against state and federal law.
Immediate attitude, along the lines of “Who do you think you are, you low born classless person to tell me and my daughter, with our bleach blonde hair and snooty attitudes ‘no!’”
The mother demands to speak with the manager, who isn’t there, we just have a staff pharmacist who’s witnessed the whole thing. She tells the woman that I can complete the sale.
I stare at her for a second before asking the pharmacist if she intends to pay my legal fees to reinstate my pharmacy tech liscense, and tell the pharmacist that if she wants to process the transaction she can, but that I WILL NOT.
She demands my register login and codes, because she’s not a regular pharmacist at my store. I refuse to give them to her, as that is a fireable offense.
The customer is staring at us, red faced and ready to burst, and demands I listen to the pharmacist, then demands I page store management when I explain that the pharmacist cannot compel me to break the law.
I page store management, and my favorite assistant manager comes over and asks what’s going on. By this point, the woman is using abusive language, and exclaims “This f*ggot won’t sell me Sudafed that is for me!”
At that point the manager raises an eyebrow and tells the woman she’s going to have to move her car.
Woman asks why.
“Because our parking is for customers only. You need to leave now. Our customers know they can’t talk to people like that.”
The woman throws a shrieking fit, shoving over a display of medication… which her adult daughter stops to pick up, apologizing the whole time.
The pharmacist in question got written up by corporate for an Ethics violation, and when my Pharmacy Manager told me I should just turn my ears off and not listen to conversations at the register and do my job, he got an Ethics violation that has left him stuck as a pharmacy manager.
The woman emailed the corporate office, and I got to see the reply which was basically ‘We’re sorry you had that experience, but our stores are committed to following state and federal law’ and they attached the laws in question, highlighted.
It was nice to be vindicated and defended for once, instead of thrown under that well known bus.
I was in a hospital, here at Rome, to visit a friend, and when I was going away I saw two American girls, one could hardly walk because she had fell and hurted badly her leg. I helped them to call someone to bring a wheel chair and they went to emergency. I went with them to help because they didn’t speak italian well. I asked why they didn’t call for an ambulance and they said they didn’t want t to spend too much money. They were worried about how much they would have to pay at the hospital too. I explained them, in Italy, the ambulance is free, and so the hospital. Even if she would have to stay there for days or weeks. No one in Italy could dare to ask a girl with a broken leg for money. Nobody could leave her without medical care even if the didn’t have money.
They couldn’t believe me . They continued asking if the hospital was going to send bills later. If they could pay later in installments.
The girls wanted to ask the administrative employee too, because they wanted to be sure. He gave them the same answer and they were very surprised.
Later the girls left the hospital, one had a cast on her leg but they had big, beautiful smiles!
Not me, but my mother. She was visiting the US for a ski holiday in New England and had a bad fall that resulted in a broken bone. As a result, she had to spend a bit of time in a hospital. Her stay was fortunately paid for by Canadian health insurance; can’t imagine how US citizens who don’t have or can’t afford coverage manage to pay for their care.
Anyway, I was curious to see what it cost after she got home, so she showed me the detailed bill. The total was shockingly high, no surprise, but one thing caught my eye. She’d been invoiced for 3X “helically wound cellulose absorbent matrix units” at $48 each. Curious, I contacted the hospital to ask what these could be. Can you guess?
They turned out to be rolls of bog-standard toilet paper, the number she was tracked as having consumed during her stay.
This was a Church of England (Christian) secondary school (ages 11-18) in the late ‘80s and the dress code was quite strict. Among the many rules was one that boys weren’t allowed to have long hair.
There was this old-fashioned teacher (Mr. Barabell) who’d been teaching there for ~30 years already by that point and was well-known for being strict but fair.
Anyway, there was this one boy (Luke) who decided that he wanted to grow long hair and he wasn’t going to let a stupid school rule stop him, and so he just let it grow. Initially he started getting comments from teachers about being “scruffy” etc. but eventually the situation came to a head in Mr. Barabell’s class:
A confrontation begins with the teacher telling Luke off— “There are school standards to maintain, “ and, “Does he think that he’s special, ” and so on. Well Luke—smart alec that he was—has a pre-prepared answer ready to go:
“But sir, Jesus had long hair didn’t he?“
As this point the class is completely silent waiting for a response, but instead of answering Mr. Barabell says, “Right, everyone come with me now,” and he turns and exits the class room. We all follow, including Luke, wondering what on Earth is going on.
Eventually we reach the school swimming pool and gather around. Then Mr. Barabell turns to Luke, points to the swimming pool and says, “Walk!”.
Luke is just standing there kind of shaking his head (knowing that he’s defeated) and the whole rest of the class is cracking up.
The teacher finishes with, “When you can walk on water, you can have long hair at school.”
Americans foolishly screamed and shout that they are the leader of the free world without ever questioning if it is even remotely true or not! Please don’t be angry or upset if I help you guys since I understand you can pretend to be free or even dare says you are ordained by god to spread democracy and freedom but you Americans are one of the least free country on earth.
Let me help you good American. So first I like to explain how unfree you guys are.
35% of you cannot get health care when you fall sick! The most basic of freedom is the freedom to see a doctor and get cure when you fall sick. At least 100 million Americans don’t have this basic of basics of freedom.
Next 1 million Americans are homeless and don’t have another basic of basics of freedom. The freedom to have a roof over their head.! They have to live in makeshift tents on the streets.
20% of Americans don’t have 500 dollars to their name and don’t know where their next meal is coming from! Surely everyone must have the freedom to have a hot meal to stay alive!
USA with about 4% of world population has 25% of the worlds prisoners population! Think about this my American friends, prisoners are certainly. Not free. Many of them coloured people thrown into jail for the slightest reason. How on earth can you keep a straight face to say U.S. is the leader of the free world. No one know!
In many cities in the U.S. one cannot go to certain parts of the inner city like the Queens in New York. As crimes are rampant. So normal innocent and good Americans like you have to avoid that part of America! Surely freedom means you can go to anywhere or any part of America.
Kids and parents suffers the mental turmoils daily for just going to school. Many got shot to death in schools, public places, cinemas and even in Capitol Hill! Is that freedom? Even your kids are not free to go to school without a random mass shooter lurking with military grade weapons to murder them! Is this freedom?
If you are not fortunate to have a white skin you could be necked to death in the bright daylight of even driving a good car may be be shot to death just for suspected of stealing the car! Everyday you live in fear of a white policeman! Is that freedom to live? Freedom to avoid death at the racist inclination of the white racist? Surely not.
Freedom means you can choose who you really want to be your leader. Only 30% choose Biden. Or 35% choose Trump! Why are they your president? Your system allowed 0.8% of the richest and most influential people to choose your candidates! Surely this is not political freedom. This is far from democracy. How on earth can you call yourself the “beacon of democracy” who in a sane mind can claim that?
Oh today you country stop the Americans from having access to best 5G technology, Smartphone, best EV’s, drones and others for some geopolitical nonsense! Is this freedom? Freedom to be deprived? Let me help you understand. You are deprived from buying a 10 bucks EV. And need to be charged once a week but you are not allowed to! You cannot buy your Tesla like for half the price! Just to support your too big to fail auto industry paying 100 million bonus doing shit for good Americans!
But to me EVs and Drones are just the top of the iceberg of your draconian and suicide policies that takes away the freedom of Americans like you. Think about Jullien Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden! Freedom? American is anything but free.
It was 2016 in Bruges, Belgium. I was with my parents and we had just hailed a cab that somehow turned into a ride-share with this British family.
All was well in the van until about three minutes in, when I heard the lady say: “These people look a bit funny, don’t they?”. I looked up to notice that they were talking about my family. In plain English.
I stayed silent as much as I could, as they went on discussing among themselves and chuckling over how we were so bundled up (It was in the middle of a freezing winter and I live in the freaking equator!) even though it wasn’t that cold for them, or how they couldn’t figure out where we’re from because apparently we didn’t look Chinese enough nor Middle Eastern enough for them (Answer: Neither – we’re Indonesian) and all. During the whole ride, they were mocking us.
My mother must’ve seen me giving them a death stare and asked if anything was wrong, in Indonesian. Topping it all off, they were of course chuckling at how my mom was talking really funny. I couldn’t stand it any more, so I answered my mom in English, making sure the British family heard me well:
“Yes there is a problem here. Some people actually still think that English isn’t a universal language by now, and think that it’s good fun to mock and make fun of other people just because of how they look”.
I spent the rest of the cab ride watching the blood drain from their faces. At least I was no longer the one being uncomfortable in that cab.
Feeling sad after making a decision doesn’t mean it was the wrong decision.
Life is not tiring. Wanting life to be a certain way but not having the confidence to make it that way, is tiring.
Self-awareness is realising that there is no opponent -you’re fighting against yourself.
Sometimes saying ‘goodbye’ doesn’t mean you don’t love something, it just means you love yourself too.
That lesson will repeat itself until you learn it.
If you keep one hand on your past and one hand on your future you’ll never have either. To embrace tomorrow, you must let go of yesterday.
The world starts and ends entirely inside your mind. No matter where you end up, no matter how rich, or successful you become, you won’t enjoy any of it if you get there at the expense of your mental health.
As a teenager, I worked in a gas station for a couple of years. A younger kid got hired who had some odd work habits. When the station owner would leave, the kid would just go sit down in the office. Meanwhile, I’d be pumping gas, changing oil, or mounting tires. I had no authority over this kid.
A few days after he was hired, I told the owner what was going on. An hour or two later the owner mentioned he was going home for an hour or two. He departed, the kid sat down in the office, while I finished doing an oil change and waited on customers at the pumps.
Ten minutes later, the boss walked out the alley where he’d parked his truck out of sight, and stood quietly in the shadows, watching me work, and the kid sitting on his butt. A few minutes later, the kid was fired. Word got around our small town pretty quickly, I don’t think this kid could find another job that summer.
Years ago I strained a tendon in my thumb. I went to one of those jenky quick service medical clinics to have it looked at and a person, who I assumed had some training in doctoring or nursing, prescribed me ibuprofen and put my hand in a brace.
I paid them like 50 bucks and went on my way.
A few weeks later I got a bill for the brace from a medical billing company in Texas. They assigned a cost of $750 to the brace, and only the brace, claimed to have billed my insurance for $450 and expect the rest from me. Of course, I sent them nothing, and the bills kept coming. The brace was essentially the same as one you’d buy at the drug store for about $35. It was nothing special and there was no way I was sending them any money. I tried to call them, but no one ever answered their phone.
Once my tendon healed, I put the brace in a box, along with a copy of their bill and mailed it to them. I never received anther bill afterwards.
In fact, there is no eternal empire in human history. From Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, Ottoman, Russia. The lifespan of any empire established by a civilization is limited. In other words, crashes are bound to happen.
But the difference between China and other empires is that most ancient empires collapse only once. Because the collapsed empire can never be rebuilt again. But China has such a magical power that no matter how it collapses, it will always be reunified after a period of time, and then climb to the peak again.
This picture shows the whole history of China. The crown represents peace and unity, and the sword represents division and war.
So much so that the opening sentence of the famous ancient Chinese novel “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” reads: “The general trend of the world is that if it is divided for a long time, it will be united, and if it is united for a long time, it will be divided.”
Why China has such magic power, historians have many opinions.
One of the more widely recognized statements is this:
4,000 years ago, the Chinese were born on a land suitable for farming. Since the earliest civilized countries were established, they have been a typical agricultural civilization.
From the earliest recorded history of China, they have faced the threat from the north. That is the nomadic civilization galloping on the grasslands. In the early historical documents of Chinese dynasties, the invasion of nomadic civilization was recorded many times, and even the most brilliant Western Zhou Dynasty perished because of the invasion of nomadic civilization.
The ancestors of the Chinese discovered that the agricultural civilization, which is good at farming and construction, cannot compete with the nomadic civilization, which is good at riding and archery, in war. (Infantry can hardly defeat cavalry). But as long as they are united, they will become more powerful. If 1 person can’t defeat the enemy, then 3 people; if 3 people can’t, then 10 people. Since agricultural civilization can breed more wealth and population, once China is united, the nomads are no match at all.
In 221 BC, the Qin Empire unified China for the first time, defeated the Xiongnu in war, and built the Great Wall to keep them out of the cold north. The Han Empire went a step further and formed a professional army of hundreds of thousands of people, went on an expedition to the desert, and completely defeated the Xiongnu. A unified and strong state always protects its people from harm. And when the empire crumbles and divides, China becomes weak. For example, the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period were all like this. At this time, the enemy from the north invaded, the internal war was in chaos, and the society was dark. People cannot live a normal life, and starvation and death become the norm. Every round of imperial collapse and division in Chinese history will be accompanied by wars and a significant reduction in population. The lessons of history have engraved this truth deeply in the hearts of the Chinese people—unity is justice and light, and division is evil and darkness. The Chinese yearning for unity transcends history, time, religion, and nationality.
Therefore, the ultimate political goal of every careerist who wished to seize power in ancient China was the same: to unify the country and obtain the “sky destiny”. Only in this way can we gain the support of the people.
Imagine if in Europe, every German thought the German government was evil, the British thought the British government was dark, and the French thought the French government was corrupt. These governments should all be overthrown. As for the reason, there is only one: they don’t want to unify Europe, which is not the right direction.
What a terrible and incredible power this is, but the Chinese have such power.
I used to date an American. At the time I lived on an estate where to get out, you had to drive under a railway bridge arch. He got annoyed with having to wait for oncoming traffic to clear and demanded to know “why the hell didn’t they build this with two lanes?” I said it was built 150 years ago for stagecoaches, before cars were even invented. Americans forget how old England is.
I asked a cycle rickshaw driver in India if I could have a turn. “This’ll be as easy as riding a bicycle,” I thought.
Technically, that’s exactly what it is. Only that you’re pulling someone else’s weight as well. Or even that of several people.
His face had all those deep grooves from the harsh sun beating down on him all day. His arms and legs were as thin as twigs. His ribcage bulged through a sweat-drenched tanktop.
I was less than half his age and enjoyed the kind of nutrition he could only dream of.
“You’re a tourist,” he protested.
But I insisted and he sat on the vinyl seat in the back.
I mounted the driver’s seat brimming with confidence and pressed down on the pedal.
It didn’t even budge.
I stood up and pushed down with all my might.
The rickshaw squeaked forward a couple inches.
By this point, the driver was laughing hysterically.
I conceded defeat, we changed positions, and he sailed down the street with an ease I could not even begin to fathom.
And while he was no industry-disrupting maverick, he was solving a real problem—helping people get from A to B.
My view of manual laborers was forever changed.
I learned that technique always trumps strength.
And that every honest line of work deserves our utmost respect.
There’s a lot of people chatting about “reptilians”. My (MM) opinion is that (as far as the Earth is concerned), our environment is not conducive and supportive of a human-sized intelligent reptilian extraterrestrial. The size betrays the need for large amounts of oxygen and that impacts the brains size and cavity.
Reptilians can exist, mind you, but not as intelligent beings. Not around our star, and within our present environment.
I had the opportunity to inquire to the Domain Commander about this issue on a chat that I had while riding the public bus. (Yup, welcome to MM land.)
There ARE extraterrestrials that have a reptilian form, and they are intelligent.
They however, are unable to operate within this solar system effectively.
Thus, any extraterrestrial beings that operate within our Earth environment take on other “forms”. Not reptilian.
That being said, one should not discount the reports that reptilians and shape-changing beings are common in the earth environment. They are not. What is instead being reported is a cloaked image that presents a reptilian image directly keyed to satiate the observer.
The primeval state is insectoid. Not reptilian, however, many human observers would find a projection of a large insect far too disturbing for purposes of contact, thus a reptilian image is preferred.
Better to see a human-sized lizard, than a giraffe sized preying mantis. Don’t you know.
Back when I was in college (early ‘70s) everyone hitchhiked. I would hitchhike alone or with friends almost every other weekend in upstate New York (yes, I’m a guy). Our trips were always taken on part of the NYS Thruway, and there were unwritten rules that hitchhikers followed. There were usually three, four or more hitchhikers just before the toll booths, each person or group would be spread out 20 or so feet apart. We would all have signs for where we wanted to go, usually the city/town/exit we wanted to get dropped off. The person/group that was closest to the toll booths had priority for being picked up, if you were just getting to the thruway entrance, you took the spot farthest away. As people got picked up, your place in the queue got better.
My friend and I actually started a small business. We got large pieces of white oaktag (two feet wide) and created stencils that we would spray paint with dayglow orange paint. We would sell them to people who were going to hitchhike, they were always the best signs of anybody looking for a ride, they loved them. We also made copies of tips and rules (we would always be amazed at stupid ways people dressed to be standing outside, sometimes in the snow/rain for hours). I’d say we got a ride 95% of the time, we never had any problems.
The topper though was: “You will have to wait until Monday.”
Er, no I don’t.
I paraded in front of that branch with a sign stating the facts – this branch did not have $1000 on hand – causing quite the queue to form….of demanding account holders.
Presto. $1000 cash appeared, with no delivery that I observed, nothing.
Dude, age 37, sexist as hell, has a theory that only very few women are smart. Very few. He could maybe count them on one hand.
He, on the other hand, is the love child of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein high on NZT.
We are at a party, all PhD students, the women’s section seriously looked down on by this Dude. He of course has to start an intellectual fight over something one of the girls is majoring in. He dies to prove that she has grey spots in her logic/theory. Girl is super chill, Dude makes very little sense actually. He is mostly arrogant. Finally he names a study written by a female author, says Girl should only talk with such confidence if she is as smart as that woman. Yeah, the author lady is one of the few super intelligent “females” he would be able to accept as a partner in all terms.
Girl laughs and pulls out her laptop to show Dude how the study is actually her own article. She wrote it. She is the super intelligent author lady.
Laugh rumbles for minutes, Dude leaves a contrail behind in his rush to get out, trying to act hurt.
I was 19 and doing my internship in a midsize Pune based CA firm. My boss and I were working until around 8:30 p.m. Other employees had already left.
My Boss: Vikas, we should leave now, it’s 8:30 p.m.
In an attempt to impress my boss, with how dedicated and hard working I am, Isaid “Sir, you leave. I will finish drafting that partnership deed and then go.”
My Boss: Are you sure? It can take 2 hours.
Me: No problem, Sir. I’ll finish it this evening and set the copy on your desk before leaving.
My Boss: OK. Lock the office carefully.
Here is the catch, I had already drafted that deed, and it was ready to be printed out. I went to my desk, waited few minutes, ensured boss had left his cabin, then took printouts, neatly placed it on my boss’s table. Switch off lights and locked the office. Went down the cafeteria downstairs and started having my food.
But I forgot, there’s a balcony adjacent to my boss’s cabin. He was actually in the balcony talking on a phone, while I locked him in his own office.
But that’s only half part of embarrassment story.
My boss realised I’ve locked him in, saw the partnership deed print outs on his desk, he understood the entire matter (he was a smart and jolly person in 30s, who has gone through that same phase of internship).
He called me : Vikas, where are you? what are you doing?
Me: Sir I am in office, typing that partnership deed.
Boss : There’s no need to type that deed. I’m in my cabin now, holding the printout of that same partnership deed.
Me:……………!
Boss : So please come to the office, unlock the door, let me go home!
If he had scolded me, then okay. But he never said a word about my oversmartness.
It was a second date, and we went to an Indian restaurant. The waiter made a mistake with our order, and instead of causing a scene I was apparently completely sympathetic and understanding.
I say “apparently” because I don’t actually remember this at all, since being nice to waiters is my default mode, but my date really noticed. It seems that almost everyone else she’d dated would put on some kind of show in order to show how assertive and macho they were, no matter that it involved humiliating someone for a mistake anyone could have made – and she said that that was the precise point when she thought that I might have long-term relationship potential.
Fifteenth wedding anniversary this month. Moral: be nice to waiters.
My father was a very distinguished British judge and widely recognised as one of the finest legal minds of his generation.
Whenever he bought a car, he set up a savings account to pay for the eventual replacement. The account was with a major international banking group.
When the time came to replace his car, he discovered that this type of account had been mothballed, and no interest had been paid for years. He’d overlooked the notification small print amongst the endless stream of marketing bumf from the bank.
His initial complaint was rejected. So my father wrote directly to the Chair of the Board, pointing out that this policy discriminated against the bank’s most vulnerable customers, with an incisively argued opinion that the policy was illegal under EC consumer law.
Not long afterwards he received a personal letter from the Chair. After apologising profusely, he assured my father that the policy would be changed, and that many thousands of customers of discontinued accounts would have their interest paid in full plus additional compensation. This will have cost them many millions.
It’s not often that a single customer complaint changes the policy of a major corporation. Their lawyers must have checked my father’s reputation and realised that they were on a legal hiding to nothing.
They tangled with the wrong guy!
Copeland’s of New Orleans Bananas Foster
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) whole butter
4 whole bananas, peeled and cut into fourths
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup light cream or Half-and-Half
1 ounce banana liqueur
1 ounce rum
Instructions
Place half of the butter in a heavy gauge skillet over medium heat and melt. Add the sugar and cream. Cook for approximately 2 minutes until the sugar is dissolved.
Add cut bananas and the cinnamon to the skillet and stir to coat.
Remove the skillet from the flame. Add the rum and the banana liqueur.
Swirl to incorporate and place the skillet back on the flame. (**Be careful because the alcohol may ignite when you place it back on the flame.)
Add the remaining butter and swirl to incorporate.
Serve over your favorite ice cream, pound cake, or biscuits.
They had a warrant for the guy related to money laundering and racketeering, but they knew he was a hit man too. They were going to hit his house early one morning. The bust crew staged around the corner, and my dad said he would cruise by the house to check for any unforeseen circumstances, and verify the street address. My dad pulled up in an unmarked suberban, and stopped briefly in front of the guys house. At that moment, hit man dude walks out in his bath robe to get the morning newspaper. My dad (in plain clothes) said “excuse me, can I ask you a quick question?” Dude said sure. He walked up to my dads window. My dad says aren’t you so-and-so? Guy says yes i am. Dad flashed his badge and says sir, i got a warrant for your arrest. Dude looks around, then said really? Dad says yes sir, put your hands on my hood please. And handcuffed him right there in his bathrobe. Then called the bust crew and told them “well, i got him. He is in custody “.
Dude was actually super cool. Said he was gonna need a few minutes to explain this to his wife because she had no idea about this part of his life. They gave him that courtesy
When I was younger I had been babysitting for my nephew but they had recently moved to a new apartment in a part of the city I didn’t know. My parents had drawn a map to get me there, but I ended up not quite getting the same route back. It was gone 2am and I emerged onto a little roundabout from a different road than expected so I went around twice to get my bearings. And of course a cop car just happened to see it and pulled me over.
They asked me why, I told the truth and showed them the paper map. They asked me if I’d anything alcoholic to drink and again I truthfully said no. I don’t blame him for not believing me, given the time, a Saturday night and the situation so I took the breathalyser. I knew it would come back totally negative so I wasn’t worried. So of course it did, and they let me go. But before they left, the officer looked at me and very honestly and earnestly thanked me for my polite, respectful, courteous and cooperative attitude.
Apparently they don’t get pleasant, polite attitudes from the people they encounter very often and it was nice for them.
Not too long ago, I was “de-marketized” by my former bank, Royal Bank of Canada, for accepting too many payments from companies I work for from PayPal.
from the Financial Times
This is one of Canada’s Big 5 banks, and I had been banking with them for well over 30 years. I had actually spoken to their security department about this as they wanted to confirm that all of my transactions were legal and not something out of fraud or whatever, which I didn’t mind being audited on as all of my work was legal, just not paid through the usual ways.
The bank’s security had cleared me, but they were then overruled by some other department in their head office, and suddenly I get a letter saying I was being “de-marketized” which involves having ALL of my accounts, investments, retirement funds and so on be shut down and be forced to move to another bank. There was no way to appeal, no way to complain and no act I could do to stop this. So having exhausted almost all of the avenues of redress (there’s still the Federal banking ombudsman), I had to scramble to get all of my accounts out to another bank.
Now normally I would say, “good riddance” as I’ve found that the service at my new bank far superior than what I’ve encountered with RBC. RBC put me through essentially bureaucratic hell for a month as I had to fill out this form and that form…. but now you’re probably wondering where I’m going with all this.
Well, when I had moved my investment accounts (my retirement funds) out to another bank, they had the gall to charge me $150 for the priviledge to MOVE THE MONEY OUT despite them FORCING ME OUT. And worse, if I hadn’t screamed absolute murder to the highest mountains, they tried to RETURN MY RETIREMENT SAVINGS STRAIGHT TO ME AS CASH. To do this would AUTOMATICALLY incur an instant 25–30% INCOME TAX CUT OFF THE FUNDS, which would have been in the THOUSANDS of dollars! If it wasn’t for my new bank instructing me EXACTLY what I needed to do to avoid incurring the loss and telling them I was absolutely ready to put this whole mess on LOCAL NEWS, they wouldn’t have “suddenly” discover that there was a way for me to transfer the money without the tax implications.
So in the end, I still only got hit by the $150 transfer fee, but this was absolutely absurb as I never would have been hit with this if they didn’t force me out in the FIRST PLACE.
High Alert! China Is Now Launching Their ‘Submarine Killer’ To Counter US Nuclear Submarine
China commands one of the best naval powers in the world. With modern naval vessels, advanced naval technology with no rival, a majestic naval infrastructure and the largest commanding navy in the world, the PLA Navy is by no means playing around. A recent development has come into light which reveals China’s plans of developing a next generation naval demolisher that will definitely be a force to be reckoned with.
My husband was the 82nd paratrooper with the tweaked shoulder, I was the new wife hip deep in a Ford Pinto doing an oil change and tune-up at the Hobby Shop on post. He was an E-5 Sergeant, we didn’t have money for someone else to work on our cars, so “we” were working on the Pinto of Many Colors (think primer on all four fenders in four different colors — not me, I swear!) This particular Pinto we’d paid $186 for because the little old lady who sold it to us took $14 off because we’d have to register it — 94,000 miles later, I figured we got our money’s worth. But it did require maintenance.
Hubby was handing me tools one-handed. I asked for an extension for a stubborn spark plug and he went to “check it out” which you could do at the post Hobby Shop.
Someone from the next bay handed me the tool and said, “Try this one.”
I took it and said, “Thank-you, kindly.”
There was some inconsequential chit-chat, and I said, “You sound like home.”
He was from home, less than an hour from home anyway, La Follette, TN.
That was it, a short conversation with a soldier, a good ole Southern boy in a white T-shirt tucked into belted jeans. He was a little older than everyone else in the bay, but oil needed changing, right?
Hubby gave me big eyes and said, “Thank-you, SIR.”
It was the GENERAL Carl Stiner, his many boss’ boss, head of the 82nd at the time.
The Pinto started right up and ran like a top. Hubby’s shoulder healed. And the general went on to great things with Special Operations Group and to co-write a book with Tom Clancy. But I think of him changing his own oil in a tucked-in T-shirt at the Hobby Shop.
Strangest things on camera
WHAT ELSE COULD GO WRONG?
A man was skydiving one bright sunny day. He pulled the string to open his main parachute – but nothing happened – the parachute did not open! So he pulled the string to open his reserve chute – but that didn’t open either!!
‘Oh no’, the man thought to himself. ‘The way things are going, my car probably won’t start either when I try to drive home!!!’
This is a favorite story of mine. If you watch my show the original creature features on YouTube, You will note that I wear an eye patch. I have been blind in one eye for almost 60 years And I have made a point of wearing an eye patch in all of my ID photos because it makes it easier for people to know it’s me. Having a damaged eye is a hard thing to fake. So I went down to the DMV to renew my license and they said I had to take an eye test remember I am wearing an eye patch. They first told me to cover my left eye and read the chart, the eye with an eye patch. I told them that it would not affect anything as I don’t have an eye and I am in fact wearing an eye patch but they said I could be faking it so I had to cover my left eye and read the chart. That was not the stupid part. They then told me I had to cover my right eye, The only eye that can see and read the chart. I again told them that I was blind in my left eye and was in fact wearing an eye patch over my left eye which i’d be willing to remove so that they could see the lack of a left eye. They pointed out that despite being qualified to be at the DMV or Possibly because of it, They were not qualified to look at my eye and tell that it was blind and that I still had to cover my eye and read the chart. Again they pointed out that I could be faking it, There could be a hole in the eye patch that I’m seeing through. I said let’s just write down that I saw nothing and they said they couldn’t believe me until I covered my eye and then told them I saw nothing. I asked them what would be the advantage to me to lie on my DMV eye Test that I was blind. They couldn’t tell me but required that I covered my only good eye and try to read the chart. I covered the eye said I couldn’t see anything and they proceeded to give me my new driver’s license. I desperately want to work at the DMV as I don’t believe I am stupid enough to possibly ever be fired.
“We all printed off our copies of the speech and she had hers on her computer! I can’t even believe that. I was so pissed.”
“Did you tell her to print it?” I ask.
“Well, no,” she admits. “But I think it’s fairly obvious—”
“If it’s so obvious, you’d think she’d’ve done it,” I observe.
“She was probably just being lazy.”
“Or she didn’t have the same expectations as you. If you wanted her to do something, you should’ve told her. You can’t really be mad about something you never said.”
Many people think it’s valid to get upset about assumptions.
But if you want something done, say it. If you don’t like something, say it. If you need something, say it.
Don’t assume that others see what you see.
It never hurts to discuss things.
And it never hurts to say what you’re thinking.
Communication.
It rocks, yo.
NDE REVEALS: The REASON We CHOSE To Incarnate During This DIFFICULT Time!
My best friends 5 year old son stayed with me for a week (my friend and her husband went on holiday). I was pregnant at that time.
One evening after bringing him back home from the park, i was panting walking home. As soon as he got home, he disappeared into the bathroom.
I could hear running water, but didn’t think much of it. I thought he was washing his hands (and he takes long).
While he was doing his thing, I went to the kitchen to warm up dinner, I saw him pull a chair to the bathroom. Obviously this wasn’t normal. I followed him to the bathroom, but he asked me not to come in for two minutes.
When he finally opened the door, he’s filled the bathtub with hot water, added soap for bubbles, cologne for smell (he probably didn’t realize that soap had smell too). And he’d kept the chair just outside the bath tub so I could sit and soak my feet in hot water.
He said that’s what dad did when his mum was expecting his sibling. It takes away all the pain he said!
Obviously the sweetest thing a child has done
Wife Says She “Wasted Her 20s Raising Kids” So She Wants An Open Marriage…I Said I Want A Divorce
So you know how in the Lord of the Rings books, orcs are corrupted, debased creatures made by foul darkness in mockery of elves?
That’s kind of what English muffins are to crumpets.
If you’ve only had English muffins but never has your mouth known the blessing of a crumpet, you might think they are in some way kin, without realizing how the English muffin is a fel and evil mockery of a crumpet. To taste a crumpet after a lifetime of English muffins is to know true bliss, as if you’ve had your first hint of a brighter world, a breakfast delicacy buttered by the loins of Aphrodite herself.
Not my boss, it was an important client. A client we couldn’t afford to lose.
A desperate call came in Friday morning. An American investor wanted an English translation of their just released 68-page German annual report for Monday.
I knew it was a huge problem, but I stayed calm as I ran the word count to see how bad it was.
Doing the rough math, I told him we needed to find at least 3 additional financial translators (plus yours truly) who might be willing to work a 32-hour weekend on short notice. I would call him back as soon as I had news.
Now this was back in 1998, long before Google Translate and DeepL.
I sent an email out to 11 translators and got on the phone to follow the mail.
After 8 calls I had my 3 translators, but there was a catch. The least expensive one was asking for 240 marks (120 EUR) per hour. The most expensive wanted 400 marks (200 EUR).
That was outrageous, but as they all pointed out to me, only outrageous people ask suppliers to change their weekend plans on Friday morning and tell their loved ones they are working a 16-hour Saturday and Sunday.
Normally this job would have been quoted just under 8,000 marks with a one week delivery time, but to complete over the weekend it would cost 45,000.
I called back the client and told him we could deliver for Monday at a price of 45,000… or we could deliver a week later for 8,000. I asked him to talk it over with his investor and get back to me asap.
The return call came pretty quickly. Monday in a week would be just fine.
The moral of the story is, be nice, but be firm. Set a price for losing your weekend. It can be extra money, extra days off or maybe even a promotion.
Then let the boss decide whether it’s worth it. Your weekend belongs to you, but you can always sell it if the price is right.
It was on our honeymoon and I knew then I made a mistake by marrying him. We argued a lot. He was angry with me because I couldn’t read a map. I COULD read a map just fine, it was the map that wasn’t clear as to which way to go. I gave him the map and he couldn’t figure it out either. 15 years go by, our two daughters were 10 and 13 and starting with the mouthy disrespect, but only towards me. The girls and I got into a verbal confrontation about respecting me, right in front of him. He gathered both girls to hug them and told them I was “tetched” or in other words crazy and they didn’t have to listen to me! So instead of backing me up he just made it worse. It was all downhill from there. Time goes by. Every single night, just like his parents, come home from work, eat, shower, watch TV and go to bed. Repeat until death. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Rarely go to a movie or anything else. NEVER go anywhere on vacation. I could not live like that so I decided to start my own business, which did pretty well. Went by myself on simple vacations since he didn’t want to go. So after 32 years wasted with this man, he decides to cheat with my businesses book keeper who was my best friend. I should have listened to my instict, left him to figure out his own map and walked out while on our honeymoon.
Psychologist Explains WHY Women Have To EARN Affection
“Women treat men like men treat their jobs. Men treat women like women treat money”.
And…
“people want what they want. Not, what wants them.”
I had an offer and counter offer then agreed to sell. I signed the papers and gave them to his realtor. The realtor said he would take them to the buyer tomorrow. It would have closed in a couple weeks. I was on a tight deadline to sell, it was 1994 and tax law gave me two years to sell and time was up soon. Later that same day another realtor brought me an offer that was VA preapproved and could close that week. Since the first buyer hadn’t signed yet I was able to recind my agreement to sell and accept the new one. His realtor cost him a house
“You haven’t passed the trial period”, I said to the manager.
I was having this interview for a job I really wanted. The interview went well, but the employers explained that since they couldn’t tell from an interview how I would do in practice, there would be a trial period of three months. I was happy with that; if I didn’t pass the trial period, at least I’d gain experience.
So I began my trial period, but already in the first week I didn’t like the atmosphere in that place. The manager who was so nice during my interview, turned out to be loud, on the verge of being a bully. He was walking in the place like a dictator and people would go quiet every time he was around them. I’m prone to anxieties and I knew it wasn’t going to work for me. Yes, I needed the money and I loved what I was doing, but it didn’t do good to my soul.
I was taking my time deciding though, but then one day he was shouting at one employee so badly (and in front of others), that I made up my mind. It was nearly the end of my trial period, and at the end of that day I went to his office and asked to talk. He said, “Please come in, I was actually planning to talk to you after the weekend, we’ll sign a contract next week.” I said, “Thank you but I won’t be staying, I can’t stand the atmosphere in your place.” He said, “What? why? don’t take it like that, we are busy, it’s nothing personal, and you have definitely passed the trial period.” I said, “Yes, but you haven’t passed the trial period!”
I was 17. 2 cops pulled me over and checked me and my car out. They found a pair of pliers on the back floorboard. They were looking at me all suspicious like. I was shaking. One of them said “We’ve got you now”. I managed to say “For what?” They looked at each other and then one said “Cattle rustling” I said “But we’re in the middle of the city”. They started laughing. Turns out there’s an old Texas law dating back to the 1800s that forbids anyone from carrying wire cutters. We all got a laugh and they let me go.
I came to USA married and our daughter arrived 5 years later.
I decided to teach her Portuguese since it is our mother tongue.
When my daughter was 7 years old, she did not want to speak Portuguese anymore. One day, coming from school, she began telling me some situation that happened at school in English. I told her: “Please, tell me in Portuguese.” My English is excellent, but the reason that I wanted her speaking in Portuguese was because of her future, it is a plus when you can acquire a language as a child.
She got upset and told me she did not want to tell me anything anymore. I told her to go to her room and come back when she was ready to speak. It took her a few minutes, but her reasoning was valid: “Mom, everything happened in English”. But she told me the story in Portuguese, with some American words.
A decade passed, she is in nursing school where she learned Spanish. Since both languages have Latin roots, it was not very difficult to learn it.
Today she is a nurse. Almost every week she comes home telling me how impressed her foreign patients are with her Portuguese. The hospital administration asked her to do some tests for her to become their official translator.
Here and there she thanks me for not giving up on teaching her Portuguese. It has opened many doors to her.
They took all the power tools off of my service truck.
Told me I had to go see Bob Laublaub (not his real name) at the shop.
Yup…They’re firing me.
So I go into Mike’s…Ermmm Bob’s office. He has a termination slip and a check he is filling out by hand, my payoff. He says, “We are letting you go, it’s a clean layoff”. True to his word it was a clean ROF (reduction of force). I sign it, he already has. As soon as I sign it I am no longer his employee, so I ask him, “Why”? He states “We had a complaint from a customer that you were spending too much time in your truck smoking cigarettes”.
“Ohh,” I replied and handed him his copy of the termination form.
When one of my best friends from high school got married, she asked me to be a bridesmaid. I was pretty honored, and said yes. Then she told me I had to order a dress in a size 16. I was a size 2 at the time.
Her reasoning: she was portly, as were her bridesmaids, and if I was up there in a gown that showed how slim I was, I wouldn’t “match” the bridal party.
The dress was very low cut, and the only straps a loop of fabric on each side, like this, in lieu of sleeves. The skirt was much fuller.
What was I supposed to do, walk down the aisle holding my arms over my head, dragging two pounds of fabric? How would I walk with all the fabric tangling between my legs?
The amount of U.S. treasury notes held by foreign countries is well known.
China’s current holding of U.S. treasury instruments is, roughly, $859 Billion (U.S. of course). That’s less than one trillion.
And the U.S. treasury owes that much money to China because China loaned the United States that much money (although there’s probably some interest in there). The United States isn’t going to turn down perfectly good money just because the Chinese have it. For one thing, if the U.S. government refused to sell U.S. debt instruments to countries for U.S. dollars, those countries would probably trade them on the open market for Euros or something and drive down the value of the dollar. Then the Europeans who sold Euros would be investing the money in U.S. treasury notes anyway.
They are intelligent and play the long game. They’ve watched the effects that immoral contents have had on other countries for the past few decades and they’ve decided they do not want a similar fate for the youth of China. I commend them.
Meet the woman who killed the President of France with a blowjob:
Marguerite Steinheil was a woman who lived a very interesting life. She was a socialite whom became famous for her many affairs with very prominent French men at the turn of the century, she became embroiled in international political scandals and once attempted to frame her manservant for the brutal murders of her husband and mother, a crime for which she was heavily implicated but never convicted.
However, it is for her relationship with Félix Faure, 7th President of France, that she became infamous.
Steinheil was introduced to Faure at a social event and quickly became his mistress. She would often visit his office at the Élysée Palace and disappear with him into his private chambers. One day, having visited the Palace, Steinheil rung urgently for the servants, who entered to find Steinheil adjusting her clothing and Faure having a seizure on the sofa. Within a few hours he was dead.
The story that came out was that Steinheil had been performing oral sex on Faure when he suffered a fatal stroke.
It’s tragic, but undeniably a pretty awesome and quintessentially ‘French’ way to go. The Presidents legacy lived on through a ship named for him, which ironically went down a few years later.
When I was an ENT resident, I had a patient named Alvin who had been treated multiple times for an oral cancer. What happened on a visit after a biopsy stays with me today. At that time I wrote an article about it. Kind of a long answer to your question,, but I think worthwhile:
Alvin lay on the gurney, oblivious to the huff of the respirator forcing oxygen into his lungs. Pulling the surgical mask from my face, I reached for his pulse and checked his pupillary reflexes, matching the physical input against the digital readouts on the recovery room monitor. Everything looked good except that Alvin was going to live.
Alvin, a master woodworker, had cancer. At least, he’d had it before. Four years ago a small sore on the floor of his mouth proved positive for squamous cell carcinoma. Chemotherapy, radiation and three mutilating surgeries over as many years battered the disease to a standstill.
Throughout his ordeal, Alvin was indomitable. His face disfigured by the loss of half of his lower jaw, skin burned leathery by radiation, he saw no reason to complain let alone despair. Although he couldn’t smile, he never failed to joke with the nurses and talk about the mountain cabin where he planned to retire.
When Alvin presented for his checkup, there was another lump. My heart sank. He’d had all the drug and x-ray treatments his body could tolerate. Another surgery was out of the question.
“I don’t know about this, Alvin,” I said. “I think we’d better biopsy it.”
With a voice made raspy by his treatments, he said, “Sure, Doc. No problem.”
A week after the biopsy, Alvin bounced into my office after a wave and a wink to the receptionist.
He plunked himself in front of my desk, eyes still bright but unaccompanied by the usual deep laugh lines. He unshouldered a Woodworker’s Supply tote bag and set it beside the chair. “So what’s up, Doc?” he said.
The damning pathology report lay on my desk like a sheet of lead. My voice broke on his name. I took a sip of water and pulled myself together.
“It’s not good, Alvin. The cancer’s back. I don’t think we can stop it this time.”
Alvin nodded and leaned back, staring at the ceiling for a few seconds. Leaning forward, he rummaged in his bag, extracting a package about the size of a cigar box brightly-wrapped in silver paper. He placed it on the desk and pushed it across to me.
“I know, Doc, and I knew you’d feel real bad about it. I thought this might cheer you up a little. Made it myself.”
Speechless, I carefully unwrapped a wooden box with an intricate inlay of a bird on the lid and scrolls of a yellow wood encircling the periphery.
“Not bad, eh?” he said. “Now the box is amboyna burl from Southeast Asia. One of the most exotic burls around. Chinese emperors used to hoard it like gold. Now they use it to make the dashboards on those high-end Mercedes. Just a delight to feel it in your hands, isn’t it? Like butter.”
He reached across to outline the yellow scrollwork inlaid on the sides. “Now that’s East Indian satinwood,” he said excitedly. “India and Sri Lanka. Tightest grain you ever saw. Hold it up to the light and it looks like it’s embedded with diamonds.”
I ran my hand over the polished surface, turning it to catch the light, catching some of Alvin’s enthusiasm for the natural beauty of the wood and marveling at the craftsmanship.
“The bird,” he said, “is my poor attempt at a phoenix. Lots of different woods in it for the colors: bloodwood for the fire, granadillo for most of the body, plum for the wings, some ebony for the talons. Whaddaya think?”
I stared slack-jawed at the man who’d just received a death sentence. “Alvin,” I managed, “it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Knew you’d like it,” he said, his voice smiling for him. “Thanks for being my doc. We gave it a good run didn’t we?”
Kyle McDonald, a guy (26 years old at the time of the events) who in 2006 managed to trade his way from a single red paperclip to a house.
It happened in Kipling Saskatchewan, Canada. In July 2005, Kyle posted an ad on Craigslist: “My name is Kyle, I’m an unemployed 26-year-old Canadian, I want a house in exchange, starting the trade by offering the red paperclip on my desk.” The idea came from a popular Canadian children’s game called “Bigger and Better,” which involves trading an object for something bigger or better until you get what you want. It took 14 trades and one year, but he finally succeeded.
The first to respond, two days after the initial blog post, were Rhawnie and Corinna: via email, they offered a wooden fish-shaped pen. Kyle went to Vancouver and met them, completed the trade, then posted their photo on his blog. And so, he waited for another trade. In Seattle, the pen was traded for a ceramic doorknob made by a lady named Annie. The doorknob turned into a barbecue, then a gas-powered generator (September 24). Within weeks, the internet buzz about young McDonald’s idea reached the media, and CNN and BBC competed for his interviews. The electric generator was traded for a beer keg, a snowmobile, a trip for two to Yak, British Columbia (February 2006), until he got a van and a record contract with Metal Works (February 22, 2006).
Later, he could trade the contract for a year’s free stay in a house in Phoenix. Kyle accepted, updated his blog, and started again. But renting wasn’t enough for him; he wanted his own house. Then came the real turning point in Kyle’s already lucky story: metal rocker Alice Cooper offered an afternoon in his company in exchange for the year’s rent. Leslie, an employee of Alice Cooper’s restaurant in Phoenix, lived in the apartment rent-free for twelve months. After closing the deal, Kyle had many offers to choose from, and he made the only trade that seemed like a loss: the afternoon with Alice Cooper went to Mark Herrmann of Kentucky, for a KISS band glowing orb. His popularity helped in the search, and in February, director Corbin Bernsen offered a role in his next movie in exchange for the KISS orb. At this point, the town of Kipling stepped forward, offering McDonald a recently renovated house in exchange for his role in Bernsen’s film.
It was July 5, 2006, a year had passed.
Kyle had made it, and on the lawn of his little house with red windows, there’s a large red metal paperclip.
I live in the wilderness. One night, just after dark, I get a knock at the door. Other than a few neighbors who would have phoned. I live miles into the woods, and nobody knocks on the door after dark.
I go to the door and there’s an older man and a woman, in pretty rough clothes, the man is holding a pretty beaten up rifle.
He claims that they went scouting elk in the morning, left their car, and went on foot, and got lost. The rifle was just for protection from Grizzlies. He was going to show his girlfriend a valley of elk, that would blow her away.
I hated to break it to him, that there had been no elk in that valley since the wolves moved in.
Elk season didn’t start for another week, he had planned on poaching. But here was a couple in their late sixties that had been walking for 8 hours, so guest rules were in place.
So I offered them a drink. He wanted a ride to his car.
I explained that it was a 40 mile drive, half of it on rough roads. Even though his car was only 10 miles as the crow flys away.
So we hopped in my truck, I took his gun, before we got in the truck. Though, with my hands on the steering wheel, he could have taken it while I was driving. But it was a good faith gesture.
It took close to an hour to get them to their car. I waited until they got it started, and they drove out ahead of me.
Of course, they were flat busted, and I wouldn’t even ask for gas money, because they didn’t look like they had a penny.
Went to a local mechanic to get some tires replaced on my vehicle my current set was bald and I was traveling from North Carolina to Florida.
After the tires were changed everything seemed fine until I got above 60 miles an hour at which point there was a severe rattling/wobbling coming from the rear end.
After the Florida trip I took my car back to them they told me I needed a new rear axle. Never had that kind of problem before so I took it to the dealership I bought it from. They examined the car and asked me why I had roughly 6 extra ounces of weight on my passenger rear tire on the back side of the rim. I said I don’t know please remove it they did problem was solved. The dealership didn’t charge me anything.
Upon returning home I went to the scam artists and said I am going to do everything I can and tell everybody I can not to use their services and why. Even went so far as to keep the weight strip in my car to show people.
We live in a very small town and word travels fast they we’re shuttered never to open again 6 months later.
Commander’s Palace Sour Cream Pecan Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) softened unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream
Pecan Filling
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter well a 10 inch Bundt pan and dust with flour, shaking out the excess.
Cake
In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the butter until smooth.
Add the sugar, a little at a time, and beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy.
Beat in the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time.
Into a bowl sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, beating slowly until just combined.
Fold in the sour cream.
Pecan Filling
In a bowl combine filling ingredients. Spoon 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan, sprinkle the top with the pecan filling, gently pressing filling into batter, going completely around the cake until all remaining nut mixture is used. Add remaining batter to pan and smooth top.
Bake for 1 hour, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. If necessary, loosely cover top of cake with piece of aluminum foil to prevent overbrowning.
A corporate party in a 4 star restaurant a guest was talking full advantage of the open bar, and when told he would not be served he grabbed at the bartender.
The bartender was a former Michigan state police officer and he grabbed the man’s hand and was punched in the side of the face.
An all call went out for help as every bus boy, prep and chef poured into this party and restrained the drunken patron.
As they attempted to evict him he dropped to the ground. The two chefs, large, strong and burly, fell with him. They lay there on the steps holding his arms when the police came through the door yelling at us.
“LET HIM GO!” the officer commanded. And so they did.
This drunk idiot screamed, shook off the chefs, blew past me and attacked the cop!
I’ve never seen a baton wielded in such a dramatic fashion. From his side it smoothly went up and across that man’s head with a this and a “uhg” he dropped like a rock.
The dining room didn’t react at all. We all went back to work.
Your U.S. CEO earns 100 times that of Chinese CEO! Your Employees earn 5 times Chinese worker but Chinese workers work twice as hard. Your employees expect 10 times more benefits yet product half the Chinese worker productivity.
Your ports and infrastructure is dilapidated China’s infrastructure is state of the art latest technology. You turn our bill shit artist and Chinese workers are well educated, willing to learn and highly driven.
Every shit you do China will do it better, do it faster and do it way cheaper than you. So go figure why everything China do is get done at a fraction of your cost! It is not nuclear science!
CHINA, in every respect, I know every yank will say the USA but I don’t think so, not anymore, mainly because of their debt, and growing daily, yes, the US have a very powerful navy, but SO WHAT? Ships can be sunk, and sunk quickly, missiles are the thing these days, and China is way ahead with their hypersonic missiles, double the speed of US ones. According to all reports. Also, they run rings around the US in speed and cost of manufacturing. Which also puts China in front.
An elderly neighbor died. He was a mechanic before he retired and had a large set of tools. His widow held a garage sale to get rid of his things, and she had a large rolling tool chest, filled with the tools of his trade, marked at $25. I took her aside and told her “Withdraw that from the sale. It is marked way low. I will sell it for you.” She demurred, but I talked her into it.
Three phone calls later I had it sold for $1500 to another mechanic I knew. I also managed to sell the rest of his tools at a good price over the next few weeks, including a few I bought myself at fair market price.
Sleeping at night is worth more to me than getting a good deal at a yard sale.
Because (many) human beings think in terms of archetypes, not individuals, and the archetype of the abuse survivor is not a man.
I recently (last year) had a conversation about this with a therapist who works with abuse survivors. She was quite blunt and up-front about it. She said (paraphrasing) “A man can have video of a woman hitting him, and many people will still insist he can’t be an abuse victim.”
Liberals often make this about politics. A lot of liberals will point to toxic ideas about masculinity common in conservative circles (men are stronger than women, women can’t be a threat to men, women are kind and nurturing while men are aggressive and warlike) and say “therein lies the problem.”
While there is some truth to that—-some people do discount the idea men can be abuse survivors because they hold traditional gender-essentialist ideas about men and women—liberals have their own dirty closets when it comes to this issue as well.
A lot of liberals will say “believe survivors” when what they actually mean is “believe women,” and “believe women” when what they actually mean is “believe cis white women.” (Trans women? Women of color? They have a very different experience when they talk about being abused. I personally know a woman who says “believe women” who silenced a woman of color when she came forward about abuse.)
So, why does this happen?
Because people think in archetypes.
This isn’t actually about left or right, and it isn’t even about abuse. Step back for a moment. What’s the first thing, the very first thing, that pops into your head when you visualize a welfare recipient?
For a great many Americans, the prototypical welfare recipient is an inner-city black single mother.
Would it surprise you to know there are more white people than black people who receive welfare in the United States?[1]
This is an archetype: a quick mental image of the exemplar of a group. Many Americans think the exemplar of the group “welfare recipients” is “inner city black single mother.” Many Americans think the exemplar of the group “abuse victim” is “cis white woman.”
People make judgments based on archetypes, not individuals. People who make public policy decisions think in terms of archetypes, not individuals. When the archetype of “abuse victim” is “white women,” you build shelters around…white women.
And the thing is, even people who will tell you “oh, yeah, I know anyone can be a victim” don’t act like that’s true, not really. Liberals will point out hypocrisy in conservatives and conservatives will point out the same hypocrisy in liberals, but this is a “humans think in terms of groups” problem, not a left/right problem.
The very same conservative who will say “those social justice warriors always go on about how men are bad and women are perfect” also think that a real man, a strong alpha man, is not a weak pathetic pussy who would ever be hurt by a woman.
The very same liberals who will say “those knuckle-dragging conservative Neanderthals always sneer at beta males weak enough to let themselves get pushed around by a woman” also think that in any patriarchal society abuse is always a phenomenon perpetuated by men against women.
They both have the same archetype. They have it for different reasons, but ultimately they have the same archetype.
My husband and I have a very “boring” relationship. We don’t fight, we don’t “just pick up our backpacks and go for a vacation”, and we don’t indulge in “let’s do something crazy” moments. For (up to now) over twelve years together (including get-to-know-each-other, relationship, and marriage), we haven’t done anything “just because”. Anything we do, we have a plan for it.
The love my husband has for me is not the kind of love that the teenage me once dreamed about (I always dreamed that someone would love me like Gatsby loved Daisy). His love is not a love that burns like lava, seething with passion. His love is like the essence of life, filtered through time and crystalizes into a steady, solid, giant rock that I can lean on. His love is so tangible that I feel I could see it and touch it.
And I believe it’s the best kind of love one could ever ask for.
We often dream about someone that willing to die for love, willing to die for us, and we are willing to die for them. Yet, I’ve come to understand that we don’t need an eventful relationship to feel fulfilled. It’s far more enriching to have someone that we are willing to live for, to build a life together.
When I was a five year old boy, my father gave me a magnifying glass… set me on the curb near an anthill, and I spent the entire afternoon burning ants.
It was cruel.
But I had no idea about that during that time in my life. I mean, I was only five.
I wonder how many times that I hurt others though ignorance, and a lack of compassion. I really do wonder.
Look guys, we cannot change the world, but we can alter our little piece of it. Let’s just strive to be a little bit better on a day to day basis. What do you say?
I’ve been teaching nearly 20 years and my favorite lie is still the one that I heard as a brand new teacher.
A student came to class with his hand bandaged, carrying a doctor’s note. He told me “last night, my computer blew up and the shrapnel injured my hand so I couldn’t complete the homework assignment that was due today.”
I took a look at his hand. The bandage was so loose it was falling off. There was no way that any sober doctor had done such a sloppy job. It looked like he had tried to apply it himself and been unable to do it properly one-handed.
Then I took a look at the note. It was from a doctor’s office and it said “[Student’s name] has been seen for a ___ hand procedure.” I took a closer look at the blank space between “a” and “hand”. The word “minor” had been erased (but not well enough that I couldn’t see it if I squinted). I was guessing he had a wart removed or something that morning.
I didn’t need to point out the holes in his story, though. I just told him, “I’m sorry to hear about your injury, but the assignment wasn’t due today. It was due two days ago- the day before your ‘accident’.”
He walked to his seat without a word. He looked like he was going to be sick.
China’s People’s Liberation Army – Navy ship “Longushan” is reportedly ablaze just off the coast of China tonight. The vessel is reported to be “China’s most advanced warship.”
No OFFICIAL word on what caused the fire. (There ARE rumors . . . .)
All mention of this is being rapidly scrubbed from China social media networks, and no official information is coming out of Beijing.
The vessel bears Hull Number 980 and is described as a Type 071 landing ship.
China’s fifth Type 071 amphibious transport dock (LPD) Longhushan; with hull number 980) was commissioned with the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN or Chinese Navy) on September 12, 2018 in Shanghai.
Originally designed after the Taiwan Strait crisis in 1996, the Type 071, measuring 210 meters long and 28 meters wide, is capable of carrying an 800-man marine battalion and some 20 amphibious tanks.
During building construction in an Athenian suburb in 2014, a tomb of the classical period was unearthed. It was no big deal, it happens frequently in Athens. Archaeologists took over but the findings in it weren’t of much interest…until they assembled a ceramic wine cup (a skyphos) smashed in 12 pieces, this one:
The cheap cup belonged to a man named Drapetes (the name, inscribed at the bottom of the cup, indicates a slave) However, the big surprise came from the other six names inscribed on the cup:
Aristides, Diodotos, Desimos, Arrifron, Pericles and Efkritos. Could this Pericles be the famous general?
Archaeologists say yes! This is why:
One of its fragments is engraved with six names, including Arrifron — the moniker of Pericles’s grandfather and brother. “The name Arrifron is very rare,” said A. P. Matthaiou, secretary of the Greek Epigraphic Society
. “The mention of [Arrifron] over that of Pericles on the surface of the vase makes us 99% confident that they are the two brothers.”
The inscription of the name Aristides also points favorably to Pericles having used the cup. Aristides was a politician who acted in Athens between 488 and 478 BCE, while Pericles led the city-state from 460 BCE to his death from the plague in 429 BCE. The cup dates between 480 and 465 BCE when the two might have interacted in a social setting such as a symposium or tavern. As men commonly drank from the same skyphos, it’s possible they would have carved their names onto the cup as a token of their meeting. “[He] certainly was dizzy from the wine as it is clear that whoever wrote the name of Pericles made a mistake initially … and then corrected it,” Matthaiou said.
Drapetes kept the cup. We don’t know why or how, maybe he was flattered by the presence of the noble company in his tavern.
It’s always a little magical when archeologists turn up objects that place such mythic figures in real time and space, breathing the same air and walking the same ground we do today. It seems miraculous that 2,500 years after the orator’s death, an ancient cup just happens to contain six complete names evidencing a life that has evaded archeologists for centuries.
U.S. Army prepares for War with China and Congress is EXCITED about it
Sigh. You all afraid, yet?
Angelina’s Zydeco Creole Jambalaya
Ingredients
1/2 pound smoked sausage, cut
1/2 pound ham, diced
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup bell pepper, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 can whole tomatoes, drained (reserve liquid)
Pinch thyme
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice
1 1/2 cups stock water
2 pounds fresh shrimp, deveined
Instructions
Place sausage and ham in very heavy Dutch oven and sauté until lightly browned. Remove from pot and set aside.
Sauté onions, bell pepper, celery, green onions and add meat drippings. Cook until tender.
Add tomatoes, thyme, pepper and salt. Cook for five minutes. Stir in rice.
Mix together liquid from tomatoes, stock and Worcestershire sauce equal to 2 cups and add to sautéed vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add fresh shrimp, ham and sausage. Cook uncovered, stirring often for about 30 minutes or until rice and shrimp are done.
Loyalty
U.S. Marines shifting focus to China, threat is “real”: top general
The U.S. Marines view deterring China as their key focus and will strive to make sure a conflict in the Indo-Pacific does not “spill over” to Japan, the military branch’s top general Eric Smith said Monday, while warning that Beijing’s missile capabilities are “significant” and “real.”
The Marine Corps’ No. 2 officer, who has been nominated to become the next commandant, also said in an interview in Tokyo that a littoral regiment being formed in Japan for remote island defense is being designed to provide “advanced maritime domain awareness” to allies and partners, in order to better detect events in surrounding waters.
The United States and Japan announced in January that the existing 12th Marine Regiment based in the southern prefecture of Okinawa will be reorganized into the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment by 2025, making it the first MLR to be forward-deployed against China.
The regiments will possess advanced surveillance capabilities and will be armed with long-range fires. Consisting of about 1,800 to 2,000 personnel per unit, they will also be capable of flexibly deploying small groups of marines to remote islands in the South China Sea.
The forming of the regiments comes amid China’s increased military assertiveness around far-flung southwestern Japan islets and Taiwan, which has raised the risk of conflict.
The Commandant of the United States Marine Corps is hospitalized after a serious medical emergency. General Eric M. Smith suffered a medical emergency on the evening of October 29 and was taken to a hospital.
He is now in stable condition.
Per Statute Law 10 U.S.C. §8044, as the senior officer assigned to Headquarters, US Marine Corps, by date of rank, Lt. General Karsten Heckl, the Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration, who is the Commanding General of the Marine Corps Combat Command, is serving as Acting Commandant of the Marine Corps, for the interim.
Wife Cheated On Me With Her Colleagues, so I Snatched Everything She Had – FULL STORY
“You didn’t dodge a bullet. 14 years with her, you got shot.”
I received a resume from someone who had recently graduated from high school. They had one job on the resume and their job title was Director in Charge of Company Morale at a prestigious local law firm.
The resume lacked all the things I was looking for, but the job title listed intrigued me. I set the interview and was waiting to hear a litany of lies.
On the day of the interview this cleancut sharp dressed young man showed up. After brief small talk I asked about the prior job and what it entailed.
Turns out his Director in Charge of Company Morale Position entailed him going out each morning and getting coffee for all the partners. He said without their morning coffee, morale was very low.
Best belly laugh in an interview ever. I hired him. And he worked out well because he found a way to place a positive attitude on everything he did, however menial the task.
Edit: I am honored that so many people like my answer. Thank you all.
Update: I’ve had several people suggest editing the gender from “they” to “he”. At the time I read the resume and set the appointment, I had no idea if the applicant was male or female. Gender was not a decision point in our hiring process. This is why I have left the answer unedited. Thank you all again for the overwhelming response.
I called and the automated machine said it would read back my last five transactions to check for anything weird.
“Video entertainment— $65. California.”
“Video entertainment— $10. Declined. France.”
“Video entertainment— $10. Declined. France.”
“Gas— $30. Colorado.”
“Gas— $30. Wyoming.”
I was pretty sure I hadn’t been to France or California recently, so I checked my account summary and noticed I had -$50 in my account.
I’m taking poor college kid to a whole new level. I’m negative poor right now.
So I called their fraud number and the woman on the other end walked me through securing my account and getting a new card. She asked a few questions, told me my card was on its way, and hung up.
The achievement was not that I got my card number stolen. It wasn’t that I managed to put my account $50 under.
It’s that I made a phone call.
That sounds awfully small and to everyone around me it is, but I have been known to have panic attacks when forced to make phone calls. I hate ‘em. They make me anxious and uncomfortable and incredibly stressed.
I struggle with hearing on the phone (and in general, really), which exacerbates my social anxiety and makes phone calls some of the worst interactions I can have.
But today, I did it. The woman even had an accent and I think I understood her and responded correctly.
It’s a small thing, but when it’s one of your biggest fears, it can feel like the greatest thing in the world.
I was 20 and dating a guy that I met in a 20s chat room. This was the year 2000. We went to a grocery store and was walking down the Easter candy isle when I spotted these malt eggs. I stopped and said, “eww! Do you remember getting these in the bottom of your Easter basket every year?!” He simply said, “No.” Stupid me goes on and on about how I hated them and that he MUST remember getting them… He finally says quietly, “No. I didn’t ever get an Easter basket. My parents didn’t have the money.”
THAT is why I’m an asshole.
FYI, I married that guy that same year and we are still together with 3 amazing kids.
The next Easter morning he woke up to his first Easter basket from the Easter bunny complete with malt eggs. 🪺
I was cleaning the coffee cart when a guest at the soup kitchen walked by me.
“You’re wearing Converse. Do you collect them?”
“No,” I tell her. “I just like my old black pair. They’re comfortable shoes.”
“They are. I have some pink ones that don’t fit me—I’ll bring them and if they fit you, you can have them.”
True to her word, I glanced out of the kitchen door today to see her holding them up, much to my coworkers’ confusion.
At work, I can’t walk two steps without someone stopping to talk to me.
One man spent all day poking fun at me about how sunburned my arms are.
Another gave us all breakfast burritos and promised sopapillas tomorrow.
I spent a good part of an afternoon with one of our volunteers trading fun facts and talking about theatre.
Sometimes strangers stop in the serving line to tell me their story.
I learned about Rainbow Gatherings and how they send positive energy into the world.
About powwows.
About brain injuries and single parenting and the best way to make spaghetti and bonnets purchased in Missouri and what chickens like to eat and how they make decaffeinated coffee.
About cancer and babies and sunburn cures and about how food is one of the greatest gifts known to man.
I took the job at the soup kitchen because it paid and because they called me back first.
But damn, my job fuels my artist’s brain more than anything else.
People. People are all that art is.
And if you can be in a room where veterans and drug addicts and businessmen and hitchhikers all sit at the same table for a meal—
You’ll find no better place to hear someone’s story.
Today, I got new shoes, and I don’t even know that woman’s name.
But I know her. I know them all, even if all I know is that one guy likes the comics in the newspaper and another always waits for his wife before eating.
You ask if I’m happy with my current life situation.
I’m poor. My pay is calculated at pretty much the poverty line for the local community, so I’m making fuckall in money.
I’m tired and I’m sunburned and I’m sore and I’m still excited to go to work every day.
It doesn’t feel like a job. I don’t dread it like I honestly thought I would.
I’ve been sleeping full nights and working full days and while the depression doesn’t just go away, it finds someplace else to be during the work day.
I wish I had the money to do everything I want to do, but I will honestly take full days at the soup kitchen over working fast food any day of the week.
I guess I’m happy.
I don’t know. I’m content. The days are flying by faster than I can count them.
If anything, this work strengthens my desire to work in nonprofits. I don’t think traditional schools are for me.
I’m excited to keep going, and that feels good enough for me.
I was very surprised with American attitude towards (partial) nudity. A couple of real-life examples from when I lived in NJ:
My kids were 2 and 3 years old and during the summer it’s very normal in Europe for small children to run around the house and yard naked. When they did that in the US however, I received several complaints from our neighbours and one of them put up a solid fence between our properties after that.
Two years later we went to a water park in Hope, NJ and our daughter was only wearing bikini bottoms. The top didn’t fit well, would only annoy her and there was nothing there to hide or cover up (so we thought). We received a warning from the park and had to cover her up or leave immediately.
When our daughter was in pre-school we (the parents) had to stop by the principal for a serious discussion: they noticed how our 4-year old daughter started undoing her pants before she got in the rest room with the door closed, which was apparently shocking to the other kids.
After that we started adjusting better to the local norms and didn’t have any incidents anymore. I’ve always wondered though why this was such a big deal and suspect it to be a nutty religious thing.
CHINA, in every respect, I know every yank will say the USA but I don’t think so, not anymore, mainly because of their debt, and growing daily, yes, the US have a very powerful navy, but SO WHAT? Ships can be sunk, and sunk quickly, missiles are the thing these days, and China is way ahead with their hypersonic missiles, double the speed of US ones. According to all reports. Also, they run rings around the US in speed and cost of manufacturing. Which also puts China in front.
Yes! Just recently my husband and I did this. We were visiting NY. Our hotel had a restaurant in it. We went down for breakfast. There was a menu just outside of the restaurant. The continental buffet was $29. The hot buffet was $45. A little steep, but we figured those were just NY prices.
When it was our turn to be seated, they but us at a high communal style table. I’m 5″2 and I HATE high tables! We sat down and looked around. We looked at each other. The kind of silent communication you can do with someone you’ve been with for years. Then we decided that we were not paying $100 for breakfast while we sat at an uncomfortable “display” table. I turned and looked out the window. I saw 53rd St. Grill across the street. We walked past the waiter as he was bringing our waters. The food at the grill was delicious, and cost about $30 for both of us. We ate breakfast there for the remainder of our trip.
I have several female friends that worked hard in school and then got prestigious jobs. But the thing about prestigious jobs is that they’re usually a lot of long hours of tough work. They made fairly good money but after a long, frustrating day at work they would sometimes joke “ugh, I need to find a rich husband so I can be a house wife.”
And then some of did. One of them moved to another country where traditional gender roles are more prevalent and she found herself a really rich husband. Then a few of the other girls moved too and, I kid you not, they also found rich husbands.
I’ve met a lot of girls that have jumped up the socioeconomic ladder through marriage. But guys? I haven’t met a single one. Generally speaking, girls still expect guys to make at least as much as them.
So what sucks about being a guy? The immense pressure to be financially successful. As much as we try to deny it, society is obsessed with financial status and will measure a man’s worth based on his wealth.
The current economic system is full of perverse incentives.
Ever heard of the phrase “identifying your customer’s needs”?
The thing is, creating or maintaining needs so that you know what people need is more profitable than trying to identify new needs every time.
Problems cause need, and so problems are encouraged.
Imagine there is a pothole in the street.
That’s a problem. It’s going to cause issues.
If you identify it, then you could set up a company to fix roads, and try to get paid to fix it.
But what would be even more profitable would be to lobby so that it doesn’t get fixed, and then open a shop next to it to fix people’s suspensions after they break, or to offer towing services.
Because then you have a repeated source of income.
And then anyone trying to fix the pothole becomes a threat to your bottom line.
People benefit from the existence of problems, because then they can be paid to provide a temporary solution.
And this impacts many areas of our lives.
The legal system currently is bloated, and overly complicated. But the lawyers have a job thanks to that, so they don’t want it to change.
Government officials are corrupted by bribes and lobbying, and their perverse incentive is to take the money instead of working for the good of people.
Planned obsolescence leads to people making items that don’t last a long time but break fast, and have to be replaced, because that’s an opportunity for profits.
We are scared of human labor being replaced by machines. A weird incentive to be against progress and automation, because our access to resources depends on our labor being needed.
Health insurance is a business that tries to deny as many claims as possible to increase profits.
The owners and workers of the factories producing bombs and munition rely on constant wars for their income.
Creating emotionally laden clickbait attracts more attention than rational discourse.
If you identify a problem somewhere, fixing it is not the most profitable thing you can do; letting it happen, and then swooping in is.
If you want maximum profits, and know that the housing market will crash, you don’t want to try and avoid that, you want to short the market and make billions. And then use the billions to buy up the low price property from the desperate people in need who just lost their life savings.
There are perverse incentives all around us.
The perverse incentive is to do the easy thing, for short term profits.
Doing the right thing, even when it’s hard, to reap the long term benefits? That’s what we should be aiming for.
I arrived for an interview and was asked to wait a few minutes as the interviewer was held up. A few minutes later he came out, apologised said he’d been called to an urgent problem. He explained that some of the stuff I’d be working on would highly commercially sensitive and while he finished up could I read through the pre-interview contract and sign it.
I read through it and though I’m no lawyer it read like they could sue for everything I owned from my house down to my underwear if I so much as said I’d been within a mile of the building. The I interviewer came back a few minutes later and asked if I was happy and had signed the paperwork.
I replied that I hadn’t signed coz it looked a bit iffy on the conditions and he replied
‘congratulations, you’re the first person out of 8 people who passed the first stage test’.
Apparently everyone else had skimmed through and signed and not bothered really looking at what they were signing off on.
A kid walked in late to my English class in 8th grade.
My teacher was really weird, and would go on these rants about how space doesn’t exist, reality is a figment of our imagination, and one person at google is taking over the world by deciding what search results google gives you.
This kid walks in and says “I’m not late because time doesn’t exist.”
He wasn’t marked late.
FIRST TIME HEARING Simple Minds – Alive & Kicking REACTION
I’m a retired cop, and most people think we are very conservative. My law enforcement friends think I’m a hippie.
I am for the legalization of recreational marijuana. I have never tried it, probably wouldn’t even if it was legalized, but it’s time for us all to grow up and see that Reefer Madness isn’t helping anyone.
I am opposed to the death penalty. I don’t like pedophiles or murderers, I just don’t think our government should be in the business of killing people. And I know first hand how flawed our criminal justice system is.
I support peaceful protests, even if I disagree with their views.
I think we (law enforcement) need to work with the media. Many of my colleagues think I’m nuts. It’s win-win when we do.
I think abortion should be legal. But I wish the last one performed was the last one ever performed.
). We need to put ourselves in each other’s shoes, and the best way to do that is to be around each other.
My grandfather’s first sight of America was the Statue of Liberty. I believe that monument is still relevant.
I vote for democrats. I vote for republicans. I vote for independents and green party and libertarians. I just think we need some good people in charge, and it makes me crazy when people vote straight party tickets.
I am a straight white male, married for 37 years. (Hi, honey.) But I am glad same sex couples can get married. I have 4 grandchildren. If they grow up with different preferences than most, I still want them to find love and happiness.
Trump is a disaster, and I’m going to wear out my rosary beads because of him.
I believe in the Second Amendment (actually am quite fond of them all), but I think it has gotten out of hand. Maybe we are not as self controlled as the Founding Fathers had hoped we would be. I am for reasonable restrictions on gun ownership.
I think everyone should have health insurance (at least as good as what members of congress give themselves), whether they can pay for it or not. Life is an inalienable right. Pretty sure health is too.
Not sure if that makes me liberal or not. I don’t like breaking rules or laws, but there are times when that is necessary. As long as you understand the consequences.
As that great philosopher Popeye once said, “I yam what I yam.”
Psychologist Explains Why MEN CARE about a WOMAN’S SEXUAL HISTORY: what women don’t understand
This is very interesting. I never looked at things this way.
“Paying twice as much for getting something ½ the value.”
…
“Well as a man, it doesn’t matter to me whether they have “grown” or got more wisdom, they still did the deeds, and as rude as it may sound to a woman, a good man will hold you accountable for your actions and your past. No high value man, as they put it, wants to pay new car prices for a used car.”
Management didn’t know what to do with Steven and it was their fault. Steven was a 28-year-old coworker and assistant project manager. We worked at a corporate construction company and project managers were our most important personnel.
Steven was smart and had stellar reviews, but when prompted about promoting to PM, he said, “No, no, I’m good.” It perplexed our CFO and COO, who didn’t know why a good employee wouldn’t want more money and responsibility.
I knew why. I was the budget manager at his division and sat in on many of their meetings. I saw the grueling pressure put on project managers and saw them yelled at on occasion. It wasn’t an easy job. Steven figured, he was young and enjoying his life and didn’t want that kind of pressure. And perhaps he thought he’d be bad at the job — which is wiser than most realize.
The Peter Principle was first proposed by psychologist Laurence J. Peters and was intended as satire. It proposed that competent employees will be continually promoted until they are incompetent in their new role. Then, they remain in that position for the remainder of their career. Consequently, every role is eventually held by an incompetent employee. His concept was unexpectedly hailed by researchers as having relevance and truth. Many firms now actively work to combat it.
I would wager any person reading this, who has been in corporate long enough, can think of at least one manager who was shockingly bad at their job. Yet they seemed untouchable.
It makes intuitive sense that as the demands and competition go up, your shine can easily lose its luster. For example, I was a good swimmer and the captain of my high school team. I felt like a god when I swam in local meets against kids who only swam a few months a year. But as I went up to districts, states, and then regionals, I felt increasingly less special.
Today, I’m a writer who sits on the other side of the corporate fence, living mostly free of hierarchal structures and constantly worrying about mistakes slipping through. I see my own partner, and friends, all angling for promotions and raises. This isn’t bad on its own as I admire ambition. But I’ve watched many of them take a hit to their life satisfaction.
The data reflects this: Employees are the unhappiest they’ve been in years, due to a lack of control, unreasonable workloads and not enough time off. You’d wonder why anyone would want to take on more if they are already drowning, but they do — by the millions.
It seems paradoxical. You work to be good at your job and gain respect, only to be promoted to a position that jeopardizes those perceptions. Being highly competent risks making you incompetent.
If you succeed enough, your high flying incompetence may introduce the Peter Principle’s brother, dubbed Peter’s Pinnacle, where you make a huge mistake and are paid to go away. It happened with the president of Disney, Michael Ovitz, who was fired after 16 months but made off with a $38 million severance.
The art of balancing
A few programmers I’ve known are good at dodging this responsibility paradox. My buddy Brian is a high flying coder, who is stiff-arming attempts by management to bring them into their fold and start managing people. He insists his goal is to be a skilled programmer and contribute to the company.
But beware of letting this mindset drag you to stagnancy. Don’t become the middle aged employee who has been in the same role for 10–20 years, just going through the motion and replying blandly to questions about their day with, “Living the dream.” The difference with Brian is that he is continually refining his programming, and is passionate about coding. There’s still a fire in him.
I’ve seen many falls from grace over the years, employees who were five star performers and thought highly of. Then, months after the company gleefully announced their promotion, the whispers started, “I heard he’s been struggling in his new role.” And, “He’s slipping.”
At a former employer, there was a corner room we called “The Death Trap.” The role for that office fell under a difficult manager and had sky-high expectations. They went through four people in 18 months. The company fired three managers who’d had great reviews in prior roles. One was saved by the skin of his neck by transferring to another department. It was the Peter Principle on full display.
Companies can do better too
Per a study by Dr. Ed Lazear at Stanford University, companies should account for the Peter Principle in any promotion decision because it’s an inevitable consequence. One solution is to inflate the original promotion requirements to smooth the transition. Put another way, ensure the candidate is an absolute star in their current role before leading them to deep waters.
Sometimes, you shouldn’t promote great employees at all. For example, in school, they often took our “Teachers of the Year” and offered them jobs in the administration. It’s tragic because it removed the teacher from working with students and making an impact where they thrived. Why not pay the teacher more to keep being an awesome teacher? To the managers seeing this, think long before hard-capping salaries by job title.
Parting thoughts
Think about your job well beyond compensation. Your motivation and job satisfaction are driven by feelings of competence, relatedness (feeling connected to coworkers), and autonomy. Every move up the ladder impacts those three things in unpredictable ways. If you do take a promotion, use that job to supplement your skills. Hire and surround yourself with smart people, and listen to what they have to say. That alone would save many from the clutches of the Peter Principle.
Everything is a tradeoff. I was keenly aware of that when I quit finance to be a writer. It was a conscious but difficult decision. I resolved I would probably never get wealthy. Upward mobility, outside of me writing a fluke hit book, would be limited. My health benefits would vanish. But I’d be doing something creative and that I loved doing, with minimal oversight and flexibility. Four years out, I’m still happy with this decision, but I am constantly doing status checks. Things can change on a dime.
My point is: Take a long view. Protecting your reputation and integrity gets harder as you carry more responsibility and teams to manage. Make sure the new role aligns well with your skillset, lifestyle, and has the support in place for you to thrive. If you make the decision solely for money, you may fall into an old and dangerous career trap.
For most of my life, my best friend was my sister. Then one day she called me and said that she didn’t want me to be part of her life anymore. I can’t tell you why because she didn’t say. That was five years ago and I haven’t heard from her since.
About two years ago I found out that she had moved to another state without even letting me know. I had some kind of emotional breakdown. Tears streamed down my cheeks for four straight days. I couldn’t sleep. My heart was broken.
The hardest thing about it is not knowing why. I’ve run dozens of scenarios through my mind but nothing seems to make sense. We have completely different political views but had made a pact years before that we just simply would never discuss politics. I had just been diagnosed with cancer for the second time just days before the phone call. She refuses to deal with anything “sad”; so maybe that was it.
After about four years of losing sleep and wondering what had happened, I realized that I don’t care so much about it any more. I guess that was the day that I cancelled our friendship. I consider her to be my ex-sister, now. I have lots of friends who do want me to be a part of their lives. They are my true brothers and sisters.
Blue Bayou Bananas Foster Shortcake
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
Biscuits
2 ounces (about 1/3 cup) brie cheese, diced
2 1/2 cups Bisquick
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
4 large bananas, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons dark rum
2 tablespoons banana liqueur
Garnish
Whipped cream
Fresh mint sprigs
Instructions
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Biscuits
Add together the diced cheese, Bisquick and sugar, mix well. Add the water and mix thoroughly to make a wet batter. Drop the batter in 4 mounds onto a greased cookie sheet and bake on the top rack for 20 minutes or until cooked through (when wooden pick inserted in middle comes out clean).
Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.
Sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan and sauté the bananas for about 3 minutes. Add the sugars and stir until melted. Add the cream and, stirring constantly, cook over high heat until it reaches a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Add the rum and banana liqueur.
To serve, cut the cooled biscuits from the top two thirds of the way down, open it up and pour the sauce into the center of the biscuit.
Garnish
Serve with whipped cream and mint sprig.
Promiscuous Women Have The LOWEST Standards | Pearl Daily
This is super interesting.
“My first experience with a woman in a typically male job, was in a campground at age 16. We worked as general labor, building things, cutting trails, planting trees and so on. Once or twice a week we would rotate an “easy day” while we rode the riding lawn mower, basically just sitting on our ass all day long. That ended when a girl started. She did nothing but ride the mower all day, every day. Somehow what was previously 1-2 easy days of work, became a full time job for her. And the rest of us no longer got any “easy days”. She never held a shovel, or a hammer, or an axe. But she got paid the same.”
“Hector, I retired before you were born,” he laughed.
Confused, I asked again, “Be honest, Dad, I mean, when will you stop working?”
His response was simple, “Working? What’s work? I don’t know what work is.”
“OK, Dad, forget about it,” I said as I assumed he wasn’t willing to talk about this.
“Hector,” he said, “what you know as my job is not work for me. I enjoy architecture so much that I could do this 24/7. This is who I am. Architecture is my life.”
So, to answer your question, why do rich people work even after they become rich? Why don’t they play?
My father lived to be 91 and worked until his body gave up on him. He was a passionate architect who found joy in his work. That’s what kept him active and full of joy every day. His passion for architecture was infectious, and it taught me this valuable lesson about work as a lifestyle.
So, if you ask me about retirement or work-life balance, I’d say it’s better to find what you love and make it a part of your life. When you find that, you’ll stop working and start living. We achieve a balance not by separating work from life but by integrating what you love into your lifestyle.
Today, this is how I see it: It’s not about working less; it’s about loving more what you do.
That’s the secret to a fulfilling life. As my father always said, “The day you find what you love is when you will stop working.”
So, go out there and find your passion. Make it your lifestyle.
And remember, it’s not work when you love what you do.
Well, my doctor has stated that I need to stay in the hospital for a week or longer. And then afterwards, I really have to be very moderate and calm in my activities. Apparently, I can trigger my blood pressure to launch towards the stars, and I need to tame that beast. So, this is MM going calm and serene.
Drinking is going to stifle for a spell. Same with smoking, and many of my favorite vices. Sigh.
Gotta be good, and lend myself to some serious chill.
…
I really get upset about the crazy relationship scene that the West has collapsed into. And this mix of rampant sexuality, free-lovin’ (not that I’m complain’) and isolationism with a woke political class is just another sign of a seriously collapsing Western society.
Men need love.
Women need understanding and compassion.
And let’s not forget about our kitties. Right?
Let’s all strive to be a tad better to ourselves, and to those around us. It’s so easy to get caught up, and ignore our very own needs and situation.
…
We need to chat about food. And stews are great Winter fare. (Unless you live down under) then I would recommend prawns. Stews are great, and I’ll guess that many readers haven’t had a home-made stew in some time. I suggest that you make up one and enjoy it.
With butter and bread.
Life is too short otherwise.
Today…
Cajun Meatball Stew
Ingredients
Meatballs
1 pound ground round or chuck
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs (3 slices)
2 tablespoons each minced parsley and cold water
1/2 clove garlic, crushed
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon each cayenne and pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 green onions, trimmed and minced (save tops for gravy)
2 teaspoons salt
Gravy
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 cups cold water
4 envelopes or 4 teaspoons instant beef broth
1/4 teaspoon salt pinch of pepper
1/3 cup minced parsley
4 green onion tops, sliced thin
Meatball drippings plus vegetable oil to total 1/4 cup
Instructions
Meatballs
Combine beef, bread crumbs, green onions, parsley, garlic, egg, salt, cayenne, pepper and cold water in a medium size bowl. Mix lightly and shape into 24 balls. Place on tray and chill for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in large, heavy skillet and brown meatballs quickly on all sides (don’t overcook or the meatballs may toughen).
Drain on paper towels; save drippings.
Gravy
Place combined meatball drippings and vegetable oil in a large, heavy saucepan or skillet. Blend in flour, and heat and stir over moderately low heat until flour begins to brown, at least 10 to 15 minutes. Good Cajun cooks take about 45 minutes to make a roux. The roux should be a rich topaz brown.
Add water and instant beef broth gradually, whisking until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Add meatballs to gravy. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 45 minutes.
Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.
Stir in parsley and green onion tops. Heat for 15 minutes longer.
Serve in soup bowls or on plates with the meatballs and gravy ladled over fluffy rice or egg noodles.
I’ve seen this question hundreds of times over the years on Quora and the knee-jerk answer is always some version of “Follow your passion is terrible advice.”
There was a time when I thought exactly that and wrote a similar answer. Sure, following your passion can lead you to become a starving artist or a passionate amateur beach volleyball player who lurches from one financial crisis to another.
At the other end of the spectrum, you have accountants under neon lights, droning through their days like robots, their life becoming a series of monthly, quarterly and annual closes.
Having been on both sides, I didn’t see a lot of difference in the happiness between those two groups.
My biggest advice is to “see the grey” and not take anyone’s career advice as a one-size-fits-all tip. Be like a CEO and take in differing perspectives of your VPs, and attach weights to each piece of advice given your own circumstances.
Don’t ever, ever, treat anyone’s advice as gospel. And that includes anything I say or write.
Hustle culture has spawned this nauseating obsession with meme-quotes from billionaires that supposedly solve all of our problems.
Spoiler alert: I don’t give a shit what Elon Musk said. He’s smart and capable. But he came up through a very narrow silo in the world. His circumstances are extreme and hardly applicable to most of our own. Hell, I’m half-convinced he’s a narcissistic sociopath.
You can do what you love. Or you can learn to love what you do. Life changes. New passions evolve and the economics of those passions make new paths possible while destroying old ones.
You may wake up one day and realize you hate the thing you thought you’d spend your life doing.
The only constant in success is hard work and focus.
The more I’ve accepted that life is a fluid situation, with everything in constant change, and given assumptions always being tested, the better I’ve done.
Work hard, stay flexible, and expect waves of upheaval. Because I promise those waves are coming. We all get our turns.
The first military tactic, and for thousands of years the most successful by far, was “stand together in a line and point our sharp sticks in the same direction.” Here’s the Sumerians doing it about 4500 years ago:
Proto-warfare involved individual fighters going essentially one-on-one with other individual fighters: think a modern gang fight or bar brawl. But you can’t really do that if the guy you are trying to fight has two guys immediately adjacent to him also holding spears: they’re going to stick you. If the guys in the line have shields and/or armor, you can’t even hang back and chuck shit at them, which was the other proto-warfare classic.
Now, this sounds really easy, but it turns out it actually isn’t. Warfare involves a bunch of people you hate trying to kill you. The natural response to that is to either (1) sensibly run away, or (2) run over and get the bastards first. Standing in a strict formation with even spacing is fairly unnatural in those circumstances: you need to practice it a lot, especially if you want to have any hope of moving.
(1) in particular is hard: even if you know that in theory your phalanx will survive a cavalry charge, it’s a harder sell when you have a couple thousand pounds of muscle and steel coming at you at a gallop. Gaps in your line means you are fucked: it’s hard to convey how absolutely shafted (pun intended) disordered infantry are in the face of cavalry, but it might be helpful to recall that the reason Napoleonic and Civil War soldiers stood in closely packed formation while getting mowed down by musket and cannon fire was because that was the safer alternative. And, to make things even more fun, the first guy to run away is probably going to be fine: he’s got all of his buddies holding them off. The last guy is going to get shishkebabed by a Gothic/Frankish/Norman/English lance, so how much do you trust your buddies?
(2) also isn’t actually easy to overcome, either. If you are a professional soldier, you might like the fighting. That’s how you get honor and, more importantly, loot. If it looks like you’re winning, you might really want to be the first person on the scene. You might make a lot of money. This is actually how the English lost at Hastings. The English housecarls, who were pros, successfully stood in a line with the pointy sticks the right way against a half dozen Norman charges, but broke when the Normans faked a retreat. They were then slaughtered.
But yeah, “get my guys in a line with sticks the right way” was sufficient for Alexander, the Romans, and Napoleon to get into the world conquest game. Simple, but that shit really works if you can actually do it. But you do need to actually do it.
We bought a building that previously had section 8 tenants. None paid on time, the very first month that we owned it. The housing authority didn’t pay either. After 8 phone calls spanning 3 weeks, during which time we had already given 3-day notices to pay, and filed for eviction, the housing authority finally called us back, asking what the heck we were doing evicting THEIR tenant.
We informed them that under state law, we were following the required procedure for eviction for non-payment. They told us that under the terms of the 17-page Section 8 Contract, we could not evict the tenant for any reason whatsoever, including non-payment. We asked why they didn’t pay us on time, and they replied because we had not signed the Section 8 Contract yet, after the purchase. Ah-Hah!
We then informed them that we would be proceeding with the eviction, and would not be signing the Section 8 Contract. They told us that the previous owner had already signed it, and it is not revocable! They then threatened us with legal action if we continued with the eviction.
We told them that we had already consulted our attorney, who told us it is illegal to enforce or coerce anyone into signing or upholding an agreement that they did not willingly enter into. Thus, upon the sale of the property, as clearly stated within the Section 8 Contract itself, and apparently unbeknownst to the Housing Authority, the new owner has a choice to enter into Section 8 or not. And, oh by the way, selling the property is the only way to get OUT of Section 8, and the only way to evict Section 8.
The Housing Authority huffed and puffed, and went away. The tenants were evicted.
End of Story. Yes, it is legal. We’ll never do Section 8 again, ever, for any reason whatsoever.
An articulate well known diplomat with high integrity and trust Wang Yi is meeting a 6 year old mindset, with Neocons drumming his voice with China hate and U.S. hubris thinking China is still in its 100 years of humiliation and the U.S. is still the one eye king after everyone loses both eyes after 2nd World war in 1945.
I hope for Blinken’s sake he will stop talking like the U.S. is the angel and China is the devil. He may think so but 180 out of 195 nations think it is the other way around. Best don’t even go there! Pretend to act civil and learn humility. That will go a long way Blinkyboy!
Confucian ethics says it is better to overestimate your opponent and underestimate yourself than the other way a around. The U.S. needs a lot of this balancing. China don’t listen to hot air after all. China sees more than hear. Anyone can say anything.
The U.S. better not talk about its own self made propaganda, lies, misinformation and fabrications. China is way too smart to let you lecture. Moreover the U.S. has done too much evil to even dare preach. Better focus on how to work with China on each others progress. Projects of common interest and goals to enrich the world, China and the U.S.
Without China the U.S. will die of pneumonia, with China it may suffer common influenza once in a while. Sure China will fly with the U.S. and still travelled at breakneck high speed rail without the U.S. but the faster China goes the more the U.S. will benefit too. If it knows humility.
We bought a house in a small California town, primarily because of our dogs. It had two and a half fenced acres, and was in a semi-rural area. Our dogs were getting old, and we wanted them to have a peaceful place so that they wouldn’t be stressed while we were at work. Well, it seemed like we bought a house in the “snob hill area.” During the first week we were there, a man stopped by our gate and informed me that our car was too old, and that we needed to get a new one. I told him that we were new to the area, and asked him to recommend a dealership. He did so, and I told him that I would meet him there the next morning, and to remember to bring his checkbook. For some strange reason, he hasn’t spoken to me again.
In the military, are you only allowed to keep on you what is issued to you by the government or can you buy extra protection if you want to? (knives, extra guns, extra supplies, etc), also, is your weapons and gear all new when you get them?
From a Navy perspective…
In the military, are you only allowed to keep on you what is issued to you by the government or can you buy extra protection if you want to? (knives, extra guns, extra supplies, etc)
Being on ships, there are some things you can and can’t have. No one, except a few watches, carries a gun on a regular basis. Generally, they’re issued out prior to watch, during security drills, or during actual events that threaten the security of the ship. Having a personal firearm onboard would have been useless, as it would always need to be locked up in the armory. There’d be no reason to have a personal firearm. The only people who MIGHT be allowed to have one would be the Commanding Officer, or a flag officer.
As for knives, I used to have one or two I carried everywhere while on ship. I was an engineer, and knives are essential, but not issued. I usually had a large Buck folding knife (I liked how they kept an edge), along with a small Swiss knife on my keychain. At one point I did have a double edged boot knife that I would keep hidden, specifically because they weren’t authorized. And only certain fixed blade knives were allowed (based on size).
Other types of gear we could go outside of regular issue were certain uniform items. When I was in, we had what were officially called “chukkas”, but which we all called “boondockers”.
These weren’t too bad, if they fit right, and they got more comfortable as they wore in, but they were about as mass produced as you could get, and the quality was inconsistent. They had steel toes that would cut through the inner lining and tear your toes apart, and a little saltwater would destroy the shine and eat the leather.
So, many of us would spend a small fortune on civilian shoes, much like these…
The Navy was fine with them, as long as they had steel toes and were black (for enlisted). They were supposed to be leather, too, but a lot of us would go for the ones that were synthetic, specifically because they were water proof.
There were other items that were not “issue”, but were sold as extras in the uniform shop. Back in the 80’s, there was a light black jacket we called the “Johnny Cash” (not to be confused with the black working uniform with the same nickname). If you ever went to certain overseas ports (generally Hong Kong), you could get your dress blues lined with an Asian motif embroidery on silk. This was out of sight for inspection, so the command never had a problem with them.
As for “extra equipment”, we sailors really didn’t need much more than what was already given us. We were allowed to bring on personal items, as long as they could be stowed properly. Electrical items always needed to be safety checked, and might need a request chit (permission slip) to bring it on board, but I usually had a computer for cruises, and game consoles were popular.
…also, is your weapons and gear all new when you get them?
This all depends.
Your primary issue for almost everything is in Boot Camp. That’s all your uniforms, toiletries, and other kits, such as sewing. These are always new, and upon issue, you have to identify your items with you name. In my time, we had a “stencil party”, which consisted of the entire company sitting down on the deck and using a machine cut stencil and special pens, we stenciled our names on everything.
I can literally smell the stencil ink as I write this. Not unpleasant, but strong.
From that point on, you’re responsible for replacing any items that aren’t up to standard. You get an annual allowance for this, and you can choose where to buy your gear.
I have broken service, and my uniforms weren’t in the best shape when I got back in. I was given an allowance that was meant to buy a new seabag (what we call our full set of uniforms), but I decided to save a little money and go “used”. There are always “boot drops”, the recruits who didn’t make the cut, and they have to return their uniforms. These were in good shape, but stenciled. We could buy our uniforms used, then cross out the old stencils and add our own. Saved about half what I would have paid for new.
Ships also have a lost and found, and those items are sometimes auctioned off for the welfare and rec fund. You could get some decent items from that.
As for weapons, well, you don’t keep your service weapon when you leave. Those are turned around and reissued. You might get new, you might get used.
The Evidence has been submitted and the case is closed
The Judgement has been delivered.
DEATH.
…
The MEA tried many times to help out but Qatar refused to comply
So there is no point discussing the evidence
We can go to the ICJ but given that Qatar is a gas lifeline to Europe, I am certain ICJ will pass
They openly bankroll the Hamas and yet not even a pinky finger has been pointed at them to this day
We need to get our boys out
That’s crucial
Now I am almost certain, the death sentence would not be carried out.
It never does
Except Eli Cohen and a handful of others, most spies are never killed or executed
Eventually there will be trade offs and exchanges
My guess is if India backs a Two State Solution in UN and votes against Israel for a cease fire and UN involvement in the Gaza conflict, that alone could secure a commutation to life imprisonment
Typically there could be a round robin exchange
Meaning a third country could mediate the release of hostages in exchange for India doing something for this third country
Like US or Russia or China
Ideally if we had a few Qataris in our Jail, we could do a swap
We don’t
Qatari tourists to India are non existent
We can’t pull out business contracts because we have only 6% and the Chinese would grin and happily take over
We can’t pull out of Oil and Gas contracts because we have no major long term deals and these are fungible goods
Of course they will, that is a a done deal, in fact they have already. Overtaking the U.S. is a piece of cake. A bunch of war monger selling stuffs no one one wants to buy at astronomical prices because they pay their greedy CEO 100 times that of China with workers that demand 10 times higher salaries working half the hours and insist 5 times more benefits!
Never mind this, the Yanks believed they can spend till thy kingdom come and spend like there is no tomorrow! China will pretend that they fear the U.S. but to the Chinese they not need to lift a finger, Uncle Sam will bankrupt it selves.! Hubris will bury them. Superiority complex will destroy themselves!
Let me help you hubris and racist Yanks understand the real world. As long as you still think the world belongs to you, the easier it is for us! China today in reality is at least twice bigger than you and that is being highly overestimating Uncle Sam and underestimating ourselves!
At the very worst., China is growing 5 times faster than you. The U.S. is totally fxxked! But we will pretend that the Chinese is 50 years behind the US! You loved that don’t you?
Embrace a lifestyle that costs only a fraction of your earnings.
Living below your means is like having a superhero cape you never have to show off. It’s the ultimate life hack for me, it makes one feel invincible, calm, and in control.
It’s likened to standing in a rock-solid tower while chaos swirls around you, that’s a feeling words won’t be able to capture.
In many places, especially in my home country, living modestly is more than just a money-saving trick; it’s a shield against life’s darker corners.
It keeps you off the radar for all sorts of unpleasant situations, from kidnappings for ransom to targeted robberies.
It also makes you less of a walking ATM for friends, family, and even strangers who see you as their personal bailout fund.
Choosing simplicity when you could go grand is a power move. It’s like having an invisible army guarding your peace. You’re not just scraping by; you’re flourishing but on your terms.
This lifestyle is the ultimate stress-buster. You’re cruising in a relatively comfort zone where you’ve got the choice but not the pressure to splurge. When you do spend, it feels like tossing a pebble into a pond, not like drilling a hole in a dam.
Living this way gives you access to a type of joy most people can’t even put into words, let alone experience in their lifetime.
Imagine being able to book a dream vacation or buy a dream home on a whim, leaving everyone around you stunned. That thrill is something money can buy only with a huge dose of discipline.
When you can comfortably afford your belongings, life takes on a different hue. You’re the boss, and everything you own is just a tool to make your life better, not a golden calf to be worshipped.
You only hurt one person, you, when you chose to live above your means. It is a recipe for sleepless nights and constant stress.
Being smart about how you live pays dividends in happiness and freedom, the very assets that are truly priceless.
There was a tall, lanky fellow who always wore long sleeves and sat down the table from me in engineering class. He didn’t talk much, had a strange sneeze and mostly kept to himself.
I had a sneaking suspicion he was smart, really smart. I shouldn’t have cared either way but between my bloodthirsty competitive side and penchant for people watching, my radar was always on.
And it wasn’t like I had any evidence, grades, test scores or even a remote conversation to draw my conclusion from.
All I had was a subtlety I’d noticed: His body language.
It was a cool confidence juxtaposed with a complete lack of stress on his face.
This absence of stress is not to be confused with slackery. He was laser focused on our material but rarely took notes. That pencil just sat by his hand begging for playing time, but no. Class didn’t seem to faze him. It was as if he was just in cruise control, coasting along while we all paddled to keep up.
He would go on to graduate first in his class.
But I had confirmation before that.
One day towards the end of the term, our teacher put a very high level problem on the board and asked who knew the answer. I immediately looked at him – he knew the answer. I could tell. His head sat still while his eyes were darting around waiting for someone to answer.
He was smart. He had it in his pocket. But he wasn’t looking for attention.
The teacher reiterated, “Anyone?”.
Finally, he slowly raised his hand and read off the answer like a trained assassin: calm, cold and collected.
You don’t need test scores to realize someone is smart.
Just watch them, it’s usually there. And it’s usually the quiet ones. Still waters run deeper.
China is TAKING OVER! Tiangong Space Station HUGE Update
Zero! Unless the US cancels all sanctions and restrictions it has placed on China. China is using the proceeds of its bond selling to buy gold. The expectation is that China will begin using gold backed currencies whether the Yuan or a BRICS currency. China sees the US headed for bankruptcy or at best, a financial and economic restructuring. So far, the US continues to print dollars and spending like there is no tomorrow, especially its spending on foreign wars. Yesterday, it was Ukraine, today it is Israel, tomorrow???
Schumer’s recap of his meeting with Xi has the tone that is as condescending of a lecture by an adult to a child. Here are all the points.
Point #1: At the foundation of our relationship must be a level playing field for American businesses and workers as well as responsible competition. We need reciprocity. That means allowing American companies to compete as freely in China as Chinese companies are able to compete in America. I made clear to President Xi that we do not believe there is a level playing field or reciprocity now.
Schumer is complaining about a level playing field? Reciprocity?
This is from a Congress and administration that has more than 1,200 Chinese tech companies on the Entity List and cried economic coercion when China placed restriction on one U.S. companiy. And he’s “making it clear to President Xi” that the U.S. wants a level playing field?
Point #2: “I raised the huge structural inequities and serious imbalances the U.S. faces in its economic and trade relationship with China. For decades, the Chinese government has erected significant barriers aimed at restricting the ability of American companies to compete in an open and fair manner in China. I made clear that the United States cannot sit idly by and that we must address the Chinese government’s forced technology transfers, theft of intellectual property, required joint ventures, and intimidation of U.S. businesses operating in China, among other troubling actions, that undermine economic reciprocity.
“Specifically, I also raised the need to remove restrictions and open up the Chinese market to U.S. companies, including from the semiconductor, financial services, and aerospace industries, and putting an end to policies that intimidate U.S. businesses operating in China.
What restrictions? What structural inequities?
Shouldn’t U.S. companies be making their own decisions on these? And as they say, the proof is in the pudding.
U.S. companies are making money in China. This is why they’re in China. It is precisely because of the structural benefits that China offers that U.S. companies are accepting the Chinese terms for doing business in China. U.S. companies can at any time decouple to India but are not because of the superior structural benefit China offers. And it is also why there is a “structural inequities” between the U.S. and China because, like India, we do have the infrastructure and manufacturing resources to compete with China’s. And this is not China’s fault. If the U.S. and India want to compete, then its incumbent on themselves to build the requisite “structure”.
Evidence of China’s open market? There’s Tesla in China’s automotive market and Apple in the mobile market, both market leaders in the world’s largest market. Nvidia was also the market leader in the world’s largest semiconductor market but its the U.S. banning them, not China.
Point #3: “Equally important to the need for reciprocity is the need for China to take more aggressive action to stop fentanyl from coming into America. Right now, the scourge of fentanyl is costing tens of thousands of lives and destroying American families. I called on President Xi to work with the United States to stem the flow of precursor chemicals that are fueling America’s fentanyl crisis.
And how exactly is China suppose to do this when precursor chemicals are not even banned substances in the U.S.? Fentanyl is a legal drug precribed by U.S. physicians for their patients.
Enforcement of illicit drugs is the sole responsibility of the U.S.. Blaming China is just a sorry excuse for failing at controlling an epidemic of our own making. It’s our greedy Pharmas in collusion with the FDA and physicians that promoted opioid use and solving this can only done by us alone.
Point #4: “I raised with President Xi the unfolding atrocities carried out against Israel and the need for the world community to stand together against terrorism and with the Israeli people, and pointedly requested from President Xi that the Chinese Foreign Minister strengthen their statement; they did.
Schumer is lecturing China on its foreign policy. He stressed the “unfolding atrocities” against Israel but omitted the greater “unfoldering atrocities” that the Israelis are committing against the Palestinians that he wants China to ignore.
Point #5: While we must ensure that our trade policies are fair, the United States will also prioritize our economic and national security, including protecting advanced technologies. Our delegation made clear that America is not seeking a confrontation with China, but we will remain steadfast in our commitment to promoting stability in the region, freedom, and democratic principles, and vigorously defend our values around the world.
This is just BS political talk. He’s saying that U.S. policies should be fair but justified when it’s not when we prioritize economic and national security, including protecting advanced technologies. So the U.S. subsidizing companies to the tune of $52 billion on building chip fab in the U.S. is ok but accusing China of doing the same subsidizing its tech companies as unfair and illegal trade practice. And its ok to sanction China from advanced chips and machines that make them – even forcing the Dutch, South Korean and Japanese companies to join – is justified for the sake of U.S. national security.
Now, how different would a Biden meeting with Xi be from Schumer’s? The Democrats has an election in 2024 and this will be nothing more than an electionering tactic at China bashing to win votes.
Radical Culture Change
Russia’s Top General: “Ready for Post-Conflict Negotiations”
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said today “Moscow is ready for negotiations on post-conflict resolution of the crisis in Ukraine and on further coexistence with the West.”
Russia knows Ukraine has lost. Russia knows the West can no longer provide weaponry or money to keep that conflict going. Russia knows it’s defense production is SEVEN TIMES GREATER than all the West combined. Yet, they are extending an olive branch.
Hal Turner Remarks —
We in the West should seize the moment and take this opportunity to move forward in peace.
Sadly, I fear the West simply CANNOT seek peace. I think the West – especially the United States — is literally Bankrupt. I believe the West **needs** a nuclear war or at least a partial nuclear war, so they can blame their financial collapse on the war. I perceive the West **needs** debt forgiveness and the only way they can get it is through mass destruction.
It seems to me the West needs to be able to go to their creditors and say “Our cities are destroyed, our people are dead, our economy is smashed. We have no hope at all of ever paying you back. We need debt forgiveness.”
If I am right, the Creditors, seeing this is the actual reality, will have little choice.
I suspect at that point, the very people in the West who perpetrated the massive financial destruction, get to walk away, free and clear, **remain in power ** (that’s the key) and start the whole shitshow all over again. Then, in maybe another 75 years, they have to do it all again. Round and round the wheel spins. Same old, same old.
If the West turns down this move for peace that Russia is offering, then ALL OF US know the whole Russia-Ukraine thing, and the whole Israel-Hamas thing, was specifically designed to intentionally CAUSE nuclear war for debt forgiveness.
Nothing else about these situations, makes any sense to me.
This is especially true of athletes in their mid and late 30s.
Men’s testosterone begins to decline around 30. We don’t recover as fast and lose a bit of our power over time. It’s a subtle change that catches up to them.
And many champions don’t know when to walk away in their prime.
Ronaldo is now sitting the bench on Manchester United:
True soccer fans knew this day was coming—as in fans who aren’t Ronaldo fanboys. He wasn’t playing at a high enough level to start on Manchester United. He was leaving the midfield too open while he camped out waiting to score goals.
He’s 37 and feeling his age. And that’s fine. Father Time catches up to everyone.
The sad truth is that this happens to the best of athletes. And it’s never more evident than in combat sports. Fighters that seem invincible, will go from being 31–1 to suddenly losing 8 of 10 fights in a row.
Muhammed Ali stuck around wayyyy too long and at least accelerated his mental decline.
Anderson Silva used to look untouchable. And then, age 38, he began a long losing streak.
Losing 6 of his last 8 fights.
The only person smart enough to walk away seems to be Khabib Nurgademedov. He was 29–0, and the allure of 30–0 whispered his name—but he stayed disciplined and knew to step away.
Meanwhile, his nemesis Conor McGregor has been racking up losses.
It’s a good metaphor for life.
Some phases of our life have an expiration date. Relationships. Jobs. Parties. And if you stick around too long, it just makes things worse.
The most dangerous creation of society is the man who has nothing to lose.
Today, at age 34 our combined net worth is $1.6M, not including equity in our home and equity in a small business my wife runs.
I can tell you our story, but it will probably bore you to sleep.
I had it in my head at the age of 25 that I wanted to be a millionaire in 15 years. So I sat down in front of a computer and opened up excel. I made a simple spreadsheet that assumed market returns of 7%. I then calculated how much we needed to save each year to obtain millionaire status by 40. We then proceeded to save the amount of money generated by the spreadsheet and invest in index funds, basing our lifestyle around the remaining income.
That is it.
Why did it happen sooner?
My wife hated her job. She was treated with very little respect by some members in the office, I suspect because she was young and good at her job. So she left. I told her to take some time for herself and figure out what she wanted to do. Little by little she began doing some book-keeping and tax work for former clients (she is an accountant). As word got around, more people called. She began networking and eventually built up a small accounting business with her and two employees. It’s humble, but we are able to save 100% of her earnings which helped us reach our goal sooner.
If you met me on the street you’d think I was a generic 30-something with all the same stresses of a corporate job, house and kids that most middle-class 30-somethings deal with. You’d probably assume I was barely getting by when you saw my dirty 14-year-old car, especially after you learned that I like to commute by bike most of the time anyway.
And that’s it. Having means is often more about your life style than your earnings. Unfortunately I’m not a savvy business man who made millions in his 20’s while driving a Ferrari and flying first class. I used a spreadsheet, saved that amount of money and built my lifestyle around that savings rate.
Then my wife and I woke up rich.
I told you it was a boring story.
Cajun Pork Chili
Ingredients
2 pounds ground pork
2 large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet red bell pepper, chopped
1 sweet green bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano*
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Dash of hot pepper sauce
Salt and pepper
Instructions
In a heavy saucepan, cook the pork over medium heat, stirring to break up the meat, for about 5 minutes or until browned. Pour off the fat.
Add onions, and cook until tender.
Add garlic, red and green peppers and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened.
Add tomatoes, breaking them up with the back of a spoon.
Stir in kidney beans, hot pepper flakes, oregano, cayenne pepper, hot pepper sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Notes
* If you prefer a more traditional chili flavor, use cumin instead of oregano, and add chili powder to taste.
When I lived in Milford, Massachusetts I worked at an appliance company as a Chief Project Manager in the R&D group. During that time, early on in the company, I was living with a model named CJ. She was extraordinarily beautiful, but a royal pain in the ass. Ugh! That’s a story for another time, I’ll tell you what.
Anyways, there was one of the guys in my company, way a youngish (in his late 20’s) man who worked in Marketing. I got along fine with him.
But my girlfriend, CJ (the chick that I was living with) told me that she had a “bad feeling about him”. But I shrugged it off.
About a month later, I noticed that he was driving around and waiting outside my apartment. I wondered why, but couldn’t figure out what was going on.
Later on, after that, CJ told me that he was following her.
…
Two weeks later, he came to work completely beaten up, and his face was a real mess. He worked for a day or two, and then quit. I never found out what happened to him, but I figure that he messed with the “wrong people”. Not me. But perhaps someone else…
I was asked, as a consultant, to handle a very delicate matter. It appears that the company president’s teenage daughter had taken a liking to one of the system assembly people who was building rack servers. He told her that he was busy and she was not authorized to be in the department. She complained to daddy, and the employee was subject to a screaming match in front of his co-workers and told by his boss that he needed to apologize by the close of business when the executive and his daughter left. And that some token of his contrition might be a nice gesture.
Near the end of the day, the technician located the daughter, said he was sorry, and gave her a handmade electronic sculpture as a token of his contrition. He then wrote a resignation note and left it with H.R.
I was called to resolve the issue and get the employee back to work because they had a backlog that was building on the workbenches. I could not find any reason why someone else could not build-out the server blades and none of the employee’s co-workers volunteered any information. That is, until I learned that he had fashioned the sculpture out of the all of the motherboard chips on hand.
There was no attempt to gain restitution for the ruined chips and the employee was paid in full — including two weeks severance. I later heard that the president reimbursed the company for the entire amount. I pocketed my fee — which only added insult to injury.
I Live Better in The Philippines Than I Did in The U.S For Cheaper – My Story
“It was reassuring to hear of JJ’s positive experience in BCG, and of his low monthly budget. I’ve been thinking a lot about my future retirement and moving somewhere that will provide a better quality of life for my budget. I’ll try to spend time in several countries, before picking a place to settle down. Thanks for another great video, Evan.”
Texas Iced Tea
Ingredients
6 tea bags or 2 large tea bags
Water
1 cup granulated sugar (optional)
Instructions
Heat 1 quart to boiling 1 quart water in saucepan.
Remove from heat; add tea bags, cover and let steep for 30 minutes.
Pour into 1 a gallon pitcher.
Add sugar, if using, then fill pitcher with cold water.
To make sun tea, fill a 1 gallon glass jar with cool water.
Add 6 tea bags and place in direct sunlight.
Leave in sunlight until desired color (strength) is obtained (reddish brown) – about 2 to 3 hours. Do not leave in the sun too long (over 4 hours) as mixture may become bitter.
A very stupid woman in my social group was my bully. She hated me and did & said what she could to trash me.I was involved with someone that she had a crush on. She did everything she could to break us up, including making up stories about me sleeping around with other guys (I wasn’t), stealing $$$ from him (I earned 3x what he did), badmouthing him, etc. It did cause some tension in my relationship.
However, she thought it was funny and sent screenshots of what she had said & done to a friend of mine. She didn’t know he was an old friend of many years. He sent me copies which I gave my guy. He blocked her on the spot and cut off all contact with her.
At the time she was living with a guy in public housing and collecting disability. Again, Ms. Stupid sent to our mutual friend comments like she was only living with him so he would pay her bills. That she really didn’t have a disability but she had a corrupt Dr who would fill out “appropriate l” paperwork for a fee. And that she had a job off the books and making very good $$$.
He sent me everything. I filed a complaint on the doctor with the state medical board. I forwarded her comments to the Housing Authority and federal offices. But the best was, being crafty, I created a mini-book that listed all of her comments from her lies about me to using the boyfriend as a paycheck. I wrapped it up nicely and sent it to him at his place of employment. (I did put a note on it saying to open in private…he didn’t need to be embarrassed in front of co-workers)
So long story short, she lost her apartment but gained a new one at the local jail. She lost her boyfriend but gained a new corrections officer. She lost her social circle but gained new cellmates. She lost her lucrative income but got a job at the prison making cents on the hour.
On March 7th, 2002, Gabi Altaraz, owner of the Cafe Caffit was walking around his crowded restaurant, full of families and young couples, full of the sounds of children. He noticed a young man sitting alone at the table. The man seemed nervous, agitated and odd.
Despite the day being quite chilly in the tail end of the Israeli winter, the strange man was sweating profusely.
Gabi walked over and asked to take the order, figuring the man was just a bit distracted by work.
The man seemed annoyed by the question. “Just water,” he snapped, clearly bothered. He then asked who Gabi was, giving him the most chilling smile that looked murderous.
As Gabi listened, he noticed a very large backpack by the man’s feet.
Gabi didn’t change his expression, but said he’d get it. Instead, he went and got twenty three year old Shlomi Harel, one of the waiters. “I think we have a problem,” he said.
Now, with spiked hair, tattoos and a pierced eyebrow. Shlomi may have looked like some bored college student currently fetching drinks and food, but he was also a recently released elite commando.
Shlomi walked up to the table and asked in Arabic for the man’s ID card (which all Israeli residents must carry) The man produced a blue one, indicating he was an Israeli citizen. However, Shlomi had already noticed the bag.
More importantly, he noticed the wire which protruded from it, and which ran through the man’s jacket and through the man’s right sleeve to a detonator in his hands.
The cafe was full, 50 innocent civilians, women and children and elderly, all of whom were defenseless. In seconds, they would be a red mist unless he was willing to risk his life.
With a fearlessness bordering on superhuman, Shlomi pounced on the terrorist and threw him out of the restaurant.
Once outside, before the terrorist knew what hit him, Shlomi had already jerked out the wire, separating the bomb from the detonator, as he was trained. He then ripped off the pack, threw aside and slammed the terrorist to the floor to restrain him.
As he wrestled the terrorist to a safe distance, he also yelled to clear the streets, take cover and call the bomb squad, while using the skills of Krav Maga to make sure the would-be murderer didn’t go anywhere until the authorities could take him away.
Shlomi’s excellent training, heroism and sacrifice prevented a massacre. 10 kilograms of explosives and shrapnel was packed inside the backpack, enough to kill all 50 people and wound and blind and maim and mangle 50 more.
If a soldier has to resort to Krav Maga, the goat droppings have really hit the fan. Ideally, you never want to be in a position where you need to be that close to the enemy, but there have been situations where it was required.
Remember, Krav Maga isn’t just about a form of self defense so you can go home at night safely.
In the army, it’s about making arrests. (And his knee isn’t on the detainee’s neck but shoulders, as can be clearly seen by anyone with training)
It’s about disarming suspects.
It’s about self defense for situations like knife attacks.
And as the story makes clear, it has other uses.
So yes, soldiers use it. Otherwise, why would they teach it?
And yes, the stuff related to arresting and neutralizing terrorists. Not the stuff I do.
Me and a buddy were at his house watching TV and some person on the screen was eating a strawberry. I don’t really care for them, but it looked good and I asked if, by chance, he had any strawberries in the house. He almost laughed at me, we were two 20-year old’s with a higher chance of beer or mac & cheese or Fruit Loops than strawberries. About twenty minutes later, there’s a knock at the door and he goes to answer it. He yells out to me to come see something. His mom is standing at the door with one of those low-cut boxes with a bunch of strawberries. he said, “Tell Jeffy what you said!” She looks a little strange and says, “I was driving home and there was a guy selling strawberries out of the back of his truck and I thought, “I bet David and his friends would like some strawberries…” My buddy says, “Well, you blew it. We all have one wish and you wasted yours on strawberries.”
As an example, there was a woman who worked for me at one point. She used to always brag that she has a 174 IQ. Everyone was tired of it and it really kept her from forming good relationships at work (the “I am better than you” complex). One day, I was just not wanting to put up with it so I said “wow, your IQ is higher than Albert Einstein!” When she agreed, I responded “he invented the theory of relativity, what have you done?” She never mentioned her IQ after that. You see, IQ matters less than what you do with what you have.
P.S. I am a member of Mensa, too, and realize that it is just the measure of potential, not an accomplishment.
Edit: thanks for everyone who up-voted my response. I think this is my highest. I went to my first Annual Gathering (AG) this year and it just reinforced my belief. It isn’t what you have, but what you do with it. Many wonderful people, but just like the rest of society in so many ways.
How is she surprised he responded like this? She deserves everything she gets
Lordy! This is everything that wrong with the United States today.
Have you ever been accused of something very wrong ,and been totally innocent.
I have this mentally I’ll neighbor a block down the street ,he will say just about anything with no remorse whatsoever, he is so envious of me, from what other people have told me that it’s almost some type of fixation.I warned my new girlfriend about him and to keep her distance from him, quite frankly I don’t trust him at all.One day I see she was at the bottom of the driveway picking up the mail as usual only potty mouth is blabbering to her about something, he was out walking his dog. When she parks her car and heads for the house she usually stops to see what I’m doing. Today she goes straight up and into the house, I knew that idot had said something to upset her, unfortunately for me I was in the middle of spraying and couldn’t drop what I was doing.I head into the house an hour later and she seems very tense, but when I mentioned what did the ding dong down the load have to say, she said ahhh nothing really.
A couple hours later when we met at the doorway between the master bedroom and the bathroom, she actually ducted away from me. Now I knew something was wrong and I had to get to the bottom of it, but when I asked what was bothering her every time she had the same response, ahhh nothing really.
Finally I had enough, I said I want to know what is going on ,and we’re not closing our eyes until you tell me. Then she says, whatcha going to do hit me.I was totally floored, I have never in my life struck a woman and told this to her. She says that the guy down the street told her, he used to hear my ex wife screaming and that I had been arrested for abuse a couple of times.I started to chuckle a little and she says this is very serious ,and that if I layed a hand on her she’s going straight to the cops.
I pointed to a couple of shotguns leaning in the corner by my dresser. See those, well if I had any sort of domestic violence charges brought against me , there wouldn’t be any fire arms allowed in the house. She says you have several guns, that’s against, the law then. I warned you about listening to that asshole some time ago didn’t I ,she couldn’t believe someone would make up a story like this. So let’s just look up my criminal record and see how bad I am, in Wisconsin you can go to the clerk of courts on line and check out anyone’s history. Look here there nothing, nothing at all, squeaky clean. She seemed a little shocked. Now I said let’s check out your new friend, Oh Look two convictions for domestic abuse, spent two weeks in jail twice for failing to pay child support and a felony conviction for distribution of cocaine.Maybe now you will take what he says with a grain of salt. She still looked a little puzzled, but gradually got back to normal. One of these days he’s going to say something about the wrong guy and find himself in big trouble. I fail to see what he hopes to gain, except cause me grief. Maybe someone else has a clue, I just totally avoid him and have for several years now.
The expression, “get your ducks in a row,” means to get prepared to do something. But where did this expression come from?
Many years ago, an old-time JPL engineer explained to me the origin of this expression. Sadly, I don’t remember who it was. There are a number of people I regarded highly who might have been the source of this. I certainly believed them because it made so much sense.
Consider an old drafting tool used to hold splines to make curves. It is called a drafting duck, also known as a lofting duck.
What the heck is a drafting duck, you might ask?
Before we get to that, let’s talking about lofting.
Back in the days of building large wooden sailing ships, they used to create full size drawings of the ship. The only place big enough for such a drawing was in loft above the shipbuilding building. The loft had a lot of space without posts in the way. Creating such drawing became known as lofting.
If you’ve ever done any computer-aided drafting, then you will have come across splines. These are smooth curves passing through a series of dots.
But how did they do that in the days before computers? Well, they used splines! A spine was a long flexible piece of wood that was held down on the drawing to make a curve passing through the points on the drawing.
or the very long splines they used in lofting, they had a bunch of weighted objects to hold the spline in place so they could run their pencil along it to make the smoothly curved line.
Lofting Ducks. The little bent nose sticking out was poked into the top of the spline to hold it in place. The body of these ducks was something like steel so they would be weighty and able to hold the spline in place.
So, before they could draw the line along the spline, they had to …
get their ducks in a row.
And that’s where the expression came from. At least according to the ancient engineer I knew a couple of decades ago.
I promised the Screamy Blonde Thing £200 if she passed all her GCSEs except RE, which we don’t care about.
Yeah, my money’s safe because I’ve seen that kid’s Eng Lit essays. I’ve just spent two years shouting and cajoling just to get her Eng Lang up to scratch and the chances of her passing Eng Lit is the same as that of Kylie Minogue dragging me into Meadowhall Travel Lodge and giving me a damn good seeing-to.
Is what I thought.
Do you know what she bloody well did? Passed the bloody lot except RE. I swear she did it on purpose just to annoy me. Sigh. Bye-bye £200. I knew I shouldn’t have spent a week going through Romeo and bloody Juliet with her, still less another one going through The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde. Because of this, she now has a morning off from her computerses things at the Tech whilst the dim kids retake their Maths and English GCSEs. That kid has always been as jammy as a Co-Op doughnut, I tell you.
Anyway, the point. Stump up. You promised it, you bloody well deliver or you’ll be persona non grata in kidworld and they’ll never trust anything you say again for the rest of your life.
Back to the subject of the SBT, she’s spending her morning lying in bed playing with her Nintendo.
Or so she thinks.
I’m about to break the news that nobody could be arsed to do last night’s teapots and there’s a sinkful, and guess who’s drying? BWUHAHAHA! It’s not that I’m evil, it’s just……no it is. I’m evil. But not evil enough to renege on my promise for hard work. Get your wallet out.
In terms of absolute military power, they will never catch up with the USA. They simply do not have any intention to do this.
I think that Americans simply do not comprehend this. They live in a country that is accustomed to wars, The USA destroys countries and kills people in wars continuously. Afghanistan; Iraq; Syria; Bosnia; Somalia; Vietnam; Libya; Grenada etc etc. This has gone on for so long that Americans think it’s normal – as normal and ordinary and unremarkable as their regular school shootings.
China isn’t interested. They just want to build highways, sea ports, airports, railways etc; link up the world and do more trade and business.
“I know who’s wetting the grass mummy!” My three year old daughter one day stated proudly.
We were eating breakfast at the time and my husband and I both looked at each other dumbfounded. She continued beaming at us. Clearly very proud of herself.
“Honey what do you mean?” My husband asked her trying to make sense of it.
“You know daddy…” She said shaking her head as if it what she was talking about was common knowledge. I was struggling to keep a straight face. “Explain it to daddy,” I said to her.
“Ok mummy.”
“Well,” she said. “In the mornings the grass is wet right?”
“Right, yes it’s a dew.”
“No…” She corrects him. “It’s a man dressed in black.”
“Are you sure honey?” My husband asks her.
“Yes I saw him last night…”
At first we were dumbfounded, then we were very worried. Turns out she had seen someone. The next night I stayed in my daughters room and someone actually tried to break in. Luckily some fly spray in the eyes and a quick call to the police soon put him out of action… Though my daughter said “mummy don’t do that to the grass wetter”
Turns out he was a child abuser, not the grass wetter. Luckily he won’t be doing that ever again now. And my daughter still can’t get over the fact that I sprayed him in the eyes with fly spray…
What did she say to me afterwards? “Who will wet the grass now mummy?”
And the next morning. “They found a new person, I haven’t seen him yet but the grass has been wetted again.”
Kids. They are so innocent and at times hilarious 🙂
I’m technically homeless for the second time in my life. Finances were at a real strain earlier in the year but I held on until my son went off to college. At 68, my career in print media ground to a halt and with an exploding real estate market where I saw my rent quadruple in a matter of months. My life was unsustainable.
Car payments, car insurance, prescription medicines and food, I’ll admit, I was drowning. When my son left I no longer had a reason to maintain a household or a car. I stopped fighting the inevitable. My social security payment was all I had. I sold my possessions and booked a one-way ticket to the far east. I can live on the pittance provided me for my years of work as an American. I just can’t live in America.
Since I left the states, I’ve lived in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Nepal. Next week I’m heading to India for a month before returning and spending Christmas and New Years in Vietnam. I live in decent three star hotels typically with free breakfast.
My social life had already slowed considerably as I got old.
I stopped drinking nearly three years ago so I no longer have that monkey on my back. But life, in general is good. It’s adventurous. And I no longer have the burdens that come with life in the US. My son is happy and thriving. My older daughter and her family are doing very well. I’m a phone call away from them and we talk frequently. The difference is I’m alive and living with few worries.
My son had an FBI agent come to his apartment. He sold noncommercial DVDs on his web page of 80’s cartoons. Someone had bragged about not caring about copyright and given the FBI his name in order to get him in trouble.
When asked, he said, “Yes, I sell those DVDs on my web page. Oh, do you want copies of where I have the rights? What’s your fax number?”
Many years ago my first wife’s father was died. He was married at the time. He also had a girlfriend. When my mother-in-law, my now ex-wife, her grandmother and I arrived at the funeral we were expecting, of course, to sit on the front row. It is typical for the spouse to sit there. Unfortunately, the girlfriend with her children showed up prior to the wife and had seated herself and her kids on the front row. The wife, who had more restraint than I would have, decided not to make a scene and sat behind the girlfriend and her kids. If my memory serves me correctly, she did fire the girlfriend, who worked at the store now solely owned by my mother-in-law.
I get that the girlfriend was also grieving. After all, her sugar daddy was now gone. If she had had more manners and civility at the funeral, she would probably have been given time to find a new job (my MIL was a nice person), but since the gf intentionally embarrassed the wife in public, she didn’t deserve to be treated nicely.
My father was the epitome of impeccable health well into his older years, the strongest, healthiest person I knew. Walking 25,000 steps per day, always energetic, near perfect vision, mentally sharp (he had a PhD in mathematics), my father had every quality in his 70s that I wish I had in my 50s! Best of all, he was a very humble man and wonderfully loving father.
My dad was a renowned scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he studied nucleology. Unfortunately, he and many of his fellow scientists developed sarcoma later in life, a rare form of cancer. Some of his cohorts had already died in their 30s and 40s. My father didn’t acquire sarcoma until the age of 73, striking with little warning and spreading quickly throughout his entire body. It remains unknown whether or not the fate of these scientists was connected to the decades of nuclear research projects they performed.
My father awoke in the middle of the night in pain, was driven to the hospital by my mother, and by the time he arrived 15 minutes later he had no feeling below his rib cage. A tumor had grown along the spine and rapidly shut off the nerves, blocking any feeling all the way to the tip of his toes. After some tests, the doctors gave him three to six months to live. He lasted three months.
The question
To answer your question, how did he know the end was near? After three months of being bedridden and paralyzed, with his spirits high and his faith strong, he was lying awake around 4:00 a.m. when he suddenly struggled to breathe. He summoned my mother who was asleep in the same room. He knew it was the end.
The finale
My parents had been together for 55 years, meeting when they were teens. My mother held his hand, and he whispered, “Will you be okay without me?” to which my mother replied, “I’ll be fine.” And within seconds after those words, he was gone. I was on a plane flying to come see him when he passed, so I didn’t make it in time to say goodbye. But we had spent plenty of time together, especially in the final months, so I was at total peace. The world lost one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century that day. But I lost the greatest father.
A co-worker and I were given new employee contracts to sign and we saw that if we were to leave the company we could not work as software developers for three years. We refused to sign, so the company controller came to us and asked why.
After we explained why we wouldn’t sign, he said, “Oh, that’s not what that means. What it means is that you won’t start a new, competing contract firm and steal away employees.” So I told him to change the contract language to state exactly what he’d told me. He just kept saying, “But you know what it means!”
I finally told him that until the contract says what it really means, I wouldn’t sign it. He said he’d have it corrected, but we never received a corrected copy, so we never signed a new contract.
His explanation made more sense than the contract’s language, but I wasn’t going to sign away my right to work on blind faith.
A husband
“This man worked a 13-hour day in 90-degree weather and walked through the door and said, ‘I’m home. What can I do to help you?’
Yet, these are words I hear from him often.
He is not a ‘unicorn.’ Men like these exist.
The kind who wash the dishes after you cook. Who do the yard work because they know you hate it. Who work 60+ hour work weeks and still come home and play with their kids, give their wife a kiss, and ask, ‘What can I do to help?’
Who gets up some nights to change the baby’s diaper while you get ready for a night feeding. Who gives the kids baths and puts them down for bed. Who spends his weekends with his family. Who cracks a cold one once the kids are down, and plays Farkle and Rummy with his wife.
Leader of the home, equal partner with his wife, provider, protector, and hands-on father. I’m so glad I married this man, and that he also acknowledges my hard work at home with two kids, nursing, cooking, and cleaning.
We take care of each other. It’s 50/50, and we are raising our boys to be men, just like their fathers.
I see so many women cry and complain their partner doesn’t help with the kids, bills, housework, give them any attention, etc.
My heart breaks when I hear, ‘Oh, that’s men,’ or ‘I just deal with it and suffer.’
Ladies, that isn’t a man. Make him do better or find better! If you have a good one who treats you like a queen, then treat him like the king he is.
Marriage is a partnership, not a dictatorship. My husband and I both take care of each other and are very happy.
Many blessings and happiness to all you kings and queens.”
Shared with permission via Jessica Maddux
Cajun Orange Mopped Chops
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
2 tablespoons chopped green onions with tops
4 boneless loin pork chops
Instructions
Combine first five ingredients and pour over pork chops in shallow glass dish. Marinate for 10 or 15 minutes while heating grill or broiler to high.
Reduce heat to medium. Place marinated pork chops on grill or under broiler for 7 to 10 minutes per side, brushing marinade on chops as they are turned. Be careful not to overcook.
Serve with rice or potatoes and a vegetable or salad.
Something Very Βizarre Is Starting To Ηappen At Walmart.. (This Seems Unbelievable!)
After I left the Navy, and before I got married to my first wife, I spent a period of time single… living alone, in Florida… and being a “beach bum”. I went out on a lot of dates. Met many girls, and had a lot of fun. Fun that was unfortunately short lived. I was just a “boy toy”.
At that time, as a “beach bum”, I had long blonde hair, a super tan, and a really laid back attitude. In short, I was “Captain Ron”. LOL
But seriously. I was “Captain Ron”.
Anyways, I was in love with a girl. She lived in another state, and I wanted to marry her. It was a long distance relationship. And so I went and packed up and bought an engagement ring and wanted to surprise her with a visit, a ring and then bring her back down from Pennsylvania to Florida.
Well… I walked in on her… with a “close friend” having sex.
…
The standard boiler plate of next steps occurred.
Denial
Confrontation
Emotional screaming and yelling
Decisions
And departure
I returned back to Florida alone.
And you know, I went into the store and returned the engagement ring to the very attractive girl behind the counter.
And she disappeared in the back, and I noticed that all the 20-something girls were peeking though the curtains and whispering amongst themselves.
There were so many “ahh sounds” and a lot of sad pity on my part.
The really noticeable thing about this event was that I really didn’t appreciate what I was (at that time), and how these young 20-something local chicks thought of me. I was that blue-eyed, beach blond, mellow fun dude… LOL!
An attractive subtype…
Sigh.
Not the grizzly old cuss that I am today, I guess.
Enjoy who you are in your various stages of life. You might be surprised on all the opportunities that you might miss out on. Be brave. Be aware, and for god sakes, have some fun!
I have only been fired once in my entire adult life. I was working as a Case Manager for a national company with remote digital presence, but no brick and mortar offices in our state. Another local nurse wanted my position and started planting weevils in ears up the chain of command. Long story short she was committing a bunch of tomfoolery and blaming it on me without my knowledge at the time.
She got my position, but was fired within 3 months because she was caught committing aforementioned tomfoolery. Her misdeeds were of such a nature as to make finding another job within the field very difficult. She was caught partially because her accusations caused a state level investigation and audit. Which cleared me and cost her, her job.
Brilliant planning on her part.
Fast forward 2 years and she applies for a job at another local facility. One that I happen to be the associate clinical director at. She has been on a suspended license with remediation and stipulations after reactivation, and basically unable to work for 2 years. She walked in to the interview, saw me sitting behind the desk, whispered “Oh, Shit!” and just ran out of the building. I didn’t have to say a word.
Texas-Style Egg and Potato Skillet
Scramble Mexican favorites, like potatoes and tortilla chips, for a fast and tasty breakfast skillet or simple supper.
Prep: 5 min | Cook: 15 min | Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
4 thick slices (4 ounces) turkey bacon, chopped
1 medium baking potato, diced 1/2 inch
8 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup pico de gallo or chunky salsa
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded smoked Cheddar cheese
6 flour or whole wheat tortillas (8 inch), warmed (optional)
Instructions
Cook bacon in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until edges begin to brown. Pour off drippings.
Add potato; cook and stir until potato is tender and browned and bacon is crisp, 6 to 8 minutes.
Pour eggs over mixture in skillet. As eggs begin to set, gently pull the eggs across the pan with an inverted turner, forming large soft curds. Continue cooking – pulling, lifting and folding eggs – until thickened and no visible liquid egg remains. Do not stir constantly.
Stir in pico de gallo; heat through.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Serve with tortillas, if desired.
Notes
Lighter Option: Recipe can be made with reduced-fat cheese, if desired.
Bought some string in a nice little stationery store in Munich back in 1999. The clerk was counting out my change in German, marks and pfennigs, and stopped and said, auf Deutsch, “Why am I even counting out the change to you? You don’t understand anything.” I smiled. Though I understood well enough, my German wasn’t good enough to let him have it.
My ex was visiting Croatia with her Croatian friend about fifteen years ago. Guess both of them looked like Americans. While walking along the water somewhere together two local, uh… gents were walking toward them, discussing amongst themselves, and quite graphically, the sexual adventures/positions/at one time “crimes against nature” they would enjoy with the two gals. As they passed one another her friend shouted in Croatian “DO YOU TALK TO YOUR MOTHER WITH THAT MOUTH?!!” They nearly melted in embarrassment.
It’s done. It is almost a full decade since China is the real superpower and U.S. is a has been. I know if you are a westerner or especially if you are proud American it sounds ridiculous. But. Let me point out facts and not hubris or blind pride.
China’s growth today is 36.6% and the U.S. together with the entire G7 is a mere 24.6% of the worlds growth. China overtook the U.S. where it counts most the real purchasing power GDP or PPP. Today China is roughly 18.5% and the US is 15.2%. Of worlds economy. While the U.S. is one of the biggest spender China is the biggest savers.
In infrastructure the Chinese has the biggest ports, the biggest ports has the most ships and it has build 120 thousand miles of high speed railway criss crossing China the U.S. build 100 kilometres.
On influence. China gets support almost the entire Asia, Middle East, Latin America, Caribbean and Africa. The U.S. has support from roughly 15 nations. The Anglo nations, their vassal states Germany, Japan and South Korea. Some former colonial powers and some small Eastern European enemies of Russia. In most UN votes China always almost has support in excess of 150/195 nations.
In military, China has more arms, more ships more planes and more troops by a very long shot than the U.S. The Chinese close knit relationship with Russia will make the U.S. rather weak if pitted against both of these nation. The U.S. has lost 4 wars against smaller and weaker nations, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
On sustainability China has 175 out of 195 nations as its biggest trading partners and the U.S. has 29/195 nations as its biggest trading partner. The U.S. debts and deficits is simply unsustainable. China is growing at a rate of 3–4 times a year for the past 40 years against the US. And its standard of living has grown 30 times in the past 40 years and the US has stagnated since 1960!
On the present and future technology, in a recents Australian research from ASPI, China leads in 37/44 most crucial and strategic technologies while the US lead in only 7/37. China’s registrations of US patent office has doubled the US for the past decade.
For me China has absolutely and totally overtook the US by 2020 but it start overtaking the US in 2014. What we are seeing is a decade or more of US refusing to accept the status quo. I suspect by the 2028 election the US and America will move from disbelieving to accepting this status quo.
Oliver Anthony – Rich Man North of Richmond (REMIX) -Vapor Reggae/Dub-
[I’m answering anonymously because I don’t want this to come up in a google search — it would suck if my family found it — but I’m sure plenty of regulars will know who wrote this. Please don’t out me.]
My classmates were 100 of the wealthiest kids in the world. I don’t mean hedge fund money — I mean Middle East royalty money. I mean kids whose entire addresses were: People’s Palace, Khartoum, Sudan.
Were they different from the kids I went to public school with in middle class suburban New Jersey? Not in any way that mattered at age 15. (Except they all smoked. I mean upwards of 80% of my classmates smoked. Just crazy.) At 15 it was about boys and sex and alcohol and dieting and who was going where on winter break. The clothes were nicer, the vacations more luxe, but the status games were all the same.
As an adult, here’s the biggest difference I notice, and this really only applies to people who grew up with money:
There is a sense of security that comes with growing up with wealth. A sense that no matter how bad things get, there is a safety net. Even if the net is actually gone — even if somehow you’ve lost all your wealth, your family has disowned you, whatever — it is hard to shake that sense that somehow, some way, things will work out.
Some of my rich friends think they can empathize with poverty. Maybe, but I don’t kid myself that I can. Even when I’d severed ties with my family and had been sleeping on a beach with my belongings for a few months because I couldn’t afford to eat *and* pay for a bed. Even after I’d been robbed a couple of times and put in worse danger a couple of times…
When I got sick — really stupid sick that would have cost me a limb if I hadn’t finally gone to a doctor when I did — I didn’t for a minute think I’d lose my leg. Somewhere deep down I knew that whatever was going to be required, the resources would be there. Whether it meant calling home or a family friend or an old classmate… the idea that the world would let me drown because I couldn’t pay a bill was just never on my radar. It was too far outside everything life had taught me up until then.
I’d have to be on the street for a very long time before I’d be convinced that no one was coming to save me. Of all the privilege that I enjoy, I think that one would be the hardest to shake.
A man, who had sold my client a herd of Texas Longhorn cattle, had returned months later, carted them off, and could not or would not account for their whereabouts.
I was in court. It was a trial to the judge (without a jury) for “conversion” and violations of the D.T.P.A. (Deceptive Trade Practices). I had the bad guy, the chief rustler, on the stand. He was squirming.
The key to the whole case was an award winning Longhorn bull named “Squanto.” We called him “Squanto the Wonder Bull” at the office.
Eventually, he admitted to taking the herd… Finally I asked the chief rustler, “Where exactly is Squanto?” In a flippant remark the defendant laughed and said, “Hell, I don’t know. Probably in a can of spam by now,” and laughed again. He thought he was pretty funny.
About an hour later the judge ruled for us but did not award triple (3x) damages as required by the law in Texas. My client, who was crazy angry about his lost herd, wanted to appeal. So we appealed.
Months later in the court of appeals my client, the other lawyer, and I appeared for argument. What surprised me was that the chief judge of that court was on the panel of three judges. He was old, very crippled, and brilliant. He assigned himself to the cases he was interested in and always made a difference.
I went first. I made an impassioned plea. I talked of the Texas Rangers, the Alamo, and the treatment of rustlers in early Texas history.
They wanted nothing to do with me.
The three judges were silent, dead silent the whole time. They said nothing. They just watched me and nodded. I did not know whether to sh#t or go-blind I was so unhorsed. I thought I was a dead man. They were supposed to ask questions, seek clarification, or ask me if I had a case on X, Y, or Z. Nothing. When I finished the chief judge thanked me without comment. I sat down silently and waited.
Now generally when a lawyer begins to speak in the court of appeals we say something to the effect of “May it please The Court … I am X and I represent the Appellant Disney, or GM, or Joe Blow.”
The lawyer for the rustlers did just that. He said, “May it please The Court, I am …” and that’s all he got out of his mouth.
The chief judge leaned forward in his chair, as far as his crippled body would allow him, and said, “We know who you are and who you represent. What we don’t know is where this herd of Longhorns is, Sir.”
There was silence. I mean the kind of silence you sense rather than hear, like when you know a predator is approaching in the woods. Then the chief judge looked at the transcript of the trial and read aloud, “Hell, I don’t know. (Squanto) is probably in a can of spam by now.”
Those judges weren’t in the trial court. They didn’t see the flippant attitude of the witness. They didn’t hear him laugh. They didn’t know he had been sarcastic. The Court Reporter had not noted “laughing” or “sarcastic” in her notes, which she was prohibited from doing. The Judges could only read the words on the paper, and the words were clear — Squanto had been rustled and made into spam.
”Sir, you and your client are here in our Court trying to justify stealing this man’s cattle and taking his prize bull, Squanto, to slaughter for ‘Spam.’ Is that right? IS THAT RIGHT?” The lawyer was dumbfounded. Speechless. So was I.
For the next 20 minutes those three old judges waged a holy war on that lawyer and his rustler clients and defended our Longhorn herd, Squanto the Wonder Bull, and “mom and apple pie” like they were the judges’ own children. I have never seen another reckoning like that one, not in a trial court and certainly not in the appellate courts.
I got the award. I got the Judgment. We collected the money.
The Rangers would have hung those rustlers. We could not.
But we never saw Squanto or his herd again …
I don’t know why Squanto’s demise set those old judges off, but it did.
As lawyers, we discuss the fact that Judges and Juries are forgiving at times, but never if you injure a baby, an old person, or a helpless animal. This was a great reminder.
I smiled that day. I smile now, and every time I see a can of spam I think of Squanto the Wonder Bull.
That’s not the only story that makes me smile, but it is a favorite.
Long ago, a mentor warned me that, “Human Resources is there to protect the company — from you.”
A manager I supported could not have been a bigger HR nightmare. For example, I was sitting in a clear-glass meeting room with him and three other employees.
A female coworker walked by on the outside of the room. A coworker said, “Oh is Becca pregnant?”
This manager said, in a deep southern drawl, “If she was with me, she’d stay pregnant.”
On another occasion, I heard him say, “I hate the Japanese cuz’ they bombed Pearl Harbor. I hate the Jews cause they killed Jesus.”
Why was he still at the company? He made the company buckets of cash and was great at his job. He epitomized the predicament of the high-performing jerk.
Most HR departments aren’t worth their weight and everything they do is bound in red tape. Ignore any talk of “we are family” — they’ll still show you the door. Ignore any employee awards. I saw a woman win employee of the quarter (for the entire company) and get let go two months later.
I’m not trying to scare you or sound cynical. Just be hyper-realistic as you go into this world and you’ll position yourself to thrive.
And choose wisely when making an HR complaint. People that do often end up with a cleaned-out desk.
China is a master at derivative research today. The world’s best in fact
It’s what morons mistakenly call REVERSE ENGINEERING which is actually dramatic process improvisation
Derivative research is building on existing research
The US were masters of derivative research from the 1950s to late 1970 before they started Pioneering Research
The US derived mainly from European Researchers until then and even today Europe is the master of Pioneering or Original Research
Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia are the leading countries for original or pioneering research
Chinas research is very PRACTICAL
The Universities fund research based on the value of the research to China
Original Research Or Pioneering Research doesn’t have any viability for a minimum 15–30 years
They need astronomical budgets for very little real life improvement
China prefers to identify research and BUILD ON IT
Most of Chinas Hypersonics, Space Communication, Rocketry is a result of Phenomenal improvement of US Original Research done in the 1970s-1980s and abandoned then as UNVIABLE
Another reason is Chinese are world class ENGINEERS
They handle every problem as an ENGINEERING PROBLEM Or a DESIGN PROBLEM
They are masters at this. The Best in the world on large scale
The Huawei Mate 60 is the best example
Huawei and SMIC solved the problem like an ENGINEERING DESIGN PROBLEM than a Physics Problem at electron level
Thus Chinas focus on Physics and Maths is entirely to develop an ENGINEERING BASE
It would take a longer time, maybe 30–40 years for China to finally focus on Original Research and win a few Nobel Prizes
The World’s leading nations by Original Research are :-
Europe -50. 43%
USA – 31.40%
UK – 7.88%
China – 3.79%
Others -8%
The World’s leading nations by derivative research are :-
China -35. 56%
USA – 26%
Japan – 14.98%
Europe – 13.33%
Others – 11%
China’s Technology LEADS the World (Americans in Shock)
Yes. I forgot how unique and technological China has become. It is so commonplace. I forgot that the West doesn’t really have this…
In this video, we take a look at China’s amazing technology and how it’s far surpassing America’s in terms of innovation, convenience and creativity. China’s amazing tech is making America jealous, and many Americans are in shock. They won’t believe it!
I did something today that will make me smile for entire life.
I frequently visit a coffee shop near my flat in Delhi for coffee. I am visiting the shop for more than 1 year now.
A couple of months ago, a 13 year old boy started working there. It made me furious on the shop owner because he is promoting child labour without hesitation.
I asked him :“ Don’t you know it’s a cognizable criminal offence to employ a Child for any work?”
He said : “ Yes, I know but you’re seeing only one side story”.
He explained that the child is from Bihar and belong to a very poor family. Last year, his family which included his father, child and his sister came to Delhi to earn some money in order to put food in their bellies. His mother died when he was born. His father is doing a job of a security guard while his sister is working as a maid in a house.
The child is getting a salary of Rs 6000/month at the shop.
I went home but I was not able to stop thinking about it.
I wanted to do something for him but I don’t know how to tackle the situation.
In July, he was not on the shop for a couple of days, so I asked the owner and got to know his sister died due to some health issues. It made me feel worse.
After a few days, he joined the shop again. I started talking to him daily to know more about him and his aspiration. He studied till 3rd class but left study to help his family.
I asked him if he wants to study? He said nothing but his glittered eyes gave me the answer.
Slowly, he became my friend. He used to ask me about what do I do and how I learned these things. I used to answer him in the best understanding way.
I don’t know but it created a great bond between us. I was really desperate to help this kid.
A few days ago, I was drinking coffee with a few of my friends. I was asking them a logical question (Which I saw in a video
of Ted-ED)
No one gave the right answer but that kid was listening to all things and said : “Bhaiya, mein batau?” (Bhaiya, may I tell?)
I was shocked, how sharp he was to give the correct answer. I gave him 50 rupees as a reward and left the place.
I decided that I will give him a better life whatever it takes. I started telling his story to people in my network so that if someone will come forward to help me.
One of my friends came forward who is working in an MNC and his wife is doing some a Non-profit work.
Today, that kid got admission in a boarding school.
It will only cost us 40,000 Rs/year and I will pay his salary of Rs 6000/month to his father.
After a few days, he will be in school and I cannot express my happiness and satisfaction.
I want to work more for children if some people come forward and make it possible together.
I was at Notre Dame in Paris. My friend and I were eating lunch on a bench. There was a group of American young adults with 2 chaperones. They were eaching McDonalds (In France? go figure) And way, the finished before Peggy and I did. The got up and left their trash all over the place with a trashcan right there.
Now remember, this is in France at a gorgeous cathedral that is world famous with tourists from all over the world. Me, being me, I got upand loudly said, “Hold it. Stop right there. All of you.” They all turned to me as if I was a crazy lady. Any way, I let them have it about leaving their trash around like their mothers where here to pick up after them. I told them they needed to pick up every piece of trash they had left and put it in the trash can. This wasn’t their country and they needed to respect it.
I think the shock of me, an American loudly calling them downfor being pigs (and yes I did call them that) totally embarrassed them enough to have them clean up the area where they had been sitting.
I went back to my lunch, still ticked that they were so disrespectful of France and Notre Dame that I almost snapped at this lady that came over to us. She said that she appreciated what I’d done and handed us tickets for the underground and to be able to climb to the top of one of the towers. I tried to refuse, but a gentleman behind her said it wasn’t allowed since we had shown we weren’t the normal Americans.
Even to this day, I am still aghast at how the chaperones didn’t bother to have them clean up after themselves. I can only imagine what the entitled kids who didn’t even consider cleaning up their trash are like today.
Incoming years? Nah it’s already on life support and flat lining.
Reddit yeah? It’s got a terrible reputation of being filled with ignorance and racists.
Yet on Reddit there have been frequent pushbacks. You can see the major turning point was Rushan Abbass.
As such the 10000+ post omg China bad started getting pushed back by people doubting.
For a while it was treading water as those 10000 post threads deleted anything that went against their narrative.
People then started noticing the massive deletions.
Their last omg genocide post has 600 posts of which the majority called bullshit. The op ended up deleting the thread.
If you can’t convince even the cesspit that is Reddit and Reddit is calling you out… then it’s over.
I mean shit. On Reddit hongkong (no space) there was a yellow (HK rioter faction) saying anybody in Hong Kong who went to Shenzhen or used Chinese products was a traitor.
He got downvoted into oblivion. The burning of a man in HK really had a huge change against many of them.
This is a highly improbable scenario, as China has shown restraint and rationality in dealing with the US-led tech war, which seeks to curb China’s rise as a global powerhouse in innovation and technology.
China’s strategy to cope with the US sanctions on Huawei and other Chinese companies is to pursue a dual path of self-reliance and openness. On one hand, China has stepped up its efforts to develop its own core technologies, such as chips, operating systems, cloud services, and 5G networks, to lessen its dependence on foreign suppliers and enhance its competitiveness. On the other hand, China has also reaffirmed its commitment to opening up its market and promoting trade and investment with other countries, especially those that share its vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity.
Apple is one of the beneficiaries of China’s openness and pragmatism. Apple depends heavily on China for both its production and sales. According to Apple’s latest financial report, China accounted for about 20% of its total revenue in the third quarter of 2023, making it the second-largest market for Apple after the Americas. Moreover, Apple relies on China’s vast and sophisticated supply chain to manufacture most of its products, such as iPhones, iPads, Macs, and AirPods. According to a recent study, about 90% of Apple’s suppliers are based in Asia, with China being the largest source country.
China has no interest in disrupting Apple’s operations in China, as it would harm both sides’ interests and undermine the global economy. Apple is an important contributor to China’s economic development, employment, innovation, and tax revenue. According to a report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Apple directly and indirectly supported 4.8 million jobs in China in 2019, including 1.8 million iOS app developers. Apple also invested $6 billion in research and development in China in 2019, making it one of the largest foreign investors in China’s high-tech sector. Furthermore, Apple paid about $13 billion in taxes to the Chinese government in 2019, making it one of the largest taxpayers among foreign companies in China.
China also appreciates that Apple is a valuable partner in promoting global cooperation and mutual understanding. Apple has been actively participating in various initiatives and projects that support China’s social and environmental goals, such as poverty alleviation, education, health care, renewable energy, and cultural preservation. For example, Apple has donated more than $50 million to support education programs in rural areas of China since 2013. Apple has also committed to powering all of its facilities in China with 100% renewable energy by 2025. Moreover, Apple has been showcasing China’s rich and diverse culture through its products and services, such as featuring Chinese artists on Apple Music, offering Chinese language courses on iTunes U, and celebrating Chinese festivals on App Store.
It is evident that China has no reason or incentive to kick Apple out of its market and supply chain. On the contrary, China welcomes Apple’s presence and contribution in China, as it benefits both countries and the world at large. China hopes that Apple will continue to uphold the spirit of openness and cooperation, respect China’s laws and regulations, protect users’ privacy and security, and play a positive role in enhancing bilateral relations and global governance
During my two decades in sales, I observed many interactions between people with obviously large gaps in IQ scores. They were often very emotionally loaded, and the gaps may sometimes have far exceeded 3 SDs.
I could observe three things consistently happening there.
For those on the high end of the IQ continuum, the opposite party appeared as irritatingly slow-moving. It’s like they only understood every tenth of the words that were said, at best. The same thing had to be repeated over and over again just to be sure that even a fraction of it would stick.
Those on the lower end typically saw the opposite part as arrogant or neurotic jerks who couldn’t talk about one thing at a time and constantly jumped from one unrelated thing to another. Someone needed to keep them focused on the task and not waste everyone’s time on irrelevant asides.
After some to and fros in the discussion, a threshold happened where the innate human ability to find common ground and cooperate for a particular common task—we got to the top of the food chain as social animals, after all—broke apart, and these guys entered the zone of “anti-social” toward each other. Someone else was needed not simply to mediate but to use power to break up the clinch and show them to each his corner in the rink. The enmity, though, lingered, often forever.
Afterward, if forced into shared social settings, each of the two often pursued different coping strategies.
The underdog often veered toward violence. It was either physical—throwing objects, overturning tables, getting into fistfights when drunk, or grave verbal assaults in public. Insults typically were sexually tinged.
The “smart guy” most often tried to escape the company of the underdog, even to the point of not mentioning him when talking to others. When forced into a shared company (board meetings, sales sitdowns, training sessions), he often insulted his enemy in an indirect way. He made oblique jokes about him addressed to the rest of the crowd and fell back before the other guy had time to process and react.
Below, a painting from the sunset years of Soviet rule by painter Ilya Glazunov. He was covertly anti-Communist but managed to stay on the good foot with the censorship. The title is, “The Campfires of October.” In Soviet parlance, “October” was short for “The Great October Socialist Revolution” by Lenin and Co. in 1917.
You see a glamorized Lenin, his right hand at organizational matters inside the Party Yakov Sverdlovn, and the founder of the Communist secret police Cheká, Felix Dzerzhinsky. Behind them, a night of Communist rule envelops Russia for the next seven decades. In the darkness, you see the spire of Petropavlovsk Fortress like a syringe needle ready to inject the poison of progressivism into the mind of the nation.
A campfire casts an infernal light on Lenin’s face. During the first chaotic months of Communist rule, campfires in the streets were an everyday feature in our cities. They marked the checkpoints of the Red Guards on the lookout for counter-revolutionaries and bourgeois scum.
The trio sports the typical cold, calculating look of a “high-IQ” individual prepared for a fight, through the lens of their “low-IQ” opponents. It’s not entirely clear to me how both are distributed across the “progressive vs conservative” divide. But I see the pattern in ongoing propaganda, east and west.
“Law and order” has a strong appeal to the low IQ crowd. Pecking order doesn’t require you to be a rocket scientist. It’s all in your face. Entrenched frameworks and their well-armed guardians are easy on your processing power. You’ve got plenty of time and room to figure out what is what. And if things turn too complicated, you can always join the army and the police force and help make things plain and simple again. “Dirty Harry” works, folks!
“Equality and justice” is the grazing ground for the high-IQ bunch. Everyone has their own idea of what is true equality and high justice. Agreeing on common action needs tons of negotiations, painful compromises, quick decisions, and nimble footwork. That’s a high-IQ game.
What is certain is that the top guys in both camps are “high-IQ” individuals who use social dynamics for their own benefit. That’s how you get American billionaires leading the crusade against the “globalist elites.” On the other side, it’s the “conservative Communists” like Stalin and Mao who have no time for any wokeness and “culture wars”.
Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home (REACTION)!
The voice of the voiceless.
“I live in Washington state and watching our farmland get turned into amazon warehouses is heartbreaking. Another great reaction, God bless”
Briefly: after the regional manager called the store manager “stupid,” over the phone, the store manager quit. But not just him—his wife, who was the shift manager, and his cousins, who basically made up the rest of the staff for our little cinnamon roll shop.
It was Christmas, 1995, and I found myself all alone at dinnertime in a mall. Rolls needed proofing, baking, dough needing making, dishes washing, and don’t forget the sales!
I was seventeen, nearly eighteen years old and had been working there for a year. I loved the product, I knew my way around the shop, and even at rush hour in a booth that should take at least three people to man, I was holding my own for an hour until the regional manager showed up to help me finish the shift. I knocked it out of the park that day, and I was always a good employee, getting along great with the rest of the workers, including the regional manager’s wife, who had been my manager at some previous point.
I didn’t bring up the rather loud phone conversation for the rest of the night. It was just professional working the whole time, and when the evening was done, I washed dishes while he counted money and didn’t bother him then.
Finally, it was time for me to go. He thanked me perfunctorily and asked if I could work extra shifts the next day. He was going to call some other stores he managed and fill in with other worker until he found a new manager and employees. That made sense.
“Given how well I performed today,” I offered, “and since we need a new experienced shift manager, might I get a promotion?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want you to be a manager.”
One more employee quit that day. Who wants to work under that kind of person?
The upcoming senatorial meeting is unlikely to address any new issues. Longstanding problems like Cold War sanctions and the Taiwan red line have been extensively debated in previous meetings without finding resolutions. The same lack of progress is expected this time, including discussions on the Micron issue. These meetings, initiated by the US, appear to primarily aim at garnering attention from the American public in anticipation of the upcoming election, as they mark the first congressional visits in four years. Given the prevailing anti-China sentiment in the US, it seems improbable that this trip will result in significant outcomes. Mr. Xi, who is currently focused on addressing China’s domestic challenges, is unlikely to view this unproductive gathering favorably.
I was working as a Test Electrician for a small industrial place that did custom order emergency power generators. Think hospitals and grocery stores.
We were paid hourly and tracked our time on a hand written time sheet. X number of hours on PO YYY.
This chugged a long nicely. The Timesheets were hanging on the wall of the shop, the shop supervisor could see them at any time, errors were quickly seen and corrected and the work got done in a timely fashion. Guy running the shop was a retired E8 Marine who knew how to keep things organised.
He retired.
Company hired in a older gentleman who had an MBA and not a lot of sense.
He did not like keeping track of the hours worked every day so instead he implemented time cards and a punch clock. He also would walk the shop floor with a clipboard to keep track of who was working on what and when.
So, previous system all the data collection and collation is done in one place. New system the time worked and the place worked is being tracked in two very different processes.
We also have folks getting paid by the time card times, not the hours recorded on the Time Sheets.
This chugs along for a month and then we all get gathered together one morning and are told, explicitly, that over time is not paid if not authorised in writing and tardiness of more than 6 minutes at the start of shift or return from lunch will result in pay being docked an hour.
Could you be more stupid?
So instead of working that extra bit to get a job finished up before the end of the day, folks are cleaning up 30 minutes before quitting time so they can be ready to punch out at the hour. Instead of coming in 10 minutes late and taking a short lunch, they just show up an hour late. Instead of coming back from a lunch late, they don’t come back.
Unhappy workers, unhappy customers since the products are not getting out on time, unhappy accounting since the costs of various product lines are no longer the same as before because hours are not being counted accurately.
Doofus MBA was gone by the end of the second month and the E8 was back from retirement. He claimed he hated it but his wife said he was just moping around the house and jumped for joy when the owner called to beg him back to work.
China suspends European and American chip orders, US chip technology suffers heavy losses!
I told you all that this was going to happen. Duh!
Depends. In most places it’s not legal to invade a person’s privacy. So if the drone has a camera and it’s flying low over your property it would not be unreasonable to think it’s taking pictures, possibly seeing into windows or into a privacy fenced area where you reasonably have an expectation of privacy.
So I’d not attack the drone, but rather attempt to identify who owns it and have a photo of it flying in a manner than suggested it is being used to invade your privacy.
Flying low across a property line in an invasive manner would be a type of “tresspass” which is most countries is a 1st time warning second time arrested sort of thing.
Just flying over someone’s back yard isn’t a trespass. Lets say you have an outdoor shower under the cover of a back porch, inside the “property taxed living area of the home”. So the drone flies under the porch cover and takes video of your wife naked in the shower. Is that act a criminal trespass? Most likely.
Conversely, your wife is sunbathing naked in the back yard plainly visible from the perimeter of the property and anyone who looks over the top of the privacy fence. Oh, well, she really had no reasonable expectation of privacy. Now if you live on 20 acres in the country and have no privacy fence, she would be reasonably sure that in her own back yard a mile or more from any other persons lawful access she can sunbathe. And no its not reasonable to say what about a person selling magazines walking around to the rear of the home? That is a trespass I think, as there is no reasonable cause and claiming you heard a child crying out probably won’t get you out of it.
We were on Legian Beach two nights ago watching the sunset…
We were also having some drinks while we were waiting for the fire dance to start. The sun goes down and at precisely 7.00 pm, the fire dance kicks off… and it’s awesome!
A very talented team came out and began a wonderful performance of a combination of Balinese dance combined with your classic fire handling.
I’m just getting into the show when the music starts going weird… it sounds like shrieking in between the beats. It’s really off-putting… even the dancers hesitate for a second – I look around wondering if anyone is confused only to see a big bunch of people milling around in the middle of the seating area and that’s the source of the shrieking.
It turns out that a woman has come down front to take a photo of the fire dance and she obscured some guy’s view for a moment and he LOST. His. F#(k!ng. MIND! He was shrieking at her so hard that his voice broke repeatedly… it was embarrassing to watch.
I was irritated as hell. He was so loud and outraged that you just couldn’t focus on the dance. There was a palpable aura of chagrin from the audience. The distraction and disturbance must have been even more frustrating for the dancers (and the woman who made the photo faux-pas).
The group of people milling around were there to (apparently) try to calm him down and make sure he didn’t physically attack the woman. She could be heard apologising profusely to him but he wasn’t having it. This screaming went on for 2 minutes? In the end, people were telling him to shut the hell up or F3ck off! and he wound up storming off STILL screaming at the top of his lungs…
Who does that?
Who turns a moment of thoughtlessness by a stranger into a drama that interrupts the evening of 100’s of people AND proffessional dancers?! Couldn’t he just tap her on the shoulder if he was angry that she obscured his view for a moment? The performance he put on was incredible for all the wrong reasons. It was a childish screaming tantrum for what?
What did he even achieve with it?
He irritates the crowd, interrupts and nearly ruins a performance for everyone, humiliates someone for a minor error and then misses out on the rest of the performance when he storms off and everyone thinks he’s an angry violent loud man-child who never learned self-control. I *swear* some of the crowd applauded when he finally stormed off…
How bad is living in China ?
It is really bad :
Because I have some grey hair I am treated in the same embarrassing way every time I get on a city bus or on the subway …… younger people get up and offer me a seat.
Recently I had problems with a tooth. One morning I went to one of the dental hospitals. They did xrays and preformed a root canal in a 2 hours. It cost me 1/6th of the price of a root canal I had done 30 years ago in North America. Just terrible prices.
I am invited out to eat or to go to some celebration a few times a month. I never have to pay for the meal, while I am offered beer and cigarettes. I do not smoke so I decline the cigarettes but accept free beer.
Oh how terrible to invited out by the locals constantly. I have been to at least 25 weddings, more then dozen birthdays and half a dozen 100-day celebrations for babies.
There are 100+ channels on the TV, with a few in English as some western movies. The nightly news reports on all the major news around the world. I have internet access 24/7 and spent way too much time browsing the internet from Europe to North America. It is a terrible way to waste time.
I often visit my daughter who works 300km away in another Province. Being so far away, I am forced to take the train which takes 1hr 30 minutes to make the trip with 2 or 3 stops along the route. I could drive my car but that would make for a much longer trip.
The really bad thing in China is access to food.
We have 2 farmers markets within 2 city blocks. These are markets where the farmers come into the city around 6-7 am every morning to sell that days fresh crop of fruit vegetables and meat.
This in addition to 2 grocery stores and a Walmart in the area.
Then on my small city block, we have 14 restaurants, open 7 days a week.
There are even the evil food chains – KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Starbucks, plus all the Chinese ones etc
We have the French Carrefour and Auchan super stores and the Germany’s Metro cash & carry stores.
Worst of all, we have these applications on our smartphones (80% of folks own a smartphone). Where we can see menus of hundreds of restaurants in our area, order food and they deliver it to your door usually within 30 minutes.
If we need to go to the bank, we can not go 365 days of the year. There are about a dozen days a year when the banks are closed.
Schools are much more demanding on students compared to North America, with homework every night.
However they do get a month off in summer.
My daughters students spend some of their summer travelling. The US and Europe for some, others within China or to nearby places like South Korea or Thailand.
So far no one has noticed any difference due to the Trump Tariffs, but according to western media China is under some sort tremendous pressure. Or maybe there were talking about the tropical storm? In either case it was a lot of wind.
That is how bad it is living in China.
Please have pity on our oppression, as we say in my group of expats who live in China as well, some for over 20 years.
Of course we live a large city. The situation differs in rural areas as it does in most countries.
Because life isn’t fair. A spokesperson for the Alberta government said, that since they had banned grizzly hunting, the population has exploded. He said that going into the woods, isn’t like it was before, when Grizzlies had a fear of man. What we have always thought of, as being bear smart, might not be as safe as it once was.
We have grizzlies venturing back out onto the prairies and ripping open grain bins. Probably because there isn’t enough food to support all of the Grizzlies in the mountains.
The bear that killed the couple and their dog was emaciated, had bad teeth, and probably wouldn’t have survived the winter, if she didn’t get whatever food she could. She was desperate.
She was a small older bear, one that had never shown up on surveys, so probably wouldn’t have been included in any bear counts. She was likely forced out of her territory by a larger bear. This was a bear that had never caused any trouble until she was starving.
The couple did everything right. They had a satellite phone and checked in regularly, and used it to call for help. They each had a can of pepper spray, and used one. Their food was hung up, out of a bears reach.
They and their dog were in their tent, shortly after dark, when they were attacked, so they didn’t blunder into the bear.
There have been 7 people killed by Grizzlies within 100 km of me, in the last 16 years.
They ended grizzly hunting 17 years ago. In the 26 years before ending grizzly hunting, there were no fatalities, within 100 km of me, and only 3 in all of Alberta.
Many were mothers defending their cubs.
So as the spokesperson says, what we always considered best practices, might not be enough to keep you safe anymore.
The End Of US Dollar Hegemony | Jeffrey Sachs
“Yes, we have greatly abused the privilege of having the U$ Dollar being the main currency. And broken every Fiduciary rule with our unilateral sanction practices. We deserve whatever the blowback will be from having allowed our Leaders to carry on the way they have.”
Israeli Radar KNOCKED-OUT in the North. Americans Confirmed Killed, Wounded, Kidnapped/Captured in Israel. Nuclear Intentions
As of 10:51 AM EDT on Sunday, October 8, 2023, it is confirmed that three Israeli Radar stations in the north have been attacked and destroyed. Israel has no radar to monitor into Lebanon. It is also confirmed that Americans have been killed, wounded, and captured/kidnapped inside Israel.
Overnight, after what was “Day one” of the HAMAS-Israel fight, an actual TSUNAMI of propaganda came flooding out onto the Internet and into the mass-media. The shear volume of propaganda is extraordinary. It is making it very difficult to discern what is truth and what is fiction.
There is an INTENSE effort to promote and propagate Israeli victims – and that’s OK I guess; they are, in fact, victims of an actual conflict. But there is also an absolutely unparalleled effort to suppress and censor anything factual about the Palestinians. It is almost as if the public is being manipulated into seeing ALL Israelis as “victims” and ALL Palestinians as animalistic perpetrators.
Official sources are very reluctant to provide Intel today. It’s like a giant lid has been slammed shut on factual information; only “the narrative” is allowed out.
I have had to adjust the manner in which I obtain information.
Here is what I can __confirm__:
My former colleagues in the Intel Community, from my years working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), confirm that over a week ago, uniformed, flag-wearing, ID-carrying regular UKRAINIAN Army Troops attacked Wagner PMC Troops . . . . in . . . . . . SUDAN. You know, Africa!
I also found out that Mossad has been sabotaging/burning/blowing-up Iranian Drone Factories to stymie Iran helping Russia.
I also found out that planeloads of Israeli military weaponry were sent to Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan in the days and weeks before Azerbaijan launched another military attack upon Armenia last week, grabbing Nagrono-Karaback and forcing 100,000 Armenian Christians to flee for their lives.
What is taking place inside Israel right now, is payback. Payback from Russia for Israel helping Ukraine. Payback for the planeloads of weapons to Baku, Azerbaijan, and Payback for Israel blowing up Iranian drone factories.
It is also payback from Iran for all the air-strikes by Israel against Iranian forces in Syria for the past two years.
Lastly, it is also payback from Armenia for what Israel helped Azerbaijan facilitate in grabbing Nagorna Karaback.
The most interesting part? Iran used the $6 Billion released by the Biden administration two weeks ago, to fund today’s outbreak of hostilities!
I also found out this payback, is not going to stop.It __is__ in fact, “war.”
Moreover, I can now positively __confirm __:
This morning, the Israeli Security Cabinet invoked Article 40A of the “Law on Emergency Situations” — WAR.
So this morning, it is absolutely “official” Israel is at war. This is the first time that this Article has been invoked in Israel since the 1973 war.
Israel has decided to commit troops to a GROUND INVASION of the Gaza Strip. Door-to-Door. House-to-house.
This is going to be an absolute bloodbath.
I can also positively __ confirm__:
Israeli Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Ben Zvi told the Russian Government:
“Israel sees Tehran as one of the culprits of the Hamas attack.”
He then went on to tell Russia “This is how we quietly approached the threshold of the real use of Israeli nuclear weapons against Iran, and a demonstration of what the term “threat to the existence of the state” means . . . from the Russian “Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.”
I can now also positively __confirm__:
There are some 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip. About half being men. If that half – or a good portion of it, were to come out into Israel bearing arms, the Israelis would be over run. Thus, the Ambassador to Moscow told the Russians that Israel is considering the use of smaller, “Tactical” nuclear bombs against Gaza, in case Israel is over-run. Same with the West Bank.
Finally, the Israeli Ambassador to Moscow told the Russian government that since Israel sees Iran as being primarily responsible for the ongoing onslaught, Tehran would be hit with much larger “Strategic nuclear bombs” as would . . . . Damascus, Syria, for being the Coordination point for HAMAS and Iran.
(Biblical: Damascus a ruinous heap?????)
Ergo, there is now actual and active discussion within the Israeli government of the potential use of nuclear weapons.
If Muslims begin to actually over-run Israel, where its existence is threatened, then Israel is already making known it will use the Samson Option and take a lot of people out.
HEZBOLLAH MASSING TROOPS
Hezbollah in Lebanon is already massing troops and moving rocket launchers. Hezbollah made clear yesterday that if Israel launches a ground war into the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah will attack from the north.
This morning, Israeli combat aircraft are in the skies over Lebanon all the way north to Kersewan, Lebanon.
There have been some mortars fired into Israel from Lebanon, and corresponding response with artillery fire from Israel, but these incidents do not even rise to the description of a skirmish.
RADAR KNOCKED OUT
The big news this morning is that THREE (3) Israeli radar stations in the north were successfully attacked from Lebanon and as of 10:51 AM EDT here in the United States eastern time zone, those three radar stations are OFFLINE.
For a brief time today, Israel had no effective radar coverage of its northern border. They have since moved portable, truck-mounted, military radar into new positions to restore coverage.
TALIBAN to JERUSALEM?
The Afghanistan Taliban reached a deal with Iran that is satisfactory, wherein Iran WILL allow Taliban armed forces to cross the country with the intent of entering Israel to grab Jerusalem. But the Taliban ran into several obstacles along the way.
Iraq did not respond to the Taliban request for permission to cross Iraqi territory.
Jordan flatly and explicitly BARRED the Taliban from entering their country.
So from a political perspective, the Arab states are now seen as acting as a shield for Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
IN AND AROUND GAZA
Hamas says that their fighters are still fighting in southern Israel, including in Ofakim, Sderot, Yad Mordechai, Kfar Azza, Be’eri, Yatid and Kissufim. Mind you, this is __Israeli__ territory.
“Israel will evacuate all residents living in towns near the Gaza border within 24 hours”
Israel has put itself in a bind with Gaza over the years so this isn’t so easy.
Gaza has been set up as a walled off open air prison, where the good inmates get to come out in daylight hours and do stuff like janitorial work for the chosen (their words – not mine) to eek out an existence. Then back through the gates by dark.
In theory, Israel can’t blow up a whole walled off city they created and kill every one because then everyone would scream genocide. But apparently everyone is cool with the status quo open penitentiary setup for some reason.
So the initial thinking is that Israel will just bomb here and there and level enough buildings to make everyone think they got payback and that will be that. It has always been that way. But no one is quite so sure this time. It may end up being an actual Genocide of Gaza.
The Israeli army issued orders to close all resorts near the border with Lebanon.
Most interesting this morning so far: : US weapons left behind in Afghanistan were used to attack Israel.
A high-ranking Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander said US weapons left in Afghanistan by the Biden administration were found in the hands of Palestinian groups active in the Gaza Strip.
POLAND EVACUATING NATIONALS FROM ISRAEL
Poland has announced it intends to evacuate its nationals from Israel. Poland threatens: If any Polish aircraft is targeted or Polish nationals feel in danger after their aircraft enter the airspace.” Article 5 of the 31-nation NATO alliance will be activated and raids will be launched across all of Palestine.
EUROPE WARNED OF COMING RIOTS
Intel sources are now urgently reporting that Muslims will be on the rampage in Europe shortly; burning every major city in protest of the coming Israeli offensive into GAZA.
The authorities running Gaza know they cannot withstand a full Israeli military onslaught, so they have reached out to Muslims in Europe to have THEM cause trouble, making the Gaza problem, Europe’s problem too. The thinking is that Europe will be able to call-off a full blown Israeli wipeout of Gaza.
Intelligence sources say worst hit will be Paris, Brussels, London, and Marseille.
No Way Out! Rafah Border Crossing into Egypt Closed after Israeli Air Strike
The only way out of the Gaza Strip in Israel was the Border crossing at Rafah into Egypt. That crossing is now (temporarily?) closed after an Israeli air strike; thereby trapping 2 million Palestinians.
Israel has given HAMAS until *today* to surrender and release all the hostages, or the Gaza Strip will be flattened. Yet Israel targeted a particular house in the town very near the Rafah Border Crossing to kill the leader of the Nasser brigades. It was after that air strike that the Rafah crossing was closed by Egypt out of fear of more strikes.
The Israelis believe Rafah will be re-opened. But believing it, and seeing it actually happen are two different things. Without Rafah being open, the 2.3 Million Palestinians in Gaza are trapped and being hit with ongoing air strikes.
With the exits closed, the Palestinians trapped, and air strikes ongoing against those same people, some folks are saying this looks like a Genocide fixing to take place.
Passions are running almost out of control. The Palestinians see this conflict as a way to liberate Palestinian lands grabbed by the Israelis for years, and to then force the creation of a Palestinian state. Other groups agree with that view, and as such, we are seeing Hezbollah in Lebanon calling-up fighters to the Lebanon Border with Israel’s north. We are also seeing Arabs in Iraq and Syria moving fighters toward the Israel border (West Bank and Golan Heights) in the east of Israel. Gaza is still fighting in the south of Israel.
So with fighters attacking in the south, massing in the east and in the north, this situation does not bode well for Israel at all.
The Israelis see this situation as an existential threat to their nation and the wholesale slaughter of their innocent people. That view is well-based in reality; we’ve all seen the brutal, indiscriminate slaughter of Israeli civilians and it’s horrifying.
The two sides, Israel and Palestine, seem intractable.
If it comes down to a simple, brutal fight, millions in Gaza may be killed. This week! THAT would compel Arab nations in the region to come full blast at Israel and try to wipe it out of existence. The numbers favor the Arabs.
Which leads us to Israel’s “Samson Option” to go down fighting, and take as many with them as they can, using nuclear bombs.
If Israel did that, certain other nations of the world would recoil in horror and erase Israel from the globe. And when THAT starts, other nations will hit those attacking nations with nukes and we’ll see World War 3 happen and be over in about eight hours, with the entire northern hemisphere radioactive for decades.
What we are all seeing right now could very well be dispositive of all these issues between Israel and Palestinians; but dispositive with gigantic booms and millions dead to finally decide the issues.
With the US southern border being left open by Traitorous Democrat politicians, “Sleeper Cells” of terrorists have been crossing into the US at-will, for two years of the Biden phony-presidency. This is what happens when election fraud steals a US Presidency, as happened in November 2020, and a dementia-addled man is installed as a puppet, while unknown, unseen, Bureaucrats actually run things.
Vast numbers of military-age young men crossed illegally into our country and are now pre-positioned here in the US to attack us from within. The bleeding-heart Democrats and their useful idiot Republicans who want cheap labor, are personally to blame for this taking place.
As things escalate in the Middle East, enemies from around the world could use that as a “go-signal” to attack us here, inside the US.
My fellow Americans are the most heavily-armed civilian population on this planet. We may need our fellow Americans to step up and defend our own land, as all hell breaks loose in the Middle East.
Americans should clean their weapons, zero their sights, increase their ammunition supplies, and be mentally prepared to do what needs doing if, God forbid, the need arises to defend ourselves, our families, and our land from those who would harm us.
Gas-up your vehicles, have spare gas cans for your electric generator, and have emergency food, water, medicines and other supplies just in case. Don’t wait. Do it now. Once the troubles start, there will be panic buying here, the same way there was panic buying in Israel which wiped-clean the store shelves.
This situation halfway around the world may not SEEM to be our problem, but there are many around the world ready to MAKE IT our problem; and they CAN. Worse, our politicians, ever eager to mind OTHER PEOPLE’S BUSINESS, are already sending our troops, planes, ships, men, and military supplies into Israel. So we are already being set-up by our own politicians to be “in” the fight, which will make you and me targets in our own land.
We’re already seeing minor protest-skirmishes between Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Israeli people here in the US and over in Europe. These expressions of support are mostly peaceful – for now. But there have been isolated incidents of actual fighting and it is clear that the POTENTIAL exists here and in Europe for the sides to start actually fighting.
If Civil unrest erupts as folks take sides here in the US and in Europe, that will only add to the danger for all of us.
Be ready with guns, ammunition, food, water, medicine, fuel and be vigilant.
No rational person wants to see any of this taking place. I certainly don’t want to see all this trouble taking place. But it __is__ taking place and we had all be ready for how bad this could actually get. If it happens, it will happen very fast.
“On a chilly California afternoon, Deputies Anderson and Arbuckle, with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, pulled into a Denny’s restaurant for lunch. They noticed a young woman sitting all by herself in the parking lot, and she seemed distraught. And it looked like she had a really bright-colored polka dot suitcase that apparently carried everything she owned.
Deputy Anderson knew something was wrong, so he approached her and politely asked her some questions. The young woman was all by herself… stranded, with no transportation. So the officers invited her into the restaurant with them and asked her to join them for a meal, which they paid for out of their own pocket.
But something kept nagging at Deputy Anderson. He wondered how she was gonna get back home. After the meal, the deputies had her follow them out to their squad car, and they drove her to the nearest Greyhound bus station. Deputy Anderson then bought her a bus ticket so she could get back home.
The officers’ story about the young woman touched everyone in the department, and it was posted on their website. In the story, it said their “actions demonstrate adherence to the Mission, Vision, and Values of our Department, most notably a concern for the community and treating the woman with empathy and respect when she was in a bad situation.”
The U.S. stands to lose the most if trade dispute or decoupling happens by a very long shot. It is simple China’s market is way way way bigger than the U.S. Chinas growth today is bigger than the entire G7 put together. China’s middle class is at least 2 times that of the U.S. plus the fact that China is the worlds factory. It influences the intermediate products hence its commands in excess of 50% of global demand when added together.
Try to imagine yourself as a businessman, you pick a fight with a customer who buys 50% of everything you sell. That is the ridiculousness of the U.S. trade war and decoupling. No wonder during the trade war period from 2017–2021 China grew by 26.5% while the U.S. grew by less than 5% in 4 full years! And now you understand why inflation shot up and why the U.S. is literally begging China to open up post Covid-19. And why Biden is sending overtures to cut tariffs on both sides.
Trump says trade war is easy and not only he destroyed the U.S. economy he lost his reelection bid and doubles US homelessness while hurting the Middle Class badly through inflation.
China’s exports to the U.S. though it is big it is a small portion of China’s world wide trade. Hence it barely affects China. For 2023 forecast GDP, China will grow by a minimum of 4.5% and U.S. is projected to grow by a mere 0.5%.
The last thing the US ought to do is to pick a fight with China over trade. China is not only the most humongous market and for nation like US that needs trade and business, it is suicidal to do just that. But short term political gains is the U.S. priority over longer term sustainability.
The media assisted the politicians to good wink the American people who are ignorant and naive about this fact and that is why here in QUORA there still Americans that thinks the trade war and decoupling is good for the U.S.
I’m 61. My best friend, same age, was on a train station with his son – the platform was very busy, and someone backed into my friend, turned aggressively and pushed his face within a few inches of my friend, evidently looking for a confrontation.
My friend told me later that only one thought occurred to him: “Oh no, there could be trouble here, I must protect my son”.
In fact that son, who’s 6′2 and a very good amateur boxer, lifted the stranger off his feet, moved him calmly a yard away, put him down, looked him squarely in the eye, and just said, “No, mate.”
The stranger looked down, apologised, and shuffled off.
Later, on the train, my friend said a lady of perhaps 25 looked up (he was having to stand, a crowded train) – and said, “Would you like my seat?” My friend said he actually looked over his shoulder before realising that the offer was for him.
They don’t say yes to make someone happy if they really don’t want to.
Even when they fail in the initial stages, they believe in themselves and they only listen to themselves.
They do not pay attention to things without work, but when they listen then very carefully.
They know what needs to be done and what needs to be left out.
They gives priority to their health over any work.
They don’t do anything just to get attention.
They are not afraid to go wrong and take the steps that should be taken.
They know when to give up and how long to keep trying.
They don’t complain about having fewer resources.
They are not just involved, they are more productive in less time.
They do not prepare a list of much work, but in the work they pick, they give constant dedication.
They don’t just take risks, they take very calculative risks.
Brainwashing a Nation!
America spends 500 million tax dollars a year spreading negative news about China. They make up fake news, they pay foreign news channels to demonize china and their own people don’t know what is true and what is propaganda. Welcome to the world of the United States of Fake news on the world stage and you as a tax paying American are paying for it. How does it feel to pay for your own brainwashing?
China-Russia Arctic shipping route
HONG KONG—China’s goal of becoming a major player in the Arctic has long been frustrated by its neighbor Russia, which has closely protected its dominant rolein the region.
Now, along with the ice that encases the earth’s northern pole, Moscow’s resistance is beginning to thaw.
Faced with economic isolation over its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is turning to China for help developing the Arctic as Western energy companies are trying to pull outof Russian projects. The newfound cooperation is most evident in surging shipments of crude through the Northern Sea Route, which traverses the Arctic from northwestern Russia to the Bering Strait.
The volume, while still small compared with what is carried via southern routes, has shot up in recent weeks. Russia asserts the right to regulate transit on the route. It says the demand has driven it to permit larger tankers without so-called ice classification—stronger hulls and other reinforcements to sail the ice-filled waters—raising fears of spills in the remote region. The first of two larger tankers arrived at a Chinese port in recent days, each carrying more than one million barrels of oil.
Russia has joined with China in naval exercisesand maritime security arrangements in the far north, and looked to it for aid in technology such as satellite data to monitor ice conditions.
When it comes to the Arctic, China “doesn’t have to care so much about official Russian policy anymore,” said Marcus M. Keupp, an economics lecturer at the military academy of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich who studies the region.
For China, which declared itself a “near Arctic” nation in 2018 despite being more than 900 miles from the Arctic Circle, Russia’s new welcome provides a long-sought opportunity. Beijing has wanted to expand its role in the Arctic to increase access to shipping routes, natural resources, climate and other scientific research opportunities, and expand its military and strategic clout.
It has proposed a “Polar Silk Road” as a component of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s broader Belt and Road infrastructure initiative that would make use of the shorter distance to ship goods via the Arctic, avoiding chokepoints at the Suez Canal and Malacca Strait.
Russia hasn’t always welcomed China to the region. At one point, it opposed China’s application to become an observer on the Arctic Council, the body of eight Arctic nations that is the leading forum for addressing regional issues, and previously blocked Chinese ships from conducting Arctic research.
In 2020, even with ties between Beijing and Moscow at their warmest in decades, Russian authorities arrested an expert on the Arctic on suspicion of providing intelligence to China.
Putin signaled the shift during Xi’s visit to Moscow in March, describing “promising” cooperation with Chinese partners to develop the transit potential of the Northern Sea Route.
“Russia certainly has the manpower, and it certainly has regional knowledge, but it no longer has capital or technology,” said Keupp of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, who edited a 2015 book on the route. “It’s to China’s big advantage because it can now really exert influence and economic pressure on Russia and develop this route according to its own needs.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country “always adheres to the basic principles of respect, cooperation, mutual benefit and sustainability in its participation in Arctic affairs.” The Russian Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.
As Western companies are trying to pull out of their projects in Russia, Moscow has sought help from Chinese companies to develop ports, mines and other infrastructure in the Russian Arctic. Russia changed its Arctic policy document in February. Russia’s policy, which previously focused on “strengthening good-neighbor relations with Arctic states,” now emphasizes access to all foreign states—a move that further opens the door to China. …
I reported an employee once who was subsequently fired. She filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the company and me personally. What she didn’t know, and her attorney never asked, was if I had proof of what I’d reported for. And I did.
She was a clerk and had duties that were, for lack of a better term, timely. She had to get items off her desk before 10AM, 1PM and 2PM. Those items needed to go to another department, who would then pass them onto the warehouse. This wasn’t a difficult job and she’d been hired as an 8:30–4:30 employee with an hour for lunch.
One of the other employees in her department came to me (as office manager) and requested that I say something to her about taking half hour or longer breaks in the morning and afternoon, which were making her late in submitting her paperwork each day. Keep in mind, by paperwork, it wasn’t real paper, it was coding and analyzing from a computer program.
After that, I kept an eye out for two weeks. Every day at 10AM, she would disappear into the Lady’s Lounge (we had a wonderful ladies room there that had a sitting area with sofas, etc.) and would take a nap on the sofa. With no clock to wake her, she would sleep for anywhere between 20 minutes and 45 minutes. She would also repeat this at lunch, and at her afternoon break. I witnessed this numerous times and spoke to her about it three times before I decided this was too much of a burden on the other people in her department, who had to pick up her slack. I took it to the Secretary of the Corporation, who was also the head of our Human Resources department. He wrote her up, found out she was still doing it, and fired her, citing my verbal and written warnings, as well as his own. I have to add, I asked her about narcolepsy, asked her about her living arrangements, whether she was able to sleep at night…everything I could think of. This was about 20 years ago, but the laws on discrimination haven’t changed much in that time.
When I was deposed for her lawsuit, no one asked me if I had any proof, and I certainly wasn’t going to volunteer it. It was a civil case and she was asking for a LOT of money. I’m not a lawyer, but somewhere along the line, her attorney asked for something that prompted ours and mine into asking me if I would show my proof in court, in front of a judge. As I said, I have no idea what type of hearing this was, but here I was in court, with pictures of her sleeping on the sofa. My camera at the time was a 35mm Canon A1 and I had taken the pictures every day for 2 weeks. She never woke up, and my camera clearly had the date and time on every picture. I had 33 pictures I’d taken, and it deflated her legal team. I know the case against me was dismissed that day, and I believe the whole thing was dropped by the end of the week.
Many years ago I bought my first home in a small town called Oakley in California, back then I think they had a population of about 20,000 people not including the Lamas, and the Sheep, the Chickens, the Emus, that was another 100 inhabitants in the town of Oakley. Oakley was not yet a city and was unincorporated so a lot of things were allowed.
I had met my next door neighbors, an older lesbian couple, they were very friendly and helpful and offering any assistance that I may need, I thanked them for that because I was a city boy and unfamiliar with suburban lifestyles. We shared this old fence that was in fair condition but it was going to need attention soon. One day I was mowing the tall weeds down on my backyard lawn, it was in the middle of a hot summer day, temperatures in that town would get up to 100 or more and it definitely felt like a hundred this particular day.
As I was mowing I accidentally bumped one of the slats of our tattered wooden fence and the wood slat leaned over to one side exposing my next door neighbor in the nude laying in the sun. Oh my what a goddess she was, dark glistening skin, hoping that was sweat beading off her perky breast, it was a Kodak moment for sure, but she must’ve suddenly realized the lawn mower was no longer moving because she immediately sat up and looked at me for a quick second then realized its just the guy next door and laid back down as if it were nothing?
So I pushed the wooden slat back into place finished mowing the weeds in my lawn, then later drove a couple screws to hold the wooden slat temporarily in place, and life went on, we would wave at each other from a distance and never mentioned anything about it.
Texas-Style Beef Sausage Rolls with Jalapeño and Cheddar
Yield: 21 rolls
Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1/3 cup bread crumbs
4 jalapeño peppers, de-seeded and diced
6 ounces sharp or medium cheddar, finely diced
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
3 (10 inch) sheets puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten
Instructions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Place olive oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add onions and brown for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Allow the onions to cool.
In a large bowl, combine beef, cooled onions, bread crumbs, jalapeños, cheese, salt and pepper. Mix gently but thoroughly as to not overwork the meat.
Lay one square of pastry on a board or work surface. Use a third of the beef mixture to form a log down the center. Fold the pastry over the beef mixture on one side, then brush along the edge with egg mixture to create a “glue”. Continue to fold the roll over so it’s fully encased in pastry, and the edges line up on the egg glue line, then press the pastry lightly to ensure a good seal. Repeat steps with each pastry square.
Flip each beef roll so it’s seam side down, then cut into 6 to 8 pieces. Place the pieces onto a sheet pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. You may need to rotate the tray during baking to ensure even browning.
The Problems that China faces are not Economic Or Market Driven in nature. They are Political.
It’s like trying to hold a massive dam with a 7*3 door
It will crack and collapse as Market forces and Economic Forces crush the Political forces into oblivion. May take a year, five years or maximum ten years.
Why is Chinas Technological surge so fast?
I mean what took US 30 years has taken China just 9 Years.
Sure you may say US already gave them the blueprint but you can’t give a blueprint to a random person and ask them to build the Empire State Building right?
The Answer is DEMAND
China had massive manufacturing requirements and thus evolved Industrial Robots
China had a massive demand for distribution of workers from Semi Rural and Semi Urban areas to big manufacturing centres and thus evolved the rapidly growing High Speed Trains Network
China needs more Robots and AI to integrate the Country having reached a basic level of development and this evolves the Chinese AI revolution.
China wages rise and Low grade manufacture may be affected, thus evolve Chinas surge in Logistical Robotics
Every Technological development is demand based.
Like how US developed in the 1920–2000 period or UK in the 1750–1920 period
Demand based Technological growth is the only real technological growth that drives a Nation forward.
It’s why Shanghai thrives as a Port whereas Hambantota crashes.
It’s why 21% of the BRI projects are unable to stand , because they are Political Ego driven projects not demand based.
Any other Country having demand based technological growth?
None.
You either have Saturated Nations like Western Countries where Pocket Forces cause technological growth (Latest Car, Latest Iphone, Latest Nikes) which is much slower than Demand based technological growth.
Or
You have nations like India or Mexico or Bangladesh where Politics dictates a pesudo technological situation by hook or crook
It’s why GPay works so well but why Bullet train would be a fiasco and why our Airports are all heading to White Elephant Status while our Ports do much better.
It’s why we don’t develop Drone Technology or Robotics or AI at even 10% of Chinas speed. For us these are Gimmicks, there is no Demand.
Political Gimmicks!!!
What Problems does China face?
Stifling Core or Critical Technologies
Chinas growth in AI and Robotics is alarming the West
Yes US and Japan may be ahead of China bit Chinas rapid growth is worrisome in every way.
Huaweis Cloud Computing Architecture is as advanced as any US equivalent at 1/3 the cost.
So the West decide to stifle the Core Technologies that US or the West Develops that China uses.
Throttling the Free Market
It derails projects by a few years and causes problems
How does China handle this?
Economically!!!
Core Technology Companies need Chinese Markets badly. Not just the Profits or Revenue but also the Technological demand based advantage
Without it they will stagnate
And China will bridge the gap faster
So on one hand China invests in its own Core Technologies, brings in Overseas Chinese experts back home, creates more facilities for youngsters and has all technology firms pumping 30% profits into Research
On the other hand Intel, Qualcomm, Renesas and NVDIA actively bypass US Sanctions to keep doing business in China so that they can keep their edge for a longer time.
Boston Dynamics refused to sell Robots to China, and today Chinese Tech companies have replicated to near perfection, four of their best models at 1/2–1/4 the price.
Had they sold liberally, China may have taken 10 more years to do the same.
So how does Technological Growth actually get disrupted?
Internally.
Usually it’s Religion or Social Justice that destroys a rapidly growing Technological base.
This leads to Democratic Divide which leads to Stifling Tech development
So tomorrow if US can being a religious divide in China or pressure Paupers and Unworthy Rabble to demand equality in all areas – then China will be truly stifled
I’m not usually a fan of crime stories. Even when the criminal is caught, I end up feeling sad for the victims: Nobody is a winner in a murder case.
The shows are also super predictable. The husband is almost always the killer. He’s your standard self-serving sociopath with narcissism and vindictiveness running through his veins.
Money, or some new young sexual interest, becomes a convenient excuse to kill someone and ruin the lives of an entire extended family. I still don’t understand why people can’t just get a divorce.
Occasionally, I stumble across a crime story that’s plain delicious. It drips with karma and, in this case, an epic set of last words.
A long workday with an unfortunate end
Susan Kuhnhausen was a 51-year-old emergency room nurse in Portland, Oregon. Her job often entailed holding down out-of-control patients. She’d just ended a 13-hour shift and was getting a haircut at a local salon.
Around 6:37 PM, she arrived at her small house and disabled the security system at the entrance.
She walked into her house and dropped off her things in the kitchen. She’d recently thrown her husband of 17-years out of the house. He had a drinking problem and was abusive for years.
Still wearing her blue scrubs, she walked out front to get her mail.
Susan came back in and noticed something was off. Things had been moved. Curtains were now open and slightly fluttering as if they’d been touched. Things on her table weren’t where they’d been left beforehand. She lived alone. Nothing should have moved.
She walked through the house uneasily, looking down hallways, inching along quietly.
Susan walked past her bathroom. She turned into her bedroom and as soon as she walked in, she saw a bearded man holding a hammer. He charged her and swung his hammer, hitting her on the side of the temple. She fell with him jumping on her. She shook him off her back.
Susan was regularly trained in self-defense at her hospital. They taught her how to disarm and break the hold of unruly and mentally ill patients. She knew that if she stayed close to him he wouldn’t be able to swing his hammer properly.
They tumbled into her hallway wrestling. Susan was a larger woman and had the gift of natural strength. Susan locked both hands on his wrist that held the weapon and was able to shake it loose.
Then, they started wrestling and they fell to the ground and she got on top of him, locking her arms around his neck in a sleeper hold.
She held him tight. When she released him his throat had been crushed.
Not knowing if anyone else was in the house, Susan ran next door to see her neighbor Anne, asking her to call the police. Ann later said that Susan was remarkably stoic given the circumstances.
When Anne called the 911, they asked her what the neighbor’s injuries were and she said, “No, it’s for the burglar”
The transcripts from the 911:
Neighbor: She hit him in the head several times. That’s the hammer he had with him. She struck him, and she strangled him, and she thinks he’s dead.
Dispatcher: What did she use on him? She strangled him. What else did she do?
Neighbor: She put a chokehold on him.
Dispatcher: I’ve got help on the way. Stay on the line.
Neighbor: She has a hammer here.
Dispatcher: Don’t touch it. Don’t touch it. Just leave it there.
The would-be assassin was pronounced dead at the scene. He’d been sent by her husband. Their marriage was falling apart and he wanted her dead. He’d paid the assassin $50,000 to go to the house and kill her, giving him the security code to get inside.
She was later treated for injuries and made a full recovery:
Her husband was given a 10-year sentence but he died in prison a few years later. I don’t wish death on anyone but if you break into someone’s house with the intent of killing them, all bets are off.
And if I’m being completely honest, my favorite part of this story was the assassin’s final words, “Wow. You are strong.”
I was on a jury for a personal injury case. It was my first time at jury duty, and as an engineer, I was interested in the whole process, taking notes, watching the attorneys’ actions, and the judge’s reactions, and general control of the courtroom. I found the whole process fascinating.
When we got to the end of the testimony, they dismissed us into the jury room. It was Friday at 10:30am, and we’d been there since Monday. It only took us about 30 minutes to walk through the instructions, the testimony, and then a unanimous verdict. The foreman was about to knock on the door to tell the bailiff that we were ready when I called out, “Wait!” I explained that if we waited for 15 more minutes, the bailiff would be in with a menu, and they’d get us lunch (that day was a local sandwich shop that had excellent submarine sandwiches). We all agreed that would be worth it, so we waited 15 minutes, ordered lunch, ate, and then told the bailiff we were ready with a verdict.
We returned to the jury room after the verdict was read (to pick up our belongings), and then the bailiff came in to ask if anyone would like to meet with the judge and ask any questions about the process. I certainly did! No one else was even vaguely interested, so they all left the room. The bailiff brought in the judge, and when he saw me, he started laughing, “I knew you would be one of the people to stay and ask questions!” Evidently while I was watching the folks in the court, the judge was watching the jury! That was belly laugh #1.
Belly laugh #2 – the judge and bailiff had a bet that we would/would not be done with the verdict before lunch. IIRC, it was the judge who had lost, and had paid the bailiff $20. When they told me that, I told them we had decided on a verdict before lunch, but didn’t tell them until after we had our food – the judge gave a great guffaw, and told the bailiff to pay up!
REACTING TO OLIVER ANTHONY‼️- “I want to go home”
Amen honey! So good to see our young folks GET THIS AND DEEP!
Years ago, I did a very brief stint as a departmental admin at a large urban university.
At the HR orientation, we were given a lot of the classic rundown about the history of the school, various policies to know, to do X if Y ever happened, etc. And then they got to talking about the overall compensation packages that this school provided. Essentially, and apologies that this won’t be word perfect after >10 years but it should be fairly close, these were the broad strokes:
“The pay here isn’t very good, but we make it up to you with our very generous benefits”
Now, what were those benefits that were so generous, you ask? The two most memorable were:
Partial tuition remission for most graduate programs
Large amounts of paid time off
Now, on the face of it, those two are pretty good, right? Well, yes and no. However…
Tuition remissions, even FULL tuition remission, is only in any way useful if you’re actually taking advantage of it. If you’re not looking to take courses, even if “someday” you might want to, for every year you’re not actually doing it, I’m pretty sure you’d rather have that salary $$…no?
As to the PTO, as it turns out, this was a very normal amount of vacation time and then large amounts of sick time. Now, as with many such institutions, if you leave your position you can only get cashed out for your vacation time. So as with the tuition remission, this is a “very generous benefit” that’s only of any use if you actually need large amounts of paid sick time.
At that point in my life, I didn’t have any need of tuition remission, nor any need of large amounts of medical leave.
I instead had a need of money.
[Thankfully I got out after just a few months, because the above was just the tip of the iceberg for why that was the worst freaking job I’ve ever had]
“What is the lamest “benefit” you’ve been offered by an employer?”
Yes on average Chinese live 2 full years more than the American’s. Go figure!
And to think just a mere 73 years ago their average life expectancy is a mere 39 years ago!
Let me address the many in QUORA that slur China to no end! Tell us what us wrong with a civilisation that can do that! Oh yeah they also took out 1 billion from abject poverty during the same time. And yes the grew from an economy the size of one nation in Africa to. The largest real purchasing power economy on the planet!
Still think demonising China sounds clever? What about your own neocon funded ASPI concluded that China leads in 37 out of 44 most strategic technologies! Or what about having close to 800 million middle class consumers! What do you say? still parroting western narratives that China U.S. authoritarian, it is failing nation and its economy collapsed for the thousandth time since 1949!
At what point do a brain dead Caucasian Chinese hater and China hater quits? Do you prefer to be seen as a pathetic naïveté loser hanging to lies, half truths, fabrications that 95% of the world clearly sees as nonsensical hate wish? Or do you quit while your families still see you sane?
No, China’s goal has been to raise the standard of living and GDP of all of China’s 1.4B citizens and to be the leader in many industrial sectors through its Made in China 2025 development program. Since the Chinese government sets economic and development policy, it has encouraged Chinese industries to move up the value chain and let more labor-intensive industries relocate to other countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand.
Since the Communist Party of China has control of society and major state-owned enterprises, it is able to channel China’s human and economic resources much more effectively than any G-7 country can. This means that China has an advantage in how quickly it can change, and in the scale of the change.
China is an elephant which can tap-dance.
But this feature was not introduced to decimate the US or to help the Russians steamroll the US with nukes.
This system developed because Chinese society is the most competitive in the world, and for this reason, Chinese believe that China needs to work hard to be competitive in a rapidly changing international economic environment.
Americans and Chinese have completely different attitudes to change. China’s economy and society have changed more in the past 50 years than they have at any other time in China’s long history. This means that Chinese are comfortable with new technologies, with working hard to stay competitive, and constantly adapting.
Americans, for the most part, do not like change. Instead of learning, embracing change and continuously adapting, most Americans reject change. Many implicitly believe that the rest of the world should embrace the American way, so that Americans don’t have to change. The division in US politics is all about rejecting change instead of embracing it. Many Americans view the future with fear and trepidation.
This includes many US government policymakers. This is also the reason behind questions such as this one on Quora.
It is fear based on laziness and ignorance.
The simple truth is that we are architects of the future, but many in the west are too lazy to do the work.
The only place they are not lazy is in finger-pointing.
I worked for a few years in a Chinese restaurant while in my teens and twenties. All the guys from the restaurant lived and worked together.
We were out in an Asian restaurant in Chinatown one night and a very well dressed Chinese man comes to the table and approaches one of my friends speaking to him in Cantonese, of course. I’m the only non-Asian at the table.
The guy exchanges the usual pleasantries with my friend, then asks him why he’s eating with white people. They move on to another subject, but then he returns to dirty, barbarian white people line. He tells my friend he wants to pick up dinner but won’t pay for the “Lofahn”.
I can see my friend is pretty embarrassed as he knows I understand everything that was said. I was going to thank the guys for all his kind words and compliment him on his astute observations.
Unfortunately, this would have caused my friends at the table to lose face, so when he was leaving I wished him a good night in Cantonese leaving him to wonder if I knew…
Britain’s Plan To Disrupt Hong Kong Is Doomed To Fail, Experts Confirmed!
On a somber note, the Israeli destruction on Palestine is a (text book) genocidal event. This is just as disturbing to me as the complete killing off of all the males in Ukraine.
There is something truly evil about the oligarchy that rules the West.
Their “heads aren’t screwed on tight”. They are unhinged and behaving in complete disregard for their fellow humans.
No care towards humanity.
Which means that they have evolved into something NOT HUMAN.
I shake my head in sadness.
As Everyone’s Lοοking At Ιsrael, Something Τruly Unbelievable Has Begun Ιn America
I bought a used coat from a yard sale and months later, when it turned cold, I put the jacket on and noticed a hand written note in the left pocket. It had listed things to buy at Ace Hardware.
It said Lye, ropes, tape and a small shovel.
Next to the list was the actual receipt showing the stores name, what was bought and exactly when.
I thought it seemed suspicious so I took it to the local police and they ran the info I had against an unsolved murder case.
After pulling the archived video from Ace Hardware, it was clear who the man was and after interrogating him and his fake alibi, he broke down and admitted that he was the one who picked up a 22 year old hitchhiker and raped and murdered her.
He forgot about the note and receipt in his left pocket.
He was also left handed. Had he not written it himself, it would not have proved anything, but it matched the handwriting analysis.
He also had no idea his wife sold the old jacket in a yard sale months earlier. That simple task on her part, cost him his life and he sits on death row today.
You just never know what you’re gonna get for three dollars at a yard sale.
A strategic nightmare sneaks into Washington’s political agenda: Global Times editorial
By Global Times Published: Oct 14, 2023 12:38 AM
This is horrifying. -MM
A simultaneous war with China and Russia is a strategic nightmare that sober American strategists such as Henry Kissinger have been warning the US to avoid at all costs, and it is also a topic that some US media outlets have become more and more fond of talking about in recent years. At least from the publicly available information, Washington has never previously addressed it as a formal political agenda, supposedly aware of its seriousness and the terrible risks it carries. But the publication of a report by a congressionally appointed bipartisan panel titled America’s Strategic Posture crossed this “red line” on October 12.
The central point of the 145-page report is that the US must expand its military power, particularly its “nuclear weapons modernization program,” in order to prepare for possible simultaneous wars with China and Russia. Notably, the report diverges completely from the current US national security strategy of winning one conflict while deterring another, and from the Biden administration’s current nuclear policy. It is not a fantasy among the American public, but a serious strategic assessment and recommendation in the service of policymaking.
The 12-member panel that wrote the report was hand-picked by the US Congress from major think tanks and retired defense, security officials and former lawmakers. This report makes us feel that a “strategic nightmare” is sneaking into the US political agenda, but has not drawn due concern and vigilance in Washington, and to a large extent, the American elite group represented by the panel is actively working to make this nightmare come true.
A look at the specific recommendations of this report will send shivers down the spine of those who retain any basic rationality. The report recommends that the US deploy more warheads, and produce more bombers, cruise missiles, ballistic missile submarines, non-strategic nuclear weapons and so on. It also calls on the US to deploy warheads on land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and to consider adding road-mobile ICBMs to its arsenal, establishing a third shipyard that can build nuclear-powered ships, etc.
What depths of insanity is the US sinking to? The US’ military spending accounts for nearly 40 percent of the world’s total defense expenditures, and it has been growing dramatically for several years, with military spending in 2023 reaching $813.3 billion, more than the GDP of most countries, but even that is not enough for these politicians. Such a report full of geopolitical fanaticism and war imagery, whether or not it actually ends up as a “guide” for Washington’s decision-making, is dangerous and needs to be resisted and opposed by all peace-loving countries.
According to some American media, the report ignores the consequences of a nuclear arms race. In fact, the report doesn’t seem to consider this at all and doesn’t suggest any measures other than nuclear expansion to address this issue. In other words, it is a reckless approach. Both China and Russia are nuclear powers, and everyone knows that provoking a confrontation between nuclear powers is a crazy idea. Even promoting a nuclear arms race under the banner of “deterrence” is a disastrous step backward in history. Washington’s political elites, who lived through the Cold War, cannot be unaware of this. However, the fact that such an absurd and off-key report is being presented in all seriousness by the US Congress is both surreal and unsurprising. It is in line with the distorted political atmosphere in Washington today.
The motives behind this exaggeration of threats and creating a warlike atmosphere are highly suspicious. The recent outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict caused a sharp increase in US defense industry stocks, while American defense industry companies have also been the biggest beneficiaries of the long-standing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The military-industrial complex, like a geopolitical monstrosity, parasitically clings to American society, manipulating its every move, pushing Washington step by step to introduce and even prepare for ideas that were once considered “impossible.”
The prosperity of the American military-industrial complex is built upon blood and corpses, and carries a primal guilt. Serving the interests of the American military-industrial complex is unethical.
The reality is that such rhetoric is becoming increasingly politically acceptable in today’s Washington. The idea of “preparing for possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China,” once a fringe fantasy, has gradually made its way into Washington’s agenda, which is deeply unsettling.
If Washington were to adopt even a small portion of the recommendations in this report, the harm and threats it could pose to world peace would be immeasurable and would ultimately backfire on the US itself.
There is an old Chinese saying: “Those who play with fire will perish by it.” This is something that is worth Washington’s careful consideration.
In 1980 my boss had left the company and had planned to sell his very nice 1970 Buick LeSabre for $500. One Monday I came into my office and the keys to the Buick were on my desk with a note saying that the automatic transmission was bad and that it would cost more than the car was worth and that I could have it for $25 since that is all the wrecking yard would give him.
I picked up the car one evening and was able to make it part way home before the “transmission” problem occurred.
Fortunately, I was near the company parking lot where I left the car. The next morning, in daylight, with the help of my brother-in-law, we discovered that the “transmission problem” was actually the air conditioning compressor intermittently locking up and putting a severe drag on the engine.
Since it was fall in southern California, we just cut off the single belt that drove the AC compressor and the car ran great. Months later, a neighbor was putting a Chevy V8 into a Toyota pickup and gave me the AC compressor, which we installed on the Buick. And the AC worked perfectly.
I told my boss how we fixed the “transmission” problem and offered him $500 for the Buick.
He declined and said I should keep the car for $25.
I told him I didn’t want my wife driving a $25 car, so he agreed to $250.
That summer I decided to install an aftermarket cruise control unit on the Buick and while routing wires under the dash, I noticed a small spring, not unlike the ones in ball point pens, was broken in an AC/heater duct. I replaced that spring (cost was less than $1) and noticed that the AC was coming out of the dash vents where previously it was just coming from the floor.
When I next saw my former boss, he said that he had taken the Buick to the dealership to complain about the AC/heat not coming from the dash vents, and they told him that to fix the problem they would have to remove the dash and it would cost more than the car was worth.
I put an additional 100K miles on that car and only recall replacing the brakes and a distributor, in addition to routine maintenance. In 1992, as I was moving to Texas from NJ, a co-worker asked if I would sell him the car, which I did.
As an aside, my former boss went to work for a company that made high power gas lasers, costing at that time about $25,000.
At my next company, I needed one of those lasers. I happened to mention to my former boss at a conference that I hoped to buy one of those lasers, but didn’t have the budget.
A few weeks later, a high power gas laser unexpectedly arrived on the shipping dock!
I called my former boss and he said if and when I get the budget, let him know and he will replace the “loaner” laser with a new one. Probably a year or so later, I did find the money and paid for the “loaner” laser.
My former boss’s company also made an even higher power laser for $50,000. I later wondered if I had given him $500 for the car if he would have shipped a $50K “loaner.”
I would ask him, but he passed away, way too young, years ago.
Rest in peace, Dean…
Life in URUGUAY! – South America’s Richest and Safest Country
As an Uruguayan I want to make a comment. First, great video, mostly accurate expect for a couple of details.
When you show the ‘gauchos” those look more like people on horses from Bolivia or Peru, or even maybe somewhere in northern Argentina or Chile. Because, first of all, in Uruguay, the gaucho’s “poncho” is usually made of plain dark colors, and most important, we do not have mountains, like the ones you show. About population “skin” color, let me make some remarks.
The original population in Uruguay is around 90% of European descent, and when I say European I mean, from all over Europe, including countries like: Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Russian, Denmark, etc. Not only Southern Europe. So there are a lot of fair skin color people including blonde, blue eyes.
But what has been happening in the last decade is that there’s a large immigration wave, such as from the Caribbean countries, as well as from the rest of Latin America.
So, the demographic is changing rapidly because Uruguayan’s population as you established is very small, so the culture is also changing, including the food and even the language…
2500 Foreigners have been invited to the Hangzhou Asian Games in China
Ordinary Foreigners
From US, Canada, Europe and Japan and South Korea
Fully paid for, Business Class Tickets, Five Star Pampering
All China asks them to do is to cover the Games on their Social Media (TikTok mainly or YT or Instagram)
The result is despite the Western Media almost entirely ignoring the Asian Games, a whopping 673 Million people worldwide are watching the events
This is China’s Strategy to counter thr Western Media
Not launching their own MSM and insanely and making accusations
Instead , they bring ORDINARY PEOPLE and treating them to what China looks like and spreading the message
A Popular Teenager goes home and says “Man do you know China is so different from what we hear in our TV channels”
Slowly this gains traction
It’s a long term plan targeting the 19–24 year olds today and gradually influencing the Younger Generation
The key reason is INFLUENCE
The 12–36 year old US Generation doesn’t view China as an enemy but as a neutral country or as a mutually beneficial country
Yet 36–65 year old Americans, the MSM influenced generation see almost 75% of them view China as an enemy
China is slowly influencing the younger generation and in a way that US simply cannot comprehend
Long term, slow and PATIENTLY
Every year you have 20,000 Vloggers invited to China and cover China positively
They influence around 60 Million -150 Million people
Tourvashu is one of these
He influences 2 Million Indians
Most are 16–20 year olds
More likely to watch Tourvashu than Palki Or Gravitas or Arnab
Slowly the Younger Indians will be influenced and say “Yaar Tune Chaayina ka wo Video dekha. Mast tha”
So you wonder why Apple is not banned. In China?
Same reason
It’s not the Chinese way
These Brash, Useless and Economically unsound tactics are not something the Chinese do
China will encourage Apple, use it as a gold standard to develop their own industry, and undercut the iphone eventually
Take the Chinese High Speed Rail
In 2005, Chinese imported exclusively their Boring Machines (Germany, Switzerland), Engines (Japan, Spain), Software (UK, Singapore, US) and Electronics (Japan, S Korea)
Today nearly 90% of their High Speed Rail Supplies are COMPLETELY MADE IN CHINA with same or better quality
They have decimated TBM markets in Germany with export shares plummeting from 69% in 2000 to 11% in 2023
Took them 17–18 years
That’s how China works
These loser protectionism bans don’t work for China
They COMPETE and UNDERCUT and enhance quality with competition
The Trump Ban begun in 2019
So the key is to see if China will beat the Apple and undercut the company by 2036–2037
I am willing to guarantee that they will
It’s what they do
Kind of their Mantra
Banning is what Losers do
Competing and beating with Economics is what Winners do
When I was a young boy I used to get teased a lot in school and I didn’t have many friends. I was a fat kid and often got called a “fat slob”, “pig”, and “smelly or “stinky”. I took a bath at least once a week, more in the summer, and tried to keep clean so I knew I was just getting teased because I was fat. When I was eleven my best friend’s mom drove us home from baseball practice one day. Out of the blue she turned to me in the back seat and said, “Andy, you smell and you need to bathe more often.” She did not say it in a mean way but in a stern businesslike manner. My best friend was horrified and said nothing.
When I got home I immediately took a shower and wondered about what was going on. Obviously, I’d been sweaty from practice but she must have known that. As I thought it over, it also dawned on me that my skinny little sister often got teased as “smelly” too. I’d always assumed she got it from association with me, not because she smelled. So I told my mom what happened and asked her to tell me honestly if I smelled. She said, “no” and started to get a little upset about my best friend’s mom saying that to me.
I went to play outside and saw one of my classmates across the street. We had an on-again/off-again friendship up to that point. I guess we were what you might call “frenemies” today but at this point in time, we were more on the friendly side. I decided to get his opinion believing he wouldn’t hold back. In fact, he had teased me before about being smelly. So I asked him straight-up, “Do I smell?” He answered very matter-of-factly, “yes”. “My sister too?” “Yes, her too,” he replied. Then I asked him what we smelled like. He then told me that this had actually been a subject of discussion among his family who did not want me or my sister in their house because of our smell. He said his parents said we smelled like “old books”. Immediately, this brought to mind the set of Encyclopedia Britannicas I had in my bedroom closet. I immediately went home to check them out. Not only were they covered in mold but vast sections of my closet and room had mold. In fact, I found it throughout our home. But it didn’t smell to me. I was used to it. We all were. We lived in the woods surrounded by soggy tree pools so our home was often damp. We had no AC nor did we need it. This was back in 1972 before the internet and all the scares about the dangers of mold.
I told my mother what I’d learned and was able to convince her this was what was causing my sister and me to smell and probably her too. We cleaned everything with bleach, aired out the house, and bought dehumidifiers. From then on I showered every day. My friends all told me I no longer smelled. That following summer I also worked my ass off to get physically fit. I don’t know how many more years I might have suffered but for this very simple and brutally honest admonition from my friend’s mother. To this day, my best friend of 58 years still tells me how embarrassed he was that his now-deceased mother said that to me. And I always remind him she did me one of the greatest favors of my life.
Flip Flop Cherry Cobbler
Yield: 6 to 8 generous portions
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
8 cups cherry pie filling
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
Coat a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture alternating with the milk; mix until well combined.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Top with filling and sprinkle with sugar. Cover and freeze.
To bake: Thaw completely in refrigerator.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 40 minutes or until browned.
Mighty China Remove All Iran Sanctions Placed By U.S and E.U
In this eye-opening video, we explore the shifting dynamics of power and influence between Iran, the United States, and China. With the U.S. imposing stringent sanctions on Iran, China steps in to form a strategic alliance, challenging the global power balance. Learn more about the economic, political, and strategic implications of this trilateral relationship and how it could shape the future of global geopolitics.
Going anonymous because it is a part of my life that not even my closest friends are aware of.
This is from the time when I was 12 years old. My mom had a problem where her breast would develop lumps which would have to be removed surgically. This problem started before I was born and she would undergo these procedures every couple of years. We lived in a small town with limited access to advanced medical facilities, but the doctors always told us that the lumps were not malignant.
When I was 12, this one lump was growing very big. My dad (who is a doctor himself) decided to take her to Delhi to get some tests done. I have two elder sisters and we (me, my sister and my parents) live with my grandparents.
So, my parents were away in Delhi and my grand mother would spend the day on the phone talking to relatives, spreading rumors that my mom actually had cancer and saying that we three are a burden on them and that they just want my parents to come and get us off their head.
My sisters, who were older and more mature, would mostly stay in their room, but I, by nature liked to be outside with my mom and in her absence, my granny. Hearing these things used to hurt me, but I wouldn’t tell my sisters since I knew they’d be hurt even more.
I started taking up house-work with my granny (though we had help by my granny used to crib that we 3 were a burden)-cooking half meals, helping with washing clothes. All this I did without my sisters’ knowledge (or they’d never have let me do it).
This was a time when mobiles didn’t exist in India and fixed line phones were the only means of communication. News from my parents used to reach us with a lag. We just kept praying that our mom comes back safely.
After tests at AIIMS (top hospital in India), our parents returned awaiting results and my granny immediately left for my aunt (her daughter’s) place citing she needed “rest”.
Results came in-the growth didn’t seem malignant but needed a fairly complicated medical procedure in Chandigarh. These were times when my dad was under a lot of financial pressure (though my grandparents were well-off and my dad was the only son). My dad requested my granny over call that they need to leave immediately and that though he had applied for their life savings-their FDs to be broken, but if it doesn’t happen on time, if my grandparents could lend money till the FD money could reach home.
Unbelievably, my granny just didn’t come home! She made my aunt call in saying she would stay longer at her place and that my parents can leave for the surgery! I still remember my dad almost crying, not sure if he would be able to arrange money on time to save his wife (the tumour had grown visibly big). By God’s grace, the FDs broke a day before they had to leave and they left us alone, at the trust of the neighbours who were more helpful than my grandparents!
It was a long, painful time when my mother received treatment-a surgery which lasted 9 hours, where doctors almost gave up hope, where she was on ventilator support for days. All this while, I kept hearing from my granny’s conversations as she invited friends over, that it was certainly cancer, that such complicated surgeries could only be for cancer. It kept on making the 12-year old me scared as I knew cancer is something bad, it is something that can take away my mom.
We first got a chance to speak to our mom after 35 days when she managed to call from a hotel after her discharge. Those 35 days had been a struggle beyond my imagination for my parents (which they told me much later when I was around 20). With just my dad for company-he had managed everything from sleeping on hospital floors to washing my mom’s clothes.
My mom has recovered fully and still prays everyday for the doctors who cured her.
My dad still hates my grand parents, and I don’t feel any love for them wither.
My grand dad passed away a few years ago and we still live with my granny because my mom still thinks its our duty.
But, the pain is still there, the fear that the 12-year old felt is still there ,the betrayal is still feels fresh when I see my granny.
I grew up in those 2 months, chopped off my hair because I had long hair and my granny wouldn’t help manage them.
I hardened, realized I only have my parents and my sisters who will stand by me, and I will stand by them till I die.
I realised the world is cruel, looking at my relatives’ behaviour in that period.
“Hector, I retired before you were born,” he laughed.
Confused, I asked again, “Be honest, Dad, I mean, when will you stop working?”
His response was simple, “Working? What’s work? I don’t know what work is.”
“OK, Dad, forget about it,” I said as I assumed he wasn’t willing to talk about this.
“Hector,” he said, “what you know as my job is not work for me. I enjoy architecture so much that I could do this 24/7. This is who I am. Architecture is my life.”
So, to answer your question, why do rich people work even after they become rich? Why don’t they play?
My father lived to be 91 and worked until his body gave up on him. He was a passionate architect who found joy in his work. That’s what kept him active and full of joy every day. His passion for architecture was infectious, and it taught me this valuable lesson about work as a lifestyle.
So, if you ask me about retirement or work-life balance, I’d say it’s better to find what you love and make it a part of your life. When you find that, you’ll stop working and start living. We achieve a balance not by separating work from life but by integrating what you love into your lifestyle.
Today, this is how I see it: It’s not about working less; it’s about loving more what you do.
That’s the secret to a fulfilling life. As my father always said, “The day you find what you love is when you will stop working.”
Heavy Rain forced Mother Cat to Carry her kitten in Streets, but No One Opened the Door for Them!
In the pouring rain, we spotted a soaked cat seeking shelter. Feeling sorry for her, we followed as she led us to her hidden kitten in the woods. We gently petted the mama cat, who had braved the relentless rain. The tiny, wet kitten needed our care, so we wrapped him in a warm blanket. Back at our home, where rescued cat families and foster cats live together happily, we ensured both mother and baby were dry and well-groomed. A vet visit ensured mama cat’s health, and we even gave the kitten a bath, revealing his adorable charm. The heartwarming reunion between mother and kitten was filled with playfulness and bonding, showing the strength of family ties.
Here’s one example, regarding myself: I was working as a bouncer at a bar in Erie, Pa one night and some guy, about 24 years old or so was making quite a bit of trouble, harassing customers, pushing some, bullying others, etc.
He was somewhat high, but not drunk, and it seemed he was there just to harass and embarrass/humiliate some who were there with a date. He was pretty big, about 225 pounds and about 6 feet and acting like a real bully. When I was told about some guy doing these things ( He wasn’t near my door, but farther inside ), I went in to see what was up.
When I got there he was harassing some poor kid who was clearly scared and was with his girlfriend. As I approached, a few people pointed at this guy and said, “get him out if here, he’s an asshole.” .
I got up to him and very nicely told him to leave the kid alone and that he’d have to leave because he was causing too much trouble.
He looked at me, stood up as high as he could (I hate when they do that, like it matters), and said, “Who’s going to make me?” I said, simply, “me.”
He told me to get lost or he’d beat the shit out of me.
I said, “Well, let’s go outside and see who comes back in, and, if it’s you, you can stay.” He smiled, said,”I’m gonna enjoy this” and said, “let’s go” and we walked outside. By that time, everyone, including the other bouncer at my door knew what was going to happen.
The other bouncer, Tommy Williams, just stood at the door and smiled while we walked outside. Well, when we got out about 15 feet from the door, the moron suddenly turned and tried to hit me with a roundhouse kick which I not only blocked, but grabbed his leg and picked him up by the leg and threw him to the ground, saying, ”I don’t think karate is going to help you here.”
He jumped up and said, “how about this, asshole? and then tried a double leg takedown, as, apparently, at some time he was a wrestler. I actually laughed and said, “oh, you want to wrestle, huh?” and then as I countered his sad attempt, the other bouncer, who had heard everything, shouted out: “Wrestle? well you picked the right guy, he’s the National wrestling Champion……”
I just said, “You picked the wrong guy you moron,” and, as my friend, Tommy later said to me, I literally swept the parking lot with him.
I never saw him after two of his friends ended up taking either home or to the hospital.
He was a bully.
He got to feel like those he had bullied before.
I was NOT kind to him.
No regrets, but I bet he was kinda surprised when he heard the other bouncer tell him who I was, and he had no escape, as even as he said over and over, “I quit, I give up.”
I told him that it wasn’t up to him, It was my call and I wasn’t done yet.
That is a scary thing to realize, that you can’t quit, that it’s up to the guy beating the crap out of you. But I believe it has led others like that guy to never bully anyone again. Jeff
Sat in a bar in South Pattaya one Sunday afternoon in 1991 I noticed a fairly fit looking bloke dressed only in flip flops and shorts. He suddenly ordered everyone a drink then turned to me and said “I see my friend that you are interested in my tattoos.” I wasn’t that interested but I wasn’t going to argue and let him tell me. One he’d got for some work in the Philippines – the other some thing in the Mekong Delta. A mahout then came by with a large elephant which the man went across to look at saying they’d always fascinated him. So I asked him where he came from – American Samoa he replied. And what did he do? He worked “for the government”.
He then stepped back and ordered another drink for everyone in the bar. I thanked him and he turned and said “Let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we may be dead”. He then looked me in the eye with the coldest eyes I’d ever seen and said “ You know it is very easy. I pick up the gun, I pull the trigger and they are gone.” It was evident he wasn’t bullshitting.
That evening I saw the bar owner – who comes from Texas – and mentioned this guy. “Oh yes that’s so and so – he’s a US Navy SEAL. Bad news when he’s drunk.”
Guess I can be thankful I met him whilst he was sober!
Atheist Overdoses; Shown Soul’s Process Of Pre-Life Planning (NDE)
Her story is powerful. All of her words should have been heard and none bleeped out….
If you are offended by profanity, best skip this response.
I, too, am in the top 1% of wealth holders in this country, albeit, on lowest rung, yet minimum wage at my small Inn is higher than it is at this billionaire cunt’s company. I have no problem finding employees. This piece of shit motherfucker sits on his yacht sipping pina coladas while his employees need a second job to just pay the bills to live their day to day lives.
This asshole supports the Republican Party with massive amounts of money, and as a wealthy person, I can tell you a thing or two about how tax laws work in this country. For those of you who make less than $250k a year but still vote Republican, your economic misery is your own fault. The Democratic Party has LOTS of problems, but one problem they don’t have is trying to make life better for the average person and if you stopped watching your choice of right wing media, you’d soon realize that. It’s people like this cunt who are destroying America and contributing NOTHING to it.
What did this prick do? He built a fucking store, massively exploited his workforce by grabbing all the loot for himself and then whining when ordinary people have had enough and don’t want to work for anymore. Fuck him, and his fellow cunt billionaires.
When I was doing my B Tech, there was a Professor Talukedar who used to teach us ‘Mechanics’.
His lectures used to be very interesting since he had an interesting way to teach and explain the concepts.
One day, in the class, he asked the following questions,
What is ZERO.
What is INFINITY.
Can ZERO and INFINITY be same.
We all thought that we knew the answers and we replied as following,
ZERO means nothing
INFINITY means a number greater than any countable number
ZERO and INFINITY are opposite and they can never be same
He countered us by first talking about infinity and asked, ‘How can there be any number which is greater than any countable number?’
We had no answers.
He then explained the concept of infinity in a very interesting way, which I remember even after more than 35 years.
He said that imagine that there is an illiterate shepherd who can count only upto 20.
Now, if the number of sheep he has less than 20 and you ask him how many sheep he has, he can tell you the precise number (like 3, 5 14 etc.). However, if the number is more than 20, he is likely to say “TOO MANY”.
He then explained that in science infinity means ‘too many’ (and not uncountable) and in the same way zero means ‘too few’ (and not nothing)
As an example, he said that if we take the diameter of the Earth as compared to distance between Earth and Sun, the diameter of earth can be said to zero since it is too small.
However, when we compare the same diameter of earth with the size of a grain, diameter of earth can be said to be infinite.
Hence, he concluded that the same thing can be ZERO and INFINITE at the same time, depending on the context, or your matrix of comparison.
The relationship between richness and poverty is similar to the relationship between infinity and zero.
It all depends on the scale of comparison with your wants.
If your income is more than your wants, you are rich.
If your wants are more than your income, you are poor.
I consider myself rich because my wants are far lesser than my income.
I have become rich not so much by acquiring lots of money, but by progressively reducing my wants.
If you can reduce your wants, you too can become rich at this very moment.
I came home very sick with flu one day, went up to my bedroom, my husband was in my bed with the mail lady. I told them both to get the fuck out of my house. He argued that he needed sleep cuz he worked overnights. He needed his clothes and stuff. I told him all his clothes would be alongside the garage by Monday. It’s where the garbage is kept. Take a shirt and stuff he needed for tonight and get lost. Take a shower at her house or work. I packed up his stuff in garbage bags along with the topper to our wedding cake, some mementos from our honeymoon, I was being passive aggressive I agree, but how dare he sleep with her in our bed, in our home. We had a 2 year old and a 6 mos old. He was just wrong. He showed up a month later crying to me that she had broken up with him. I told him too bad, I didn’t feel bad for him in the least. I got the house( and mortgage) in the divorce. It was ok cuz I wanted the kids to stay in their home and school and I made more money, the root cause of the problem. He felt inadequate cuz I was a senior manager and he was doing maintenance work. This was no issue for me, just for him.
When I first got married, we would be passionate everywhere, if you know what I mean, bed, floor, couch, where ever. We would do things for each other. And we enjoyed each other’s company. She was from Japan I am white american.
I learned to speak Japanese and we lived in Japan a few years and life was good. We had kids together, but over the years things grew cold between us.
They say that people change and you grow apart. I don’t think either of us changed. I doubt that most people change. What I suspected happened was that I would base my love on how much she loved me and visa versa. If she did something nice for me, I would do something nice for her. Or if I did something nice for her, she would do something nice for me.
That all sounds fine and dandy, but I think in practice, it doesn’t work. When I do something nice for her, I expect something of equal niceness in return. However, often is the case that you don’t perceive what is done in return is as valuable as what you gave him or her. So the next time you do something, you feel less inclined to do something as nice. And so the love kind of fizzles.
You basically stop caring because you perceive your partner as not caring. And chances are your partner feels the same way about you. Neither person has changed. They are both the same person, but the love isn’t there anymore. They let it spiral into nothingness.
That is what my wife and I did. After 20 some odd years of marriage, there was nothing. I really had no desire to do anything for my wife, because she wasn’t going to do anything for me. We didn’t hate each other. We helped each other when needed, but that is about all.
I was unhappy with the marriage. I either wanted out or I wanted it fixed. But after 20 years of marriage, I knew that she wasn’t going to try and fix the marriage. I knew that she thought I would not change so why should she have to do anything special and if I did change, it would only be temporary and things would go back to how they were, so why even try. I knew this would be her mind set.
So I had 3 options. Divorce, stay in the lifeless, sexless marriage, or take a chance and do something about it.
I thought perhaps divorce would be the better way. Start anew. She had given up on me and didn’t care.
But I decided to give it a try anyway. I completely revamped my approach. I decided that I would try for one year to fix this. I would not require her to do anything. I would just do these things on my own. If these things wooed her back then she would be back on her own terms and not mine.
So I did the following.
I committed to get into shape… better diet, exercise
I committed to do something special for her everyday regardless of whether we were getting along or not.
I committed to do at least an additional 30 minutes of house work every day.
I committed to pay her a sincere compliment at least once per day.
I committed not to fight with her and to only have calm arguments with her.
I decided to fix her dinner and breakfast as often as possible.
In essence I decided to love her every day.
As I thought, I got essentially no response from her day after day. I mean she would sometimes say thank you, but that was about it. After about four months she started to change. I kept at it. She continued to change. Ok.. she didn’t change. She was the same person, but she saw that I was trying. She saw that she was important to me. She saw that I wasn’t giving up. She wanted to be loved.
She started doing things for me again. We started talking a lot more and doing a lot more together. We started dating again and going on trips. It was almost like we were newly weds again, but with less passion, but it felt great. Sometimes I would just hold her in my arms for 30 minutes.
Love can be revived. It is not easy. True love takes work. Making the decision above to love her regardless was the second best decision of my life. The first of course was to marry her. Our marriage is not perfect, but I look forward to seeing her every day. She is an awesome woman. She is basically the same person I married. We just let our love die. We were lazy lovers. She asked me one day what got into me and I talked with her about my plan. I think it was a pretty good plan and so did she. And yes, we are still married, but much more happily now.
I knew our love couldn’t be one sided, but I also knew it needed to start somewhere and why not me. Ask yourself, why not you? Do you want the love back? what kind of sacrifice are you willing to make to have the love back? If I had decided that she needed to do something while I was doing something, then we would have been right back to where we started. You can’t base your actions on what the other is doing in return. You need to commit to love regardless of what is done in return. That is the sacrifice and that is where real love will begin.
Edit.
I can’t believe how many people have read and liked this. Someone mentioned the 40 day challenge. I found out about that several months after I started on this path. There is a movie out there along these same lines called fireproof that is worth a watch.
For me things didn’t change around in 40 days. It took quite a bit longer. But you have to ask yourself is divorce really the better way out? Yes, sometimes it is. But infidelity doesn’t have to be the end of life as we know it.
I look back on these events and they seem like a distant memory, the hurt and pain. like a forgotten dream. But it really wasn’t that long ago. I am a better person because of it. She has become a better person as well and we are definitely a better couple.
6 REASONS WHY AMERICANS ARE OBESE. WHAT IS CAUSING THE RISING OBESITY IN THE USA?
It’s no secret that obesity in America has been an ongoing issue and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.
In fact, according to Harvard University; about 2 in every 3 adults or 69 percent of the population in the US are overweight while1 in 3 adults are obese or 39 percent.
It has to make you wonder how the most powerful and advanced nation in the world can be so obese especially when compared to countries in Europe and Asia, it’s not like we don’t have the means as a nation for healthier lifestyle and better-quality food.
Or maybe Americans are meant to be obese, and they want us to stay that way? Sounds controversial right, well in this video we will expose 8 reasons why Americans are so obese compared to other countries.
Our country born with troubles since its independence.
Have you ever heard about the Burma Campaign in World War 2? It is quite thorough and one of the most destructive campaigns largely forgotten by Western Powers and historians. The entire infrastructure of the country was destroyed during the course of the war. By the end of the war, the country was totally in rubbles and a massive number of firearms were widespread even in the village level which was left behind by warring powers. The situation was ripe for armed insurgencies.
The country was never been administered as a whole before British arrival. The region out of central Myanmar was usually administered by local petty chiefs with vassal-high king relationship which never need any direct contact between different cultures (except a few tributary missions and merchants). There is no large-scale internal trade and the transportation was also difficult. Different cultures and ethnic groups suddenly came into contact under British rule. As usual, the British exploited the situation by creating a divide & conquer strategy by favouring ethnic minorities over the Burmese majority. This led to extreme Burmese nationalism.
Due to economic disaster in the 1930s and later devastating war, the country is under very hard economic conditions which was a natural breeding ground for communism. The Burmese Communist Party which never believed in British plan for independence already went rebellion even before independence.
Then, the world’s longest-running civil war began.
In the 1950s and 60s, the civil war lost momentum and Burma came under the spotlight of international relations due to its leading role in third world nations, one of the founders of the non-aligned movement. The country was also the only real democratic nation in Southeast Asia with regular elections. The country largely recovered from the war at the beginning of the 1960s and hopes ran high. A federal system was proposed by the ethnic leaders and the government agreed.
All out of sudden, the coup came. At first, people weren’t serious as they already seen a short 2 years long military rule which stabilized the country and the coup ended with the mostly free and fair elections. By the time they realized that the military is no longer intended to give up the power this time, the civil war gained intensity and all the things we achieved in the last 10 years were gone.
The military junta slowly transformed themselves into businessmen by laying hands on the country’s economy entirely. The Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) ran by the military alone control nearly 40–50% of the country’s economy directly or indirectly. With the lack of a proper banking system, the ordinary people have no access to much-needed capital for investments. Small and Medium scale businesses have no chance to grow unless the monopoly of military elites and their relatives were removed.
So he responds in self-defense and you teach him that if the attacker is female he’s supposed to just sit there writhing in pain getting injured? And she got off scott-free?
What’s next? She stabs him and he gets tossed in a closet and fed gruel and water? Because you might as well.
If you knew she attacked first, you should have punished HER. You discipline all parties that have transgressed, not just the ones who have a penis. Having a vagina doesn’t magically bestow immunity on a person.
If you confiscated all his devices, you should have confiscated hers as well. For his month of grounding, she should have received two.
There’s a big difference between a slap in the face (which stings but quickly dissapates) and kicking someone in the jewelies (which could cause irreparable damage).
No. You’re punishment wasn’t good enough. You half-assed it due to sexist reasoning. Go back and discipline your daughter as well.
Who Wants To Be A WARMONGER?!
Inspired by the war hawks that run the West, it’s the game show that always ends badly!
Even though this was a relatively small thing, it affected me profoundly.
On my lunch break from work, I went to a fast food place. A homeless man came in. He was absolutely filthy, with long, greasy hair and dirty hands, dressed in raggedy clothes with a piece of blanket wrapped around him. He smelled bad. He didn’t seem able to talk and he went from table to table, sort of chittering at people, like a rat. People were pretty horrified and either gave him a quarter or just ignored him.
There was one table with 4 Mexican day laborers. These are guys who often are in the U.S. “illegally” and who hang around outside home improvement stores, hoping to pick up jobs. They don’t make much money and sometimes people cheat them, knowing the laborers can’t go to the authorities. A lot of these men may live in one house so they can save money and send it back to their families in Mexico.
When this homeless man came up to their table, they asked him, “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?” Then they gave him all of their food, packing it up for him so he could carry it away. Then they didn’t go and buy more food themselves (they probably couldn’t afford it), but simply cleared the table and walked out. They knew what it was to suffer, and they very likely would suffer a bit from their generosity. But that didn’t stop them; and they were the best example of kindness I have ever seen. It was over 30 years ago, and it still affects me.
The night my daughter died in a double hit-and-run in Colorado, a stranger stopped to help her and was witness to the second car that hit her, ending her life. He had been trying to help her though; he called for an ambulance and although it was ultimately unsuccessful, every effort was made to save her life. That stranger is a hero as far as I’m concerned.
The man who tried to help was very traumatized by what he had witnessed and had to change jobs so that he no longer had to daily pass by the place where my daughter died as he went to and from work. Unrelated to the accident, he and his wife got rid of their landline when they moved. I wanted very much to thank him but although I had tried every way I knew, his job had changed, he no longer had a telephone I could call 411 for and he no longer lived in the same place. I finally decided that simply being grateful would have to be enough, even if I couldn’t tell him myself.
Two years later, I’m sitting at the dinner table in a hostel in London and strike up a conversation with a guy also having dinner there. He was from the same area as me. He remembered my daughter’s death not just from it being in the news, but because the husband of one of his co-workers had stopped and tried to help the young lady.
OMG.
To make a long story short, he put me in touch with his co-worker and I was able to email her and express my thanks and gratitude for her husband’s efforts that night. She emailed me back and said that although her husband was desperately sorry he couldn’t save her, he was grateful that she didn’t have to die alone. He is a hero in my eyes and I’m so glad I got to let him know how grateful our family is. May he and his loved ones be abundantly blessed.
China Reveals HUGE Sanctions On US Tech Giants Due A STAGGERING Unpaid $1 Trillion
The direct consequences for the implicated U.S. tech companies are potentially disastrous. China is a significant market for many of these entities, and the sanctions could drastically affect their revenue, stock prices, and global operations. Companies like Apple, which rely on China for both sales and a vast portion of their supply chain, could see significant disruptions. The same goes for firms like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, which have invested billions in capturing the Chinese market and establishing a supply chain nexus.
Furthermore, these sanctions could also impact hundreds of smaller U.S. tech firms and startups that might not be direct targets but could suffer collateral damage due to the intertwined nature of the tech ecosystem. This isn’t just a bilateral U.S.-China issue; the sanctions have ramifications for the global tech industry. Supply chains across the world are intricately linked, and disruptions in China could lead to ripple effects impacting tech manufacturing globally. Countries and businesses that rely on these tech giants for critical infrastructure, software, and hardware might find themselves caught in the crossfire.
The European Union, India, Japan, and South Korea, among others, will be closely watching the developments. Any prolonged conflict could force these nations to recalibrate their tech dependencies and alliances. On the diplomatic front, this escalation further strains an already tense U.S.-China relationship. The last few years have witnessed a hardening of stances on both sides, with trade wars, tech bans, and territorial disputes. This new development might just push the diplomatic ties to a new low.
As the news of China’s unprecedented sanctions reverberated across the globe, key stakeholders began weighing in, highlighting the vast complexities of the issue. Major international business councils, traditionally silent on political matters, expressed deep concern over the possible long-term disruptions to global trade. Wall Street responded predictably, with significant declines in tech stock prices. Investor sentiments seem to mirror the broader fears. If China and the U.S., two of the world’s largest economies, can’t resolve their differences amicably, what hope is there for the stability of the global economic order?
Moreover, experts in international relations also sounded the alarm. The escalation of this magnitude in the U.S.-China tech conflict marks a deviation from conventional trade disagreements. The integration of geopolitics with business is not new, but the scale of this rift indicates a deep-seated power struggle reflecting ambitions, fears, and strategies beyond mere economic interests.
One of the most pressing concerns for the sanctioned tech companies and the international community is the verification of China’s claim. How is this enormous one trillion dollars figure reached without transparent documentation and a clear breakdown? Suspicions linger over the validity of such a vast sum. The call for a neutral third-party audit has gained traction in various quarters. International bodies like the World Trade Organization could potentially mediate, ensuring that claims and counterclaims are examined impartially.
While the U.S. government has not yet announced any countermeasures, there’s widespread speculation about potential retaliation. Would the U.S. respond with equivalent sanctions on Chinese tech companies? Could there be a broader economic response that targets other sectors of the Chinese economy? Such a move would undoubtedly lead to further escalation, intensifying the trade war and potentially causing harm to global economic stability.
As an immigrant, one thing that always spooks me is paperwork and all related things to immigration process.
One day, I was outside working on my garden, when I came back inside, there were four missed calls. Just like a habit, I copied and pasted the phone number to Google search, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Corpus Christi Border Patrol Station popped up.
I started panicking. Why? Why they called me?!?? So, when the phone number appeared again a few minutes after that, I picked it up.
A woman on the phone let me know that there was someone used my identity to cross the border, tried to traffic drugs into the country. She told me that this could happen because I traveled outside of the country recently (which was correct). I was nervous. Then the woman proceeded to tell me she ‘would help me to verify and straighten things up’. Then she asked me my full name, DoB and Social Number.
At this point, I started smelling B.S. I told her, wasn’t it an identity thief case? Shouldn’t she have those information already? She got furious and told me, she was ‘trying to help’ and I needed to ‘cooperate’ or else I would ‘end up in jail’.
I decided to cut off the call, told her I would contact my lawyer and said goodbye then hung up.
I did some searching, then I decided to call back the phone number. It went to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Corpus Christi Border Patrol Station for real. I talked to an officer. He told me I was right hanging up the call and told me scammers nowadays gets really aggressive. They can hi-jack the phone number line like that, so the Caller ID looks like it’s legitimate from government offices. He also told me: If the government wants anything from you, they will send snail mails, they don’t call.
If you take a moment to look at the globe, you will notice that the United States (and remember they OWN both Ukraine, and Israel) started wars in Ukraine, and in Israel (After all, HAMAS is Western trained).
Why?
Well, for one, war is a business racket. But that is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the BRI.
Both wars effectively block two major routes of the BRI to the West.
War in Ukraine = Europe BRI
War around Israel = African BRI
Thus the BRI is now geographically limited to the Asian nations.
The Asian Games in Hangzhou, which kicked off on Sept. 25, are not only a showcase of athletic prowess, but also a dazzling display of technological wonders. China has spared no effort to impress the world with its cutting-edge innovations in various domains. Here are some of the most remarkable examples of what I call “black technologies” that have made the games a spectacle to behold:
– Digital torchbearers: This is the first time that the Asian Games have used holograms to create virtual torchbearers who can carry the flame across different locations and interact with real people and surroundings. The digital torchbearers include some of the most famous and influential figures in sports, entertainment, and history, such as Yao Ming, Jackie Chan, and Confucius.
– Electronic identity registration cards: These are smart devices that replace the traditional paper-based accreditation cards for all participants. They can perform multiple functions, such as verifying identity, controlling access, monitoring health, making payments, and providing information. They also support various authentication methods, such as NFC, QR code, and biometrics, making them convenient and secure.
– Digital spectator service platform: This is a comprehensive platform that offers a range of features and services for both online and offline audiences. For example, users can watch live streams, replays, highlights, and VR videos of the games; chat with athletes, coaches, and experts; join quizzes, games, and lucky draws; and access information about venues, transportation, tourism, and culture.
– Intelligent robots: These are robots that can assist in various scenarios and tasks. For example, there are robots for guest reception, patrolling, firefighting, and distribution; robots for public performances, such as dancing and drumming; robots for sports training, such as playing table tennis and badminton; and robots for media coverage, such as interviewing and reporting.
These “black technologies” reflect China’s leadership in digital transformation and innovation. They also add to the cultural significance and social value of the Hangzhou Asian Games. By blending technology and culture, the Hangzhou Asian Games have created a new paradigm of sports events that is more intelligent, interactive, and inclusive.
Blueberry Dumpling Cobbler
This is good served warm with vanilla ice cream. Strawberries may be substituted for the blueberries.
Bring blueberries, 1 1/3 cups sugar and butter to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring gently until butter is melted and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.
Beat cream cheese and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy; add milk and beat until smooth.
By hand stir in Bisquick mix and uncooked oats.
Spread two-thirds of dumpling mixture onto bottom of a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Spoon blueberry mixture evenly over dumpling mixture.
Dollop remaining dumpling mixture evenly over blueberries.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes.
This is a Briefing, I’m not asking for your consent.
I love how in this altered timeline, the relationship between Picard and Riker is completely different. Far more strained and much less casual as well. It’s little touches like that that make the overall picture clearer and more believable. Great writing and great execution by a very talented group of actors.
Hersh Reveals U.S. Motive For Destruction Of Nord Stream Pipelines
Seymour Hersh just published a new piece about the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines.
When the pipelines were blown up on September 27 2022 I had asked:
It was no surprise to the agency’s secret planning group when on January 27, 2022, the assured and confident Nuland, then undersecretary of state for political affairs, stridently warned Putin that if he invaded Ukraine, as he clearly was planning to, that “one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.” The line attracted enormous attention, but the words preceding the threat did not. The official State Department transcript shows that she preceded her threat by saying that with regard to the pipeline: “We continue to have very strong and clear conversations with our German allies.” … The German leader was considered then—and now—by some members of the CIA team to be fully aware of the secret planning underway to destroy the pipelines. … What I did not know then, but was told recently, was that after Biden’s extraordinary public threat to blow up Nord Stream 2, with Scholz standing next to him, the CIA planning group was told by the White House that there would be no immediate attack on the two pipelines, but the group should arrange to plant the necessary bombs and be ready to trigger them “on demand”—after the war began. “It was then that we”—the small planning group that was working in Oslo with the Royal Norwegian Navy and special services on the project—“understood that the attack on the pipelines was not a deterrent because as the war went on we never got the command.”
After Biden’s order to trigger the explosives planted on the pipelines, it took only a short flight with a Norwegian fighter and the dropping of an altered off-the-shelf sonar device at the right spot in the Baltic Sea to get it done. By then the CIA group had long disbanded. By then, too, the official told me: “We realized that the destruction of the two Russian pipelines was not related to the Ukrainian war”—Putin was in the process of annexing the four Ukrainian oblasts he wanted—“but was part of a neocon political agenda to keep Scholz and Germany, with winter coming up and the pipelines shut down, from getting cold feet and opening up” the shuttered Nord Stream 2. “The White House fear was that Putin would get Germany under his thumb and then he was going to get Poland.” … All of this explains why a routine question I posed a month or so after the bombings to someone with many years in the American intelligence community led me to a truth that no one in America or Germany seems to want to pursue. My question was simple: “Who did it?”
The Biden administration blew up the pipelines but the action had little to do with winning or stopping the war in Ukraine. It resulted from fears in the White House that Germany would waver and turn on the flow of Russia gas—and that Germany and then NATO, for economic reasons, would fall under the sway of Russia and its extensive and inexpensive natural resources. And thus followed the ultimate fear: that America would lose its long-standing primacy in Western Europe.
The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will now have to answer some serious questions …
Posted by b on September 26, 2023 at 14:26 UTC | Permalink
Get Out of America Now… Something Strange is Happening
“Hey fam! Let’s talk about why we believe you should leave America for good. Back in 2020 we left America and have never returned and hope to never go back. As time goes on, the country isn’t getting better from everything that happened with the planned-demic and now hyper-inflation. What do you think? Will you be leaving America in search of greener pastures? It’s up to you to decide!”
Mainstream Media Admit – Ukraine’s Propaganda Is Full Of Lies
As a sign of the turning narrative of the war in Ukraine we find a new New York Times piece about ‘disinformation’ that is not about Russia but about lies from Ukraine.
Andrew E. Kramer, the NYT correspondent in Kiev, opens with an anecdote from the first weeks of the war:
Six weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukraine sank the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, dealing a serious blow to the enemy navy, and, a Ukrainian official said, killing the ship’s captain.
“We do not mourn,” an adviser to the interior minister at the time, Anton Gerashchenko, said.
The only problem was that the captain — or somebody who resembled him — later appeared in a video of survivors released by the Russian Navy. He had escaped his sinking ship, the Moskva, the video seemed to indicate.
Then comes a paragraph that could fit both countries but the following one it is again related to disinformation from Ukraine:
What is clear is that misdirection, disinformation and propaganda are weapons regularly deployed in Russia’s war in Ukraine to buoy spirits at home, demoralize the enemy or lead opponents into a trap. And it is often hard to know when reports are false or why they may have been disseminated.
Now, Ukraine and Russia are offering dueling narratives over whether a more senior Russian naval officer, the commanding admiral of the Black Sea Fleet, is alive or dead.
Few military analysts, […], believe the Ukrainian military’s optimistic daily account of Russian casualties running into the hundreds that is nonetheless reported widely in Ukrainian media.
It is the first time I see a public refutation of Ukraine’s laughable claims about Russian casualties in the mainstream media. It is also an indictment of the Biden administration and the Pentagon who publicly use the Ukrainian numbers.
The piece ends with a wise acknowledgement:
Mr. Gerashchenko said that, in the end, war propaganda is only effective when it accompanies battlefield successes. The missile strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet last week, he said, was a “stunning success of Ukrainian intelligence and the air force that fired the cruise missiles on a supposedly well-defended site.”
“You cannot win the propaganda war without winning the real war,” he added.
Good to see that this obvious truth is finally sinking in.
—
Yesterday the Minister of Defense in Russia, Sergei Shoigu, gave an update (in Russian) on the war in Ukraine. The speech seemed to include a time frame for the war to end (machine translation):
The United States and its allies continue to arm the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the Kiev regime throws untrained soldiers into senseless assaults, for slaughter.
Such cynical actions by the West and their cronies in Kiev only encourage Ukraine to self-destruct.”
“Under these conditions, we continue to increase the combat power of the Armed Forces, including through the supply of modern weapons and improving the training of troops, taking into account the experience of a special military operation. Consistent implementation of the activities of the Action Plan until 2025 will allow us to achieve our goals.”
Shoigu expects the war to run throughout 2024 and into 2025. But if the current loss rate of the Ukrainian army continues the country will be running out of soldiers and armored vehicles before the end of next year.
Posted by b on September 27, 2023 at 13:50 UTC | Permalink
Ask Prof Wolff: China Vs. a Myth of Stolen Technology
China has pulled it off because it is unique with huge, diligent and hard working population, and a one party state with consistent long term goals but flexible enough to adapt and adopt so as to be pragmatic.
Other Asian and South East Asian countries have similar ethos but their populations and geographical size are much smaller.
More to the point, those countries have multi-party political systems that would ensure continuous changes to whatever the previous government has done, ie no consistency in long term targets but all short term political gains (Western style).
Vietnam is actually a communist country but the US and the West like Vietnam; they rarely publicly criticise or smear Vietnam because it is not seen as a “threat”.
Singapore is a prosperous city state virtually dominated by one political party.
Rarely, if any, have I seen negative opinions of Singapore from the West. Some local and Asian people think that Singapore acts like a dictator.
So you know what I am leading to.
Political system may or may not matter. It is a matter of effective governance.
During an interview, the founder of Huawei questioned that how could the West accuse Huawei of stealing technologies from them that they had not got?
A senior employee said in an interview about 5G that the company had been researching on 6G several years ago.
By the end of 2020 the entire underground transport network in Shanghai was covered by 5G.
In contrast, the Mayor of London has promised to cover the entire London Underground network with 4G by the end of 2024.
That’s how much more advanced Chinese technology is in terms of development and implementation. Without Western interference of all kinds, I bet that African nations with help from China will leapfrog the West.
This may sound far-fetched.
The US will do its utmost, including starting a war and regime change, to next suppress the rise of Africa.
Many areas on the Belt and Road Initiative have since 2013 had bombings, massive political protests and chaotic civil wars etc.
This is the dirty work done by a particular organization to stop the success of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
If China and the Chinese had the technology to migrate to live in Mars, I bet the US would try to stop the Chinese travel in mid-space.
Grounding an adult has no effect other than making them more belligerent.
Instead, I changed her living conditions…
Turned off her phone service
Changed the wifi password
Changed the password for all TV services and accounts
Put a lock on the laundry room door, where the breaker box just happened to be located
Flipped the breaker for her room
Finally, I ordered take out for me for a full week and bought no groceries
After a week, she came in throwing a tantrum. I was abusing her! How dare I do this to her.
I calmly told her that family enjoys the perks of living in a family, including my electricity and food…but they also are respectful, do household chores or pay their share. Squatters get no considerations of family. And next week, there will be a lock on my room and no hot water in my guest bathroom.
She was a butthead for another week. She talked to other adults and the cops and CPS (who asked if she was a vulnerable adult who needed guardianship)…then decided being pleasant and respectful and doing about 2 hours of chores a week was worth the perks of being family.
I never raised my voice, never argued with her, simply impressed upon her what I no longer HAD to provide for an adult.
‘Armed to the Teeth’ Frankish Warrior’s Untouched Grave Found
In a discovery that has left historians and archaeologists astonished, a completely untouched grave from the Merovingian period was uncovered in Germany. Hidden among other graves that were plundered over a millennium ago, this singular grave had rested undisturbed for over 1,300 years.
The discovery was made by the archaeologists from the Kaiserpfalz Research Center , who have been digging at this early medieval burial ground since 2015. Christoph Bassler, excavation manager described the discovery:
“We first spotted the edge of a shield boss…It wasn’t immediately clear which grave it belonged to. But, as we dug further, the realization dawned that we had stumbled upon a grave that, for some reason, had been overlooked by ancient grave robbers.”
A 7th Century Frankish Warrior, ‘Armed to the Teeth’
The grave’s occupant, known as the “warrior from grave 447,” was evidently someone of importance in his time. A splendid double-edged sword, or ‘spathe’, lay next to him, measuring nearly 93 cm (3 foot) in its entirety. Its blade, even after so many centuries, remains slightly flexible , pointing to an impeccable state of preservation, noted Bassler.
The sword wasn’t the Frankish warrior’s only companion in the afterlife. A massive broadaxe, another heavy knife, a lance tip, and a shield were found, showcasing an array of almost every weapon from that era—except for a bow.
Interestingly, while adorned with an impressive weaponry collection, this man was not a full-time soldier. In the early Middle Ages , there were no standing armies as we know them today. Free men were expected to gear up and respond to their leader’s call to arms when required.
The Franks in Europe
The Franks, one of the prominent Germanic tribes, played a central role in the reshaping of European geography and politics after the fall of the Roman Empire . Their history in the region was rich and transformative.
Between the 5th and the 8th centuries, with the decline of Roman power, the Franks under King Clovis I unified various Frankish tribes and expanded their territories. In 486 AD, Clovis defeated the last Roman governor in Gaul, marking the end of Roman rule in that region. Clovis and his successors, known as the Merovingians, expanded the Frankish kingdom into what is now Germany, establishing a significant portion of the region as “Austrasia.” Under the Merovingians, the Franks converted to Christianity, and the fusion of Germanic and Roman traditions began.
Secrets Remain intact, For Now
While the grave’s goods have been handed over for restoration, further studies are expected to shed light on the precise dating and intricate details obscured by rust. For instance, silver inlays hidden beneath the rust layers, might offer deeper insights into the artistry of the time. “This incredible discovery adds a significant piece to our understanding of early medieval Ingelheim,” remarked department head Eveline Breyer.
Analyses are also underway to ascertain the cause of the man’s death, who was believed to be in his 30s or 40s when he passed. Whether he succumbed to illness or fell in battle remains to be seen, but given his grave’s martial ambiance, a warrior’s end in combat wouldn’t be unexpected.
Typically China doesn’t use political muscle to counter Anti Chinese sanctions or Anti Chinese hostility
China is in a very good position today
It is very strong, it is bustling with emerging technologies, every day sees new developments and it’s people are enjoying the lowest inflation possible and saving the most money in the world with very little personal debt
China is developing at a very rapid pace and surging ahead
It’s Military and Navy are building up at a rate that the US has not hit since 1944
Israel placed an order for 1.5 Million units of Body Armor Vests for their Paramilitary with China
Delivery within 30 days
Express order at 2.5 times original tender price
Bangladesh can do it, India can do it
Yet the quality, price and time taken combo is entirely Chinas baby
No Nation on earth can come even 50% close
At this stage, China is too prosperous to get into fights and get into any situation that could jeopardize it’s progress
In fact if you go to China, you will realize that a Company sanctioned by US is a MARK OF HONOR in Beijing
DJI is flush with orders from South America, Central America and the Middle East today
They lost a potential $ 4 Billion of deals in US and Europe and gained almost the entire $ 4 Billion in Saudi, Oman, Qatar and Brazil and Peru
Huawei has China
The Sheer Network in China alone would ensure Huawei covers 5G for 1.4 Billion people
Add the BRI Nations and another 36 Nations and you have a whopping 3.47 Billion People who are using Huawei equipment for their 5G
Plus Chinas smartphone market of 867 Million Units a year is more than US and EU and UK and Japan combined (574 Million Units)
Plus Huawei is an expert at using Western IP developed for Billions using a few tweaks and minting money on the same by spending pennies on the dollar
Best example is 3G and 4G.
The Collective West spent almost $ 15 Billion on the development
Huawei modified these IP and developed their 5G Patents by spending a mere $ 600 Million
Thus while Cisco hasn’t even recovered 15% of it’s investments, Huawei has already quadrupled it’s investments in 5G
China thus is in the best position to just sit by and surge ahead while doing very little
Things are so good for them that any counter action could make things worse
Huawei too is building a base among its Global South clients and will ultimately reach the peak without the West or their markets
Don’t under estimate China
They use their soft power for other things
This UNHRC is the best example
The Collective West twisted arms until they broke
Yet China grinned and became a full member for 2 more years
The Collective West twisted arms until they broke to avoid the BRICS expansion or the G20 condemnation of Putin
China crushed both these plans through tough diplomatic manoeuvres
The US is in a very weak place
It’s breaking up and is in deep trouble
Thus all this posturing to divert attention from the problems at home.
Same for UK, Canada and Europe
China has no such diversion needed
They just want to keep doing their job – developing Technology and soft power and surging ahead
FIRST TIME REACTING TO | Merkules ”Rich Men North Of Richmond” Remix
He’s been around many years. A true badass rapper. Dudes flow is always crazy.
I was 14. No friends. Each day I dragged myself home to where I lived with my schizophrenic Mother, just the two of us.
I would be in trouble for something: I lived in a perpetual state of confusion as I often couldn’t remember what she told me I had done.
She told me I was stupid and needed to go to a special school because I didn’t know what I had done wrong.
In the past she had often slapped me until my nose bled and beat me with the metal pole of a fly swatter, but that stopped the summer before high school.
She told me she didn’t love me repeatedly for months.
According to her I was a horrible daughter.
Her friends from church had stopped coming weekly to yell at me and slap me senseless as well. I knew when she sent me away with my Aunt and Uncle the summer that had passed she had read my diary, where I detailed all the abuse and talked about wanting to die.
She denied reading it, but it stopped the physical abuse so now it was just verbal and believe it or not that hurt just as bad.
I was unloveable and alone.
She didn’t work and depended on government assistance.
She just sat at home chain smoking and playing cards.
During the week I woke myself up, made breakfast, went to school. She complained about the smell of eggs in the morning and of course I was useless.
I had a hard time socializing, and she decided she didn’t like the friends I’d managed to make the previous year, so put me in a very small private Christian high school the church paid for.
As a low income, single parent house I was a freak among higher income two parent families.
So I spent my days an outsider and bullied at school and then came home to be bullied some more.
I got in trouble once because someone told her I walked around with my head down and never smiled!
I remember trying out and making the school play that year. I was so proud.
My Mother decided to use that as leverage for her every whim: if I did anything wrong (sang doing dishes) she threatened to not allow me to be in the play. It got so bad I just quit the play rather than have it continually be held over my head as a threat.
A school councillor regularily made me talk to him.
I refused to give anything up.
He persisted. He asked me if I was abused: as she was no longer hitting me I said no.
I had no words to explain the verbal abuse.
Being stupid and unloveable didn’t seem to qualify.
Then one magical day a girl at school approached me and we became friends.
A few weeks later she asked me if I could spend the weekend at her house.
Her house was beautiful and she lived with her parents and siblings and it was loud, noisy and chaotic.
On the Saturday of this weekend sleep over, my new friend had to take piano lessons so I was to hang out in her room until she got back.
I was surprised when both her parents wanted to speak with me while she was gone.
They informed me that the school had asked them to be my foster parents and presented me with a ‘contract’.
They gave me 30 minutes to decide if I wanted to live with them.
I was 14 years old.
I had no friends.
My Mother was the only family I had ever known.
I knew I was stupid. I knew that I was worthless and unloveable. 30 minutes was a ridiculous amount of time for a decision that would change the course of my life that I was too young to make. I didn’t know these people at all.
But a voice in my head screamed at me to do it, with everything it had.
So I took that leap of faith. I jumped off the cliff away from everything I’d ever known.
My roller coaster ride wasn’t over my any means, but to this day I am so grateful I left.
My life 30 years later is wonderful and I often wonder where I would be if I had stayed growing up in that horrible house.
The United States is confirming that the first (official) group of M1A1 Abrams tanks have arrived in Ukraine to be used against Russia. The escalation of fighting between Russia and Ukraine continues.
At some point, and we are now very close to it, Russia is going to declare the US a “combatant” in the fighting, and when that takes place, it will be public notice that we — here in the USA — are now subject to Russian military strikes.
Americans will be caught completely blind-sided if and when this takes place; they won’t understand how or why we got attacked by Russia – because our Mass-Media has not done its job to inform the public just how far our government public servants have escalated the fighting.
China just gave US chip materials’ permission, the US ordered to escalate sanctions against China!
For me, the most surprising thing about being rich is that it’s an incredibly isolating experience. What I mean by that is you can’t really complain about your problems except within your small circle of rich friends. Otherwise, you will sound like a douchebag. Even if you do, non-rich people can’t really empathize with you.
There are a few problems associated with being rich such as general (lack of) motivation for work, family/friends asking for money, worry for how to motivate kids, spouse with different attitudes toward life after getting rich, potential spouse being a gold digger, unexpected jealous reaction from friends/family, pressure to deal with more complex tax, estate planning and investment planning and etc.
The joy of “set for life” doesn’t seem to offset the anxiety from hoarding the huge sum of money. In addition, when you don’t work because you are rich but can’t hang out with your friends who have to work during the week, you feel like an outcast of society.
Overall, being rich is very isolating and that’s the most surprising thing I have experienced.
China’s new missile DF 51, called a small Sarmat, can evade the Aegis defense system at sea
The New DF-51 ballistic missile can carry 10 miniature missiles. When the DF-51 flies to a certain area and launches 10 atomic bombs at the same time, the power is so great that the existing air defense system of the United States cannot bear it at all.
I watched a 90 lb female put a 235 lb guy in the hospital. This was a fight between 2 neighbors in my neighborhood. This guy harassed her for weeks then for some reason he decided to walk up to her front porch and knock on her door. I was sitting on my front porch when it happened. I was thinking this is not going to be good, and had my cell phone within reach.
She open her door and in a clear loud voice, she requested he get off her property. He said, what are you going to do about it. She said, I’ll call the police. He laughed at her and reached for the screen door. Before I could move she kicked him in the head twice, swept his legs out from under him, and he was down and bleeding.
I started to call the police, but again before I could dial the number a patrol car pulled up and the officer put the guy in handcuffs. I just sat there, drank my coffee and waited for him to come over and ask what I saw. I told him and signed the bottom of the form.
As he walked away he said you know the woman? I replied yes, she’s a former Marine. He chuckled and said. I guess the guy didn’t know that, and I laughed.
How I see the US after living in Europe for 5 years
“I moved to France 5 years ago. Came home to Maryland to spend Christmas with the family. I got sick, went to the ER, and came out with a bill worth $1,900. The doctor saw me a week later for a follow-up. I needed surgery and it would cost more than $ 45,000. I went back to France after the holidays, saw a doctor, got surgery, 2 months off work and I PAID NOTHING. “
In 1974, Xi volunteered to go to Liangjiahe, a dirt-poor village in Northwestern China. His dad was getting the rough treatment during the Cultural Revolution, so he probably felt that getting out of Beijing was a safer move. So he volunteered.
China’s GDP per capita in the 70’s was around $100 per year, which is obviously not great. But Liangjiahe was a totally different ball game. It was a famously poor place. I would guess the GDP per capita was maybe $20 a year. No, I did’t miss any zeros. It was really that poor. There was no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no toilet, no heat, no rice or flour. Corn was a luxury, millet and wild grass were the normal diet. and people just dug dirt caves out of mountains to live.
The villagers that Xi lived with – were mostly illiterate and covered in fleas. So Xi looked around, and was like, fleas, oh well, I just have to get used to it. Food? That’s OK, I’ll take a hoe and go farm with the villagers. We can feed ourselves. Electricity? Water? Nah, nothing can be done about that. So what do we have? Poop! OK, so we have poop. We can make something with that, maybe.
So he read about fermenting poop to make methane gas, and tried to build a poop-fermenter in his village, so that people can use it for light and cooking at night. He was only 16 or 17 at that time, so he wasn’t very good and got the pipe stuck, so he had to jump into the cesspool to clear the pipe, and got poop all over himself, but he got it working. The next year he traded his motorbike for a water pump and some other tools for the village, and pretty soon his village was getting more prosperous. He stayed and worked in that village for 7 years, applied to join the CCP 10 times, got rejected 9 times, and finally got admitted on the 10th time. The villagers promptly elected him the Party Secretary of the village.
That was how he started his political career in China.
He’s not unique.
Actually, all of China’s leaders have been through absolute hell to get to where they are.
CCP tradition is that unless you start from the very bottom, you’ll never get to the very top. I mean, you are selecting 7 out of 80 million, once every 10 years, so the CCP traditionally has been absolutely ruthless in terms of discipline and promotion.
Election bribery? Expel 70.
Industrial accident? Send 25 to jail.
Corruption? Punish 100,000 in one year.
Get GDP to grow at 10%+, while keep your nose clean? OK, you get a one step promotion.
A small purge once every 2 years.
A big purge once every 5 years.
You’ve got to beat out 80 million people to get there, and everybody is swimming as hard as you are. The ones who pop out at the end, after 35 years, are all NOT your normal people!
When Beijing announced the plan to eliminate extreme poverty in 2015, most foreign observers were dubious. Can China Wipe Out Poverty By 2020?
Since the announcement, People Daily, the top Chinese newspaper, has been literally reporting on poverty reduction DAILY – success, failure, method, strategy, recidivism, lessons learned, statistics, etc. Everyday! I suspect the guy is actually serious about it.
Why I Am Leaving The United States and Never Coming Back
In this video I will be explaining why i am leaving the united states and never coming back. this discussion consists of reasons like social life in the united states, dating in the united states, cost of living for quality of life and more. I am going to thailand for the first time leaving the country in a couple months. expect upcoming traveling vlogs.
I sit behind the students and use an iPad hooked up to a projector to show them things on a screen in front of them.
It’s a really big screen, too. It’s one of those “backyard movie projection” screens, for which I built a frame and now it’s taking up the better part of one wall in my classroom. I have the projector at the back of the classroom, aiming over the students’ heads. And, since the projector is next to my desk (which is a sit/stand desk, by the way), I can physically plug my iPad into it. I tried doing this all wirelessly a few years ago, but it was more trouble than it was worth.
Usually, I’m showing them pages from their textbooks or workbooks. I snap pictures of the relevant pages for that day, turn them all into a single .pdf, and work my way through them, for the class to see. I use an Apple Pencil to mark them us as I go.
If the students seem bored, I ask for volunteers to come over to the iPad and do a few problems for everyone to see. The students enjoy it when one of their classmates takes on the role of “teacher.” The students who are taking on that role enjoy using the iPad and Apple Pencil.
Every now and then, I have to sub in another teacher’s classroom for a single period. No one else at this school has a set-up like mine. I genuinely don’t understand how teachers can stand being in front of their students while they’re trying to teach them, writing things on a whiteboard. Turning your back on your students while you write on the board is nerve-racking for me.
As an added bonus, when I’m using the iPad as a whiteboard or e-reader, and our textbook mentions something interesting, I can quickly and easily pull up YouTube or Safari, to enlighten the students a little more. Just this morning, our lesson on appositives featured 10 sentences about jazz music, including several about Louis Armstrong and Wynton Marsalis. I was able to pull up videos of both men, so the students could see who we were learning about. I was then able to find out that, not only is Marsalis still alive (the students asked me), but he’s playing in Chicago next spring.
At least once per day, I pull up something online that one of our textbooks mentions, to teach the students a little more about it.
Originally, I sat behind my students so I could see their screens when they were online. Yes, there is monitoring software, but just looking around at their screens in much easier. That was 15 years ago, when I began teaching. I’ve been doing it like this ever since.
The Video I Never Wanted to Make.
This is honestly getting scary hopefully it doesn’t get as bad as we all think but something tells me that we may not get that lucky. Crazy to think I am only 28 years old and I am prepper but i might have to start teaching my family how to do this stuff. Everyone stay safe.
Several years ago I inherited a “team” of people that included a lady I’ll call “Nancy.” She was what we called a houseplant: she’d been there forever and didn’t do much, but firing her would be a mess.
Nancy was a disaster from day 1. She would take two hour lunches. She’d hand in work so poor I could have just done it.
I once asked her to compile a spreadsheet and all she did was dump files into a folder and send it to me. She literally had one job of compiling a single report that she was doing. We even made her a simple guide that anyone could follow. We had her do this because it kept her away from everyone.
She also had beefs with three of my other people, so much that I moved people around the office to avoid her. She once accused a lady of drinking beer at her desk and it turned out to be some generic cola from Winn Dixie. When she wasn’t satisfied by this she reported me and the lady to HR. One fellow on my team was on long term pain management after being wounded by an IED in Afghanistan. He took some serious pain medication but he was a fantastic employee. Again, she called HR on him after telling her to mind her own business. When HR didn’t do anything she called the police and tried to have him arrested for drug possession.
One day we were doing end-of-year reporting and needed the report that Nancy was running. I go to the share drive and it’s empty. I ask her for it and she claims it’s there. I check again and it’s just raw data from our database.
I go over to her desk and ask what was happening. She immediately lies and says I never told her about the report. I point out the file detailing the steps on how to pull the report on her desktop.
One of my other employees, Wondah (pronounced Wanda) walks over and is trying to help. Nancy keeps trying to just push her away or delete files. Wondah tells her she’s costing us time and resources and it hits. Nancy looks at Wondah and yells “Shut up n*gger!”
The office goes quiet. I take two steps back. I put my hand on Wondah’s shoulder and gently pull her back a bit. I call over a neutral guy on another team. I ask him to walk Nancy out of the office and wait.
30 seconds later I’m on a conference call with HR confirming she’s getting fired. Wondah and five other employees confirm what she said.
I walk out in the hallway. Any illusion of civility is gone. Now she’s spitting and swearing at everyone. I tell her she’s fired. I get deluged by a string of racist screeds and threats to send her sons to my house to kill me. Security is there to escort her out. She turns and spits at me.
She tried suing the company for everything under the sun. On the stand she was a total disaster of a witness and I think the jury hated her as much as I did at that point.
She lost and had to pay our legal fees. Last I heard she’d fled the country to avoid paying a bunch of debts.
As a gullible 30 y.o. I met a really cute man that seemed to like me. We started dating. His car broke down and he asked to borrow $80. I loaned it to him and he returned it. About 6 weeks later, his Mom had an emergency and he needed $400 and asked to borrow it until the next payday. I loaned it to him. Then I found out he had a live-in girlfriend and child. She came to my work and tried to beat me up for trying to steal her boyfriend. I broke up with him but I tried to get my money back. That wasn’t happening. He kept trying to get back with me, but I found a note that he had written about how much money I had in my checking account. He didn’t realize it had fallen out of wherever he put it. So I decided to beat him at his own game. I asked him to meet me for lunch at a restaurant. I had stashed a dear friend of mine at another table within ear shot and vision of what I was doing. I had handwritten a small “loan agreement with interest” that I told him I needed him to sign for me to rebuild trusting him. The Sucker signed it thinking it wasn’t valid. My friend witnessed it and signed as a witness. I then took him to Small Claims Court, asked for damages and Court costs, garnished his wages, and got my money back over time, including interest.
10 Reasons Why You Should NEVER Move to the United States
The USA has become a TERRIBLE place.
Apricot Cobbler
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
Filling
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup water
3 (15 1/4 ounce) cans apricot halves, drained
1 tablespoon butter
Topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup milk
Instructions
Filling
In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Stir in water; bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil and stir for 1 minute; reduce heat.
Add apricots and butter; heat through. Pour into a greased 2 quart baking dish.
Topping
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl; cut in butter until crumbly.
Stir in milk just until moistened. Spoon over hot apricot mixture.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted into the topping comes out clean.
When I was 14 years old my Mom suddenly decided she wanted to move to Colorado. Apparently it was a place she had always wanted to see, so next thing I knew we were living in the ultra small town of Limon, Colorado. I was not happy about this at all. My brother, who was 19 at the time, had stayed in South Carolina. All of my friends were still in South Carolina. I was miserable.
I spent my freshman year in Limon, and hated almost everything about it. The one part I didn’t hate was that my freshman class of 30 students included 5 guys and 25 girls. That was fun. On the other hand, I was the fattest kid in school, so even playing football didn’t help me in that arena.
One day, about a week after school let out for summer, I was sitting in my bedroom listening to music when I suddenly really wanted to hang out with my brother. I didn’t even think about it. I grabbed my rucksack that I used for camping, loaded it up with clothes, my radio and some tapes (this was 1990), and I walked out the door. I was going to hitchhike the almost 1500 miles to South Carolina.
It took me 63 hours to get there. To this day I am amazed at how easy it actually was, and how fast I made it there. What’s even more amazing is that when I showed up at my Aunt’s front door (my brother was living with her after we moved) it was my Mom who met me at the door. As soon as she had gotten home from work and I wasn’t there she knew what I had done and where I was going. Since she was able to drive straight through she made the trip far quicker than I did.
My Mom was angry, but she was just as relieved that I was safe, so she agreed that we could stay for one week before we headed back to Limon. That was on a Friday. The following Wednesday was June 6th, 1990. That date might not matter to most people, but it was very important to us, because of this:
A tornado ripped through the town, destroying almost half of the town – including the apartment we were living in at the time. If we hadn’t been in South Carolina, I would have been home when it came through, and likely would not be alive right now.
Oddly enough, this would not be the last time something like that would happen to me. In 2010 I made the split-second decision to move back to South Carolina again, leaving behind my apartment in Joplin, Missouri. I had already been planning to move, but my plan had been to go to Florida to be near my parents. At the last minute my Mom told me not to come because the Space Center had just laid off 10,000 NASA employees, and that was a job market I did not want to try to compete in during those hard times. I could have stayed in Joplin, but I had already sold off most of my furniture, so I just decided, “Screw it, I’ll go back to South Carolina.”
A year later, Joplin was hit by an F5 tornado that destroyed almost 25% of the town — including the apartment I had been living in when I was there. Combined with the fact that an entire street I lived on in South Carolina was destroyed by a tornado a couple years after I moved away, and the fact that I left South Carolina months before Hurricane Hugo hit, and again just before Hurricane Andrew hit, and now my friends joke that if I ever move away they are all coming with me.
Jamaican Sista Warns Black Immigrants, The American Dream Is A Farce Because US Is A Plantation
“You will work until you are literally DEAD!”
Stacked 1,400-Year-Old Zhou Dynasty Emperor’s Tomb Uncovered in China
Archaeologists in Shaanxi Province, northwest China, have discovered the tomb of Emperor Xiaomin (birth name Yuwen Jue), the founding emperor of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581). Emperor Xiaomin’s tomb, a medium-sized one in the context of the Northern Zhou dynasty, is situated in Beihe Village, Weicheng District, Xianyang, an area known for its concentration of high-quality tombs spanning from the Northern Dynasties (439-581) to the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907).
Uncovering Zhou Dynasty Emperor Tomb: Medium-Sized but Power Packed
The tomb itself faces south and is a single-chamber soil cave tomb with four patios along the sloping tomb passage, according to a press announcement by Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology on Tuesday. Covering a total length of 56.84 meters (186.5 ft) from north to south, the bottom of the tomb lies 10 meters (32.8 ft) beneath the current surface.
According to the press announcement:
“The archaeological discovery of Yuwen Jue’s tomb from the Northern Zhou Dynasty is of great significance. It is the second Northern Zhou emperor’s tomb that has been excavated after the Xiaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.”
Though the tomb had previously been looted, archaeologists have managed to recover 146 burial objects, primarily pottery figurines in a single chamber holding funerary offerings, depicting warriors and cavalry units. Furthermore, the presence of an epitaph on the tomb’s eastern side has allowed archaeologists to confirm that the tomb belonged to Emperor Xiaomin (542-557), reports Heritage Daily .
This discovery holds immense significance for historical research into the emperors of the Northern Dynasty , as highlighted by Zhao Zhanrui, an assistant researcher at the academy.
Northern Zhou: Foundation of a Short-Lived Dynasty
Rather than assuming the title of emperor, Xiaomin, also known as Emperor Ming of Northern Zhou, chose to adopt the Zhou Dynasty’s title of “Heavenly Prince.” However, his reign was marred by internal strife and power struggles. A significant conflict unfolded between Xiaomin and his cousin, Yuwen Hu, who sought to consolidate his own power.
In a dramatic turn of events, Yuwen Hu managed to depose Xiaomin from his position and subsequently had him killed. This political maneuvering further highlighted the instability and internal divisions that plagued the Northern Zhou Dynasty during its relatively brief existence.
The Northern Zhou Dynasty , which reigned from 557 to 581 AD, was a significant but relatively short-lived era in the history of ancient China . Founded by Yuwen Tai, who took the title of Emperor Wen upon his ascent to power, the dynasty was established following a successful rebellion against the ruling Northern Wei Dynasty .
The Northern Zhou’s capital was Chang’an, an influential city located in what is now Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Chang’an was known for its cultural richness and strategic importance as a center of trade and governance .
One of the most notable aspects of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was its association with Buddhism. Emperor Wen and his successor, Emperor Wu, were fervent Buddhists, and they played a pivotal role in promoting Buddhism as the state religion. They supported the construction of Buddhist temples , sponsored the translation of Buddhist scriptures, and actively contributed to the growth of Buddhism in China. This period marked a significant turning point in Chinese religious and cultural history.
Emperor Wen and Emperor Wu also implemented important political reforms aimed at strengthening the central authority of the emperor. Land redistribution was one such reform, aimed at reducing the power of the aristocracy and redistributing land to the common people. These efforts were indicative of the dynasty’s desire to create a more equitable society.
Despite these reforms, the Northern Zhou Dynasty faced challenges. The empire’s unity weakened over time, leading to regional fragmentation and conflicts among various power centers. Eventually, the Northern Zhou Dynasty succumbed to internal strife, and it was conquered by the Sui Dynasty in 581. This marked the end of the dynasty’s relatively short but culturally impactful existence.
Legacy and Historical Relevance of the Northern Zhou
The legacy of the Northern Zhou Dynasty lives on in several ways. Its patronage of Buddhism had a lasting influence on Chinese religion, culture, and art. The dynasty’s contributions to calligraphy and sculpture, particularly in the context of Buddhist art, marked significant advancements in Chinese culture. Furthermore, some of its political reforms, such as those related to land distribution, influenced subsequent Chinese dynasties, including the powerful Tang Dynasty.
Notably, the Northern Zhou Dynasty was unique in its ethnic background. Its founding emperor, Yuwen Tai, belonged to the Xianbei ethnic group, making the dynasty one of the few in Chinese history to be ruled by a non-Han Chinese ethnic group, a rarity.
FILIPINA WIFE DEFENDING PASSPORT BROS.
One of the best, most intelligent responses to these woke, American women. Thanks Leah. You and Gary have a great family and life. Wish you both the best!
When I was in High School, I had a opinion column in the High School newspaper. I wrote weekly opinions, and was rather prolific in that endeavor. I would write up an opinion, then I would type it up in an electric typewriter (in the typing class) and hand it in.
But somehow, for reasons that took me until the end of school to find out, my editorials were always botched up with a ton of spelling and grammar errors.
I would type;
Jimmy Carter made another promise in his on-going litany of promises.
And the newspaper would print…
immy Barter madddde ANother premise in e5ton-going litterany, of GH8mises.
At the end of the school year, I discovered that all my work… week after week were being sabotaged by under-classmen who thought it great fun to destroy my work.
…
Yeah.
What great “fun”.
…
I took no action. And, I moved on with my life.
Who knows where these kids are today. Given their habit of hurting others for fun, they are either in positions of power, or living in mobile homes and prostituting themselves for yucks.
Probably the latter.
…
When you take time to be DESTRUCTIVE instead of CONSTRUCTIVE, your life develops and unfolds exactly as you have programmed it.
Do not make that mistake.
Do not cause hurt and pain.
Be good.
…
Remember, to manifest your desires, you must confront all your negative behaviors that you have colored your life with.
A few months ago, I was taking care of patient “Johnny”.
Johnny was an elderly man who had his stay in hospital extended due to multiple poorly controlled comorbidities. For privacy’s sake, I won’t go into detail about his medical conditions.
For one whole month, I was part of Johnny’s medical treatment team, and the main junior doctor taking care of him.
Every morning, I visited his bed, engaged in some small talk with him, auscultated his chest and lungs and palpated his abdomen and ankles.
Every week, I updated his family, i.e his son and daughter, on the progress of his condition via phone calls.
Due to the complexity of his condition, his family agreed to have him on partial code (i.e not for CPR/Intubation/ICU). While his condition had stabilised, I warned them that any further infections or cardiac event will likely cost his life.
Despite all this, the son and daughter did not visit Johnny once, not even once, in those 30 days. Over the phone, they would always have a convenient excuse ready. Business trips, commitments, you name it.
One morning, when I visited Johnny for his usual checkup, I observed that he was drowsier than usual. A vital sign perimeters check revealed a significantly reduced oxygen saturation. The medical team was immediately informed as I took and sent off bloods and ordered a chest x-ray. Investigations indicated a new-onset hospital-acquired Pneumonia, likely due to his age and compromised immunity.
As was discussed with him and his family, at this stage, it’s better to allow a natural death instead of prolonging his suffering by sending him to ICU and putting tubes down his throat.
His son and daughter were promptly informed and voila! Within an hour, somehow both of them were able to ditch their “commitments” and arrive at bedside. By then, the patient was already unresponsive and on morphine.
The son had tears in his eyes while the daughter was bawling uncontrollably. Johnny could no longer recognise them, nor respond to them in any way. He had spent his last 30 days without a single family member beside him.
Imagine being imprisoned in a small box for years, with just a small hole to push food through. The Coffin Prisons of Mongolia were as the name described. They were small, cramped boxes with barely enough room to sit up or lie down. They had a little hole at the side so food could be fed to the prisoner, that’s if you get food.
Being placed in one of these boxes meant a death sentence, hence the name. Even if you were fed, the temperatures would drop below freezing at night, and you would probably freeze to death. Prisoners who managed to beat the odds were imprisoned in these boxes for life sentences, and the ones who didn’t go blind went insane from being confined for years in the cramped box.
Sometimes, the prisoners were fed once a day and had their human waste cleaned out once every three weeks.
The picture above was taken by French photographer Stephane Passet in 1913, and it shows a woman condemned to death and left to die of starvation in the box. This form of punishment was only abolished in the late 20th century.
Male lions act alone, while hyenas travel in packs.
Hyenas like to prey on animals that are weaker than themselves. They are used to bullying the small with the many and the weak with the strong, but they never dare to attack many with one like the Male lion.
The male lion loves to eat the hyena named “Japan”.
Taiwan is the bait, and the Male lion is waiting for the hyena called “Japan” to take the bait.
The Chinese very much look forward to Japan joining the ranks of intervening in Chinese civil war (China’s internal affairs).
Only small countries need alliances to seek security; superpowers never do so.
WWI exposed the drawbacks of haphazard alliances that could drag allies toward all-out war.
WWII showed that the compacts and agreements made between allies were no different than used toilet paper.
Therefore, after WWII, no country in its right mind was interested in military alliances. After all, they had just crawled out of the cesspit, so their memories were particularly profound.
This is a picture of an astronaut helmet a Texas farmer found in his field following the Columbia space shuttle disaster that killed several crew members in 2003. Along with the helmet and pieces of the shuttle, they also found human body parts, including a torso, arms, feet, and a heart.
One of the main engineers behind the Challenger space shuttle said that NASA ignored multiple warnings against launching in cold weather. The night before the launch, he told his wife, “It’s going to blow up.”
He was one of five engineers who told NASA to postpone the launch, but they didn’t listen to their warnings. The shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members on board.
I used to manage a 24-hour chain auto parts store. Yes, here in Chicago, one can buy auto parts at 3 a.m., if you really wanted to. One could do that every night of the month except one. We had to close the store for six hours (11 p.m.-5 a.m.) once per month to get the floor waxed.
The chain I worked for outsourced their overnight floor waxing to a third party. That third party had a four-man crew. They’d usually show up an hour early and start moving all of the floor displays to the back of the store and doing the other prep work they could do while the store was still open. Once they started with the floor-stripping chemicals, though, the doors were locked and the store was closed.
But two of our employees stayed in the back of the store. It was a huge store and there was plenty for them to do back there, like stocking the shelves, dusting, etc… Most of the parts we sold were stored in the back of the store. The “back of the store” was 4/5 of the entire building… the parts that are car-specific, and you have to ask someone who works there which part you need, and let them get it for you.
Among the tens of thousands of parts in the back of the store were carburetors. In the three years I worked there, I never once saw anyone buy one of those. They’re old technology that old timers like to work on as a hobby. The carburetors were in boxes and sold for about $500 each.
Every now and then, we’d discover that one of the boxes was empty. We, of course, assumed it was internal theft, because we’d notice a customer walking to the back of the store, unboxing a carburetor, putting the box back nicely, and walking out with the merchandise. We did have security cameras in the back, but there were many blind spots for them.
I didn’t know it at the time, but the head store manager began checking the carburetor boxes every day, and, when one was missing, he checked who was working that day. He did this for several months before he saw the pattern: they were always missing the day after the floors got waxed.
The floor waxing crew used a giant floor cleaning machine, like you might see at an airport:
When really, a machine this size, which is what similar companies used at similar-sized stores, would have been more reasonable:
One morning, as the floor guys were leaving, my boss met them at the door. He had two police officers with him. I believe he knew these cops as friends… I don’t think they would have been there otherwise. Anyway, my boss asked the head of the floor crew to open the hood of their giant cleaning machine. I don’t know if he did it willingly, or was compelled to do it by the cops. (I was there, but I was in the store, doing the opening paperwork.) But, when the hood was opened, there were four carburetors sitting in it where a water tank should have been.
The entire floor-cleaning machine had been modified for stealing items from the places whose floors they cleaned. It wasn’t just our store… they’d been doing this at several different stores.
Later, we heard through the grapevine that the head of the cleaning crew got a long prison sentence for stealing, because he had several prior convictions for other things.
China Angrily Cuts Railway Trade Link With Lithuania!
In today’s video, we delve deep into the ongoing geopolitical tensions involving Lithuania, China, Russia, and the European Union. We aim to shed light on the intricate dynamics, diplomatic maneuvers, and economic implications that have arisen due to recent decisions made by these global actors.
A previous employer of mine had an office in Scotland. Their main office, I worked pretty remotely in fact.
Twice in a year, people spilt coffee over their computer keyboards, and had to have new keyboards. Cost to the company, almost nothing.
Suddenly a new rule was introduced that no-one was allowed a mug on their desk. They had to use tip-resistant travel mugs, with a screw on lid, and a small opening to drink through. Genius.
Apart from the coffee machine had space for a cup. A standard size mug. It was one of those coffee machines with a little ledge. You put your cup on the ledge, pressed whatever pretentious coffee choice you guessed might be similar to “normal coffee” and it filled the cup.
The only issue, is the travel mugs didn’t stand up in the ledge. Too tall. So you had to hold the cup at an angle so it would fill from the machine.
Two weeks in, someone seriously scalded their hand, and required hospital treatment, and a substantial pay off.
The travel mugs were removed, normal mugs reinstated, and 2 USB keyboards kept in the stock room.
Edit : This story seems to resonate with people, I’m not sure why. It’s my fastest upvoted answer, with 400 in about a day. If you’re not Scottish, don’t know any/many Scottish people, and haven’t worked with them, you might not understand why they didn’t just “take away the coffee machine” as some commenters suggested.
I managed performance and scheduling for this office. One Monday, my work mobile rang early.
I answered it, the caller said “Is this Ben, it’s Davey here.”
I replied “Hi, yeah this is Ben, what’s up Davey?”
Davey : “I’ll no be in the day”
Me: “No worries, how come?”
Davey : “I’m in Amsterdam”
Me : “Sorry Davey, it sounded like you said you wouldn’t be in because you were in Amsterdam?”
Davey : “Aye, I’ll be haim Wednesday.”
And then he hang up. He went out on a Saturday night, passport for ID, and woke up Monday morning in Amsterdam, not really knowing what happened. He wasn’t fazed by this, he politely let me know he wouldn’t be in due to being in Amsterdam, and hung up. They. Give. No. Fucks.
How China is Beating U.S. GPS Dominance with BeiDou
The Global Positioning System, widely known as GPS, stands as the oldest and most globally recognized satellite navigation system, boasting an impressive user base of approximately 6 billion individuals worldwide. China has now emerged as a formidable challenger to the long-standing dominance of the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS) with its ambitious satellite navigation project.
I lived for a handful of years in the States, on both the East and West coast.
Before I went over, I had to undergo six months of intensive mental and physical training.
I’m not at liberty to reveal the details of aforementioned training, but part of it involves learning how to disguise myself as a panda.
As part of my training, I had to learn how pandas communicate with each other in a group setting.
So, for 2 months, I basically holed myself up in a monastery with 30 pandas, and every day, I would observe and learn from them.
They thought I was their teacher … sent to teach them the esoteric martial arts of the Kunlun Sect.
But, in reality, they were my teachers. All 30 of them.
After I completed my 6 months of training, I was given a glass bottle containing a dark brown liquid.
“What is this?” I said.
The agent in charge of my assignment told me it was a super soldier serum, made from a super top-secret 3500-year-old ancient herbal formula that only 8 people in the world had access to.
I was advised that if I were ever to find myself in a tight spot, in a situation where my real identity risked being uncovered, I should quaff the super soldier serum.
The agent told me it would boost my strength, agility, reaction speed, balance, endurance, durability, hand-eye coordination, speed of thought, wisdom, and senses to peak human level – for up to 3 days.
I took the serum with me – as insurance, as my just-in-case-I-get-caught card.
I guess I was fortunate, because there was never a situation where I was forced to use it.
My wits and unassuming personality were enough to extricate myself from every difficult situation I found myself caught up in.
Here are some pictures I took while I was out in the field on my intelligence-gathering assignments:
This one was in Hollywood.
Here’s the picture of a stone troll I met during one of my assigments.
Fortunately, I have extensive experience dealing with trolls, so I could understand what he was trying to convey despite his heavy accent.
This is me on another intelligence-gathering mission, stopping to have a quick bite for lunch.
A tough but necessary decision would likely force the West to back off, enabling an earlier end to the Ukraine crisis and preventing it from expanding to other states
By Professor Sergey Karaganov,honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow
has sparked major debate among experts in Russia about nuclear weapons, their role and the conditions of their use.
This is especially the case given Sergey Karaganov’s status as a former presidential adviser to both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and his position as head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a noted Moscow think tank.
Some prominent figures have reacted with dismay, while others have been less critical.
RT has decided it would be beneficial for our readers to read it in full. The following piece has been translated and lightly edited.
***
Our country, and its leadership, seems to me to be facing a difficult choice. It is becoming increasingly clear that our clash with the West will not end even if we achieve a partial – let alone a crushing – victory in Ukraine.
Even if we completely liberate the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, it will be a minimal victory. A slightly greater success would be to liberate the whole of eastern and southern Ukraine within a year or two. But it would still leave part of the country with an even more embittered ultra-nationalist population pumped full of weapons – a bleeding wound that threatens inevitable complications, such as another war.
The situation could be worse if we liberate the whole of Ukraine at the cost of monstrous sacrifices and are left with ruins and a population that mostly hates us. It would take more than a decade to “re-educate” them.
Any of these options, especially the last one, will distract Russia from the much-needed shift of its spiritual, economic, military and political center to the East of Eurasia. We will be stuck with a wasteful focus on the West. And the territories of today’s Ukraine, especially the central and western ones, will attract resources – both human and financial. These regions were heavily subsidised even in Soviet times.
Meanwhile, hostility from the West will continue; it will support a slow-burning guerrilla civil war.
A more attractive option is the liberation and reunification of the east and south, and the imposition of capitulation on the remnants of Ukraine with complete demilitarization, creating a buffer, friendly state. But such an outcome would only be possible if we are able to break the West’s will to support the Kiev junta, and use it against us, forcing the US-led bloc into a strategic retreat.
And here I come to a crucial but hardly discussed issue. The root cause of – and indeed the main reason for – the Ukrainian crisis, as well as many other conflicts in the world, and the general increase in military threats, is the accelerating failure of the contemporary Western ruling elites.
This crisis is accompanied by an unprecedentedly rapid shift in the balance of power in the world in favor of the global majority, driven economically by China and partly by India, with Russia as the military and strategic anchor. This weakening not only infuriates the imperial-cosmopolitan elites (US President Joe Biden and his ilk) but also frightens the imperial-national elites (such as his predecessor Donald Trump). The West is losing the advantage it has held for five centuries to siphon off the wealth of the entire world by imposing its political and economic order and establishing its cultural dominance, mainly by brute force. So there is no quick end to the defensive, but aggressive, confrontation that the West has unleashed.
This moral, political and economic collapse has been brewing since the mid-1960s, was interrupted by the collapse of the USSR, but resumed with renewed vigour in the 2000s (the defeats of the Americans and their allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the crisis of the Western economic model in 2008 were milestones).
In order to slow down this seismic shift, the West has temporarily consolidated itself. The US has turned Ukraine into a punching bag to tie the hands of Russia, the politico-military lynchpin of a non-Western world freed from the shackles of neocolonialism. Ideally, of course, the Americans would simply like to blow up our country and thus radically weaken the emerging alternative superpower, China. We, either not realizing the inevitability of the clash or hoarding our strength, have been slow to act preemptively. Moreover, in line with modern, mainly Western, political and military thinking, we were rash in raising the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, inaccurate in assessing the situation in Ukraine, and not entirely successful in launching the current military operation.
By failing internally, Western elites have actively fed the weeds that have taken root in the soil of 70 years of prosperity, satiation and peace. These comprise of anti-human ideologies: the denial of family, homeland, history, love between men and women, faith, service to higher ideals, everything that is human. Their philosophy is to weed out those who resist. The aim is to neuter people in order to reduce their ability to resist modern “globalist” capitalism, which is becoming more and more obviously unjust and harmful to man and humanity.
Meanwhile, a weakened US is destroying Western Europe and other countries dependent on it, trying to push them into a confrontation that will follow Ukraine. The elites in most of these countries have lost their bearings and, panicked by the crisis in their own positions at home and abroad, are dutifully leading their countries to the slaughter. At the same time, because of greater failure, a sense of powerlessness, centuries of Russophobia, intellectual degradation and a loss of strategic culture, their hatred is almost more intense than that of the US.
Thus, the trajectory of most Western countries clearly points towards a new fascism, which could be called “liberal” totalitarianism.
In the future, and this is the most important thing, it will only get worse. Truces are possible, but reconciliation is not. Anger and despair will continue to grow in waves and waves. This vector of Western movement is a clear sign of the drift towards the outbreak of World War Three. It has already begun and could erupt into a full-blown conflagration either by accident, or due to the growing incompetence and irresponsibility of the ruling circles of the West.
The introduction of artificial intelligence and the robotization of war increase the risk of unintended escalation. Machines can act outside the control of confused elites.
The situation is aggravated by “strategic parasitism” – in 75 years of relative peace, people have forgotten the horrors of war, have stopped fearing even nuclear weapons. Everywhere, but especially in the West, the instinct for self-preservation has weakened.
I have spent many years studying the history of nuclear strategy and have come to an unequivocal, if unscientific, conclusion. The advent of nuclear weapons is the result of the intervention of the Almighty, who, appalled that mankind had unleashed two world wars within a generation, costing tens of millions of lives, gave us the weapons of Armageddon to show those who had lost their fear of hell that it existed. On that fear rested the relative peace of the last three-quarters of a century.
But now that fear is gone. The unthinkable in terms of previous notions of nuclear deterrence is happening – a group of ruling elites, in a fit of desperate rage, have unleashed a full-scale war in the underbelly of a nuclear superpower.
The fear of atomic escalation must be restored. Otherwise humanity is doomed.
It is not only, and not even so much, what the future world order will look like that is being decided in the fields of Ukraine right now. But rather whether the world we are used to will be preserved at all, or if all will be left is radioactive ruins, poisoning the remnants of humanity.
By breaking the West’s will in imposing its aggression, we will not only save ourselves and finally free the world from the Western yoke of five centuries, but we will also salvage the whole of humanity. By pushing the West towards catharsis and the abandonment of the hegemony of its elites, we will force it to retreat before a global catastrophe. Humanity will be given a new chance to develop.
Proposed solution
Of course, there is an uphill struggle ahead. It is also necessary to solve our own internal problems – to finally get rid of the mindset of Western-centrism and of the Westernizers in the administrative class. Especially the compradors and their peculiar way of thinking. Of course, in this area, the NATO bloc is helping us, unwittingly.
Our 300-year journey around Europe has given us a lot of useful lessons and it has helped us to form our great culture. Let us cherish our European heritage. But it is time to return home, to ourselves. Let us begin, with the baggage we have accumulated, to live in our own way. Our friends in the Foreign Ministry have recently made a real breakthrough by referring to Russia as a civilizational state in their foreign policy concept. I would add – a civilization of civilizations, open to the North as well as to the South, to the West as well as to the East. Now the main direction of development is to the South, to the North and, above all, to the East.
The confrontation with the West in Ukraine, however it ends, should not distract us from the strategic internal movement – spiritual, cultural, economic, political, military and political – towards the Urals, Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. A new Ural-Siberian strategy is needed, one that includes several powerful spiritually uplifting projects, including, of course, the creation of a third capital in Siberia. This movement should become part of the much-needed formulation of the “Russian Dream” – the image of the Russia and the world to which one aspires.
I have often written, and I am not alone in this, that great states without a great idea cease to be such or simply disappear into the void. History is littered with the graves of powers that lost their way. This idea should be created from above and not rely, as fools or lazy people do, on what comes from below. It must correspond to the deepest values and aspirations of the people and, above all, it must take us all forward. But it is the responsibility of the elite and the leadership of the country to formulate it. The delay in putting forward such a vision is unacceptably long.
But for the future to come to pass, the resistance of the forces of the past – i.e. the West – must be overcome. If this is not achieved, there will almost certainly be a full-scale world war. Which will probably be the last of its kind.
And here I come to the most difficult part of this article. We can keep fighting for another year or two, or even three, sacrificing thousands and thousands of our best men and grinding up hundreds of thousands more who are unfortunate enough to fall into the tragic historical trap of what is now called Ukraine. But this military operation cannot end in a decisive victory without forcing the West into a strategic retreat or even capitulation. We must force the West to abandon its attempts to turn back history, to abandon its attempts at global domination, and to force it to deal with its own problems, to manage its current multifaceted crisis. To put it crudely, it is necessary for the West to simply “piss off” and end its interference in the direction of Russia and the rest of the world.
However, for this to happen, Western elites need to rediscover their own lost sense of self-preservation by understanding that attempts to wear down Russia by playing the Ukrainians against it are counterproductive for the West itself.
The credibility of nuclear deterrence must be restored by lowering the unacceptably high threshold for the use of atomic weapons and by moving cautiously but quickly up the ladder of deterrence-escalation. The first steps have already been taken through statements to this effect by the president and other leaders, by beginning to deploy nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles in Belarus, and by increasing the combat effectiveness of the strategic deterrent forces. There are quite a few steps on this ladder. I count about two dozen. It could even go as far as warning our compatriots and all people of good will about the need to leave their homes near the objects of possible nuclear strikes in countries directly supporting the Kiev regime. The enemy must know that we are ready to launch a preemptive retaliatory strike in response to its current and past aggression in order to prevent a slide into a global thermonuclear war.
I have often said and written that with the right strategy of deterrence and even use, the risk of a ‘retaliatory’ nuclear or other strike on our territory can be minimized. Only if there is a madman in the White House who also hates his own country will the US decide to strike in ‘defense’ of the Europeans and invite retaliation by sacrificing a hypothetical Boston for a notional Poznan. The Americans and the Western Europeans are well aware of this, they just prefer not to think about it. We, too, have contributed to this recklessness with our peace-loving pronouncements. Having studied the history of US nuclear strategy, I know that after the USSR acquired a credible nuclear retaliatory capability, Washington never seriously considered using nuclear weapons on Soviet territory, even though it publicly bluffed. When nuclear weapons were considered, it was only against “advancing” Soviet forces in Western Europe. I know that the late Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt fled from their bunkers as soon as the question of such use came up in an exercise.
Movement down the ladder of containment-escalation should be fairly quick. Given the current direction of the West – and the degradation of most of its elites – each successive decision it makes is more incompetent and ideologically veiled than the last. And, at present, we cannot expect these elites to be replaced by more responsible and reasonable ones. This will only happen after a catharsis, leading to the abandonment of much ambition.
We cannot repeat the ‘Ukrainian scenario’. For a quarter of a century we were not listened to when we warned that NATO enlargement would lead to war; we tried to delay, to “negotiate”. As a result, we ended up in a serious armed conflict. Now the price of indecision is an order of magnitude higher than it would have been earlier.
But what if the present Western leaders refuse to back down? Perhaps they have lost all sense of self-preservation? Then we will have to hit a group of targets in a number of countries to bring those who have lost their senses back to their senses.
It’s a morally frightening choice – we would be using God’s weapon and condemning ourselves to great spiritual loss. But if this is not done, not only may Russia perish, but most likely the whole of human civilization will end.
We will have to make this choice ourselves. Even friends and sympathizers will not support it at first. If I were Chinese, I would not want an abrupt and decisive end to the conflict, because it will draw back US forces and allow them to gather forces for a decisive battle – either directly or, in the best Sun Tzu tradition, by forcing the enemy to retreat without a fight. As a Chinese person, I would also oppose the use of nuclear weapons because taking the confrontation to the nuclear level means moving to an area where my country is still weak.
Also, decisive action is not in line with the Chinese foreign policy philosophy, which emphasizes economic factors (with the accumulation of military power) and avoids direct confrontation. I would support an ally by providing him with rear cover, but I would go behind his back and not enter the fray. (In this case, perhaps I don’t understand this philosophy well enough and am attributing motives to my Chinese friends that are not their own.) If Russia uses nuclear weapons, Beijing would condemn it. But Chinese hearts would also rejoice knowing that the reputation and position of the US had been dealt a severe blow.
How would we react if (God forbid!) Pakistan attacked India, or vice versa? We’d be horrified. Upset that the nuclear taboo has been broken. Then let us help the victims and change our nuclear doctrine accordingly.
For India and other countries of the world majority, including nuclear weapon states (Pakistan, Israel), the use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable, both for moral and geostrategic reasons. If they are used “successfully”, the nuclear taboo – the notion that such weapons should never be used and that their use is a direct route to nuclear Armageddon – will be devalued. We are unlikely to win support quickly, even if many in the Global South would feel satisfaction at the defeat of their former oppressors who plundered them, carried out genocides and imposed an alien culture.
But in the end, the victors are not judged. And the saviors are thanked. Western European political culture does not remember, but the rest of the world does (and with gratitude) how we helped the Chinese to free themselves from the brutal Japanese occupation, and many Western colonies to throw off the colonial yoke.
Of course, if they do not understand us at first, they will have all the more incentive to educate themselves. Still, it is very likely that we can win, and focus the minds enemy states without extreme measures, and force them to retreat. And after a few years, we take take up a position as China’s rear, as it is now performing for us, supporting it in its struggle with the US. Then this fight can be avoided without a big war. And we will win together for the good of all, including the people of the Western countries.
At that stage, Russia and the rest of humanity will pass through all the thorns and traumas into the future, which I see as bright – multipolar, multicultural, multicolored – and giving countries and peoples the opportunity to build their own destinies in addition to the common one, which should unite worldwide.
Ukraen’s parliament and its speaker taunted billionaire Elon Musk on Monday after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pleas for wartime assistance from the West.
Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraen’s defense effort, but his statements have sometimes angered Kyiv since the Ukrosia war in February last year.
Early on Monday, Musk posted a meme on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showing Zelenskyy and the caption: “When it’s been 5 minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid.”
The Ukraenion leader and his top lieutenants have appealed to their allies throughout the war to secure billions of dollars of military aid to weather and push back Russia’s invasion.
The speaker of Ukraen’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, hit out at Musk’s jibe with his own post on X.
“The case when … (Elon Musk) tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was up to his eyeballs in shit,” an apparent reference to SpaceX’s failed rocket launch in April.
Ukraen’s parliament, on its official page on X, accused Musk of spreading Russian propaganda, posting its own version of the meme with a picture of Musk and the caption: “When it’s been 5 minutes and you haven’t spread Russian propaganda.”
A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, who has criticized some of Musk’s statements in the past, said in a post on X that being silent or ironic about Ukraen played into the hands of Russian propaganda.
“Unfortunately, not everyone and not always, while being significant media figures, but being thousands of kilometers away from the war’s epicenter, is able to realize what the daily bombardments and cries of children losing their parents are.”
Ukraenion officials criticized Musk earlier in the war for suggesting that they should consider giving up land for peace, a position that Kyiv has staunchly rejected.
Tuesday, 26 September 2023 12:40 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 September 2023 12:40 PM ]
By Shabbir Rizvi
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Tehran last week and held meetings with top Iranian military leadership, including the Chief of the Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces General Mohammad Bagheri and Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani.
Shoigu, heading a high-ranking Russian military delegation, was in the Iranian capital on the official invitation of General Bagheri, who welcomed him during an impressive ceremony in Tehran.
Shoigu was invited to Iran to discuss “defense cooperation” between the two all-weather allies.
The two countries have historically been the favorite targets of Western aggression: from sabotage attacks to economic sanctions meant to destabilize their economies.
Both countries have, however, held course despite all such oppressive measures and pursued independent policies to strengthen their respective economies and bolster bilateral cooperation.
Shoigu and his accompanying delegation appeared to be in positive spirits while meeting their Iranian counterparts. Shoigu was particularly vocal about the positive relations with Iran’s top leadership.
‘“The pressure of sanctions on Russia and Iran is proving to be futile, while Russia-Iran cooperation is reaching new highs,” Shoigu lauded, as cited by local Iranian media.
The Islamic Republic’s ability to operate independently and create a healthy national economy despite Western meddling has proved very fruitful. It has recently been included in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) economic alliance, as well as the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization).
Naturally, it is important for Iran to consider security issues to protect its interests within these organizations, and Russia is a natural ally in this context as it is also a member of both groupings.
In a growing multilateral world order, which many are referring to as “Multipolarity” as well as “The End of Americanism” (see President Ebrahim Raeisi’s historical speech ), cooperation based on mutual trust and benefit holds the key.
However, the remnants of the dying US-led unipolar world order will try to sow disorder as they fight off the inevitable new reality shaped by new emerging powers.
Projects within BRICS countries as well as SCO countries have notably been subject to Western-backed sabotage. Most notable would be the destruction of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline which impacts Russia’s ability to deliver gas to western Europe.
Other examples include terrorist attacks on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor by the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), Takfiri terrorists that were once on the US list of terror groups but have since been removed as they play a role in the US strategy of destabilizing targeted countries.
The US use of proxy forces to conduct economic sabotage and destruction is a serious threat to regional development and stability as Iran has repeatedly warned about.
These projects will help facilitate regional independence for countries and incentivize less reliance on trade with predatory Western countries. With Iran joining two economic alliances that are going to shape the new world order, it can count on Western-backed disruption to regional projects.
Despite both BRICS and the SCO being economic alliances, in order to ensure their success, the defense of their ambitious projects must be factored in.
The meeting between Shoigu and Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Akbar Ahmadian was a key moment for discussing the looming threat of Western sabotage seriously.
This is a particularly important equation – foreign interference has either been the United States and its allies overtly or its various proxy forces covertly.
As Iran and Russia strengthen the reality of a unified “Eurasia,” it would be in both countries’ interest to secure regional interests – and to expel the threat of Western sabotage completely, as implied in the latter part of the statement.
A mutual understanding of adversaries in the region is a first step that cannot be ignored.
Already, Iran and Russia’s incalculable assistance in Syria can prove the importance of understanding this equation. A unified effort to expel Western invaders and their proxy armies has led to a hard-fought victory for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad – to the point that the Arab League and other countries that once turned their back on Syria are now being forced to accept reality – Syria is here to stay.
This week alone, Iranian intelligence forces thwarted at least 30 bombings at populous areas of the capital Tehran, arresting 28 operatives affiliated with the Daesh Takfiri group.
In this arena, Iran is highly skilled. Iranian intelligence services have also been fiercely exposing and shutting down internal terror networks associated with terrorist organizations such as MeK all the way to Kurdish separatists and Mossad.
Russia would be very interested in Iran’s anti-terror approaches – and vice versa. Russia has been subject to internal terror plots as its military operation in Ukraine continues, including bombings in Moscow and drone attacks on civilian bridges.
A “skillshare” and an open line of communication between the two countries’ intelligence forces could result in protected trade routes and corridors, as well as routing out existing hostile forces.
Furthermore, Iran’s weapons, particularly new military technology that includes drones, missiles, and radar systems – are also highly attractive to Russia, and the Russians do not shy away from admitting this.
It is becoming undeniable that Iran’s military hardware is a game-changer. Iran’s drone program, particularly the Shahed and Mojaher systems, are so sought after that demands are outpacing production
– multiple countries have expressed interest in purchasing them.
Currently, the only countries in the world with Mach 5 capabilities are Russia, China, and Iran
. Iran joined the former this year, with an extremely successful demonstration of the Fattah missile.
Russia has reportedly used its own Kh-47M2 “Kinzhal” hypersonic missiles to strike targets in Ukraine. Although Iran is neutral with respect to Russia’s military operation, proposing dialogue instead of escalation, it could potentially work with Russia to supply Fattah missiles for defensive purposes.
Speaking of which, Russia is also in a unique situation with its military operation in Ukraine. Billions of dollars worth of NATO equipment have been provided to Ukraine in order to stop the Russian advance.
Russia has not only destroyed many of these highly coveted weapons of war, but also captured intact equipment including tanks, rocket launchers, MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket Systems), and more.
Being able to reverse engineer NATO weaponry and exploit its pain points is highly valuable information that Iran would be interested in – especially as these weapons are often wielded by forces hostile to Iran.
If the objective of the meeting in Tehran is deterring the West, then a serious transfer of information obtained on NATO weapons to Iran would be in order. Anything less than a delivery of this vital information is not taken seriously.
This is just the first official defense meeting with Iran’s ascension into BRICS. In Shoigu’s declaration of “reaching new levels” of cooperation with Iran’s military, more meetings will commence as the countries draft various security agreements to protect the region and build multipolarity.
We can also expect more joint military drills between Iran and Russia – similar to the drills held in the Sea of Oman between the two countries and China earlier this year.
Lastly, we can also expect the West not to leave the region gracefully, despite the odds becoming increasingly against them.
Come whatever may, the new alliances – formed by economic mutual cooperation – have a chance to bring much-needed stability and prosperity to the entire “Eurasian” region.
To invoke President Raeisi, it is indeed the end of “Americanization.”
deleted Aliens sentry gun scene
This is fun.
UPDATED 10:05 AM EDT — U.S. Money Supply CONTRACTING; Down 3.69% and Falling
In the past 150 years, the US Money Supply has only contracted five (5) times; and they were Recessions and the Great Depression. It is happening again.
Two U.S. money supply metrics that investors tend to pay close attention to are M1 and M2. The former accounts for the cash and coins in circulation, as well as the demand deposits within an individual’s checking account. Meanwhile, M2 factors in everything in M1 and adds money market accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit (CDs) below $100,000. The main difference is that M2 factors in cash that takes a little extra work to get your hands on.
For as far back as the eye can see, M2 has been climbing. Since the U.S. economy steadily grows over the long run, it’s only natural that more cash/capital is needed to facilitate transactions. In fact, M2 rising is so common that some economists may not even be paying attention to it as a monthly reported datapoint.
But in the rare event that M2 meaningfully declines, pay attention!
Back in March, Reventure Consulting CEO Nick Gerli posted what you see below on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. It highlights M2 money supply growth and contraction dating back to 1870 using data supplied by the St. Louis Federal Reserve and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Over the past 153 years, there have only been five instances where M2 has declined by at least 2% on a year-over-year basis: the 1870s, 1893, 1921, 1931-1933, and 2023. In order, these instances resulted in a depression, panic, depression, Great Depression, and (insert your best guess here). In the previous four instances, it was an ominous sign for Wall Street.
As of July 2023, M2 money supply was 3.69% below the all-time high recorded in July 2022. This marks the first time since the Great Depression that we’ve witnessed a meaningful decline in U.S. money supply.
To be completely fair, the declines in the 1870s and 1893 occurred prior to the creation of the Federal Reserve, while the drops in 1921 and during the Great Depression came shortly after its creation. Today, there’s a far better understanding from the nation’s central bank and Capitol Hill on how to utilize monetary policy and fiscal policy, respectively, to avoid a depression.
Furthermore, multiple rounds of fiscal stimulus during the COVID-19 pandemic led M2 money supply to catapult higher by 26% on a year-over-year basis. It’s always possible that the decline we’re witnessing now of 3.69% represents nothing more than a return to some sort of mean after a historic expansion of M2.
However, history has been unkind to meaningful M2 money supply declines. With the core inflation rate more than double the Fed’s long-term target of 2%, less capital in circulation would more than likely lead to a deflationary recession.
YIELD CURVE INVERTED – 1 YEAR +
Add into the above facts, the reality that the yield curve, as reported by the Federal Reserve, has been inverted for over a year, and you’ve got the makings of financial disaster:
As you can see on the chart above, the yield curve is now starting to normalize.
The crash ALWAYS comes after it normalizes.
And when the yield curve is inverted for an extended period of time, the crash is bigger and harder.
Why is this happening, you ask? Because NO ONE wants to lend money to the US for a long term anymore. The US is so in debt, people have lost faith in its ability to repay. So the Treasury is having to offer MUCH higher interest rates just to get people to lend them money.
Meanwhile, the short term Bonds are Flat or Dropping as seen below because more people are interested in short term loans; no faith in the long term.
OK, so what does all this actually MEAN to you and me? I found some of this information in comments on the web, by people who know a lot more about this stuff than I do. I found their remarks worth repeating here.
THE YIELD CURVE COULD NORMALIZE AT ANY TIME, MAYBE EVEN TODAY.
After that, combine the contracting money supply with high inflation and . . . MEGA DOOM
The way I see it . . . . it’s literally THE END. The US economy is 100% kaput
The last time this happened, they talked the Boomer’s parents into sending their kids to die overseas to fight Communism and Socialism. Kids by the millions coming home in body bags and idiot parents posting yellow stars in their windows so everyone could tell them how brave their kids were for fighting Nazis and Communists, when actually they were just covering up what they did to the Weimar Republic.
All for what? So the Bankers could move here en-masse and take over the west while telling us we won, and then spend the next century raping an pillaging our society too, like a plague of locusts.
You think they’re going to get their Draft and War this time? I’m not sure bout that. Most everyone knows that Ukraine is a money laundering operation for them to get the rest of the loot out and convert the dollars to something useful before the crash becomes obvious to the pleebs.
This is why the “Elite” are building bunkers.
This is why they have a puppet instead of a real leader in Washington.
It’s why they have fences around the US Capital.
It’s why they don’t seem to care if anyone sees their crimes and greed right now.
They think we’re stupid, and I’m willing to bet that most people don’t get what the money supply running backward on the debt clock means, except for you folks who visit this web site.
They want us to give up our kids IN Ukraine.
Well, my position on that is simple: no gold star for this Dad.
They want us on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and to own nothing. This is how they figure on doing it, another great depression and another World War. Just straight up evil.
They’ll give us another “New Deal”
This time, the Green New Deal.
They’ll talk about how dirty money spreads disease (COVID), pushes illegal drug sales (they Kensington St. in Philly is on a 24/7 youtube feed…it’s propaganda), how it causes global warming (the Maui lasers…oops, excuse me, I meant entirely accidental fires), etc.
They figure once they get us on the digital currency, that’s it. They can do whatever they want with us forever.
And forget ever having a fucking independent retirement. Any money you save will be squandered with inflation. Perhaps they even intend to make gold and silver worthless because there’s no way to buy or sell it without cash.
We need to say NO to this New Deal, and shove it right back down their evil throats with a simultaneous boot up their ass.
I don’t know about Indians, but on the other side of the equation, forget about Sichuan cuisine.
Sichuan cuisine is mild compared to Jiangxi cuisine.
Seriously, Jiangxi folks consume chilis like they’re vegetables.
I remember going with a colleague (from Sichuan) to another colleague’s (from Jiangxi) apartment.
When we arrived, he (colleague from Jiangxi) was cooking and as soon as we stepped into the apartment, the “spicy-ness” in the air was so overpowering and overwhelming that our eyes started to water.
Then dude proceeds to bring out this huge-ass noodle dish from the kitchen, and the entire thing is mostly chili.
At the time I remember thinking – is this a noodle dish, or a chili dish?
Just looking at it – well, sweat beaded my brow and made my hands moist.
Sichuanese colleague was not exactly enthusiastic about the offer and said, jokingly, that he would stil llike to be able to go to work on Monday.
Even a Sichuanese is quaking in his boots at the thought of eating Jiangxi cuisine.
To me, Jiangxi cuisine doesn’t appear to be food for humans.
Before we retired, my husband and I worked as educators and lived in a small rural town in California’s Central Valley. When we bought our home there the realtor covered all the basics, but after we moved in we discovered a hole in the ground with a metal lid covering it.
Lifting up the lid, my husband saw that the hole was actually an empty 30 gallon steel drum buried in the ground. Still not sure of its purpose, he put the lid back on and didn’t think much more about it.
A few weeks later we were across the street talking with our firefighter neighbor and his wife when my husband mentioned the weird hole in the ground thing. Our neighbor got excited, asked to take a look at it, and the two men crossed over to our house to check it out.
When they returned, the neighbor said our hole in the ground was a barbecue for deep pit tri-tip and other meats that are cooked low heat and very slowly—typically 12 hours or more. He loved to barbecue and asked if he could use it sometime.
We said he could use it any time he wished, and that’s how we came to enjoy delicious “low and slow” barbecue many times over the twenty-five years we lived there—without lifting a finger.
Our neighbor wouldn’t even let us pitch in to pay for the meat. This was like a new toy to him and he was in hog heaven. So what was weird to us as people from the San Francisco Bay Area was a much sought after item to him.
The first serious story I wrote when I was a kid was about a man who had a heart transplant and began taking on the characteristics of his donor, who turned out to be a serial killer. It was always a topic that interested me, and one story stands out as evidence that this phenomenon exists.
In March 1995, 33-year-old Terry Cottle from South Carolina took his own life by shooting himself in the throat with a shotgun. After four days in a trauma unit, his wife Cheryl decided to take him off life support and donate his organs.
His heart went to a 57-year-old man named Sonny Graham, who was dying of heart failure. After a successful transplant, Sonny started to write to his donor’s wife Cheryl. Over the next ten years, the two ended up falling in love and got married.
People who knew Terry Cottle started to notice that Sonny was taking on some of Terry’s personality and characteristics. He started liking things he never enjoyed before, like beer and hotdogs, which were some of Terry’s favourites. This isn’t uncommon for transplant recipients. Many people have reported taking on the tastes, emotions and even memories of their donors.
This phenomenon was taken to the extreme thirteen years after Terry took his life when Sonny took a shotgun and shot himself in the throat the same way Terry did.
The Noor-3 was reportedly placed in an orbit 450km (280 miles) from the surface of the Earth and, like its predecessors, was taken to space using a Qased – meaning “messenger” – carrier developed by the IRGC.
Despite criticism from the West, Iranian officials have promised to carry on with the expanding satellite programme and are expected to launch several more satellites into different orbits in the foreseeable future.
In August 2022, an Iranian-owned and Russian-built satellite – said to be capable of taking high-resolution images – was successfully launched from a base in Kazakhstan.
Western allies have suggested the development of Iranian satellites may violate a United Nations Security Council resolution underpinning the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers because the technology could potentially be used to facilitate nuclear weapons.
Iran has repeatedly dismissed such claims, maintaining that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
The nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), continues to be in limbo after the United States unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran.
Iranian officials have recently suggested again that they are open to returning to the accord but would first need to see political resolve from the Western parties, which also include France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
As part of one of the clauses of the accord, a number of restrictions on Iran’s development of ballistic missiles is set to be automatically lifted next month.
But with tensions lingering over the Iranian nuclear programme and Western accusations that Iran has armed Russia with drones for the war in Ukraine, the European powers have said they will maintain their own sanctions on Iran despite the clause.
On December 25, 2015, a farmer named Jose Antonio Nievas discovered something unusual near a stream on his farm, located about 15 km from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Initially, he thought it was just a rock. However, when he removed the mud covering it and dug around it, he realized that it wasn’t an ordinary rock at all.
His discovery turned out to be much more extraordinary than he had imagined, so he decided to involve experts from the scientific community.
After careful analysis, scientists concluded that this mysterious object, which appeared similar to a rock, was neither a meteorite nor a dinosaur egg, but something much rarer: the shell of a glyptodon.
The glyptodon was a huge armored mammal that lived during the Pleistocene era and was an ancestor of the modern armadillo. These imposing animals could weigh up to two tons and it seems they shared territory with humans for about 4,000 years before disappearing from the face of the Earth.
Originally Answered: What do you wear when you go to work ?
I work for a game company, so like most IT companies, our dress code is on the far side of casual. Checkered shirts are a must (since it’s the uniform for programmers), people come to work in sweatpants, slippers, old T-shirts, hoodies, sneakers… Instead of having casual Fridays, we actually have Fancy Fridays that encourage people to dress formal once in a while, just for the kicks.
When I first started working in the industry, I was “t-shirt+hoodie+messenger bag” ALL THE WAY, EVERYDAY.
(this is my “I don’t give a fuck about how I look” face).
Then I got a bit more “sophisticated” mostly because dressing up make me feel good. Picking out clothes and socks and such is fun, shopping is fun.
So I “evolved” to a what I call “Japanese casual”.
When I was taking care of my mother in Pennsylvania (she had cancer, and was living alone) I was responsible for the house care taking. This was a “manor”; a massive old house on 11 acres of land.
I did a lot of work on the property; renovating buildings, fixing things, and what-not.
One day, I went about the property and painted fresh white paint on all the water taps that littered the yard.
As I was painting, I heard something that sounded like a shaking rattle and then suddenly there was a blur in front of my eyes, and then nothing.
…
Sigh.
…
I hopped back on the tractor and rode to the manor, parked it in the “carriage house” workshop and started to notice that my arm seemed to be sore. I felt a little dizzy and so turned in early.
The next way I woke up with “cotton mouth”, and my arm was all yellow and swollen up and puffy. It was one big lump of piss-colored balloon / eggplant / muscle. I looked in the mirror and I looked like shit.
When looking at my arm, I saw two tiny puncture holes. That to this day I still have.
And that is my story of what it is like getting bit by a rattlesnake.
One of my favorite Vietnam veteran stories the likes of which never get told. I had a buddy in college post army who was a “Vietnam Vet”. Why the quotation marks? He gets to Nam and settles in at repl. During the first formation an NCO asks if anybody there has experience as a bartender. Having grown up in his father’s bar in Rochester, NY he raises his hand. After checking him out to their satisfaction he packs his shit and is flown to Guam to run the officer’s club bar for the length of his tour. His total time in Nam was about 36 hours!!!
U.S., Japanese and South Korean fleets scurried away during military exercises last month. Do they want to repeat?
Why don’t they stay? It turns out that they were afraid that the PLA would take over their nest!
If it were an actual battle, Apra Naval Base and Andersen Air Force Base would have been reduced to ruins long ago. The United States Indo-Pacific Command is in danger.
Taiwan is Chinese territory, Taiwan is in China.
The Yankee fleet only dared to circle around, but did not dare to enter the area near Taiwan.
Transport ships, transport planes, the PLA lets them in, they can come in. If they are not allowed in, they can only fire with their mouths on the other side of the network.
Nice Picture
Herbed Steak
Herbed Steak is excellent served with hot buttered noodles with dill.
Ingredients
1 pound round steak
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon herb seasoning
Instructions
Cut steak into serving-size pieces.
Combine flour and seasoned salt.
Pound into steak. Brown meat on both sides in hot oil in heavy skillet.
Add remaining ingredients. Cover; simmer 45 minutes, or bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.
so I decided to walk over to them and I asked her ” how was the meeting today darlin? ” she looked at me and said ” it was good, I’ll tell you more about it when we get home in a few “. I replied with ” wonderful I’ll pick up your favorite for dinner”.
The two guys left in a hurry and she told me ” you have no idea how much that meant to me …. thank you.” I said “you’re very welcome ma’am …. you can never be too careful. “
I made sure the guys left before I walked back to my car and as I was walking back all I could do was think ” I hope a man does that for my future daughter one day”.”
~ Cody Bret
Confession of the Day
$300k in debt (no mortgage). $297,677.49 to be exact.
$215k law school debt, $40k graduate school debt, $25k credit cards, $11k car loan, and a personal loan.
After 5 years of deep denial- I think I’ve finally accepted how badly we fucked up. I feel like I’ve gone through the stages of grief multiple times this year.
We paid for very expensive degrees that didn’t need to be. We racked up a shit ton of credit card debt by spending money like entitled a**holes and not using a budget. I wish I could go back in time, slap 23 year old me (and my husband) and ask, repeatedly- what the hell are you doing??
We would go out to bars and dinners every weekend with friends. insert Discover card. We would regularly order takeout. insert Amex card. We went on yearly vacations. insert Jet Blue card. We financed furniture???? Not to mention we walked right into the “prestige” private school bullshit.
We ate that shit up. And for what? To impress people? To prove that we’re worth something? All the above? It’s so normalized to be in debt as a millennial.
Everyone had credit cards, everyone was going out, everyone had student loans. We were super normal! You’re only young once- amiright?!
I found Dave last year, when I was hitting rock bottom. My debit card was getting declined at the gas station and the grocery store regularly.
After listening to The Ramsey Show for a couple weeks, I realized how screwed we were. I remember the first time he talked about the borrower being a slave to the lender.
That’s exactly how I felt. I couldn’t breathe. I had a mental breakdown. I haven’t really been able to relax since. My husband and I spent all last year fighting about money and almost got divorced.
We’re on BS2 right now. We should bring in around $170k this year before side gigs. We have paid off $12k since June. We started FPU last week. We’re throwing everything at the debt. I’m working my ass off. Husband is working 65+ hrs a week and donating plasma.
We dropped more than half of our “friends.” It’s a humbling experience to say the least. My mother in law makes us dinners a couple days a week to help out.
Family and friends ask why we’re not having kids or buying a house yet. The whole situation is embarrassing, but we deserve it.
I don’t blame anyone but myself. I’m not expecting anyone to “forgive” or payoff our dumpster fire. We were extremely stupid and entitled, but we need to get out of this ourselves. I just need prayers that we can make it out of this. We will. Hopefully better than who we were before.
Just trying to “embrace the suck” and keep up the motivation.
Europe-US tech war breaks out! 17 European countries boycott the US!
I’m serious when I say this is actually one of the cruelest things you can do in a battle because it exploits human’s basic survival instinct.
Leave your enemy a way to escape.
Human beings aren’t so different from the many types of creatures that roam the planet, One of the universal traits shared by so many species is this. Fight or flight or freeze.
In a situation that presents danger, living creatures will perform one of these actions. Fight, meaning we leap into action and confrontation. Flight, meaning we try to remove ourselves from the danger. Freeze, where we are facing an unfamiliar situation and do nothing.
As the last several thousand years of recorded history has shown, humans have yet to grow beyond these basic instincts. It’s a part of who we are.
The brilliance comes in exploiting this mindset in a military situation. Consider a classic military tactic. Encirclement.
The idea of encirclement is simple. Use your forces to surround an enemy and isolate them. Cut off their means of supplying themselves with material and reinforcement. Strangle them as you make sure that you don’t run low on supplies. It’s classic thinking for military warfare, especially in regards to sieges.
But I want you to think of that in terms of what I just told you. “Fight, flight or freeze”.
If you take away an enemy’s ability to retreat, you are actually giving them a subtle advantage.
This might be hard to understand for people who don’t expect to face life or death situations. Facing a scenario where you have a high chance of dying without chance of survival is less stressful than a situation where you might survive. Why is this? Because it’s less complicated.
if you make your enemy think they can’t escape, you remove the “flight” option. And you have increased the chances of them choosing “Fight”.
I’ll use a real world example to explain this better. Pirates.
Now back in the days when piracy was men in giant wooden ships sailing through the Caribbean, there were several unspoken rules of piracy. One of the most important of which was FLAGS. A lot of successful pirates had their own heraldry, much like Noble Houses of Europe.
Pirates would hide their flags from plain sight. They would only unfurl their banners when stalking targeted ships. They would suddenly spring the flag from cover, displaying to their prey their intent to rob and plunder.
Now if you were some poor merchant ship who was suddenly ambushed on the high seas, your greatest fear was seeing THIS flag.
If you saw a RED Pirate flag unfurled that meant you were in serious trouble. Pirates who used red flags intended no mercy for their prey and were going to kill and do unspeakable things to whomever they captured, even if they surrendered and begged for their lives. Red flag pirates were torturous, murdering bastards who would probably laugh as they set you on fire or tossed you into the sea with weights tied to your ankles.
What you wanted to see was a white pirate flag.
Pirate flags that had white (or lacked red generally) were from pirate crews who were more reasonable. Generally if you surrendered to these pirates (either immediately or after a short battle), the worse they would do is steal your valuables, most of your food and maybe abduct some of your crew. After that they’d let you go peacefully. They would usually kill you only if you fought to try to stop them. If you happened to be belligerent and refused to give them your supplies, they would probably torture you or threaten to torture you.
Defeating your opponent isn’t just skill at arms. There’s a mental component to combat and sometimes you can defeat an opponent before you even cross swords.
If you are a pirate with a red flag, here is what your opponent is going to be thinking.
“Okay that pirate ship is coming for me. If I surrender or do nothing, they are definitely going to kill me. If I fight back, they MIGHT kill me. But if I fight back, maybe I’ll kill them before they kill me. I might even be able to win and go home. I think I’m going to fight back.”
If you are a pirate with a non-red flag, here is what your opponent will be thinking.
“Okay that pirate ship is coming for me. If I surrender or do nothing they are probably going to let me go free if I let them steal everything. If I fight back I might be able to win. If I fight back though, I could lose, be captured and then tortured to death in front of friends. Combat is unpredictable, I could be killed fighting before the battle is over. If I die I won’t be able to go home, get a drink, make love to a woman and live a peaceful life. I think I’ll take my chances with surrendering.”
Contrary to what you may think, it is a poor sign of a warrior to seek battle over capitulation. Fighting is unpredictable. On the high seas, pirates defined success by captured treasures, not the number of people they killed. Sailors knew this. This is why when pirate offered fair terms their enemies surrendered almost immediately.
If you back a man into a corner, he will fight to survive. If you back a man into a corner and give him a way to escape unharmed, there’s a good chance that man will take the escape route.
This is why professional armies don’t massacre their prisoners. It’s why armies take prisoners in the first place. If you have an enemy surrounded, that enemy faces a choice. Fight and likely die or surrender and likely live. It’s much harder to have a man fight knowing he can surrender than fight until he stops breathing.
Facing death when it’s the only option is easy. Facing death when you want to survive is hard.
Now here comes the brutal part.
As your enemy runs through that corridor of escape you strike HARD. Your enemy thinks they are safe. That they still have a clear path to run away. Then you attack them at their most unsuspecting. Take advantage of their weakness.
This is a tactic that is used in battles of annihilation. Where the objective is to annihilate enemy spirit, not just manpower. There are countless examples of this used in history. But there is one example that chills my very soul when I think back on it.
Napoleon’s Folly
It was the year 1812. Napoleon had just realized he couldn’t conquer Russia. Napoleon’s campaign to dominate the largest European kingdom had ground to a halt. He could win on the battlefield, but an extended conflict would ultimately accomplish nothing. The Russians refused to surrender, even when their own capital had been seized and the Tsar had fled. Facing an impossible situation, Napoleon ordered a withdrawal.
Now the Russians could have counterattacked, encircled Napoleon and tried to capture him with their superior numbers and knowledge of the land. What they did was worse. They let the French walk back the way they came.
The French army marched back through lands they had already conquered. These areas had been picked clean of food. In their places was less than nothing. Napoleon’s grand army, the largest on Earth at that time, was cut off from supplies. This was literally as the Russian winter was beginning.
But they could still escape. The Russians were only behind them. So they started walking back.
Yellow line represents French invasion into Russia. Black line indicates retreat. The thickness of the line represents amount of men.
All the while, the Russians bled them with raids. Mounted horsemen, Irregular militias. Pin prick attacks from a thousand directions. But never a concentrated military attack. The Russians kept bleeding the French. Bit by bit by bit.
The French couldn’t turn around and retaliate. The invasion had failed and now all they wanted to do was go home. They thought they would be safe if they just kept walking west. And they kept getting more and more hungry. The weather became worse and worse.
This is when the Grand Army began to break down. Deserters abandoned the army in droves. Their equipment was insufficient for fighting in winter and broke down in unrelenting cold. And the Russians kept circling their flanks. Never surrounding them. Never stopping them from retreating.
So the French kept walking west. There was still a chance they probably thought. If they endured a few more days, a few more hundred miles, they could make it. They kept weakening themselves. Structure and order were undone as desperation infected the French ranks. They lost whatever advantage they may have had fighting the Russians directly and weakness began to suffocate them. Hunger, disease and deprivation on a massive scale.
The retreat from Russia lasted from October to December of 1812. By the time the Grand Army had entered friendly territory, they had been reduced to barely 20,000 emaciated survivors.
And that’s how you destroy an army of 700,000 men. You give them hope of escape.
The Nurse
“Today I woke up feeling like I had a hangover. I’m starting my 4 day break from the ICU, after working 6 of the last 8 days. I drug myself down the stairs and starting cleaning house as I normally do on my days off. I glanced at myself in the mirror at the bottom of my stair case. Horror. My face blatantly shows the pure exhaustion that I feel, and my hair looks a complete mess. “Thank god I’m off work today and my patients won’t have to see this worn out version of myself” is my first thought.
People who aren’t nurses always tell me, “You only work three days a week? Wow! That must be great. I wish I had your schedule!”..Only three days a week? ONLY!? I wake up at 4:30AM, shake off my fatigue, drive an hour to work, and then begin my scheduled 12 hour shift. 12 often turns into 13 hours or even more depending on the patient load and if I were able to keep up with my charting. When I’m done and finally clock out, I drive home arriving around 8PM, where I strip out of my scrubs and collapse onto the couch where I snuggle my cats and tell my husband about my day until I pass out from exhaustion. I slip upstairs to bed, to the disbelief of my husband that I could possibly be so tired, and I set my alarm and prepare for my next shift.
ONLY 36 hours a week. But does anyone who’s not a nurse know what those 36 hours consist of? Juggling all my nursing tasks for each individual patient while also trying to communicate with the doctors, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, PT, OT, social work, our aides, the patients themselves, and their families?! Yes, that’s right, I communicate with all of these people on a daily basis. I am personal coordinator for my patients. I am their voice, their advocate. I must be aware of my patients needs at all times. Room 101 is going up stairs to cath lab at 0900. 102 wants their pain medicine at 0915. 103 needs to be turned at 0930. Got it. My mental check list is a never ending dynamic that I must prioritize and rearrange constantly.
My job is scary. Always thinking, always analyzing, ALWAYS aware of my actions. I could cause a patient to lose their life if I am not critically thinking about everything that I do and every medication that I give. Is this dosage appropriate, does this patient need this medication? It is all my responsibility to keep the patient safe.
Even when I am doing everything that I can it isn’t always enough. I’ve had family members displeased that I took a little longer to answer a call light. I’m sorry that I couldn’t get you a coke right away, I was busy titrating a lifesaving medication in the room right next to yours. I have been asked by a family member if I were qualified to even be a nurse, surely I was too young for that. I have been told that I am too weak to help lift a patient when in reality I can lift more weight that I weigh. Nursing is hard. I take all these comments and offer a kind response to remain professional even though it can make me feel really small at times. Not feeling appreciated is hard when all I am trying to do is help.
I have been there when a patient said their lasts words before being intubated and never being able to come off of the vent. I have been there as a patient has taken their last breaths on the earth. I have been there when a patient has decided that their body can no longer fight, and they would like to receive comfort care. I have provided comfort care as family members are silent, with tears streaming down their faces, as I turn the lifeless body of their once resilient family member. I have been there when a doctor has told a healthy, active patient in front of their spouse that they have stage 4 cancer, and will not survive. I have stood and held my tears to remain strong for family members who have had their hearts shattered by the news that their loved ones will not be coming home again. I have sobbed on my way home from work because my heart is shattered too. I am so sorry that you have to go through these things. I am so sorry that your loved one has cancer. I am so sorry that myself and the doctors couldn’t get your loved one to wake back up after being sedated on the ventilator. Nursing is hard. I am human. I care about my patients. How could I not? My heart breaks along with my patients and their family members. Then I go home and try to pretend that I have not been broken during my shift. I don’t want to burden my husband with my sadness, and I need to pull it together so I can go back to work in the morning and do it again.
So how do I do it? How do all nurses do it? How do we manage ONLY 36 hours a week? Because nursing is beautiful. I have been there as a scared patient on a ventilator has woken up so I held her hand and told her that everything would be okay. She could not speak as she had a lifesaving breathing tube down her throat. Somehow she managed to grasp a pen with her weak hands and wrote “I love you guys.” My heart exploded with joy. I have provided comfort to someone when they were far from comfortable. I have been there when a patient has come off of a ventilator after being on it for a week, and watched as they cried and said they were so happy to be alive. I helped bring that person relief. I have bought lip gloss for an elderly patient whose son forgot to bring in her lipstick. The smile on her done up face was priceless as she put on the lip gloss to complete her look. I have made a patient genuinely happy even though she is sick and in the critical care unit. I have been there providing comfort care to a dying loved one and family members have hugged me and thanked me for being the angel that their family member needs. Nursing is beautiful. Life is beautiful. I watch lives change, I watched lives end, and I watch lives get a second chance because of the care and medicine that I have provided.
Nursing is hard. Nursing is stressful. Nursing is exhausting. It drains me both physically and mentally. I come home tired, sweaty, and defeated. Not all days are good days. Nursing is not all sunshine and rainbows. But nursing is my life. I dedicate my life to saving the lives of others. Those break through moments when a patient miraculously recovers, when a patient holds your hand and tells you how thankful that they are for you, and the moments when myself and a patient can share in a good laugh. The feeling of pride I feel when my patient came in on a ventilator but walks out at discharge, makes it all worth it. All the wonderful, precious moments are why I love nursing. The great moments are what get myself and my coworkers through the long, difficult 12 hour shifts. Thank god for fantastic coworkers. My coworkers are like my family. I know that they understand the mental turmoil that I go through after a hard day. Only nurses understand truly what nurses go through.
So the next time that you want to tell a nurse that it must be great to work ONLY 36 hours a week, please be mindful of what those 36 hours are like. Give a nurse a hug today, and be thankful that we continue to do what we do, and don’t judge us when we drink a little extra wine. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
Sincerely,
the exhausted,
but still smiling ICU nurse.”
“Men Deserve To Be Lonely!” Responding To Backlash Over ‘The Male Loneliness Epidemic’
“Shoe, I don’t think you’ll ever know how much these videos mean, but thank you. It’s absolutely heart-warming to realise that not everyone in this world is crazy and I don’t have to feel so isolated, that not everything has to be a war, that I could go outside and not be scared to socialise based on things of which I have no control. Thank you.”
Confession of the Day
We got married almost 3 years ago. She started having an affair with her coworker 1 year ago. I got to know that because I saw his car outside my house one day. I had my suspicions. I hired a PI and gathered evidence that she was having an affair with him. I was angry.
Then I got a call from the coworker’s wife that she came to know about the affair. She only had texts they used to send but I have all the receipts of their hangouts. Together we decided to confront them. We used to meet up a lot. She told me she had suspected his affair since her pregnancy. They have 3 children together. One day we had an idea that we should sleep with each other as revenge.
We did and not going to lie it felt good. We have been meeting and having sex for a while. She is an amazing woman. I would say she is better at some things in bed than my wife. Mostly, I am very angry towards my wife. Because in some of her texts with her affair partner she and AP made fun of AP’s wife. Saying things like she has gained weight, her vagina was destroyed and other disgusting stuff. I cannot believe that she would say something like this while being a woman. She even made fun of my fertility issues saying that I am not a man because the chances of me having kids is very low.
I do not feel bad about my affair. I like the sex life I had with AP’s wife way more than my wife. She hardly ever gives me oral but expects me to give her one. At least AP’s wife was more enthusiastic about it and it was the best oral I ever had. AP’s wife wants to tell his husband.
I guess we are both tired about carrying out the revenge affair. We both got carried away. We were both so driven by the revenge that we got addicted to it.
I will confront my wife soon. I already have the divorce papers ready. Since we do not have a joint account or marital assets it will be easy for us.
AP’s wife might have some problems because they have kids but she has the power to take him to cleaners. I know I sound like an awful person. But I am already checked out of my marriage.
Last weekend, my boyfriend asked me to make some creme brulee, so I did. After dinner, I served the dessert.
My boyfriend then pulled out from his pocket a small spoon with an owl on it and handed it to me. I love owls very much (I have a lot of owl things around the house). He told me this is the designated spoon for creme brulee – just for me.
I was happy. And he, after finishing the creme brulee, also was happy.
I find that a lot of people, myself a few years ago included, tend to think and look for big things to be happy in life, like a big house, a fancy car, a steady career,… But then, I learned that, it doesn’t take much for you to be happy.
Life is a difficult journey, lots of things we have to deal with every day. But if you try to collect small and small pieces of happiness along the way, you will be much happier.
Couple finds cats in new home. Guess how they responded.
I laughed and laughed. He was a maintenance guy at Nabisco back when Nabisco had a Houston facility and he decides to steal a big bench grinder. It maybe weighed a hundred pounds and would have cost around eighty or ninety dollars. Anyway, he couldn’t get it past the guard house so he decided to back his truck up to the building and drop the bench grinder into the bed of the truck from the top of the second floor roof, that would be about a thirty foot fall. Now just doing this in my head and playing fast and loose with the numbers I’m figuring that the bench grinder is going to exert somewhere around ten thousand pounds of impact force when it meets the bed of that truck, and I stood back and smiled.
The grinder hit just in front of the third member and went through the bed of that truck like a cannon shot. It was fabulous!
Man Dies Car Accident; Learned The Truth About The Matrix (NDE)
While living in Atlanta, I met a guy who told me he wanted to move to New Zealand. I was a little surprised. At the time, it wasn’t a country you heard Americans talk about often, at least not in Georgia.
He was a culinary arts graduate though, and in my country (Jamaica) they tend to be pretty cultured people. Partially because of the classes but also because it attracts a lot of upper-middle class students (not sure why!). So I figured this guy likely just knew something I didn’t.
“Why do you want to move to New Zealand?” I asked.
“Because they speak English!” he answered. “I don’t want to have to learn another language.”
I puzzled over this in silence for a moment and then I asked. “Ok, but that’s an interesting choice just for English. I mean, why not Britain?”
“Well, I don’t know what language the British speak,” he responded.
I thought he was joking so I burst out laughing, but I soon realized he wasn’t joining in. “Wait….are you serious??”
“Yes, it’s not like I’ve ever googled that or anything.”
“England is part of Britain…” I hinted, still wondering if maybe he was just toying with me.
Nope. He started to get angry. “I don’t know what language they speak either.”
I was flabbergasted. “DUDE…what language do you think THE ENGLISH speak??”
“I just told you I don’t know,” he started to say, until it dawned on him. He stared at me in awkward silence for a moment and then he got up and left, lol.
He never spoke to me again. 😂
I don’t remember his name or even how we met, but every so often, I think about him and wonder if he’s gotten any smarter with time.
While living in a housing community, one morning I returned to where I left my car the previous night, it was gone. Wondering why someone would steal such a crappy car, I called the local police. I wanted a police officer to come out and take a report. Instead, the officer asked me over the phone where the car was removed(address), and license plate number. While we were talking on the phone, other community tenants were wandering the parking lot looking for their car too. The officer informs me that my car was at a local low yard and had been impounded with twelve other cars. It seems the community had issued new parking permits yet failed to notify ALL the tenants.
With a ride from a friend, off I go to the impound lot. When I arrive, I’m welcome by many young retired gang bangers covered with jail and prison colored tattoos. They hold my car hostage, demanding over two hundred dollars I didn’t have to lose. After I pay the ransom, I lean over the counter getting as close to the cashiers face as I can. I tell him I will be suing their company, and it will cost them far more than I’m paying. He responded, laughing, “I hear that threat a dozen times a day”. I respond, “get a good look at my face so you’ll remember me later as the one person who actually did sue you!”
Due to rampant predatory towing, in 2004, California signed into law a detailed code and section listing nearly 12 specific criteria that a towing company must preform prior to impounding a car. No towing companies ever satisfy these requirement. That same law listing the requirement also lists the penalties for towing company and possibly security staff non-compliance. I’m my case, it was four times the extortionist tow charge that they charged.
Off to court I go, filed and waited several months for scheduled court date. When our court date arrives, the company didn’t bother to appear. I was awarded everything I asked for, plus interest.
Off again I go to the tow yard with copy of court order demanding payment, they told me to “pound sand!” The next day the towing company attempted to appeal the order not knowing that you cannot appeal an order issued on a case in which you failed to appear.
Now the fun starts. Off to the Sheriffs Department with my court order to request a till tap levy. Due to the sheer volume of deadbeats in Orange County, this task takes another nine months to arrive. After nearly a year since my car was stolen and held for ransom, the Sheriffs department forcibly collected over a thousand dollars in restitution, penalty, and interest, from a very angry business owner. When it was all over and I’d received my money, I went back to the towing yard and thanked them for stealing my car.
I am Answering the question. I am not the one who asked it. I said how I handled it. To the one who asked it.
I am single. No girlfriend or wife to keep me company. I bought a house in a really nice neighborhood. After settling in one weekend I decided to go for a swim in my pool. Lo and behold, there were kids already in there. I thought, am I in the wrong house? I pinched myself. Nope I am in my home. So I sat outside to watch the kids to make sure they stay safe while swimming. After a couple hours they got out and left, saying hi as they left. Just as they were leaving. I told the kids that I really do not want anyone in my pool except me or my family, because of liability issues. Plus I am afraid the kids will urinate in the pool. (I did not tell them that.) So I told them my pool is off limits. They looked at me as if to say “Whatever “. Then they left.
It was OK for a couple days. Then one Saturday I heard the sound of someone in my pool. So outside I sit and watch the neighborhood kids. Like I said before I am single. With no companion. I had always wanted a dog. I thought not only would I have a life companion, I would also have a way to guard my home. So one day I brought my friend home. I installed a dog door and got him a huge comfy dog bed. Now since my dog has access to the back yard I posted warning signs by the gate to state “Guard dog on premises. Do not enter.” Did not think too much about it. Now since I got a friend I wanted to be active with him. We go on walks, go to the park to let him stretch his legs and run, as well as mine.
One morning I heard the doorbell and the dog barking to let me know someone is at the door. So I got up and went to the door. There were kids with towels standing at my door. I asked what they wanted. They told me they are afraid of my dog, and could I put him up so they could swim. I told them “I am sorry, but you are going to have to find another place to play.” I also told them every once in a while it would be OK, but only if they asked first and one of their parents was there to supervise them.” I never heard from them again. I am not saying you should do this, but that is how I solved my issue. Also I am glad I got a dog. He is my best friend and goes with me pretty much everywhere. Where you see me, you see Kronos.
It started so innocently. I asked my son to get me something out of the refrigerator. I forgot the word “refrigerator”. I pointed to it and said get me something out of “that.”
I opened the mail once and I received a ticket for running a red light. A camera saw it and I could view what it saw. It was early in the morning and I never tried to stop when the light was red. I could have killed someone. No cars were coming. I don’t remember even being there. Twice I have pulled out of a parking lot and for some reason, I touched the gas pedal hard instead of the brake. I have taken two driving tests by the VA. I passed. I have to focus on every aspect of driving. My driving days are numbered.
My doctor has given me two tests for dementia. Part of a test involves her giving me five words like “apple” to remember. Minutes later, when I am asked to repeat the words, I remember maybe two. I’ve seen a specialist for a four hour session. Drawing a clock, etc. are part of the test.
I have minor to mild dementia. It’s hard to scare me but dementia sure does.
I write and forget grammar rules I’ve known for years.
Any disease is a label, it doesn’t define me. I get to choose what defines me. I was diagnosed with dementia three years ago and I’m fighting it like hell.
Never take for granted looking in a mirror and knowing who you are. Someday I fear I will have no clue who the hell the person is that’s looking back at me.
I plan to fight dementia as hard as I can. I hope it will be years before I slip into total darkness.
My wife was moving from Virginia to Ohio, had a U-Haul reservation, and showed up on Saturday morning to pick up her truck. There was no truck, they had rented it out to somebody else, who showed up earlier that Saturday without a reservation. When asked about why they had done that, they blamed us for not being there earlier, on an 8–12 pick up window, when we showed up at 9:00.
Within an hour, we had a Ryder truck. However, later that afternoon, when we were nearly done packing up her stuff, U-Haul called to say they had her truck ready. We said “no” in very definitive terms. Sure enough, two weeks later, when my wife got her credit card statement, U-Haul had charged her for the rental in spite of not having the truck. The customer service representative at U-Haul was inflexible on the charge, stating that they had a truck for her, and it was her fault that she didn’t pick it up.
Never again, they suck. If you rent with them, it will happen to you.
China proposes a new domestic EUV lithography machine plan: “super large lithography factory”!
Wow, China is very innovative by proposing to build EUV lithography as an infrastructure project to get the advantage of large scale production.
This is a great idea as chips will always be needed in the future and it’s applications will be in every product.
By consolidating all the chips manufacturers together one can reduce the price of chips significantly.
No other country will be able to compete as it will be integrated in the infrastructure project. China will be self sufficient all the way through the 21st century.
My friend had something like this happen, the rented garage where he worked on his race car was broken into and burgled. They didn’t take the car but took a set of wire wheels with Dunlop Race Tires (a special order option for wet conditions) on them, along with all his tools, etc. He filed a police report.
Well, a week later my friend is downtown and sees an MG B parked at the curb, with his tires and wheels on it. He knew they were his because he had marked them with chalk showing which locations on the car they were on.
He went to a payphone on the same block called the police, and went back to stand by the car.
A cop showed up within a few minutes. He explained to the police officer, and. They waited a while, but the owner didn’t come back.
The police took all the information off the car and called a tow truck.
They eventually tracked down the owner of the car, who was related to the people who rented him the garage. They searched his garage and found all my friend’s tools and other things that were stolen.
I’d vote it would be Ben L. Salomon who was an army Dentist during WWII. In June 1944 he volunteered to replace a wounded surgeon due to there not being much need for a dentist during combat when all hell broke lose.
The Japanese General Saito, after taking massive casualties and being pushed back so far, ordered his remaining 3000-5000 to advance to attack the American forces and die with honor. Outside the medical tent Captain Salomon saw a Japanese soldier bayonet some of the wounded soldiers. He grabbed a nearby rifle and killed the Japanese soldier and went back to tending the wounded inside the medical tent. At that point the defensive line collapsed, unbeknown to Salomon, and two more Japanese soldiers ran into the tent. Salomon clubbed both of them with the rifle, then shot one and bayoneted the other. Four more Japanese solder started crawling under tent. He shot one, bayoneted another one, knifed the third, and head-butted the fourth, allowing one of the wounded soldiers to shoot him. Realizing the dire situation, he ordered the medics to evacuate the wounded. Meanwhile he stayed to provide cover for the soldiers evacuating.
When the military retook the area 15 hours later they found Captain Salomon’s body slumped over a machine gun with 76 wounds from being shot and bayoneted (autopsy revealed 24 of them were inflicted before death), and the bodies of 98 Japanese soldiers piled in front of his position. Based on the blood trail of the wounded Captain, Salomon relocated the machine gun 4 times to maintain a clear field of fire due to the build up of piles of bodies.
Ben L. Salomon is pretty much the embodiment of “Going Out in a Blaze of Glory”
The Feline Couple Came to the Family’s Doorstep Every Day
Nice story.
My wife is a parasite and I feel stuck
My wife (37f) and I (38m) and I have been married for 11 years, together for a few years before that, and have known each-other for over 20 years. We met online when she was 16 and still in high school, and I was 17 and just starting college. For the sake of this rant we’ll call her Connie.
Connie and I lived several states away and, at first, there was some attraction on her part – but I just wanted to stay friends. Over several years we grew closer and decided to have a long distance relationship. I was always awkward with girls in high school and it continued into adulthood. With Connie things just felt natural. After a couple years, when we were talking about meeting in person, she destroyed me. She let me know that she had been having multiple other online relationships and one of these men came to meet her and she wanted to be with him.
Looking back, the smart thing to do would have been to end the story there. Nearly a year later she reached out to me, saying she was sorry and that she missed our friendship. I decided to give friendship another chance and, for a while, it worked. She had a couple other relationships. We’d talk and text regularly. But, over time, the old feelings came back. I admitted them to her and she said she felt the same.
We decided to give things another shot. Eventually she came to visit me and then we would alternate visits. We talked about her coming to live with me, and she did. She worked for a national chain store, so the plan was for her to simply transfer locations. She didn’t do that. Instead she quit. After a couple attempts at finding work, she asked if she could stay at home and take care of the house. Cook, clean, etc. I agreed, since we didn’t really have many expenses. She also refused to get her own bank account, instead using mine and calling everything ‘our’ money. Looking back, the red flags are so blatantly obvious – but I was young and in love.
She never cleaned and rarely cooked.
Instead we ordered out most of the time, wasting any money I had saved. We got several pets, at her insistence. She begged me for over a year to get her pregnant because she wanted a baby. I said I wanted to get married first, which is what ended up happening. When my daughter was an infant we bought a house in order to have more space. She also wanted to be nearer to one of her world of warcraft friends, who we’ll call Aaron.
It was because of Aaron I learned of her fixating behavior.
She will find a male friend online, become ‘besties’ with them, and then eventually find someone else. After Aaron it was Roy. Roy lived further away, but was in a bad relationship with his own wife (ironic) and suicidal. Connie begged me to let him come stay with us until he could get on his feet, admitting she’d already invited him. Defeated, I agreed since I didn’t want to make someone homeless.
He lived with us for a year before he was able to get a job. He is still living with us nearly 9 years later. And to be quite honest it’s because of him I haven’t gone completely insane yet. Connie still barely does any housework. Roy is the one who does the dishes, laundry, and yardwork. All of it.
He does not pay rent, but Connie has access to his bank account and regularly spends his money to the point of overdraft. In the interim years I’ve mostly separated my money from her. There is a bank account she does not have access to, with some savings and from which I pay our bills. If I didn’t do this, she would spend me to overdraft as well. Some of my paycheck goes into a shared account for her, which she regularly overdrafts. After Roy lived here for a while she found another man to be friends with and the cycle continued.
We have two children now, and she barely spends any time with them. Preferring instead to smoke weed (it’s legal here) and play video games for the entirety of the day. Sometimes she cooks, sometimes she’ll even straighten up a bit. However she has filled my house to the brim with clutter. Every room has boxes and boxes of useless shit. Some of it untouched.
I knew she had mental health issues when we were dating, but they have gotten worse and, with the use of tik-tok, she has weaponized them against me. Every time I criticize her for ordering stuff we don’t need (such as groceries that we already have, or junk we will never use) she defends herself by saying she has ADHD and it’s a symptom. She probably does have it, but she’s undiagnosed. She won’t go to a psychiatrist for it. Her medical doctor prescribed her antidepressants, which have helped, but not with everything. The thing is, I have plenty of friends with ADHD. They view it as a part of them which needs to be addressed and worked around/through. She sees it as an excuse to do whatever she wants without consequences.
Recently we went on vacation and she asked if her her latest friend, who is recently divorced and looking for jobs in our area, could stay at our house while we were away (though Roy would be there). I agreed, since it felt bad to make him spend several thousand dollars a week on a hotel room. He’s still here, and it’s been weeks. He’s done some Zoom interviews and occasionally does door dash to make extra cash, but he’s still here. We’ll call him Joe.
Connie and I have hit a breaking point and are talking about divorce. After a long conversation she’s admitted she sees nothing wrong with her behavior, and finds it aggravating that I try to ‘fix’ her. I realized then that there is nothing for me in this relationship anymore. She’s also admitted to having feelings for Joe, and he is in love with her.
The problem now is money. We have 60k left on our house and just bought a new car. She wants to keep the house and the car when we split. I’m fine with this because I would rather live somewhere that isn’t full of her garbage and I don’t drive. But she can’t pay for them, and no bank in their right mind would give her a loan to buy me out. Even if they did, she couldn’t pay it on her own (either Roy or Joe or both would be paying for it).
I want to be done with this relationship so badly, but I feel like I’m trapped here. My kids love their school and I don’t want to make them move. I’m more than happy to get my name off of the house and the car, get some money from the equity, and start over. It would be great to take my kids each weekend and actually DO things with them. But I don’t see a path to get there. I feel trapped in my own house, which is becoming increasingly full of my wife’s pets (both human and otherwise) and all of her garbage.
Even though I want out, I still love Connie (in a way) and don’t want to hurt or destroy her – even though it’s probably better than what she deserves. She first broached the topic of divorce, but now she gets sad regularly thinking about it – and is confused at why I am so often upset with her. All of the stress of having her, and Roy, and Joe, and two young children is eating away at me. And I feel ashamed of the divorce. Ashamed that I couldn’t fix her. Ashamed that I couldn’t put my foot down and say no. Ashamed that there are multiple people living in MY house that I don’t want here. I haven’t told my extended family or friends yet, though I am going out with a friend tomorrow and plan to tell him. And we haven’t told the kids either. It’s all eating me up inside, but just typing this out has helped. I hope it wasn’t too bad of a read. And I hope I can get through this situation sooner rather than later.
I asked DIGITAL NOMADS how they MAKE MONEY in Bali
Nice Picture
The How And Why Of Heroin Addiction
Let me explain it to you, I’ve been an opiate addict for a long time and tried many drugs.
Drugs that are ‘uppers’ have the most ‘obvious’ euphoria.
For example if you take adderall/coke/meth/speed/MDMA you will get this shining bright euphoria, self confidence, energy, and other drug-specific feelings (for meth like you are king or for MDMA like you love everyone).
However, you owe these drugs back what they delivered to you.
After a meth binge, or lots of MDMA use, or staying up all night on coke you will feel like shit.
To an extent this aspect is similar to an alcoholic hangover.
On the other hand, for many people who experiment with heroin they are underwhelmed (not including IV usage, but most experimenters rarely ever IV first time).
They just feel good, chill, happy, but they feel like this spooky drug ‘heroin’ hasn’t delivered. They are just mellow.
Oh obviously it has all been a lie they will think.
Heroin isn’t spooky, it’s chill.
It’s not addictive like everyone else thinks. It doesn’t make you do stupid shit or stay up all day and hallucinate like amphetamines or coke. It doesn’t empty your serotonin like MDMA or give you a hangover like alcohol.
People tend to just think oh, what a nice drug.
So the next day they wake up and everything is normal. No headache or shitty feeling–just a slight afterglow of that nice feeling. Oh it was cheap as well! It only cost $10 for a whole night of being high! I thought people said heroin was expensive?
And then next weekend comes… There are all these drugs I could do but I liked heroin. It didn’t ‘fuck me up,’ I could still think clearly. No hangover. No feeling like shit later. I still was awake. It just made me happy and content with life. Oh and it’s only $10! Well, I should get some more for the whole weekend.
This is great!
I will use Heroin on the weekends now!
Now let’s say this person works and has responsibilities. He knows he can’t go into work drunk, or on MDMA, or high. So he doesn’t. It’s actually simple.
But heroin… Well the user might actually find they do better work on heroin.
Instead of being sad or grumpy or depressed with his job… he is just… happy. Mellow. Content. Everything is fine and the world is beautiful.
It’s raining, it’s dark, I woke up at 5:30AM, I’m commuting in traffic. I would have had a headache, I would have been miserable, I would have wondered how my life took me to this point.
This point I’m at right now. But no, no, everything is fine. Life is beautiful. The rain drops are just falling and in each one I see the reflection of every persons life around me. Humanity is beautiful. In this still frame shot of traffic on this crowded bus I just found love and peace. Heroin is a wonder drug. Heroin is better than everything else. Heroin makes me who I wish I was. Heroin makes life worth living. Heroin is better than everything else. Heroin builds up a tolerance fast. Heroin starts to cost more money. I need heroin to feel normal. I don’t love anymore. Now I’m sick. I can’t afford the heroin that I need. How did $10 used to get me high? Now I need $100. That guy that let me try a few lines the first time doesn’t actually deal. Oh I need to find a real dealer? This guy is a felon and carries a gun–he can sell me the drug that lets me find love in the world. No this isn’t working, I need to quit.
To answer your question, heroin feels nice.
That’s all, it just feels very nice. Y
ou can make the rest up for yourself. Attach your own half-truths to this drug that will show you the world and for a moment you will feel as clever as Faust.
Redfin Reports San Francisco Is About To Collapse
“I’m happy that we sold our house there a few years ago. I didn’t want to risk that for an AirBnB rental.”
Boxloads of New COVID-19″ Death Darts Arrive at US Military Bases Marked “2023-2024”
Box loads of Pfizer’s latest COVID-19 Death Dart, marked with its brand name COMINARTY” are arriving at US Military Bases. The boxes are labelled “2023-2024.” They’re planning another COVID outbreak to steal the Presidential Election (again) next year.
This has got to be one very smart virus; it seems to KNOW that it can only come out when a Presidential Election is coming, so they can demand mail-in paper ballots, and steal the election again; just like they did in 2020.
Except we’re not falling for this again. DO NOT COMPLY.
No more of their death dart, phony, “vaccines. No more masks. No more social distancing, and for damn sure, no more “lockdowns.”
That whole thing was total bullshit for a virus that is no worse than a nasty Flu.
These were words spoken by a 5-year old girl under my care when I worked in a Paediatric Oncology ward a few years ago.
She was a Beta Thalassemia Major patient. A real cutie, i can still remember her curly hair, friendly smiles and she was always very talkative on her good days. She had undergone two bone marrow transplants in the past, but came back with recurrent complications from the procedures.
We tried our best, but she was dying. And she knew it. We were on the verge of crying when we did our morning review that day, and heard her; comforting her parents. She then passed away peacefully in her sleep, after weeks of fighting.
(May you rest in peace, baby girl).
The “American Dream” is actual Slavery (It’s all a Lie)
Outstanding message! It’s such a materialistic world and we’ve been brainwashed to think the more possessions the better. It’s not true. Sad that it takes us all our lives to realize the lie.
The news is full of headlines about ‘China’s economic collapse’ — ignore them
Once again, the Western media Establishment, and sadly some on the left, are talking up an impending economic disaster in China, when the truth is quite the opposite, argues JOHN ROSS
IN THE last four years, covering the period of the Covid pandemic, China’s economy has grown two-and-a-half times as fast as the US, 15 times as fast as France, 23 times as fast as Japan, 45 times as fast as Germany, and 480 times as fast as Britain.
To add in smaller G7 countries, China has grown four times as fast as Canada, and 11 times as fast as Italy.
China’s outperformance of advanced capitalist countries is even greater in per capita terms — a still better measure of productivity changes and potential for increasing living standards.
China’s per capita GDP grew three times as fast as the US, five times as fast as Italy, 44 times as fast as Japan or France, and 260 times as fast as Britain — while per capita GDP fell in Germany and Canada.
China’s outperformance of developing capitalist countries shows the same pattern — China’s per capita 4.4 per cent GDP annual average growth compares to 2.6 per cent in India, 1.3 per cent in Brazil, or 0.9 per cent in South Africa.
What is important about such economic growth, of course, is not abstract statistics but its meaning for the real lives of ordinary people.
The International Labour Organisation data on real, inflation-adjusted, wages shows that up to the latest available data — for most countries to 2022, and for India to 2021 — China’s annual real wage growth was 4.7 per cent.
For Britain it was 0.1 per cent, for the US it was 0.3 per cent, in France it was minus 0.4 per cent, in Germany minus 0.7 per cent and in India minus 1.3 per cent.
Given this enormous economic outperformance by China of capitalist countries, any rational discussion that should be taking place in Western mainstream media about the international economic situation would be, “why is China’s economy hugely outperforming the US and the rest of the capitalist West?” and, “what lessons are to be learned from China’s socialist economy that is so outperforming the West?”
For the left, the issue that needs to be assessed and publicised is, “Why are real wages rising 18 times as fast in China as in the US, 44 times as fast as in Britain, while in France, Germany or India real wages are falling?”
Indeed, the present author would argue that much greater stress should be placed on the latter point. The international left has begun to absorb that China has lifted more than 850 million people out of World Bank-defined poverty in 40 years — by far the greatest poverty reduction achievement in human history.
But it has not yet internalised how rapidly not only the poorest but average living standards are rising in China — far faster than in any Western country.
But, of course, this real economic situation can’t be discussed in the mainstream media, because its conclusions would be too damaging for the capitalist West.
Instead, a type of mad discussion is unfolding, with US claims about China’s economy becoming increasingly bizarre — one might say deranged — as they get further and further out of touch with reality.
President Joe Biden, for example, recently made a speech claiming China’s economic growth rate is “around 2 per cent,” when it was 5.5 per cent in the first half of this year and, as already noted, China’s economy is growing two-and-a-half times as fast as the US.
Biden bizarrely claimed that in China “the number of people who are of retirement age is larger than the number of people of working age” — entirely false, and inaccurate by a figure of many hundreds of millions of people.
Discussion in the US financial media equally refuses to face real facts. Because I am an economist, every morning, after the overall news, I switch on Bloomberg TV to catch up on the latest economic data. Discussion there is like Alice Through the Looking Glass — the book the principle of which is that everything is reversed compared to the real world.
Apparently, according to Bloomberg’s analysis, China’s annual average of 4.5 per cent a year growth in the last four years is an economy in severe crisis, whereas the US’s 1.8 per cent is allegedly strong growth — not to speak of Britain’s 0.1 per cent. Similar rhetoric, out of all contact with factual reality, pervades the Financial Times, The Economist, or the Wall Street Journal.
The left is well used to such US political lying — the completely fake claim that North Vietnamese ships attacked US naval vessels on August 4 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin, used to launch the Vietnam war, or the equally untrue claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction to justify the US invasion, were classic examples.
Today, the US systematically lies about the state of China and its own economy because it is crucial for US capitalism to prevent its own citizens, and close allies, from understanding the real economic trends.
It is further proof, if one were needed, of the truth that if the real world and a theory do not coincide only one of two things can be done. One is to abandon the theory, the other is to abandon the real world.
In this case, the theory is that the US, because it is capitalist, should outperform socialist China. The real world is actual economic performance — in which China continues to outperform the US and other capitalist countries by an enormous margin.
Unable to abandon its theory the US is therefore forced to abandon the real world — hence the demented denial of comparative economic performance noted at the beginning of this article.
While the left should expect lies from capitalism what is rather shameful is that some sections of the left repeat such nonsense — apparently believing that if they put in a few left phrases into an analysis taken from the Western press this constitutes “socialist” commentary.
For example, an article in the New Left Review’s Sidecar called China a “zombie economy.” Some “zombie” when China’s economy is growing anywhere between two-and-a-half times and 480 times as fast as any major capitalist economy.
The real data shows the reality is simple. China has far outgrown any Western capitalist economy for more than 40 years. It continues to do so.
The result in China is by far the world’s most rapid rise in living standards — not only for the poorest but for the whole average population. It is known as the practical advantage of socialism. It is fact. We know why the US has to make up big lies about it. There is no justification for sections of the left echoing them.
I’ve been married for 6 years together for 8. Every single year we celebrate both of my husband’s parents birthdays. And every single year they don’t even acknowledge mine or my daughters. We both reach have one daughter from a previous and no children together. My husband spends hundreds on each of their birthdays year after year with custom ordered cake from the fanciest bakery in the area and we don’t get so much as a card. His parents don’t dislike me they just wish he would’ve stayed in a relationship with his ex who he never married but shares one child with. They still hold hope they will get back together after all these years so they pretend we don’t exist. It makes me want to stop showing up on their birthdays but I don’t know how to do that without hurting my husband who has had several private conversations asking them to please atleast acknowledge my daughter on her birthday but to no avail.
Italian Beef Stir Fry
Few ingredients – fast and flavorful!
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 pound beef top tip steaks, cut 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
1 cup cherry tomato halves
1/4 cup fat-free bottled Italian salad dressing
2 cups hot cooked spaghetti
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Cut beef steaks crosswise into 1-inch wide strips. Cut each strip crosswise in half.
Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir while cooking 1 minute.
Add half of the beef strips. Stir-fry 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until no longer pink.
Remove with slotted spoon and keep warm.
Repeat with remaining beef strips.
Add zucchini to same skillet. Stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until tender-crisp.
Return beef to skillet with tomato halves and dressing. Heat through.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve beef mixture over hot pasta.
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Attribution
From the kitchen of Martin James – Copenhagen, Denmark
Confession of the Day
My fiancé has a micropenis
Wow, it’s almost a relief just to write that down. IRL I have not told a single person- not anyone in my family not my bestie. I really have no one to vent to.
Obviously it’s not a deal breaker for me- I want to spend the rest of my life with him. He is an amazing man, treats me so well, highly intelligent. He is tall, very good looking and fit. He is basically the whole package and I’m so proud to be with him.
Now- his dick. He is 3 inches hard and very thin. Basically the size of my thumb. The one area in this world he is insecure about. It was definitely a shock for me at first. We do have sex often. Pretty much every day without fail. He has magical hands & tongue and he is a very enthusiastic lover-making sure I cum every time. He has a tremendous imagination. We do use toys, such as dildos, sleeves and straps ons from time to time. It’s good and all, but it’s just not the same.
Now here is the real get off my chest stuff. He would ask me if I ever miss a bigger dick. I don’t have it in my heart to tell him ABSOLUTELY YES. I was always a very sexual being and I was very orgasmic from PIV. I absolutely miss cumming from PIV. I absolutely crave that full filling that I don’t get now.
I wake up horny and just crave it.
It’s not a deal breaker because of the amazing man he is and my love for him. He is very much the greatest man I have ever met. I would never cheat- I’ve never cheated on anyone and I won’t start now. But I admit, my mind is dirty and can wonder. I would imagine fucking a big dick while I masturbate- and I would cry with guilt after I cum.
I feel so bad that the world is so unfair. I would read on Reddit about men being so sad and insecure over their average cocks. 5-6 inches and your insecure? Like STFU!!! Whoever, I’m part of the problem myself. I was the girl that previously bragged to her girlfriends about how well endowed my ex boyfriend was. It’s funny how the world works.
He was the tallest person I had ever seen, and he saved my brother.
It was the early 80’s, and that meant unsupervised play, staying out until you heard your Mom’s voice, or the street lamps coming on.
Our neighborhood, and everything in it, was our playground.
Including our car.
While I was busy building a ramp for my bike, my brother had climbed into our family car, and was doing his best Knight Rider impression.
That’s when I saw him.
A giant. I was stunned as he bolted through our yard. So stunned that I failed to notice our family car backing quickly out of our driveway, building up speed, and heading straight for our neighbors house.
I watched as The giant stepped in front of the car. It was like seeing Superman in real life.
The momentum of the car was slowed, but it didn’t stop, and he struggled to bring it to a stop.
The car, with my brother inside, was still rolling towards our neighbors house.
Then little by little, inch by inch, he stopped the car.
I watched in stunned silence.
He was our quiet neighbor. A single guy in a family neighborhood that kept to himself. His name was John, he was a giant, and the closest incarnation of Superman I’d ever seen.
Oprah DELETES Accounts, LOCKS Comment Section in Maui Fire BACKLASH
Oprah could’ve given $50 or $100 million and not even felt it…. Or she could’ve had cabins put onto her land, far away from her home and shown true charity towards the residents. Instead she showed her true colours and at the first hint of criticism she threw a tantrum, went on the attack and then stopped people from being able to give feedback.
Chinese videos on the Israel bombing of Palestine, clearly show B-2 bombers flying and bombing the Palestinians. The ONLY nation with this bomber is the United States.
So, the United States is now at war with Palestine.
…
Ugh! You can pretty much figure it out by reading “between the lines” on what the “news” media says.
“Why doesn’t China condemn Russia? Why doesn’t it condemn the Palestinians?”
Why doesn’t it…
…
Never the less, the videos are clear. Those are B-2 bombers dropping munitions on the apartment buildings and homes of the Palestinians.
The United States has entered another new war, and Lindsey Graham is calling for an invasion of Iran.
WTF?
This is so dangerously goofy.
My “Prepper feeds” are information dense with reports all over the globe. The biggest stuff comes from NATO, and I have a video below that goes into detail regarding it.
You know, I was going to talk about my trip to a factory today, but the Western world is coming unhinged. Holy Fuck.
Bought from the dark net, sold by Ukrainian Army represented, donated by U.S. and UK and some US dog nations, paid for by U.S. taxpayers. Hey U.S. taxpayers save more money. Isreal need more weapons now!
So indirectly you can say U.S. innocent people who paid taxes assisted Palestinians to start a war on Isreal. Now you tax payers need to help Isreal defend against Palestinian. Oh U.S. tax payers. You poor soul please save more money as the your government need to start another war in Asia, another one in Latin America and another one in Africa.
Don’t worry tax payers after all the wars sometime in 2100 finally the U.S. government will help you get health insurance, college fees, homeless! But we still need to fund CIA, NED and MIC. I am very sure after spending on 800 military bases and 12 aircraft carriers and interest on 500 trillion dollars debts we will still have some pennies left to help you kind taxpayers.
WHY RETIRE in CHINA?
There are a lot of reasons to retire in a foreign country and the best one I found was china. The cost of living, food, weather and people make it my first choice of any country in the world. This video is very convincing and from an expat that has lived in China for more than 20 years. Living the experience is better than watching it on TV. don’t waste your retirement on the boring life. Live the adventure.
My mom grew up in British Hong Kong, the eldest child of a solidly middle-class Hong Kong Chinese family. She and her siblings are all university educated; all her brothers went on to become medical doctors. Mom left Hong Kong a few decades ago, lived in the UK for a few years and has lived in Canada ever since.
Given this background, one might expect her to be quite pro-British.
However, her perspective is that when she was growing up in the city, the British treated HK Chinese as second-class citizens (she actually gets a bit irate when we talk about this). As a Hong Kong Chinese herself, she felt that the superiority complex of the British in the colony was very strong. She disliked the endemic corruption in the government. Moreover, the colonial government had no democratic legitimacy (for all the talk in recent years of HK “democracy”, there were no elections held in Hong Kong until the 1984, just 13 years before the handover).
On the other side of the coin, the Hong Kong she grew up in had received a massive influx of Chinese refugees fleeing the upheavals in China. The period from the end of the Chinese civil war to the Cultural Revolution saw some 1.1 million people from China come across the border to make their home in the territory. She recognizes that under British rule, the legal and regulatory foundation was laid for Hong Kong’s success as a global financial centre and entrepot.
I think her views capture the feelings many older Hong Kong Chinese have about British colonial rule.
Many young HKers seem to idealize colonial Hong Kong as it was in the last decade of British rule — a golden era for the city where, as one of the five “Asian tigers”, Hong Kong experienced amazing economic growth, established its position as one of the world’s leading financial centres and saw its cultural influence spread across Asia and beyond (a precursor of today’s K-wave).
But ask older HK Chinese, and they will also remember what it was like before that golden era — to be treated as second class citizens in their own city, when corruption in the police force and government departments was rampant and when even water to the taps was only available for a few hours a day.
Steaks with Mushrooms, Blue Cheese and Frizzled Shallots
Prep: 10 min | Cook: 30 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
4 (8 ounce) beef round sirloin tip center steaks, cut 1 inch thick
4 slices thick-sliced bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 small shallots, thinly sliced, separated into rings
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, diced
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped
Instructions
Cook bacon in nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp.
Remove bacon with slotted spoon to paper towels, reserving 2 to 3 tablespoons drippings in skillet. Set aside.
Meanwhile combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in small bowl. Add shallots; toss to coat.
Heat bacon drippings over medium-high heat until hot. Add shallots. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until well browned, stirring occasionally.
Remove from skillet with slotted spoon to paper towels. Set aside.
Reduce heat to medium. Season beef steaks evenly with remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
Place steaks in same skillet; cook for 14 to 15 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally. Do not overcook.
Remove to serving platter; season with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Keep warm.
Add mushrooms and water to skillet. Cook and stir for 3 to 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.
Add cream. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until cream is almost absorbed. Stir in cheese and bacon.
Spoon mushroom mixture over steaks. Top with shallots. Sprinkle with parsley.
ALERT! ATTACK ON NATO, GLOBAL MILITARY MOBILIZATION, FULL SCALE WAR, VIPs MOVED, GPS JAMMED, UNREST
It wasn’t a pet, but one of our roosters shocked me into a more open mind about animal sentience.
We had chickens, and because of the rough behavior of the roosters toward the hens, they were separated from each other. We fenced in the crawl space under the chicken house and the roosters lived there. The hens and roosters were usually released for foraging on alternate days.
One day I was walking by the chicken house, and one of the roosters under the building looked me in the eye, picked up a little piece of wood, dropped it, and began pecking it. He then looked me in the eye again, and repeated the behavior, several times, until it dawned on me that he was miming eating. Sure enough, they were out of food, and that bird was telling me he was hungry.
I may have seen him doing that before, but I barely noticed it, dismissing it as meaningless chicken behavior. Now I was beginning to feel shocked at what I just witnessed. I gave them the chicken feed and later I released them for foraging.
The roosters were always a little feisty and I was alert to any attacks coming my way, but the second shock I got was when one of them did attack me, and at that moment the rooster who mimed a request for food rushed in and drove off the attacking rooster.
Ever since that day he was my rooster bodyguard, never letting any rooster attack me. I always gave him special attention and treats after that, making sure he had what he needed, and he got to live out his natural life span.
But chickens? Intelligent? Really??? That was shocking, and I had to release my human chauvinism after that. I could never have foreseen a chicken behaving with such intelligence, and I believe we humans have only a vague understanding, if any, about the minds of nonhuman species.
FIRST TIME REACTION TO AC/DC – WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE | SPEECHLESS…
Another reaction. The expression on all these girls are just GREAT!
Of course they can. China didn’t in the past not because they were not capable but because it made much more sense for the Chinese customers to buy foreign chips. China were late in game. When the west started making semiconductors back in the 1960s/1970s, China were still in cultural revolution. By the time the got out of it, they were already too late.
The Chinese government was not comfortable at all being so reliant on foreign imports. They tried in the past 20+ years to create a local semiconductor ecosystem but they failed despite spending over a trillion RMB. They failed not because they didn’t have the talents, but instead they failed because there wasn’t a market. Even Chinese customers chose not to buy from their local semiconductor startups. Why would anyone take the risk of trying out local products when there were good foreign products available?
But that all changed when the US sanctions started. The US government essentially created a captive market for the Chinese semiconductor manufacturers. These manufacturers suddenly got the badly needed revenue. When orders flow in, investments followed. With investments, young Chinese engineers are motivated to join the industry. Hence, a negative spiral down that prevented the Chinese semiconductor industry from growing turned into a positive upward spiral.
To be sure, they still have many more years to go before they can catch up to the best in class. However, bear in mind, they don’t need to be at the cutting edge to do extremely well. Great majority of the use cases of semiconductors only need up to 14nm, which the Chinese are capable of doing themselves. Now that Huawei has already proven that with the 14nm node, they can design chips that perform at 7nm level, that is good enough for 90% of the applications.
Today, Chinese lithography manufacturers can make up to 28nm. They literally came from 90nm to 28nm within a very short period of time. Once they stabilize their 28nm products, they would go very quickly to 7nm with DUV. EUV is a different thing, but even for that, I think it’s a matter of time. I use to think 10 years but seeing how quickly the Chinese are improving, I’m not sure anymore how to make an educated guess.
So to answer the question – can the Chinese be a serious competitor in semiconductor manufacturing? Absolutely. In a few years time, I bet the US will regret waking up this sleepy dragon. Instead of importing over $300B worth of semiconductor a year, China will export their products and crash the global market like they did in most things they manufacture. How about a $10 GPU? Anyone?
Irish Girl Reacts to “Mister Rogers Saves PBS” For the First Time
I went to apply for a job at JFK Airport. I was a Family Practitioner and was told that they preferred surgeons. In any case, I decided I had nothing to lose and went in for the meeting. There were three or four people waiting for the interview and I was the only one who was not a surgeon.
Then the Deputy Director entered the room and asked if anybody spoke Swedish. Nobody did. Then he asked if anybody knew what a medicine called Kåvepenin manufactured in Sweden was. Nobody knew but I saw he had the box in his hand. I asked to see the box, looked for the composition and although the spelling was different than in English, it was clear that it was Pen VK (potassium penicillin V). So I said so.
The guy left the room and a few minutes later came back and told me, “You are right. You are hired. Everybody else may leave. “
Some protested but he said, “I hired him for his brain. None of you did anything and that guy took the initiative and got the right answer.”
I could not believe it. Fastest job interview I ever had in my life and I got the job.
His company was a big international Human Resources consultancy, and their expenses were divided between clients. For example if they used a £250k printer/binder/etc for a job, a fraction of that £250k would be allocated to the job. No problem, but took ages to allocate every time something was used.
One day, he goes to the stationery cupboard to get a pencil. The office assistant asked him which account it should be charged to and for him to fill in a requisition form for the pencil. He just blew his top. It would cost the company 100 times what the pencil was worth for him to fill in the form, with charge codes, client details and so on. It was a waste of his time and everyone else who just wanted some stationery.
The departmental manager fired him for his outburst “Not what we would expect in this company”. About a few hours later, he had requested a meeting with the departmental manager and the Vice President of his section. They expected a grovelling apology and it’ll never happen again.
But no. He went in saying this was classified as unfair dismissal and he wanted £30,000 – or he would go to court. They told him that they were a top HR company with the top HR experts in the land working for them. He would never win a unfair dismissal case and would get nothing. He pointed out that a full case would take 2 weeks in court and as the company was a partnership, every partner was equally liable and he would subpoena every partner to defend the case. He said he might not win, but would console himself with reading about the HR court case in every HR publication. The VP realised it would be very damaging to the company’s PR and they came to an agreement. They paid the £30k.
After that, I asked him, how did you know about the unfair dismissal law? He said that it is true that the company did have the top HR person in the country working for them, but that top HR person sat opposite him and my friend got him coffee each day. When he was told what happened, he agreed that my mate was fired for having common sense and gave my friend a bit of advice.
After my friend left, the company changed its procedures and you could now get stationery when needed.
China’s National Holiday
China’s National Day, which falls on October 1, is just around the corner. For the Chinese people, September 30 marks the start of a seven-day holiday following the Mid-Autumn Festival.
In the upcoming days, they will enjoy the happiness and joy of the “long holiday,” which they have earned through their hard work.
Meanwhile, across the ocean in the US, this year’s October 1 is a critical day.
Federal government agencies will run out of funds previously approved by Congress at midnight on September 30, the end of the current fiscal year. A government shutdown due to the bipartisan inability to reach an agreement seems inevitable.
For the rest of the world, this situation appears to be a farce of a commonplace American political struggle. People are not concerned about whether Washington will shut down. Where exactly is the US debt ceiling? This is what worries them. Can it continue to rise indefinitely?
The US has not defaulted on its national debt in the past, which is why US debt has become the most reputable in the world. But it has now reached an alarming height – $33 trillion! That amounts to $100,000 per person across the nation! What’s even more concerning is its growth rate, with an increase of $10 trillion in three years! That means $833 million is being added to the debt every hour since it crossed the $33 trillion mark.
A nation that frequently accuses other countries of creating debt has set a huge trap for the world in recent decades. Let us not overlook the fact that the US possesses the power to “print money,” which it uses to sustain Washington’s audacious habit of borrowing and spending recklessly, exemplifying its dominant “style” of hegemony. Government finances in the US have struggled for nearly half a century due to excessive spending without proper control, resulting in the continuous accumulation of federal government debt.
In the realm of election politics and hegemonic policy, the US has wasted significant financial resources. These resources have been used to cater to the interests of interest groups and self-serving politicians. Consequently, there has been an excessive increase in military expenditures to sustain hegemony, along with a continuous distribution of funds to appease voters.
Filippo Gori, an economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has published an article entitled “America’s Debt-Ceiling Disaster: How a Severe Crisis or Default Could Undermine U.S. Power,” on the website of Foreign Affairs magazine (April 24, 2023).
The article points out that “because most international trade is in U.S. dollars, the United States can print money to pay for goods that it buys from abroad, allowing it to finance a large international trade deficit without having to worry that it will run out of cash.”
This monopoly advantage, known as “too big to fail,” has resulted in a peculiar situation where the US is “insolvent” but not officially bankrupt. As a result, the US must employ diverse strategies to uphold the dollar’s dominance.
Another fundamental truth is that when the global community thinks about how the impact of this “Grey rhino” can be prevented and begins to make necessary preparations, the hegemony of the US and its foundation, the dollar, will surely be shaken.
China is a significant creditor of the US. The US’ containment of China, particularly through creating military tensions in China’s neighborhood, as well as the overall restriction on Chinese manufacturing and its impact on the livelihoods of the Chinese people, has heightened China’s worry about the US reneging on its debts.
The hardworking Chinese people, who are about to enjoy a wonderful holiday, know that they work hard for the well-being of their families. If their hard-earned money were to be used to prop up an empire’s hegemonic and brutal actions, as well as an unsympathetic political struggle, and then they were to be paid back in the form of “printed money,” they would definitely say “no.”
We believe that hard-working people around the world would share the will of the Chinese people.
China’s new rare earth technology has made new breakthroughs, US chips can’t live without China!
China rare earth insanely very cheap , compare to how rare earth produced and refine. No other countries could produced rare earth with current price .
People in the USSR were allowed to have car in private—the correct term was “individual”—possession.
But we were strictly prohibited from using cars for gaining revenue. Profiteering would unleash on the owner the wrath of the Soviet court system. In worst cases it could be a prison term.
Gypsy cab entrepreneurs risked a fine for the first transgression. The second one would involve confiscation of the car, and an even heavier fine. If the prosecutor could prove you derived a “non-labor” (netrudovóy) income on a regular, “systematic” base, you’ll get behind bars.
Renting your car for a remuneration was of course out of question. If you used a car for example to run your errands as a member of a cooperative, the tax inspection would turn down any tax reports that showed the cooperative covering your expenses. They also would send the case to the state attorney’s for them to take care of your accountant.
Neither could you sell your car with profit.
There were too few cars. Even the few people who had the money to afford a car had to wait for years for a permission to buy one. Which is why it was commercially possible for new owners to sell the vehicle right away sometimes with up to 100% mark-up and more.
At the end of the posting, a newspaper notice from a Soviet provincial newspaper in 1960, “From the Courtroom: Because of Re-selling Automobiles”
The text says:
“The vehicle operator of the Construction department No. 10 in Novo-Alexandrovsk N.H.Semerik bought in 1957 in a car store an automobile Pobeda, paying the government-approved price of 20,000 rubles. Three years later Semerik sold the used car registered in the State Vehicle Inspectorate in his wife’s name for 31,000 rubles to another person, and bought in the store a “Volga” to himself.
As soon as he was in possession of the new car, Semerik and his wife registered themselves in a waiting list for a new car.
The people’s court of the Novoalexandrovsk county prosecuted Semerik N.H. for profiteering according to article 154 p.2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. It sentenced him to two years of incarceration, with confiscation of the vehicle “Volga” and the money on his saving accounts. Signature: I. Artamonov, chairman of the regional court of justice.”
Yes, indeed. When my daughter was four years old, she had a lazy eye. She was diagnosed by an ophthalmologist. Eyeglasses were prescribed which she wore for one year. After a year she went back for a check up and he reported that she no longer needed the eyeglasses, the problem was fixed.
Soon after this – maybe a year – she kept putting aside longer chapter books in favor of short easy readers. She had learned to read completely by age 4, so she was almost 6 at this point, she had been a very enthusiastic reader, so the fact that she kept describing books as too hard raised a flag. Also she tilted her head sideways while watching TV. I took her back to this ophthalmologist who said everything was fine(!) The weariness with reading continued, so I took her to a vision therapist who specialized in tracking problems. He told me that she only had sight in one eye – he told me that it would be difficult to get the other eye engaged again, which really means getting the brain working again, but that it was possible with a lot of hard work.
I believed this doctor but still I took her to a different ophthalmologist in a big city who had many accolades….for a second opinion.
This ophthalmologist announced brusquely that her vision has been ruined by me because I had not acted quickly enough. (He would not listen to any of the history that I tried to offer.) He exclaimed loudly that she would never have sight in that eye and then he demanded that my four-year-old son climb into his chair barking: “I had better check his vision to make sure you have not ruined him, also.”
I am not often at a loss for words, but his condemning words were body blows from which I simply could not recover quickly.
I left that office never to return. We went directly back to the vision therapist and I am happy to say almost 2 years later she had 90% vision in that eye and the balance is corrected with a contact lense. He literally helped turn on her vision in that eye. So she has 20/20 vision and all is well.
The awful doctor was the head of an eye institute which will go unnamed for now. The vision therapist had a very small practice and really believed in what he was doing. I am so grateful to him. It was very hard work, but it was successful.
When her vision was mostly 100% restored in that eye, I wrote a letter to the ophthalmologist at the big, famous eye institute and gave him a piece of my mind. Oh, yes, by then I had found my words!
The “national debt”’ of America isn’t 33 trillion.
That’s merely the debt owed by the federal government, which primarily taxes income, and funds with shortfall by issuing treasury bonds.
There is another set of government debt that is completely separate. State and local governments tax property, and fund the shortfall by issuing municipal bonds.
The total outstanding today is 33 (treasuries) + 4 (munis) = 37 trillion.
That’s 37, followed by 12 zeroes, or 14 figures.
How big is 37 trillion, relatively speaking?
It is more than 75% of the combined GDP of the world’s top 5 global economies: US, China, Japan, Germany, India, totaling ~3.5b in population.
It is more than 85% of the combined GDP of the rest, the >180 nations outside the big 5 club. That includes all of the first world beyond the US, japan and Germany. That’s 4.5b people.
America has a population of ~330m.
It takes the annual economic output of a population that’s an order of magnitude larger to repay the debt owed by the American government. Note this does not include unfunded liabilities, and private debt from households and corporations.
This is far and away the greatest threat to global financial security, on sole account of size.
The Biden administration has made it very clear that China must operate in the manner in which the USA sees fit
That China must develop in the manner in which the USA sees fit
In short –
Make all the Washing Machines, Laptops, Smartphones, Microwaves and Televisions you want
Make all the Jeans, Toys, Textiles you want
Make all the low and medium grade components you want
Hell even make all the Robots you want and High Speed Trains, EVs and Solar Panels and Green Energy
Yet at the same time
You cannot go ahead of us or our allies in the areas of Advanced Computing, Space, Quantum Computing, AI etc. You should always be No 8.
You cannot modernize your Military technologically
You cannot pursue your own foreign policy and Geopolitics against our foreign policy
You cannot support anyone who doesn’t follow the Rules based order
You have to buy more Bonds of ours and acknowledge the Dollar as the world’s only reserve currency
This was the BIDEN DOCTRINE TO CHINA
Qin Gang and Blinken apparently discussed this where :-
In exchange for
China acknowledging the Biden Doctrine & relinquishing support to Russia & Forcing Putin to sue for peace by weaponizing the Yuan
The US would remove tariffs on Chinese products, remove export controls on certain equipment, remove 215 Chinese entities from the blacklist and propose Status Quo for Taiwan with no support for Taiwanese Independence
The plan was likely for QG to deliver an ultimatum to Lavrov and for Xi Jingping to gather Global South Leaders like KSA & UAE while US could persuade India and together force Putin to call a ceasefire in Ukraine
The Old Fox Wang Yi likely told Blinken to “go fuck himself” which is why Biden was so angry that he called XJP a dictator
I believe Raimondo tried the same thing, asking China to trade and develop in a direction acceptable to the US
I believe China again said GO SCREW, and DIE.
That’s why Raimondo was so angry when she returned back
Blinken, Yellen, Raimondo all pushed China to follow the Biden Doctrine and China said No each time which was why they all returned back in a state of fury
So now Biden will say the same thing if he meets Xi Jingping
Maybe Hu Jintao would have agreed
Not Xi Jingping
So Biden and Xi meeting is a pointless exercise
There is no US Leader who is willing to ask China to do whatever it wants and COMPETE with China directly and win
Starting in 6th grade, this nice boy from a troubled family was tortured for being suspected as gay. This was the late 80s in South Texas. The boy was caring but misunderstood. Sensitive. Soft. Other kids were non-stop cruel to him calling him a fag and “Terry the Fairy” (his name was Terry) from the time he arrived on campus until the moment he left. He never stood up for himself preferring instead to wish it wasn’t happening, turning them all off in his head by living in a fantasy reality instead, and becoming an angry shell of a generally happy boy.
One day in math class everyone was making fun of him with the usual taunts. Something snapped that day. He put his head on his desk and just said something like [Can you all just say it where I can’t hear it? I don’t care what you think, I just don’t want to hear it.] Everyone just laughed at him. Finally the teacher intervened and told everyone to be quiet (note no teacher ever made an effort to make them be nicer, just, on this day, to be quiet).
Finally, the boy broke down and told his parents. They were sympathetic but ultimately told him to just ignore it.
This continued until 11th grade when the boy discovered that he could get into college with a good GED score (not a top school, but he could work hard and transfer to one, which he did). He promptly signed up for the GED, took it, scored in 98th percentile, and immediately dropped out of school. He went on to college, did well, flew away and started his life.
That boy was me.
Fast forward 30 years. I am a successful man. Yes, gay, with two beautiful children and a thriving career thousands of miles away from South Texas and a life so rich and full I can barely remember any of their names — that’s the best revenge. 10ish-years later when Facebook started I received friend requests from many of those nasty kids I grew up with. Then, it seemed, that because I’d moved off to an exciting city and made good, and being gay was suddenly “cool”, they wanted to be my friends. I declined them and have not been to a single reunion nor do I ever plan on going. My attitude has always been: you hated me then, I didn’t like you, why on earth would I let you into my social media or ever purposely go see you now?!
It got better. My partner lovingly calls me “Terry my fairy.” I belong. I overcame and laugh at it now. They’re all mostly right where they were in that boring town surrounded by the same people, while I achieved that elusive thing: happiness. They did me a favor, really. They motivated me to get the eff out! If you’re reading this and you went to Hobby Middle School, or Clark High School, this post is really for you. I survived. I thrived. Thank you for the pain — it has served me well.
I never looked back.
Disturbing CEO Announcement: Workers to Be Reminded of Their Place
The CEO has many indicators of narcissistic personality disorder. Suggesting people need to suffer to recognize him and his company as an authority over their lives is a major red flag. Everyone who works for him or with him should walk away.
From a western point of view and a few years doing business in PRC, I offer my thoughts.
Over the past 20 years, I have worked with several state owned factories in sourcing raw materials to the US and had the pleasure to meet and get to know with the No. 1 and other senior level managers in these factories. I am assuming, probably with good reason, that these people are all active members of CPC.
They are all good business people and given responsibility for the company management, quite the same as a CEO is selected by a board of directors in a private company with many of the same factors affecting their selection. They have connections ( as in both systems) to get these positions and expectations of success in their assignment.
The Chinese leader in the factory further understands that he is also responsible not only for the workers’ welfare, but their families in the management of the factory community. As such, they all have compassion, and concern and take this responsibility often with great passion .
Like private company management and politicians in the west, some are greedy. I came to know one very good company manager for a period of 5 years, who was eventually appointed to a local government official position (similar to Mayor in US). When I returned the following year, I learned he was to be executed for crimes; he took a bribe for preferential treatment of a private business deal! Chinese punishment of CPC member who violates a trust is certainly much more severe than the West, perhaps a lesson well learned by many for the high price of a life.
I ate, drank, and sang with these people and see them firstly as compassionate human beings, acting similar to those all over our planet.
Certainly the burdens of the CPC on the success of the business that includes the welfare of all the workers and family members must weigh heavily on these people, perhaps more so than a CEO in a western private company who must answer to a B.O.D and the shareholders.
In other cases, I have had opportunity to interact with other CPC members , at a lower level, in Chinese Customs, regarding our trade in China.
At this level their understanding of global trade was clouded considerably with politically driven policies. Like all people, we learn from our teachers ( in this case , the CPC) , who often have a different agenda than politically different viewpoints.
But it seems we all have bosses of some sort whether another higher ranking CPC member or a small business company owner, and as human beings, we react for the benefit of our own survival.
So what do I think about CPC members? Just people doing what they have been taught by others to get through this life.
1. Your salary. I get paid pretty much equal to what I would in the USA ($40-45k) as a history teacher at a local school, which includes a stipend for housing and round-trip flight home every year… but my salary goes further here.
At home, I could hardly afford an apartment (I’m from New Jersey) because I had student loans, car payments, car insurance, rent, utilities, etc.
Here, rent is paid. Utilities are cheap ($100 max for heat in the winter; $10 water bill; $30 unlimited internet). I have no car, no car insurance. I can get taxis (starting at $3) or hire a car (starting at $5) or take the metro (less than $1) everywhere. I can eat very well with a variety of foods, go get massages & spa treatments ($30 for 90min at my fave place, but you can go to cheaper places), and travel cheaply. All while still having enough to send home to pay for student loans…
2. The food. I left Shanghai for a year for another job and that is what I missed most. All the regional cuisines (Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Dongbei, Taiwanese, Xinjiang, Tibetan) are delicious and fantastic. I can also get a wide range of international cuisines within 5km of my apartment (Thai, Vietnamese, Vegan, Organic, Japanese, French, Italian, Mediterranean, Spanish, Mexican, Turkish, Moroccan, Indian, Malaysian, Singaporean, etc. etc.) and, for the most part, are reasonably priced. Shanghai is more expensive than Beijing and people here always complain about inflation, especially with cost of food. However, with everything else being relatively cheap, I don’t mind spending $15-30 on a Western restaurant brunch which includes a bloody Mary or two… (not the four star crazy buffets… they are $80-100)
3. Convenience. You don’t have time to clean your house or do your laundry? Hire an ayi (maid/nanny) … Mine costs about $6/hr … You don’t want to go to your favorite restaurant for dinner because the pollution is bad? Don’t worry, you can have it delivered. There are many restaurant delivery services where you can order online and someone goes to get your order from the restaurant and brings it to you… You don’t want to go to the foreign supermarket? You can order online and have it delivered. You don’t want to go to the store to buy bottled water? You can have it delivered. You don’t want to spend $100s on a new suit? Bring a picture to the fabric market and they’ll make it for $10s. You want to do a juice cleanse? You can buy one and have it delivered to you every day. You can get a lot of things done for you if you know how… And the list keeps growing! All the choices for foreign food markets & deliveries were not around 4 years ago, so the market is growing…
4. Travel. You can travel cheaply in the entire region. You can also splurge on a hotel because the cost of wherever you’re going is going to be nominal. I treated my mom to a private villa in Thailand for Christmas. I stayed at the Sofitel in Hanoi for my birthday. I am a ardent budget backpacker at heart and have been travelling & living in hostels for 8 years, but living in China has given me the opportunity to see many different cultures around East and Southeast Asia and stay within my budget. Only in the last year have I started splurging a bit, and while I don’t do it all the time, it’s nice to know that I can…
Now, I know friends at bigger international schools with bigger salaries that live in bubbles on the outskirts of town and spend my entire monthly salary on apartments or going out to eat… My boyfriend lives in such a bubble with a driver and he eats at the top tier restaurants all the time… I like being in the middle of it all… I would probably be considered rich by most Chinese, but middle-upper class by most expats here in Shanghai… I can`t enjoy top tier luxuries all the time, but I can afford way more that I ever could in the USA at my age (I’m 29)
and if you’re looking for a non-monetary and/or food answer:
5. Culture/Language. Living in the middle of Shanghai means that I interact with the local culture every day. I’ve learned to read and speak enough Mandarin to haggle in markets, order in restaurants, talk to taxi drivers, have conversations about where I’m from and what I do, navigate around the city, etc. It can be very frustrating sometimes, and I know if you are in your expat bubble, you don’t even have to speak any Mandarin at all, but I like what I’ve experienced. I speak Mandarin every day and as a history teacher, I find living and experiencing the changes in China to be fascinating. You can see the impact the past has had on the current government and how the economic changes are paving the way for a new China to emerge… it’s great to be here and experience all of the energy…
I don’t want to know how many soldiers have played with these kinds of thoughts. Of course, almost no one goes through with it.
If you are in a shitty unit, you sometimes start hating your own guys more than the enemy. In such a situation, some people start contemplating murder. If you kill only one teammate, you’re screwed; therefore the only logical thing to do is killing all of them and defecting to the enemy.
What will always happen to you if you were doing something like this is the following;
You kill all your “comrades”. No problem, it’s easily done.
You surrender to the enemy. Still, everything is okay.
Big surprise! You end up in a Prisoner of War camp. Don’t think that the enemy will give you any preferential treatment or somehow recognize you as a defector or collaborator. No one likes to have a complete psycho around them.
After a while, your fellow prisoners will find out about what you’ve done and kill you.
Even the most deranged soldier can see that such an act can only lead to his certain death. That’s why it doesn’t happen more often.
When a person describes heroin withdrawal as ten times worse than the flu, they are doing it no justice — plain and simple.
That’s like saying that sex and ice cream are the same.
Sure, sex and ice cream are both awesome, but they’re not really the same when you dissect the feelings that each of them evokes.
Same with heroin withdrawal and “ten times worse than the flu” — yeah, they’re both awful, but really, they’re not the same.
The first time I went through real heroin withdrawal was in Lancaster County Prison after a ten year habit. It was torture beyond imagination, and I have yet the strength to write an in-depth description on Quora.
One of the withdrawal symptoms of heroin is the feeling of suffocation.
From the last time you shoot heroin, it takes about six days to fall asleep. When you finally do fall asleep, you wake up in an hour or two feeling like you’re suffocating on your swollen tongue and saliva.
There is one thing that helps that particular withdrawal symptom that jails do not provide.
Air movement.
My current girlfriend has two children. The only thing that we ever argue about is the amount of noise they make after I go to bed.
I need complete silence and darkness to fall asleep — I always have.
But ever since I got clean from heroin, there is one noise (that used to bother me to no end) that I can fall asleep to — the hum of a fan that circulates the air.
Without it, I feel like I’m going through heroin withdrawal.
When I feel like I’m going through heroin withdrawal, it triggers me to want to shoot heroin again.
I never want to go back to that life — the life that was really no life at all.
The object that would hurt me the most to lose, is my stupid fan.
It keeps me from wanting to shoot heroin.
I’ll choose my dirty old annoying fan over any other object on earth, hands down.
I met James Earl Jones and his wife in Dubuque, Iowa when he was acting in Feild of Dreams. There was a friend of mine who was a script supervisor on the shoot, and the entire cast and crew were frequently guests at a local restaurant in town called Mario’s.
I went to meet my friend there and met James Earl Jones and his wife. A customer made a racist statement about Mr. Jones and his wife, and I got into an argument with the idiot and had him escorted out. Mr. Jones invited me to join him and his wife for a drink, and the three of us talked about his career and life for almost an hour. I avoided asking about Star Wars, and I think that was part of the reason I got to stay so long.
Every time I went to the restaurant, Mr. Jones (if he was there) would invite me to the table, or walk over to me, and at least say hello and buy me a good bottle of wine. He frequently picked up my tab, and introduced me to both Burt Lancaster and Ray Liotta.
A great man who told great stories and clearly loved his wife.
First, no work is flawless. It’s an impossible standard, so either she’s lying, or she’s deluded.
Second, bosses who try to enforce stupid and arbitrary rules like “no smiling” are soul-sucking creatures whose mere existence proves that they really are monsters.
Why I Will Never Come Back to the United States
“Couldn’t agree more. 32 years ago I met a woman while working in Stockholm that summer. The next year, I left Brooklyn to live in Sweden. The best decision that I ever made. After a good career in the Swedish Royal Opera, I collected my pension and now live in a small village outside of Palermo. No regrets. I’ll never return to the states.”
I was dating an eighteen years old girl, I was twenty-five years old. I had fallen in love with her, but this scared me because of the age difference. I felt guilty that she had not had a chance to experience a lot of life like I had.
She also did not have much of an education having just graduated from high school. I had already graduated from college.
I thought the correct thing to do was to break off the relationship giving her time to experience life more fully.
I took her out on a date intending to tell her at the end of the date that it was time to go our separate ways. All night long I was rehearsing the speech I was going to give her:
It is not you it’s me.
You have done nothing wrong
It is for your own good
Some day you will understand
At the end of the date, we were parked in front of her house when I turned to her to give her the speech the words that came out of my mouth were “do you want to get married?”
I swear I had never even considered marriage and to this day I have no idea where those words came from.
We have now been married for more than fifty-one years and are still deeply in love with each other.
I am one of the most fortunate people alive to have this amazing woman share her life with me
Remember the parties we used to have in school? The little things thrown together to mark the little milestones? Christmas or Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day?
Everybody would bring something. A bag of chips, a big soda, cookies or brownies or candy.
I used to look forward to those. It was a chance to have some of the things I never got at home. Money was always tight and everything else came first. So I never was able to bring anything.
Somewhere around the third or fourth grade the teacher made an announcement in class. If you don’t bring a treat, you don’t get to participate in the parties anymore. I looked around the room and noticed a lot of faces looking back at me, smug grins from smug little faces, faces lined with nice haircuts they didn’t get at the kitchen table.
There was something happening soon. I want to say the end of the year party. The grand send-off to summer vacation.
I went home and asked then pleaded then begged but “no” was “no” in my home. I guess when you live in an old house with no heat or A/C, no fans or television or telephone, no hot water or washing machine… basically just four walls, the extras didn’t matter much.
So I went with nothing.
The big day came. Kids piled in carrying their bags. The teacher laid the feast out on a long folding table. There was never that much before. Rows of potato chips, cans of dip: French onion, bean and the most valuable of all… nacho cheese. Every kind of cookie, cakes and pies, sodas and big bottles of juice.
I heard my name. Over and over. “Freddy didn’t bring anything.”
Time for the party. The teacher drags a chair out into the hall and tells me to follow her. I sit there alone with my book and read, trying to drown out all of the laughing and slurping and crunching.
That’s what the rich kids wouldn’t understand. Being outside.
Always being the one on the outside.
Strip Steaks with Garlic Sauce
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
2 (8 to 12 ounce) strip steaks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup pitted black Kalamata olives, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed flat with the side of a knife
Instructions
Cut the strip steaks in half across the midsection to make 4 steaks.
Season the steaks on both sides with salt and pepper.
Heat oil and butter in a wide skillet over medium high heat. When the fat is hot, add garlic, and cook a few seconds until it is aromatic.
Add the steaks and cook until well-browned, about 3 minutes on each side (remove garlic when it gets brown).
Reduce heat to moderate, and cook for about 7 minutes more, or until done to desired tastes. Remove to serving plates.
Add the olives to the skillet, and stir to heat through.
Add a little water, beef broth or red wine to the skillet and scrape out bits that are sticking, then pour this pan sauce over the steak.
Serve with steamed or sautéed asparagus, orecchiette (ear-shaped pasta) or small shell pasta coated with gorgonzola or blue cheese.
Several, but one comes to mind in particular. (Going anon because he follows me on Quora). I’m going to call him Dmitri.
I met Dmitri when he was in 7th grade when I was to be his teacher. Before the first day of school at the middle school where I teach (which starts in 7th grade) we have a fun hiking day where students get to interact with their teachers, parents can come if they want, they usually do, and we get to be outside. Of course it’s optional, but students are strongly encouraged to come.
Dmitri came by himself. When we got to the top we do this exercise where everyone picks out two palm sized rocks. They choose one they don’t like very much and let it represent all their fears and angers, and then they throw that off the mountain, we encourage them to scream when they do this if they want to (it’s often fun to just scream as loud as you can), and then with the other rock you let it represent what you love about yourself or you let it represent someone you love. We often tell them that they can save it for someone they love. When Dmitri threw his first rock over the mountain (which is in a direction nobody is so no passing hikers could be potentially hit with rocks) he let out the most gut wrenching scream ever, he doubled over with it and screamed until he couldn’t anymore, I remember thinking to myself, “that is a child with demons”.
The school year started, I was Dmitri’s English and history teacher. He was a great student. The kind of student nobody worries about. 4.0 GPA, top marks in all areas, he was very popular although he didn’t have any real friendships, but he didn’t have any enemies either. He had a great sense of humor and was just a very likable kid. He was also a good writer. His essays were always pretty good, although also very closed off. Like he was locking the reader out of the story, he never connected anything to himself, he seemed scared to show that level of emotion. The way he outlined and articulated essays was good beyond his years, but he never made the reader feel anything. Which isn’t surprising, not that many 7th graders know how to make a reader laugh or cry.
About half way into the semester there was an assignment for the student’s to write about a time they struggled to say something. This could be having a hard time telling the truth, having trouble saying how they were feeling, or just any struggle with communication they have had. I see Dmitri’s essay in his folder as he’s sorting through some papers from his bag and go to grab it. He quickly grabs it before I can and says, “Oh, um, that’s a rough draft” Then he hands me another version. Which I accept. But before I go I ask if I can have the rough draft as well. I really like watching the way a student’s writing changes between drafts and assure him I won’t grade the rough version. He seems like he very much wants to say no, but he was a very passive kid and he so he agreed.
I’m grading papers that night and first read his final version. Pretty much what I was expecting, a well written, well organized introspective essay regarding when you should tell the truth to preserve somebodies feelings and when honesty is more important. It’s ideas were deep, but he did a weak job connecting it back to his own life. Then I read the rough draft. It was on a completely different topic and blew my mind. It wasn’t organized or planned, I don’t think Dmitri outlined it first and it seems like he wrote it without the intention of it being read. It seemed more like something he did for himself therapeutically.
The essay was about his older brother who had died of a drug overdose when Dmitri was 9 and his brother was 15 (this is not something I had known about). He talked about how difficult it became to talk to people after that. One quote that really stayed with me, taken directly from the essay, was “At the funeral everyone felt the need to talk to me. They gave me their condolences and told me it would be okay even when it clearly wouldn’t be. I wanted them to go away and shut up and just let me be alone with silence. After the funeral, after all the thoughts and prayers were out of the way, everyone faded into the background. They were so worried they’d say the wrong thing that they chose to say nothing at all. With a mother who had collapsed into herself I was left alone with a dead older brother and I ended up resenting the silence I had searched for at the funeral. I looked for [brother’s name] everywhere. In his room, on the trails we used to hike, in the medical examiners toxicology report. All I found was a stranger who I felt I had no right to grieve” Dmitri went on to talk about how after his brother’s death he had become obsessed with the police investigation into where his brother had gotten the drugs. Because, as Dmitri put it, he wanted someone to blame. He blamed himself for not knowing about his brother’s use, and his brother for using, and he just wanted someone who wasn’t him or his brother to blame. To quote another part of his essay “They never found the dealer and it took me over a year to realize it didn’t matter. I wanted them to because then it wouldn’t be [brother’s name]’s fault for doing drugs, or mine for not knowing he was doing them, it’d be all the dealers fault for giving them to him”.
It was, without a doubt, the best student writing I’d ever read. It made me cry, in parts it even made me laugh.
I talked to Dmitri about it.
He broke down in the conversation and said he hadn’t actually talked to anyone about his brother in over a year. We talked for awhile.
At the end of the semester I found a little box with a note from Dmitri. The note read: “I wasn’t sure what this was supposed to represent. There were no parts of myself I particularly liked and no one I felt comfortable declaring a love for, even if the declaration was a private one. Thank you for showing me the parts of myself it could be and for showing me what a healthy relationship is. You’re the person I was meant to give this to” Inside the box was his rock from the start of year hike. I’ve kept it for the passed 3 years, it’s the most thoughtful student gift I could have asked for.
I’ve loved continuing to get to know Dmitri. He’s in 10th grade now and with his intellect combined with one of hell of a work ethic and his determination to be the first in his family to graduate college, I’m quite certain he has a big future ahead of him.
I am 60 and my husband is 67. In May we adopted a 16 year old young man. He moved in with us the January before his 15th birthday. The people he called mom and dad had just died. His biological mother did not want him and he never met his bio dad. We spent the year doing a TPR terminating parental rights. Once it was done, we adopted him. He is very shy and was never given anything as his parents were both on Medicaid. We have been able to introduce him to all sorts of things that the world has to offer. We went from being empty nesters for 10 years to having a teen. Sometimes I think he might be better with younger parents, but we give our undivided attention and he has our love and support, no abuse and a future.
i am risking EVERYTHING to share this with you!
Since he left FOX, he has been on fire.
A man with Cancer
I took care of an elderly man who had cancer. He lived Next door to me. I hardly knew him but asked about his health after not seeing him over the winter, he had lost 50 pounds and the doctor didn’t know what was wrong with him. So I volunteered to have him checked out and sure enough, he had malignant cancer. His family lived across country and didn’t want anything to do with him. Or his health. So I stepped in. The next 3 years we went through chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. See, his family were Roman Catholic, and I believe he was gay, although we never discussed it. They felt he was a sinner and abandoned him. It was sad. I mean Really sad, and since I lived next door, I stood at my kitchen window and kept an eye on the house when I was trying to give him quiet. We moved his bedroom to the living room, where he could sleep and I could look through the window to make sure he was alright. One day he attempted to cook and fortunately I saw the fire! I put it out and never let him cook again, which is when I took on his nourishment needs, although he could barely eat. Thus became my life. I found out he never had a birthday party, so I had my family come with gifts and cards. He was elated!
When he finally did pass away, he had left me his house and his corvette. His family was furious, although they were very well off.
when I had him buried in his family plot, I bought a gorgeous headstone for him. The family had the management of the cemetery sledge hammer it to destroy all memories. I was heartbroken and really pissed off. The next time I went to the cemetery the manager said , “Well I had the opportunity to speak to the family, and I see you were right, they are awful people!” When I went to visit one day, it was early evening and it was snowing so softly, and as I was leaving an ENTIRE herd of deer stood up and looked at me. They didn’t leave, they weren’t frightened, they just stood there staring at me.
I knew right then and there that he was happy safe. His family doomed him to hell, but that is not where he was! My heart grew and I was able to replace my tears with a smile. Moral of this long story is this; it doesn’t matter what material things you have in life, take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. Be there for people who need you, whether it is family or a neighbor. It helps your soul to know you did the right thing.
Last thing, when he left me his house and car in his will, he stipulated that his family get $7,000. This way they had no recourse to fight me. I mailed his dress uniform from when he was a marine, his dog tags and many more items a normal family would want. They refused delivery and had it returned. his house wasn’t worth much, but I sold it when the market bottomed out and put in a few kitchen and bathroom remodeling.
I will never forget him. There is a shadow box in my home with pictures, dog tags and coins from around the world, even a picture of him riding a camel on vacation. The bulk of his money went to Karmanos cancer society. I do not regret one moment of those 3 years. Remember, be there for the people who have no one. It’s what you DO not what you have. Thx for reading this long story.
EDIT; this is for the woman who said it was a “weird, sensational tale of fiction “ This was all 100% true. The management of the cemetery destroyed the headstone because it was a FAMILY plot, and the Family had the right to decide what was on it. I complained vehemently and was refunded the money I spent on the headstone. It was afterwards that the management conversed with the family and found them crass and rude. There is nothing I can do about your comment, except to say sorry you didn’t understood what my post meant to me. So many others did.
The Living Dead: The Most Disturbing Story From 9/11
At 08:46 (EDT), hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Centre’s North Tower. It wasn’t long after that firefighters and emergency medical specialists were dispatched to deal with the multitude of distress calls they received from people trapped within the burning building. One such medical specialist dispatched that day was Ernest Armstead, a veteran with over 30 years of experience. In this video, I will attempt to retell the horrific experience Ernest witnessed that day.
When I left my retirement in Arkansas and flew to China, the airlines lost my baggage. So when I arrived in China, all that I had was a backpack, some of my most important papers, my laptop computer, and what I was wearing.
At that time, and to this day, I wear very comfortable clothes on planes during air travel. And given TSA back in the State’s, my clothes were simple;
Black hospital scrubs, and black slippers with black socks.
So, here I am arrived in China, with literally only the clothes on my back.
And for the first month or so, I had to live and wear in them until I got settled in, reestablished, and start earning money again.
In hindsight, it’s kind of funny.
Everyone, including my wife, wanted me to toss those things and never wanted to see me in them ever again. As a result, she went on a spending spree and outfitted me right and proper.
…
I don’t know what the fuck I was doing when I planned this cluster-fuck of a life, but I’ve got to tell you all, it’s almost a parody. Seriously.
Did I have a sense of humor, or was my “crew” trying to make a point when they planned my pre-birth world-line template?
I wonder…
…how many meme’s have I personally experienced in this life? Hum….
Enterprise Under Attack from the Suliban Part II
Stra Trek Enterprise Season 2 Episode 16 Future Tense
Carolina Hot Dog Chili
Ingredients
1 1/4 pounds ground beef
1 large onion (about 1 cup chopped)
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon cider or white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (optional)
Instructions
Place the beef, onion and 2 cups of water in a Dutch oven or soup pot over high heat. Bring to the water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and stir to begin breaking up the meat.
Add the tomato paste, ketchup, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper, if using. Stir well until the tomato paste and ketchup are dissolved and the meat is mostly broken up.
Continue to cook at a simmer, stirring about every 5 minutes, about 15 minutes. As the chili thickens, you may need to reduce the heat to medium-low or low so it doesn’t stick. Refrigerate, covered, up to 2 days, or freeze in small freezer bags for up to 6 months.
Thaw or reheat in a microwave, stirring often.
If you want a finer texture, you can cool the chili at least 20 minutes and process in a blender or food processor for 30 to 45 seconds.
Say tomorrow we are at $ 4.981 trillion, then it’s possible we may fudge to somehow make it appear that we have reached $ 5 Trillion
There is no conceivable way that any GDP number is off beyond say 2% at the most
The Point is Economic Development can be seen with your own eyes and not on paper
Take UP
I visited UP and traveled to quite a few places
I saw nothing to indicate bountiful prosperity
There was nothing to indicate the hum of a busy growing economy
Sure they had nice roads and a lot of nice commercial and techno parks but frankly it looked like more like
If you build it they will come
That’s what happens when you don’t develop your own populace with good secondary and tertiary education and instead rely on only investments under gun point or unrealistic concessions by the state
Now Take Bangalore or Hyderabad or Chennai
They are buzzing with activity and you can see that the economies are doing well
The Problem in India is that a few cities and few hubs are carrying the weight of the entire nation
There are 3 Key points in a booming economy
Unemployment is pretty low
Savings are pretty high (>= 36%)
Inflation is typically 50% of RORR
India has neither of the three
Unemployment is way above the target 5%
Gross Savings are 30.20%
RORR is 7% and Inflation is 5.05% which is way above the 3.50% target
That alone tells me there are pending issues that need looking into
I taught a shop class in an inner city high school…One day as the students were changing into work clothes I noticed some relatively new wounds on Jerome’s back…I politely and discreetly took him into my office and asked him what happened…He told me his step father had tied him to a metal bed spring and beat him with a coathanger…I knew where he lived so when school was out for the day I went to his apt and his stepdad was there…I proceeded to beat the living shit out of that evil man…And told him if he wasn’t gone before Jeromes bus got there I’d finish the job…AND call the cops…I drug his worthless carcass down to his pos car and he drove off…never to be seen again. Jerome stayed in my class for the full 3 years and graduated high school…Neither of us ever mentioned it…30 years later Jerome still calls me to visit ever so often…
The US Bankrupting Itself on Wars -w/ Ron Paul, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
Oh HELL yeah! The dignified and stately Dr. Ron Paul is one of the very best Americans living. Thanks very much for this, you guys.
Laughable because you are ignorant and naive like a 5 years old kid. If you know the truth you will be the one of the 89% too.
While the U.S. real standard of living deteriorated back to the 1960’s Chinese real standard of living grew 30 times in 40 years! While 35% in the U.S. has no health insurance, every single Chinese gets free health care. While the U.S. kids get into debts for just getting into college Chinese are provided totally free college tuition.
Chinese average life expectancy overtook the U.S. in the last 2 years straight. While your infrastructure is crumbling China has the latest state of the art ports, airports, highways, high speed railways. While your trains travel at snail speed China’s high speed trains travel at 400 KM per hour.
Do you still laugh now? To be honest everyone in the world is laughing at you. You want to know about the 11% so that you can orchestrate a coup? Organised a protest and a demonstration? Do a colour revolution? And you think the Chinese are fools to give you the information? Just because you have a IQ of a snail doesn’t mean others are the same like you!
Tex-Mex Biscuits
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup enriched hominy grits or quick grits
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese (with or without jalapeno peppers), shredded
1/2 cup dairy sour cream
1/4 cup milk
Instructions
Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
Combine dry ingredients; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Stir in cheese.
Combine sour cream and milk; add to dry ingredients, mixing just until moistened. Shape dough to form a ball; knead gently on lightly floured surface 10 to 12 times. Roll dough to 3/4 inch thickness. Cut with floured 2-inch biscuit cutter. Place 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.
This is Kalinka Bamberski, who used to be a 14-year-old from France.
During the summer of 1982, she briefly stayed in Lindau, Germany, with her mother and her stepfather, Dr. Dieter Krombach.
On July 9th of that summer, Krombach killed Kalinka. The next day, Krombach told the authorities that he simply found Kalinka dead in the morning.
Autopsies could not determine the exact cause of her death, and Krombach got away with the murder. This led Kalinka’s biological father, Andre, to grow suspicious and to investigate further.
Despite the authorities’ failure to discern the exact cause of Kalinka’s death, there were multiple red flags in the original autopsy: Kalinka’s corpse had multiple injection marks, fresh blood stains and a “whitish substance” around the genitals, and indigested food near the throat suggesting that she died soon after a meal.
Andre, rightfully suspecting that his daugher was raped, called for an additional investigation. This time, the authorities discovered clear evidence that, right before her death, Kalinka was injected with a drug named “Kobalt-Ferrlecit,” a substance capable of causing immediate discomfort and nausea in a victim. Andre pressed a case against Krombach, but the German courts judged that there was insufficient evidence for an indictment. Despite multiple red flags, Krombach was not indicted.
In 1995, however, the French courts officially sentenced Krombach in absentia to 15 years in prison for manslaughter.
Furthermore, later in 1997, Krombach admitted in a German trial that he had drugged and raped another girl using Kobalt-Ferrlecit, the same substance found in Kalinka’s corpse. Numerous other girls came forth, saying that Krombach had also raped them using the same drug. For this, the German courts took away his medical license, but did not sentence him to prison.
Unfortunately, in 2001, Krombach’s French manslaughter conviction of 1995 was annulled by the European Court of Human Rights, the reason being that Krombach was not capable of defending his case in that French trial. Not only was the 1995 French verdict annulled, but all attempts to extradite him for retrial were rejected.
But for Andre, the case was not over. Andre was deeply frustrated at the international legal system’s failure to bring justice; he decided he was going to take justice into his own hands.
In 2009, Andre and three other men secretly kidnapped Krombach from Germany, beat him up, and left him tied up near a French police station, allowing the French authorities to detain him and honor their 1995 decision.
Despite Germany’s requests to bring him back, French officials and courts ignored these complaints and officially re-tried Krombach.
With other victims testifying that Krombach had injected them with the same drug to rape them, on October 22, 2011, Krombach was finally sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter.
Kalinka’s father, Andre, was convicted and given a suspended sentence for abducting Krombach.
But in my opinion? Andre Bamberski was a heroic father who spent 30 years of his life to bring justice for his daughter’s death. Yes, he broke the law — but refusing to convict Krombach earlier and ignoring the mountatin of evidence against him was a clear failure in the international justice system.
For Andre’s determination and commitment, I applaud him.
Prof. Richard Wolff on American Labor: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
There is very little value enhancement due to market pricing or Brand pricing or Technology Pricing
Even a Boeing makes at the most a couple of million dollars commission to a Chinese Importer while earning nearly 100 Million Dollars to the US Economy
You see right?
No Nation on earth can export $ 564 Billion worth of goods to the USA
It’s estimated that at thrice the manufacturing potential today – India, Vietnam and Mexico combined can export $ 338 Billion worth of Goods by 2030
This that’s around $ 226 Billion of Exports but also around $ 700 Billion of final retail goods
That’s the amount that US players and entities will be deprived off if US entirely decouples from China EVEN IN 2030 with India, Vietnam and Mexico tripling their Industrial Output
Even then US Economy and it’s players will be deprived of $ 700 Billion Dollars which by 2030 could be around $ 1 Trillion with inflation
That’s a lot of jobs, lots of payments GONE
Meanwhile China?
China may lose around $ 564 Billion of Exports in decoupling
At 0.4% inflation
That’s $ 580 Billion vs $ 1 Trillion
So even in the worst case scenario of US entirely decoupling from China and India, Mexico and Vietnam tripling their Industrial output today – China would lose $ 580 Billion while US would lose a whopping $ 1 Trillion
At normal Industrial output for these three nations, US would lose $ 2.4 Trillion or nearly 4.5 times as much as China stands to lose as an economy
Same for EU
Same for ASEAN
Same for India
Its why Raimondo visits China
It’s why 27 Chinese entities were removed from a Blacklist recently
The Media has been spinning fiction and propaganda so far and China hasn’t cared
Now if China decides to take their revenge by drastically cutting off key exports of say $ 100 Billion, then US cannot source more than $ 30 Billion from other countries
China loses $ 100 Billion but US loses around $ 210 Billion of value to it’s economy
That’s 44% of the projected $ 470 Billion that the US Economy hopes to enhance itself this year at 1.8% growth
So Raimondo says
Please keep trading with us as usual. Ignore what we say in our media. Our contention with you is for the $ 10–15 Billion portion of our Trade, let’s keep the balance $ 685–690 Billion of Trade as normal
That’s why China doesn’t need to visit everybody and reassure anyone much
Everyone loses far far more by decoupling with China
So ultimately it creates a slow down globally where China albeit having very low growth still beats the rest of the world
Solving The Most Mysterious Children in History
THREE STORIES: The Most Mysterious Children in History In 12th century England, two children were found lost in a forest.
They spoke only gibberish, wore strange clothing and had bright green skin.
When the children finally learned to speak English, they described where they were from.
And that’s why, after almost 1,000 years, people still talk about The Green Children of Woolpit.
In 1828, a teenage boy was shuffling through a public square in Nuremburg. He seemed confused and disoriented.
He had trouble walking and speaking. When police finally approached him, he was holding an envelope containing two letters.
And those letters sparked the mystery of Kaspar Hauser.
In April 1922, in Brittany, France, 2-year-old Pauline Picard went missing. A massive search turned up nothing.
The family was losing hope. A month later, Pauline was found wandering around a village over 200 miles away.
Though her parents were overjoyed to have her back, they soon realized something wasn’t quite right with their daughter. These are three unsolved cases of the most mysterious children in history.
POMPEO said ‘Covert operations, ousting democratically elected governments, inciting revolts and supporting transnational companies are run of the mill operations for the CIA.’ WHO GAVE THEM THOSE RIGHTS?
We did, all us minions. America was once set up having a government described as ‘a government of the people, for the people, by the people’, but the people couldn’t be bothered and went home, leaving ‘those who shouldn’t be’ in charge. Industry filled the vacuum created by our conspicuous absence, which over time gave way to the American Industrial Military Complex which runs the country today.
Now industry owns the puppet show called ‘Democracy’, which in no way should be confused with actual democracy, and yet we continually pretend they are one and the same, and that our vote counts, even though voting either left or right basically changes nothing of significance. Results may vary but the rich are always always always the primary beneficiary, either way they lean.
We demand and receive empty platitudes, and are duly amused by military antics across the globe, ignoring the fact that such behavior merely mirrors us here at home, and that the same shit is pulled on our own, until folks like Snowden and Assange et al dare to shatter our deliberately cultivated ignorance. No matter, we have ways to deal with such moral assholes, as throwing them under the bus in various ways has become a time honored national pastime.
So, when you want to look at who’s at fault, go look in the mirror. When you wish to look deeper, check out your family albums. We are the bloody problem, and as we are paying the price, with record numbers driven from their homes in this rich nation, and yet, still we refuse to accept responsibility for our democracy, knowingly leaving it in the manipulative hands of industry, which is exactly how to kill actual democracy, regardless of the puppet show which operates by the same name.
Whether you love Trump or hate him, he reflects us, and had he actually run the country as we pretend to believe, he would have surely killed it, as would Biden. We need to wake the fuck up to the reality we have created, and make the necessary changes within ourselves which can then be reflected through our leadership, before it’s too late, if it’s not already.
But who among us want to actually be the change we want to see?
Many years ago, when I was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I had a work commute on a typical Monday through Friday schedule.
One evening on my way home from work, I turned off a main street into the side streets that would lead me the rest of the way home. It was a very familiar drive and I knew each block well – which ones had a stop sign for me, which ones had stop signs for the cross traffic, and which ones had four-way stops. I was cruising the last few blocks toward home and had no more stop signs, so I was probably going about 35 mph when suddenly it was as if someone inside my head said, “Slow down!” It was so forceful and unexpected, I did just that. “Slower!” was the next command, and then again, “Slower!”
I was just about to chalk it all up to being a little kookie after a long day, when suddenly someone driving a vehicle on the cross street blew through their stop sign at an alarming rate of speed. I am 100% certain if I had not slowed down, I would have been T-boned by someone doing a good 60–70 mph. The close call freaked me out. I’m not a religious person, but it sure felt like I had a guardian angel that day.
Dead For 7 Minutes; Man Is Shown Past Lives During Incredible NDE
Yes. My dad’s best friend growing up has a son my age. We were really close as kids but they moved away and I didn’t talk to him for years. When we were teens, my dad’s friend came to visit. Something about his son literally made my skin crawl. I was left alone at home with him and my three young siblings while the parents went out for the night and I was nearly frantic trying to ensure he did not have a moment alone with my siblings. When our parents returned I told them something was wrong with the son, and to please not leave me alone with him again. My dad was upset and demanded to know why I would say that, did the son do something? He honestly hadn’t actually done or said anything that I could pin this feeling on. So I told them, I think my animal brain just knows a predator when I see one. My dad thought I was being dramatic but my mom believed me and made sure we weren’t alone with the son for the rest of their visit. About a year later it turned out the son got caught in the act of raping his niece. He told the police he was glad he was caught because he couldn’t stop himself. My dad has never doubted my intuition since.
Tony Confronts Tony Blundetto – The Sopranos HD
When Tony B looks up after Tony S said someone got a look at the guy. That’s the reaction of someone who did it. Split second panic and then cool as a breeze. Steve Buscemi nailed it.
I worked for a major retail company, in a team running the mainframe.
One task was keeping the (huge, size of a car trailer) printers running.
Some printouts were for the board, and these we were told to check for misprints and missing pages.
We’d just been told that we couldn’t have any pay rises since there wasn’t any money in the budget. Inflation was running high, so not getting a pay rise really meant a pay cut.
The company annual account report was printed and I was checking it before putting it in internal mail.
I noticed that the IT department budget was underspent by half a million!
No money for pay rises!
Showed printout to my manager. He ran off with it to the copier. Multiple copies of the page showing the surplus in the IT department were placed around the department.
We got pay rises.
Ralph Cifaretto Refuses Tony’s Drink – The Sopranos HD
SMIC has been making 7nm custom GPUs for the past 2–3 years, mostly for crypto customers who couldn’t get in the TSMC queue.
This filled real market demand that other players didn’t, or couldn’t.
SMIC used this opportunity to refine its process, on the quiet.
Huawei, in the meantime, found willing partners to share talent and resources, in a concerted effort to save the high-tech industry on the mainland from American destruction through the threat of sanction.
How did Huawei et. al. find the tools necessary for chip design, especially the GPU? What black magic did Huawei use to improve the transistor geometry? How did they penetrate the Qualcomm 5g patent wall? I don’t know. Neither does my friend in TSMC. It’s a separate ecosystem now, and quite independent.
The fog of war has descended, but the outcome point to solidarity across the ranks, with competitors working together like they are part of a conglomerate.
The Chinese are capable of cooperation on unheard of scale, because of long history.
The Mate 60 Pro is merely a first step, lacking polish and maturity. What’s coming though, will be a deluge.
Alien Artifacts on Mars: What NASA doesn’t want you to know
Of course. The Chinese government really wants to know how many times you call your girlfriend every week, and which are your favourite games, and which pop stars you follow on Instagram, and most of all they are interested in the photos of your meals that you regularly post on Facebook.
These are vital secrets so critical for the national security of the USA, so the evil communist spies from China will be watching intently. Remember that well, and be careful! The everyday events of your online life have the devastating potential to alter the direction of global geopolitics and the history of the world, basically.
How Huawei Mate60 5G Overcome US Sanctions? | Time to invest in Chinese tech stocks
100 sanctions. Imprisonment of it’s CEO. Mandatory shutdown of partner factories in the West.
Why worry US. Remember most Yanks still think Chinese live in caves and eat bats! To these hubris Yanks China can only make T-shirts and toys. And U.S. can deprived them technologies and send them back to the Stone Age.
Well, what happened? While the U.S. is still in the midst of ordering and coercing Taiwan to build its chip plant to manufacture 7nm chips that it thinks China is unable to do. To the horrors of U.S. officials. It took a mere 3 years for China to. Make it and now inside the Huawei Mate 60!
Where are the neocons who convince Biden to spend a trillion in losses, in subsidies, in coercions, in tax breaks, in new shining plants, in luring specialist to the U.S. only to see that China get it done in no time and made products that are not only comparable but better, faster and cheaper!
Huawei, under tight US sanctions since 2019, started selling its latest Mate 60 Pro smartphone this week, raising speculation about its 5G capabilities. Some online reviews claim the device comes with the Kirin 9000s chip to support 5G and satellite calls.
The US and some European governments have labelled the Chinese giant a threat to national security, despite the company’s denial. Huawei had restricted access to US components and software, including from foreign chipmakers.
Early this year, Japan and the Netherlands joined the US effort to curb the export of advanced semiconductors. However, Huawei has been rumoured to be actively trying to overcome these sanctions to return to the 5G smartphone market, even resuming production on advanced chips with China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC).
Why does it matter?
Huawei’s development of its 5G chip may have implications for the tech industry, the global economy, and national security.
The smartphone launch coincides with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to Beijing, reiterating the Biden administration’s stance on export controls to China.
If the new Mate 60 Pro is confirmed to have a 5G chip, that would mark a significant achievement for the Chinese tech champion.
China’s ability to produce its own advanced chips would also announce a considerable advancement in technological capabilities and would mean a serious blow to current US measures aimed at slowing its progress.
It could inspire the country’s largest tech firms to get around US sanctions, fueling the ‘whole nation‘ endeavor to produce Chinese innovation to beat the US.
In the United States, I was a conservative Republican working at a wage earning job. Then, while driving for my employer, on a delivery, on the clock, at a red light I was stopped. A person who was not paying attention smashed into my stationary vehicle and totaled it, and sent me to the hospital.
The hospital bill was thousands upon thousands of dollars. My employer didn’t cover any of it. My automobile insurance replaced my new vehicle with an old one that barely ran. I ran up many thousands of dollars of medical debt that I couldn’t afford.
Note: I spent one hour at the hospital, getting one scan. I received zero actual treatment, before or after that scan. It still cost me more than I made in a year. And no, the insurance didn’t cover it. Insurance that would have covered it, would have taken up half of my wages in a given month.
Cut to a few years later. I am now happily married, living in Norway. Still an American citizen. My wife is Norwegian and the pay is much, much better here, because they have things called unions. I literally earn three times as much as I did in Florida, working the same type of job. Scratch that, I was in management in the USA. Here, it’s an entry level job, no promotion. I still make far more money than I did in the states.
But the point is, whenever I need to see a doctor now, I just go. Whenever I need an operation, I can afford it. Whenever I am sick, I take time off. Because over here, in Norway, they have single payer universal healthcare.
I’ve never seen a doctor more often than I have since moving to Norway. I’ve gotten medical conditions diagnosed that I never would have found the money for before. I’ve gotten sick leave from work when I have been ill. Seeing a doctor tends to cost less than I make in a day, and if I go over a certain amount in a year, I can pay nothing.
Instead of getting bills from a doctor for thousands of dollars, I end up paying around 30 bucks out of pocket each time.
The doctor earns plenty. They make slightly less money here, but are still among the highest paid people in society. The citizens are healthier, they live longer. They take their health more seriously. Norway spends more per patient than almost any other country in the world, and they cover every citizen, every resident, completely.
Norway still spends only about half as much as US citizens are forced to spend on their healthcare.
The reason is because healthcare is considered a right here, like getting a public school education. People don’t go without simply because they’re poor.
And as a result, lifespans and healthcare outcomes and healthcare expenses are all a better outcome or a cheaper deal here in Norway.
Bernie Sanders is one of the few politicians in my native United States who understands that progressive ideas like universal healthcare would greatly enhance the lives of my fellow citizens.
I care about my fellow citizens, and I’d like for my son to be able to live in the USA someday, as he is born to a US citizen and he can certainly go far there.
The problem is, if he decides to come to the USA; there won’t be a union fighting for him against corporate greed. There will be greatly reduced wages. And if he gets hurt, sick, or otherwise needs medical care, he will likely need to have far more money than he earns in order to get that care.
That’s ridiculous.
Of course, he could just get a college education (something that is free in Norway) and then he could afford the outrageous healthcare prices in the USA.
But if he wanted to get such an education in the USA, he could find himself a hundred thousand dollars in debt just for college alone, in a shitty economic downturn, without even the benefit of having a place to live. Throw on a mortgage payment on top of that, and he would be downright stupid to deliberately choose the USA over Norway.
The difference is that Norway governs for its citizens and certain things are prioritized here, like education and healthcare.
Whereas in the USA most of the money you spend in taxes goes towards prepping for world war 3 and giving subsidies to already profitable corporations, and then giving them loopholes where they don’t have to pay any corporate taxes at all. And then billionaires pay for senators to give them even more tax breaks personally, and then they use that money that should be funding your government services to bankroll candidates for the Republican ticket that will never, ever do anything to help a working class person.
I support Bernie Sanders because he’s spent decades representing working class people, without ever selling out. It’s a shame people keep rejecting him in favor of billionaires who bail themselves out on the taxpayer’s dime like Donald Trump.
Norway isn’t alone. Basically any other modern, western nation has a universal healthcare system of some kind, and doesn’t shit on the poor like the USA does under Republican rule. Needless to say, I don’t think much of my former political party. They haven’t done anything for any working person in at least 4 decades. I was a fool to support them at all when I was younger. I believed their lies, basically.
The Mate 60 is superior to the performance of the Iphone 13 and is on par with the performance of Iphone 14
Yet the Mate 60 is expected to be half a generation below the Iphone 15
The Price of the Mate 60 however is at least 3000 Yuan lesser than the Iphone 15 and given the mild differences in performance between the two, the market for the mate 60 is likely to zoom and surge and definitely affect the market for the Iphone 15
I believe Iphone will lose around 15% of it’s present market share in China to Huawei due to the Mate 60 and the Mate 60 Pro Plus to be released in 2024 April
As a child, I was an incorrigible thief. Absolutely nothing could stop me.
I stole books. We had no local library, no school library, and no money to buy books. And I WANTED TO READ! (That may have been why I developed the habit of re-reading books.) I also stole art supplies, but that wasn’t quite the same problem, because you didn’t need a new set of pastels every week. When I was caught, I was punished — usually beat, because that was punishment in Little Italy in the 1960s.
My brother also stole. He tended towards candy and comic books. He also got beat when he got caught.
When I turned 16 I got a job, and I never had to steal a book again. Within three months I had enough books (and money) to build my first bookshelf. My current bookshelf, which is about half the size of its maximum ever, is 13′ long and 7′ high. I built that one, too.
I don’t steal art supplies, either. I order them online.
My brother decided stealing was fun, and meant he didn’t have to work. He made a living illegally hooking up electric lines after the power was shut off; later, he added cable TV installations. And he didn’t need a full-time job, ever.
Same parents, same beatings, same reason — poverty. When I had a choice, I stopped stealing. When he had a choice, he became a better thief. Good parenting helps, but nothing will tell you why a child turned out the way they did.
Clear interference shown in docs leaked to Mintpress
Theoretically, any cell phone that makes calls through a terrestrial carrier could be monitored by the CIA. It doesn’t matter whether the phone is made in the United States, South Korea or China.
After all, their signals and data must eventually be aggregated into the operator’s computer room and lines.
However, Mate60 is so unique that it is the first mobile phone in the world that can send short messages and make calls directly through artificial satellites. Previous similar products required the help of ground operators for transit.
Some people may say: CIA will also monitor satellites! Of course.
But what if these satellites are not operated by Americans?
Yes, if two people hold Mate60 at the same time, they can rely on a series of artificial satellites in space for global communication that do not rely on the United States. Perfectly avoiding every link that the CIA may touch.
While many Chinese scientists and engineers have returned to China after working years in the US, there is a newer trend which just came to my attention: Young Chinese star physicists and engineers are refusing to go to US universities and companies for study and then work, and are choosing to do their post-graduate study and work in China.
Why?
They have seen how research and product patents are owned by US universities and companies, and are used against Chinese companies and interests if a tech war breaks out.
They do not want their inventions used against Chinese companies and interests, so they choose to stay in China.
Huang Qianqian 黄芊芊 is a leading student and researcher on electricity consumption in chips, who went to Beijing University for undergraduate work, and is now doing graduate work there. In spite of being offered full scholarships to US universities, she decided to stay in China to do her work. She already has several patents under her name.
The US wanted decoupling; it is getting decoupling.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for plans to immediately deport Blacks out of Israel and back to Africa.
Plans should be drawn up to remove all African migrants from Israel after groups of Eritreans were involved in a violent clash in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.
He also wants the migrants involved in the demonstration to be deported immediately.
His remarks came a day after rival groups of Eritreans clashed in bloody protests that left dozens of people injured.
The groups, supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s government, faced off with construction lumber, pieces of metal and rocks, smashing shop windows and police cars.
Israeli police in riot gear shot tear gas, stun grenades and live rounds while officers on horseback tried to control the protesters.
The violence broke out near the Eritrean embassy when protesters were stopped from reaching the building ahead of a cultural event set to take place there.
The issue of migrants has long divided Israel and the latest violence has brought it back to the fore.
“We want harsh measures against the rioters, including the immediate deportation of those who took part,” Mr Netanyahu said.
He requested that ministers present him with plans “for the removal of all the other illegal infiltrators,” and noted in his remarks that the Supreme Court struck down some measures meant to coerce the migrants to leave.
Under international law, Israel cannot forcibly send people back to a country where their life or liberty may be at risk.
About 25,000 African migrants live in Israel, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, who say they fled conflict or repression.
Israel recognizes very few as asylum seekers, seeing them overwhelmingly as economic migrants, and says it has no legal obligation to keep them.
Stray Cat Follows Every Stranger and Asking to Take her Home Until This Happened
Heartwarming.
Media Say … Gloom And Doom In China
The New York Times, and other western media, are running a ‘doom and gloom in Xi’s economy’ campaign.
Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution with major centers and public buildings in New York, Hong Kong, and Houston, and additional locations in Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New Delhi, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and Zurich.
In 2016, he was found guilty and imprisoned after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice by asking Leung, in letters and emails, to stop the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) from investigating him.
Why is he quoting the Vice-something professor of this or that Liu Shijin?
Former Vice-President (Vice-Minister), Development Research Center. Currently, Vice-Chairman, China Development Research Foundation.
Natixis is a French corporate and investment bank created in November 2006 from the merger of the asset management and investment banking operations of Natexis Banques Populaires (Banque Populaire group) and IXIS (Groupe Caisse d’Epargne).
Natixis provides financial data for the ‘Markets’ section on the news channel, Euronews. On October 26, 2010, Natixis Investment Managers (NIM) has acquired a majority stake in asset management start-up ‘Ossiam’.
Why use some other outlets interview with the retired Lou Jiwei without giving this (2019) context?:
Lou Jiwei, who has long been seen as a liberalizing force in China, an advocate of market reform and international openness. He served as finance minister, ran the country’s massive sovereign wealth fund, and has palled around with western economists since the 1980s. But recently he made a prediction that contained a startling phrase: At a forum in Beijing, according to reporting in the South China Morning Post, he said: “The next step in the frictions between China and the United States is a financial war (jinrong zhan). The U.S. has been hijacked by nationalism and populism, so will do everything in its power to use bullying measures [and] long-arm jurisdiction.”
In this financial war, he continued, the U.S. will exploit its dominance of the international financial system to hurt China—and China will fight back.
REALITY: Only four economies have ever grown by $1.5 trillion in a year, and 2023 will see the fifth. All five boom years are Chinese, of course. Its economy is booming and so are wages: 4.7% nominal rise last year, 4.2% after inflation. Bwahahah.
But it’s all gloom and doom in China. The NYT says so.
Posted by b on September 6, 2023 at 8:23 UTC | Permalink
Tex-Mex Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
4 baking potatoes
1 pound lean ground beef
1 (12 ounce) jar mild or hot salsa
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
1 tablespoon chopped stuffed green olives
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup thinly sliced iceberg lettuce
Sliced tomatoes
Instructions
Scrub potatoes; pierce skin with fork. Bake at 400 degrees F until tender, about 1 hour.
Fifteen minutes before potatoes are done, sauté meat in hot skillet until all pink disappears.
Add salsa and chili powder to meat. Cover. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Add green pepper and olives to meat mixture. Heat through.
Cut baked potatoes open. Spoon hot meat mixture into potatoes. Top at once with cheese so that it melts slightly.
Serve with lettuce sprinkled on top and with sliced tomatoes alongside.
Apple In Tears: China Ban Iphone In Response to U.S Sanction
In today’s video, we dive deep into the recent ban imposed by China on the use of iPhones for its government officials and its potential impact on the U.S economy. From Apple’s position in the global market to the ripple effects on allied industries, join us as we uncover the implications of this significant move.
Some years ago I was living in rural Texas. My housemates decided to raise chickens. They thought it would be “fun.” As someone who had to raise chickens in the past, I did not agree with them, but compromised because chickens were probably the least expensive and bothersome livestock they could mess with. Eventually, they got bored of the chickens, so I processed the chickens for future consumption in the front yard where the light was good. My neighbors called the local police and claimed I was conducting Satanic Rituals. Once again, this was rural Texas (no HOAs, large tracts of land with the Piney Woods for our backyards). All of these neighbors claimed to be descended from farmers and country people. They should have damn well recognized what cleaning a bunch of chickens looked like versus “Satanic Rituals.”
About 15 years ago I was driving through a part of Miami, Florida in my work van, which contained lots of specialized tools. My company was based out of South Georgia, and we usually didn’t work this far South, but there I was, driving through unknown territory.
I was on a very long street with stop signs every block, and I dutifully stopped at each one before proceeding. Of a sudden, as I stopped at one of the stop signs, a police car pulled up on the left side of me, lights flashing. An officer jumped out of the passenger seat and stood at my window, asking me where I was headed. I told him that I was heading to the interstate so I could make my way back North to Georgia.
The officer asked what I had in the van, and I told him a bunch of tools. Wearing a pained expression, the officer told me that he and his partner had observed me stopping at every stop sign and then he said that it was several miles to the Interstate and that I was in a very rough part of town. In fact, the officer believed that my life would be in danger if I were to stop at every stop sign, as someone may jump on / in the van, shoot me, or whatever, and take the van.
The officer ordered me not to stop at any of the stop signs between where we were and the interstate. He said I could slow down and make sure it was safe to proceed, but under no circumstances was I to stop and that if anyone tried to stop me or signal me to stop, that I should ‘floor it’ and get the hell out of there.
The officer assured me that they were radioing my vehicle description / license plate # to other officers in the area to let them know what I would be doing.
I thanked the officer and proceeded toward the Interstate, running every stop sign on the way.
PASSPORT SIS Thought She Could Talk Down To Men In Africa Like In USA
“The arrogance of US women is astounding. I live in a poor country, but that does not mean that their education is bad. Very smart people here.”
Yes you are 100% correct. The U.S. is totally dependent on the Chinese in 3 main ways.
Without the Chinese products the U.S. will suffer a 50% inflation at the very least.
Without China producing stuffs productively and efficiently for them they cannot sell a thing in the world.
Without access to the humongous Chinese market most U.S. companies will go bankrupt and out of business within a year.
Just take Apple and Tesla as an example. Without the Chinese market it will suffer a good 30% less sales. Without China making their products they will be totally uncompetitive and lose the entire world market.
What can be done about this? You can do something to avoid dependence on China but you won’t. And you can’t. You wanted the cake and eat it too. You see US wants to be the world’s baddest nation and fight wars upon wars upon wars. It needs to outspent the top 20 nations put together! If you do that much shit you need to watch your back, your side and your front, your top and your bottom too!
There lies your problem. You need to spent all your money on wars you have no more money to produce anything. You thought that your CEO can earn 100 times China’s CEO, your workers must be paid 5 times more than Chinese workers and get 10 times the Chinese benefits and the customer will pay for your excesses! But the customer won’t! Not even American customers!
It is that simple. The U.S. cannot have the cake and eat it too! The U.S. needs to choose being competitive or being hegemonic! It cannot have both. American need to decide!
You want to compete with China, do the following. Close your 800 foreign military base, turn your dozen aircraft carriers into holiday cruise! Divert your trillion dollar military budget to building U.S. infrastructure, stop spending money talking shit and doing shit spend it on building relationship with your customers. Disband NATO, CIA and NED! Ban Industrial Actions and Trade Unions!
Can you do this? I doubt so. So the U.S. will rather be dependent on China!
The Sopranos || Feelin’ Good
I am really starting to like these Sopranos themed fan videos.
The growing US’ geopolitical competition with Russia and China marks the end of the post-Cold War world order, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, speaking at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies on Wednesday. “What we are experiencing now is more than a test of the post-Cold War order. It’s the end of it,” he noted. “Decades of relative geopolitical stability have given way to an intensifying competition with authoritarian powers, revisionist powers.” This statement appears to be a rallying cry for a “new cold war.”
Since the post-Cold War order is coming to an end, what kind of new world order does the US want? Various signs indicate that the US wants major power competition and camp confrontation in order to maintain its global hegemony, even at the expense of the interests of other countries, including allies, and partner nations. However, the reality is that major power competition goes against the trend of the times and cannot solve the US’ own problems and the challenges facing the world. It will only further divide the world, leading the world to slide toward a more dangerous cliff edge.
Regarding Blinken’s remarks, there are two main points to consider. Firstly, Blinken was creating a sense of crisis in the world. The underlying message to US allies and other countries is that there are challengers, particularly China and Russia, who want to change the existing order. Secondly, Blinken’s remarks also reflect a sense of anxiety in the US. The US is attempting to slow down China’s rise through strategic competition, while hoping to sustain its hegemony without jeopardizing its own interests. However, it seems that the US has no clear solution to this dilemma.
China is one of the beneficiaries of the existing system and does not seek to challenge or subvert this order. However, the US has viewed any legitimate demand made by China, even those that reflect the reasonable demands of the majority of developing countries, as a challenge and ill-intentioned sabotage….
As for China, the US is attempting to stifle its development by imposing unlimited technological restrictions, but it is unable to completely decouple from China economically. For the US and its main allies, China is either their largest single trading partner or one of the largest. Today, the US is a reckless strategic aggressor, attempting to unite its relatively weaker strength with its allies to wage a new cold war. It should be noted that the power of US allies has declined significantly, and the unity of the “West” is crippled due to the US transitioning from a “blood donor” to a “vampire”.
There’s no way the Outlaw US Empire and its vassals can contain China or the rest of the Global South. The degree of geoeconomic dependency noted in the final paragraph above is far too much for that Bloc to overcome. The attempts made so far beginning with Trump have illustrated the damage the Empire can inflict on itself in its ill-considered policy toward China and the world. The Outlaw US Empire’s illusion of “primacy” has faded into the mists of time and is irretrievable so matter what it tries.
It appears obvious. You know, right? The United States is forcefully and intentionally forcing the world into two sides.
You can see this with what happened with Italy. Sure they love China and the BRI investment, but a unified surrogate EU must be beholding to the USA. So we are seeing things play out.
The USA is trying to secure Europe. But the major nations of Germany, and France are trying to shake off the American pre-defined role that they MUST act as they are for the USA while moving against it. So is Italy, trying to walk a thin line.
One face gives big fat wet kisses to the USA, and the other face, is one where Italy is in bed having gymnastic sex with China.
So…
Do not be confused by scant NGO / NED successes in Pakistan, Thailand, and Mongolia. Those are not going to amount to anything and are not going anywhere.
Asia is united with China.
Africa is united with China.
The Middle East is united with China.
South America is now in play. And it is quiet. Too quiet, but things are going on.
If anything is printed in the “news”, it will be long after the bodies are buried.
Meanwhile, the “news” media screeches and howls about war, and this and that. They are just noise makers designed to keep the rabble in line. Don’t listen to them. It’s all bullshit.
…
Meanwhile, I could use a nice apple pie ah la mode. With a nice hot fresh cup of coffee. That is what I could use right now. How about you all?
This is important because it could happen to anyone. How easy is it to control groups of people, and how far is a person willing to go to serve another?
I have worked alongside anti-cult groups and wrote an article exposing one of the biggest cults in the world. Before I got involved in researching new religious movements I had a very narrow-minded view of the kind of people that join cults, but the reality was much different.
When I first joined the group I was researching I was recruited by a doctor, and a respected one who was also an author. She was smart and attractive and when we first talked, she had a very warm personality, not what you would expect from a group that believed Aliens had come to Earth to give their leader the secrets to life.
As my research continued, I began to meet similar intelligent people who where working high end jobs, and I even met a psychologist who was a member of this group.
Imagine volunteering to be buried alive. This was one of the initiations into the upper levels of the group. At this stage, the cult has broken down so much you are willing to climb into a hole to be buried alive.
So how do smart intelligent people get to that point? Well, it starts gradually.
When you join these groups, you will be subjected to what you would call love bombing, and it comes in many forms, and it happens with every cult. This is the time you start making connections with other like-minded people in the group. If it’s a large cult, then these groups would be split up all around the world, and each of these groups would have an instigator.
Some people do well in these cults, and they always have similar personality traits as their leader, such as narcissism. These are the people that will start breaking you down. One example of this would be Keith Raniere’s, NXIVM cult, and the actress Alison Mack who was his instigator and helped control the girls in the group.
Like I said, the abuse starts gradually, and the abuse comes in the form of it being beneficial to you. It could be minor things like what you eat. They like to control what you eat because the fewer nutrients and calories you get from food makes you lethargic, which makes you more malleable.
They start to control who you talk to, like family members and friends outside the group. This isolates you from people who will try to make you see reason, and when you are around only the people from the group, it becomes hard to question the red flags. They slowly strip you of who you are, and by the time the abuse is ramped up, you’re so desensitised to it you don’t even know you are being abused.
What does it feel like to be in this state? There’s always a mix of fear from the many veiled threats you will receive from the leader of the group, and this will come from the instigators as well. You will be in a constant state of brain fog, and everything that was once normal to you will be distorted by the group’s beliefs, and it will become unfamiliar and menacing.
I had a friend who was a notorious conspiracy theorist, and I didn’t like how his views would try to distort my reality into being something to be fearful of. But again, my friend was a prime example of how this form of group thinking can drastically distort one’s reality.
So how does a cult turn deadly? Someone willing to volunteer to be buried alive is know different then volunteering to die or even kill someone. It’s all dependent on the leaders ideology and how far he’s willing to take that control he has over his members. If you are willing to endanger yourself to the point of death, then you will be willing to anything.
Deadly cults like Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, Mansion and his family, Heavens gate, they all have one thing in common, a leader who was willing to cross that line. The people in these groups where all the same, brainwashed into believing death was the only option.
Tex-Mex Spaghetti
Ingredients
12 ounces spaghetti
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound chicken, cut into cubes, or 1 pound ground beef
1 large red onion, sliced and julienned
2 bell peppers, sliced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 (15 ounce) can fire-roasted tomatoes
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken or beef broth*
1/4 cup Half-and-Half
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
Fresh cilantro, for serving
* If using chicken, use chicken broth; if using ground beef, use beef broth.
Instructions
In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook spaghetti according to package directions until al dente. Drain.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil. Add chicken or ground beef and cook 6 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add onions and peppers and cook until tender, 4 minutes more.
Add chili powder, cumin, and oregano and stir until coated.
Add tomatoes and stir, then add chicken or beef broth and Half-and-Half.
Add cooked spaghetti to skillet and toss until coated, then add cheeses and stir until creamy.
The United States is famous (or infamous) for the size of its restaurant portions. Honestly, if you didn’t grow up in the United States (or Canada, which isn’t quite as bad, but knows about it) you will be astounded by how much food you get for a reasonable amount of money.
Travel YouTuber Mark Wolter talks about his experience in Chicago with their famous “deep dish” pizza. He’s from the midwest and travels a lot, and when he goes to Chicago’s most famous pizza places he orders a “personal” because even though he’s a fairly large fellow, he knows he can’t eat a small. On one of his trips, a European came in alone and ordered a “small”. Wolter tried to warn him, but the fellow insisted he had eaten small pizzas by himself lots of times and never had a problem. He couldn’t finish half of it.
Food is extremely cheap in the United States.
I completely disagree. But this is an American, who never left the USA and only knows what he knows. -MM
… because the production of much of it is either heavily subsidized or relies on agricultural produce that is heavily subsidized (like beef and alcohol, both the result cheap corn). The United States has 157 million hectares of arable land (only India comes close, and it has triple the population) and grows far more food than it can reasonably consume. There used to be a large export market for American food, but although it still exports, that export market is constrained. For example, since 1940, the U.S. population has doubled, but corn production has quintupled, and the vast majority of corn grown isn’t for human consumption, even when you take into account American favourites like corn flour, corn oil, and corn grits.
The bottom line is that food in the United States is cheap, plentiful and largely delicious. If you run a restaurant, food costs are the least of your worries – labour is a much more important expense, as is the cost of renting or buying land.
These are actual soft drink sizes sold in actual food retail establishments in the United States. Yes, at some 7-Eleven locations, they will sell you a 128 oz fountain drink. That’s 3.7 liters of soda.
The cost of the smaller 40 oz “Super Big Gulp”? Generally around $1.59 plus 25 cents for the cup. Once you buy the cup, refills are only $0.99.
Mike Pompeo doesn’t really hate China. He’ll tell you he only hates the government but not the people. He’ll even tell you how much he loves Chinese food. In 2019 a whistle blower has accused him of using his taxpayer-funded security detail to pick up Chinese food, walk his dog, and chauffeur his college age son to and from Union Station in Washington DC. How can he hate a country he hardly knows?
Interestingly, China wasn’t on Pompeo’s mind while he was the Republican congressman from Kansas’s 4th District. However all that changed when he became Donald Trump’s CIA Director and later Secretary of State. He had an advisor who hated China—Miles Maochun Yu. Now all he could think about is China.
Yu was born in China and had a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and taught at the US Naval Academy as a professor of modern China and military history. He was also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank.
Whatever scraps of knowledge Mike Pompeo have of China come from his chief China policy planner and strategist, Miles Yu. Now he knows how to stick it to the Chinese government in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang.
The real question is why does Miles Yu hate China so much? We know that he has listened to Voice of America when growing up and supported the Tienanmen Square protests. In his social media account, he has considered sanctions against China as “a badge of honor.” He is also in favor of NATO expansion in Asia to contain China.
Phyllo Potato Knish
These unique appetizers with savory potato and onion filled phyllo pastries come with a small taste of comfort in every bite.
Prep: 30 min | Cook: 30 min | Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
18 (9 x 14 inch) sheets Athens Phyllo®Dough, thawed
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut in half
1 teaspoon + 1 pinch salt (for boiling potatoes)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 large egg + 2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Thaw one roll of Phyllo, following thawing instructions on package. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place potatoes in a medium saucepan with enough water to cover and add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, and then simmer until tender. Drain, mash and set aside to cool.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add onions, cooking covered over medium heat until they become soft and begin to brown. Remove from heat to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, combine mashed potatoes, salt, pepper, onions and any remaining oil. Mix in one egg.
Unroll and cover Phyllo sheets with plastic wrap, then a slightly damp towel to prevent drying out.
Lay one sheet of Phyllo dough on a work surface and brush lightly with butter. Place a second sheet on top and brush with butter. Place one more sheet on top but do not butter. Cut layered Phyllo in half widthwise, so you have two stacks, each 9 x 7 inches. Place 1/3 cup filling on each stack toward the bottom (an ice cream scoop is perfect for this). Fold long sides over the filling and then roll from the bottom up, making two packets. Repeat the process with remaining 15 sheets of dough, yielding a total of 12 knishes. Place knishes seam side down on a baking sheet.
Whisk together egg yolks and milk. Brush the egg yolk mixture over the top and sides of each knish.
It has its most famous manifestation as the Hainan chicken rice. However it is also a dish by itself.
At its best, it uses capon chicken ie castrated cocks.
The French has their version in Bresse chicken.
In fact some say only the Chinese and French appreciate the nuances of poached chicken.
The Chinese go further with condiments of shredded ginger, spring onion soy sauce. Tomato sauce or chili sauce should not go as condiments for this iconic dish, although some use them, because they overwhelm the flavour.
Biden’s Childish Move Brings Shame US Technology Policy On China Shattered!
The US has never had any experience in dealing with real smart enemies.
The experience it had during the Cold War with the USSR didn’t have technological and economic factors in it.
The war against China is of a different nature.
Had the US had smart politicians at all, the war shouldn’t have happened. It started with the cocky President Trump, the real estate man who had never had any political experience before, and then passed on to Biden with his Neocon cabinet, together with the support of equally prejudiced Congress.
The most popular answer says that Neil Armstrong was a terrible actor, and that’s why the moon landings had to be done for real. Well, only the first part of that is true. Neil Armstrong was indeed a terrible actor. We know this from the Apollo 11 press conference:
Have you ever watched this recording?
The comments under it are truthfully hilarious:
These comments go on and on and on…
Seems quite a few people have been able to face the facts and overcome their cognitive dissonance.
That’s one small step for man, one giant lie for mankind.
EVs have far fewer parts. There is much less mechanical complexity. The modern EV is a flat, skateboard-like platform, with some bodywork bolted on the top.
Assembly requires far fewer man hours what assembly there is can be automated more easily.
So to build an EV costs a manufacturer far less – especially if they re-tool their production line for EV-first assembly. No fuel tanks, pumps, hoses, transmission tunnels, gearboxes, spark plugs, carburettors, manifolds, exhausts, catalytic converters, clutches – all gone.
The only issue remaining is the traction battery. This component costs a lot to buy, and the supply of batteries is less than the demand. So we see EVs with slightly higher prices than their ICE equivalents.
If battery pack manufacture and supply was improved, the cost of building an EV would be significantly less than the equivalent ICE vehicle. Whether car makers will pass that on to customers, is another question.
UNSOLVED: The Creepiest TV Hack in History
THE MAX HEADROOM INCIDENT. November 22nd, 1987 was a pretty normal evening for television viewers in Chicago. That night, like every night, Dan Roan was covering sports on WGN-TV, Channel 9. Then suddenly, the signal was disrupted and screens across the city cut to black. Engineers at WGN-TV thought their transmitters were failing.
They weren’t.
A few seconds later, something crazy happened. WGN’s broadcast signal had been hijacked in what is now known as “The Max Headroom Incident”. WGN-TV was able to act quickly and get their signal back. But, Two hours later, it would happen again to another TV station and there was nothing they could do to stop it. What happens next remains one of the most bizarre unsolved crimes in television history.
I was born in Singapore, and someone in my family can speak Chinese, so I have been able to speak Chinese since I was a child.
But it doesn’t mean I understand China. Actually, I knew nothing about China until I was 25 years old.
My knowledge of China comes from Hollywood movies, BBC news, Mediacorp, and BBS. It was a place ruled by an evil regime, and people wore gray and blue clothes, rode bicycles, and wore the same hats . They ate dog meat every day, and baby girls were killed. Anyone who says a bad word about the leader is gone the next day.The air is full of smog, food and powdered milk are poisonous. All in all, a horrible place.
Until ten years ago, when social media became popular, I saw many real pictures and videos of China. While there is still a lot of bad content, there is a lot of good content coming out. However, I still think it’s a terrible place.
5 years ago, I went to China for the first time because of my work. I went to Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and even a village in Guizhou Province.
Within an hour of leaving the plane, I was shocked by this country, and for the next hundred hours, I was shocked by this country every hour. I found that all my images of China in the past were wrong. This is a super-modern country, people are very orderly, and the degree of modernization of buildings, roads, and cities surpasses all countries I have been to, including European and American countries.
There are no gray-blue clothes, and no one eats dog meat. The girls are very fashionable and beautiful. Their cops don’t even have guns and batons, and they rarely show up. We can drink in the street and take a walk late at night. In the pub people talk about elections in America, stocks in London. The milk tea is very delicious, and all kinds of food are very delicious.
Chinese people don’t use cash or credit cards, they use QR codes for all payments. Made me look like a redneck on my first shopping trip.
In the following years, I traveled to China twice. 2020 break. I went there again this year, and China has undergone tremendous changes again. On the streets of Shenzhen, at least half of the cars have been replaced with green license plates. That’s the massive EV revolution.
I don’t know how many words to describe the change in my view of China. Perhaps, only when people go to China can they experience all this.
Niger France Embassy Siege Moving To Forceful Removal, Macron To Deploy Troops To Protect Citizens
“I as a Tennesseean I stand with any country who seeks to throw off the yolk of neo-colonialism and freely rule themselves”
My flight arrived just after 5 and I got to the city centre around 7.
I went to the hotel and told them about it. They said they’d be happy to hold my luggage, and if I’d like a cup of coffee they could let me know soon if an earlier checkin might be possible.
It was, but still only at 12 noon. Would I like to visit the breakfast buffet? I’d need to pay, though. Yes, no problem, I’d love to.
Would I like to use and hang out by the pool? Yes! Especially as I could shower there as well.
At around 10, as my luggage was safe and sound I did some exploring around the neighborhood, found a supermarket, got a few bits and pieces (water, snacks, a little flask of booze, some soap nicer than hotel soap, toothpaste). I did some early gift and souvenir shopping, got t-shirts and stuff to take back home, had more coffee, and kinda bumbled around in an air-conditioned mall.
Found a food court and had an early lunch. My energy was fading.
Got back to the hotel around 11:30 expecting to wait, maybe with more coffee, and was greeted with “actually a room is ready for you. We just said 12 because we have to allow enough time for the cleaners. Would you like to go up now?” Oh yeah, I would.
Had a deliciously cool shower and flopped onto the bed for a huge nap, then woke up and headed out again. It worked out!
Why Does Biden Look SO DIFFERENT? TWO Bidens? A MASK!? We Finally Have The ANSWER
Beneath all that is actually Scrappy Doo trying to be a world leader.
I thought the U.S. is trying to de risk from China? Don’t sell them planes! They may copy it!
Oh they already have their own jets! Never mind keep your Boeing and sell it to your slaves and cronies. They will buy but give them 50 years to recover from the recession first!
You see China learns from the U.S. fast. You think only you needs de-risking? China needs to de risks from you too! Why should China buys from Boeing, who the. Makes money and fund its weapons subsidiaries to armed the U.S. to threaten and attack China? These are real tangible risk for China!
Remember you stop buying from DGI and Huawei because of de-risking or decoupling? Well China is de-risking and decoupling too! We learn from you!
Don’t do on to others what you don’t want them to do on to you! Learn this and leant it quick. China just stop 500 billion dollar jet planes purchase from Boeing since you de-risk we de-risk too!
P.S. apologies to the thousands of U.S. worker who lose their jobs!
Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Documentary, July 14 – 16, 2023
In Philadelphia as a whole, violent crime and drug abuse are major issues. The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. The drug overdose rate in Philadelphia is also concerning. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50%, with more than twice as many deaths from overdoses as homicides. 2 Kensington’s high crime rate and drug abuse contribute significantly to Philadelphia’s problems.
Because of the high number of drugs in the neighborhood, Kensington has the third-highest drug crime rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia, at 3.57. The opioid epidemic has played a significant role in this problem, as it has in much of the rest of the country. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. In addition to having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% of Philadelphia’s overdose deaths involved opioids, and Kensington is a significant contributor to this figure. This Philadelphia neighborhood is said to have the largest open-air heroin market on the East Coast, with many neighbors migrating to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high concentration of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have focused on the neighborhood in an attempt to address Philadelphia’s problem.
I was at a mall today, paying bills, having lunch and planning on a visit to the gym (pat on the back: I did all three!).
As I walked to the bank, I noticed an older man sitting by a water feature, dipping his fingers in the pool. This was unusual as people here in Thailand rarely do this in a mall.
When I passed him again 10 minutes later, he was standing in the middle of the walkway, searching to his left, then to his right, over and over, looking distressed.
I was about to approach him when a group of (uniformed and backpacked) high school students got to him first. They spoke to him respectfully and quickly realized that he didn’t know where he was or who should be with him.
One young man sprinted off to Information while the others tried to distract the old man to calm him.
A few moments later, a female security guard approached the group, having been notified by Information. She told the kids they could leave, but they refused, feeling they should stay and keep ‘grandfather’ happy.
An announcement was made, and within a few minutes, a very worried, middle-aged couple rushed over to the old man, and although they fussed at him for disappearing, they were clearly relieved.
The high school students were thanked, and then they respectfully took their leave.
The old man watched them go, turned to the couple and asked, “Where are the grandkids going?”
The couple smiled at him and gently said, “It’s ok, Father. They are going to school.”
The old man replied, “They are such good kids. You raised them well.”
China DESTROYS the Neocons as Biden’s WAR Fails w/ Brian Berletic
“I joined Brian Berletic of The New Atlas on his channel to discuss my trip to China and what I learned about this successful defeat of US and European war plans against it.”
This is really good. Listen to what they have to say. Learn something.
Typically Consumer Products dont leave a country unless it’s market has reduced so much that there is no point in continuing
Today China has at least 100 Local Brands of Shoes ranging from the 21.99 Yuan a pair Danis available in every Hypermarket to the 2199 Yuan a pair LiNing in select showrooms in Malla
They have taken over sponsorship of events and Athletes begin buying them over brands like Nike or Puma
PUMA or Nike have so much unsold inventory in China that they typically offer mass discounts during Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year
Nike was very arrogant when it has a two third market share in China
It priced itself in Dollars
It sold shoes without it’s “Air”
Now Nike and Puma simply can’t sustain operations because CHINA ISN’T BUYING THEM ANYMORE
Domestic Brands in China have surged with Nikes market falling from 53% in the Middle of 2014 to 8% by 2021 while Domestic Shoe Brands rose from 6% in 2014 to 61% in 2021
Plus Chinese Brands Anta and Nining rose their Asian market share from 0.8% in 2015 to 8.6% in 2023
And if Nike gets such a mauling, imagine Puma!!!!
Plus the Nike production in Vietnam is 66,000 Pairs a day Or 2 Million a month
In China?
It was 14.8 Million Pairs a month in 2016
Almost 7.5 times higher
As for Global Exports – Prices to make Nike Shoes have surged in China due to higher labor costs
The Chinese say
You pay us 110 Yuan a pair for our Factory make, pay our wholesellers 240 Yuan a pair and you sell retail for 1300 Yuan a pair
Sorry, either you pay us more or we start making Anta or Lining which pays us more and shares price more evenly
Vietnamese don’t
They need these numbers
Same with Samsung
Once Samsung dominated Consumer Electronics in China with a 31% market share and Mobiles with a nearly 18% market share
Today?
Samsung Electronics have a 3.2% market share on the mainland and their phones have near zero demand
It’s market forces purely that many brands are pulling out of China
China has domestic equivalents now at half the price and same quality
Why would China pay twice the money just for a brand?
Chinese are some of the most practical people on earth when it comes to money
Only a few foreign brands like the Iphone or Macbook hold a fascination for the Chinese even today
INTERVIEW: The odds are on a nuclear war
Retired US colonel Tony Schaffer says there’s an 80% chance of war between America and Russia in the next year. No one in power understands the Russian perspective.
China is taking a very close look at investment money now, and in many areas, US investment money is not attractive because:
US legal jurisdiction claims to be above the law of other nations, giving the US the ability to sanction other nations for US IP products and services within the nation’s own borders;
US investment money favors New York as the world’s capital market, and the role of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. The Chinese government wants to cut back on the US dollar as the only global reserve currency, which is why it is active in BRICS.
The US keeps its global economic dominance through the Big 4 accounting firms which act as gatekeepers to US equity markets for raising capital. Same goes for US investment banks.
For these reasons, China is looking at diversification, especially in the area of manufacturing.
In order to find an alternative to US investment money, China has built very strong trade and investment relations with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both of which were recently admitted to BRICS. Both are just starting to invest in Chinese projects in China and in their countries, and the new BRICS entrants of Egypt and Ethiopia.
This Middle East capital will flow into China and come without many of the strings which come with US investment capital.
This is part of China’s decoupling policy with the US.
24 Times Paulie Walnuts Had The Best Lines On “The Sopranos”
This question strikes close to home, thanks for asking Luther.
I was in the 160th in the early days, May 83 – Mar 88. I ended my 20 year career and retired out of the 160th. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the ultimate, there is no unit like it and after being in the 160th there’s no other place to go. *Everybody* in the Night Stalkers is a volunteer; officer, warrant officer, NCO, enlisted. You are so highly trained and the mission so specialized that once in the unit the Army will leave you there until you ask to be reassigned or the unit leadership asks you to leave.
There were several training accidents in my day resulting in a lot of casualties. So many that at one time the big Army considered shutting the unit down. Understand that we were charting new territory, what we did in establishing new procedures and ways to operate had never been done before. Things improved tremendously, the unit got better, provided the SOF community with a capability it never had before. The big Army realized this, we persevered and now the 160th SOAR(A) is the best unit of its kind in the entire world. Hell, it’s the *only* unit of its kind. It was born out of the disaster that was Desert One, the Iran hostage rescue attempt in April, 1980.
Our “customers” are the best of the best and the Night Stalkers will not let them down. They are why the unit exists. To them you can be one of two things, an asset or a liability. Nobody wants to be the latter. No matter the weather, no matter the terrain, no matter the opposing force capability, the Night Stalkers will get them to the objective. And most importantly the Night Stalkers will get them out. Time on target plus or minus 30 seconds.
To completely define a Night Stalker you need to also consider the spouses, the families. They are just as dedicated and it can be said that their job is the hardest.
Yes, you could consider it dangerous, probably more so than any other aviation unit. The training is intense, you train like you fight. It gets the call and is exposed to hostile action more often than any other aviation unit so the risk is always there. Its aircraft are not “off the shelf”. They are tailored and modified for the unique mission and is the best you can get. Night Stalkers and its customers are involved in some operations that you don’t hear about and never will. Everybody is a volunteer. The unit personnel are the best of the best and you don’t become a Night Stalker until you successfully complete assessment and initial training. Certain personalities are drawn to this kind of unit. Those that will willingly risk their lives for their buddies, for their Country. To them, the risk is worth it. To the rest of the country, be proud and comforted knowing that those types of individuals exist.
And ya know what? If you were to pass a Night Stalker on the street you’d never know it. They don’t brag, they don’t boast, they don’t thump their chests. Ah, they might in jest amongst themselves or their customers, but never in public. They look and act like your typical guy or gal that lives next door to ya.
“To those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.”
Night Stalkers Don’t Quit!!
Roasted Blue Cheese Potato Salad
Get rid of that boring old potato salad recipe and change things up in the flavor department with this delicious Roasted Blue Cheese Potato Salad.
Prep: 10 min | Bake: 25 min | Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients
Pam® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
1 yellow onion, sliced in 1/4 inch thick rounds
3 pounds baby red potatoes
3/4 cup diced celery
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. Spray the bottom of a baking sheet generously with cooking spray.
Evenly spread out the onion slices and potatoes onto the baking sheet.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the potatoes are browned and tender.
Chill immediately.
Next, dice the chilled onions and place them into a large bowl along with the chilled potatoes, celery, mayonnaise, blue cheese, basil, salt and pepper and mix until combined.
Serve chilled.
USA mad!
The USA is now into sanction inception! Say what? The USA will sanction already sanctioned companies for not respecting sanctions…
Again wut? Chinese companies that do business with another Chinese company, under US sanctions will get sanctions.
😀 😀 😀 😀
It’s like they think they can pass laws for other countries!
This Is WORSE Than China’s Treasury Dump!
China’s treasury dump has hit a 14-year low with $11 billion more bonds sold, but this is nothing compared to the tsunami of debt coming from America itself. Yellen is going to flood the economy with nearly $2 trillion dollars worth of treasuries which is putting enormous pressure on bond yields. While this might push the economy towards a recession, the real risk is accelerating towards a fiscal cliff which is unthinkable!
Huawei Technologies Co. roared back into the spotlight this past week after a Bloomberg report showed their new phone is powered by a 7nm processor, which is just a few years behind Apple’s iPhone. And who’s getting the jitters over this new development? Those very same Capitol Hill lawmakers, who, for the last several years, sanctioned not only Huawei but also China’s chip sector to stymie homegrown tech progress. That move didn’t pan out as planned.
Now, the US Commerce Department is panicking while it rushes to understand how sanctioned Huawei was able to design and manufacture a 7-nanometer processor for its new Mate 60 Pro smartphone. The whole purpose of blacklisting the company and many other Chinese tech firms was to restrict access to US technology to make these sorts of devices.
Mate 60 Pro went on sale while the US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was on a trip to China last week. This is a sign that China is ‘thumbing their noses’ at the US for the wave of sanctions that have failed so far.
“We are working to obtain more information on the character and composition of the purported 7nm chip,” a Commerce spokesperson said in a statement.
According to Bloomberg. the Commerce Department will begin its own investigation into Huawei’s new phone. The Commerce Department’s Office of Export Enforcement will likely lead the study to determine if China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.’s Kirin 9000s chip, was made using US technology.
The Mate 60 Pro news is a sign that suggests President Xi Jinping’s efforts to develop technological self-sufficiency are working. The Bloomberg report on the phone showed it has “an unusually high proportion of Chinese parts … a sign of the country’s progress in developing domestic tech capabilities.”
Meanwhile, China has banned iPhone use by central government employees and has expanded it to to local governments and state-owned companies. Such curbs threaten multinationals like Apple, which derives 25% of its sales from China.
Tom Nunlist, an associate director from the Beijing-based consulting firm Trivium, said, “Chip tech export controls may have been Washington’s one and only ace in the tech war.”
Tex-Mex Street Tacos
Flavorfully-seasoned flank steak cooked to perfection, and then wrapped in soft warm corn tortillas.
Yield: 4 servings; 2 cups Pico de Gallo
Ingredients
Tacos
2 pounds flank steak
1/4 cup silver tequila
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 jalapeño pepper, ribs and seeds removed, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
Cotija cheese, crumbled
16 corn tortillas
Toppings
Minced white onion
Chopped cilantro
Optional Toppings
Cojita cheese
Lime wedges
Pico de gallo
Pico de Gallo
4 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
2 green onions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
1 jalapeño pepper, ribs and seeds removed, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Tacos
Place tequila, soy sauce, garlic, lime juice, orange juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper, jalapeño pepper, shallot and cilantro in a freezer proof zip-top bag. Add flank steak. Seal and marinate 6 hours to overnight in the refrigerator.
Heat gas or charcoal grill to 400 degrees F.
Remove meat and discard marinade. Place steaks on oiled grates and grill for approximately 4-6 minutes on one side or until moisture startes to pool on the top and beef releases easily from the grates with tongs. Flip once, grilling on the other side for 4 to 6 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F with meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the steak. Transfer steaks to a platter and let rest for 3 minutes before slicing against the grain, into 1/4-inch thick strips.
Warm the tortillas for 30 seconds on each side in a dry skillet or on the grill.
Stack 2 tortillas, add beef, toppings and lime juice if desired.
Pico de Gallo
Pico de Gallo: Combine Pico de Gallo ingredients in mixing bowl and toss thoroughly.
As a boy growing up we ate a lot of watermelon. It seemed that it was everywhere throughout my young boyhood. Get-together’s, cookouts, camp-outs, family parties, and long slow hot Summers… the watermelon was there for us to eat.
When I got married, and worked in the corporate world, the amount of watermelon in my life really dropped substantially. We might be exposed to it once a year; at a family gathering or on a holiday. Other than that; nope. The Watermelon was too big for us to eat, and we didn’t have kids… our cats didn’t like it, so any watermelon would be a waste.
So… I went around 30 years without having watermelon in my life.
Long time.
You know, I didn’t notice the loss. It just never occurred to me the role that this fruit played in my life. So I didn’t miss it.
Then I moved to China.
Watermelon everywhere. After every meal. Free on the streets. Low prices in the grocery store. Trucks selling it on the roads, the highways, in front of the plaza… it’s ubiquitous.
And so I eat it.
Again.
And I love it.
And you know what? Now, my bowel movements are more regular. My skin is clearer, and my attitude is better. All because of…
Watermelon access.
Do not deny yourself the joys of a good slice of watermelon.
In 1998, during a soccer match in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a bolt of lightning hit the pitch and killed 11 people.
The two opposing soccer teams from the eastern Kasai province of the Congo were drawing 1–1 when suddenly a bolt of lighting struck the pitch. The lightning strike killed 11 members of one team, leaving the home team unharmed.
The Congo is steeped in Voodoo and ritual magic practices, and soccer rivalry between local teams is brutal. It is known for teams to be blessed or cursed by opposing teams to give themselves an upper hand. The curious way only one team managed to walk away unharmed led many to believe the home team cursed the other team with voodoo.
These beliefs are embedded in their culture and go deep to the bone, but in this case, it came down to simple footwear. One of the teams had screw-in metal studs on their boots, while the other team had moulded studs.
Tex-Mex Fajitas
Fajitas are pure Tex-Mex food. They originated along the Rio Grande River on the Texas-Mexico border and were eaten by cattle wranglers. The skirt steak is the traditional cut used and was reserved primarily for the chief cowboy. Other cuts of beef can be substituted, such as flank steak or sirloin, but the skirt is by far the most tender, flavorful and authentic.
You’ll find no cast iron griddle with the sizzling bell peppers and onions in this recipe. This was developed mainly by chain restaurants and is in no way a part of true Tex-Mex fajitas. You can add them if you wish. This recipe is authentic.
Only use the soy sauce and Liquid Smoke if you are cooking on the stovetop with cast iron or under the broiler. The soy sauce helps brown the steak, and the Liquid Smoke gives the fajitas that grilled flavor.
Be sure to use chile powder, not chili powder. Chili powder is a mixture of spices, and chile powder is pure ground chile.
Ingredients
2 pounds beef skirt steak
1/2 onion, halved and sliced thin
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons powdered red chiles
3 pickled jalapenos, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons jalapeno pickling liquid *
1 tablespoon corn oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce (optional – if grilling on cast iron or under the broiler)
1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke (optional – if grilling on cast iron or under the broiler)
* This is the liquid used to pickle and flavor the jalapenos. It is basically white vinegar with added spices, and there is always ample liquid in the jar or can to use in this, without leaving the remaining jalapenos dry.
Instructions
Place half of the onions in the bottom of a nonreactive dish.
Mix the cumin, powdered red chiles, chopped jalapenos and garlic together in a small bowl, then rub on all sides of the meat. Put the skirt steak into the dish on top of the onions. Pour the lime juice and the jalapeno liquid over all areas to coat. Sprinkle the remaining onions on top of the meat. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, but preferably overnight, turning once.
Heat the grill or broiler until hot. Fajitas need to cook close to a very high heat source, in order to sear the outside but still leave the interior medium rare.
Mix together the oil and, if you are using them, the soy sauce and Liquid Smoke. Brush or spoon the oil mixture onto the meat surfaces. Grill or broil about 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until the outside is brown and slightly charred, and the inside is still slightly pink.
Remove the meat to a cutting board. Let sit 5 minutes before slicing to rest.
Cut the meat into thin strips that can be easily rolled into tortillas.
Serve with warm, soft flour tortillas and fresh pico de gallo or salsa fresca.
Their Airports are still called “Beijing International” and “Shanghai International” Airports
Their roads are NUMBERED or NAMED as Wukang, Nanjing, Luoshan etc
They don’t have a Deng Xiaoping Road or Mao Tse Tung Road
Even their Sports Stadiums are mostly named after the locations like Hangzhou Station
Even the renaming of PEKING to BEIJING had little to do with Purging Colonial History but to do with establishing the PINYIN MANDARIN system over the ANGLO CANTONESE system
Mao, the greatest leader according to 7 in 10 Chinese only has a Library named after him in China and a Memorial where he rests
It’s how the Chinese do things
It’s how they always have been doing
Even Singapore’s Airport is called SINGAPORE CHANGI
Most of the roads are not named after anyone
Things like Ayer Rajah (Not a name, a word), Pioneer Expressway, Jalan Bahar, Paya Lebar, Jurong are all old history
Same in HK
Names like Kai Tak, Kowloon, Aberdeen, Mong Kok etc are old history
They won’t change the names from Aberdeen to some Chinese name Or from the Peak to some Chinese name
If they name it Zhongguo, they may as well join the BJP and start talking about their greatness in the 6th Century BCE
Come on!!!!!!
This is China here
They like winning and finding real solutions
Not changing names
“They’re blocking you from seeing the truth in Maui”
It’s been 22 days since a massive fire destroyed the town of Lahaina on Maui… 2,000 homes incinerated, hundreds of people killed and all in an area largely owned and lived in by long time native islanders. What is really going on here? Why are drones being blocked, residents arrested when they try to return home? Why are 2,000 kids missing? If you want to donate to help the people of Maui you can do so by texting the word “mahalo” to 53-555 and 100% of the money will go to help the victims.
The Glowing wounds
In 1862, two Union forces came together to defeat the Confederate Mississippi Army, which was led by General Albert Sydney Johnston. Don Carlos Buell and Major General Ulysses S. Grant had joined their units to meet the 40,000-strong Confederate Army camped between the Shiloh Church and the Tennessee River.
What became known as the Battle for Shiloh or the Battle for Pittsburgh Landing was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, with over 23,000 casualties, and it was among these casualties that a strange occurrence took place.
A lot of the wounded men fared better during this battle than any other battle during the Civil War. Thousands of men lay wounded in a field after one of the battles had ended. They waited for hours in the blood-soaked mud to be picked up and brought to the field hospital to have their wounds looked after.
As night fell, the men started to notice their wounds glowing. The men’s wounds glowed a bright greenish, blue colour. It was described as a heavenly glow and something the men had never seen before.
When it was reported that the men who had experienced the glow healed faster and there was a lower infection rate amongst the men, it was given the name Angel Glow.
The reason for this strange phenomenon was finally figured out over 139 years later by a high school student. In 2001, High school student Bill Martin was visiting the battlefield in Shiloh and became fascinated by the story. Bill teamed up with his microbiologist mother and solved the riddle.
They discovered Nematodes in the soil that carry a bacterium called “Photorhabdus luminescence. When the Nematodes were feasting on the flesh of the wounded soldiers, they regurgitated the glowing bacteria into the wounds, which acted as an ani-septic, killing off all the bad germs.
Africa Shocks the World as it Breaks Free From Western Exploitation After China Did This!
Joke Time
A woman has an affair while her husband is at work. While she’s in bed with her lover, her 13-year-old son walks in, sees them both, and hides in the closet to watch. Then the man comes home and the woman puts her lover in the closet too without noticing that her son is already in there.
Son: “Dark in here.” Man: “Yes.” Son: “I have a baseball.” Man: “Nice.” Son: “Do you want to buy it?” Man: “No thanks.” Son: “My father is standing out there…” Man: “Okay, alright, how much?” Son: “$250” Man: “Okay.”
Now the boy hides in the closet whenever the bell is ringing. After three weeks the same thing happens again, again the son and the lover are together in the closet.
Son: “Dark in here.” Man: “Yes.” Son: “I have a baseball glove.” The man remembers the game from last time and annoyedly asks, “How much this time?” Son: “$750” Man: “Fine.”
A few days later, the father says to the son: “Let’s play baseball, get your ball and glove.”
Boy: “I can’t, I sold the stuff.” Father: “For how much?” Boy: “$1000.” Father: “That’s outrageous, ripping off your friends like that! That’s a lot more than the things are worth. You’re coming to church now and confessing your sins.”
Both go to church and the father puts the boy in the confessional.
Boy: “Dark in here.” Pastor: “Don’t start that shit again!”
No more USD use!
Non-BRICS nations are no longer using the USD.
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand sign Memorandum of Understanding to use own currency to settle transactions. No more US$. Dedollarisation is here!
Suffering through bullies
“Our beautiful girl has been subjected to some awful bullying at school. It’s been a very private 7 months for us, dealing with this, immediate family only.
In this age of social media, children (because they are children) think it’s ok to send hateful messages (to me also along with their parents who won’t take responsibility) without consequences. I’ve had calls from these children calling me an old hag because I’ve defended our daughter, approached parents and pleaded with them to talk with their children and ask them to stop. I’ve even approached the children themselves, but been threatened by parents with harassment.
The WA department of education doesn’t expel children from schools for bullying, as they say: ‘Every child is entitled to an education.’
What about our child’s entitlement?
She’s been sent home numerous times after self harming at school. She’s not allowed a pencil sharpener as she takes the blade out and cuts herself.
The WA department of education also told me: ‘You should teach your child how to be resilient against bullies.’ Yes, they said that.
Our girl has had a video taken of her sitting at her desk at school, legs slightly open, with a lovely caption about the smell. It was posted to snapchat. I spent 90 mins with the police as they tried to determine if it was photographing and distribution of pornographic material. Yes, a 12 year old can be prosecuted if the content breaches certain criteria. Sadly our daughter’s didn’t, but she was subjected to weeks of ridicule. Repercussions? The girl who posted the video lost her playtime. The person who took the video? Nothing, because no one would tell who it was.
It’s ok to verbally attack at school because they can get away with it via a screen; so think the same will happen in the real world.
Last week, we spent over 5 hours in A&E with psychiatrists, doctors and nurses, because our girl ‘had a plan to commit suicide’. On Tuesday, I am in court applying for a VRO against a 12 year old to keep her (the bully) away from our beautiful girl—all because parents don’t accept responsibility for their children and schools can only do so much.
The school has a safety plan for the bullied child, our daughter. And the bully? She only loses recess and lunch privileges. This is infant school punishment!
Please, in this awful age of social media (or anti social media as we call it) check your children’s messages. Their devices are a privilege, nothing more, nothing less, so please make sure they are being polite and respectful in their messages. Teach the children to ‘talk’ not use text or social media to air their differences.
Bullying affects the whole family, not just the bullied. It needs to stop and it needs to stop now! Please feel free to share.”
China warns the Dutch’s ASML: Either buy back EUV for 500 billion or give up patent rights!
China is not bothered whether ASML wants to continue selling or not. But it is indeed obligated under th contract to service what she has sold or refund the money back. ASML cannot be expected to sell these bunch of scrap metal for USD150 million per piece without servicing them. Otherwise these companies will applied and seek a ruling in Chinese courts to make the IPR for all these components in these machines invalid. Once the court granted these requests, ASML might as well give up China’s market. A very GOOD strategy and it is legal and it works .
A few years ago, 22-year-old Nick Olivas discovered he was the father of an eight year old child, born when he was 14. The woman who gave birth to his child at the time, had been in her twenties. Olivas wasn’t aware the lady had gotten pregnant.
Technically speaking, since Olivas was 14 when the child was born, he was a victim of statutory rape by an adult. Olivas was shocked. And his shock increased when the state informed he owed around $15,000 in back child support and medical bills going back to the child’s birth, plus an additional 10 percent interest… legally speaking, this man was still a child when the child was conceived and therefore unable to consent to sexual intercourse, let alone capable of overseeing the enormous consequences of potential fatherhood…
Instead of being persecuted as a rapist, the woman who got pregnant by a 14-year-old boy was paid for what legally was a crime. If an adult man had sex with a 14-year-old girl and impregnated her, he wouldn’t have been paid a dime, and he’d be in jail before he could count to ten. People would be outraged, and the law would go after him without skipping a beat. When it’s a boy victim, however, he “just got lucky” and people make it into a joke.
The hardest thing about being a guy? You’re always seen as the responsible party. Even if you’re fourteen, below the age of consent and therefore legally incapable of being responsible… you’re still responsible.
China kicked this U.S. giant out! It once monopolized the Chinese market for 30 years.
Hahaha Oracle is hated by everyone including their own employees. Pretty much no one has any good words for Oracle.
Russia specified on 1st April 2022 that the next payment due would have to be made in Rubles. This Payment was due on 26th April 2022
Poland had to open a Gazprom Bank Account in Warsaw and credit Zlotys to the Account in question and subsequently open a Second Gazprom Bank Account in Moscow where based on this Zloty Credit – Gazprom would issue a corresponding credit in Rubles which would be paid to GAZPROM
Some Countries requested for more time
Some Countries began paying in Rubles like Hungary, Armenia, Slovakia
Two Countries simply said – We wont pay in Rubles
Putin called their Bluff and Cut off their Gas and Oil supply
They were Poland and Bulgaria
Another reason here is that – Putin had to show that he meant business
He could not keep threatening and have these minnow countries constantly defying him. So he decided to Cut off Gas and Oil to show that He meant Business.
EDIT:-
Austria has also paid Rubles today
The world’s first 3nm chip was born? Chinese chip giant officially announced!
Actually having better abilities in chip testing of cost-inefficient processes like the current immature 3nm can be exploited seriously by China.
So- if TSMC and Samsung want their 3nm chips successfully tested and not for an unreasonable price, they’ll have no other choice but to go to China, also meaning it ties the hands of Uncle Sam.
Washington may currently have monopoly on EUV technology and invoke sanctions on China, but China in response may limit the countries to which chips tested by Chinese companies can be exported – meaning that the puppet countries of South Korea and Taiwan won’t be able to produce 3nm chips, and the collective West won’t have access to such.
Thanks to the suppression tactics of the USA now the West is locked with China in the suppression room, and China is the one with the human potential to develop full chip industry, not the West even if you combine them all, with their youth pursuing careers in economics or as “influencers” nowadays (both “jobs” are quite literally modern read on slavery knowing the social model they force).
Not to mention the population of the West can be shrinked seriously during WW3, on top of that add the expensive and insufficient electricity, which will be needed for them to produce their own base materials for chip manufacturing…
China’s counter sanctions already spelled doom on the Western industry, and with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran and Egypt (oil exporting countries) joining BRICS in January things are going to get even worse in the previously beautiful Western garden.
Stories of intelligent cephalopods
When an octopus experiences an injury to one of its tentacles, whether through natural wear and tear or as a result of territorial disputes and fights, a fascinating phenomenon known as “over-regeneration” can occur during the healing process. Octopuses are renowned for their remarkable regenerative abilities, and this extends to their limbs.
Normally, when an octopus loses a tentacle, it will start the process of regenerating a new one. However, in some cases, especially when injuries occur frequently or in quick succession, the regrowth process can become quite robust. This means that instead of simply replacing the lost limb, an octopus might end up with more tentacles than it originally had.
One notable case of this intriguing phenomenon was documented in Matoya Bay, Japan, in 1998. Researchers discovered an octopus with an astounding 96 tentacles. This astonishing number was far more than the typical eight that octopuses are known for. It was a testament to the incredible regenerative capabilities of these intelligent cephalopods.
This over-regeneration showcases just how adaptable and resilient these creatures are. Octopuses are known for their remarkable problem-solving skills, camouflage abilities, and complex behaviors. The ability to not only regrow lost limbs but potentially even surpass their original number of appendages is another testament to their biological versatility.
It’s important to note that while octopuses are capable of over-regeneration, this is not a common occurrence. In most cases, when a tentacle is lost, the octopus will regenerate it to restore its usual eight-armed form. However, when circumstances push the limits of their regenerative abilities, we get to witness the awe-inspiring and rare phenomenon of an octopus with dozens of tentacles.
Africa Shocks the World as it Breaks Free From Western Exploitation After China Did This!
Africa Shocks the World as it Breaks Free From Western Exploitation After China Did This!
A few years ago I attended an accountant’s funeral. I was a bit worried it would be poorly attended, to be honest. He had never married, worked long hours, was overweight, and didn’t have much of a social life. It was midday, midweek, the week before Thanksgiving, on short notice.
First his brothers spoke, which was encouraging. They talked about their own families and what he meant to his teenaged nieces and nephews. He had a pet name which the children uttered with affection — “Dude.”
But there seemed to be many more teenagers than a couple of brothers could account for.
The music played. It was awkward. A pianist took care of the accompaniment, but no one knew the songs, and nobody was leading the singing. Finally Amazing Grace came along, and the group could sing.
I was feeling disappointed. This man may not have been rich or famous, but he was kind. He remembered my kids’ names. He smiled. “Dude” didn’t deserve a let-down.
Then something much better happened.
One of the kids trudged up to the mic. He was not happy. Tears. But he also couldn’t not smile.
This accountant did, indeed, love his nieces and nephews. So much that he attended their basketball games. All of them. And, being an accountant, what did he do with his time? Kept stats. Very detailed stats. For every player on the court.
“Dude” would tally up the totals and rank the performances. The most-coveted statistic was “heart,” his own gauge of how hard a player worked to win. As an accountant, he was notoriously tough in his grading. The boy spoke of the time he received an 8.5/10 in “heart” with wonder and awe.
At the end of each game, every player would crowd around the accountant’s notebook, eager to see those stats. “Dude” didn’t just show up to clock in for simple parental responsibilities. “Dude” was the most loved man on the court.
Sometimes people would stick around to ask him about this or that. The pudgy number-cruncher had an adult’s experience, but a friend’s heart. Apparently he had helped various children through parents’ divorces, the terminal illness of a sibling, and more.
At the end of his eulogy, the boy showed us a scorecard that he himself had written up, not for basketball but for a whole life, not the man’s judgment of the boy but the boy’s judgment of the man.
The other kids started to walk up. One after another. I couldn’t believe how many. On a Wednesday. At midday. During the school year. On short notice.
They wanted to see the final tally.
He was tough but fair, as would only be right. And in the final column, he gave the first ever perfect 10 for “heart.”
Rest in peace, “Dude.”
Tucker Carlson: US Troops WILL Be Deployed To Europe After Russia SLAUGHTERS Rest Of Ukraine Army
BRICS doesn’t need to attract the Global South because the US with its economic sanctions have made governments look for alternative ways to protect the value of their foreign exchange earnings.
By weaponizing the US dollar through sanctions because of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the US signaled to the rest of the world that they were not safe keeping their national reserves in US dollars. Through sanctions, the US could seize their foreign exchange earnings any time, just as it did with Russia.
This made BRICS an attractive alternative since it promoted trade using national currencies.
Start with look at who the US has elected over the last 20 years :
GW Bush was over his head as a national leader leaving Cheney (and Bush senior) to focus even more on bombing Muslims and the Middle East. This lead to another decade of focusing on one thing the US enjoys, war with countries with small professional armies.
Obama was elected on the hope for change. But Obama had no experience in leadership of the scale required for the role. Obama fumbled through continuing the wars and trying to Pivot East, with a long term strategy.
Then we there was the election of the two least attractive presidential candidates, Clinton and Trump. Trump being Trump displayed how Dunning-Kruger worked with people in power. Trump blew-up anything Obama did and largely ended US wars. IMO, overall he his ideas were not bad, he just did not know who to achieve them. Unfortunately, he hired some bozo advisors and took their advise.
However, overall Trump was on a good track with China. He did not do anything overly stupid and he kept the dialogue open which enables inroads to be made.
Has Clinton been elected, we might be much closer to WW3.
Then the US elected Biden, an old cold war warrior who thinks it is still 1970, and whose administration seems to have ADHD. Which bring us to the old axiom – “if you always choose the hammer from the toolbox then everything looks like a nail”.
Pounding nails does not require thinking, it is all about swinging the hammer.
In summary, since 1990, the US has been vary arrogant and self absorbed; while China has been thinking about the future.
Something Very EVIL Is Going on In Maui | We Have The Proof…
Very interesting. Damn! Strange. Odd.
How is a grass fire capable of the kind of damage that was being filmed?
Did the US do this on it’s own island, or perhaps a message from China. Hum?
The reason was Ukraine had 30,000 men and could have preserved their men and equipment and could have contributed at least 7 full brigades to the Counter offensive
Instead just for appearances and illusion,Ukraine kept sending men against an artillery inferiority of 8:1 (8 Russian Shells to 1 Ukrainian Shell)
Bakhmut had to fall
Russians had too much air power and artillery
Yet Ukraine’s continued sending of people into Bakhmut showed how much their military was dominated by their stupid politicians
CNN estimated between 460 pieces of equipment and around 11000–14000 men killed or wounded in Bakhmut
That’s seasoned men, blooded fighters, trained men
That’s good reliable Soviet equipment that Ukrainians have trained on for two decades instead of new hotchpotch of Western equipment on which Ukrainians haven’t had more than 6 months hands on
Frankly Putin made it clear that this was a War of Attrition
For Russia, territory is not important
They know that any territory they take is under threat of being attacked by Ukraine through terror tactics & civilian attacks
Russia aimed to kill as many Ukrainians as possible and thin the rank and file before the counter offensive
Russia aimed to destroy as many Guns and Artillery pieces as possible to once again thin the offensive
It worked
Adding Bakhmut and the last 30 days, Ukraine has collectively lost around 33000 combat trained soldiers
It would take 30 months minimum for NATO to train and ready another 33000 to take their place
That’s the significance of Bakhmut or Ugledar
Ukraine stupidly ignored their military leaders and went deeper into the Quagmire
Zaluzhny to his credit was a good military man who repeatedly advised withdrawal from Bakhmut intact
That would have caused Russia to keep looking over it’s shoulders in Bakhmut
Because America is collapsing economically. It is de-dollarizing. BRICS is on the rise, challenging the Ghouls-Based Order. Civil unrest and crime are increasing. By starting a hot war with Russia, the cynical Biden and friends can call for “national unity” against the “threat” of Russia. It is using fear and manipulation to distract the public from what is actually going on.
It also enriches the US defense contractors further. Only by destroying Russia and China can the US maintain its hegemony. And even this would only be temporary. The goal is to balkanize Russia and plunder its vast natural resources. But this would only last so long. The US needs to make fundamental changes to its economic system, because its current rent-seeking, mafia-style tactics can only last so long before they fail.
If the public was smart it would recognize that fighting a war against Russia would be foolish. Why should the working classes go fight and die for the interests of Blackrock and US defense contractors? Or financial elites? Killing Russians would do them no good. The workers of America need to unite to fight against the bourgeoise who are plundering the planet, exploiting their labor, and ruining their lives. There is no useful war but class war. The only unity is class unity.
Tex-Mex Deviled Eggs
Ingredients
6 hardboiled eggs, peeled
1 tablespoon minced scallion
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 small jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Chili powder
Instructions
Cut a small slice from the tips at both ends of the eggs to create a flat surface for them to stand upon. Slice each egg in half crosswise. Remove yolks; place in a small bowl and mash.
Add scallion, cilantro, jalapeno pepper, mayonnaise, and mustard; blend well.
Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the yolk mixture into each egg half. Top each with cheese; sprinkle with chili powder.
Cover; store in the refrigerator.
Yield: 12 appetizers
Here’s Why U.S. Wants To Invade Mexico – Yes MEXICO!
Republican lawmakers, as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have frequently mentioned a desire to invade Mexico, typically as an alleged means of taking on the drug cartels flooding the U.S. with fentanyl. But the real reason may be more mercenary and have to do with Mexico’s recent decision to nationalize the country’s lithium supply, as well as to refuse to allow certain genetically modified foods into the country.
US: No bread for you China,
China: No flour for you US.
Well, I’ve been putting it off, and putting it off, but I made the big leap. I went and got a Botox treatment.
Before:
After:
I cannot believe that is me in the mirror!
LOL
Personally, I don’t think it did anything. But everyone else ohhs and ahhs about it. WTF? They say I look twenty years younger. What?
Do I look like I’m 14 years old?
The procedure was simple. They put this icy cold (it was stored in the refrigerator) gel on my face, and then covered it up with clear plastic wrap. Then after about 40 minutes, I laid down and had the procedure.
ouch. ouch. ouch. ouch.
(Only kidding.)
About 50 or so little tiny pin-pricks that I could hardly feel.
And that was that. All the skin on my face relaxed, and those troublesome crevices and gullies disappeared! Who would have thought?
The effect lasts for about six months and then I’ll need to do it again. Don’t you know.
I don’t know what the Hell I was afraid of. It was “nothing”. Really. Not a big deal at all.
Now, if only I could do something about my hair… or lack of it. LOL.
Sigh.
…
The amount of money you pay, vs the look that you are trying to achieve can be either very important or trivial. If it is very important to you, then well… yeah pay that money. If it isn’t, then NOPE… buy a case of beer instead.
It’s all about priorities.
I do not know if I am going to continue with the six month Botox treatments. They cost money, and I am not seeing any real significant changes or improvements in my appearance.
So I probably will not…
…
By the way, a 18 year old girl started to flirt with me today, so….
My family owned and drove nothing but Mitsubishi vehicles for about ten years. Three cars and a (small) truck, all purchased new.
One of the cars died four days after the warranty expired.
Four.
Days.
I don’t mean it developed mechanical problems. I mean the engine locked up solid. Like a brick.
Like all of our vehicles, this one had been well maintained. All scheduled maintenance performed on time, regular oil changes, tire rotations, fuel injector cleanings, the works.
I wrote a long, detailed letter to Mitsubishi Motors, explaining about the car. I made it clear that we were faithful customers, and that we knew the warranty was technically expired, but… four days? Seriously? The car had less than 50,000 miles on the odometer, and it had been immaculately maintained.
I asked if Mitsubishi could do anything.
They responded about three months later with a one-sentence letter. Something to this effect…
After careful investigation, we have determined that that your vehicle’s warranty was expired when the failure occurred.
That pissed me off.
Careful investigation?
I told them in the first paragraph that the warranty was expired. I mentioned it about six times in my letter, along with exact dates, mileage readings, and all the details, including photostatic copies of maintenance records.
Honestly, Mitsubishi could have sent me a $300 voucher toward an engine replacement and kept my business.
Instead, they lost a customer for life.
More than one customer, actually.
My daughter (grown now) won’t even look at a Mitsubishi product. Neither will my (now) ex-wife. And – before I eventually calmed down – I showed their rejection letter to a LOT of people.
I got more than a few calls from people who knew that I’d been driving Mitsubishis for years, wanting to know what kept me coming back. They got an earful.
I’ve probably bought eight vehicles in the years since then, so I know that crappy letter cost them eight car sales. I imagine at least a few car shoppers decided against Mitsubishi after seeing that letter.
Someone once told me that a satisfied customer tells six to ten people about their positive experiences, but an unsatisfied customer tells fifty to a hundred. I’ve told more than a hundred.
Dice potatoes to 1/2 inch. Add to salted water and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, sit for 10 minutes, strain and set aside.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Add bacon fat to skillet over medium-high heat. Sear potatoes until golden, about 5 minutes.
Add onions, garlic, thyme and oregano; sear until onions are transparent. Stir in cabbage and corned beef. Season with pepper.
Gently crack eggs on top of the hash and place skillet in the oven.
Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on desired egg doneness.
Oliver Anthony’s Emotional Speech About the Future of America
Oliver Anthony fought back tears as shared his thoughts and opinions on the current state of the United States of America and its future. Oliver Anthony also gave a very candid response to his song “Rich Men North of Richmond” being used as a political tool with both Conservatives and the left.
Yes, I met a really nice guy that was serving two life sentences. It was really hard for me to wrap my head around the idea had so much time, so I asked him about it. The guy was a Vietnam War vet. He was a tunnel-rat, meaning that sometimes he had to belly-crawl into holes to clear them with just the use of his boot-knife. He got very efficient at it during his tour. Meanwhile, his tour was almost up and he was looking forward to coming home. However, he kept hearing stories about his sister being in an abusive relationship. He explained that normally he didn’t involve himself in the details of other people’s relationships but this was his sister that he was very protective of and he just didn’t know how much he could tolerate knowing that she was in an abusive relationship after he’d spent years killing people just because they were the enemy. So he sent her a letter to break off that relationship, in hopes he would never meet the guy that was abusing his sister.
Eventually, he did return to the United States. He caught a cab from the airport to drive him home. But as they entered the neighborhood the police had everything sealed off because of some crime scene investigation. He didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes but he did explain that he was just returning home from Vietnam and only wanted to get home which was only a block away. So they asked for his address and he gave it only to be met by a detective requesting his company down at the station. So he reiterated that he literally just returned from Vietnam and didn’t know anything about what was going on, but the police insisted.
So he goes down to the station to be informed that his sister and mother were killed by his sister’s boyfriend. Apparently, the guy wasn’t so keen about breaking off the relationship. The police had the guy, it was pretty cut and dry, he was in custody, and the police only asked him to let them do their job without him interfering.
Well, turns out that the boyfriend bonded out, and this Vietnam vet had friends that knew where this guy hung out. So this guy goes down to a bar the boyfriend frequented and had him pointed out. He approached the guy at the pool table and started chatting the guy up. He explained that he just got back from Vietnam and that he was a tunnel rat there. He pulled out his combat knife to explain what it was like belly crawling through tunnels with that particular knife because his .45 would have alarmed the enemy. He told stories of spiders the size of basketballs rushing at him that he had to kill without giving away his position. But the guy he was talking to just wanted to know if he wanted to bet on the pool game.
So he told the guy (his sister’s abusive boyfriend that killed both his sister and his mother), that he had a bet for him. He told him that he was going to take that very same knife he used in Vietnam to skin him alive and that he was willing to bet nobody in the bar would intervene. And so he did. And he didn’t stop cutting up that guy (in front of everyone) until the police arrived and asked him to.
When he went to court, the judge wasn’t too happy about his vigilante justice and convicted him for murder, but when he was asked if he’d like to say anything before sentencing he asked for the name of the magistrate officer that gave his sister and mother’s murderer bail.
Oh SH*T, The Fuse Has Been Lit!
The economy is on its last legs and the Fed is about to push it off a cliff. Powell’s conviction to crash the economy is alive and well, he wants higher unemployment to destroy inflation. Here’s why interest rates will stay higher for longer & how it could collapse this leveraged economy.
So I sat with his attorney and mine….one time….and listed out everything I had bought for our daughter, divided it in half and that’s what his money paid for.
Then I showed my lease and renters insurance and water bill and cable bill and light bill, you get the gist.
Half of all them are for her.
Divided hers in half and started adding up his responsibilities.
It turned out I was short $300 a month of his responsibility.
It took him a minute to look at the breakdown and I stood and leaned over the table and started pointed and numbers and adding them again on my calculator and then handed him the calculator if he wanted to add it himself since he was looking at a major spreadsheet (I do accounting) and asked if he understood.
It took a few minutes for it to sink it but he got it. About 6 months later he asked me to see the chart again and I showed him and he handed me an extra $300.
He said to keep him up and what the bills are and if I need more to let him know. He always paid for her school supplies and new clothes and shoes for school.
Once it was all in black and white and he saw I wasn’t screwing him over like all his friends said then he put his love for his little girl ahead of everything else. He was a crappy husband but a wonderful father.
How I see the US after living in Europe for 5 years
What is America like after experiencing life in Europe? BIG. Consumerism. Gun violence. The homeless. The police. “What do you do for work?” This is how I see the US after living in the Netherlands for 5 years. Sometimes it takes leaving a place for one to truly understand the pros and cons of a place. There are things I love and dislike about the US. Hope you enjoy this short movie!
In 1981, a young Japanese engineer named Kikuo Ibe broke the mechanical watch his father had given him as a gift. Ibe accidentally dropped the watch on the way to work and it broke into pieces on the floor. At the same time, he began to observe some construction workers around his office who were using jackhammers, and he noticed that they never wore watches because of the vibration. After that, he got the idea to create a sturdy watch that couldn’t be destroyed.
When Ibe later got a job at Casio Computer Co., Ltd. , he developed the rugged digital watch called the G-Shock. The G-Shock was designed as a watch that would have triple resistance 10, meaning it would have a battery life of 10 years, water resistance of 10 bar and could survive a drop of 10 meters. As most watches on the market were as slim as possible, it was not an immediate success, only attracting construction workers and police officers. But it later became a style icon when the skateboarding craze hit the world, prompting young people to look for a tough watch to match their baggy clothes. Subsequently G-Shock became very popular among the general public. On September 1, 2017, Casio celebrated its 100 million shipment of G-Shocks worldwide.
Rock Music Producer Reacts to Rich Men North of Richmond by Oliver Anthony Reaction Video
I was living in Arizona and working a good paying job, living in what I thought was a good sized house when a young British man, probably 17, knocked on my door selling books.
Like seriously, who sells books door to door anymore right? And this dude had the coolest accent, and how many British people do you honestly come across in southern Arizona. So what the hell, I invited him in for a soda, and bought some books.
But here’s the thing. Got to chatting with the guy, he was here on some exchange program for the summer, had to live with some American family, only had $3 to spend on breakfast each day (he ate at Denny’s) and had to sell books all day for the company who sponsored the travel.
Slave labor I thought. He had stained dirty clothes that didn’t fit him, and was riding a bike. I felt so bad, I took him to my closet and started going through all my clothes.
I said here, you can have this, and that. If you are going to be selling books door to door in this neighborhood, you ought to look your best.
He smiled humbly, and said friend, you really don’t have to do this. I have lots of clothes back home, and my family…
Nonsense I said. Here’s a nice button up shirt, and some slacks. What size shoe do you wear?
Sir, please, you really don’t have to..
Long story short, we became pals, added him to the Facebook, sent him off on his little bike with a pile of clothes, and kind of forgot about him for awhile.
Sometime later, I noticed a post he made. He was all dressed up in a Tux, attending some royal party in England. Turns out his family was pretty important, and he was super rich.
Probably had a house the size of mine just for his horses.
So the most astounding thing I ever said to a British person visiting America, who happened to be some kind of British Royal person, was “Hey, have some of my clothes friend, and a drink!”
Chinese President Xi Jinping defined all the major decisions embedded in the 15th BRICS summit in South Africa as “historic”. That may be seen as an understatement.
It will take time for the Global South, or Global Majority, or “Global Globe” (copyright President Lukashenko), not to mention the stunned collective West, to fully grasp the enormity of the new strategic stakes.
President Putin, for his part, described the negotiations on BRICS expansion as quite difficult. By now a relatively accurate picture is emerging of what really went down on that table in Johannesburg.
India wanted 3 new members. China wanted as many as 10. A compromise was finally reached, with 6 members: Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Argentina and Ethiopia.
So from now on it’s BRICS 11. And that’s just the beginning. Starting with the rotating Russian presidency of BRICS on January 1, 2024, more partners will be progressively included, and most certainly a new round of full members will be announced at the BRICS 11 summit in Kazan in October next year.
So we may soon progress to BRICS 20 – on the way to BRICS 40. The G7, for all practical purposes, is sliding towards oblivion.
Bur first things first. At that fateful table in Johannesburg, Russia supported Egypt. China went all out for Persian Gulf magic: Iran, UAE and the Saudis. Of course: Iran-China are already deep into a strategic partnership, and Riyadh is already accepting payment for energy in yuan.
Brazil and China supported Argentina, Brazil’s troubled neighbor, running the risk of having its economy fully dollarized, and also a key commodity provider to Beijing. South Africa supported Ethiopia. India, for a series of very complex reasons, was not exactly comfortable with 3 Arab/Muslim members (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt). Russia assuaged New Delhi’s fears.
All of the above respects geographic principles and imprints the notion of BRICS representing the Global South. But it goes way beyond that, blending cunning strategy and no-nonsense realpolitik.
That was stressed by New Development Bank (NDB) president Dilma Rousseff in her report to the South African summit hosts – even as Brazilian President Lula once again emphasized the importance of setting up a work group to discuss a BRICS currency.
Lavrov understood how New Delhi is absolutely terrified of secondary sanctions by the US, in case its BRICS role gets too ambitious. Prime Minister Modi is essentially hedging between BRICS and the completely artificial imperial obsession embedded in the terminology “Indo-Pacific” – which masks renewed containment of China. The Straussian neo-con psychos in charge of US foreign policy are already furious with India buying loads of discounted Russian oil.
New Delhi’s support for a new BRICS currency would be interpreted in Washington as all-out trade war – and sanctions dementia would follow. In contrast, Saudi Arabia’s MbS doesn’t care: he’s a top energy producer, not consumer like India, and one of his priorities is to fully court his top energy client, Beijing, and pave the way for the petroyuan.
It Takes Just a Single Strategic Move
Now let’s get into the strategic stakes. For all practical purposes, in Eurasian terms, BRICS 11 is now on the way to lord over the Arctic Sea Route; the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC); BRI’s East West Corridors; the Persian Gulf; the Red Sea; and the Suez Canal.
That blends several overland corridors with several nodes of the Maritime Silk Roads. Nearly total integration in the Heartland and the Rimland. All with just a single strategic move in the geopolitical/geoeconomic chessboard.
Much more than an increase of BRICS 11 collective GDP to 36% of the world’s total (already larger than the G7), with the group now encompassing 47% of the world’s population, the top geopolitical and geoeconomic breakthrough is how BRICS 11 is about to literally break the bank on the energy and commodities market fronts.
By incorporating Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, BRICS 11 instantly shines on as an oil and gas powerhouse. BRICS 11 now controls 39% of global oil exports; 45.9% of proven reserves; and at least 47.6% of all oil produced globally, according to InfoTEK.
With BRICS 11 possibly including Venezuela, Algeria and Kazakhstan as new members as early as in 2024, it may control as much as 90% of all oil and gas traded globally.
Inevitable corollary: operations settled in local currencies bypassing the US dollar. And inevitable conclusion: petrodollar in a coma. The Empire of Chaos and Plunder will lose its free lunch menu: control of global oil prices and means to enforce “diplomacy” via a tsunami of unilateral sanctions.
Already in the horizon, direct BRICS 11-OPEC+ symbiosis is inevitable. OPEC+ is effectively run by Russia and Saudi Arabia.
A ground-shaking geoeconomic reorientation is at hand, involving everything from routes plied by global supply chains and new BRICS roads to the progressive interconnection of BRI, the Saudi Vision 2030 and massive port expansion in the UAE.
By choosing Ethiopia, BRICS expands its African reach on mining, minerals and metals. Ethiopia is rich in gold, platinum, tantalum, copper, niobium and offers vast potential in oil and natural gas exploration. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, incidentally, are also involved in mining.
This all spells out fast, progressive integration of North Africa and West Asia.
How Diplomacy Goes a Long Way
The BRICS 11 Shock of the New, in the energy sphere, is a sharp historical counterpoint to the 1973 oil shock, after which Riyadh started wallowing in petrodollars. Now Saudi Arabia under MbS is operating a tectonic shift, in the process of becoming strategically aligned with Russia-China-India-Iran.
Diplomatic coup does not even begin to describe it. This is the second stage of the Russian-initiated and Chinese-finalized rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran, recently sealed in Beijing. The Russia-China strategic leadership, working patiently in synch, never lost sight of the ball.
Now compare it with collective West’s “strategies”, such as the G7-imposed oil price cap. Essentially the G7 “coalition of the willing” self-imposed a price cap on Russian crude imported by sea. The result is that they had to start buying way more oil products from Global South nations which ignored the price cap and duly increased their purchase of Russian crude.
Guess who are the top two: BRICS members China and India.
After wallowing in several stages of denial, the collective West may – or may not – realize it’s a fool’s dream to attempt to “de-couple” the West-ruled part of the global economy from China, whatever is spewed out by Washington.
BRICS 11 now shows, graphically, how the “Global South/Global Majority/”Global Globe” is more non-aligned with the West than anytime in recent history.
By the way, the president of the G77, Cuban leader Diaz-Canel, was at the BRICS summit representing the de-facto new Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): the G77 actually incorporates no less than 134 nations. Most are African. Xi Jinping in Johannesburg met in person with the leaders of most of them.
The collective West, in panic, regards all of the above as “dangerous”. So the last refuge is, predictably, rhetorical: “de-coupling”, “de-risking”, and similar idiocies.
Yet that may also get practically dangerous. As in the first ever trilateral summit in Camp David on August 18 between the Empire and two Asian vassals, Japan and South Korea. That may be interpreted as the first move towards a military-political Asian NATO even more toxic than Quad or AUKUS, obsessed to simultaneously contain China, Russia and the DPRK.
The Collective Outstripping of the Global North
The UN lists 152 nations in the world as “developing countries”. BRICS 11 is aiming at them – as they outstrip the Global North on everything from population growth to overall contribution to global GDP growth measured by PPP.
In the past 10 years since the announcement of BRI first in Astana and then in Jakarta, Chinese financial institutions have lent nearly $1 trillion for infrastructure connectivity projects across the Global South. The upcoming BRI forum in Beijing will signal a renewed drive. That’s the BRI-BRICS symbiosis.
In the G20 last year, China was the first nation to lobby for the inclusion of the 55-member African Union (AU). That may happen at the G20 summit next month in New Delhi; in that case, Global South representation will be close to parity with the Global North.
Claims that Beijing was organizing a malign conspiracy to turn BRICS into a weapon against the G7 are infantile. Realpolitik – and geoeconomic indicators – are dictating the terms, configuring the Shock of the New: the G7’s irreversible irrelevance with the rise of BRICS 11.
Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond REACTION
Ethiopia was the only major African kingdom not be colonized by the Europeans, except for an Italian occupation in the 1930s.
It has a significant middle-sized population of 120M.
Ethiopia has a government which is dedicated to the modernization of Ethiopia led by Abi Ahmed.
Abi Ahmed was educated in China and is fluent in Putonghua, and there are other Chinese-educated members of government who are adapting lessons from China’s modernization to fit into the Ethiopian model of development. China has been involved in various infrastructure development projects in the country.
The country also has cordial relations with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.
The US and G7 have overlooked Ethiopia for a long time, and have considered it to be unimportant.
Beef and Gravy over Potatoes
Ingredients
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/3 cup water
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Place potatoes and water in a microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave on HIGH for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender.
Meanwhile, in large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in garlic powder and onion powder.
Prepare gravy mix according to package directions.
Place potatoes in a mixing bowl; add milk, butter, salt and pepper. Beat on medium speed until smooth.
Do you recognize this famous street hawker occasionally featured in international media in discussions related to global economic dynamics?
He is Sirivat Voravetvuthikun—Mr. Sandwich of Thailand.
Previously a high-flyer multi-millionaire businessman, Sirivat went bankrupt by impacts of the infamous Asian financial crisis of the late 1990’s. The crisis not only took away all his fortunes but also left him in debts of millions of dollars.
But all this mishap could not smash him to simply become a poor and rot. Srivat took himself to the ground to kick off a restart, afresh.
His wife would make sandwiches from night till dawn and he would go out to the street to sell them starting early in the morning.
Soon he became a media-feature, a subject of the critics and many raised their eyebrows at the sight of a multi-millionaire selling sandwich on street.
But nothing could hold him back. Srivat stirred himself through.
Then, as he kept on doing what he was doing, the populace started to re-discover Srivat Voravetvuthikun. The dignity, courage and honesty that Srivat was trying to uphold: he was not trying to cheat or steal someone else’s money. Nor was he trying to escape from his lenders. Nor did he choose to live a disgraceful life of a fallen runner. Instead, he was trying to re-establish himself, to stand again on his own feet, pay off his debts and live with his head held high in the society.
People now started buying his sandwiches.
Sirivat’s sales started growing, then soaring. At the height of his popularity, he earned a loving nickname: Mr. Sandwich.
Soon Mr. Sandwich became a brand—one of its kind and ever, as Srivat started settling with his sandwich/coffee shops nationwide.
Mr. Sirivat Voravetvuthikun once again became a millionaire. This time a more renowned one, and well-respected.
To answer the question— unless born with silver spoon in the mouth, a genuinely rich person does anything he/she needs to stay on. I’ve learned about this great man, and I also know about quite a few other rich men. They work hard no less than the mediocrity, even harder than the average people. They don’t care how much it takes, what the critics talk on the face or behind. They only keep their promise to themselves: live in affluence with dignity.
He Died & Was Shown The Future of USA Democracy – Ken Leth’s NDE
Ken Leth shares his Near Death Experience (NDE) that he had when he was 8 years old when he was shown the future and a civil war. This is his testimony
The Company I worked for made over $9B in 2004 on the revenue of $36 billion. That was a lot of money for a company to make back then. And a 25% profit margin is just sweet.
One fine day, in 2004, the leadership decided they needed to be more nimble. More efficient. The solution? Supplies were no longer available on each floor, you had to walk down to the ground floor to get them.
So you’re in the middle of something and realize you need a notepad and a pen.
You walk to the elevator, push a button, wait for it, enter, push the G button, wait, exit the elevator, walk to the supply room, get a pen and notebook, walk back to the elevator, push a button, wait, enter the elevator, push the desired floor button, exit, walk back to your desk.
For a company that paid its software developers well over $100k! This came at a time when tech companies started giving free lunches to keep their employees productive. The waste of time alone meant the change was a net negative.
Who the heck thought it was a good idea to save pennies by removing supplies from each floor from a company that made 25% profit (over $9B / year at that time)?
I know of several people who quit the company over this. Not because this specific thing was painful for them, but because it signaled the company was in a downward spiral. They went to other companies (often competitors) where they were more valued.
In coming years The Company was going to prove those quitters right by losing a lot of market share in key upcoming markets, from the browser to mobile devices.
The photo above is by Cole Carini. He is 23 years old and is from Virginia, USA.
On June 2, 2020 (yes, a few days ago), he walked into a local medical centre with serious injuries to his body… and a missing hand! When local authorities asked about the reason for these extreme injuries, he lied to them saying he had received them because of an accident he had with a lawn mower. Due to the severity of the injuries, the FBI became involved in the case.
But the FBI soon discovered that he was creating a bombshell for an alleged attack on a group of women he described as “Cheerleaders.” During the making of the bomb, he somehow ended up exploding the bomb and blew off his entire hand, causing very extreme injuries to his body.
For me, this is an example of instant karma, though perhaps not so much in everyday life. He was definitely making the bomb to hurt others, but he ended up almost killing himself. I’m sure now he wishes he wasn’t even able to make a bomb!
First Time Hearing | Oliver Anthony – I WANT TO GO HOME | Reaction Video
When he was six years old, my son came excitedly out of the garden and threw a stone he had found in my hand. He told me he found a Stone Age tool. I put it down to a vivid imagination, but to appease him I told him we could ask the head of the local historical society for an opinion.
We did that a few months later, and the man’s eyes popped out of their sockets. He was also a delegate to the state archeology office and said he needed to send the stone to the museum in Stuttgart for a professional opinion. He was sure it WAS a primitive tool.
As it turned out, the stone was a flat tool used to poke holes in leather to sew pieces of leather together. It dated back to the end of the Stone Age. How my six year old recognized I had no idea.
LIBERAL REACTS Oliver Anthony I Want To Go Home & I’ve Got to Get Sober REACTION
Preach it brother!
“Information Designed To Show …”
Yesterday CNN published another Russiagate like nonsense story:
Russian intelligence is operating a systematic program to launder pro-Kremlin propaganda through private relationships between Russian operatives and unwitting US and western targets, according to newly declassified US intelligence.
One of the craziest things happening in our world today is how westerners are being trained to overlook the massive amounts of western propaganda they’re inundated with day in and day out and focus instead on “Russian propaganda”, which has no meaningful existence in the west. In 2017 before RT was shut down in the UK, it accounted for 0.04 percent of the UK’s total TV audience. A New York University study published earlier this year found that the supposed Russian Twitter influence campaign ahead of the 2016 election which dominated headlines for years had had “no measurable impact in changing minds or influencing voter behavior”. An earlier study found that suspected Russian accounts showing up in Facebook’s news feed during that time amounted to “approximately 1 out of 23,000 pieces of content.” A study by Adelaide University found that despite headline after headline warning us about a massive wave of Russian bots manipulating online discourse after the invasion of Ukraine began last year, the overwhelming majority of fake accounts they examined (more than 90 percent) were pro-Ukraine accounts.
Contrast this microscopic smattering of influence with the fact that westerners are continually getting their news reporting from western propaganda outlets which openly publish CIA press releases disguised as news on a regular basis. These people are absolutely telling us the truth when they say we’re under constant bombardment by propaganda and influence operations — they’re just lying about who’s really doing it to us.
CNN was not the only outlet that plugged the stupid CIA press release. The New York Times had it too and its report is a bit more revealing:
Reading through the stupid disinformation stuff one stumbles over this sentence:
[T]he information released by the United States on Friday is designed to show how much deeper Russian influence operations are than those efforts to sow dissent on the internet.
That is quite revealing. The information contained in the CIA release was ‘designed’ or construed to create a certain propaganda narrative. It wasn’t just information that could be found or observed by a reporter but a curated collection of items put together to create a certain effect.
Think about that for a minute and you will recognize that most of the ‘news’ one reads is made like this.
Someone asserts that there is a need for to create a certain effect. A narrative is thought up that could lead to it. The some bits of facts or rumors are collected, sorted, filtered and then written up until the constructed narrative is thought to be likely to create the desired effect. This is then the declassified product and fed to the media which are willing to distribute such stuff.
The current very long Spiegel story about the U.S. attack on the Nord Stream pipelines is a nice example for such a ‘product’:
German politicians are too coward to call out the U.S. for the attack and to discuss the necessary consequences. They need a different narrative.
When an attempt was made to declare that ‘Russia did it’ the public did not fall for it. Blaming Ukraine is a convenient out. It can later be forgiven because, they will say, Ukraine did what it thought was necessary and only did it because Russia was attacking it.
That is the desired effect of the story. The information in the Spiegel piece was carefully ‘designed’ to create the appropriate narrative.
That the Spiegel needed 19 named authors to put it out says something about the complexity of such a process. It is still disinformation but on a large scale.
Posted by b on August 26, 2023 at 15:53 UTC | Permalink
Yes. I test drove a demo car. It had been driven by one of their salesmen for year. We agreed on a price. I had everything set up and I was ready to sign.
I looked at the contract and saw $250 tacked on to the price. I asked what it was for. They told me that it was for the pinstriping, floor mats and hubcaps. All things that were part of the car while it was being driven around by the sales person and when I test drove it.
I told them I expected to purchase the car for the price they quoted me as it was shown to me. They offered to remove the pinstriping, floor mats and hubcaps. I said no and once again told them that I was ready to sign for the price I agreed to in the condition the car was in when they gave me the price.
The manager refused to budge and so did I. I walked out. The salesman seemed surprised: I told him I would not pay the extra $250 they tried to slip in on the contract.
The sad part for them is, if they had quoted me the higher price to begin with when we made the deal, I would have purchased the car. It was the fact that they added it at the last minute to the contract they handed me to sign.
Heartbreaking! Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home / Reaction Video !
In 1964, two entrepreneurs paid a marketing company to help them come up with a name for their service, which would also be the company name.
They started with Analytical Technology. Then, quite, unfortunately, condensed it into AnalTech. They’ve had the name now for more than 50 years.
They provide services for forensic science and pharmaceutical development. Per their own words, they’ve always faced challenges with people on the internet using juvenile humor about their name (guilty). Additionally, spam filters on other company websites have caused them problems.
JohndoeATanaltech.com never seems to be able to reach anyone’s inbox. They’ve considered other names but seem married to the one they have.
In 2017, a truck lost control and went off the road, not only mowing down the Analtech sign but also plummeting into the actual building:
Adding on to this, and I’m not joking with you — locals reported that a bizarre smell began coming out of the Analtech building after the impact.
You can’t make this stuff up.
MM Commentary
There are a lot of “fringe” and conspiracies out in Internet land.
My favorite (head scratcher) has to do with the strange coincidence that all of the roofs on the homes of the ultra-wealthy were painted this brilliant blue. And everything that was not scorched were blue. Like mailboxes, plastic refuse bins and things like that.
Really odd.
And the really strange thing is what the ultra rich did to their homes a few years earlier…
I watched a video on you-tube that shows how a laser can destroy everything except the color blue. WTF!
DEW being used on …
Maui Fires, DEWs & The Secret Of The Color Blue!
Maui Fires, DEWs & The Secret Of The Color Blue!
So…
Here you have this super strange fire.
And the strange way that the United States government is hiding everything and policing the area… People! This is not how FEMA handles fire devastated regions.
Gov’t Installs BLACK FENCING Encircling Lahaina!
This is damn odd.
In a recent video that went viral online, a Hawaii resident documents the miles of black fencing that has gone up around Lahaina in Maui as well as other burn zones from the recent wildfires. Getting necessary supplies to the fire’s victims has been rather slow, but all this fencing went up in record time. So what’s going on?
Plus, you add on the facts that this prime section of real estate has been in the process of being bought up by very wealthy interests, with the lowly commoners in the town of Lahaina in the way.
During every “generational turning” certain things happen. For instance, we had the “black knight” in Donald Trump, and the regression of the ruling class. Here, this song and what is happening is one such event contributor. ..
…
Uh oh. I am worried.
Look at this…
Yes. I am obese, and it is so DISTURBING.
Whoa!
I absolutely must lose weight, and God Damn it! I am going to make it happen. Starting right now. All food portions are “jail standards”.
One spoon full of corn. Three pieces of lettuce, and a few slices of meat for a meal.
A group of guys (Italian) had a sumptuous meal in an Albanian restaurant.
After the meal the guys stepped out of the restaurant for a smoke. And in the blink of an eye, they disappeared in the dark of the night. They ran away without paying…..the tourists “dined and dashed.”
The restaurant manager came looking for them, but it was too late. Dismayed, the manager wrote an email to the Italian Embassy in Albania. He cited the details of the four men who ate at the restaurant and ran away without paying the bill. Adding that the four Italians even complimented the food.
Such a small incident of some 100 euros, it happens everywhere…big deal!
What Next?
The matter was escalated to the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Next, came the orders from the — PM of Italy. Meloni instructed the Italian ambassador to pay the bill for the tourists, stating, “Go and pay the bill for these idiots,
Italy’s embassy in Albania paid the bill on behalf of its citizens and wrote an apology note along with it. The amount totaled around €80 or Rs 7,245.
Francesco Lollobrigida, Italy’s agriculture minister:
“Paying the bill was a matter of pride.” “A few dishonest individuals cannot embarrass a nation of decent people.”
Black Americans React To Viral Off-The-Grid Farmer Oliver Anthony Protest Song | BREAKS INTERNET🔥
They want to divide us, but this country is uniting us. God bless Oliver Anthony
1988. BBC television show That’s Life arranged for a certain Nicholas Winton to attend a presentation about the Holocaust.
The host brought the attention to a woman beside him, who revealed that he had saved her life when she was a child.
The host asked the audience if there’s any more people Winton had saved, and practically everyone around him stood up.
Winton hadn’t known they were going to be there. Surprised, he stood up and took in the happy, grateful faces around him.
It brought tears to his eyes.
1938. Winton, a 29-year-old British stockbroker, used his vacation time to travel to Czechoslovakia. There he learned of Jews who were trying to get their children out because war was brewing.
He returned to London and with the help of others, organised Kindertransports – trains to carry the children to safety in Britain.
He negotiated with Nazi officials to allow the children to depart with just a single document.
He persuaded British officials to accept the children, found foster families, and arranged for Jewish humanitarian organizations to pay fees and support the operation.
Parents of the children assembled at train stations in Prague and Vienna to say emotional goodbyes, knowing they would never see their children again.
Over 10 months, Winton and his associates oversaw eight Kindertransports that carried 669 children to safety.
When WWII broke out, his office was closed down. Sadly, one last train of 250 children was trapped and unable to depart. None of those children left behind were reported to have survived.
He didn’t tell his family about what he had done, until his wife found his scrapbook in 1988 with all the children’s names and photos.
Winton with one of the children he saved
Winton with a grandchild of one of the people he had saved
In a hundred years, in 2123, there will be none of us, not even our relatives and friends.
Strangers will live in our homes that we built with a lot of effort and failure. They will have all the stuff we have or throw it in the dumpster. Even the car, for which we spent a fortune, will be lying somewhere in a dump, Our descendants will not remember us and only a few will know who we were. Who among us knows their great-grandfather?
After death, they will remember us for a few more years, then we will be just a portrait on someone’s bookshelf (if at all). A few years later our photos and actions will be forgotten. We will not live in the memories of anyone anymore. If you just stopped to think about it one day, you might understand how pointless it is to walk for more and more.
If we thought and understood that we are just a dot in the history of mankind, let alone the earth or the universe, we would certainly look at our lives and other people differently.
We always striving for more and more and no time for what really matters…. the moments and the relationships. If we thought about and spent more time HERE AND NOW, we would really enjoy life.
We would enjoy walks we never had time for. We would love a hug. We would enjoy kisses from our children. In the moments that really count, but we ran out of time. Those would certainly be the most beautiful and best moments to remember and imprinted deep within ourselves. This is how we would fill our lives with joy. And now we fill it with greed, intolerance and hate.
After Robins Williams’s death from suicide after years of battling depression was reported, it drove a 200% spike in the number of calls to the Suicide Prevention Hotline. The day after his death, 13,000 calls were made to the hotline, numbers never before seen. Due to the increase only 53% of those calls were able to be answered, which also drove up the number of suicides to an above-average rate.
In 2010, Ozzy Osborn had his genome sequenced to try and understand how it was possible to be still living after decades of abusing his body. He had abused his body beyond any measurable scale it was always a wonder to him how he managed it. Researchers found that he had mutations related to addiction, and metabolism, from his Neanderthal ancestors.
The researchers also discovered he had several hundred thousand genetic variants that have never been seen before. These mutations were also one of the reasons he never woke up hungover or sick after heavy weeks of drinking and taking drugs. If Ozzy wasn’t such a freak of nature he probably would have died years ago.
“It’s Not Natural” – Why Are 20% of Kids Suddenly LGBTQ?
I worked for a tech company a few years ago that had the most questionable cost-cutting strategy I have ever seen. Their policy, was simply to remove all purchasing restrictions, and give employees whatever they wanted. Essentially any work related purchase we wanted under $10,000 was self-approved: no asking our supervisor or manager — no approval process at all!
If we wanted a new desk, or an executive chair; we called facilities and it appeared. If we wanted a fast computer with three monitors, we called IT, and it appeared. Software, supplies, whatever – we got it. We got exactly what we wanted, the model/brand we specifically requested.
This seemed like the most insane policy I ever heard of, and looking around the office one could find a few examples of people that appeared to take advantage of it.
The company also had an interesting coffee room policy: gourmet coffee, tea, and cappuccino free. Soda machine had all sodas and energy drinks for 5 cents, and there was a cup full of nickels at the side of the machine – so essentially everything was free.
So what was the effect of this? Well first of all the company had the happiest employees I have ever seen! Morale and loyalty was through the roof. People loved working there. People worked harder, and enjoyed coming to work.
One day during a company outing I cornered the CEO and asked him about the policies, he said this…
When we implemented the purchase policy, we instantly saved $500,000 a year in labor costs, since we no longer had to pay all the people to manage and maintain purchasing approvals. We saved even more in indirect man-hours, as individual department heads didn’t use any time on them either. Half a million a year buys a lot of extra equipment.
We tracked expenditures, and for the first three years we lost a little, but not much. The next five years, we actually spent less than we saved in reduced labor. Over all it saves the company money, and gives employees whatever they think they need to be most productive. Win/Win
Then I asked him about the cafeteria, and he smiled and said “the more caffeine people drink, the more productive they are. It pays for itself a hundred times over”
This was the most brilliant, and out of the box thinking I have ever seen in Management.
Years later the company had some hard times, like many tech companies, and they only needed to ask employees to help – not change the policy. People loved the company, and when belt-tightening was needed, they self-sacrificed.
I don’t work there anymore, but it’s still a brilliant business model.
HOLY MOLY!!! Country artist BREAKS THE INTERNET with powerful song!
Sun came out with Java, a language that was “compile once, run anywhere!”
Microsoft thought that sounded good, so they jumped on board and even came out with an IDE just for Java.
Microsoft made the Windows Java Virtual Machine (JVM), but it didn’t support remote method invocation (RMI) or Java Native Interface (JNI). They also made changes so Java programs would run faster on Windows and added platform-specific commands for Windows.
Sun cried “foul!” and said Microsoft was ruining the whole concept of Java—”compile once, run anywhere!”
Sun sued Microsoft.
Microsoft got mad, took its toys and went home (they stopped supporting Java out of the box).
Microsoft still liked the idea of “compile once, run anywhere!” so they got Anders Hejlsberg to create a new language to compete with it.
Hejlsberg gave birth to C#.
Curiously, though Microsoft like the idea of “compile once, run anywhere!”, they only wanted C# to work on Microsoft operating systems. So C# was a Windows-only technology.
Predictably, though C# was superior to Java in some ways, Java became the cross-platform King (Java still ran on Windows, but users to install the JRE themselves).
Satya Nadella, now head of Microsoft, isn’t a dummy and knew C# had to be available on all operating systems to be successful. He started a movement to create compatible Common Language Runtimes (the thing that makes C# programs work) for all major operating systems. You know, like Java did.
The CLR is available for nearly all operating systems now, though Windows generally gets new improvements first.
Java is still the cross-platform King. It’s unlikely that C# will ever catch up.
Clear?
First time hearing Oliver Anthony- “Rich Men North Of Richmond” *REACTION*
All these hikes from the FED is to absorb USD from the market, in order to control the inflation and support US treasury.
10 year US treasury is now 4.7% interest rate, which is already higher than at least half of the ways to invest, and it’s much more safe.
By having less money freely in the market, the commodity prices will decline, and causing the products in terminal market to become lower.
Because of the theory of impossible trinity, no country can achive free capital flows, independent monetary policy, and fixed exchange rate at the same time.
2 out of 3 is the best.
To most of the US allies, they have to at least choose free capital flows.
It means that when the FED decided to raise the interest rate, they have to raise it too. Otherwise, capitals within their territory would flee out to the US, because there is a higher return in the US.
Usually, capital exists in the form of properties, such as real estate. When the investors withdrawing their capital from a country, it means a mass selling of properties, which will cause:
property price to go down, which causes the market panic.
foreign reserves got drained.
FDI should always be exchanged into local currency first. When investors want to leave, they would have to exchange their local currency back into USD.
The government must have enough USD in reserve, or else the exchange rate of local currency would crush.
It’s also how the 97 Financial Crisis began and how the US usual harvest the world.
Hong Kong got away from sniping, because Beijing spread the words that it will back HK up with its USD reserve if necessary. Eventually Beijing didn’t do that, but the market got appeased when hearing Beijing said so.
Back to the trinity, China chooses to give up on free capital flows.
It may cause troubles for certain possible investors, because they may be worried to not getting their investment back, but it also limits the abilities of international bankers to harvest China.
Along the years, large corporations know that they can move in or out their money responsibly, which means with proper reasons. So they are not worried about their properties got confiscated by Chinese government.
Some investors choose HK as intermedia to invest in China, because it’s common law in HK and everything they care about remains the same as before 1997.
So Beijing has full control within China’s territory, and is not worried about capital fleeing out.
The top priority of Biden Administration is to get the inflation under control.
It doesn’t matter of peoples’ living standard got improved, but the inflation number directly effects voters stance next year. However, high interest rate suppresses market activities, since it drains money from the market, and companies wouldn’t be able to finance.
Meanwhile in China, the top priority is to stimulate the market.
Lower interest would encourage more people to invest, since there is cheap money in the market, which is good for entrepreneurs or cooperations to expand their production.
Still, this can be interpreted very differently, based on different political stance and/or financial/economical knowledge.
China may be showing the world about its confidence, or it could well be that China is bluffing.
Still, people lie, but capital doesn’t.
We will see which this is by monitoring the investors’ moves.
I wasn’t until I was living in China for a spell that I tried turtle.
As a food.
Don’t you know.
It tends to be a tad expensive, but is rather tasty. So I tend to only eat it on business occasions. It is served in a large dish, and the turtle is cut up into chunks.
When you get an opportunity, I suggest you give it a try. It’s sort of like “gator”, but not so chicken-like, rather it has its own unique flavor. I like it.
Goes great with white wine…
Phoenix, we are a problem
The performance gap is massive
Godfree Roberts Aug 29
Taiwanese microchip manufacturer TSMC blames struggle to build the Phoenix plant on skilled labor shortage but workers cite disorganization and safety concerns.
A former Wafertech employee told the Guardian that Wafertech told American employees they were all lazy in July 2023.
“We were in shock – and angry. The man that told us we were lazy during the all-employee meeting was the president of Wafertech at the time, Steve Tso,” they said.
“Anyone in the hi-tech world understands how tightly these processes are run. Nothing is done without a procedure in place. To say that there are no Americans to do this part of the job is nonsense.”
“This was constantly the whole process. Everything was rushed. They weren’t giving us actual blueprints, just engineer drawings. It felt like a design-as-we-go type of deal. The information we were getting was really strange, never complete, and always changing. We would get updates constantly and these were big updates to the point where we would have to start pulling things down.”
The Guardian.
Gods of Waters, Railroads and DamsEngineers have been China’s most esteemed professionals since in 256 BC, when Governor Li Bing designed and built the mighty Dujiangyan Irrigation Scheme.
It works as well today as it did in 256 BC, and a grateful people deified him so that today, he is known as God of Waters. Xi Jinping is a chemical engineer.
President Hu was a hydrological engineer. Skilled work crews in China – on railroads, skyscrapers, canals, dams or UHV lines – have 3-5 more years of math than their Western counterparts, can read engineer drawings, and can adapt them to local conditions where necessary.
An email from a friend – a director-level employee with an engineering background who has worked with multinational companies primarily based in the US – suggests that TSMC’s Phoenix problems may be symptomatic of a widening gap.
Why American manufacturing really moved to China
Dear Godfree,
Thank for asking. American manufacturing moved to China not because of dumb labor, but because we could hire high IQ people for dirt cheap.
If your machine broke down, no problem; some Chinese guy (with basically a masters in EE) would pull out the circuit boards and using probes and other instrumentation determine what board needed replacing and he would work for a fraction of the annual salary of his equivalent in the US.
Manufacturing in the US is a nightmare: at our US facility our only requirement for an assemblers was a high school degree, US citizenship, passing a drug and criminal background check and then passing a simple assembly test: looking at an assembly engineering drawing and then putting the components together.
The vast majority of Americans were unable to complete the assembly test, while for our facility in China they completed it in half the time and 100% of the applicants passed. An assembler position in the US would average maybe 30 interviews a day and get 29 rejections, not to mention all the HR hassles of assemblers walking off shift, excessive lateness, stealing from work, slow work speed and poor attitudes.
Our products are highly specialized equipment, so it makes no sense to fully automate it, most of the components are assembled by hand and for certain steps we use custom engineered jigs. And for those saying that the position wasn’t paying enough, it paid $12 an hour starting in an area with an extremely low cost of living where property taxes for a 2000 sq ft house is $800-$1000 a year.
Assemblers don’t make $150K. An assembler takes parts and puts them together. The position starts at $12 an hour in flyover country which is pretty reasonable compared to other jobs that only require a GED and no prior work experience.
Offers medical, dental and annual raises with plenty of opportunity to move up in the company.
The national average salary for a Production Assembler is $33,029 in the United States, which is what you make if you stay 5+ years.
Finding an American worker capable of meeting these simple requirements and passing the assembly test is merely impossible, nevermind having them be competent, punctual and of good moral character (not stealing from the company or starting conflicts with coworkers).
And these are the main groups that apply for this position.
The same exact product line has the same equipment in China, and the same positions in China pay the same wages as other positions there with only a high school degree and no work experience.
Yet the applicant quality is much higher, and this applies as well to the white collar professions that support the manufacturing: schedulers, quality inspectors, equipment testers and calibrators, engineers, supply chain managers, account managers, sales etc….their labor quality is simply higher. \…
I used to play math games in the car with my kids, son four and daughter, two and a half. I would say, ‘What is 2+3? My son would yell, ‘Five!’ I’d ask, what is 1+1? My daughter would hold up two fingers.
As months passed, the math games became harder and harder as they learned. One day, before my son was in kindergarten I meant to ask, ‘Whats 5–3?’ But it came out backwards, ‘Whats 3–5?’…
My son sat quietly for a moment looking perplexed. Then he yells, ‘Two on the other side of zero!’.
I almost crashed the car. He didn’t know how to say it correctly, but he had the grasp of negative numbers! At five years old! I was shocked and then scared with the reality of raising a kid that bright. He passed me intellectually by age ten or so in mathematical skills.
That was twenty years ago. He now works as an engineer for Tesla in the battery division. I’m a proud mommy!
Driving is ruining our lives
Our dependence on cars is harming us. Why did we give up public transportation for individual cars?
At 20, this nature-loving American was attacked by a tiger shark while surfing in Hawaii. He got away with hitting the shark repeatedly and then swimming as fast as he could to the beach. Result: 7 stitches in the thigh.
Probability of being attacked by a shark in the USA: one in 11.5 million chance.
A year later, Dylan is wild camping and, while he is sleeping in his tent, he is attacked by a brown bear which takes his head between its jaws… He gets out of it by digging his fingers into the eyes of the bear. ‘bear. Result: 9 staples to close the wounds on the scalp.
Probability of being attacked by a bear in the USA: one in 2.1 million chance.
A year later, Dylan is hiking in Utah and steps on a rattlesnake that bites him. As he is far from any hospital and he does not suffer too much, he decides to continue his hike. He feels bad for two days, but eventually regains his form.
Probability of being bitten by a snake in the USA: one in 37,500 chance.
Lifetime probability of being attacked by a shark, bear and snake: one in 894,000 trillion chance…
I got a call that my landlord would be coming to the property to take down the tumbleweeds in an area that I didn’t have access to. No problem, it wasn’t going to bother me.
About 15 minutes before they were supposed to arrive, a strange car pulls into my driveway and a man gets out and starts walking around the outside of the house. I had no idea who he was and immediately went out like a bat out of hell demanding to know who he was and why he had the audacity to be going in my backyard without my permission.
To my utter shock, he said he was a real estate agent and he was there to meet my landlord to put the property up for sale! I told him I had JUST renewed my lease for a year and why in the world would the landlord do this if he was going to sell the house???
Well, the landlord comes slinking up the driveway to find me VERY pissed off and tries to tell me that he and his wife were “only seeing what the property was worth” and that since he wanted to retire soon, they wanted to see what the value of the house would be. I told him he could have checked Zillow, but he finally fessed up that he really was planning on selling the house. I asked why he had just signed a one year lease, and come to find out that the landlord had told the property management company to put me on a month to month lease and they had screwed up.
I told him that it wasn’t my problem and that I would not be moving and good luck selling a house with a tenant that had a full year lease!
His wife finally came over and calmed things down between the two of us, and asked if I thought I could get a loan and buy the house myself. I had never thought about buying a home and never thought I would qualify, but I told him that on Monday I would check into it, and come to find out, I COULD buy the house!
We ended up working together without a real estate agent for either of us, and I closed on the house 30 days later! This was just one year ago and I locked in a great rate. He took almost $30,000 off the price so I could afford to buy the house and I am so thankful! Yes, he could have gotten $30,000 more but he knew how much I loved the house (I had lived there for four years and treated it as my home, including adding a beautiful garden) and he and his wife wanted to know that whoever bought it would love it and knew the history too.
I now own my home and couldn’t be happier. Had my landlord not felt so guilty about trying to sneak around to sell the place, he probably would have sold the place for an additional $30,000 to someone else!
R. Lee Ermey (1944–2018, RIP), was in the Marines from 1961 to 1972 and was a real drill instructor from 1965 to 1967 at the MCRD, San Diego, CA and his portrayal, most of which was improvised and spontaneous, was very accurate.
He was originally hired as a consultant, but, so impressed the movie’s director that he was given the part of the senior Drill Instructor represented by the black leather belt he wears in the movie.
The only inaccurate thing about the movie was that, as the drill instructor, he was a Gunnery Sgt., E-7.
This was very unusual and mostly unheard of for a GySgt. to be a drill instructor.
Also, we should have seen his two assistant drill instructors at certain point during the training.
The only time I ever saw a Gunnery Sgt., E-7 wearing a campaign cover was as a Series Gunnery Sgt. over a Series of four platoons.
In my 1028 Series, the Chief Drill Instructor was a Master Sgt. over 4 platoons (1028, 1029, 1030, 1031), but neither took any part in the everyday, hands-on training of the platoons under their command.
During Vietnam, the most common ranks for drill instructors were Corporal, E-4 and Sgt., E-5, with the not so common rank of Staff Sgt., E-6.
The second photo is of a young Corporal, E-4
Ermey when he was a drill instructor at MCRD San Diego, circa 1965. While in the Marines, he was sent to Vietnam in 1968 where he served for 14 months. He was medically retired in 1972 due to several injuries he received while in the Marines. In the photo of the medals on his dress blues, I do not see a Purple Heart, so I must assume his injuries were not received in battle. In the below photo of Ermey in his dress blues, the rank on his left shoulder is Gunnery Sgt., E-7. There are 2 hash marks on his left forearm. Each one represents 4 years. If he had made it to 12 years, he would have been authorized to wear three hash marks.
Marine drill instructors only have 12 weeks to mold a sloppy, immature, undisciplined civilian into a disciplined, squared away Marine and in most cases, has to undo 20 years of spoiled, entitled behaviors instilled by the parents that have kept him in perpetual boyhood. This cannot be accomplished with the same coddling treatment that the parents used in raising their son from a little boy to a big boy. The Marine’s first order of the day is to quickly destroy the boy in order to build the man. Everyday of training is important and there is not a moment to lose. A strong impression must be made by the drill instructors and shock and awe is the best way to leave a lasting impression. Fear of being yelled at, insulted or being punished is a very good incentive to learn, learn quick, retain what they learn and do well so as not to suffer the wrath of the drill instructor which has become the center of his world and the authority figure he most wants to please. I can tell you that it works. Semper Fi.
“DeDollarization Is IRREVERSIBLE” – Putin at BRICS Day One
A co-worker of mine figured out why her electric bill had tripled with the help of their neighbor’s cats. For three months one summer their electric bill suddenly went through the roof. They checked out all their appliances, air conditioning, etc. and couldn’t find the problem. Then one cool evening she looked out the window and noticed there were several neighbor cats lying on her driveway. This was an “Ah Ha!” moment. She had a driveway heater with a switch in the basement that was used very briefly when the driveway was icy in the winter. Turns out a workman who was doing a job in her basement was looking for a light switch and flipped on the driveway heater switch. When no light came on, the guy figured that light was broken and found a different light, The driveway switch wasn’t labeled (at least not then). So her driveway had been continuously drawing electricity all summer. Only the neighbor cats could detect the difference in temperature on the driveway and would “chill out” there on cool evenings. It took her 3 months to notice the abundance of cats lying on her driveway and connect that with the driveway heater and the high electric bill.
Alfred Nobel created the Nobel Prize near the end of his life as a public relations move. He’d invented dynamite for mining and construction. But people used it as a weapon, killing thousands, and earning him the label, “The Merchant of Death”.
There was Alfred Binet, who invented the IQ test, with the intention of classifying children who need assistance. His test unintentionally fueled the eugenics movement and was a key tool for discrimination.
There was Alfred Vanderbilt, who was one of the world’s wealthiest young men and most eligible bachelor. He narrowly avoided boarding the Titanic, canceling his trip at the last moment. Unfortunately, three years later, he boarded the Lusitania, which was sunk by German U-boats.
And then there is my friend, Al.
Al was a fellow swimmer. He was 6’3, easygoing, and per my female friend “handsome enough”. He had a good sense of humor and straw-like brown hair that was ravaged by chlorine. Al had squeaked through high school and landed an athletic scholarship at our university.
His father was a volatile alcoholic, the type who sings karaoke and is everyone’s best friend in the first hour of drinking, and a belligerent monster for the remaining six.
I saw it firsthand when he came to town for a swim meet, which he overslept and missed. Al invited me to dinner, which was a bit unusual for “parent’s weekend”. I suspect he didn’t want to endure it alone. Sure enough, his dad showed up at Applebees at 6 PM and was already blitzed, full of stupid ideas, and making inane, brutally awkward attempts to flirt with our waitress.
He was a walking meme, stopping just short of wearing a varsity jacket and bragging about his high school touchdowns.
It was a long two-hour dinner. I walked through the parking lot, exhausted, and immediately knew why Al had never touched alcohol. Then I winced, remembering the scene of me holding a cup of beer up to his face, playfully saying, “Just one sip … c’mon.”
As we walked to the car, I asked, with a bit of hesitation, “So is your mom…more…normal?”
“She was. Yes.”
“Was?” I instinctively asked, thinking she’d become an alcoholic too.
“She died when I was 9. Ovarian cancer.”
I nodded and got quiet, realizing this ridiculously nice guy had probably endured a terrible childhood. I knew his sister had left home at 12 to live with his grandmother for reasons unnamed.
Al noticed me looking bummed out and gave me a half smile, “Dude. It’s OK. I’m all good.” I suppose he didn’t want my pity. He’d probably gotten enough of that already.
One month later
Our college swim team was doing a mixer party with the women’s lacrosse team. It was fun — your typical party scene, with lots of laughing, talking, and loud music. It looked just like those American parties you’ve seen in movies.
A few girls were walking around in lacrosse pads. One teammate was shamelessly walking around in a speedo and goggles, with a beer bong poised at the ready.
Eventually, the night turned south as it often does with so much drinking. A couple of the lacrosse girls’ boyfriends had become jealous of this mixer. They showed up to start trouble, trying to push through the front door. There was a bunch of shouting. No fists were thrown thankfully. But a few girls began crying and fighting with their partners. It was a total vibe kill.
We decided to get out of there before things got worse. Two of us left with Al around midnight, who was the DD as always. He dropped us both off that night and I thought nothing of it.
The next morning, I got an ominous text, “Did, you hear about Al?”
Al had been hit by a drunk driver on the way back to his house. He’d been T-boned at high speed on his driver-side door. He was in the hospital with a broken leg, collar bone, shoulder, and two broken ribs.
He was alive. He’d walk fine. But his shoulder was never right again and his swimming career was over. I stopped by to see him and he looked like a shell of himself on the hospital bed.
His eyes were sunken, hair disheveled, and hanging over his swollen face. We hung out and talked for a bit. He was out of it from the pain meds and fell asleep mid-conversation. I saw his dad at the hospital, sober for once.
The good news is that life went on as normal. He eventually returned to class and hung out with us. But not without great cost to him.
Al didn’t have the prestigious accolades of history’s famous Alfreds. In fact, his background was mostly the opposite: absent of wealth, stability, and the type of love a kid needs. He inherited and then endured great misfortune.
In fact, there was a time when I thought Al was the most unlucky guy I’d ever met. I was sure he’d break at any moment. How couldn’t he?
He’s gone on to be quite successful, have kids, and a loving wife. And despite all the hardship, he’s always had a great attitude. He has lived in defiance of the groundwork for so much sorrow.
I know many others, who are born into relative privilege and spared of major tragedies, myself included, who have struggled to appreciate their life at times.
My father-in-law is one of the happiest men I know, despite having a troubled and turbulent childhood. He is a big storyteller and relays everything interesting from his life. Yet he has a DMZ line drawn on his childhood. We know nothing. That’s how bad it was.
People forget that luck, good or bad, is all a construct. It isn’t actually a proven thing — in the sense of a mystical universe choosing favorites among us. Luck is just probability playing out in real time. For us, it’s more accurately defined as how humans choose to describe their lives.
It’s also a decent proxy for how people frame their problems. For example, those who believe in good or bad luck tend to be more cynical and less happy.
The name Alfred isn’t intrinsically unlucky. I just looked up a bunch of Alfreds from history and cherry-picked those who’d had the most bad luck. It was a whimsical way of framing a trajectory. Because each person has a narrative they tell themselves of their life story.
I’ve heard from many readers and people over the years, who had horrible childhoods and lives — on paper — yet have gone on to be quite happy.
I’ve tended to downgrade my definition of problems as life has improved (another pesky byproduct of hedonic adaptation). Yesterday, I caught myself cursing up a storm while setting up a new soundbar. You’d have thought I just caught someone cheating on me. I’d lost sight of how first-world, and truly spoiled I sounded.
It is in the quieter moments, when sleep is evasive, that the mind can wander and wallow in misery and egregious mistakes. I am reminded that happiness and contentment requires intent. Life is messy and complicated, and one cannot feel better simply by comparing themselves to those less fortunate. It takes more work.
It is a sense of presence in the moment, gratitude, perspective, lifestyle, community, and purpose that I have found the most happiness, as my unlucky friend Al did.
But he’ll be the first to tell you how lucky he is.
Saudi Arabia Joins BRICS (The New Global Order & Silver)
The true core of BRICS will consist of China, Russia and Iran, with elites that are nationalist and in the case of China and Iran also heavily socialist.
Russia still operates with much of the neoliberal inheritance of the 1990s, even within the minds of many of its ruling elite. The Ukraine conflict, and the resultant Western sanctions, has facilitated a significant decolonization of the Russian mind and a rebalancing of state-oligarch relations in favour of the latter. These three nations have the potential to dominate Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan), Belarus, Iraq, and Syria; with the aid of the overlapping Shanghai Cooperation Council (SCO) security alliance. Linking together a huge landmass that contains the greatest global manufacturing power, the second greatest global military power, and colossal natural resource deposits. This is the true core of the challenge to the West, perhaps we can call it BRICISSTAN. Mongolia represents an independent variable, but simple geography and trade flows will mean that it never becomes an enemy.
For this challenge to be successful it requires at the least the non-alignment of the rest of the non-West, and their usage of the new multi-polar world to rebalance they economic relations with the West to their advantage. Such non-alignment was shown with respect to the Western sanctions upon Russia, where the Rest of the World (ROW) refused to be part of the Western attempt to subjugate Russia. In ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) plus Bangladesh and Pakistan, China has a grouping that will be at least non-aligned, with some nations such as Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia being much closer to China. The underlying dynamic of Chinese demand and respect for sovereignty will continue to pull ASEAN toward China, no matter what the West does. The latter is doing as much as possible to disrupt this process, with widespread interference in the elections in Malaysia and Thailand and support for Western-comprador forces in Myanmar (greatly aided by India), but its efforts will come to nought; with Chinese patience and restraint paying dividends.
India, the “I” in BRICS will never be a truly anti-imperial force as its ruling class are fully neoliberal, with many educated in the West. This elite treats China as a regional competitor that must be resisted, and with a mindset that protects its national rentier profit-making. This combination has repeatedly led India to cut off its nose to spite its face, with Chinese (and other foreign) companies treated in highly arbitrary ways that stifle the ability of India to utilize Chinese (and other nation’s) help for national development. India will remain as a developing nation, never to repeat the Chinese (and South Korean, and Taiwanese, and ongoing Vietnamese) growth and development miracle. India’s long-term alliance with Russia will mitigate its relationship with BRICISSTAN, but India will always be a prickly neighbour that will look to work with the US against China when it sees advantage. In many ways, India’s geopolitical role resembles that of Turkey under Erdogan.
South Africa, the “S” in BRICS is a neoliberal fun house run by an ANC traitorous elite that turned its back on the masses of the Black population to massively enrich itself in cahoots with the white national capitalists and Western capital. If any nation has truly implemented the story of Animal Farm it is South Africa. “All [black people] are equal, but some [black people] are more equal than others” and “[socialists] good, [capitalists even white ones] better” seems befitting of current South Africa. The Black elite may very well exercise a level of nationalism, but they will never be socialist brothers. This is where the RIC respect for national sovereignty and political non-interference becomes such a weapon to wield against the neo-colonial ever-interfering West. To stretch a saying of Deng, the RIC must make friends with socialist, capitalist, and even medieval theocratic monarchic cats to overcome the West; but it must also be wary of the non-socialist cats.
Brazil, the “B” in BRICS, is a nation dominated by the elites that it was bequeathed at the time of independence. A poisoned chalice that, as I have written here, here and here, provides a disabling legacy for Latin America. There are a few nations that have fully or partially escaped that legacy, mainly Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia, but for the vast majority the comprador landed, and financial domestic elites dominate. As I have covered here, the very best of Lula was “neoliberalism with crumbs” and the most recent reincarnation is certainly not the best version. He will tread very carefully with respect to the West, being seen more to hold the coat of the RIC than directly engage in the duel. The Latin American comprador elites are simply looking for improved prices for their exports, and a bit more leeway in their exploitation of their populations, by working with the RIC. Argentina, which is swaying back to the right from a mildly progressive government very much reflects that reality.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are medieval-style monarchies that claim their nation’s wealth for themselves, but they have smelt the wind and notice the new way that it is blowing. Together with the cooperation with Russia and Iran within OPEC+, they are more forcefully pivoting to the RIC (with Saudi Arabia and Qatar becoming an observer of the SCO); reflecting their interests with their fellow OPEC+ members and the biggest market for the fossil fuel exports, while turning away from Western divide and conquer tactics. Due to the Western inability to stop interfering in the domestic politics of its “allies”, Egypt has started to drift away from the Western sphere (including observer status at the SCO) ; but again, we must remember the nature of its leadership. Ethiopia does seem to be a state that under its new leadership is attempting to turn away from the West and gain the alternative financing and help that it needs to do so. Given its location in the Horn of Africa opposite Saudi Arabia, its geopolitical positioning will affect the whole region.
The West is utterly dependent on its ability to source raw materials from the Rest at knockdown prices, keep them underdeveloped so that they provide a good market for Western exports, and steal the value added produced by the Rest through unequal trading and legal relationships backed up by technology controls. This avenue has already been shut down in Russia and Iran (mostly be the West’s own self-harming sanctions), and China is increasingly moving up the technology curve and gaining a greater share of its own value added; the real reason for Western aggression. As especially China expands its increasingly sophisticated exports around the world, imports more and more from the Rest, and funds development projects, the flow of cheap resources and value-added to the West is reduced. In the Middle East, China and Russia are working with Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States to remove their dependence upon the US dollar and Western financial system. The capitalist centre is slowly strangled. In the Middle East and Africa, Russia also provides hired military muscle to facilitate the success of nations such as Niger in rebalancing their economic relations with the West.
RIC and BRICISSTAN do not need Brazil, India or South Africa as full allies against the West, they simply need them (as with the rest of the ROW) to not be enemies and to utilize multipolarity to rebalance their economic and financial relations with the West. Without the neo-colonial flows of plunder to the West, the capitalist centre will be strangled into a slow collapse with no need for war. The over-sized Western elite response to the coup in Niger shows that they are very cognizant of this possibility, but they may also be becoming more conscious of their inability to stop it happening. The failure of the Western comprador ECOWAS to mount a military campaign against Niger in the face of popular resistance in their own nations is a marker to which way the wind is blowing.
So, we do not need to be disappointed when Brazil, India and South Africa and others show their unwillingness to become true partners of BRICISSTAN. All we need of them is to stand aside from the duel and use it to rebalance their relations with the West to their advantage. This by itself will help bring the Western house down.
Pepe Escobar: The Prigozhin Era Is GONE | MOATS with George Galloway Ep 267
Choosing to be debt free and being able to walk around without spending money isn’t a lifestyle reserved for the wealthy — it’s for people who make a conscious decision to live within their means.
Some friends of mine are a young couple in their early 30’s with a combined income of $65,000 per year, and own their home outright (no mortgage), have no car payments or credit cards, have money in their savings account, and are building up for retirement.
How? By being smart with their money and avoiding things like credit cards and walking around with cash. Almost half of their income goes straight to their savings every month.
Instead of buying new cars and having a car payment, they saved for a few months and bought used cars they could write a check for. Instead of getting a 30 year mortgage on the biggest house they could afford, they rented a small apartment for the first four years they were together so they could save up to buy some land. They paid cash for their land, set up a well, power, and septic, and then bought an RV trailer and parked it there to live in while they saved up to build their dream house.
By doing this, they eliminated the monthly cost of their apartment and were literally living for free in that RV on land they owned outright. And they were smart about the next step too – every month, whatever money was to go in their savings went toward a step in the build process of their home. One month it was a concrete foundation, a couple months later it was buying some of the timbers, framing, plumbing, electrical, etc. One step at a time, as they could afford to do it.
Eventually the house was ready to move into – still not “finished”, the interior walls and flooring weren’t done, but the roof was up, the windows and doors were in, and it was livable. So they sold the RV, almost for what they paid for it, and spent the cash from that to finish the interior and did most of the work themselves. I chipped in a little myself — woodworking is a hobby of mine and I helped them build their cabinets.
The whole build process took almost five years from start to finish. But in that five years of sacrifice, they built their dream home and will never have a monthly house payment. They’re in their early 30’s and are further ahead financially than most people making three times their income.
Imagine being their age and never having a house payment again, ever. Imagine being able to write a check when it’s time for a new car instead of having to finance it. Imagine having half or more of your paycheck going straight to your savings account instead of going out the door to monthly payments on debt.
You don’t have to be rich to live that way. You just have to plan for it, and be disciplined enough not to buy things you can’t afford with money you don’t have.
Scott Ritter: “The CIA is working directly with Ukraine” | Redacted News
Scott Ritter is a former UN Weapons Inspector who exposed the lies in Iraq. He told the world that Saddam Hussein didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. Powerful people in Washington didn’t want to hear it and he resigned in protest. The War in Iraq cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars. Now Ritter is revealing the truth about the latest U.S. military incursions in Ukraine, Syria, and beyond.
Biden Greeted With Extremely HOSTILE Response In Maui
President Joe Biden took a few hours away from his vacation in Lake Tahoe to visit the fire-devastated island of Maui, and the reception was, well, let’s say lukewarm. Chants of “Fuck you!” greeted the presidential motorcade before Biden attended a few events to acknowledge the suffering Hawaiians at which he made his typically tone-deaf or otherwise insensitive comments.
Every store is CLOSED in Oakland
440,000 people call Oakland home ,but their stores are rapidly closing We are walking downtown Oakland to witness the city through a camera’s lens Market street
It was the year 1931, Plennie L. Wingo was discussing with his friends ways to make money, his friends told him that everything had already been done, that the one who made money did and the one who didn’t should settle, to which he after thinking about it for a few seconds, he replied:
“Not everything is done, nobody has gone around the world…”
His friends interrupted him and laughed in unison, telling him that this was very hackneyed, that many people had tried it and to forget it.
To which he replied:
“I repeat, no one has gone around the world… walking backwards”
That idea, as silly as it was, for some reason stuck with him.
That is how in that same year, on April 15, he bought some glasses with mirrors to see in reverse and began his journey. While doing his feat, he lived off the generosity of the people he met along the way, getting paid to sign newspapers in which he appeared and occasionally stopping in a town to work for a few weeks and continue on his way.
Although he could not achieve his mission, since in Turkey they told him that he could not pass and would have to return to North America, he ended up traveling 13 thousand kilometers, became internationally famous, appearing in shows and even publishing his own book.
Plennie L. Wingo, the man who became famous for walking eight thousand miles on his back, which was completely absurd, but in the end it worked for him.
Being poor is not determined by education, mental health, some status of “deserving it” or what have you.
I am a top writer on Quora a couple years running now, and I live under the poverty line.
I was rear ended by a drunk driver some years back. The subsequent series of health crises drained my bank accounts, savings and 401K, because that’s how our health system is designed.
It was only after my assets were reduced under $2000 that I was eligible for public health benefits. I will never be allowed to have over $2000 in assets again, so it’s highly unlikely I will ever escape poverty. I was at one point the VP of Marketing and Business Development of the 3rd fastest growing private company in Oregon, listed on a couple Inc. indices. I was, at the time of the accident, the founding executive director of The Tor Project.
My then boyfriend — who was scrambling to keep me, my elderly mom with Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia, and my teenage son afloat, with me as primary breadwinner out of commission — didn’t know to look at Quicken to see how much of the bank account was sequestered to pay taxes when I got taken out on April Fool’s Day. So I will never be able to pay off my tax debt, and never be able to have a bank account again.
Living in this country without a bank account is hell.
I have all kinds of illness and mobility disabilities, and live in subsidized elder/disability housing. But these people don’t take the stored value card I get my social security on, as payment for rent.
So I have to physically get myself to the post office, and pay to have a money order cut and mailed to them. When I am too ill to get myself there by the 5th, I can pay an extra $50 in rent on my tiny studio apartment. That’s a 20% surcharge on my rent, because I’m ill. And I’m in this place, because I’m ill. I’ve asked my social worker if I can get assistance with this, and I’ve been told that I can not unless I sign all of my financial affairs over to a representative of the State. I frankly feel uncomfortable with that.
I can still write, but not consistently enough for people to pay me. I have a Patreon. Social Security makes it hard for people who don’t get a consistent paycheck, who work when they are on SSI, who don’t fit a cookie cutter “work in a bakery on night shift” disability job.
I spend about half my days in bed, immobile and in pain. I would love more than anything to be working again at a job that I loved. But my body won’t allow it. They even put me on opioids for a bit before the epidemic became a known thing, and I weaned myself off of them and live with the pain, because on the drugs, I could not read and write and my life was one continual useless meaningless fog.
Most of my neighbors here in subsidized housing are lovely people who have to deal with a small minority of terrible people who end up here and make things hard for all of us. Those people are the only ones that you probably think of when you think of poor people, just as when one might think of persons of a particular religion many people think only of religious extremists.
Similarly, the greatest harm done by the bad actors among the poor is done to other poor people, statistically. We have checks stolen, packages stolen, assaults, rapes in poor neighborhoods, but most often among people who know each other. In proportion, mugging of strangers and other things that people who are not poor fear are incredibly rare.
But what the priority that police provide is not enforcement, but containment, because they know who is paying their salaries, and their time is limited.
When I grew up poor and rural in central Vermont, there was no shame in being poor, and to a certain extent there is still far less stigma in rural areas. So long as you are neatly put together and clean, and respectful, there’s nothing to set you below any other American.
In the cities, however, being poor seems to be treated as though it were a contagion, and a shame, like leprosy in the Bible, like a venereal disease, like AIDS is, undeservedly, shunned.
This is a shame on our country as a whole, and makes us less able to create a resilient culture in hard times. And, in case you hadn’t noticed — not being poor — these are hard times.
Empathy is a virtue.
Saudi Accept China Bid for Nuclear Plant | U.S. Is Worried
Explore the intriguing dynamics between Saudi Arabia and China as they contemplate a joint venture in nuclear technology. This deep dive analyzes the geopolitical implications for the United States, India, and the broader West Asian region. Join us for a comprehensive breakdown of these unfolding events.
Yes, my father. He went into a nursing home after a fall and brain beed. I had to handle selling his house and cleaning it out.
I found a file labeled “dirt”. Inside was paperwork related to his response to my mom’s request in 1973 for an increase in child support. Now I found copies of his letter to a friend where he bragged about how his income had tripled since their divorce in ‘68, when his support was set at $150 total for 3 kids. So he was prosperous 5 years later.
Mom’s 2nd husband committed suicide Jan ’73 and times were tough. She lost her job 2 months after. Bad recession. She was wrecked. We were on food stamps and she was picking up temp work when she could get it. Food was rationed. AC wasn’t turned on until June, in Florida. No luxuries. Oldest sister married and moved out so support was cut to $100 for 2. Then it was 1974 and this support request was being dragged out.
Dad wrote Mom a letter saying how her situation was unfortunate but not his problem, and that he had a new wife, and she and her 4 kids from 1st marriage and deadbeat ex husband were his first priority now. And he added that I and my sister could help support ourselves. He made a lot of accusations against Mom and threatened to report her to the government for some kind of fraud, which I think was bogus. Mom had no money for a lawyer so the issue was dropped.
Sis and I were underage teenagers and the same ages as 2 of his step kids. He wasn’t confiscating their pay from any pt jobs they had, and later some of them got private college education at least partially funded by him.
Bless my mom, she didn’t ever tell us anything and never asked us to turn over our meager earnings. She found better work and we got off food stamps. We did have to fully fund our cars we eventually bought, and any luxuries. She was teaching us how to adult. She totally took the high road.
So now I have to dutifully take care of my father’s needs and handle his finances and paperwork and visit occasionally, knowing how little he cared about us. We had sensed the discard and how little he cared, but it sucked reading confirmation of it. My oldest sister wants nothing to do with him for other reasons.
Oh, and he’s on Medicaid because he blew through his retirement savings too soon and that now ex wife with the 4 kids went to court and got almost all the equity from his house to cover unpaid alimony. He actually tried to order me to move him from the nursing home into my home, but nfw. I’m not going to live with his alcoholic ass and disrupt my life when he didn’t give a shit about us when we were going through a terribly hard time.
Rich Men North of Richmond – Fiddle Version – Oliver Anthony and Philip Bowen
As someone who’s been the duty manager in a casino where people have won a similar amount to that referred to by the question setter, I’ll tell you exactly what does happen.
This person won’t be a stranger to us. UK casinos don’t function like that. So we’ll know this person. Chances are they’ve lost several million with us over the years. So we won’t be surly. We’ll be professionally happy for the winning player. Handshakes all round. I’ll ask if they fancy having dinner with me in the casino restaurant, or perhaps share a bottle of something suitably lovely.
We want you to come back to us next time. That sentence is the most important factor in the whole process. If you win and there’s people around you being happy for you, then you’re more likely to return. The table staff also want you to tip, or continue tipping. They’ll be very happy for you too.
So after the handshakes and pleasant meal, I’ll sign the cheque made up by the cashier. More likely nowadays is the BACS transfer back to their account. But not all 8 million. Maybe only 5 or 6. The other 2 million they’ll leave on deposit with us. (Always their choice. Never suggested. Never needs to be suggested). I mean, after all, they’re in town for a few more days and may want to play again. We can always BACS that 2 million whenever they ask us to.
Once all the financials are done, I will personally escort Mr/Ms. Big Winner up to one of our waiting chauffeured cars, where they will be taken to wherever they so desire. They may even hold onto our car and driver, in case they fancy popping back our way in the next couple of hours. Of course sir, no problem at all.
And all this time, at every interaction I have with the player, we’ll be discussing how their particular business is doing – did their daughter’s recent wedding go well – how’s their son finding business school – we have some tickets to the sporting / cultural event they’re interested in. All this is in their file.
So that’s what happens. It may sound a little oily and rehearsed, but it’s just business.
Elon Musk: “Oumuamua Has Suddenly Returned and It’s Not Alone!”
Yeah. They have been talking about this is China too.
Let me share a perspective that might be controversial in China. Many of us, especially among the Han Chinese, feel that it was the people of Tibetans and Uyghurs who wanted to be with us more than we wanted to be with them. We contribute with our taxes to support those people, and some feel that we don’t receive equivalent benefits in return.
If you ever consider supporting them, please understand that it may involve significant financial commitments. Without it, Tibetans and Uyghurs might not be industrious or eager for independence. If you want to pour your money as much as we do, nobody will stop you, You are more than welcome. Remember saying something is always cheap, show them your wallet.
And Japan?
It is really funny. You know the US doesn’t want Japan to be strong, and neither does the whole world. You can ask the people of Hong Kong and Taiwan. They want to be a little bit far away from China, but it doesn’t mean that they want to be with you. Even if people in China, disagree with the CCP, they will communicate with the CCP, instead of standing with you.
You know your situation, don’t you?
You Japan is the enemy of the US, China, Russia, Korea… Almost all of the big and strong countries in the world.
You Japan did so many bad things during WWII, You don’t apologize for it, you don’t regret it. And now you are trying to isolate China? How could you be so stupid? And where does your confidence come from?
Ask the people to betray China to be with you Japan? A dirty country like Japan? Are you out of your mind?
This Is How Xi Jinping Is Kicking The US Out And Making China A Global Superpower And Peace-Make
The shield wall isn’t that effective in and of itself. Shield walls are not very maneuverable, and smart riders can still get up close to them and try to find a weak point (or flank.)
A man and his full war gear might weigh 200 pounds. You know what weighs a lot more? A horse. Horses will trample people. Even killing the horse in front of you doesn’t stop the momentum.
That sheer momentum is part of why cavalry charges can be so devastating.
No, the part about shield walls that does anything to cavalry is the pikes:
Horses are not machines; they have a brain in their head. They will not willingly skewer themselves on pikes. The reason pikes are so effective if they stay in formation is because the horses won’t charge into that. If you break formation, different story. Then you get a one way ticket to trample town.
It was extremely common for a line of Pikemen in the Middle Ages, upon facing charging knights, to soil themselves and run away, not necessarily in that order. Against fleeing or disorganized enemies, cavalry is lethal. That’s where all the casualties happen. (And it’s why they often come from the flanks.)
What stops the charge once they’ve made contact is the guys behind the front ranks. The men up front can’t go anywhere. The guys in the back can choose to push back or flee. A warhorse, for all its mass, can’t do much in a solid crowd of human bodies resisting them. It’s when they break and flee, and thus loosen up the center and then front of the formation, that everything goes down hill.
It sounds easy- just stand firm and the horses can’t rout you! But it wasn’t until professional armies, particularly professional infantry, became common that the hyper dominance of knights faded. Because I promise you, when faced with incoming knights – trained murder machines – you would start getting real freaking nervous. Shields themselves won’t stop cavalry: formation and discipline does.
(And then the professional infantry realized they could just charge each other with their pikes. Eventually, guns developed enough to put a stop to that insanity.)
I don’t think Westerners would EVER want to adopt the family tree naming convention based on “Chinese culture”.
Why?
Well the obvious reason is because it isn’t their culture 🙂
And secondly, nobody, NOBODY would want to add a galaxy’s worth of complexity into their lives.
The Chinese family tree doesn’t just take generation and biological sex into account.
It also takes into account:
Maternal and Paternal Lineage
Marriage
Relative Age
Consanguinity (the fact of being descended from the same ancestor)
etc.
See the “Complicated Chinese Family Tree” below.
So, how would you address your mother’s older brother? He’s not just your “Uncle”. He is your 舅舅 (Jiùjiu).
And his oldest son who’s older than you? He’s not just your “Cousin”. He is your 表哥 (Biǎo gē).
Okay, then how about your father’s younger brother? He’s not just your “Uncle”. He is your 叔叔 (Shūshu).
And his youngest daugher who is younger than you? She’s not just your “Cousin”. She is your 堂妹 (Táng Mèi).
If you look at all this and you think it is hard – well, yes, that is because it is hard. As a kid, my dad would GRILL me before any extended family gathering.
If I got the appellation for any family member during this Grilling Session wrong, his face would be a mask of disappointment. If I got it wrong when actually addressing family members – he would correct me on the spot, in front of EVERYONE, while shaking his head in disappointment.
As a kid, being corrected in front of ALL your extended family members, with your dad looking on at you in disappointment, while some of your extended family members perhaps laughing and chuckling at your mistake… it’s not a fun thing, I can assure you.
Mortifying. That’s the word. Absolutely, completely, totally mortifying.
Who would want to willingly add this much complexity into their lives?
It must be so, so, so refreshing just to be able to say “Uncle” or “Aunt” or “Cousin” without having to worry about which side of the family they’re on, whether they’re your mom or dad’s older or younger sibling, whether this person is older or younger than you, who they’re married to, etc.
As a kid, I was like – “Why can’t I just call him Uncle?”
My dad – “Because you’re Chinese.”
AMERICA IS WORRIED! China Will Build 8 Overseas Military Bases in The Future
Saving Momma
15 floors, in this case.
This guy
scaled a 19-storey building just to save his mother.
And he did that with an injured hip.
West Philadelphia. 2019.
His mother was at the hospital, unwell and bedridden. A fire breaks out on the lower floors. He gets a call from his sister telling him their Momma’s stuck in the hospital and it’s on fire.
He races to that building’s entrance, only to be told by police officers who were on the scene, barring the entrance, that it was too dangerous to let anybody in.
He didn’t let that stop him, he climbed up.
On the 15th floor he found her safe on a balcony. She told him she was told by police over the phone not to move from there as the fire was being contained.
Appeased, at ease that she was okay, he climbed back down. The fire was taken care of and eventually his mother and others were able to leave the building.
“I took it upon myself because that’s my mother. There’s no limits. That’s my mother.”
Do you realize if Trump goes to prison, America is truly not a free country anymore?
Oh! One guy might go to prison and all of a sudden you’re worried that America isn’t “free” anymore?
Well, I’ve got some news for you.
America currently incarcerates 664 of every 100,000 people living in the country. Millions more are on probation or are suffering some sort of civil disability because of having a criminal record. For example, in New York State, people with a felony conviction aren’t allowed to become barbers.
If you want to say “America sends too many people to jail” I would heartily agree with you. However, if you’re complaining that some idiot who tried a harebrained scheme to overturn an election he lost by a wide margin proves America isn’t “free”, you’re about 40 years too late.
John Dean spent more time in prison than any other person involved in Watergate, and he was the guy who first blew the whistle on the operation.
Personally, at age 66 , I’ve eliminated stress by making three major changes in my life. Firstly, eliminating all friends and family members who were unnecessarily stressed, and unfairly imposing that stress into my life. Secondly, I stopped earning money in a manner which was extremely stressful, and resulted in an unhealthy lifestyle. Thirdly, I started going to the gym, and began lowering my Resting Heart Rate, through a vigorous training program.
Ultimately, for myself, it was all about changing three major components of my lifestyle. My social life, my employment, and my health.
I can think of a lot of things, but I’ll just focus on one: a lopsided allocation of resources away from advanced/gifted, middle-or-upper income, able-bodied students with stable home lives.
That is, the more academic, mental, social, economic, or familial challenges a student has, the more resources school districts will allocate towards them. But, in a world of finite resources, that means that the students who don’t have those challenges have resources taken from them.
For example: In the early 2000s, a paraprofessional at a public high school in the Chicago suburbs. I was hired to help exactly one student. That student had cerebral palsy and was quadriplegic. He was of average intelligence, but he had no realistic chance of ever living alone. He had a very slight chance of finding some sort of job that would pay him enough to where he could be taxed on it. But, in all likelihood, he would spend his entire life relying on others to do everything for him.
It wasn’t his fault, of course. And yes, he still deserved an education. He was a cool guy. We got along great. I just checked, and I can’t find anything online about him from the last 13 years. His parents would be well into their 70s by now, so I’m guess that, if he’s still alive, he’s living in a group home somewhere.
Anyway, back then, I made $36k annually helping that one single student. That’s the equivalent of about $63k today.
And I was one of over a dozen paraprofessionals at that one school, each working with one student with similar struggles. I know for a fact that at least three of those students didn’t live past 25, due to their conditions.
Now imagine if schools spent equivalent resources on the students on the opposite end of the challenge spectrum. Imagine if, for every student who needed a 1:1 paraprofessional just to get through the day, the school hired a gifted education tutor to help challenge the academically advanced students. Imagine if, in addition to a special education resource room for students with challenges, each school also had a gifted education resource room, for students for whom the regular education options were too easy.
That could apply to areas outside of academics as well. Have a student who is an athletic or artistic or musical prodigy? Why shouldn’t the school hire someone to help them reach their full potential, the way they hire people to help students with challenges?
“Child prodigies” aren’t all that rare. They’re just advanced students whose parents had the resources to help them succeed. If schools started providing those resources to all advanced students, we’d see a lot more “child prodigies.” And, ultimately, a lot more adults whose contributions to society went beyond “making those around them feel better about themselves for being empathetic and inclusive.”
Americans, Australian, Canadians and a few of the so called alliances were willing to slaughtering and being hypocritical and pretentious. But more than that for me it is a tinge of racism. They the soldiers are slaughtering coloured people that they don’t have affiliation or affinity to.
Let us call a spade a spade. The world knows the U.S. lead in slaughter of 2 million in Korea, 3 million in Vietnam, 1 million in Manila and 1 million Muslims in Mindanao Philippines, 2 million in Iraq and 1 million in Afghanistan and it is not over yet… the U.S. will kill and kill and kill. They will justify some shit like pretentious democracy or freedom.
But the culling will continue till one day they pick in the wrong nation like China and their world go up in nuclear dust!
Almost 20 years ago, my then husband (now ex-), who was verbally and emotionally quite abusive, was ripping my face off with an enraged tirade. I was sitting on the sofa, with my face leaning on the palms of my hand, waiting for the tirade to be over.
Then I heard a pitty-pat of paws and I looked up to see my Skittles came from the bedroom into the living room, where we were.
She sat down in front of me and my ex (who had not noticed her and kept screaming his rage). Skittles looked first at me, then at him, then at me, then at him again. And then she let out a VERY angry meow/hiss/growl AT MY EX, all without leaving her spot.
It was a very, very clear message: “Knock off being so verbally violent to mom!”
My ex jumped from the sofa completely startled, looked at the cat and said, “OK!”
He then resumed his tirade in much, much milder tones, finished off very soon after and then left.
That cat had defended me like a dog.
Then and there, in my mind, I promised her I would always take care of her. And I did. Skittles was with me for 13 years and she was my best friend. Could not have had a better cat.
Massive historical changes going on. Some geopolitical, and others domestic.
My you-tube channel has me locked out for a week. I got a “strike”. I posted inappropriate content on the internet that “violated Community guidelines”.
All I did was post a Chinese video about the Ukraine war.
Not that it matters. It only had 25 views total. My channel is buried deep in the sludge due to algorithm manipulation.
Anyways.
So much for “freedom of speech”, when Chinese can view things that are censored in the United States. But the USA censors anything made in China.
Hey!
Tell me all about that delicious “freedom”TM and Democracy”TM that the USA has. Eh?
First time hearing Oliver Anthony “I Want To Go Home” Reaction
China at one time, did have an illegal immigrant problem. This included areas of South-East Asia, and North Korea. And even today, there is a problem. Though, the magnitude of the problem is quite small. Trivial, actually.
China is a bonafied surveillance state.
I am not using that term neither lightly, or pejoratively. It is what it is. China has a massive population. Simply massive, and to keep things running, surveillance is the “name of the game”.
When you enter China legally, your bio-metrics are entered into the national computers, and the AI algorithm tracks your every move. As long as you are not doing anything wrong, you are ignored. And that is just the way it is. Those of us who are new to this kind of government are often frightened by it. Which is a “knee jerk” reaction after decades of contrary American pre-programming.
Now, when an illegal is inside of China, that person is immediately flagged as a non-database registrant.
If you look and watch the AI monitoring video in the local police station, you can easily see who is “ok” and who is “flagged”. This is done by the rectangular box that surrounds the person.
In general, there are different colors that are used. For instance; Green is fine. Red is a concern.
Any illegal cannot operate inside of China. They will “stand out like a sore thumb”, and be unable to do anything electronic.
A police visit, followed by incarceration and deportation are the usual outcomes upon being flagged.
Tucker Carlson’s VIRAL SPEECH DESTROYS Pro Ukraine LIES
Yes, indeed. trump didn’t dare to but Biden did pul the trigger.
Biden crossed the red line by using SWIFT to sanction Russia and even worse, froze the country’s foreign reserve. This was the death blow of the U.S. that the world feared and expected the Russian economy and ruble to crumble down like the wall of Jericho.
But Russia withstood these and all the subsequent sanctions the G7 countries could muster.
The turning point is that when all these failed and the G7 tried coercing the rest of the world to join, the Global South chose not to, not so much because they’re a fan of Russia but because they did not want to be subjected any more to the economic hegemon of the West and saw a way out.
First to break ranks were Saudi Arabia and the UAE who started accepting Yuan for their oil deals with China. And now there’s the rush to join BRICS.
BRICS is the world’s irresistible force for de-dollarization. BRICS formalized their expansion that also officially signalize the demise of the petrodollar. When mortal enemies like Saudi Arabia and Iran at war with each other could set aside their differences and agree to work together as BRICS members, who together with the UAE and Russia are now constituting the most powerful block controlling the global energy market . . . and combine this with China and India, the world’s most populous countries as consumer countries, this is part of the clout of the irresistible force.
Further, Brazil’s Lula call to wholly dump the US$ is no empty threat. A BRICS roadmap is ready to actually do this – with Brazil and Argentina leading the way. And this is how it would work – with China’s yuan to be officially used as their bridge currency for trade.
China, Brazil and Argentina are already their own biggest trade partners and have begun using their own currencies in trade with China. With yuan as their main revenue currency, and like Russia with India’s Rupees, it’s the logical next step to use the yuan as their bridge currency for trade between themselves, thereby eliminating not just the U.S.$ but the FX volatility risk of their own currencies to each other.
Add to this the precedent set by the IMF accepting yuan to settle debts originally denominated in US$, Brazil and Argentina could completely not have to use the U.S.$.
To complete dethroning the U.S.$, BRICS will be issuing through their development bank a new currency backed by gold. This would serve as another role that U.S.$ had so far been the only option – as the reserve currency for the long-term depository of excess earning of countries like China, Japan and Germany, supplanting the need to buy U.S. treasury bonds.
The fiat money regime needs a reset and this is upon us.
WE REACT TO OLIVER ANTHONY: I WANT TO GO HOME – HITS OUR SOUL
He’s so relatable, the angst and soul in his voice is amazing.
I had a man/boy with TBI(Traumatic Brain Injury). He smoked at least 3 packs a day and left the butts in Coke liter bottles out on the rear deck. He was very dirty. He screamed and blasted the stereo at all hours of the day. I was constantly calling his mother &/or Attorney. He was banging on the ceiling with a broom screaming at me during the night. I finally was able with the help of his attorney to move him out. But he took that broomstick and broke every fixture in the house, plus smashed the glass cooktop. The Attorney sent me a check for the excess cost over his security.
This one GOT to me.. Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home REACTION
I own a 250 gallon propane tank and get it filled about once a year. Because I own the tank I get to choose who fills it. One afternoon a propane delivery truck comes to my home and start to set up like they’re going to fill my tank. I tell the driver that I’d not ordered any propane and I ask what’s going on? His reply was that they were in the area and saw that I’d not had my tank refilled in over 2 years so they thought that they’d just go ahead and fill it.
Well, that didn’t seem right to me. First, how did he check delivery records from his truck and why would he do so? Second, I recently had the tank filled from a different supplier so there was no room in the tank for any more. So I refused the delivery and other than putting a lock on the tank access lid thought no more about it. That is, until the bill for the delivery came. Only one item on the bill, a fee for an emergency delivery.
To their credit, when I contacted the supplier they quickly dismissed the bill.
Member of the European Parliament: “Stop Complying. Start Rebelling”
Powerful words from a member of the European Parliament, Christine Andersen, about the state of affairs in our world: “You cannot comply your way our of a tyranny.”
“In the entire history of mankind, there has never been a political elite concerned about the well-being of regular people,” said Andersen.
“And it isn’t any different now,” she stressed. “You cannot comply your way out of a tyranny. It is impossible. Trying to do so, you will only feed a gigantic alligator in the hopes of being eaten last. But guess what? Your turn will come,”
Andersen also warned. “Speak up! … stop complying — start rebelling,” she urged. “In order to deal with this unfree world, to defy this unfree world, I have decided to become so absolutely free that my very existence is an act of rebellion. And that’s what we all need to do.”
Saxx reacts Oliver Anthony Rich men north of Richmond. call this Racist next?
Originally Answered: Have you ever met someone and hated them instantly?
“LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE AND STOP STALKING ME!!!”
Heads immediately turned.
“I-I’m not stalking you…”
“SHUT UP!!!”
People’s eyes widened, and they began staring. Nevertheless, I continued.
“ YES YOU ARE!! I KNOW YOU ARE!!! NOW LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE AND BACK OFF! I AM SO TIRED OF YOU ENDLESSLY FOLLOWING ME AROUND!!”
My vocal cords started to hurt, but nonetheless, I continued screaming at the boy before me, shrieking my desire to be left alone.
At first, he was in my face. Then he was 20 feet away.
But… how did it come to this?
For nearly an entire year, this boy messaged me. Endlessly told me how he wanted to become friends with me, how he wanted to “figure me out,” told me how “we were the same,” he followed me home, taunted me, watched me, became friends with my friends, taunted me with things he supposedly knew about me, told me some personal things he knew about me. He’s slapped one of my friends. He’s dated another one of my friends before even knowing me.
When I first laid eyes on him, I knew something was off. I saw that he was an egotistical maniac.
If you are a fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, you might remember the scene where Jack Sparrow and Will Turner use an upside-down boat to walk underwater and sneak into a fort.
But is this trick actually possible in real life? Or is it just another Hollywood fantasy?
The answer is: no, it is not possible. There are several reasons why this stunt would not work, and here are some of them:
The pressure problem.
Water pressure increases by about 1 atmosphere (atm) for every 10 meters of depth.
This means that the air trapped under the boat would compress as they go deeper, reducing the volume of air available for breathing.
For example, if they started with a boat that had 1 cubic meter of air under it, and they went 10 meters deep, the air would shrink to 0.5 cubic meters.
If they went 20 meters deep, it would shrink to 0.33 cubic meters, and so on. Eventually, they would run out of air or suffocate from carbon dioxide buildup.
The buoyancy problem.
The air under the boat would also make it very buoyant, meaning that it would tend to float up to the surface.
To keep it underwater, they would need to attach heavy weights to the boat, which would make it harder to move and balance. The weights would also add more drag, slowing them down.
The visibility problem.
The water under the boat would be very dark, since the boat would block most of the light from above.
They would not be able to see where they are going or what obstacles they might encounter. They would also have to deal with the turbulence and bubbles created by their movement.
The leakage problem.
The boat would not be perfectly sealed, so water would leak in through the gaps and holes.
This would reduce the amount of air under the boat and increase the weight of the boat. They would also get wet and cold, which could lead to hypothermia.
So, as you can see, walking underwater with an upside down boat is not a feasible idea. It might look cool in a movie, but in reality, it would be a very dangerous and impractical way to travel underwater.
Next time you go to Beijing, go to Tiananmen and visit the area where Mao announced the founding of the People’s Republic. Then go to the ledge and unfurl a banner which says “Down with the Chinese Communist Party” and shout slogans against the Party.
Then jump off the ledge so that you go splat right in front of Mao’s portrait.
Make sure that you have photographers and videographers ready to record your actions before and after you go splat.
When the video goes around, all Chinese will rise up and overthrow the Party, and your name will live in history.
Savory Onion Brisket
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
1 (4 1/2 pound) beef brisket, untrimmed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons pepper
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 cup water
Instructions
Brown brisket in hot oil over high heat for 5 minutes on each side.
Place brisket into a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch pan.
Stir together vinegar and next 6 ingredients. Pour over brisket. Add the water to pan.
Bake, covered at 350 degrees F for 2 hours, basting every hour.
Reduce heat to 300 degrees F and bake 1 more hour.
Skim fat from drippings. discarding fat; serve drippings with brisket.
HE DID IT AGAIN! (OLIVER ANTHONY – I WANT TO GO HOME REACTION)
The Russian, American, British and Ukraine security services likely all wanted him dead. Oh, I forgot to mention the Polish security services, since the Wagner Group is active across the border in Belarus. The French might have also wanted him dead because he was recently in Niger, where the Africans in the Sahel have decided that they have had enough of the French, and Wagner Group has offered assistance.
Probably the only thing they could agree about.
Now they can go back to fighting each other.
Why do I get a say on the USA? Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home (Reaction)
This reactor to the video has some really good things to say about the USA.
The old school Westerns in which the stranger strolls into the saloon and the next minute everybody is brandishing a six iron are just movies.
In reality, few people would walk around with a gun on their hip and shootouts were in fact rare. The idea of the lawless frontier is mostly nonsense.
Most of our perception of the Old West is totally coloured by entertaining fiction like Rawhide and ten-a-penny old Hollywood pictures. It just wasn’t really like that at all, not least because the majority of people weren’t wandering from town to town like Clint Eastwood, or gathering at high noon to risk life and limb in a duel.
I remember as a boy reading a book about the reality of the life of the cowboy, and how dull and uneventful most of it was, because they were herding cattle rather than running around shooting “injuns” or blowing up bank vaults.
In reality, what really tamed the West wasn’t the pistol or rifle, it was barbed wire, for with that came manageable territories and the end of the age of the cattle drive.
DJI Defies Astronomical US Fine, Faces Probe into Drone ‘Critical Tech’!A Battle of Resolve Begun!
A non-drone company (in the USA) is suing a Chinese Drone company. All evidence suggests some pretty underhanded dealings to acquire technology..
English astronomer Sir Patrick Moore pulled one of the biggest April Fools’ hoaxes of all time which fooled the country into thinking they could float.
On April 1 1976, he made an announcement on BBC Radio 2 stating that, at exactly 9:47 a.m., Pluto would pass directly behind Jupiter in relation to the Earth. This would create a noticeable reduction in gravity on Earth itself.
He said that, if people jumped at this exact time, they would be overcome by a ‘strange floating sensation’.
This was known as the ‘Jovian-Plutonian effect’.
I’m no physicist, but in hindsight this is obviously rubbish—yet the public bought the whole thing—and I’m talking hook, line and sinker.
For a lot of people, this sounded completely right and reasonable, despite just how ridiculous it was. And fair enough—it came from a pretty reliable source.
The BBC reported getting a hell of a lot of calls from people all over the country telling them they were having bizarre gravitational experiences.
One woman claimed that she and her friends were sitting and had ‘wafted from their chairs and gently orbited around the room.’
Another woman said that she and her eleven friends were sitting at a table—and soon enough, everyone (and the table) began to ascend.
[3] (Kind of Harry Potter-esque in that scene with the inflation of Marjorie Dursley.)
The reason that Moore performed this hoax was really just to raise awareness of the fact that the whole idea of ‘planetary alignment’ and its effects on Earth are nonsensical.
‘Let us hear no more of this nonsense about the ‘planetary alignment.’ It happens every 170 years or so; nothing spectacular will be seen in the sky; and in the opinion of almost everyone, it can [a]ffect nobody and nothing.’
It’s strange how so many people thought it sounded right—but when it actual fact, it was completely wrong.
I guess a lot of it has to do with the mind—although the phenomenon wasn’t real, in a way people believed in it and so it felt real.
But a clever hoax on the part of Sir Patrick Moore nevertheless.
Gen. Sergei Surovikin, a top Russian general who has been out of public view since the Wagner mercenary rebellion, has now reportedly been dismissed as head of the country’s aerospace forces, Russian state media reported today.
“The ex-Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces of Russia Sergei Surovikin has now been relieved of his post, Colonel General Viktor Afzalov, Chief of the General Staff of the Aerospace Forces, is temporarily acting as Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces,” Russian state news agency RIA reported, citing a single unnamed source.
Russian news outlet RBK and Rybar, a popular Telegram channel close to the country’s defense ministry, reported on Tuesday that Surovikin had been removed from his position. RBK reported, citing unnamed sources “familiar with personnel changes in the defense ministry,” that Surovikin was relieved of his duties due to a “transfer to another job,” and is currently “on a short leave.
The Izvestia newspaper, reported what it said was Surovikin resignation from the post, citing its own unnamed sources.
Alexei Venediktov, former head of the Ekho Moskvy, a prominent independent radio station that was shut down by authorities within days of the Ukraine invasion was the first to report that Surovikin had been dismissed on Tuesday, but said the general was being “retained by the defense ministry.”
My 85-year-old grandfather is still learning to use his Android phone at a slow pace. Every day before lunch, I get a call from him enquiring if I had my food on time.
Grandpa : “Did you eat? If not, shall I bring you some dish?”
Me : “No, thatha(Grandpa in Tamil). I had my lunch an hour back.”
Sometimes, I wouldn’t pick up his call because I know the obvious question. I did not even have the courtesy to return the call because of my mood swings.
One afternoon, he forgot to click on the End call option and so did I. After what must be around 20 seconds, I realized it and checked if he was still on line.
Grandpa (to Grandma) : “Sandhya picked my call! I must have dialled it in the right procedure today. Anyway, she had her lunch. I am yet to check on Savi (my mother).”
Grandma : “You can check after having your lunch. Shall I serve you your food at least now?”
Grandpa : “No no! Let me check on them first. What if either of them forgot to eat.”
Hearing this made me pause for a moment and realize that in this fast paced world where we are all running towards eternity, not many people put you before themselves.
Moreover, he thinks he hasn’t dialled the right number when I don’t pick the calls.
From then on, I never miss his lunch call. Even on my bad days, it is a tiny, but happy reminder that someone remembers me in spite of their own bustling life.
THIS BROKE ME! First Time Hearing Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North of Richmond REACTION
Wasabi-Beer Braised Brisket
Enjoy the heat of wasabi with the complex flavors of beer in this beer-braised brisket, thinly sliced and served on a wheat baguette.
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
1 beef brisket flat half (4 to 4 1/2 pounds)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon peanut or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 medium onions, each cut into 12 wedges
1 bottle (12 ounces) beer
1 bottle (12 ounces) chili sauce
2 teaspoons wasabi paste
Coleslaw (recipe follows)
3 whole wheat baguettes, cut into 10 to 12 pieces (4-1/2 to 5 inches each), split
Instructions
Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
Press garlic evenly onto all surfaces of beef brisket.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat until hot. Place brisket in skillet; brown evenly. Remove brisket from skillet; season with salt and pepper.
Add onions to large stockpot or large baking pan. Place brisket over onions. Stir in beer and chili sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover tightly. Continue cooking in 325 degrees F oven for 3 1/2 to 4 hours or until beef is fork-tender.
Meanwhile, prepare coleslaw.
Remove brisket; keep warm. Skim fat from cooking liquid; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Stir in wasabi paste.
Carve brisket diagonally across the grain into thin slices. Return beef to cooking liquid; keep warm. Divide beef and onions evenly over roll bottoms; close sandwiches. Serve remaining sauce for dipping, if desired. Serve with coleslaw.
Coleslaw: Combine 1/2 cup rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger and 2 teaspoons honey in large bowl. Add 1 package (16 ounces) coleslaw mix and 1 package (8 ounces) shredded red cabbage; toss to coat. Season with salt, if desired.
I think the Xenomorphs don’t wear clothing, and I doubt most people would want to wear the bulky armor of the Predators.
But if you’re asking whether it’s okay to wear another (human) culture’s traditional clothing, my question to you would be: why wouldn’t it be okay?
I recently wrote a very short answer to the question: Which Chinese fashion is still not adopted in Western countries?
I got a few replies, from non-Chinese Quorans, who mentioned that their wearing hanfu might be considered “cultural appropriation”.
Although I haven’t polled every Chinese, I’m pretty confident that the vast majority will consider “cultural appropriation” a load of bunkum.
If my non-Chinese friends were to wear hanfu, I think I’d be busy smiling, unleashing a lot of “wows” and “you look great!” and taking a thousand and one pictures on my phone (and probably on their phones too) rather than spend even one microsecond feeling offended by their wearing hanfu.
I don’t think Chinese are alone in this when it comes to “cultural appropriation”. I believe that people from the vast majority of cultures would feel flattered and genuinely appreciative of your taking an interest in their traditional clothing.
So why not go ahead and don that traditional attire you’ve always wanted to try on?
Here are some pictures of Chinese and non-Chinese wearing hanfu.
Chinese wearing hanfu:
Non-Chinese wearing hanfu:
Oliver Anthony Performs Rich Men North of Richmond for a wild crowd in North Carolina
You predicted their doom before based on complete garbage
You predicted Russia’s doom before based on gutter garbage
Let’s wait and see what happens
China has been predicted to collapse maybe 10,000 times so far based on absolutely zero economics
Maybe this time you will be right?
The point is the Chinese don’t give a damn what you think
They restructure their economy, They use experts and see what can or cannot be done and they do everything within the scope of economic forces
Ultimately neither the Chinese nor anybody else can hide Economic resilience or Economic Doom
Problem is the day you realize you were dead wrong about China for the 10,000th time, you would promptly change the goalpost and move on to something else
Let’s wait and watch
I put money on the Chinese as always
I always liked Efficiency and Ability more than Gas and Propaganda
Let’s see how it goes
Guitar Teacher REACTS: OLIVER ANTHONY – I Want To Go Home
My dad was a coal miner in Yorkshire, UK. He started work aged 14 in 1935 and retired aged 60 in 1981.
Circa 1978 (when I was 15), he complained that somebody kept stealing his Kit Kat chocolate biscuit from his snap tin (sandwich box). This kept happening and he was getting really pissed about it, as much the principle as anything else: Miners didn’t steal from their workmates. Except that one was now doing that. Like most working guys those days, he had his routine. Lunch was a flask of tea, sandwiches and a chocolate biscuit. If somebody steals part of your lunch when you’re down a coal mine for 8 hours, you can’t just nip out to a nearby shop.
I was pissed too when he told me what was going on. He was a nice old guy and I didn’t like anyone doing anything bad to him. Nobody was gonna hurt my dad with impunity. So I had an idea.
Very carefully, I unwrapped a Kit Kat (the two-fingered variety). In the 70′s Kit Kat biscuits had an inner wrapper of aluminium foil and an outer wrapper of paper which you could slip off sideways (not the one-use sealed plasticated-paper wrap like now that you have to tear to open).
Having found a nice fresh soft brown dog turd out on the pavement, I used a knife to fill in the gap between the two fingers, creating a strip of shit maybe four inches long, a quarter inch wide and a quarter inch deep, right down the centre of the bar, where it wouldn’t be obvious. Technique-wise, it was like pointing masonry. Only somewhat smellier. Then I carefully re-wrapped the Kit Kat.
Dad thought it was a great joke and took it with him to work as usual. Halfway through his shift, he heard some guy further down the coalface barfing his guts up and spitting profusely. He couldn’t stop work to find out who it was as he drove a massive coal-cutting machine (known as working “on the chocks”). Sure enough though, come break time, he opened his snap tin to find the Kit Kat gone. That, however, was the last time it ever went missing again.
My dad died of emphysema and pneumoconiosis in 1993, the usual coal miners’ diseases. To his dying day though, he would still fall about laughing when regaling friends with the story of how his son had “put paid” to the Kit Kat thief with a shit sandwich.
Ep. 18 | Alarming Assessment of U.S. Military Decline and Ukraine War Dangers, Col. Douglas McGregor
One of my many contract engineer jobs was at a company that manufactured security doors. My main task during my 6 month contract was to find ways to improve their product and/or save costs. That’s kind of what I do everyplace because… well, that’s what I do.
So, by the time I get hired by a place, they have already gone through the most obvious solutions that they could think of. Generally what’s left, really needs to be found someplace out of the box. I enjoy finding these solutions, when others couldn’t. But there is one particular idea that sticks out as one of my most unconventional, which was a really big success. And it was at this door manufacturer, where it appeared.
One of their issues was that it took too damn long to put a door together along their assembly line, and there were numerous bottlenecks. One of the bottlenecks was at the station, near the end, where the 14″ square security-glass window was installed. Security glass is the glass that has that grid of criss-crossing wire embedded in it. Installing that glass securely, so that it couldn’t be removed from the outside required a complex framework of retainers that were first welded in place to the door, and then needed an additional steel frame that then screwed into the welded frame, holding the glass in place. There was always a terrible log-jam here, what with all the precision welding and screwing. It was ripe for an out of the box idea.
On the first day, it came to me… and it was brilliant, if I do say so myself.
I eliminated everything except the glass. No frames that had to be made, no drilling, no welding, no screwing, no second frame… all that was gone. All we had left was door and square of glass. The new process removed about 20 minutes from each door. That was about 20% of the entire time it took to make a complete door, start to finish.
In place of all the metal frames, welding, drilling and screwing, I used… Velcro!
I Velcro’d those windows in, directly to the door. This was the strongest Velcro that was made. Super Industrial strength. I used permanent glue to glue the “hook” part of the Velcro to the door, and the same glue to attach the corresponding “loop” part of the Velcro all around the edge of the glass, then just pressed them together, and… Bob’s your uncle! Done.
To un-attach one part of the Velcro from the other part, a screwdriver was needed to carefully pry the glass away all around the edge. Took less than a minute, but could only be done from the inside-side of the door. And the Velcro was stronger than the glass itself. Smashing the glass in from the outside would break the glass before it released the Velcro.
Yeah, I’m kinda proud of that one. When I first mentioned it, they all said that was ridiculous. It was a “Security” door, after all. Not a basketball shoe.
What was ridiculous was the ridiculous success of the process. They all gave it their best shot at finding the flaw in the idea. Nope. It held tight no matter what was thrown at it. They’ve since permanently changed how they install their security glass. Your own security door, in fact, may have a Velcro attached window. No hardware at all. No worries, though. It works! Even if you know it’s Velcro, and you’re a potential burglar… it still works.
And with that… my horn-blowing in this article has come to an end. Thank you very much!
Life On The Streets Of China | SHOCKING AMERICANS !
I am a retired British Police Officer and was standing on a crowded train in Italy with my wife. I saw a woman and child enter the carriage. The woman had a large but open empty bag and the child immediately left her side and started mingling with the other standing passengers. I knew what was happening and got ready to pounce. I waited as I wanted to catch them in the act. However, just before I took action my wife shouted, “Attention everyone there is a pickpocket here and she is trying to steal your belongings”.
She had effectively stopped the crime but prevented my intervention. At the next station, we all alighted including the potential thieves. I asked my wife why she had done that and she responded that she knew what I was like and what I would be planning and didn’t want to spend the day in an Italian Police Station making statements when we should be taking in the local culture. Actually, I thought we might have been about to get immersively intertwined with the local culture, but I took her point.
It’s rumored that before John Glenn circled the earth in 1962, NASA engineers slathered the Friendship VII with WD-40 from top to bottom, thinking it would reduce friction upon re-entry. That’s probably not the best example, but the company publishes a PDF on their website (linked below) with roughly 2,000 other uses.
Some highlights:
Removes grime from book covers.
Prevents mud and clay from sticking to shovels and boots.
Removes grease and oil stains on clothes.
Softens new baseball gloves.
Cleans chrome fixtures in bathrooms.
Makes puck slide faster on a hockey table.
Cleans and softens paint brushes.
Cleans and protects cowboy boots.
Removes crayon from walls, carpet, wall-paper, plastics, shoes, toys, chalkboard, monitors, screen doors, and rock walls.
Eases arthritis pain (spray the painful joint.)
Cleans piano keys.
Removes super strong glue from fingers.
Keeps wicker chairs from squeaking.
Removes scuff marks from ceramic floors.
Cleans and protects copper pots and pans.
Polishes and shines sea shells.
Removes water spots from mirrors.
Removes tea stains from counter tops.
Keeps pigeons off window ledges (they hate the smell).
Removes ink from carpet.
Keeps metal wind chimes rust free.
Prevents mildew growth on outdoor fountains.
Removes gunk from plastic dish drainers.
Cleans dog doo from tennis shoes.
Removes tomato stains from clothing.
Gets ink stains out of leather.
Removes roller-skate marks from kitchen floor.
Removes black streaks from RV’s and siding.
Unkinks gold chains.
Penetrates frozen mailbox doors.
Removes tar from shoes.
Cleans silver plates and trays.
Removes soap scum in the bathroom
Polishes wood.
Takes the squeak out of shoes.
Removes a stuck ring from a finger.
Wipes off graffiti.
Removes Silly Putty from carpet.
Loosens burrs, thistles, and stickers from dogs and horses.
Removes bumper stickers from cars.
Removes duct tape.
Working Class Anthem Attacked By Establishment As “QAnon!”
On the 3rd of July, a few years back, I visited an animal shelter. And there in the back room was a little Maine coon kitten that was trying to get my attention. So I went up to it and we bonded strongly. I wanted it right then and there.
But the chick at the front desk was busy with a customer and closing up and told us to come back on the 5th of July (as tomorrow was a holiday). So I said “good bye” to the kitty and promised that I would come back for it.
I kept looking back over my shoulder and the kitty was imploring me “don’t leave. You are my last hope”.
And then on the 5th of July I came early, ready to get the kitty. I waited in the parking lost one hour early and just sat there listening to music.
Eventually they “opened up”.
And it was too late. They put the kitty down the day before.
…
I was too late.
When an opportunity occurs DO NOT TRUST IN SOMEONE ELSE, stand your ground and take action.
I should have just got the kitty then and there, and told them that I would come back in a day or two to do the paperwork.
“When I asked my 11-year-old son to help me unload dirt from our small pickup into his mother’s new garden boxes, his reaction was typical.
“Ummmm… I’m busy right now,” He said.
He was playing Roblock on the family laptop, wearing sweat pants and an old T-shirt, lounging on the sofa, feet on the coffee table.
“No you’re not,” I said.
There was a fight, moaning, excuses… the usual.
Moments later, we were next to a wheelbarrow shoveling dirt. He looked at me with flat eyes, his hood up, shoulders slumped, and said, “Why do we have to do this?”
I thought for a moment, because I’ll admit, it was a valid question. Neither of us were all that into flowers or vegetables, or any of the things that would be grown in those garden boxes. But my wife, Mel, loves gardening.
I thought, and he waited, and finally I said, “When you love someone, you serve them.”
I went on, telling him that I want him to grow up to be the kind of man who serves his family, friends, and community.
“This” I said while gesturing to the dirt, and the garden boxes I built the weekend before, and the wheelbarrow and shovel, and the first of many truckloads of dirt we would unload over the next few weeks, “Is what love looks like.”
He didn’t like my answer. I could see it in the way he reluctantly picked his shovel back up.
We finished unloading the dirt. The next day, while I was at work, and the kids and Mel had the day off because it was between terms, Mel sent me this picture. Mel picked up another load of dirt and before she had a chance to unload it, Tristan voluntarily started working. When she asked him “why,” he shrugged and said, “Because I love you.”
I’d never been prouder of my son.”
TEES
After the accident, she was left on the side of the road, no one stopped the car to help her!
An Englishman, taking a road trip through the US, notices he’s low on fuel, pulls into the first gas station he sees. The attendant walks out and approaches the car.
“How can I help you, sir?”
And in a posh voice, the man says, “I’m low on petrol; please top off the tank.”
With an odd look, the guy begins to fill ’er up.
The Englishman then says, “Also, while I’m here could you open the bonnet and check the oil?”
Now looking slightly peeved but still saying nothing, the serviceman does as requested.
“Oh, yes,” says the Brit, “It appears my windscreen needs a good cleaning. Would you mind terribly-”
Unable to hold his tongue any more the attendant angrily snaps, “Alright, that’s enough! It’s not Petrol, it’s gasoline! It’s not a bonnet, it’s a hood! And it’s not a windscreen, it’s a windshield! We invented cars, so you call them by their American names!”
And with that wonderful, charming, stiff-upper-lip UK wit, the Englishman calmly replies, “Well yes, my friend, you may have invented the automobile, but we invented the language!”
How Elites Will Create a New Class of Slaves | Whitney Webb | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Journalist Whitney Webb has worked to uncover some of the most dangerous stories of our lifetime, and she joins Glenn to reveal just how eye-opening it’s been. Her new two-volume book, “One Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein,” examines Epstein’s elaborate network of corruption and power, from Bill Clinton to Ghislaine Maxwell and many more. Her research into transhumanism has given her a terrifying perspective on the World Economic Forum and tech elites, including Elon Musk. And she tells Glenn the dark truth about Biden’s push for electric vehicles that she noticed while living in Chile.
Few days ago, a very significant incident made headlines. Jacinda Ardern resigned as the Prime Minister of New Zealand. She strongly performed the role of PM for 5 years. Her reason for the resignation was simple – “I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple.”
Jacinda Ardern:
“I’m leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility – the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. I am human, politicians are human. We give all that we can for as long as we can. And then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.”
However, amidst all this, BBC came up with a very se*ist headline and an article to share the news with the world. It read, “Jacinda Ardern resigns: Can women really have it all?”
Saddened to see such a reductive, se*ist and inaccurate headline from the BBC World. This is so regressive and misogynist…The 1950s came by and picked up their headline.
This is absurd misogyny from BBC. Boris Johnson was ousted in a whirlwind of scandal & failure but BBC humanized him for the pain he felt. 🤔.
Jacinda Ardern gracefully led New Zealand through historic upheavals & leaves on her terms but BBC repeatedly dismisses her as a failure & quitter. 🤦♂️
An embarrassing day for the media. What a disrespectful way to celebrate a refreshingly phenomenal leader like Jacinda Arden.
I’m not sure if I would say it failed. But it was a very awesome piece of gear that for various reasons (namely budget, and politics) was cancelled. Full disclaimer: at one point I worked with the company that made this, and have seen and held parts of this system.
The Xm-25 CDTE. It shoots programmable 25mm grenades.
Imagine a typical firefight scenario. Both sides end up behind cover, trying to deal with each other. Perhaps a heavy machine gun is mounted up in a window behind sandbags, etc. Maneuvering around and neutralizing the threat is dangerous and time consuming. But what if you had a grenade rifle that could precisely detonate a round just over their heads? Then you could aim just above the MG nest, pop of a shot, and those unlucky bastards would be no more. Firefight over in a minute. No need to call in artillery or air support!
The way this works is that scope has a rangefinder and a computer, and it can program the round to explode at the lazed distance, or before or after that distance in (I think) 1–3m increments. So, in the above example, you laze the sandbags or the side of the building, set the burst just after that distance, and fire. It’s very clever engineering to fit all that capability onto an electronics coin inside a 25mm casing. Unlike traditional grenade launchers, this one shoots a much flatter trajectory; and the range is 600–700m instead of 300ish. The Army was always pushing for more and more range.
When field tested, it apparently developed quite a reputation amongst insurgents, who would sometimes flee when they realized the US squad had one with them. I only heard glowing praise about the 2010 field tests. Being able to neutralize cover with a weapon like this is literally game-changing.
However, the project was ultimately cancelled in 2018. The ‘official’ reason always cites a particular misfire in 2013, although internal sources indicated it was more of a political fight over competing budget priorities. The misfire was only the propellant and not the charge itself. resulting in minimal injury; and, try as ATK did, they could not figure out what this particular soldier did to cause it. (Read: he almost certainly fucked up and did something he wasn’t supposed to, like a double feed.) This is the only incident of a misfire.
I think the other headwind is that current US squad tactics and organization don’t really have a good way to incorporate a system like this. Who wants to carry around a 14lb weapon and give up his rifle? They were patrolling around afghanistan, not taking Berlin. It is, however, a very outstanding little system. If I recall one particular conversation correctly, I believe the round can even punch through some wooden doors and explode on the other side. How’s that for breaching?
There were also problems with HK, who made the frame of the rifle itself, being a poor partner and failing to deliver on time. (This also angered program managers.)
The good news is that fitting this tech onto a 25mm grenade is the hard part. I can promise you that the same technology will find its way into a 40mm grenade system at some point. Imagine being able to lay precision, long range airbursts across a battlefield with one of these:
Automatic grenade sniper rifle, anyone?
Men Are Refusing To Help Women and They are Panicking They don’t Know Why
Greek Style Skillet Supper
For a taste of Greece, this one-dish complete meal is sure to be a hit. Feta cheese accents the authentic flavor.
Prep: 5 min | Cook: 25 min | Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons McCormick® Oregano Leaves
1 teaspoon McCormick® Cinnamon, Ground
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Garlic Powder
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can reduced sodium beef broth
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups uncooked penne pasta
1 1/2 cups frozen leaf spinach, thawed
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, divided
Instructions
Cook ground beef and onion in large skillet on medium-high heat until beef is no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Drain fat. Add oregano, cinnamon and garlic powder; mix well.
Stir in broth, tomatoes and tomato paste. Bring to boil. Stir in pasta. Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook 10 minutes or until pasta is nearly tender.
Stir in spinach and 1/2 cup of the feta cheese. Cover. Cook 5 minutes longer or until pasta is tender.
Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup feta cheese. Cover. Let stand for 5 minutes.
Western Nations BANNED from Joining BRICS if they Apply “Sanctions”
Western countries do not have a chance of joining the BRICS group of emerging economies as long as they pursue hostile policies against Moscow, says the Russian deputy foreign minister.
Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that the “most important criterion” for membership was the “non-application by a potential BRICS participant of illegal sanctions against any member of the association.”
“All the countries who have been invited to join BRICS undoubtedly meet this requirement.
As for Westerners, all of them as a group and each individual [Western] member pursue exactly the opposite line and thus inviting anyone from that group to join BRICS or even attend its events is out of the question. This is absolutely ruled out. And we will continue pursuing this course.”
If any Western state finds BRICS membership an attractive idea, and refrains from the sanctions policy against any BRICS member and applies to join, such an application will be considered.
“There is no other way.”
TSMC Engages in Another Showdown with the US,Tensions Escalate.
According to Taiwanese media reports on August 2nd, TSMC stated that the production delay at its Arizona factory was due to a lack of skilled American labor, and they have dispatched personnel from Taiwan to support the construction of the factory. However, labor union leaders in Arizona criticized TSMC, stating that it was using this as an excuse to introduce “low-wage foreign labor.”
Jerome (not real name) was a new worker with a big mouth. He was 28 years old at the time, quite older than most of the guys he worked with like myself yet he acted, at best, like a spoilt 15 year old.
He was always talking. He always had an opinion about something. He always had to question even the most simple orders and instructions. He believed himself to be the most intelligent person to ever walk the floor of the warehouse and always spoke at length of all the flaws he saw in our system and what he would do to fix the business if he were in charge.
Our job was simple: a retail store wants products that we have, we go out with our grocery carts, pallet jacks, forklifts etc, get the products and have them packaged and ready for delivery in the morning.
Not Jerome.
Jerome’s job was to distact you from what you were doing to talk shit about the company and how the money wasn’t worth it. He would quote some nonexisting OSHA law that the company wasn’t complying with and how he could sue the company if he wanted to. He would discuss his harebrained, get rich quick schemes that he never had to guts to actually attempt. He bragged about his family in the US waiting for him and how he didn’t need to work himself like a slave for chump change like we did.
At any given day he probably put out 20% of the output of the average worker. He was on a six month probationary period of which it would be decided whether he would be contracted as a permanent worker, given extended probation or let go. No one expected him to be permanently hired. Everyone basically tried to tolerate him for the six month probationary period as best as they could.
However he started taking his shenanigans to the next level.
He started making the (typically secluded) shampoos lane in the back warehouse his secret hideout. The lane was quiet, had no cameras and far away from our superiors’ field of vision. He decided to set up a makeshift man-cave behind a pallet of Tresemmé 2 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner. There he would smoke, talk shit with the rare, harmless worker who came by for shampoos and he would watch rap music videos on his cell phone.
At the month’s end all warehouse workers were allowed to take from the damaged products. We had our own system of fairness whereby we rotated each worker to get a chance to get first pick among the damages.
Jerome couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the system. During the third month of his employ it was observed that practically all of the best damaged goods had gone missing. A co-worker and myself smelt a rat in Jerome and we went to his man cave while he was on lunch and saw the damages were there hidden in boxes.
We reported it to the supervisor who came and saw it. He held an emergency meeting and asked for the person who put those damaged goods in the back to come forward. Everyone eyed Jerome angrily but he remained silent. The supervisor reported the matter to the manager who reported it to the company owner and she immediately put a stop to the free damages giveaway.
Now the anger towards Jerome had turned into a bloodlust. However the more angry everyone got the more lazy and defiant Jerome became. He was smart enough to abandon his man-cave after his attempted theft but he still spent more than half his working day loitering and talking shit.
Every year the company paid for the company staff to have a party, usually at a classy sports bar or a nightclub. We all looked forward to it including Jerome who discussed at length his intention to get drunk off of free premium drinks and score with one of the pretty head office girls. However, one fateful afternoon the owner of the store had an impromptu meeting with everyone in the warehouse.
She explained that the company decided to change the format of the staff party. She explained that it was expensive and inefficient having this party every year when too many employees ran up a bill drinking premium drinks all night and then not being able to come to work the following day. She gave the disappointing news that this time the party would be held at 12pm — 7pm the upcoming Sunday.
Jerome released a snorting laugh while she spoke. Everyone in the warehouse went dead silent. No one had ever dared interrupt the owner, far less mock her.
‘Excuse me,’ she said, ‘Is there something amusing?’
‘Nobody ever heard of a party 12 o clock in the afternoon,’ Jerome said in his spoilt 15 year old voice.
‘I’ve been to many parties 12 o clock in the afternoon’ she replied.
‘Yeah, birthday parties for kids’ Jerome said smugly and looked about for someone to laugh but found only silence.
The owner asked Jerome his name and how long he worked in the warehouse. Afterwards she continued her talk uninterrupted but after the meeting was dismissed she, the manager and Jerome went into an office for a talk. Some minutes later Jerome was seen leaving the compound, he was terminated from the job.
Sad thing for Jerome was the owner apparently thought over what he said about the party and changed her mind about it. We were allowed to have our traditional, late into the night, party albeit minus the free premium drinks.
We had a great time dancing the night away and toasting Jerome whose big mouth finally done some good for a change.
MY SOUL!!! | Oliver Anthony – “I WANT TO GO HOME” | Reaction
Nissan. I bought a brand new Nissan Truck with a supercharger. The supercharger crapped out at 12,000 miles. They had to fix it because it was under warranty. The mechanic at the dealer told me they were all failing due to a manufacturer’s defect which was widely known in the company. I drove the truck a couple more years and the supercharger crapped out again, this time just about 200 miles beyond the end of the warranty. At about the same time, my son’s identical Nissan truck also lost its supercharger at 18,000 miles. I wound up talking to a factory representative. I asked him if they would split the $1,800 bill since it was a factory defect. He said no because Nissan just couldn’t afford to pay for all those repairs.
I later bought a Toyota truck which lost a head gasket. Toyota fixed it for free outside of the warranty period. They said that their engineering and design philosophy was that a head gasket should last at least 200,000 miles.
I have made a point to tell this story at least 100 times over the years. I know I have talked at least 20 people out of buying a Nissan.
In terms of uniqueness, it’s hard to find a canine species that rivals the short-eared dog. Genetically, it is very distinct from other living members of the canid family, and indeed in many ways it is more like a cat than a dog!
It is found only within the dense and dark jungles of the Amazon Basin in South America. Such densely forested habitats are unusual for canines, other than the bush dog, which I’ll mention later. What’s more, it is an extremely shy and reclusive creature, leading a solitary nocturnal lifestyle. All of the characteristics above are more typical of felines, interestingly.
Where the short-eared dog differs from your average cat is its affinity for water. As vast swathes of its Amazonian habitat are swampy or regularly flooded, it is well-adapted for a semi-aquatic world. Its feet are webbed, with membranes of skin stretching between the toes, which makes it an excellent swimmer. Much of its diet is actually represented by fish, crabs, frogs and the like. The dog makes short work of these slippery customers with its impressive set of cuspid teeth (another rather cat-like feature).
As canid species go, the short-eared dog takes an exceptionally long time to reach sexual maturity. They cannot reproduce until the age of three, something we discovered relatively recently. Before it was known that it’s a bit of a late bloomer, one expert jokingly suggested it should be renamed the “small-balled dog”!
When they eventually do achieve sexual maturity, males get to work in the hopes of attracting a female (uniquely, the females are much bigger than the males!). They spray a strong-smelling musk secreted by the tail glands, and produce mating calls all through the night. These vocalisations are bizarre and haunting, sounding like those of owls!
During the day, they take shelter, usually dwelling inside burrows and tunnels dug by giant armadillos, after they’ve been vacated by the original owner. Short-eared dogs’ nocturnal lifestyle, in addition to their impenetrable habitat and shy evasive nature, means that they are still shrouded in mystery. They are rarely photographed in the wild – indeed, all the pictures above are of an individual called Oso, who was raised by humans since puppyhood (hence the collar). He’s taught us much of what we know about the species.
As such, we still have much more to learn about short-eared dogs. I, for one, am very curious to know more about how they interact with the only other wild canine species found in the Amazon Rainforest – the bush dog. This comically short and stubby little pupper lives in packs of up to twelve individuals, which specialise in hunting giant rodents such as capybaras and pacas. I’m sure the two species cross paths at times – what a fascinating interaction that would be.
I eagerly await all the new short-eared dog discoveries that are sure to be ahead! In the meantime, this has been everything you need to know about this underappreciated and handsome creature. I hope you liked the answer, thank you for reading! And have an amazing day.
I failed out of college.
Not MM, mind you. -MM
I ended the 2nd semester of my freshman year with a 0.9 GPA.
You read that right: a 0.9 GPA
When the school year ended, my parents drove four hours to campus to help clean out my dorm room and take me home.
During the ride home I remember staring out the car window in complete silence the entire four hours.
I was devastated. I had no idea what I was going to do.
My parents were upset.
They were disappointed.
They didn’t have anything to say.
Neither did I.
Their disappointment was nothing compared to the numbness I felt. I was far more disappointed in myself than they ever could be. It was completely my fault and I knew it.
I struggled all through high school, so it was no surprise I struggled the way I did when I started college.
I was terrible at taking tests. I had such a difficult time studying. I have no idea why. It was something I lived with that I cannot explain.
In grade school I had special tutors to help with my test-taking anxiety. I can’t say it helped much.
As I finished my final year of high school, I did not know if I would get in to college. I only applied to one college.
I was accepted to attend the only college I applied to.
And now I failed out of the only college I applied to.
I struggled all through Freshman year of college until it got to a point where I felt I had no chance of success. My grades were terrible. So, I did not show up for any of my final exams. There was no way I could study well enough to get passing grades on my finals.
I gave up.
During the four hour drive home, I became painfully aware that I could have done better. I didn’t bother searching for an excuse to justify the horrible mistake I made.
I had to figure out a Plan B.
Not even a week passed after moving back home with my parents before I started piecing together a plan.
Even though I ‘failed’ as far as the university was concerned, I knew I was not a failure. I certainly did not feel like one.
I dug myself into a very deep hole and I knew it was up to me to pull myself out.
I had to figure out how to approach life differently. I wasn’t doing it right. And it felt horrible.
I knew I had to try again.
The problem was, since my GPA was so poor, I got suspended from attending that college.
I called the admissions office and asked how I could come back to earn my degree. They told me I needed to go to a community college for a year and earn a 3.0 GPA, then I could reapply to be accepted back.
My entire experience of life changed from that point on. I was never the same again.
All of a sudden I had a goal to accomplish. I never set ambitious goals for myself prior to that moment. I was social and active and participated in sports, but I was mostly just showing up. I never associated much of a purpose or goal with anything I was doing.
I now had a goal, fueled by an intense desire to accomplish that goal.
I did what the admissions office told me to do. I got a job. I took courses at the community college. I accomplished the GPA they required.
A year after failing, I reapplied and was admitted back in to the same college so I could finish my degree.
By the time I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree, I was getting grades that earned me a spot on the Dean’s List several semesters in a row.
Why was failing out of college the best mistake I ever made?
This mistake was a wake-up call that helped me discover what I am capable of.
I experienced what it feels like to recover from a major failure.
I shifted my mindset to one that is fueled with purpose.
I discovered the power of setting ambitious goals that are created from my own desire to accomplish those goals.
And most importantly: I remember feeling as though my entire life was over during that silent four hour drive home with my parents. The reality was, this failure ended up being a mere bump in the road. It was quite a rough bump at the time but it did not ruin me. I learned that our failures do not define who we are.
I Want To Go Home ( REACTION ) Something SPECIAL is Happening Here…
Originally Answered: What does it feel like to be secretly rich?
Around strangers, it’s easy. Around friends and neighbors, its work.
Most people in the United States have at least one of my products in their home, and would instantly recognize the company, but they wouldn’t know me. There’s never a random “hey, aren’t you the CEO of…” on the street, or checking into a hotel, so that part is fairly easy.
On the flip side, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping things on the down low among friends. I personally bring home about $4 million a year, but I’m not really into displays of wealth – not because I’m actively hiding anything, I just think most of that stuff is kind of tacky and isn’t interesting.
Our house isn’t over the top. It’s larger than average, but we also have three kids so that’s expected. It does sit on 60 acres, but we tell people only five of those acres are ours. We have a couple of cars (her primary, my primary, a truck, and a couple of classics in the garage) but all are American made and none newer than five years old. Both of the classics are actually pretty rare cars which would fetch over $100k a piece if I ever sold them, but since I’m also known for being kind of a gear head and did a lot of work on it myself, everyone just assumes they were once junkers I brought back from the dead or aren’t all original parts.
This part is pretty easy since there visibly aren’t too many cues that would tip someone off. Everything was paid for with cash, including the house, but realistically outside of the land value, someone making $150k-200k could afford all of the same stuff if they financed/mortgaged it.
The main difficulty is trying to relate and being careful what I say. Most of our friends are in that $150–200k range, but they’re in debt up to their eyeballs to maintain their lifestyles. They’re driving new leased Mercedes and BMW’s and probably think they’re doing better than I am financially – which is fine by me.
Its just little things I have to watch out for. A buddy invited me to bring one of the classics to a car show he was going to once, but I declined and said it acting up and I needed to work on it. I left the hood up for a week in case he came over. Really I just didn’t want the attention – someone there would have recognized it for what it was. Occasionally when someone notices how much land surrounds my house, I’ll say something like I hope the owner never decides to build on it. Before we take a family trip, I will mention that I’m saving up for it a couple months prior, when really we could just go. I also own property in other states that no one knows about – one of them is a place along a river in Tennessee and a few of us are going down there next month to witness the eclipse. They think it’s just a place I rented for the weekend.
Honestly, I don’t like the deception – these are good friends, but seeing how they all are with their money and how they regard it, I don’t want them to know the truth. I hear about all of their money problems and how they talk about other people who are better off than they are, and there’s a lot of disdain and jealously there. it’s just not worth the hassle. The problem is I think most of the people I’ve met in my own income bracket and higher are pretentious douchebags, so I don’t really want to hang out with them either.
My life doesn’t revolve around money, and that isn’t the case for most of the people I’ve met with an income over $1 million, so I don’t really relate to them. I would rather vacation to a rustic cabin in the woods than some flashy five star resort.
Chili-Stuffed Potato Skins
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
4 large baking potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced jarred jalapeno peppers
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1 (14 ounce) can refried beans
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup milk
Instructions
Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Wash and dry the potatoes, then pierce each several times with a fork. Microwave on HIGH for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until cooked through. Timing varies by microwave.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the olive oil, garlic, onion and jalapenos. Sauté until the onion just begins to get tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the ground beef and sauté until browned, about another 5 minutes.
Add the crushed tomatoes and refried beans, then mix well and reduce heat to low. Bring to a simmer, season with salt and pepper, then cover and reduce heat to just keep warm.
Carefully cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, then use a spoon to scoop out the insides and place them in a large bowl. Leave about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of potato all around the skin. Arrange the potato skins on a baking sheet. Set aside.
To the bowl of potatoes, add 1 cup of the Cheddar cheese, the ricotta and milk. Mix well, then season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Fill the potato skins almost to overflowing with the meat-and-bean mixture. Carefully spoon a bit of the potato-and-cheese mixture over the meat. Sprinkle each with some of the remaining Cheddar.
Bake until the cheese melts and the mashed-potato topping just begins to brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.
Jordan Peterson Tells the TRUTH about ALIENATED Young Men – (Better Audio Quality)
This is STUNNINGLY great!
It’s Official: “BRICS” Adds Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, and UAE; Will Control 80% of Global Oil
It’s Official: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will become full members of BRICS on January 1st 2024. All totaled, BRICS nations will control eighty percent (80%) of Global Oil and Gas production.The map below lays out what the newly enlarged BRICS will look like:
Cutting right to the chase, it should be stated that “The-Powers-That-Be (TPTB) cannot survive this without World War 3.”
If the current globalist cabal stands back and does nothing as this new Commerce Alliance comes to life, then on January 1, 2024, they may wake up to find that no one in any of the countries shown above, will accept the U.S. Dollar or the EURO as payment for trade in goods and services anymore, because both the Dollar and the EURO are backed by nothing.
They may find that no one around the world is willing to sell oil in US Dollars anymore, and could demand that we convert OUR currency to some other currency to buy oil.
The way the Biden Regime has curtailed our own oil and gas production, we would see shortages and price increases the likes of which has never been seen before.
Since we in the United States do not manufacture much of anything here anymore – because CORPORATE IMBECILES shipped all our manufacturing jobs overseas– we could see our ability to buy things for import-severely curtailed as well.
Let’s not forget Economic Sanctions. It was the excessive and arbitrary use of economic sanctions by the US, which spurred countries around the world to seek out – and now CREATE — some other means for settling international trade because they got tired of the US imposing Sanctions and forbidding the use of the US Dollar by countries under sanction.
Now that BRICS is creating its own Gold-Backed currency for settlement of international trade debts, the US won’t have any clout anymore because it won’t be able to sanction pretty much anybody. The US Government will be toothless on economic sanctions . . . but the rest of the world will not.
What if the rest of the world decides it is “Pay Back Time” for the US? What if THEY impose economic Sanctions upon us?????? The new BRICS organization and its coming currency could make that a reality.
All these facts make clear that the Powers-That-Be simply cannot allow this BRICS to go any further or TPTB will lose their grip on controlling the world. Some of TPTB are such ego-maniacs, they would rather burn the entire world to the ground rather than lose control over it.
Thus, it seems logical to me, that World War 3 is coming before the end of this year. Perhaps a lot sooner than that.
Too many things to name here, certainly. But I’ll narrow it down just to 2.
In Middle school, I got sick. Started falling all the time, couldn’t smile, could barely keep my eyes open and double-vision exhausted me trying to see the board and read, hands couldn’t write long, got brain fog and couldn’t remember anything etc. I was in and out of the hospital… diagnosed with anything from ‘imminent death’ to ‘attention seeking’. I missed A LOT of school.
After I was finally diagnosed a couple of years later, I was definitely in danger of failing. Had a thymectomy, which at that time required cracking open my sternum, and definitely couldn’t go back to school for awhile, but was feeling mentally better on my new meds.
Mrs. Howard, who had been my homeroom teacher the prior year, came to my house to bring me school work and tutor me, and administer me quizzes, so I wouldn’t get too far behind. I ended up passing my classes and was able to proceed to high school with the rest of my classmates.
We were poor. Like wringer washer and rotary dial phone (in the 90s) poor.
I wanted to take Home Ec and Shop, but we couldn’t afford the class fees. I ended up taking a couple of design courses. Web Design and Drafting. My hands still got weak pretty easily, and I was left handed (the drafting machines on the desks were only for right-handed people), so I got to use AutoCAD most of the time.
I ended up in Drafting classes for 3 1/2 years, and competed in regional and state for VICA (vocational industrial clubs of America) and the IDEA (Illinois Drafting Educators Association).
Turns out? Those classes and competitions had fees, too. My instructor, Pete Tucker, paid my fees. He also wrote me a glowing recommendation later for college.
When I was 19, I interviewed for my first drafting internship, and that 3 month internship lasted 13 1/2 years. I became a cad manager, then programmer, then solutions architect for facilities software, and had a side career as a technical editor and author, teaching others how to use AutoCAD and similar programs.
A few years ago, I looked him up on Facebook and thanked him for giving me an entry into a career that lifted me out of poverty, provided me with insurance coverage for my disability (fun fact, if you managed to live 5 years without treatment, you got to lie and say you didn’t have a pre-existing condition) and allowed me to raise my kids with everything I’d never had (both of them can use AutoCAD, too 😉 ).
COUNTRY GOSPEL! Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home | REACTION Video
Our first child was not toilet trainable. We took her to doctor after doctor from age 3 to 6, eventually carrying an x-ray made by the local radiologist. Everyone agreed that poor parenting skills were the problem, though some added that our lovely daughter, who had a BM only when standing or lying down, really enjoyed tormenting us.
One of the last doctors said, “If she were my kid, I’d lock her in the bathroom until she did it on the toilet!”
A few weeks later, a surgeon hundreds of miles from home held up that x-ray and said, “She has a birth defect.” Her lower intestine was positioned in a way that made a BM impossible unless her body was absolutely straight, NOT sitting on a toilet. Surgery fixed that. Thank you, Dr. Hardy Hendren, and RIP.
Jason Aldean – Try That In A Small Town (Official Music Video)
I would have never even heard of this song if people hadn’t been upset about it.
Some of them are a clever twist based on an underlying Chinese phrase.
For example, on the T-shirt, the Chinese characters read:
已读不回
Literal translation would be “Have Read, Not Replied”.
The context here is that this is a common behavior on instant messaging apps – the receiver (of the instant message) has left the sender (of the instant message) on Read or Seen: they’ve read/seen the instant message, but haven’t replied.
This is a common course of action for some girls who start getting a lot of instant messages from guys trying to woo them but to whom they feel no affection for.
Rather than outright telling her pursuer that his romantic overtures are unwelcome, she leaves him on read/seen and doesn’t reply his messages.
In this way, she hopes that he gets the hint and finally stops sending all those silly little messages.
She’s “seen” all his instant messages but never bothered replying any of them.
So, this girl, she is a “Seenderella”.
It’s a clever twist on Cinderella.
Clever and funny.
Well, to me anyway 😀 I am easily amused 😀
If you only saw “Seenderella” on the T-shirt, you might be going “Huh?”
But with the Chinese characters right there next to it, if you know how to read Chinese, the twist becomes immediately obvious.
Grammy Member Reacts to Oliver Anthony’s I want to go home
Hitting too close to home.
Final Report
In January 1969, the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency released Volume 1 of its “Final Report” on a field test involving the “Demonstrated Destruction of Nuclear Weapons.” The field test’s purpose, the publication’s abstract states, was to “develop and test inspection procedures to monitor the demonstrated destruction of nuclear weapons.” In addition, a goal of the test was to determine the extent to which the “proposed method of demonstrating destruction” would expose classified weapon information. The test included 40 actual nukes and 32 fake weapons.
As a result of the test, it was concluded that the proposed destruction techniques could, indeed, reveal classified information about the weapons’ design. However, by masking some of the weapons’ features and limiting inspectors’ visual examinations of the weapons, such disclosures could be prevented.
The inspectors’ poor ability to distinguish between bona fide and fake nukes might also conceal classified information, as could “evasion schemes,” suggesting that less U-235 was being used than was actually the case. The field tests suggested that, overall, the inspection procedures were reasonably secure but resulted in several recommendations for the conduct of such inspections.
I would definitely recommend you stop consuming any type of seafood imported from Japan, and be cautious towards seafood from Alaska, the Canadian west, South Korea, the Pacific islands, and eastern China.
Two reasons:
The United States has been buying less Japanese seafood “Listen to a man’s words but observe his deeds”, as the Chinese idiom goes. While the US has shown public support at the government level for Japan’s discharge of radioactive wastewater[1] , in the first six months of 2023 alone, they have actually drastically reduced the amount of surimi (fish paste), scallops and sake imported from Japan[2], amounting to up to 8.3 billion Yen. This was before Japan officially admitted they were releasing the wastewater by the way.
It would be interesting to see whether the Americans, post 24 Aug, would put their money where their mouth is, and start importing more Japanese aquacultural and agricultural products than ever before, perhaps as a show of solidarity with fellow neoliberal democracies.
The more likely scenario, however, is that the US would cite concerns with radiation pollution but ban Chinese seafood instead. Feel free to check back in a few months.
Even the Japanese themselves won’t eat their own seafood The release of the tainted radioactive water began only a couple of days ago, but already there are reports all over Japan that local consumers are steering clear of not just Fukushima seafood, but all kinds of local seafood [3]. Even people in Japan know better than to trust their government and Tokyo Electric – a company so ruthless and dishonest [4], it turned an INES level 3 incident into a level 7, same level as Chernobyl, and is now solely in charge of monitoring its own wastewater discharge.
Imagine that, a nuclear power company that caused the disaster to begin with, is now put wholly in charge of the discharge operation, and every statistic the company reports is treated as gospel truth by the local government. We have truly reached peak cyberpunk, ladies and gentlemen.
Moreover, the Japanese fishing industry has been protesting the government’s decision to release the tainted water for years [5]. Such an irresponsible move, as they have rightly predicted, would effectively destroy the prestigious brand and reputation of Japanese seafood, and is likely to affect other Japanese products such as agricultural products in the near future.
Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home Fiddle player REACTS WITH FIDDLE!!
Oskar Groning was what nobody wants to be, a guard at Auschwitz. His primary job was sorting and valuables new arrivals turned over. A big source of income for the Third Reich was the valuables prisoners handed over.
When the war ended Oskar wasn’t brought up on charges. He was captured before the war ended, did some time in a British POW camp, and when the war ended he went home to his wife.
Upon seeing his wife again she asked about his experiences and he said “Girl, do both of us a favour: don’t ask” and she left it there. One day a while later someone made an offhand joke that Oskar could actually be a killer given his time at Auschwitz. He banged on the table and demanded that nobody ever mention Auschwitz again or he would leave.
Oskar wanted to put what he had done behind him. He was a devout Nazi, an Auschwitz camp guard no less, and he wanted this to remain a secret.
Oskar got a job at a glass factory and worked his way up into a management role. He worked there for decades and lived a very normal life. Oskar collected stamps and was even a judge.
In 1985 Oskar met a Holocaust denier and was given a pamphlet on Holocaust denial. Shocked that such a thing exists, Oskar came forward to dispute it. He made multiple statements and gave a full account of what he had seen.
I saw everything. The gas chambers, the cremations, the selection process. One and a half million Jews were murdered in Auschwitz. I was there.
I would like you to believe me. I saw the gas chambers. I saw the crematoria. I saw the open fires. I would like you to believe that these atrocities happened, because I was there
(letters/calls) From people who tried to prove that what I had seen with my own eyes, what I had experienced in Auschwitz was a big, big mistake, a big hallucination on my part because it hadn’t happened.”
Now Oskar was put on trial for this and found guilty. It mattered little as he died a few years later at the age of 93.
But this shows you what Nazis think about Holocaust deniers- they think deniers are idiots.
I’m a school bus driver. I drove students in a VERY nice school district. If you were looking for kids to be the illustration of white privilege, these were the ones. (These were kids who got hoverboards from the tooth fairy.) Every single morning and afternoon, these kids, with much more expensive clothes than I have, would thank me for driving them. When parents would meet the kids at the bus, they would tell the kids “make sure you say thank you.” These people weren’t upper class simply from money, but from having habits and attitudes to make them better people in life. Behavior problems were rare.
PEPE ESCOBAR AND MICHAEL HUDSON JOIN ON BRICS PLUS SIX, UKRAINE, AND THE MULTIPOLAR WORLD ECONOMY!
Let’s continue on some Geo-political stuff. We are in the middle of a global “turning” which is centered in the United States.
I am optimistic, though the entire world is spinning, and spinning.
When things seem to be really hard, and my emotions are crushed, I calm myself by remembering two things…
[1] A very bleak and bad time that I went though.
Followed by…
[2] A wonderful and happy time that I experienced right after it.
The world operates in cycles, so please do not get too caught up in all the many, many things going on. It’s like scenery out the window. Just watch it go by.
And spend some time relaxing with friends and family.
…
One thing that I like to do when I am stressed is watch cat videos.
Another thing is go on Pinterest and look at “food porn”.
FUN FACT: when I had pictures of food on my desktop, I was a much more relaxed person. However, for some reason, I seemed to start taking on a lot of weight. Who’d figure, eh?
Moving on and getting a much better job where my passion, skills, ethics, knowledge, fortitude, and integrity are appreciated.
My first job as a chief of police sent me to NE Colorado to a police department that had been neglected by their previous chief for nearly two years. Chief’s wife got a job in WY and Chief couldn’t stand being apart from her. He decided to live in his RV in one of the city parks for three nights a week. He would come to town…work 40ish hours as quickly as he could in three or maybe four days…and leave to go back to WY to be with wifey. Big issue is that he’d rarely answer phone calls from his employees and they didn’t get the help they needed. EVENTUALLY, the city council got tired of hearing the noise and let the chief go.
I was lucky enough to be hired. I was crazy enough to want to go into the chief business and thus, took a job at the first place crazy/wise enough to hire me. I went from nearly $90k a year to $55k a year for the opportunity to start my administrative career.
Longest story told short, there had always been conversations about “what if council tells you to fire someone?” It wasn’t hypothetical… it had happened before. My answer was, “If there’s a reason to fire someone, they will be given due process and they will be fired at the end of due process.”
One of my cops’ wife started a stir. Sadly my cop didn’t do the right thing by his career. This resulted in an internal affairs case where the writing of “employment ends” was in large letters on the wall.
Council demanded I fire “right now.”
I couldn’t. Due process was required.
Tried to explain the cost of wrongful termination suits etc. They didn’t get it.
I was agenda item #2 at the very next city council meeting. After hours of executive session, the board came out and voted 5–1–1 to terminate my employment.
They had the interim chief fire the guy the very next morning.
That guy did not sue the department…I’ll never know why. Sadly, I would have been a plaintiff witness instead of a defense witness and would have had to tell the truth about the lack of due process. I can see a check with four or five zeros before the decimal point.
The interim chief lasted a while. But guess what. He decided that tending to his cattle and going to his kids’ sporting events were MORE important that serving his community and guiding/coaching his police officers. He was absent while still in town for 18months…not showing up on urgent calls, not taking calls from his police officers when they needed guidance, not… not…. Shades of the guy I replaced. It took council 18months of this before they separated his employment.
Meanwhile, 4 months after being let go by that council, I was hired to serve in NW Colorado.
Here, my focus on community service, equal protection under the law, fair play, integrity, delivering more than necessary in MOST aspects of my job… being involved in the community and actually caring for people is appreciated.
I make more here than I could have EVER made there and I come home every day knowing that my work was appreciated and understood.
That, my friends, is SWEET revenge.
And, it pays every day!
Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond Reaction | She’s Crying From The Pain
Blue Cheese Stuffed Steaks
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
4 beef tenderloin steaks
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
4 teaspoons crumbled blue cheese
4 teaspoons plain low fat yogurt
2 teaspoons minced onion
Dash of white pepper
1 large clove garlic, halved
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
2 teaspoons chopped parsley
Instructions
Combine cream cheese, blue cheese, yogurt, onion and pepper; reserve.
Rub each side of beef steaks with garlic.
Place steaks on rack in broiler pan so surface of meat is 2 to 3 inches from heat. Broil for 5 to 6 minutes.
Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Turn and broil for 3 to 4 minutes.
Season with remaining salt.
Top each steak with an equal amount of reserved cheese mixture.
Because it is based on the false assumption that rich people would automatically create more and better jobs if they are just given more money. If there is no profit to be made with creating more or better jobs and you give the rich more money, they will simply pocket it. That’s what has been happening for half a century now.
During one of the school years, a classmate became pregnant. The weekend before the final exam, she “popped.”
(The way that I got a text saying Alison* popped to convey that she conveyed her child was in itself a shock however that is unimportant)
Clearly, she was in the emergency clinic and couldn’t go to the tests. She decided, however, that it would be prudent to leave her newborn in the hospital for a few hours so that she could attend the university and take the wheelchair test.
Our professor was clearly concerned by her plans. As a result, he called her, wished her well, talked to her, and persuaded her that she would be able to take the exam “anytime” she was ready. Her progress throughout the semester would not be impeded by her absence.
I must admit that this surprised me. For a student, that much freedom, respect, and flexibility? This was so foreign to me.
Because the principal would not allow it any other way, my friend in India, who lost her father on the morning of the midterm exam, was compelled to arrive at school covered in tears.
Concentrating on in the US was certainly a much needed refresher. A beneficial encounter!
Bloodthirsty like many others, he proposed something that no one had dared to imagine: dismantle the pyramids of Cheops, Kefren, Menkaure.
It was 1830 and he came up with this brilliant idea to reuse that already pre-cut material in other construction operations. Luckily, someone in his right mind opposed this massacre.
The chief engineer, in an attempt to save the pyramids, submitted false cost reports , managing to prevent their demolition.
BLACK LIBERAL REACTS TO Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond & Virginia REACTION
Assuming I didn’t have the knowledge to run a business, or any high-paying job skills, I’d do the following:
Quit whatever part time meant-for-a-high-school-student job you’re doing where you’re only making $104 a month and get a real full-time job earning at least minimum wage.
Put at least $1,000 per month aside from your income to invest in growth stock mutual funds earning ~8% annually, and only live on the rest. If that means getting a roommate or three, so be it.
In ten years, the value of the invested dollars will be be worth about $183k.
Buy a house for cash in a low tax state. If I liked my roomies, maybe I invite them to start paying me rent instead, maybe not. Either way, no more house payment.
Continue to invest, adding the portion that used to go toward the house payment. By this point, you should have advanced enough in your career path to be able to put more than $1,000 per month aside, and if you’ve kept your expenses low, you should be able to invest $2,000 per month.
That $2,000 per month invested over the next 20 years will be $1.18 million.
If you started with step one at age 20, you’d have a paid off house by 31 and be a millionaire by 50, never doing anything but working at your regular job. At that point, you could retire early and start taking the annual return on your investments as a $7,333 monthly payout for the rest of your life – which is plenty when you have no house payment. And when you die, your $1.1 million will still be there for your kids.
Pirates are a serious threat to the safety of cruise ships and their passengers, especially in some regions of the world, such as the Gulf of Aden, the Somali Coast, and the Strait of Malacca. Pirates often use small boats, guns, rockets, and grenades to attack and hijack ships, either to rob them or to hold them for ransom. According to the International Maritime Bureau, there were 195 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships worldwide in 2020, with 135 crew members kidnapped.
Cruise ships are aware of this danger and have taken various steps to prevent and deter pirate attacks. One of these steps is to carry guns on board, but not in the way you might think. Cruise ships do not have their own guns or armed guards, as this would violate the laws and regulations of many countries they visit. Instead, they hire private security contractors who are licensed and trained to use firearms and other weapons.
These contractors are usually former military or law enforcement personnel who have experience in dealing with pirates and other threats. They board the cruise ship before it enters a high-risk area and disembark after it leaves. They also follow strict rules of engagement and only use lethal force as a last resort.
Another step that cruise ships take is to install non-lethal anti-piracy devices, such as water cannons, electric fences, razor wires, nets, slippery foam, foul-smelling liquid, long-range acoustic devices, and anti-piracy lasers. These devices are designed to create physical or psychological barriers that make it difficult or unpleasant for pirates to approach or board the ship. They can also alert the crew and passengers of an impending attack and give them time to take evasive actions or seek shelter.
A third step that cruise ships take is to cooperate with international naval forces that patrol the pirate-infested waters. These forces include NATO, the European Union, the United States, China, India, Japan, Russia, and others. They provide escort services, surveillance, intelligence, communication, and assistance to cruise ships and other vessels that are under threat or attack by pirates. They also conduct anti-piracy operations to capture or deter pirates and disrupt their networks. Cruise ships can contact these forces through radio or satellite phones if they need help or guidance.
These are some of the main ways that cruise ships carry guns and other weapons to fight pirates. It is important to note that pirate attacks on cruise ships are very rare and unlikely to happen. Cruise lines have prepared for many challenging scenarios and have implemented various safety protocols and procedures to ensure the security and well-being of their guests and crew members. They also monitor the situation closely and avoid sailing through known hotspots or during peak seasons of pirate activity. You can rest assured that your cruise vacation will be safe and enjoyable.
WARRP Reacts to Oliver Anthony…Rich Men North of Richmond
Yes. I have. We went on a school trip to Barcelona for the week when I was around 15 years old. Whilst in an art gallery there, I had had my purse stolen from out of my handbag and didn’t even notice until I needed to go in my bag in the bathroom. Luckily, I had heeded my fathers warning and only taken out my daily amount of money with me. I reported it to the security staff and the found my actual purse, empty and dumped in one of the gallery rooms.
Whilst walking back to our hostel with my friends, we witnessed some smaller, older women in headscarves and children bustling into people and then the child would reach into a pocket/bag and take what they wanted. We couldn’t stop them but managed to catch up to the people to inform them they had been robbed.
We didn’t want it to happen to us again, so, in our wonderfully weird teenage brains, we hatched a plan! We stole (I know!!) one of the glow in the dark emergency exit signs from the wall in the hostel and put it in a handbag! We put all our purses underneath (at the bottom of the bag) and the sign was on the top to form a barrier. And it worked! Whilst out a few days later, we were in a huge crowd of people when my friend Emma, who was carrying the bag at the time, heard someone make a noise behind her. There was a 10/12 year old child looking a bit flummoxed. She couldn’t get her hand in to steal our things. This made the older women of the group really mad and they started shouting at us (in Spanish so I have no idea what she was saying – probably something about how unfair it was that they couldn’t rob us!). We laughed and walked off, leaving them all arguing amongst themselves.
Last month I was medevac’d from my local hospital on the Big Island of Hawaii to Straub Hospital Critical Care Burn Unit, which is on the island of Oahu.
This is the actual bill I received in an email before I was discharged.
There are two flights listed. Why, you ask? Because five minutes into the first flight, the pilot told the two nurses caring for me, that there was something wrong with the plane, “it didn’t feel right.”
I am being charged $38k for a flight on a plane that wasn’t in top shape?
Bear in mind that in December 2022 a medical flight crashed into the Pacific Ocean on its way from Maui to Oahu killing all four souls on board.
When the crew told me that we needed to return to the airport, I immediately asked for a life vest.
As the plane began to turn back to the airport, it started making loud groaning noises and metal scraping against metal sounds.
Thankfully we made it safely to Hilo International Airport. I am grateful for the pilot’s skill in landing and for noticing whatever it was that was wrong with the plane.
Ohhh… that life jacket I asked for? I never got it. Because the crew could not find any. I’m not saying there were none aboard the plane. I’m saying they could not find a single life vest.
I have only been home a few days now, but you can be assured I am contesting the cost of my first flight. Why should I have to pay for a plane that wasn’t sound enough in the first place.
Here’s a picture of the first plane and pilot before I was boarded on to it.
There was a two hour wait on the tarmac for a new plane and crew to take me. Here’s a snap of how crowded and dark the inside of a life flight plane is. However that’s no excuse for not being able to locate a life jacket.
PIC ANGRY RANT To Oliver Anthony | Rich Men North Of Richmond | NPR #354
Whenever you see an Old English word or name with an AE ligature in it, the ae is pronounced like the A in cat.
Whenever you see some fake archaic sign like “Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe”, the first word is actually “the.” Old English had a letter called “thorn” [þ] which typesetters sometimes represented with a Y, often with a crossed stem. At the time, every literate person knew to pronounce that Y as TH. But as TH took the place of the thorn character, people forgot that the sound used to be represented by a modified Y, and started pronouncing it like a regular letter Y.
Did you know that the Appalachian Mountains are way older than the Atlantic Ocean?
If she does not find these facts remotely interesting, then I know she’s not going to enjoy my company or conversation for long.
It is. If the prison’s administration didn’t know their relation when they assigned them to be roomies, they should’ve known later when the brother claimed he had informed them and requested for a different cell.
2021. Washington State Prison. Shayne Goldsby, then 26, was serving time in prison.
His cellmate, 70-year-old Robert Munger, was sentenced to 43 years in prison for child molestation and possession of child pornography. Odds are, this garbage would’ve died in prison anyway.
I can’t find out how long Goldsby’s term was, but his crime was stabbing someone, stealing a police car and injuring a state trooper.
He killed Munger. One of Munger’s victim’s was apparently his sister.
Goldsby said he had no intention of killing Munger, and would rather see him rot in prison. He also said Munger tortured him with details of how he molested his sister, who was a minor.
That’s why he snapped.
He hit Munger in the face multiple times, stomped on his face, and kicked him. This happened in a communal area of the prison, year 2020.
Munger died three days after the attack.
A year later, Goldsby was sentenced to almost 25 years after pleading guilty to murder.
If Goldsby’s claims are true, why did the old fart keep provoking him?
Perhaps he was sadistic and got off on emotionally torturing him, or perhaps he didn’t want to live the rest of his miserable life in jail and wanted a quick exit, who knows?
Why did the prison ignore his request?
I don’t understand this. They claimed they didn’t know of Goldsby’s connection to Munger’s victim as Goldsby and his sister used different last names.
I believe they didn’t mention anything on his request to be transferred. Maybe it was genuine incompetency.
Goldsby claimed it was done intentionally; corrections officers had set him up for injuring a police officer and making the police look stupid during his wild car chase.
He said, “This stuff doesn’t happen. You’re talking the same institution, the same unit, the same pod in the same cell as this dude. That’s like hitting the jackpot in the casino seven times.”
He gave Munger what he deserved, but was it worth it?
An exploding U.S. debt bomb affects disastrously all the countries of the world.
Take the 2008 global financial meltdown. What caused this were predatory mortgage lending, unregulated markets, a massive amount of consumer debt, the creation of “toxic” assets and the collapse of home prices. All exclusively by the U.S. And the rest of the world suffered for these U.S. excesses.
This 2i008 meltdown was the foretaste of a 1,000-year storm that is now pouring down every 5 years because of the unrestrained U.S. debt flooding the global financial market and exporting U.S. inflation overseas to everyone. Expect this to be cyclical and as predictable as trump farting a lie every 5 seconds.
On the other hand, China’s debt bomb is domestically contained.
China’s Evergrande Group — once the country’s second-largest property developer — filed for bankruptcy in New York last week. Others followed – including equally major developers like Kasia, Fantasia and the Shimao Group.
All these were “fiscally precipitated”, coming off Beijing’s crack down on excessive borrowing by developers in an attempt to rein in soaring housing prices. China’s banking system is owned and controlled by the CCP and they can micro-target specific companies in the greater attempt at preventing an uncontrolled explosion of the property market’s bubble that could easily implode the wider economy for which China’s real estate sector accounts for 25.4% of the country’s GDP.
And nary a repercussion overseas in the international financial market.
The Male Loneliness Epidemic
This is another puzzle piece of the collapse of Western society.
Today, while driving, I saw an accident on the road.
A “garbage granny” (one of those old ladies that are in their 90s or so that collect garbage for coins) was “hit” by a truck in the middle of a busy intersection. Now, you all must know that these folk have a reputation of driving and waking in busy highways with the intention of getting hit, and then being awarded free medical care, and financial reimbursement.
Now, this particular granny looked fine. But she just sat there in the road next to her pile of garbage with this expression… “I’m waiting. Come get me and give me my money”.
Meaning; “Everyone knows what is going on, and why I meander in the middle of six lanes of traffic. This driver was the fool that hit me. He will now fund my life, and there isn’t a damn thing anyone can do about it.”
Ah. I shit you not.
China.
Love it, or hate it. But it is 100% unique, that’s fer sure.
The mother left her 1-year-old child in an abandoned house, but after 10 years she returns there and discovers something that makes her cry
Residents of the Russian city of Yaroslavl will never forget an incident that took place more than 10 years ago.
However, it started when a neighbor heard a baby, crying in a nearby house. He didn’t think much about it and continued with the things he had to do that day. But the next day, the baby kept crying.
No neighbor didn’t see anyone in the house where the crying came from, and the lights were never on, not even in the evening.
But at that point, the neighbors started to worry and called the police.
They came and when they entered the house, it was completely empty inside. Those who had lived there had taken everything and disappeared. The only thing they had left behind was their own child!
The one-year-old girl was found on the dirty floor and it was clear she had been there for several days.
An investigation showed that the girl’s name was Liza Verbitskaya, and her parents seemed to have entered the ground, no one could find them.
Liza was taken to hospital, where she recovered in a few days. In the same hospital was a woman, Inna Nika, who was taking care of her sick son, her mother was sitting at his head day and night, but one day she heard a scream from the next room and went to see what it was all about.
She saw Liza and her motherly instincts asked her to protect and take care of her. From that day on, Inna visited Liza daily and brought her clothes, toys, food.
One day, Inna visited the little one and noticed that she was no longer in her hospital room, then found out that she had been taken to an orphanage. She also went to the orphanage to see her, but then it was clear to her that she had to adopt her!
When the adoption documents were completed, Liza was two years old and still had problems with chewing and was traumatized, she could not stand the loud noises. While growing up, Liza had darker skin than her relatives, but now she is beautiful. She became a model and, thanks to her story and modeling career, she became known throughout Russia. People who laughed at the way she looked bit her tongue when they saw her win, as a teenager, more talent contests.
Now that she has become famous, her biological mother tried to contact her but was not allowed. Liza received the woman’s phone number, but she’s still wondering if she wants to meet the one who left her. Our respect goes to Inna, an adoptive mother who turned out to be the hero in the life of this abandoned child, but with such a special destiny!
Well seeing that they’ve built their own bank, for transactions without using the dollar, using concrete, bricks, steel and glass, that looks fairly concrete to me,
It’s certainly big enough for every member to have a representative office in the building, you can see even the building next door is connected. So it’s very big,certainly plenty of concrete,
First Time Reaction to Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home
In this video, TNT reacts to Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go HomeOliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home
What is actually happening in California is actually an interesting case study.
First, the state of California is enormous – close to 40 million people. Most of them are pretty urban, concentrated around the coastal cities (Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego), with a growing number of large and mid-sized suburban and exurban areas (especially spreading east and north of Los Angeles).
For the first time in its history as a state, California lost a US House seat in the 2020 census, and has actually seen a net-net decline in its population. Many of those leaving are middle class people who, despite the plentiful jobs here, find the cost of living too daunting. I live in San Francisco, where the median price of a house recently got close to two million dollars. And for that money, you are not going to get one of the picturesque Victorian homes overlooking Alamo Square. You are going to get (most likely) a 1300–1500 square foot house that was pretty cheaply constructed in the 1940s or 1950s with three small bedrooms and a bathroom, maybe a half bath.
If you have kids, then you are most likely going to have to choose between putting them in a poor to terrible public school or shelling our more for private school (we were lucky – our son scored high enough on the tests to be admitted to Lowell High School, a ‘magnet’ school which is among the best in the state).
It’s a city where a family of four with an annual income of $150,000 qualifies for low income housing. If they can get on the list.
People are not leaving California because of the liberal politics (we could of course argue the role that those politics play in the current situation) or the taxes. They are leaving because the cost to live here – including the ambient and rising crime – is not worth it.
Some (the largest share) are actually leaving the cities for other parts of California – Sacramento, the central valley, the deserts east of LA – where a family that is solidly middle class can still (sort of) afford a traditional, middle class life. Still more are going to Oregon or Washington or Texas. Recently, many more have moved to Florida, to the glee of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
(NB: One of the answers incredibly remarks that Californians are not going to move to “Cleveland or St Louis or other MAGA strongholds,” which of course is true. The comment is laughably wrong because, of course, few Californians are moving to the midwest, because they are moving to places that economically are growing; they are not moving due to politics. And Cleveland and Saint Louis are not “MAGA strongholds.”)
They are not taking “their jobs” with them, mind you. They are taking their tax dollars and the electoral power.
But here is the hidden truth:
this is not really “new.” In fact, for close to 30 years, net domestic migration in the state has been negative.
Net-net, there are more than a million more people who have left California for other states than the other way round. Most are going (as stated) to Texas or Arizona. The outflow of middle income Californians (and Californians with families) has been hidden for two decades by waves of foreign immigration. So despite the gap of (in some years) more than 100,000 people, the state continued to grow.
Due to COVID and other factors (the growing economies of Asia, for example), this is no longer the case.
Without foreign immigration, California is going to see a significant drop in population.
What does it all mean?
First, if trends continue, what we are going to see is growth in the top (many people moving to California are doing so chasing high-end jobs, like AI engineers or medical researchers) and at the bottom (a large number are also low and unskilled workers coming to take entry-level jobs). That is going to make California’s already terribly skewed wealth inequality even worse. There will be more wealthy enclaves that can afford private security, private schools, privately funded infrastructure. There will also be more crowded sub-standard housing, crowded, poorly-performing schools, and deteriorating public infrastructure.
It’s not really too much of an exaggeration to say that the economy in California more and more looks like a third-world country, with a few super wealthy people, a lot of poor people barely hanging on, and a small number of people in the middle who struggle to justify staying here.
With such wealth and capital inequalities, I strongly suspect that the social fabric here is going to fray. The wealthy, insulated from the problems of the poor, will carry on thinking that everything is fine. Crime – especially property crime like car break-ins and home robberies – will grow, but will not really affect the rich and powerful.
The “Hollywood elite” (and other super-wealthy) will be just fine.
The other truth is, life in California is very nice if you can afford it. The weather in the coastal cities is close to perfect. The geography – coastal mountains, beaches, redwood forests – is beautiful. The diversity of people gives us incredible choices in food and culture. The state is home to the UC system (the best public schools in the country) as well as Stanford and CalTech. The knowledge industry is driven out of Silicon Valley, and the entertainment capital of the world is in Southern California.
Originally Answered: What are things you shouldn't do in life?
Don’t abandon someone suddenly after giving them attention. It kills them.
Don’t waste your time by stalking your ex on fb or checking people’s ‘last seen’ on WhatsApp. If they want to talk to you, they will. If they don’t, they won’t, even in a hundred years.
Don’t compare yourself with anyone. You and the rest are so different, that when you realize it, a comparison won’t even be possible.
Don’t ignore your body and health.
Don’t miss out on important engagements – Birthdays, weddings, your child’s first performance, your dad’s retirement party, reunions – its these events that make the fondest memories.
Don’t take things personally. Even if you know its personal, don’t take it personally. Then you win.
Don’t be rude to your parents. Or siblings. When everyone else will run for cover, its your family that will stand with you as you drench in your storm.
Don’t force someone to be in your life. Let them go, if they want to.
Don’t find reasons to be unhappy. It doesn’t pay to be sad. It pays to be joyous.
Don’t underestimate the power of people. Network.
Don’t let anyone make you feel badly about yourself. Always know your good things and your flaws. Accept them. Correct them. Or don’t correct them. But don’t let anyone else capitalize on them.
My fiance suddenly stopped breathing, went into a coma and remained that way for 10 days; after numerous hospital tests we found out there was no blood flow to his brain. We removed his life support and donated his organs.
Since he was only 35 years old when he died, and a former DJ popular in the Chicago and Detroit areas, the funeral home was packed full of people for his wake. One of his childhood friends, we’ll call him “Jack,” was in need of a kidney transplant and VERY sick, and we were able to directly donate his kidney to Jack. Due to the organ donations, autopsy and other things that had to happen prior to the funeral, the wake was scheduled a week after my fiance passed away. During that week Jack received the transplant and was able to make it to the wake.
He stood in front of my fiance’s red casket and spoke of his health issues and how he had given up hope, believing he wouldn’t be around much longer. Now, my fiance had given him another chance at life and Jack would be able to watch his 4-year-old son grow up. Jack’s son was there too, and walked up to him and held his hand during the speech.
I was already an emotional wreck, but through my tears I glanced around long enough to see that there was not a single dry eye in the funeral home at that moment. Though I questioned how I would go on living without my best friend and my lover, Jack provided a ray of sunshine during the wake that day and reminded us all that my fiance would live on in all the people he helped save with his organs.
Awesome Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients
6 cups uncooked egg noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 pounds beef sirloin steak, cut into thin strips
1 package onion or roasted garlic gravy mix for steak
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, quartered
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 (10 ounce) can beef broth
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (for garnish)
Instructions
Cook noodles according to package directions-keep warm.
In a large heavy bottom pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add meat and brown.
Sprinkle gravy mix over meat.
Add mushrooms; sauté for 5 minutes.
Stir in tomato paste and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until thickened, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat, and stir in sour cream.
Top with parsley and serve over hot cooked noodles.
I remember my grandfather telling me the story of buying his first home, and how stressful it was. He was working as a teacher making $2,500 per year, and was trying to figure out how to budget so he could afford to make the payments on the $5,500 house he just bought.
If he had managed to get his hands on $50,000 back then, he probably would have thought he was set for life — a mere 5% return would have matched his annual salary, and he would never have to work another day.
Obviously that plan wouldn’t have worked out — what he made in a year back then is less than most people make in a month today.
Right now, $1 million is about equivalent to what $50,000 was in his day, where a 5% return would put you right at the median income. And, just like in his day, that won’t be enough for someone in their early 20’s to make it to retirement age. In another 50–60 years, one million dollars will be the median household income. Minimum wage will be $200k a year, and it still won’t be enough to support a family.
The only way $1 million will be enough to retire on is if you don’t plan on living that long.
If you think that’s impossible, just remember the story about a how a teacher from Massachusetts once mortgaged a $5,500 house on a $2,500 annual salary — a house that today would fetch about $950,000.
AMERICAN RAPPER REACTS TO -Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond
By “see around them,” I’m literally talking about the people I see here in Chicago. I’m not talking about global poverty or people I don’t literally see with my own eyes.
Compared to the majority of people in my city (Chicago), my family is doing very well for ourselves. Yet there are entire zip codes in this city where practically everyone lives in poverty.
My wealth and their poverty are unrelated. I didn’t steal my wealth from them. I’m not the one failing them. Their political leaders—none of whom I’ve ever supported or voted for—have been failing them for generations now. The concentrated poverty in parts of Chicago is the completely predictable result of political policies enacted by politicians who get almost universal support from those same areas.
There’s been a huge increase in the number of homeless people, beggars, and refugees in the parts of Chicago I travel through on a regular basis. I am actually about to run my Sunday morning errands, and I already know which intersections will have which beggars. I’m not exaggerating when I say that literally every single major intersection (where two two-lane roads meet) has at least one beggar now. Some of one at all four stops at the intersection.
Again, my relative wealth and their poverty are unrelated. The system has failed them. I am not the system.
One intersection near me has a man who begs on the street, while his wife and child sit nearby on the sidewalk. According to his sign, he is a refugee from Guatemala. Assuming he got here via the normal refugee channels, his family has been failed by the governments of at least three countries (Guatemala, Mexico, the USA), two states (Texas and Illinois), and now one city (Chicago). I did not fail this man and his family. Several dozen politicians did. My wealth, or lack of it, would not have changed anything for this man.
I give food to the homeless sometimes. I donate to my church’s food pantry on a regular basis. I never give cash directly to the homeless.
I also have A LOT of money taken from me via taxes which, in theory, should be used to help those in need. The problem is, of course, that, unlike when I give food to the homeless directly, the taxes which are taken from me go through the hands of politicians on its way to help the needy. Shockingly, very little of it ends up helping the needy.
And a lot of the “help” the needy get from the government is designed in such a way as to create dependence on that help. I’m not saying that’s intentional. I’m not saying it’s not intentional, either.
I’m just saying that when I see this:
But I also see scenes like this increasing all around Chicago:
And I think about how much the government takes from me in income, property, and sales taxes every year, I realize pretty quickly that I’m not the problem here. I should feel no shame for my lifestyle.
Taking all of my family’s wealth away wouldn’t help poorer people at all. In fact, it would likely make things worse for them, at least here in Chicago. Chicago needs all of the upper-middle class taxpayers it can get. The single worst thing that can happen to a city is for it to lose most of its wealthiest citizens.
Just ask the citizen of, say, Gary, Indiana, or Detroit how well that worked out for them, when anyone who could afford to leave town did so.
If the house was occupied illegally, the police will come and remove the occupants.
If the house rightfully belongs to a citizen and the citizen refuses to move, the City just builds the highway around the house.
This house went viral last year. The highway was located in Zhuhai in Guangdong province. It seems the government had offered the owner 8 million RMB (around 1.4 million USD) to move. The owner refused. Rumor had it the owner thought the government would give him 10 million. But the moving cost has actually exceeded the cost of the (section of the) highway itself. So the designers revised the design to build the highway around this house.
It seems that the owner had eventually moved out of this house to a government-provided location. But the highway was already built.
My First time hearing Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond
Chinese mainland suspends mango imports from Taiwan
The Chinese mainland has decided to suspend the entry of mangoes from Taiwan starting Monday, according to a mainland spokesperson.
In accordance with relevant laws, regulations and standards on the mainland, the decision by the General Administration of Customs was taken as a scientific and reasonable biosecurity precaution, said Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on Monday.
The mainland had informed the Taiwan side of the decision, Zhu said, adding that Taiwan is urged to further improve its phytosanitary quarantine management system.
Since 2023, customs authorities on the mainland have detected Planococcus minor, a quarantine pest, in mangoes from Taiwan. This pest could pose a serious threat to agricultural production and ecological security on the mainland.
This is Cobalt-60, the most emissive radioactive isotope currently known. As far as I know, it’s also the only one with a label that says “Drop and Run.” It’s used to sterilize medical equipment and can quite easily sterilize you within just a minute or 2 if you held it in your hand.
There is a stand-up sketch by Ricky Gervais, in which he overhears two morbidly obese American women sitting in a plane. One of them is eating a bucket of KFC chicken, and tells the other:
“This is the best chicken I had all day.”
We just spent some time in the US, and on one of the last days, we grabbed a movie in a dine-in movie theatre in Las Vegas. (The Meg 2 — don’t ask.) When a waitress came to take our order, we asked for the smallest size of popcorn they had. She had a hard time understanding the question (“why order the smallest size ?”).
She kindly explained that they only had one size, and that was a bucket.
With the three of us, we managed to eat about a quarter of the bucket, but we saw other people finish an entire bucket on their own.
I think this is one of the main reasons of America’s obesity problem: Americans eat by the buckets. In many restaurants, the portions of the food are so grossly exaggerated that it is hardly a mystery why so many Americans are (morbidly) obese. Same for soda drinks and the like.
And besides that, American food is in general much less healthier than your average European or Asian food, due to less strict food regulations and the enormous amounts of added sugar in virtually everything.
Add to that the fact that Americans stopped walking altogether (so to speak), and that more and more, the obesity pandemic is embraced instead of fought. In the places I have lived in mainland Europe, I have never seen a morbidly obese person ride around in a trolley (such as in the picture), but you see them on a daily basis in the US.
Instead of actively losing some weight, such people simply step into a trolley because walking has become too hard. The woman in the image is twenty-three, by the way.
So there you have it: Buckets, Trolleys and Sugar.
The problem is BTS.
For the People! Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond- Reaction
China hopes to do so, China is trying to do so, but it’s no longer an easy task for China to do so now.
There is an old Chinese saying, 树欲静而风不止, which means “the trees may prefer calm but the wind will not subside”, or “the trees long for peace but the wind will never cease”.
Just like the picture I took in the Summer Palace in a windy day, if the wind is too strong, how could the tree stay calm? Just impossible.
The smear campaigns initiated by the US and followed by some other Westeren nations, are the wind, getting stronger recently as Joe Biden has indeed rallied them once again.
China is the tree. Its roots are still stable in the soil, its major branches are still steadfast, but it really can’t hold all its smaller branches and leaves still. And sometimes, it has to even sacrifice some of its smaller branches and leaves if the winds are way too strong and turn into storms.
But, as long as the roots and main branches are still healthy, strong and steadfast, new branches will sprout out next year!
My grandma passed in 2022, my father had passed in 2020. In her will she had it to where my 2 brothers and I inherited my dad’s 3rd. We were also to be included in any decisions on her property. My 2 uncles thought since they were co executors that everything was now theirs and they didn’t have to say anything to us. They gave away and took a lot of her belongings before I found out. I went to a lawyer and told him what was going on. I then called my uncles and told them they HAD to include us. They said “well, our lawyer says we don’t have to.” I called their lawyer and told him what they said. He immediately went and called them and said they were wrong. My 1 uncle gave his stepchildren first dibs over us and any of the actual grandchildren. The stepchildren who wanted NOTHING to do with my grandma or our family got first dibs. Then they tried to auction off my grandma’s house and 200 acres without telling us. I found out and called lawyers, everyone knew I wanted the house and 10 acres. They were trying to sell it behind my back. Grandma did not have any debt. So they were just being stupid. In the end, they were granted to sell 190 acres. We bought the house. 114 years of family history in this house. I have not heard an apology from any of them. Our trust in them was broken. At this time, they are not allowed at my house.
A man in China has been using a club as a nutcracker for 25 years, until he realised what it was actually used for. A man living in the Shaanxi Province in China was given a gift by a friend and for 25 years he didn’t know what it was.
The mans favourite treat was Wallnuts and the gift was perfect for cracking open the shells. He figured his friend know off his love for nuts so gifted him a club to crack them open, and for 25 years he used the club thinking that’s what it was intended for.
It wasn’t until he seen the nutcracker on a Government flyer identifying dangerous, prohibited explosives when he realised the club wasn’t in fact a nutcracker, but a Chinese type 67 hand grenade. The grenade which was a nicknamed the Potato masher, was invented by the German Army during World War 1.
The hand grenade had a explosive device at the top with a pulling string running through it to a cap at the bottom. Pulling the string lights the fuse before being thrown at the enemy, but in this case it was used as a nut cracker for a quarter of a century.
The Man Who Discovered a Lost Ancient City In His Basement
A man from Derinkuyu, in the Nevsehir province of Turkey was renovating his basement. Using only a sledgehammer, he broke through one of his walls; and felt cool air coming in from the other side. Inside he found a small room-sized cave. This area of Turkey has complex cave systems so he thought he accidentally stumbled into one. He didn’t. That first small room — was only the beginning.
I was 17 years old. I was driving drunk, with five other kids in my car. It was 1970. We had bought two cases of beer (illegally, of course) and it was pretty much all gone. It was about 1 AM.
We came to the main intersection in the small city nearest to where I lived. There wasn’t a single car in sight. Oddly, there was a cop in the intersection, presumably directing whatever traffic there was. Perhaps the stoplight was not working; I have no recollection.
I stopped at the light (working or not). At which point my friend Ralph, who was 15, leaned out the back seat window, yelled out “Fucking cop,” and threw an empty beer bottle at the policeman. It landed at his feet, where it smashed into pieces.
The policeman calmly walked over to our car, at which point Ralph started yelling “I didn’t do it,” which was rather obviously a lie. The policeman had me pull over. He told all of us to get out of the car. As he did this, one of the passengers, Denise, started explaining to him that she was from another planet. The cop ignored her. He told us to take all the beer bottles out of the car and place them on the hood of the car. When we ran out of room there, we put them on the roof. There were 46 empty bottles and one full one. Ralph asked if he could please drink the full one. The cop said no. Then he had us take them all to a nearby garbage can and dispose of them.
Then came the truly amazing part. He talked to us. For about five minutes. He explained that when he was our age, he also did stupid things. But he never drove drunk. He explained how dangerous that was. He did not tell us to swear we would never drive drunk. He simply told us that he was going to let us go. He did not even say how much trouble we could be in for underage drinking and drunk driving. He did not have to.
Finally he asked if there was anyone among us who was sober and had a driver’s license. My older brother did. He had us get back in the car, handed my brother the keys (which he had taken away when he first stopped us), and told my brother to take us home.
And that was all.
Even then, I realized the officer was an exceptional cop. He gave us a second chance when he could have ruined our lives. I never properly thanked him. So if, by some miracle, Officer Roger Strickland of the Freehold, New Jersey police force is still out there—thank you from the bottom of my heart. I think you would be proud of how my brother and I ended up (I have not seen any of the others in my car that night for over 50 years). All the best to one of the best.
Bacon-Wrapped Filet Steaks Topped with Roasted Garlic Butter
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
12 large garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
Kosher salt
3 1/2 teaspoons chopped chives
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
4 (6 to 7 ounce) filet steaks, about 1 inch thick
4 very thin slices of lean bacon
6 inch wooden skewers or toothpicks, soaked in water for 10 minutes and patted dry
Instructions
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place peeled garlic and olive oil in 1-cup, ovenproof ramekin, soufflé dish or custard cup. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and place in oven. Roast on center rack until garlic is golden and very tender and soft when pierced with knife, about 30 minutes (start checking cloves after 20 minutes and then every 5 minutes until done).
With slotted spoon, remove garlic from bowl and reserve oil. Place garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the reserved oil, butter and 1/8 teaspoon salt in food processor or blender and process, pulsing machine on and off for 30 seconds or less until garlic is coarsely chopped and blended with butter and oil. Transfer garlic butter to small bowl and stir in 2 teaspoons of the chives. (Garlic butter can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature 30 minutes before ready to use.)
When ready to cook steaks, oil a grill rack and prepare grill.
In small bowl, stir together 1 teaspoon kosher salt, coarsely ground black pepper and thyme. Rub both sides of each filet with some of this seasoning. Then wrap each steak around its sides with 1 slice of bacon. Skewer bacon in place with wooden skewer or with 2 to 3 wooden picks.
Grill steaks until lightly charred on the outside and until bacon is cooked, about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare.
When done, remove steaks from fire and place on warm serving plate. Remove toothpicks.
Top each steak with 1 generous pat of roasted garlic butter and sprinkle with some of remaining chives. Butter will start to melt and season the steaks.
I am from India and recently visited China. In india we use to blame the population for all our problems. But China had no issues of it. Atleast not in its urban areas. The people there respected rules and have high value about their culture. They take care of their health and have a proper diet. I don’t know what you mean by uncivilized. But if there are uncivilized Chinese I am sure it’s because they are exposed to western culture and those who embraced west including Indians are certainly uncivilized.
OLIVER WHAT THE F**K!!!!! | First Time Reacting To Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond!
I put in an order for tools for work. The order was for myself and two coworkers. Hundreds of dollars worth of tools, including getting one of our newbies set up with good kit so he didn’t have to scrounge for tools like myself and the other senior tech.
Toolup split the order into two shipments, which is fine I guess. The first package arrive with one wire stripper and one screwdriver. For weeks the other shipment showed “in processing”. Finally I called asking where the hell my tools were. They had no idea. After several days of calls they figured out that six weeks prior the shipper had been unable to locate a fucking Air Force base and sent the order back. Toolup refunded the purchase, but made absolutely zero meaningful contact with me about it. I’d been deluged with promotional crap, but I double checked. The last contact I had about my order was “in processing”. This meant that I missed the purchase window and funding got pulled so I can’t reorder my tools for at least a year.
So in the end they literally tripled the amount of paperwork I had to do by forcing me to amend all my prior paperwork and also process the return credit, and I still don’t have my fucking tools because they utterly failed to do any sort of meaningful follow up communication.
Personally or professionally I’m never doing business with them again.
My ex boyfriend and I dated for three years through college. He had been abusive, emotionally, physically and sexually. We had broken up many times. We finally broke up for the final time when he punched me and the RA had found out and told the college officials. It was his last year of college. I was brought into the deans office. It was up to me if he should be kicked out of college. This was a private college and in the early 90’s.
I told them not to kick him out of college. I knew if I had, he would have killed me. He graduated. One morning I woke up to find that someone had broken into my house, and my earrings that he had given to me were gone. Nothing else was touched. Then the phone calls started. Mind you he had supposedly left town to move back with his parents until he left for grad school. “Hey, I liked that flowery dress you were wearing last night.” Yes, I was wearing a flowery dress the night before. Or .”I can see you wherever you are at all times of the day.” Or “ I am sorry to hear about your cat.” Wait, what?? Only to find out my cat at my parents house was missing. And never found.
I started dating someone else. Then it was, “please tell ____ that I know all about him, and I am watching.”. We found out from friends that he would be coming to the area to fly out of LAX to go to grad school at Harvard. By this time the police had been notified of everything that had happened, and they told me that bc he hadn’t harmed me physically, there was nothing I could do, but it would be a good time to get out of town for the weekend. This is how I met my new boyfriends family. I was in hiding. They lived in Northern California.
We came back to school. The phone calls stopped and then the letters started. The anger, was now put into writing. How dare I hide away from him .He went out and bought a gun and he was looking for away to use it, etc..
I started to work as a nanny that fall. One time as I was getting the kids ready for school on a Monday, the kids went outside to wait so I could walk them to school, I had to get something for the baby inside. I came outside and as we were all walking to school the little girl who was in the 4th grade said, oh your friend says hi. I was like what friend, who knows I work here. I said oh, did this person have a name, no, he just said a friend. I immediately went into that place of panic. I kept my cool, and I asked what he looked like, and yes it was him, he had found me.
Not a lot happened to me after that. I did find out that he had gotten kicked out of grad school for raping someone, and he had been fired from a few jobs. Karma?
Oliver Anthony Rich Men North of Richmond Reaction Video
Not only one time, but every time all of my children are over for a family get together. I don’t consider myself dumb, I graduated high school with honors, I have worked hard all of my life so far, was taught to use common sense by my parents and married a wonderful, smart, and hard-working lady, and we have four children. As they grew up and progressed through school, they have each chosen their own path.
Our oldest son is an I.T. computer “nurd” and works from his home running the I.T. help line for a division of Sony helping any embedded I.T. techs solve problems they cannot solve themselves.
Our oldest daughter just received her Doctorate in Nuro-psychology from Yale University and is proving to be an innovator in the field with her front-line work to advance innovations in Alzheimer’s research.
The youngest Son is a 2018 honors graduate from The United States Military Academy at West Point, Captain, and Company Commander, in the U.S. Army, Working on his master’s degree in military history.
Any our youngest daughter just graduated with honors with a degree in teaching drama and starts her first teaching position next week.
All four are extremely intelligent and found vastly different careers, and when they are together the conversations are so far above my head I can only sit there and smile.
I smile because I look around and think to myself “How in the world did I get so lucky?” And then I realize “it is all thanks to my wife, and God.”
A few months ago I was in the Liaoning province in northeastern China. We met the CEO of a smart city there who was offering us rent-free premises for 3 years, a low interest loan [2%] and cheap electricity if we choose to build our robots there.
Chinese governments really believe that industrialization is crucial to mass employment and need to woo not just large companies but SMEs too.
In contrast, Indian general public attitude towards industrialization is often poisonous. The bureaucrats are too slow to move, the politicians often careless and the common public think “industrialists” make a lot of profits, who just needs to be taxed high.
It is far harder to start a factory in India and the interest rates are substantially high. Land prices near major cities are through the roof and the infrastructure abysmal. Thus, industrialists are not able to fully tap into India’s lower wages.
Indians often moan about the low rate of innovation in India. We moan that very few things are made in India. To really make in India, the society has to put industrialization at the highest priority. It cannot be seen as lower priority compared to agriculture and other sectors.
WHAT IN SOULFUL PAIN IS THIS?! (ADHD Reaction) | OLIVER ANTHONY – RICH MEN NORTH OF RICHMOND
I loved him dearly, and he was a good cat. I will tell you that we had him for perhaps four years when he started having problems, and so we took him to the vet.
It turned out that he had Feline AIDS, and Feline FIV, and was very contagious. Our vet recommended that we put him down so as not to contaminate the rest of the cats in the neighborhood. So we resigned ourselves to keeping him in our home and isolated.
But over time, he started to behave aggressively and strangely. Like peeing over everything.
And he kept on breaking out of the house…
Eventually, we got him, and took him to the vet and “put him down”.
I was there, and from the moment the needle was inserted he knew what was going on; and he hated me for it. I could feel his spirit attacking me, clawing at me. Biting me, and hissing at me.
This went on for hours before it finally dissipated.
I hated it.
I hated everything from having to put him down, to the fact that he was sick, to the hate being directed towards me. It was a grim time.
Two days later, I had to fly out for a job interview.
While I was sitting on the flight, Scooby came to me (in spirit form, of course) and curled up in my lap. He forgave me. And was giving me love. He lay there in my lap for the three hour flight, and then disappeared.
I do miss that lanky old cat.
He was a good little guy.
…
Nothing lasts forever. I look forward to seeing him again “on the other side”.
Flying back from Mallorca on Jet2, the pilot said on the intercom:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that we’re ready early and we’ve made it with plenty of time for our departure slot. The bad news is that unfortunately it seems the Spanish air traffic controllers have decided to walk out in solidarity with striking French controllers so we currently have a 2 hour wait. However, to ease the boredom, I’ll step out of the cockpit and you can all come up, sit in the pilot’s chair and be shown around by the first officer who’ll answer any questions you have”
The second I saw him come out of the cockpit I sprang out of my seat to get to the front of the inevitable queue and had a good chat with the FO while sitting in the seat. My impressions were that the cockpit of a 737–800 is a lot smaller than you’d think and that the seats are pretty difficult to move.
After 90 mins the pilot is on the intercom again:
“Folks, unfortunately we’ve been told we have another 2 hours, 45 minutes wait (huge groans from the cabin) Only joking, we’ve got to get going quickly so back to your seats and buckle up soon as you can! (cheers from cabin)”
The pilot landed pretty hard in Birmingham and 10 seconds after reducing reverse thrust was back on the intercom:
“I’ve just been informed that my landing was a bit on the hard side. I don’t know what the fuss is about, it seemed fine to me. But apologies to anyone with loose fillings”
Decades ago, I received a past-due notice for a loan payment to a bank I’d never done business with. Puzzled, I called the bank. After explaining my confusion three times, I finally was talking with someone who had sense enough to look into it instead of fobbing me off to someone else.
“Did you make a purchase from Such-and-such Music Store?” Indeed, I’d purchased a piano for my wife a month or so earlier. (Might’ve been nice if the salesman had mentioned they’d turn the loan over to a third party, but whatever.)
I then asked the bank worker how the *very first* communication I’d received from the bank could be a past-due notice.
“You should have received a payment coupon book,” she said. (As indicated, this was ages ago.)
“I’ve received nothing from you till this,” I replied.
And then, to my everlasting amazement, she said, “I know. The printing company we use had an equipment breakdown and the coupon books haven’t gone out for a while.”
That “I know” blew me away. The bank *knew* their customers weren’t being told when their payments would be due, and how much they would be—and, in cases such as mine, didn’t even know their loan had been sold to that bank—and instead of notifying people, they just sent out overdue notices.
With a late fee attached, of course.
So I told the nice lady that I’d be happy to make the payment, but I would not stand for a late charge.
Now it was her turn to be puzzled. “Why not?”
“Because I wasn’t late—*you* were!”
In the end, she had to have a VP call me later, and after I went over it all again, he agreed it was kinda dumb for them to send late notices to people who didn’t even know they had a loan with that bank, he waived the late fee.
That only took half of my day.
U.S And Europe in Trouble As China Rush Into Legacy Chips!
In 2007, Jennifer Strange entered a competition to win a “Wii. console.” The competition was run by local radio station in Rancho Cordova, in California, and was called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii.”
The challenge was a group of participants had to drink as much water as you can, and who ever could hold their wee the longest would win the Wii console.
Jennifer strange drank more than one and half gallons of water in just three hours, but still only managed to come second in the competition. One of Jennifer’s co-workers who was driving her home after the competition, said she started to complain about a sever headache, which became so bad she started crying.
A few hours after the competition Jennifer Strange was found dead in her room, with the cause of death ruled as “Acute Water Intoxication.”
Her parents sued the radio station and they were found liable for her death, and the parents were awarded 16 million dollars in compensation.
China Scientists Tease the US as They Found a Weak Spot in US “Undetectable Submarines”!
South Korea To Run “NUCLEAR ATTACK” Evacuation Drill August 23
The entire country of South Korea will stage a NUCLEAR ATTACK EVACUATION DRILL on August 23. Fifty-one Million (51,000,000) citizens are REQUIRED to participate to practice evacuating to shelters or underground safe spaces during the 20-minute exercise.
The drill, scheduled for 2:00 PM on Wednesday, August 23, will see many drivers required to pull over to the side of roads and the exits to subway stations closed with commuters required to remain inside, a statement from the South Korean Interior Ministry said.
“We expect to strengthen the response capacity of the nation through a practical drill reflecting the aspects of provocations of North Korea,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in a news release this week.
The release said the 20-minute drill is part of a larger exercise to test the South Korean government’s response to potential threats including “advanced nuclear missile threats, cyber attacks, drone terrors, etc.”
The prime minister also called on South Koreans to take the drills seriously, something that hasn’t always been the case.
The Interior Ministry said 17,000 shelters would be open nationwide, and locations are searchable in popular Korean online apps.
The South Korean prime minister said the civil defense drill would be held in conjunction with large-scale US-South Korea military exercises that have drawn sharp criticism from Pyongyang in the past.
It will also come less than a week after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol travels to the United States for a trilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, where “the continued threat posed by” North Korea will be on the agenda, according to a White House statement.
Hal Turner Opinion
HMMMMM. Having a nuclear evacuation “drill” of 51 Million people into 17,000 shelters at THE SAME TIME as a large-scale US-South Korea military “exercise???????????”
Gee, it occurs to me that maybe that military “exercise” isn’t an “exercise” at all. What if they first-strike North Korea?
With 51 Million South Koreans already inside Shelters, and US-South Korean Troops already on-station and fully armed – seems to me it would be a perfect opportunity for the US to first-strike North Korea.
What better conditions would exist than the ones described above?
Easy Sloppy Joe Pot Pie
All the great taste of classic sloppy joes in an easy one-skillet pot pie. No one will miss the buns!
Prep: 5 min | Bake: 40 min | Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can original sloppy joe sauce
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup Original Bisquick® mix
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Instructions
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cook beef and onion in ovenproof 10-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain.
Stir in sloppy joe sauce.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Stir remaining ingredients until blended. Pour over beef mixture.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
Special Touch: Before baking, sprinkle with a tablespoon of sesame seed.
Woman Dies And Is Shown The Year 2042 And Beyond | Near Death Experience | NDE
U.S. Sanctions Syrian ‘Moderate Rebels’ It Had Previously Armed
In 2013 the CIA was handing out TOW anti-tank missiles to ‘moderate rebel’ groups who were fighting the government in Syria. These groups were allegedly ‘vetted’ before they receive money and weapons. Unfortunately ‘vetting’ was something the CIA had never been good at.
Hamza Division (Forqat al-Hamza – فرقة الحمزة): An FSA-banner group composed of six substituent brigades that operate mostly in the environs of Inkhil, Daraa. The Hamza Division has received TOW ATGMs and it works under the supervision of the Daraa Military Council. They receives foreign support from Western and Arab state backers and are a member of the Southern Front coalition. The Southern Front has stated their commitment to a civil state, and have released a comprehensive political program in support of democratic reform. The Division came together with the Syria Revolutionaries Front and the 1st Artillery Regiment to create the 1st Army, which later disbanded. The Hamza Division continues using the 1st Army imagery alongside its own while the other former substituents do not. Social Media:YouTube;YouTube (older channel)
Do you remember when the #US spent $500 million to train/arm Al-Hamza Division?
Well the US-trained “Moderate rebels” are fighting – under a NATO flagged country (#Turkey) – the US-trained Kurdish YPG in the area occupied by the #US.
I’ll make it even easier: A few minutes ago, #US Prsdt @realDonaldTrump said the “PKK is far more dangerous than #ISIS (The Islamic State)”.
The US trained & armed Syrian Kurds proxies, the YPG, are the Syrian branch of the PKK that Trump considers far more dangerous than ISIS.
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating two Syria-based armed militias and three members of the groups’ leadership structures in connection with serious human rights abuses against those residing in the Afrin region of northern Syria. An auto sales company owned by the leader of one of the armed groups is also being designated. … The Hamza Division, another armed opposition group operating in northern Syria, has been involved in abductions, theft of property, and torture. The division also operates detention facilities in which it houses those it has abducted for extended periods of time. During their imprisonment, victims are held for ransom, often suffering sexual abuse at the hands of Hamza Division fighters.
The Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13894 for being responsible for or complicit in, or for having directly or indirectly engaged in, the commission of serious human rights abuses against the Syrian people. … Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr is the leader of the Hamza Division and its public face, appearing in numerous propaganda videos produced by the Hamza Division. While Abu Bakr has been commander, the Hamza Division has been accused of brutal repression of the local population, including kidnapping Kurdish women and severely abusing prisoners, at times leading to their death.
Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13894 for acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Hamza Division.
The AP report about the new sanctions does not mention any Pentagon or CIA support the groups had previously received.
One wonders how long it will take until the U.S. will sanction the fascists militia it has and is now arming and sponsoring in Ukraine.
Posted by b on August 18, 2023 at 15:36 UTC | Permalink
Well Ladies, Men Have Gotten The Message…Enjoy Your Cats!
Confessions of a 57-Year-Old Virgin
August 16, 2023
I’m a 57 year old man, about three years away from whatever the grandmaster of all the wizards are. I’ve never hugged a woman before (beside female relatives), never dated anyone before, no one at all. And then obviously that means that I never had my first kiss and I’m still a virgin.
Now, if I were to sit here and tell some random stranger on the street about my current life predicament, I would be laughed at until the end of time.
That brings me to my first point of advice. Ignore all of that crap. It’s worthless to feel like shit, for what? Because life didn’t come as anticipated. It can be harsh, but it’s not entirely over.
Which brings me to my second point of advice. Get out any way that you possibly can, I cannot stress this enough!
Up until the age of around 52, I never went out. I was a complete loner. One day, I decided enough was enough and I finally got off my ass and made something worth living for.
I began engraining myself into work dynamics and friendships. (By the way, get a job if you dont have one). I made it my personal goal to make friends any way that I could.
Eventually I had my first solid group of friends in roughly 45 years, yes you heard that number right.
The results? I currently do fantasy league with them once a week, as well as a cards night. Every couple of weeks we meet up at a bar, and I’m telling you it all came about from not giving up and striving to make something of my life.
Also, I keep up with hobbies such as working on used cars in my past time, so that’s another thing to keep in mind. I’m going to guess most people aren’t as old as me, maybe a majority are in their late teens to early 30s.
If you are in this range, even mid 30s, you still have a shot to not only make good friends like I did being the bum that I was, but also to get a date. Especially if you are a teen, that won’t be a problem in the slightest.
I’m saying this because doing what I’m doing at 57 is far more valuable during the younger years.
I know now that if I would’ve started this train of thought, I probably could’ve picked a date or two at least by now. That ship has sailed for me. Don’t worry though, I got over my self pity at 45 and my libido has dropped, so good friends, my dog, and beer, is what I make of life now.
Finally, good luck out there guys and ladies and don’t put yourself down. Strive to bring self-worth and meaning to your life!
BRICS Bank Just Dropped A Huge Bombshell | Stuns Everyone With This Move
What Is Self Discipline And How To Build More Of It
August 15, 2023
Self-discipline means that you do the things that you know are right or beneficial, even if they’re difficult. But what does that really mean? What does that actually look like?
People often associate self-discipline with diet and exercise, but it goes beyond that. Yes, staying active and eating clean in our current culture takes discipline, but being a self-disciplined person goes way beyond that.
When you build self-discipline, you’ll find it reaching into all areas of your life: your career, your relationships, your goals, your attitude, your self-talk, your mindset. Self-discipline becomes a part of who you are and impacts every single decision that you make each day. Disciplined people start to prioritize their future selves out of habit.
Discipline means having the ability to hold back those damaging words that you want to say during a disagreement. It’s being honest with yourself, looking at your weaknesses and assessing them so that you can improve. It’s sticking to commitments that you’ve made, both to other people and to yourself.
Self-discipline is a skill!
I cannot tell you the number of times that people have said things like, “I wish I could do what you do,” or “I wish I was as disciplined as you are,” to me, and it frustrates me every single time.
I know that it’s easy to tell ourselves that we aren’t capable of the things that other people accomplish. When we decide that we just aren’t capable of working out five times per week or starting a business or building a happy and stable relationship, we give ourselves an out.
By deciding that disciplined people are somehow different from you, you have what seems like a valid excuse for why you haven’t done all of those things that disciplined people do. You’ve convinced yourself that you just aren’t capable of it so it’s okay that you haven’t done it.
But that’s not true.
You are capable.
You are stronger than you realize.
And I know this because I know that self-discipline is a skill. I haven’t always been a disciplined person. I, too, have spent 14 hours a day sleeping, eaten whatever I felt like eating, procrastinated on my homework until the absolute last second, and gone months without getting any real physical activity.
Then, I decided to build self-discipline. And just like building any other skill, it took practice. I made mistakes, I faced setbacks, I struggled, and sometimes I fell off the wagon—in fact, I still do all of these things. Discipline is a skill that I am still building because—just like any other skill—there is always more to learn. You can always continue to improve.
You can become a disciplined person.
If you’re reading this blog, I’m sure there are a lot of things that you want to do, but you haven’t done them yet, and you likely aren’t working toward them consistently, or even at all.
You might want to start a business, go to school, improve your grades, get in better shape, learn to play an instrument, work on your mental health, write a book, etc. You have things in mind that you would like to do.
These things haven’t happened for one reason: lack of self-discipline.
Self-discipline is the skill that lets you build every other skill.
When you build self-discipline, you become the kind of person who does all of those things that you’ve always wanted to do.
A little later in this article, I’ll give you some advice on how to start building self-discipline, but for now, sit with everything I’ve just said. Start to consider that you are much more similar to me than you might realize. You are 100% capable of the things that you want to do and the only thing standing in your way is a lack of discipline. You can build that discipline.
How does self-discipline improve my life?
You already know that eating healthy, starting your homework early, going to bed on time, exercising regularly, managing your time, and meditating will improve your life. But as most people already know, doing all of these things, and doing them regularly, is difficult.
If you try to rely on motivation to do these things, you’re never going to do them because most of the time, most people don’t feel like doing these things.
You’d rather do what’s easy and enjoyable. You’d rather sleep in, eat fatty, sugary foods, and have a lazy, fun, easy life.
But that lazy, fun, easy life is only fun at first. Soon, you’ll start to face consequences. You’ll be tired all the time. You’ll see others reaching their goals and realize you haven’t accomplished anything in months. Your mental and physical health nose-dive.
What started out as fun and easy soon becomes miserable.
Those things that disciplined people do—exercising, planning, goal setting, thinking ahead—those things benefit your future self. And one day, you’re going to be your future self. The actions that you take now directly impact the life that you will get to live one day.
So how does self-discipline improve your life? Well, if you have the discipline now to save money, eat clean, exercise, work toward a career that you love, build healthy relationships, and create systems and routines that benefit you and your mental and physical health, one day, all of those things will pay off.
One day, you will be happy and healthy. You’ll be in a positive place living a life that you enjoy waking up to.
And I know this because I’ve done it. I’ve been putting in the work for long enough that I’m living and enjoying a life that I built intentionally. And I’m continuing to put in work that will improve my life so that it only goes up from here.
Self-discipline directly translates to living a life that you love. Self-discipline brings stable, long-term happiness.
Why is self-discipline important?
This is something that I’ve touched on before and is probably fairly apparent already from the previous section of this post. Self-discipline is important because motivation is fleeting and unreliable.
To get where you want to go, you need to complete a set of tasks, and either you want to do those tasks or you don’t. I doubt anybody would argue that those statements are untrue.
If you want to do those tasks, that’s motivation. In those moments, it’s easy to find the time and energy to do what needs to be done.
If you don’t want to do those tasks, and you’re trying to rely on motivation to get them done, the chance that those tasks will ever be completed is low. You likely know from experience that it’s hard to drum up motivation when you need it.
Discipline, on the other hand, is reliable. When you have self-discipline, it doesn’t matter if you want to put in the work. Disciplined people do what needs to be done regardless of how they’re feeling.
Many of us fall into the habit of doing what’s easy rather than doing what needs to be done. When you have discipline, you can do what needs to be done. When you can do what needs to be done, you reach your goals. If your goals are important to you, then self-discipline should be as well.
How to build self-discipline
Self-discipline is an odd beast to tackle. It’s simple, yet it’s not. And because it isn’t something that you can build outside of the context of your everyday life, becoming more disciplined inherently involves changing your life.
Begin by figuring out a direction. Start considering what actions that you currently do that you’d like to quit and what things that you don’t currently do that you’d like to do habitually.
Realize that building discipline is necessary to change your life and that the act of building discipline is what changes your life. The two things are inseparable. If you aren’t ready to change your life and don’t have a direction you want to go, you aren’t in a place to start becoming more disciplined.
Recommended Reading: The 5-4-3-2-1 Method for Setting and Getting to Your Goals
Self-discipline doesn’t look the same for everyone, and it doesn’t look the same day-to-day. What gets you moving one day might not work the next. Learn and grow with it so that you build an arsenal of strategies to use when you need them, and don’t beat yourself up if you have a bad day or five. It’s normal to struggle sometimes.
At its core, self-discipline means taking action.
Your aim throughout this process is to practice quickly making the decision that you know is right and then acting on that decision.
Rather than debating whether or not to go to the gym, then eventually deciding two hours later that it’s the right choice, then sitting on the couch for another 45 minutes before putting on your sneakers, discipline means deciding to go to the gym the moment it crosses your mind and then heading out the door.
That is your eventual goal. That is what you’re working toward. Some days, you’ll have no problem doing that. Other days, it will be a battle. The more you practice deciding quickly and taking prompt action, the better you’ll get at it. This is how you build discipline.
Let’s be clear: if you aren’t acting, you are not building discipline. Reading this blog post is a decent first step, but if your actions don’t change because of it, you have made exactly zero progress in the self-discipline department.
Practice taking action.
Practice doing small actions even when you don’t want to do them. This is probably the best way that I know of to build discipline. You don’t want to hang your coat up when you come home? Too bad. Do it. Don’t think about it, just do it.
You don’t want to do the dishes? Too bad. Do it. You don’t want to write that paper? Too bad. Get started.
I know that it sounds harsh, but when you start with small steps and work up to bigger tasks, it becomes easier to act despite your feelings. Practice ignoring your desire to avoid action.
Now, I’ll soften that blow a bit. Yes, “just do it” is the ideal. Acting quickly based on what you know is right is the aim, but that isn’t always possible. Sometimes it’s a bit of an internal battle, and that’s okay. There are some strategies that you can use to act when you don’t feel like it. After all, the goal is action. Getting there with a little help is better than not getting there at all.
START SMALL
I wish I could scream this from the rooftops. I wish I could scream it and scream it and scream it until my lungs give out.
The bigger the task is that you don’t want to do, the more you won’t want to do it. The smaller you can make it, the easier it will be to do.
Your goal is action. A smaller action than you intended is always better than no action at all. There is no shame in scaling back a bit so that you have an easier time getting moving. Doing one pushup is better than doing zero of the ten you intended to do. Washing three dishes is better than not cleaning the entire kitchen, even if that was your original goal.
On a broader scale, don’t attempt to overhaul your entire life overnight. I have a whole blog post about this. Focus your efforts on one area at a time. You’ll be much less likely to burn out, you’ll see faster results, and you’ll be much more successful in the long run.
Find Your Why
I’ve talked about this about 10,000 times before so just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll just link you to the post about it.
I do want to note, though, that it’s okay if your Why stems from wanting to leave a negative situation rather than wanting to reach a positive one. I often frame Whys in terms of positive things—the goals that you’ll reach, for example—without acknowledging that my first Why was that I wanted to improve a bad situation.
I was trying to build a better life after a rough break up, largely out of spite and a little sadness. Though I now focus my Whys on the good things that I will reach because of my actions, it is valid to build discipline that is motivated by a desire to leave a bad situation. In fact, wanting to leave a bad place in life is a pretty common reason for people to want to build self-discipline.
Practice calling yourself out on your excuses
Most of the “reasons” that we give for why we didn’t do something are invalid. On the surface, they may seem fine and they’re enough to placate our brains and prevent us from feeling guilty, but they don’t stand up to further inspection.
Start taking time to assess your excuses. Remind yourself that you really want to see results. You really want to start making progress. Does your excuse truly prevent you from doing what you need to do? Is there any way that you could create a backup plan?
Next time you find yourself making an excuse, write it down. Then write three reasons why you want to do the thing you’re trying to avoid and three things that you could do instead, even if you don’t accomplish your primary goal.
For example, if you decide you can’t go for a run because it’s raining, list three reasons why you want to exercise, and then create a list of three things that you could do instead of going for a run, like doing yoga or going for a run on a treadmill. You’ll train yourself to reconsider your excuses and realize that just because you can’t accomplish your original goal doesn’t mean you can’t many any progress at all.
Monitor your feelings
As I’ve said before, self-discipline means doing what needs to be done, even if you don’t feel like it. Most of the time, “I don’t feel like it,” and “I don’t want to,” are not valid reasons not to do something that needs to be done. Learn to shut them down.
But that isn’t to say that you should totally ignore your feelings. They’re there for a reason. Notice them—meditation can help—and respond appropriately. Often, we may not feel like doing something that’s good for us even though that thing will actually make us feel better. Self-discipline often means getting uncomfortable and knowing that the discomfort is worth it.
Self-discipline is a tricky beast. It gives you what you need to be consistent, which gets you to where you want to be. It takes practice and patience, but it will improve your life in the long run.
Discipline means being willing to choose long-term gains over immediate success. When you think long-term, the whole process starts to become easier and make more sense. Practice becoming friends with your future self, and before long, you’ll start seeing the results of your self-discipline paying off.
– Life By Grit
Europe Panic: China Cancel $100 Billion Car Order from Germany!
In today’s video, we explore the complex relationship between the European Union and China, focusing on Germany’s recently canceled $100 billion car order. How did we get here, and what does this mean for Europe’s future? Join us as we dive into the policies, decisions, and global economic trends that have shaped this unprecedented situation.
Interesting
Raining spiders, frogs, fish and … meat. Yes, meat.
What is Occam’s Razor?
August 15, 2023
Occam’s razor is often misstated as “the simplest answer is the correct one,” but it should more accurately be “the simplest answer is the best starting point to investigate.”
The idea is that the more different variables or assumptions have to add up to get to a solution, the more difficult it is to investigate, and the less likely it is to occur in general. “Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” is the classical way to state it.
So the classic example is: you hear hoofbeats outside, is it a horse or a zebra? Well unless you live in the African savannah, it’s very unlikely to be a zebra. We’d need more assumptions to get there – a zebra was imported to a local zoo, it escaped captivity, and now it’s running amok. Whereas a horse requires just one assumption – a horse is nearby. That doesn’t mean that it cannot be a zebra, it just means that you should start at “it’s probably a horse” and investigate from there.
I had a fun moment the other day, when I went to my kitchen and saw a jar of pickles left out on the counter. I knew it wasn’t me, which left two possibilities that my brain somehow jumped to:
A burglar broke in, stole several other items, and also ate a pickle. He left the jar out to taunt me.
My wife had a pickle and then forgot to put away the jar.
I could have totally checked my locks, made sure my valuables were still in the right place, etc. Instead I just yelled “Hey, did you leave this pickle jar out?” and got the simpler answer right away. Starting with the simpler solution (fewer assumptions than my burglar story) got me to the right answer efficiently.
Man Dies, Sees Future & Says Don’t Freak Out (Powerful NDE)
Gary Wimmer had an NDE (Near-Death Experience) and discovered what happens after death. He saw seven beings/angels, and after leaving his body was shown future events. Gary’s NDE (Near-Death Experience) showed him that there is life after death, and it was a life-altering experience that changed him forever.
Now this is something that I would buy
Gobble It Up Pot Pie
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
Filling
2 (15 ounce) cans mixed vegetables, drained
1 pound (2 cup) cooked turkey, shredded
1 (12 ounce) jar turkey gravy
Topping
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
1 (6 ounce) package instant turkey stuffing mix
1 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Filling: In large mixing bowl, combine vegetables, turkey and gravy; mix well.
Pour into a greased 2-quart casserole.
Topping: In skillet, melt butter.
Add onion and celery and cook until tender.
Add seasoning packet from stuffing mix and water. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat; stir in stuffing. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
Stir in dried cranberries.
Spread stuffing evenly over vegetable mixture.
Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until heated through.
Girl With Huge TaTa’s Gets HUMBLED For The First Time In Her Life!
“A small peep is natural, BUT a wide pussy is man-made” I laughed so hard at this statement it took me 12 minutes to gather myself enough to write it down
How to (actually) talk to kids
It’s not dissimilar from talking to other adults, but even the most well-meaning grown-ups can forget that.
Somehow, despite our best efforts, it still happens to even the most self-assured adult. You’re at a birthday party or a family dinner or a picnic in the park, and suddenly, you find yourself face to face with a kid. You introduce yourselves, there’s a slight pause, and then, even though you know better, you hear the boring question coming out of your mouth: “So how’s school?”
Why are adults so bad at talking to kids, considering each and every one of us used to be one? “We forget what it’s like to be a child,” says Tina Payne Bryson, a psychotherapist and co-author of The Whole-Brain Child. “It’s hard sometimes to relate to kids because the rhythm of our days is so different.” Our brains and habits have changed, and as adults, it can be tough to remember what it’s like to be a 10-year-old.
But that’s the key: Talking to and connecting with 10-year-olds now doesn’t require remembering what you were like at 10. Instead, it’s all about approaching them as people: individuals who have their own interests, insights, and personalities. If you’re curious, warm, and earnest, you can make a new friend — and leave your awkward adult persona behind.
Find a point of connection
Much like in an initial conversation with an adult stranger, it can be hard to know where to begin. But once you offer up an open-ended topic, a kid will often run with it. Icebreakers with a kid can be situational. If you’re at a barbecue, ask them what their favorite condiment is. Or they can be general: Did you see a funny animal video recently? “You just want to get the kid talking,” says Ben R., an 11-year-old who lives in Highland Ranch, Colorado. “You want to get to know them.” Ben recommends starting with a question about something that you enjoy. If you like video games, ask what games they like to play; if you’re a big reader, ask about their favorite recent book.
The framing is important. “Adults reach for whatever they can, and ask a yes or no question,” says Robyn Silverman, host of the podcast How to Talk to Kids About Anything. If a kid is wearing a baseball cap, asking whether they like baseball is not a good question — just like if you were wearing a baseball cap, that question wouldn’t encourage you to keep talking. Don’t despair: You can just tweak the format of a question to improve it. “Instead of ‘How’s school?’, you could ask, ‘If you were principal for the day, what’s one thing you’d absolutely change?’” suggests Silverman. “A more interesting question will elicit a response more than ‘fine.’”
That first conversational volley is all about finding a point of connection. It could be a shared interest, such as the card game Codenames, or a low-stakes disagreement, like whether dipping french fries in a milkshake is delicious or gross. “The great thing about asking questions is to find out what you have in common,” says Ben. “You’ll feel more relaxed then and can focus on connecting through that.”
Ask good follow-up questions
The next step in a good conversation with a kid? Pay attention. This is where many adults slip up. Instead of actually listening to what a kid has to say and asking a relevant follow-up question, they jump in with a long story about themselves — or, worse, offer up a weird non sequitur. Recently, Ben was waiting in line for a waterslide when the adult behind him asked what grade he was in. After he answered, the stranger, who had not previously met the fifth-grader, replied by saying that he grew up so fast. “I thought to myself, is this how adults are? They just ask simple questions, half-pay attention to the conversation, and get distracted by something else?” Ben says. “I felt like he could have just realized that I could talk the same way everybody else could, but he made it really awkward for the rest of the conversation.”
Asking a good follow-up question is all about active listening, which requires humility. A kid is a person with their own interests and expertise, and you can learn from them, just like you learn from a conversation with another adult. “Kids are egocentric in nature, and they love to talk about what they love,” says Morgan Eldridge, a clinical psychologist who recommends framing a child as the expert on what they care about. “If you don’t know anything about Pokémon cards, ask them to tell you about it.”
More key aspects of active listening are body language and tone. If you’re talking to a younger kid, physically get down on their level so that you’re not looming over them. For kids and adults alike, face them, put away your phone, make eye contact, and smile. No need to speak in a different voice, though. “There are multiple occasions where adults have talked to me with a childish tone,” says Ben. “We’re more sophisticated than they think.”
When you’re fostering a comfortable conversational environment for a kid, you should also think about safety. There’s an inherent power imbalance between an adult and a kid, especially when you don’t know each other well, and as the adult, you’re responsible for making sure that your relationship and conversation stay appropriate. “Kids need to feel safe, seen, soothed, and secure,” says Bryson. “When you smile and have relaxed posture, it sends signals of safety and connection.”
Let their enthusiasm lead
Once the conversation is moving, step back. “When talking to kids, adults make the mistake that they need to talk a lot,” says Silverman. “But people [not just children!] actually love it when you listen.” Instead, ask questions and let the kid direct the flow; they’ll naturally lead the conversation toward what interests them most.
In many cases, this means going in a speculative, silly direction, which can be tricky for grown-ups. “Adults are more logical and solution-driven,” says Bryson. “We’ve forgotten what it’s like to play.” To rediscover your playful side, you can always ask an open-ended question, or even a goofy one: If you were going to open a restaurant that only serves three dishes, what would they be? What celebrity has the coolest style of all time? Would you rather have to fight 50 mosquito-sized alligators or one alligator-sized mosquito?
No matter what, don’t dismiss their enthusiasm. If a kid loves basketball but you don’t care about sports, ask them to tell you about their favorite player of all time. If they just learned a ton about bugs in a science unit, don’t try to show off how much you know — encourage them to share instead. “There’s a power imbalance, and it seems to give adults permission to belittle,” says Silverman.
If you do make a faux pas, like talking over them or getting distracted, own up to it, apologize, and redirect. You can always say, “I just spaced out, I’m sorry. What were you saying about summer camp?” Just pick the conversation back up afterward.
Be yourself (even if that means being shy)
Kids have different temperaments and personalities, just like adults do. They don’t expect everyone to be outgoing and loud. In fact, not every kid will want you to be. “Just like different friends appeal to different people, different kinds of adults will appeal to different kids,” says Bryson. “The boisterous adult doesn’t appeal to some kids, and the quiet adult doesn’t appeal to others.” Just come as you are, since kids can tell whether you’re being authentic or not. “It’s really about showing up as yourself in the moment,” Bryson says.
If you are on the quieter side, don’t worry. Kids know what it’s like to feel anxious in a conversation, too. “Sometimes you just get nervous, and that’s okay,” says Fiona A., an 8-year-old who lives in Salinas, California. “Or sometimes you need a little bit of alone time. Just be you.”
Ben suggests a trick that he uses when he feels awkward or unsure about what to talk about: When you get stuck and start to feel self-conscious, ask a question. “Even if you don’t pay attention, it diverts the conversation away from yourself,” he says. “You learn more about them, and also you don’t have to talk as much.”
Sometimes, you’ll notice that a kid seems anxious to be talking to an adult. In that case, make sure you’re projecting a warm, friendly, safe environment. Being vulnerable can help them feel more comfortable, too. “A lot of adults are authority figures, and sharing something embarrassing can make us more accessible,” says Bryson. When she’s talking to a quiet kid, she often shares a story about when the class rat bit her in first grade at the school Christmas party; her listeners are always on the edge of their seats, ready to share their own best animal story afterward. You can be vulnerable about feeling awkward, too: If you share that you often feel shy at parties, then it normalizes the kid feeling shy.
And if they’d rather be quiet, it’s also fine to share a companionable silence. “If we ask a question or two and they don’t expand, it just means they don’t want to be asked a question right now,” says Bryson. If they’re not uncomfortable with quiet, then you shouldn’t be, either.
Refer back to your shared interests
Once you’ve had a friendly conversation with a kid and found some common ground, you can start to develop an ongoing relationship with them. Just like with a new adult friend, it’s important to remember details about them and refer back to them in future conversations. Did they tell you about joining the soccer team? Ask how the season is going. Did you bond over your love of superhero movies? Ask them what they thought of the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. If you know in advance that you’re going to see a kid who you’ve already spent time with, you could send them something that you can then talk about in person. Bryson recently hosted a friend and their 13-year-old son; in anticipation of his visit, she sent him some funny dog videos on Instagram. That offers an easy way to break the ice and connect in person again.
No matter the age gap, making conversation and becoming friends always happens much the same way: capitalizing on shared interests, asking good questions, and paying attention. And once you’re friends, conversation is easy. “After I get to know an adult, it’s easy to talk to her,” says Fiona. “It’s more complex to build friendship with an adult, but once you do, it’s like they’re a kid just like you.”
He Did It Again!
At a recent speaking engagement, President Biden attempted to tout his success at getting a bipartisan infrastructure bill through Congress. At least that’s what one would assume, even though what actually came out of the President’s mouth sounded more like “bipah infraloction.” This is, of course, just the latest verbal stumble from Biden, and you know there are plenty more to come. Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss not only this difficult phrase for Biden, but also his similar inability recently to say a series of Asian names.
The Hardest Pill To Swallow About Self-Improvement
August 16, 2023
One tendency I’ve noticed about a lot of us who are into self-development is that we are incredibly hungry for information.
Some of us may have had neglectful parents or an upbringing that was very scarce, we may have not gotten the encouragement for self-betterment, we have no one around us who are striving for the best — so we want to consume and process all the information, methods, tips, and tricks we can.
I think that’s great because being deeply desirous to change yourself is better than being apathetic and lethargic.
Unfortunately, this over-consumption of information can become gluttony. Gluttony then leads to lethargy, which then leads to sloth and not doing anything with this information.
More books! More articles! More podcasts! More lectures! More, more, more! I need to know the secrets of the universe before I end up starting my business, before I apply for that job, before I take that trip, before I ask out that girl.
We need to be perfect and then, then we’ll act. One day. One day.
But one day never comes. Neither does perfection.
The real truth about self-development, the real pain is the application. It’s in the messy interactions between imperfect human beings.
You’ve read what’s in that book about dating. Now, go out on a Friday night and apply it.
You’ve read how to start a business. Now, start your own.
A lot of people are dreaming with their heads up in the clouds, thinking they’re moving the needle when they’re just reading a book or an article online.
How many people are out there actively trying, failing, getting knocked down on their ass, and trying again? Very few.
Most people read about a diet in a book, try it for 2 months, then relapse into their old eating habits.
Many people say “I’m gonna meditate for 20 minutes a day” but they “can’t find the time…because Netflix”.
Then people wonder why 2021 is 2020 is 2019 is 2018. Repeating a fucking Groundhog Day existence for 30 years.
Then you’ll be 68 years old and realize that you just twiddled your thumbs in your ivory tower while your life passed you by.
Because the real pain of self-development is exertion, it’s doing it when you don’t want to do it, it’s progressively getting better and actively cutting out areas where you don’t need to be doing things.
What methods work? They all work. There are some that are more “optimal” than others, but they will all work – if applied. If you read a self-help book starting from ground zero (like you know nothing about this stuff), you will be a better person on page 258 than you were at page 1. I guarantee it. So it’s not about “choosing the right methods”. It’s about application.
There are people who think self-development and self-help is a joke. These people have never even walked into a book store and yet they’re laughing all the way to the bank or living the life that we want to live!
I can pretty much guarantee that if you took one book like Deep Work or Psycho-Cybernetics and applied everything in there to the T, your life would dramatically alter.
You wouldn’t need to be browsing Inc. magazine for the newest hacks. You wouldn’t need to go on Entrepreneur and say you’re “hustling”.
We need to stay focused, guys. We need to build a core set of practices and not stray from the narrow road of improvement.
We need to throw ourselves into the task with everything we have and not look around for another hack or tactic to help us when we have an arsenal of 1,000 inside our head.
You won’t know all the answers. You can’t know all the answers before you take action. You need to act before you are ready.
You will NEVER be ready.
You can’t solve the puzzle without taking action to assemble the pieces.
Get going and the pieces will start to fall in place. Then the puzzle starts to solve itself.
Voynich Manuscript Decoded | The Mysterious Book Finally Solved?
For 600 years the Voynich Manuscript has stumped scholars, cryptographers, physicists, and computer scientists. Now, a researcher in Germany has claimed to have finally decoded the most mysterious book in the world.
Bad, just bad.
New and improved BRICS to emerge in South Africa. Morocco wants to join
I was terminated without notice only to be offered my job back for significant less than I was making. I declined and filed an unpaid wage claim costing them over $12,000 in damages due to me.
Worked for a Co. that terminated me at end of day on a Monday without notice or reasoning other than, “It just wasn’t working out;” but was promised to be paid the rest of the week as a courtesy severance for the inconvenience. Wanted to stay professional, so I complied and thanked them for opportunity. I was allowed some time to pack up my things and head out.
I handled all payroll and AR/AP but wasn’t presented final check upon termination and even offered to do it before I left but was told it would be mailed to me. Fast forward 6 days and I receive a text message from former employer urging me to return their call as soon as possible.
I called the next day and was offered my job back for $10,000 less per year than I originally was hired for and was told a few duties would be taken off my work load. It was insulting and I asked to think about it but asked about my final check prior to ending call and they asked me to go pick it up from office. I was out of town for a few days so made arrangements to pick up the following week (now 14 days after term).
I arrive and was presented with a check. I open it and say that it’s incorrect. They apologize and agree to have an amended one in mail next day. I offered to wait but they had an “interview coming shortly.”
I waited 7 more days before filing a wage claim for the final check. I end up receiving a final check for the one day of that week a few days after but didn’t include my vacation time / PTO, the severance, or penalty for late payment.
After 8 months, we were granted a hearing where they were ordered to pay me for 30 full days salary as penalty, all vacation and PTO, adjusted benefits, and severance as promised.
Employer called me an extortionist, and Labor Board representative interrupted their tirade to say “No, that’s the law. You should be happy he didn’t sue you for retaliation, well, he still can. So maybe you should lay off the insults and direct that energy to educating yourself and finding counsel.”
It was vindicating.
Hey! Look at what “president” Biden is doing…
Nearly ALL of America FEELS This | Oliver Anthony “Rich Men North of Richmond” | Just Jen Reacts
One of my first cars was an AMC Pacer. It was like driving in a large greenhouse. It had windows all around, and it rode pretty smooth. My particular vehicle was yellow; a nice 1970s yellow.
I used a lot of scrap shag carpet to line the floors at which my grandmother, and her girlfriends all thought that I had a great car to drive about in.
Man, that was a long time ago.
My friends drove other cars, of course. But I was forced to drive this after my GTO was lost while driving at speed along the dark curvy roads of wooded Pennsylvania.
In those days, the price for gasoline was cheaper than today. But it was still high. It was 65 cents per gallon. So we would fill the tank and go a crusin’. Maybe stop at the local burger joint and grab a burger and drink some beer.
Today, my life is very different.
Here we have to worry about psychos wanting to set the world on fire, instead of grooving and jamming to some tunes.
Sigh.
Gonzalo Lira Update and the Doom Loop Tour
So Gonzalo is alive. Yay!
Money
Large sums of money are a real HEADACHE. You do not want a large sum of money, and all those ideas that you might have about what you would do with it are just fantasies.
Hollywood is not reality. So get over it.
In today’s world, any amount of money over that which you can fit in your wallet is suspect. And if you are an American, it is subject to seizure as “potential criminal gains”. Which is, by the way, how this question was written. In the USA, the police really do not need a warrant, or an excuse to seize your money. They will just do it, so it’s really not in your best interests to have a lot of money on you.
But, I live in China, and the rules on money use, obtainment and storage are really strict. If you have a lot of money, then you will have a lot of headaches.
TRUE STORY TIME
I had an affirmation about getting a large; an enormous sum of money. And sure as shit it materialized, just not like I expected. I wrote about this event HERE.
in 2020 one of my clients approached me. And they had an interesting “project” that they wanted me to help them with.
Outside of Guangzhou were four warehouse complexes filled with 3.4 billion dollars in USD. These bills were in $100 denominations, counted and wrapped, and shrink wrapped on pallets. The owner of the bills, the warehouses, obtained the money over a span of many, many decades though various legal businesses, and just accumulated the money as he believed that the USD was a guaranteed hedge against the ups and downs of the Chinese political scene.
Well, things changed a lot since the 1980s.
He just kept on collecting the money, and not really using a bank to store the money. So the money was transparent to the Chinese government. Hidden really.
Around 2013, China started to crack down on this kind of activity, and so he registered the amount with a bank in Guangzhou. So now the money is recognized as his, and as legal tender. However, due to the laws inside of China, he can spend no more than $50,000/year of it inside of China. Nor can he take more than $50,000 out of China in any given year.
The warehouses are not really hidden, but non-descriptive and distressed, and patrolled by his security guards. He’s not worried about thieves. How would anyone haul away any of the money? Five million trips in a van?
Any kid could easily climb though the rusted chain link fence, and walk in and around the complexes. But they don’t. He has a very good reputation in the local area, and everyone knows him, respects him and loves him. He’s a very down to earth kind of fellow.
What he wanted me to do was figure out some legal way to use the cash (hard cold cash) to buy assets or something; like businesses, hotels, investments, minerals, etc. Without breaking any laws or rules. As for certainly, the government is now absolutely tracking his actions with his cash.
So, I and some of my staff met him at a hotel, had lunch and he drove us out in the countryside where he took use to one of the warehouse complexes.
The guard waved us in, and it was just a big complex of huge vine covered old warehouses and peeling paint. And he opened up the big sliding hanger doors and we went into the complex. It was stacks and stacks and stacks of shrink-wrapped pallets of cash one on top of the other as far as the eye could see.
And this was true for all of the warehouses. I have never seen so much paper in my life.
The owner told us that his biggest problem were local field mice and rats that liked to gnaw on the pallets and get into the money to eat it, as well as an occasional leak or two in the roof that might seep into the bundles of palletized cash.
He was tired of spending money to protect all this money that he could not spend, and he wanted an out.
We left, and went back and came up with some ideas and solutions. He was willing to pay us 10% on whatever we could “free up”. So for every 1 million that we can de-paper, he would give us $100,000 USD. Though, according to the law, it would have to occur over two years before we could get the money.
Of the various ideas that we came up with, none of them were acceptable to him. And so, after a few months of “wracking our brain” we gave up. Too much of a headache.
End of story
Now, that client is doing well. More money than he knows what to do with. Four girl-friends that he supports, plus a wife. And being older, in his 80s, I’m sure that the gals are more for company than for any “exercise”. But all this money is a big waste. He cannot spend it. He cannot give it away. The most he can do is give one person $50,000 that’s it. And he cannot move it.
It is the proverbial “white elephant”.
You do not want piles of cash. You do not want the hassles that come with it. You want freedom from worry, a roof over your head, and some delicious food and fun. But over and above that becomes more and more problematic as times moves on.
Same with fame. But that’s another story for another time.
Another idea
I’d amend Jon Mixon’s #1 to say “pay for some necessities and bills, then save the rest”. On paper, you’d just look like a very frugal person, but the savings would be essentially laundering the money very slowly.
If you’re living comfortably in a middle-class or professional job, maybe you’re saving $1–2k a month or more with this method. That’s $12–24k in a year, which you can easily turn around into small legitimate investments that can then enjoy compound interest.
People get away with embezzlement this way for decades at a time, and the only way they ever get caught is that an accountant *at the place they’re embezzling from* catches them. Since you’ve already got the $1,000,000 in hand, and no one’s looking for it, there’s relatively low risk of getting caught.
The trick is to spend your paycheck on everything that you’d use a credit card for: TVs, car note, gas and insurance, modest groceries, airline flights, etc. The practical rule is that “if it’s going to be sitting around your house when the IRS comes around, use your paycheck on it”.
Everything else? Use the dirty cash! Eating out, babysitters (already traditionally paid in cash!), subway tickets, beer money, and so on. If the IRS is too concerned with checking your bank records to make sure you DID buy that TV with a credit card, and that checks out, they won’t think you’re worth investigating how often you’ve been eating out.
One last thing.
I’d keep a storage unit, paid for out of a separate bank account in my name. Every month, like clockwork, I’d personally make a cash withdrawal from my paycheck, and a cash deposit in this bank account, in order to pay the storage fees.
And all I’d do is store my old junk in it. None of the $1M! The practical reason is, of course, very smart: if the IRS ever decides to audit you, you want something that *looks* suspicious on paper, maybe even borderline stupid in that way that most people get caught on “something very stupid”, but is an absolute nothingburger upon any closer inspection. It distracts people and makes them figure nothing else is wrong with you.
Plus, I’d just love to see that look on the IRS agent’s face when I rolled up the garage door and all he smelled was SOCKS.
Blinken’s accusation on China a disrespect of Tonga as sovereign state
Upon arrival at Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wasted no time throwing mud at China.
This time, he called Beijing’s engagement in the region “problematic behavior” and Chinese investment “predatory” that would hurt the local economy.
Behind the China-bashing cliche, Blinken, the first U.S. state secretary to visit Tonga, was actually asking the island nation to take sides and making the region a new arena of rivalry, but he should understand that smearing others’ normal cooperation is a real problematic behavior. His accusation is not only an attack on China, but also unwise questioning of Tonga’s judgment on choosing partners as a sovereign country.
At a joint press conference after his meeting with Blinken on Wednesday, Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni told the U.S. guest that his country had no concerns about its relationship with China.
When Tonga was faced with multiple challenges, including volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and the COVID-19 pandemic, China often rushed to its assistance. As facts have proven, China’s friendship has always been based on deeds rather than words, Tongan King Tupou VI has said.
In the broader Pacific islands, China has carried out a large number of assistance projects that meet the actual needs of the countries it tries to help. These projects have strongly promoted local economic development and improved people’s livelihood. While offering help, China always fully respects the sovereignty and independence, as well as the will and the cultural traditions of the countries assisted.
Based on its own development experience, China has conducted mutually beneficial cooperation with other developing countries by upholding justice and pursuing shared interests, and provided assistance without attaching any political strings.
Such cooperation has greatly promoted economic and social development as well as people’s livelihood in relevant countries. The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway financed and built by China has created nearly 50,000 jobs for Kenya. By the end of 2022, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has brought 25.4 billion U.S. dollars in direct investment to Pakistan and created 236,000 jobs. The list goes on.
If Washington really cares about the development of the Pacific islands, it should first apologize and fully compensate for the damage caused by its over 60 nuclear tests in the region, address the islands’ pressing challenges of climate change with concrete actions, and focus on the real needs of local people, rather than sending senior officials to stage a runway-show-like diplomatic campaign.
And if the United States is truly committed to a better future and the well-being of the people in other parts of the world, it should stop slinging mud at China, and instead join hands with China to help countries in need.
A country that offers very little help, but tries very hard to obstruct other countries’ helping hands, and even pursues its own interests at the expense of others’, does not measure up to the image of a respectable major power.
Geopolitical INFERNO: Victoria Nuland’s South African Visit Sparks Fear and Fury!
Dive into the fiery world of geopolitics as we dissect Victoria Nuland’s enigmatic trip to South Africa. Uncover the deep-seated anxieties and justified fears that arise from her actions. Could her visit be a menacing threat to South Africa’s sovereignty? Is she secretly aiming to sabotage the BRICS’ new currency? Brace yourself for a no-holds-barred exploration that leaves no stone unturned!
“Amazing” is the buzzword in Chengdu, Sichuan province, the venue for the FISU World University Games.
Athletes and officials participating in the biennial Summer Universiade, which opened on Friday, said they are deeply impressed by the games facilities in the provincial capital, and underlined that Chengdu has set the bar high for future hosts.
The organizing committee of the games has taken recommendations from all sides into consideration and made sincere efforts to include them in the preparations, which has set a perfect stage for athletes to shine on, Leonz Eder, acting president of the International University Sports Federation, said in an interview with China Daily.
A total of 6,500 athletes from 113 countries and regions are competing in 269 events across 18 sports at the Chengdu games, which will run until Aug 8. Thirteen new venues have been built for the competitions, while 36 existing ones have been upgraded and renovated to meet international standards.
Athletes echoed the FISU acting president and said that they were also touched by the warm welcome accorded to them.
Elavenil Valarivan from India, who won the women’s 10-meter air rifle gold at Chengdu Shooting Sport School on Saturday, said the competition venue and its services are excellent. “What they have done here is so good, I mean, so much better than many of the places where I have competed before. … I’m really happy to be in Chengdu,” she said.
Brazilian basketball player Caio De Souza Pacheco said the smooth organization of the event is helping him focus on his game.
“I’m very happy to be here. We’re very excited. … What you guys have been doing in Chengdu, in China, has been amazing,” Pacheco said.
Jonathan Larsen, coach of the German badminton team, said that all athletes received a warm welcome at the Shuangliu Sports Center Gymnasium. “The venue looks absolutely amazing. And we are looking forward to competing in it,” Larsen said.
The badminton venue, which has a floor area of 14,626 square meters, boasts 14 courts and a warm-up area.
Sofus Rasmussen, head of the Norwegian delegation, said he is very impressed with how things have been organized. “From the moment we’ve arrived, we’ve been taken such good care of. … Things have been handled very efficiently. I think this organizing committee has set the bar really high for the next committee.”
Rasmussen said the opening ceremony on Friday was so splendid that it has been the most-discussed topic among athletes and officials over the weekend.
“It was incredible and nothing like (any ceremony) I’ve ever been to before. I was expecting it to be spectacular, but not on that level. And the audiences were fantastic. The athletes were so touched. For these young people, it was something they will never forget,” he added.
Mainly because China is a major challenge to the West and is the only Eastern Nation which is coming closest to pipping the West from its supremacy that was established nearly 400 years ago
So the smallest rainfall becomes a deluge ,a two man protest becomes a major massive million man protest and a minor confrontation at a bank ends up being a major run on banks
Likewise a normal cyclical economic problem where China should have been hailed for 6.3% growth despite all negative factors is being treated as a major economic crisis
Tomorrow if China convinces the West that it will allow western hegemony, purchase $250 Billion of US T Bonds and defunds it’s investments in AI and Defense and appoints someone like Hu Jintao as President and Secretary — then suddenly every media will be pro China and hail China as a modern miracle
India?
India is way way below anyone’s radar today
Zero core technology today
Heavy reliance on the West
Relatively low economic power
No major military threat to anyone
Parliamentary Democracy as per Western Norms
So why focus on India
They will instead focus on RRR & Leo & Diwali as a holiday & all the superficial stuff and rate India’s 7.2% growth as rocket like while China’s 6.3% in a six times larger economy as huge crisis
If India comes close to say 50% of Western GDP (US) and looks like it may be of some significance and a threat to Western Hegemony, then India will face its own share of horrors and fake stories
Within India?
That’s how Indians are most of the time
Always short term and Always burying problems under the carpet
Typical Democracy sadly !!!!!
Whatever wins votes will be what’s discussed
The Lowest Cost Airline You Can Imagine | The Carol Burnett Show
Look guys…. US is growing exponentially with whooping ONE POINT ONE PERCENT. It’s a lot you know? So awesome. America numba ONE. Best country in da world!
China is suffering horrific growth of mere 6.6%. So pathetic! China is going to collapse in 10 days!!
Another headline for this post is: ”Western media fail at math”.
I Visited a Chinese Factory…What I Saw Shocked Me!
This is what the Mars landing looked like from the perspective of the Perseverance rover about 10 km above the surface. We are in the middle of the descent phase into the atmosphere, and that disk in the center is the heat shield, just released, that protected the probe from the intense heat as it plummets toward the ground.
It’s all real! Human ingenuity is extraordinary!
Mama’s Family – Don’t call Mama while she’s at work
Today, ‘John’ was bragging to me about how good he is with chess. He kept rambling on and on about how nobody he met in real life could beat him.
So to shut him up, I challenged him to an online game of chess.
And I completely utterly thoroughly destroyed him, while taunting him in the chat at the same time.
I also made my moves super-fast, like within a few seconds after he finished his moves. More than once during the game, he exclaimed, “Wow Shanks, how do you play so quick?”
Unbeknown to him, during the game, I had another tab open where I was playing Chess against an AI set to ‘insane’ difficulty.
I played as Black against John, but white against the AI. This meant that John started first against me, while I started first against the AI.
All I did was mimic each of John’s move in the match against the AI and mimic the AI’s move against John. In other words, while it appeared that I was playing two chess matches at the same time, I wasn’t actually playing at all — John was playing the match against the ‘insane’ AI.
To top it off, I’ve only played like 5 chess matches my whole life. I barely know how to move the pieces!
Suffice to say, John wasn’t very pleased when I told him.
24 hours back in America from China | American China Expat’s Thoughts
24 hours back in the USA from China. What do I think about it here? What are my first impressions? Expectations?
In this case , these were orders placed by China before the so called Export Ban
There is no provision in the Export Ban asking for cancellation of existing orders and thus ASML happily exported $ 650 Million of Equipment to China
It’s no coincidence that before the ban, China placed almost $ 1.7 Billion of orders with Tokyo Electron and ASML for advanced semiconductor equipment and
NEITHER JAPAN NOR NETHERLANDS included any clause which called for cancelling existing orders in their legal notifications
Basically the Japanese and Dutch told their companies
Sell as much equipment as you guys want and we will turn a blind eye but before we pass the export ban
Experts estimate that Chinese plans for semiconductors will remain uninterrupted at least until January 2025 thanks to these small loopholes which I believe were deliberate
Meanwhile only one Moron blindly agreed to all the export bans and included cancellations of orders for the Chinese worth $ 1.46 Billion
SAMSUNG & SOUTH KOREA!!!!!!!
Everyone else,even the Japanese used simple common sense
Sure they hate China but they like money and they know , nobody else will pay $ 1.7 Billion for that equipment
Ultimately it’s why Politics never succeeds against Economics
It’s why Donald Trump never suggested an Export Ban but an extra Tariff on Exports to China from Japan or Netherlands or S. Korea. A Tariff would have increased Chinese costs and made them uncompetitive
Trump said “Develop your AI but PAY THE PRICE FOR IT”
Luckily Bidens win has given China four years to combat the situation and hopefully before Trump comes to power, China would have made the preparations to battle the onslaught
Development to come up near JB-Singapore rail terminus
Hong Kong will join Malaysia in developing an economic hub in southern Johor, near the Singapore border, as Malaysia looks to tap the land development potential near the site of an upcoming cross-border rail link.
signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a six-acre land for mixed use in Bukit Chagar on Friday, as part of Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee’s visit to Malaysia.
The development, worth 3 billion ringgit ($660 million), will come up less than one kilometer from the Malaysia-Singapore border. The location is also the site of the under-construction Bukit Chagar terminus station that’s part of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System.
The intended mixed development is expected to transform the area into an attractive investor destination, for local and international investors.
The RTS project, which is expected to serve up to 10,000 commuters per hour in every direction, is due for completion in 2026. It is expected to ease traffic congestion at Malaysia and Singapore’s land border crossing, one of the world’s busiest. The four kilometer transit has two stations — Bukit Chagar in Johor and Woodlands in Singapore.
Nouriel Roubini in a talk said that China growing by 6.3% against the worst geopolitical and trade climate showed the strength and power of the country’s resilience
He also said China’s internal debt was something that could be infinitely restructured and be an ASSET to the Nation rather than a liability
He said their 2% inflation was also a huge positive against reeling inflation in the West
What Roubini says isn’t rocket science
Anyone who understands 101 of economics knows this
Still the West is rooted by SO MUCH PROPAGANDA that even something so basic , appears like some form of huge redemption for China
Not that the Chinese give a damn
They simply do their job and do their best for their country and people
The Best line of Dr Roubini was
Ten years from now, China would have moved on , solved it’s problems and be on its way as a developed economy
We (The US) would still be reeling with debt and inflation because we are so damn afraid of facing the truth and for once putting common interests over politics and ideology
My teenager went to a very diverse Chicago public high school. I knew she, as a white girl, was in the minority at her school. I didn’t realize just how much so until her graduation a few weeks ago.
I watched her and about 400 of her classmates walk across the stage. Between their names, skin tones, and outfits (about a dozen girls wore hijabs), I’d bet that there were at least 50 different nationalities/ethnicities/races represented in her graduating class. That type of diversity was intentional… it was an International Baccalaureate (IB) school. My daughter was one of just a handful of students that represented what is actually the majority demographic in most of the country: white, born in the U.S., Christian, and straight.
Naturally, the parents in the audience were just as diverse as the students on the stage. Except, most of us had something in common. It wasn’t our skin tone or the way we dressed or even the language we spoke… it was that most of us, the parents, were noticeably overweight.
I’m a really big guy. I don’t lie to myself about it. I notice when people are as tall as I am, because it is rare. I notice when people are as big as I am, because it is rare. Well, it used to be rare. Now it’s becoming common.
When I sat in my seat for the ceremony, I expected to be cramped and uncomfortable. When you’re my size, you just get used to that whenever there’s side-by-side seating. But I noticed that it wasn’t just me. Every single person in the row in front of me looked cramped. Everyone in the row in front of that one look cramped. A few people were standing on the sides, unable to fit in the seats at all.
There was nothing unusual about the seats. They were the regular size you might find at any stadium. But so many of the adults in the room barely fit in them, because so many of those adults were overweight.
And that’s my “only in the USA” moment: hundreds of people, representing dozens of demographics from all over the globe, gathered in one place to celebrate our children’s accomplishments and transitions into adulthood, and most of us carrying at least 50 extra pounds on us.
Have you heard of Arnold Abbott? He was a 90-year-old man with a big heart and an unwavering belief in helping those who were less fortunate. He lived in Florida, where there was a growing problem of homelessness and he was concerned about this issue and wanted to do something to help.
So he decided to start feeding the homeless in his community. He set up a table in a public park and began serving food to anyone who was hungry. Soon it became a regular fixture in the park, and many homeless people came to rely on him for a hot meal.
However the city council of Fort Lauderdale had recently passed a law making it illegal to feed the homeless in public spaces. The law was intended to address the problem of homelessness in a different way, but it made it difficult for people like Abbott to provide much needed help to those in need.
Abbott was undeterred. He believed that it was his moral duty to help the homeless, and he continued to feed them despite the new law. Soon, other volunteers joined Abbott in his efforts to help the homeless. They set up tables in other public spaces and began serving food to those who were hungry.
The city of Fort Lauderdale was not happy about this. They began to issue citations and fines to Abbott and the other volunteers who were feeding the homeless. But he remained resolute in his belief that feeding the homeless was the right thing to do and many others agreed with him as well.
Despite the legal challenges, Abbott and the other volunteers continued to feed the homeless. Their actions inspired others to join them, and soon a movement was born. People all over the country began to speak out against the criminalization of acts of compassion, and many cities began to repeal their laws banning the feeding of the homeless!!
The case of Arnold Abbott raises the question of what is truly ethical and what is legal? In some cases laws may conflict with our sense of right and wrong. In such instances, it is up to individuals to decide whether to follow the law or follow their conscience.
China doesn’t just lend the money. It also builds the projects. Yes it gets its hands dirty in the actual work, and its Chinese architects and civil engineers and construction workers are right there on the sites working as well.
(This, by the way, is another reason why the US “Build Back Better” project will fail. White Americans are not going to move to Africa and stay there for 5 years working alongside their ex-slaves. But I digress.)
The point is – Chinese construction companies always get involved in the construction, which means that they are making money out of the work they do, which also means that basically part of the Chinese loans are recouped as profits for the construction company.
Commentators are often so wrapped down in the politics that they forget the business side of things. Chinese construction companies are the best in the world – they have a tremendous amount of experience and expertise. When they go overseas and build things, they are just exporting their experience and expertise in the form of their construction work. It’s their business. Building things is how they make money.
Why The U.S. Gave Up On Public Transit
VIDEO: Ukraine Troops SURRENDER en-masse; WHITE FLAGS on Tanks
Hundreds of Ukrainian troops, displaying white flags on their tanks and infantry vehicles, surrendered en-masse to Russia today. More and more common as troops see with their own eyes, it is hopeless to continue fighting.
Video from the battlefield shows the mass surrender:
Star Trek Next Generation – Sentient Starship
China’s Chip Production Soars with Arrival of 6 Lithography Machines, US Blockade Falters!
In recent years, China has made tremendous breakthroughs in the chip field, while the United States, in order to maintain its dominant position in the chip industry, has attempted to curb China’s development in this field and use a series of measures to suppress China.
However their Impact is much lesser than what was expected by the West.
The West threw their entire financial might at Russia and the Sanctions against Russia are perhaps the worst Sanctions against any Nation ever.
Yet Russia stands , survives and even grows
Its like say the difference between blowing up a house with Dynamite and burning a house with a slow fuse and kerosene.
Russia stands to lose around 34% of its Export Volume and Revenue by 2023 which translates to 55,000 -75,000 Jobs
This in turn translates to around $ 34 Billion Contraction in GDP
Add to this Russia stands to lose around 14% Industrial Productivity due to Restriction of Spares by the West. This translates to around $ 44 Billion Contraction in GDP and around 45,000 – 60,000 Jobs
Add to this Russia stands to lose around 41% Service Industry temporarily for minimum 12–18 months. This translates to around $ 21 Billion Contraction in GDP and around 14,000 Jobs-21,000 Jobs
Adding we get around $ 99 Billion GDP Contraction or around 5.45% Contraction of GDP
Adding we get around 186,000 Jobs
This means we can add around 279,000 Auxiliary Jobs
So Yes. It Definitely isnt a Walk in the Park. It would require a lot of hands on work for Russia
However it could have been far worse
The West expected a far higher impact. Around 15% Contraction. Around 1.5–2 Million Jobs etc.
Russia can make this up by 2025 easily
Why did the Sanctions not make things as bad as the West expected?
China primarily boosted the Russian Economy. They almost replaced 70% of all Car Parts , purchased Car Factories, Building Plants, Took over other financial projects – and you know the speed of the Chinese….they are very fast
The Dragon may be the Elder brother but the Elephant India – too played a role here as Chota Bhai.
The Huge Orders of Oil, Coal, Diamonds and the Cooperation for Alternate Mechanisms and best of all indicating that the Hachet of Galwan can temporarily be buried by trading and purchasing Yuan for the FIRST TIME EVER.
Add to this China and India both refused to delist Russian Bonds and Russian Instruments and have accepted payment for these instruments in RMB & Rubles. Another big concession from India.
For example Indian Investors who were to get $ 15 Million in Interest can now get 750 Million Rubles paid by Russia into SBI Kathmandu who will in turn swap for Chinese Yuan and use the Yuan to buy more Coal and Oil and Gas.
So Russia is far better off than the West believed. It will Survive and Grow much Stronger.
Especially if the SINO-RUSSO-INDO-IRANIAN Alliance clicks off
Will Sanctions deter Putin from Continuing the War?
In March 2022 – there was a 50% Chance that Putin was looking for a Face Saving Off Ramp and was deeply worried about Economy and Militarily
Now – Not the Smallest Chance
The West had their shot. They could have forced Putin to the Table, forced much smaller concessions and ended with a Strong “Victory”
Now Putin calls the Shots
Star Trek Next Generation – Ancient Battle Cruiser
Trucking giant Yellow collapsed on Sunday, ceasing operations immediately and leaving some 30,000 workers without jobs.
The closure is the biggest in terms of jobs and revenue in the U.S. trucking industry.
The company, which received $700 million in federal COVID relief funds in 2020, is preparing to file for bankruptcy and is in talks to sell off all or parts of the business.
The nearly 100-year-old firm is known for its competitive pricing and has more than 12,000 trucks shipping freight across the US for brands including Walmart and Home Depot.
At this time, it __appears__ that all of Yellow’s subsidiaries may be GONE too:
YRC Freight reflects the Yellow Transportation (founded in 1924 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) purchase of and subsequent merger with Roadway (founded in 1930 in Akron, Ohio).
YRC Freight is the largest subsidiary of Yellow with corporate headquarters in Overland Park, Kan.
Other Yellow subsidiaries include Reddaway, Holland and New Penn.
HAL TURNER OPINION
I am just guessing, but given the sheer size of Yellow, ad some of its subsidiaries like Roadway and New Penn, this could trigger “supply-chain disruption” that would make COVID look like child’s play.
Think about this. Yellow is an LTL carrier. That stands for “Less-Than-Truckoad.” They handle things like skids (pallets) of shipments.
They have 12,000 trucks. Each day, each truck handles about ten pick-ups, and ten deliveries. (Average)
That means tomorrow, about 120,000 deliveries — won’t come. Another 120,000 pick-ups, won’t be made.
Stores won’t get products.
Factories won’t get raw materials or parts. They also won’t be able to ship finished products out.
Do the math. How long before this becomes an actual catastrophe in the supply chain?
Are there other truckers? Yes. Can they just step-in and take up the slack? NO!
Trucklines must carefully balance their equipment to their actual need. There simply isn’t enough capacity within the rest of the system to absorb a sudden change like this.
Moreover, certain truck lines only service certain geographic areas. In some places, where maybe YELLOW was the only carrier, shippers simply may not be able to get a trucker to come to them! No service. At all.
I cannot even begin to guess the impact this is going to have on the US economy and supply chain. And I suspect it will show itself within a matter of days.
Julius Caesar was once kidnapped by pirates, who would go on to regret that decision. In 75 BC, 25-year-old Caesar was traveling to the Island of Rhode’s to study oratory when he was captured by Cilician pirates, who infested the Mediterranean, but were usually left alone because they provided wealthy Romans with slaves.
Although this was about ten years before Caesar would start to make a name for himself, according to the biographer Plutarch, he didn’t act like he was a captive.
When the pirates informed Caesar he was going to be ransomed for the some of 20 talents, he burst out laughing in their faces, telling them they clearly didn’t know who they had captured and should raise the sum to 50 talents.
Caesar only had a few friends in captivity and Cilician pirates were known to be particularly blood thirsty, but this didn’t stop him from sending his friends to tell the pirates to shut up because they were making too much noise as Caesar tried to sleep.
It’s also recorded that Caesar would recite poetry and speeches to the pirates and should they not be impressed he would openly call them illiterate savages and threatened to have them crucified.
Eventually, the ransom was paid and Caesar was released, probably to the relief of the Pirates, who were sick of him. However, the now free Caesar wasted no time in having the Pirates hunted down and crucified, which he over seen personally, making good on the promise he made when the pirates didn’t enjoy his poetry.
Sen. Feinstein’s Brain Melts Down DURING A VOTE!
By now everyone knows that 90-year-old California Senator Dianne Feinstein has no business holding public office — everyone except Dianne Feinstein, that is. Her most recent episode: attempting to pontificate about the importance of defense spending during a Senate vote when all that was required of her was to say “aye.” An aide came to her rescue but not before the awkward episode had made everyone in the room cringe.
When sperm whales need a nap, they take a deep breath, dive down about 45 feet and arrange themselves into perfectly-level, vertical patterns.
They sleep sound and still for up to two hours at a time between breaths, in pods of 5 or 6 whales, presumably for protection.
No one knew whales slept vertically until a 2008 study documented the behavior.
And no one captured really good photography of it in the wild until 2017. French photographer Stephane Granzotto was documenting sperm whales in the Mediterranean for his book on the creatures when he came across these sleeping whales…
Factory Owner Reveals the Truth About Chinese Manufacturing
The world has trusted Chinese manufacturing for decades, but recently many politicians are stating Western countries must decouple from China. Will Chinese manufacturing continue to play a vital role in our global economy? Today I travel to Wuxi, China to visit a Chinese textile factory to see how Chinese factories make clothes.
Most American movies are written and produced by wealthier, trendier people who live in major cities. Thus, many of them are set in major cities. If all you knew of America was what you saw in movies, you may think things like:
Most young, single adult Americans live in nice apartments or condos in trendy areas of major cities and have “fun” jobs like museum curators or tour bus company owner/operators.
In fact, very few young, single people live in places like that and have jobs like that. Most young, single people can’t afford that lifestyle, and work “regular” jobs which they may enjoy, but aren’t really “fun.”
While there are some major cities in the United States, and a lot of people live in them, the majority of people do not.* For the average American, a scene like this is something they will only experience while watching it on a screen themselves:
Taking public transportation from your condo or apartment, then walking down a crowded city sidewalk on your way to your job in a high-rise office building? That’s the exception, not the rule for most Americans. For most of us, it’s leaving your single-family home and driving your own personal car to your job in a building that’s two or three stories tall, max. And you park your car in the parking lot next to the building.
I live in Chicago, which has a good public transit system, but I only know two people who actually use it to get to work. Everyone else just takes it on special occasions, like when they want to take their kids downtown to act like tourists for a day. Actually, that’s also one thing my out-of-town guests always want to do when they visit me in Chicago, too: ride the subway. Why? Because it’s so rare here… it’s something that most Americans only experience in movies.
*A lot of people are commenting that the majority of Americans do, in fact, live in “urban” areas. “urban areas” and “trendy parts of major cities” are two different things. According to the Census, an “urban area” is any town with over 50,000 population. That includes literally tens of thousands of places most people would just call small towns.
Robot Chicken – Channel Flip Compilation Part Five
He sacked a colleague the day my colleague was leaving for a family holiday. My boss (and owner of the business), Paul, just liked to show people he had the power. He was often petty and a micromanaging control freak. He seemed to like me, so most of the time he left me to do my thing.
My colleague, Ian, had become a friend, and we’d hang out after work. He had been planning an overseas family trip for some time, and had been talking about it for a couple of months in advance of the date. He had requested leave, which was approved, before making the booking. He was a friendly, genuine guy, and most of us in the office shared his enthusiasm for his holiday. We could see he was looking forward to taking his family away.
He was due to fly out on a Saturday. On the Friday, Paul called Ian into his office and told him he had changed his mind, he was revoking the leave. Ian tried to argue that the tickets were non-refundable, everything was booked, his wife had taken leave, and they had permission to take their children out of school. Paul wasn’t swayed. He made it clear, cancel or be fired.
Ian asked what was so important that he needed to stay, Paul didn’t give a real answer. He just shrugged and said, “it’s my company, my call.”
Ian called his wife, and then decided to do the holiday. He didn’t want to lose the money or let his family down.
He came and told me just before lunch what had happened, and suggested we go for a farewell lunch.
I was incensed!
I immediately wrote a handwritten resignation, left it on Paul’s desk, packed my things, and went to lunch. I told Ian and some other colleagues at lunch that this was also MY farewell.
As lunch wrapped up, the others drifted back to the office, and it was just Ian and me, commiserating over a beer, when Paul came in, in a fluster.
I had never seen him in such a state (I later realized it was because he was no longer in control). Paul loudly tried to convince me to stay, offered me everything (other than more money!). I just said no, calmly. He left saying something like “you’ll be back when you can’t find another job.”
I called in on another friend on my way home, and had a job offer that afternoon.
Pepe Escobar: Russia-Africa Summit a GAME CHANGER as NATO Isolates Itself
Pepe Escobar discusses the significance of the Russia-Africa Summit and what it means for the ongoing move toward a multipolar world led by Russia and the Global South.
Heavenly Chicken Garlic Soup
Ingredients
1 whole chicken, disjointed
2 carrots, minced
2 stalks celery, minced
1 large whole yellow onion
Chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
5 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tablespoons softened butter
2 tablespoons flour
Instructions
Make the chicken broth by simmering chicken, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper in enough water to cover. When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, remove it and skim the fat from broth.
Simmer broth, reducing it until it is very rich. Add the flour and butter to a small amount of broth and mix with a wire whisk until velvety. Pour this mixture into the remaining broth.
Tear chicken into bite-size pieces and add to the soup.
Assembling the car requires a complex number of steps where hundreds of parts are put together. Each part is worth very little on its own, but when everything is together, the finished product has amazing value.
This is how I pictured college:
All my years of education assembled together to come to this very moment.
I felt like the world was telling me, “Congratulations! You are a complete product.”
So, imagine that moment… yes, it called for a victory fist pump!
Well, my educational “assembly line” took soooo… sooooo… long that my expectations had built up.
I felt like a top-of-the-line fully equipped Tesla Model S!
I felt entitled.
I thought that by just getting out of the “assembly line” with my degree in hand made me valuable like the Model S pictured above.
“Hey world! I’m an Engineer!” I would say with arrogance and pride, “You want some of my knowledge? It’s going to COST you!!!”
Haha!
Please don’t laugh at me…
I felt that my time had value, so whatever work I did, I felt I deserved to get paid.
I WAS WRONG!
My father taught me this lesson the hard way.
After I had spent one week working at his office, I demanded a late Friday evening, “Pay me, Dad!”
“Son, you’re not entitled to a payment.”
“I’m an engineer, Dad! Pay me as an engineer!” I said with pride.
“I pay for results!” my father said.
“But I’m working hard on this project! I have invested hours into this. Pay me!” I angrily said.
“No results, no pay!” he said firmly.
You know what happened?
He eventually changed my mindset!
He helped me understand that in this world I’m NOT entitled to anything simply because of my credentials or for sitting at the office all day long.
He helped me understand that if I don’t deliver results to others, my fancy college degree hanging on the wall might look nice, but it won’t pay my bills.
So, to answer your question: What is one small thing that you can do differently to make your life better?
Learn this truth: Life pays only for results.
The world doesn’t care for your credentials, or how hard you work, all it cares is for how much value you DELIVER!
It’s in giving which makes us deserve something in exchange.
There’s no secret formula.
The only thing that works is work!
We do not deserve what we want, we only deserve what we do.
Embrace this small truth, and it will radically change your life.
You could ask this women. Caron McBride had no idea she was wanted for a felony for 21-years. She only found out when she went to update her married name at a Texas DMV, in April 2021 and they told her she was wanted for felony embezzlement.
She was charged after falling to return a VHS tape of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, from a Oklahoma video store, back in 1999. The shocking part is she had no memory of renting the tape or ever seeing the show. Its likely someone else rented the tape under her name, leaving her with a felony, that thankfully has been dismissed.
Cambodia’s Controversial Election: U.S. vs. Russia & China!
Cambodia is celebrating a new election of leader Hun Sen from the Cambodian People’s Party but the U.S. says: Not so fast. The U.S. says that it will announce punitive measures because it does not consider this to have been a “free and fair” election. They claim that the opposition was threatened and harrassed. But the U.S., E.U. and other Western countries did not send observers to the elections. Russia and China did. Is this U.S. posturing or something else?
Why is it the US’s business what happens in Cambodia?
“Your checking account is overdrawn. There’s a $35 NSF fee.”
When my ex-wife and I first started dating back in 1988, we got a bank account at a bank that no longer exists (after multiple mergers it’s now part of Bank of America) called Citizens & Southern.
So it turns out they hit on a great money-making idea. If you had money in your bank account, and write a check so that after it was cashed there would be less than $35 in your account, hit you with a $35 fee and say “See? Your account balance is negative!”)
Say you had $110 in your account and you wrote a $100 check. They’d hit you with a $35 NSF fee and say “See? You’re overdrawn by $25! Your balance is -$25! That’s why we charged the fee!”
You might think this is illegal, but…
…you’d totally be right.
Eventually someone hit them with a class action lawsuit for doing this, and years later they refunded us all the NSF fees they’d ever charged plus a couple hundred bucks on top.
Arizona teen missing for nearly 4 years shows up safe at Montana police station
An Arizona teenager who vanished without a trace nearly four years ago is safe after walking into a police station in Montana, authorities said Wednesday. Alicia Navarro, 18, of Glendale showed up alone this week in a small town about 40 miles from the Canadian border and identified herself, according to police in Glendale, a Phoenix suburb.
The worst nuclear disaster in North American history was discovered by accident. In 1983 a hospital in Juarez Mexico had a Radiotherapy unit dismantled and sold to a scrap yard for just nine dollars. However, the person responsible for getting rid of the waste spilled an un-marked cylinder of 6000 cobalt pellets contaminating the entire junk yard. The metal was than sent to two foundries that produced 6600 tons of rebar and 30,000 contaminated restaurant table legs.
It was only by chance that a truck transporting some of the metal took a wrong turn and drove passed the Los Alamos National Lab where the first atomic bomb was developed and their sensers detected the radiation. By that time the metal had already been shipped around Mexico and the U.S, hundreds of people were exposed to the radiation making it one of the worst Nuclear disasters in American History.
ALMOST UNWATCHABLE: Kennedy Will Not Stop Listing Reversals Of Judicial Nom’s Decisions To Her Face
At today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) grilled Judge Karoline Mehalchick, nominee to be United States District Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, about the several reversals of her decisions.
The average age of Congress is rising. That’s unlikely to change soon.
The current class of lawmakers is one of the oldest in history, with an overall median age of 59. The median age of senators is 65, the highest on record. In the House, the median age has hovered between 57 and 58 for the past decade, higher than in any year before that period.
How is the experience of riding a subway in America Vs. China
Counter-Revolution – ‘Do You Know What Time It Is?’
Both the U.S. and Europe have stalked brazenly into traps of their own making, Alastair Crooke writes.
To be blunt, both the U.S. and Europe have stalked brazenly into traps of their own making. Caught in the lies and deceit woven around a claimed inheritance of superior cultural DNA, (vouchsafing, it is said, almost certain victory), the West is awakening to a fast-approaching disaster to which there are no easy solutions. Cultural exceptionalism, together with the prospect of a clear ‘win’ over Russia, are draining rapidly away – but exiting delusion is both slow and humiliating.
The coming devastation is not just centred around the failed Ukraine offensive and NATO’s weak showing. It comprises multiple vectors that have been building over the years, but which are reaching culmination synchronously.
In the U.S., the run-up to momentous elections is underway. The Democrats are in a fix: The party has long since turned its back on its old blue-collar constituency, engaging instead with an urban ‘creative class’ in an exalted, world-shaping ‘social engineering’ project of moral redress, in alliance with Silicon Valley and the Permanent Nomenklatura. But that experiment has run off into the weeds, becoming ever more extreme and absurd. Push-back is building.
Predictably enough, the Democratic campaign is not gaining traction. Team Biden has low, low approval ratings. But Biden family pressure insists that Biden must persevere with his candidature, and not yield to another. Either way – Biden staying or going – there is no ready solution to the Party’s conundrum of a non-performing, non-platform.
The electoral landscape is a mess. Heavy ‘lawfare’ artillery is intended to break the Trump defences and drive him off the field, whilst an attrition of disclosures of Biden family malfeasance are intended wear down and implode the Biden bubble. The Democratic Establishment is spooked too by the flanking manoeuvre of the R. F. Kennedy candidature, which is snowballing rapidly.
Put simply, the Democratic wokish ideology of historical redress is separating the U.S. into two nations living in one land. Divided not so much by ‘Red or Blue’, or class, but defined by irreconcilable ‘ways of being’. The old categories: Left, Right, Democrat or GOP are being dissolved by a Cultural War that respects no categories, crossing the boundaries of class and party affiliation. Indeed, even ethnic minorities have been alienated by the zealots wanting to sexualise children at age 5 years, and by the pushing of the trans agenda on to school children.
Ukraine has served as the solvent to the old order and has become the Albatross hanging around the neck of the Biden Admin: How to spin the looming Ukraine debacle as somehow ‘mission achieved’. Can that be done? Because the escape route of a ceasefire and a frozen line of contact is unacceptable to Moscow. In short, ‘Biden’s war’ cannot continue as it is, but nor can it do ‘other’ without facing humiliation. The myth of American power, NATO competence and the reputation of U.S. weaponry hangs in the balance.
The economic narrative (‘everything is fine’) is poised, for somewhat unconnected reasons, to turn sour too. Debt – finally – is becoming the sword suspended above the economy’s neck. Credit is being tightly squeezed. And next month, the BRICS-SCO bloc will take the first strategic steps to disentangle up to 40 countries from the dollar. Who then will buy Yellen’s $ 1.1 trillion Treasuries – now and in the future – that is needed to fund U.S. government expenditure?
These events ostensibly are disconnected, but in reality, they form a self-reinforcing loop. One leading to a ‘run on the political bank’ – that is to say, the U.S.’ credibility itself.
Faced with many questions – and no solutions – the mood amongst sectors of the electorate is driving a radical and increasingly iconoclastic mood. A counter-revolutionary spirit, perhaps. It is too early to say whether it will sweep a majority, but it may – for the radicalism is coming from the two wings: GOP grassroots and the Kennedy ‘camp’.
One strain of GOP voters separates conservative leaders into two camps: those who “know what time it is” and those who don’t. That is the catchphrase on the Right that has become increasingly important to a significant wing of the Party who see a country weakened and corrupted by ideology; who hold that there is almost nothing left to ‘conserve’. Overturning the existing post-American order, and re-establishing America’s ancient principles in practice, is advocated as a sort of counter-revolution – and the only road forward.
That aphorism for ‘knowing what time of day it is’ refers to an emerging sense of urgency and appetite for sweeping action, not dragging and dull academic debates among more populist-minded conservatives. “The premise is that the struggle against wokish cultural power is existential, and that extreme tactics that would shock an older generation of conservatives need to be the norm”.
In fact, if a leader is not shocking in his conduct and proposals, he or she probably “doesn’t know what time it is”.
The second key feature of this us-against-them mentality is that any policy consensus, ipso facto, triggers suspicion and becomes a focus of attack.
“When you realize this, what looks at first like a hodgepodge of different ideas seems more unified. Covid health policy, disgust about Jan. 6, the Pentagon budget, immigration, support for Ukraine, promoting racial diversity, trans rights — these are all issues that enjoy a measure of élite bipartisan consensus. But for the Tucker Carlson wing – Republicans who embrace these things simply – don’t know what time it is”, Politico explains.
What is salient in this formulation is that just as unreserved support for Covid regulatory practices was a ‘marker’ of ‘correct-think’ in pandemic time, so support for Ukraine is defined as ‘a marker’ of correct liberal-think (and being in the Team) in the in the post-pandemic era.
This suggests that – already and as the election nears – Ukraine will be no-longer bi-partisan in terms of support, but rather will become a sword used against the hated Uni-party establishment, and any hint of a major f*ck-up will become centre-piece in this counter revolutionary war.
The GOP’s sense that U.S. culture has gone off-track: Legislation was snarled in Congress earlier this month, when the formerly sacrosanct Pentagon Defence Bill became the target of culture-war amendments on abortion, diversity and gender that could scuttle its passage. Speaker McCarthy was forced to accept the far-right rebellion against the Defence budget bill and push it through, without the usual widespread bipartisan support.
The measures stripped funding for diversity initiatives in the military and added restrictions on abortion and transgender care for service members. GOP lawmakers said they acted because liberal ideology was weakening the military. But the amendments endanger the bill’s path in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The heightened feelings on both sides are reflected in a poll that found that about 80% of Republicans believe that the Democratic agenda “if not stopped, will destroy America as we know it.” About the same share of Democrats had the same fear of the Republican ag.
Col Macgregor: NATO’s FRIGHTENING Plan For Russia
Absolutely. The United States is in the hands of someone who is mentally unstable.
What’s the most impressive thing you’ve ever seen a doctor do?
My daughter was 13 years of age and something was very wrong. She is a nonidentical twin. This information only matters because her illness is genetic and hopefully her twin will never have it.
We went to a new doctor at the practice we had been to before. He was just downright off in behavior. I had been a teacher about 20 years at this point and one of my Master degrees was in special education. I immediately saw him for what he was. Autistic.
I had twin daughters in the exam room. He could not function until we were all seated and all 6 feet flat on the floor. He paced silently in that tiny room until we were exactly as he felt we should be. He seemingly ignored all questions until he was leaving and would turn his head to the side and in a rapid fire voice, answer all questions. There were many more indicators but those were very telling. It was really odd but I saw it for what it was and shushed my daughters comments.
He took one look at her and gave a devastating diagnosis. A thirty year life span with a very low quality of life until then. I was not about to have that. Oh no.
I went home and Googled of course. Life became more grim. I realized she had all the classic physical signs. No doctor in our 200,000 population was taking a pediatric with her disease. The nearest was Dallas Texas which was a six hour drive each way.
As a working single Mother this seemed impossible.
Three days pass. I receive a phone call from a local specialist who is willing to take her at 6:30 am in the morning. She tells me that when one of her patients die, we can have their later slot.
She also tells me that the ONLY reason she is taking our case is because of the doctor who called her. The doctor who could not speak until we were all seated properly. The doctor who could not speak until he was leaving the room. This doctor meant so much to her that she was willing to take my daughters case.
As the next few years progress I learned many things. I learned that our autistic doctor was the doctor that all the other doctors, nurses and medical personnel went to. I also learned that this man saved my daughter’s life at this time and that she was very near a critical time in her disease. I learned that he gave her more quality and more meaning in the years ahead of her. When one of her many specialists were being hostile, he believed her. He LISTENED to her. He stayed with her through many trials in her health.
We continued to see him three times a year. He began to relax around us. My child held a special place in his heart and he began to joke and speak a bit differently. Not a great deal but enough for us to notice.
For those of us who have a loved one who is terminally ill, a doctor can be ambivalent, an asshole, or one such as this “A Jewel”.
This is impressive.
Italian Style Pot Roast Soup
Ingredients
1 (3 to 4 pound) chuck roast with bone, cut into pieces
1 (16 ounce) box acini de pepe (very small pasta)
8 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 large yellow onions, sliced
5 stalks celery, cut into pieces
3 -5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 (15 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
6 quarts water
Freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
Place meat, vegetables, garlic tomatoes and tomato sauce in a large pot with the 6 quarts of water. Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 to 3 hours until meat is tender.
Toward the last half hour cook the pasta until al dente. Drain pasta add a little bit of butter and set aside.
With a slotted spoon remove meat. Trim fat, remove bone and shred the meat. Place meat back into pot.
Place some pasta in a bowl and ladle in the soup. Top with lots of parmesan cheese.
The Chase (1946, Film-Noir)
Todays treat; full movie. Film Noir.
Hunted … Haunted … Hounded … Chuck Scott gets a job as chauffeur to tough guy Eddie Roman; but Chuck’s involvement with Eddie’s fearful wife becomes a nightmare.
The small things are really BIG BIG things. In all sorts of ways.
Don’t you know.
I get a lot of crazy people on MM…
Not that it is bad, mind you. But I am a VERY BUSY fellow.
So this guy pops up on the comment boards.
Long, long diatribes. Interspersing praise, with meandering comments, and passive aggressive demands.
Very suggestive of a home-bound; locked in person with neurotic tendencies. I told him to stop posting long comment trains on the articles, and instead use the forum.
He responded…
I don’t want to be dictated to jump, beg and roll-over like a common dog by a stranger on my own God-damn website.
I did not send him to the cornfield. But I did blow away all the MM followers around Nebraska. Oh well…
Passive aggressive FUCK.
I do not need this shit.
Good fucking bye.
Interesting Discussion
The United States was sharply critical of Germany’s energy dependence on Russia, imposing sanctions on the construction of pipelines carrying Russian gas beneath the Baltic Sea to Germany (if not, as a now-refuted report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh recently claimed, getting its navy divers to blow them up).
However, the US’s economic dependence on China runs far deeper, and severing the link—for example, in the event of conflict between the two nations—would be far more disruptive.
A provocative report by economist and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis suggests China could more easily break free of the relationship of mutual dependence than the US.
Varoufakis relates that a Chinese official described to him the ‘dark deal’ China struck in the 1970s under which its manufacturers would send their excess production (that is, their output beyond China’s domestic needs) to the US and reinvest the bulk of their US-dollar profits into America’s ‘FIRE’, or finance, insurance and real estate sectors.
‘It ensured that the dollar’s supremacy was just as functional to the interests of US rentiers as it was to Chinese capitalists,’ he says. Of course, the losers in the transaction were the US domestic manufacturers (and their workers) who went out of business under the pressure of Chinese competition.
The list of countries ready to join the BRICS alliance and accept the new currency is growing leaps n bounds. From a set of 19 countries in April, the numbers have spiked to 41 by the end of June. A total of 22 new countries expressed interest to enter the bloc and ditch the U.S. dollar in two months. The next BRICS summit will be held in August in South Africa where the bloc of five nations will combinedly decide the formation of a new currency.
The decision to expand the alliance will be jointly taken in the next BRICS summit and the bloc could soon become BRICS+.
The total number of countries that could challenge the U.S. dollar on the global stage has reached 41. The developing nations that want to accept BRICS currency hail from Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe.
Belarus is the first country in Eastern Europe that expressed interest to accept the new BRICS currency. On the other hand, France has also shown its interest to attend the next BRICS summit in South Africa.
Additionally, many countries in Africa remain on the sidelines and could announce their support for the BRICS currency after its launch. Kenya has urged African nations to stop using the U.S. dollar and trade with native currencies within the continent.
Offensive, but funny
How free am I really in CHINA?? 在中国的自由
She is correct.
These “little things” are really BIG and important things.
Here’s my version (MM version) of her video above…
When the lightning of History strikes, better cut to the chase in our first draft.
When the lightning of History strikes, better cut to the chase in our first draft.
Here we go.
After the extraordinary events in Russia during The Longest Day, President Putin wins on all counts.
Among other feats, he has made an absolute, inter-galactic ass of the whole collective West MSM – all over again.
He rallied virtually every Russian to end the Special Military Operation (SMO) – or “almost war” (according to some business circles) quicker.
He – and the FSB – amassed a formidable list of traitors and 5th and 6th columnists, which will be properly dealt with.
And he now enjoys unlimited freedom to deploy de facto Counter-Terrorist Operation (CTO) martial law powers.
As much as Putin helped perennial Lukashenko in August 2020, preventing regime change in Belarus, good ol’ Luka prevented Russia from sliding into civil war in June 2023.
A complex wide-ranging counter-terror op is now in effect in Moscow and beyond, while assorted Western sub-zoology specimens are stunned, dazed and confused: wasn’t that supposed to be Putin meeting his Czar Nicholas II moment?
A first glance at the chessboard tells us that all the pieces seem to be falling in their right places.
Prighozin gets a golden parachute in Belarus. Shoigu may be about to be sacked, perhaps even Gerasimov (yes, there are deeply dysfunctional layers inside the Ministry of Defense). The Wagner musicians will be incorporated as a regular Army Corps. They may keep doing business in Africa: demand is huge.
So what really happened after The Longest Day? Hefty CIA funds may have changed hands. But in the end the “coup” could turn out to be the Greatest Russian Trolling of the West Ever.
The Mother of All Maskirovkas
Once again, facts on the ground prove Putin is the undisputed champion of Russia. After keeping a strategic silence for a few hours, his intervention gathered full support from the civilian population, the FSB, the Chechens, the Army, the Communists, everyone.
The exact terms of the deal between Luka and Prighozin, with help from the governor of the Tula region, Alexey Dyumin, are still unclear.
Prighozin said he was satisfied with the terms. Peskov confirmed on the record that a criminal case against Prigozhin would be dropped. A key Prighozin demand was the twin resignation of Defense Minister Shoigu and Chief of Staff Gerasimov. That may – or may not – happen in the immediate future.
And that brings us to the still fascinating possibility this was the Mother of All Maskirovkas. Prigozhin sets up all this circus just to get a meeting in Moscow with Shoigu and Gerasimov.
Talk about an overkill just to go out on a date.
The Mother of All Maskirovkas scenario also implies a move worthy of 5D chess.
On Saturday, Wagner was 200 km away from Moscow.
Yet on Sunday, Wagner was 100 km away from Kiev.
Next level Sun Tzu Art of War, anyone?
Between sovereignty and betrayal
Alexander Dugin correctly points out how this was also an exercise in Sovereignty: “Only Sovereign Lukashenko, together with Sovereign Putin himself, confronted [Prighozin]…It turned out that many can frame the President and the people, acting in the shadows and apparently on his behalf, but saving the Fatherland in a critical situation is not their specialty.”
The corollary is that Russia needs “a sovereign elite, otherwise everything will repeat itself.”
As for the dazed and confused collective West, especially the NATO-Kiev junta, with everyone instantly rebranding Wagner from “terrorists” to “freedom fighters”, getting bogged down in their own swamp is the art they excel in.
Mainstream media spun that the proverbial “Western officials” were “taken by surprise” by the mutiny. That depends on the amount of funds that changed hands, and in which direction, during the preparation.
The SMO, now CTO keeps rolling along. The Russian Army continues to fight, undisturbed. The “counter-offensive” remains teetering over the edge of a cliff, ready to kiss the black void.
Putin winning on all counts implies the whole civilian population – and the military – engaged into preserving him and the Russian institutions, as well as perfecting them. There’s absolutely no nation anywhere across the collective West where we find this level of citizen support.
Russian politics is a special animal. It works at the highest level and also at grassroots level – unlike in the West, where the norm is deep hatred between the elites and the people.
Of course it should always be stressed it’s the less patriotic Russian oligarchs who run away every time something approaching The Longest Day takes place.
For a few hours, the West was betting heavily on the dismemberment of Russia. Not now. And not in the foreseeable future.
The succession is already being prepared, by Team Putin and selected patriotic oligarchs. Among the contenders, there’s a secret name that will stun everyone when it pops up. He’s still invisible in terms of public opinion, and works in the shadows. His name should remain secret for the time being.
As it stands, what matters is that Russia as whole emerged even stronger out of The Longest Day. The man and woman in the street showed himself and herself, once again, as a true patriot, ready to defend the Motherland whatever it takes.
There was no confrontation between those who are pro-Russian institutions and those who are pro-Wagner. People actually support both. People regarded Wagner like the “polite green men” who helped to peacefully retake Crimea in 2014. Facing them, there was not a single policeman or military.
So Putin is stronger than ever. But everyone should always keep this in mind: the one thing he can’t forgive is betrayal.
There is an ongoing hazmat incident at the White House in Washington DC. The US Secret Service along with emergency personnel are investigating the situation.
The Secret Service has cordoned off a significant area around the White House, and a full hazmat response has been requested to the scene.
Zambia President’s speech made China take only 1% interest on its loans
Russia may have started operating its S-70 Okhotnik heavy-strike stealth drone against Ukron. Based on photgraphs of the drone flying in the Ukron skies published by Ukron’s telegram channels, Turkish media first reported the use of the drone in the Sumy region.
The drone is speculated to have struck military facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukron (AFU) in the Sumy region.”
On the afternoon of June 27, the Ukron media reported explosions in Sumy and Kremenchuk, Poltava region.
Report Credibility
A photograph, purportedly of the drone flying over Ukron, posted on Mash Telegram Channel conforms to the shape and size of the Okhotnik (Hunter).
At least two Okhotnik drones are known to be undergoing flight testing.
In June 2022, Janes reported, quoting RIA Novosti, that the S-70B Okhotnik had conducted its first test launch of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) against ground targets on May 28, 2022. The drone had launched air-to-surface missiles developed for the manned Sukhoi Su-57
Janes reported that the missile was likely the Kh-59Mk2 standoff cruise missile, a development of the Kh-59-series heavy tactical missile that entered service in the early 1980s.
Kh-59Mk2 range and payload estimates vary widely, but it’s likely to be able to reach targets at least 150 miles away while carrying a 500lb warhead. The modular nature of the design may allow for multiple configurations, such as larger fuel sections, to be swapped for smaller warhead sections.
Izvestia reported in February 2020 that the Grom (Thunder) 9-A-7759 glide bomb had been integrated with the Okhotnik. The drone can carry four Groms in its internal bomb bay.
The Russian Ministry of Defense (RuMoD) has not commented on the report.
Drone Availability
As per open source information, two Russia Okhotnik prototypes are undergoing flight testing, and two more are under construction/flight testing.
The first prototype, which features a non-stealthy circular exhaust, flew for the first time on August, 2019.
The second prototype incorporated tweaks to the aerodynamic design and electronics based on the operational experience with the first Okhotnik.
“The third and fourth drones “will match the production version of the Okhotnik,” the source said.
In March 2021, it was reported that construction of the second prototype of the S-70 Okhotnik was underway. Besides improved electronics and software, the drone would have a shaped nozzle for improved rear aspect stealth.
On December 14, 2021, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko reportedly told Russia-24 TV channel that a serial contract for the supply of the S-70 “Okhotnik” would be concluded within six months. A special control center is being created for the newest Hunter drone.
Flight testing of the second prototype began in July 2022 summer.
Russia may have operationally deployed two Okhotnik drones. Also, it’s conceivable that the two additional prototypes, under construction in 2021, are either available to Russian forces or will be available shortly. It is even possible that they have been operationally deployed already.
The Su-57, S-70 Combination
Russian officials have consistently reiterated that Okhotniks can operate under the control of a Su-57 fighter jet pilot.
“These planes and drones can interact not only with each other but also in various types of combat formations,” said Andrey Yelchaninov, the first deputy chairman of the Board of the Russian Military-Industrial Commission, in April 2021. “Within a very short timeframe, there will be a possibility to control several Okhotnik drones from the Su-57 cockpit.”
Conclusion
Extrapolating development timelines, Russia may have operationally deployed the Okhotnik drone in Ukron. Indeed, it would be logical for Russia to do so to obtain feedback and accumulate operational experience.
The drone in the published photograph features a circular exhaust, which would mean it’s the first prototype. The use of the first prototype would also be logical. Having been under flight testing since 2019, the prototype has likely served the purpose that it was developed for.
Also, losing the first prototype wouldn’t compromise trade secrets or set back the development program to the same extent as losing the second prototype for reasons discussed earlier.
The first prototype is unlikely to operate as a Su-57 loyal wingman. The communication suite, computer hardware, and software required for loyal wingman operations would most likely have been installed and tested on the second prototype.
If the Okhotnik proves itself capable of penetrating Ukron’s airspace undetected, Russia could fast-track serial production of the drone.
Russia’s competent military industrial base could eventually turn the tide against Ukron, which relies heavily on free Western weapons supply.
Now, let’s get on with some more important stuff…
Your BACKWARD voice reveals all your secrets (And the CIA knows it)
Zero evidence of any link between the pandemic virus and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, whether deliberate or accidental
Zero evidence that the Wuhan Institute even researched the particular strain of coronavirus that was responsible for initiating the pandemic, or even a similar strain
Coronavirus is a large family of viruses. And what the fuck does an Institute of Virology do if not conduct research on viruses?
“We continue to have no indication that the WIV’s pre-pandemic research holdings included SARSCoV-2 or a close progenitor, nor any direct evidence that a specific research-related incident occurred involving WIV personnel before the pandemic that could have caused the COVID pandemic,” the report said.
Out of 6 other US intelligence agencies, 4 have concluded that the pandemic was due to a “natural transmission” of coronavirus, while 2 others are “undecided.”
The declassified CIA report is 4 pages long. That’s how little they have.
But watch their politicians state or suggest the opposite again and again.
First Time Hearing Ronnie James Dio | Rainbow’s “Stargazer” Vocal Analysis
Russia’s Medvedev: “. . . there will be a nuclear winter . . . “
Statements by Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, made during an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta:
Below are statements made by Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Dmitry Medvedev. Pay close attention!
The course of the AFU counter-offensive proved unexpected for Kiev’s Western sponsors, who believed in the “omnipotence of unlimited dough”. The defeat of the AFU in the Artemovsk direction was a foregone conclusion;
European businesses that have left Russia are “biting their elbows”, lamenting their lost revenues. It has permanently lost the Russian market; goods have been replaced by others. Production growth in Russia is “much higher than in Europe”, and inflation at the end of the year will be lower than in the eurozone;
Russia was forced to conduct a special military operation to protect its sovereignty and millions of people. The Kiev regime should be scrapped and banned as fascist;
The situation in Ukraine is not a regional conflict but a total confrontation between the collective West and the rest of the world. The confrontation between the West and the rest of the world could last for decades;
The current confrontation between the West and the rest of the world has brought the world to the brink of a third world war. In the event of a third world war, there will be no winners – there will be a nuclear winter, epidemics and famine on Earth;
The outcome of the total confrontation between Russia and the West should be enshrined in a new document like the Helsinki Act.”
Tex-Mex Beef Lasagna
Turn to Tradition for Tex-Mex Taste
(Family Features) The next time your loved ones crave a comforting dish that’s warming from the inside-out, turn to an all-time classic with a touch of southern flair.
Take inspiration for this Tex-Mex Beef Lasagna from season 3 of “BBQuest: Beyond the Pit,” a video series that dives into the long-held traditions, new flavors and everyday inspiration that make Texas barbecue legendary. Developed from the show by BBQuest co-host and “Hardcore Carnivore” cookbook author Jess Pryles, this tasty take on comfort food can be the perfect solution for a family meal with plenty of leftovers.
After dinner, settle in together and learn pitmaster techniques from the experts as the series follows four themes that capture the essence of Texas barbecue: legacy and tradition; creativity and innovation; Texas trailblazers; and family and community.
“Since launching BBQuest four years ago, it’s truly remarkable to see how much has changed and yet stayed the same when it comes to Texas barbecue, and that’s exactly what you see in season 3,” said Rachel Chou, Texas Beef Council’s director of consumer marketing. “There has been so much exciting innovation around cooking methods and international flavors while there’s still a huge dedication to long-held recipes and smoking techniques.”
10 ounces canned diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
15 ounces canned red enchilada sauce
1 cup Mexican crema or sour cream
Nonstick cooking spray
12 corn tortillas
8 ounces shredded Mexican blend cheese
Cilantro (optional)
Green onions, thinly sliced (optional)
Instructions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In large pan or skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat then add onion. Cook until softened, 4 to 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add ground beef and cook, stirring regularly, until beef has browned.
Add kosher salt, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle powder and onion powder; stir well. Add corn, black beans and diced tomatoes. Turn heat to medium and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
In bowl, combine enchilada sauce and crema; mix well.
Spray casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Pour about 1/4 cup enchilada sauce mixture on bottom to prevent tortillas from sticking.
Layer 2 to 4 tortillas across bottom then top with layer of ground beef mixture. Use ladle to spoon some enchilada sauce mixture on top, distributing evenly. Top with another layer of tortillas then repeat layers until casserole is full, 3 or 4 layers. Top with shredded cheese.
Loosely cover dish with foil in tent shape to help prevent cheese from sticking, then bake for 30 minutes.
Remove foil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and golden brown.
Cool for 5 minutes before serving. Top with cilantro and green onions, if desired.
I turned 16 in January of 2000, my dad “gave” me his beat up old 1987 Ford Ranger. “Gave” is in quotation marks because it wasn’t REALLY mine, it was my dads but I was the primary driver.
In the summer of 2000, my mom’s youngest brother (my “guncle”-gay uncle) got ANOTHER DUI. I don’t remember if it was his 2nd or 3rd one, but it didn’t matter. He ended up losing his license for a year.
My home life wasn’t the greatest that summer, my mom and dad had separated, I finally had the freedom you can only get when you have a car, but you have to have money for gas and fun things to do.
I had already worked at McDonalds since I was 15 and a half, and I took on another job at our local movie theater (one of the best jobs ever!!)
Of course, since I had my license, and a vehicle, and my uncle’s schedule just happened to work with mine, I became his chauffeur for the summer. No one asked me if I would help, I was told to help.
I was a little peeved about it. I love my uncle, but I wish I had been asked. That’s all.
I’d normally work at McDonalds from noon to 4, go home, change, eat and then head to the movie theater and work from 6 to close.
My uncle worked at a seafood restaurant and had to be there by 9 until 4, the he’d walk to his other job and work from 5 to close, which just happened to be the time I got off of work. Sometimes he’d get a ride home from another co-worker, but it was mostly me.
Most of the time it worked out great. I got to know my uncle better than anyone in my family, I even ended up working with him at a pizza joint for a few months the next summer.
We had our own little rituals, I’d run by Wendy’s once in a while before I picked him up from his 2nd job and get him an iced tea, and he’d make me personal pan pizzas once in a while.
We both worked Saturday nights, so I’d take him grocery shopping after work. It was fun.
As I mentioned before, my truck wasn’t in the best of shape, so the inevitable happened.
I had dropped my uncle off at his apartment and was heading home. My truck broke down. I was able to get it to a side street, but it was in the middle of the road.
I walked over to the gas station and used a pay phone (Hahahaha) and I called my mom. It was like 11:30 PM. I was literally a 10 minute drive from home.
ME: “Mom. My truck broke down. Will you come get me?”
MOM: “Why aren’t you home yet?”
ME: “It’s Saturday, you know I take Trevor grocery shopping.”
MOM: “Well, you’re going to have to find your own way home then. It’s not my fault you’re ‘hanging out’ with Trevor so late.”
ME: “Yes it is! I didn’t volunteer to be his chauffeur, you volunteered me!! I don’t mind doing it, but it’s not fair to pin it on me.” I was so frustrated I shouldn’t have said it, but I did.
MOM: “I will NOT pick you up. Walk home if you have to.”
She hung up on me.
Okay. Fine.
I didn’t want to walk home, in the dark, after midnight, and I didn’t want to leave my truck in the middle of the road.
I sat in my car and cried for about 20 minutes. It was well past midnight.
I look up, and in my rear view mirror I see flashing blue lights.
GREAT. GOOD. A TICKET ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE!!
I rolled down my window and the police officer approached my car.
PO: “Hello young lady. Are you okay?”
ME: “My car broke down and I can’t find anyone to pick me up, plus, I know it shouldn’t be in the middle of the road.”
PO: “Okay. Let me see what we can do. Can I see your license, registration and insurance. I’ll be right back.”
I handed him the paperwork, and he went back to his car.
He came back a few minutes later.
PO: “Everything looks good on my end with you. Why are you out so late?”
I explained that I had gotten off of work and taken my uncle grocery shopping, and my truck stopped and that was as far as I got. I called my mom and she refused to pick me up. I didn’t want to leave my truck in the middle of the road and risk it being towed and it was an almost 2 mile walk home, and I didn’t feel safe walking that far by myself.
PO: “I understand. How about we do this? Put your truck in neutral and we will push it to the side of the road, and I’ll take you home. I’m off at 1, so this will keep me busy until I can clock out. How’s that??”
I started to cry. We got my truck where it needed to be and he took me home.
I can officially check the “rode in the back of a police car,” box off my bucket list.
When we got to my house, he asked me to stay in the car while he talked to my mom.
He knocked on the door and my moms face dropped.
He said something along the lines of “Your 16 year old daughter was stranded on the side of the road She was scared and didn’t know what to do. When she called you, the one person she should be able to rely on, and you refused to take the 20 minute drive to go and pick her up. She is in the back of my car, right now, and she’s still scared. I’m glad I found her before someone else did. In the future, of this happens again, please pick her up or send someone else to.”
He let me out of the car, I told him thank you, and I went into the house.
My mom apologized to me, and we had a long talk. I told her I loved spending time with Trevor, and I’m glad he’s in my life. However, it wasn’t fair for her to punish me for doing something that I was told to do.
She never let me down after that.
For those who will ask why I didn’t call my dad, he was working. This was pre-cell phone (well, they were expensive for the time, and I didn’t have one) and I didn’t have his work number memorized.
The Over-Hyped ‘Spy’ Balloon That Didn’t
With regards to China President Joe Biden said on June 20 2023:
And the reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there. No, I’m serious. That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States. And he didn’t know about it. When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.
Biden acknowledges that the weather balloon was ‘blow off course’ and thereby debunks previous claims that it was steerable. China had no intent to let the balloon cross Canada and the United States. And if there had really been ‘two boxcars full of spy equipment’ on the balloon why hasn’t the U.S. shown any of it?
Why would or should a president of the U.S. or China know of some weather balloon floating somewhere?
Xi was embarrassed by the circus the U.S. made over that affair? … Xi denied that the ballon was where it was to whom? And the U.S. would know about that how?
There were so many questions about those ‘spy balloon’ claims that, from the very beginning, I was sure and said that it was all bunk:
But the Biden administration created a scandal over the randomly floating weather balloon. It thereby opened itself to criticism from the hawks in the Democratic and Republican parties. It canceled, without need, the planned mission of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to China.
Well – as it turns out it all was bunk, just as I had claimed.
The ‘spy balloon’ was not spying at all. It had a U.S. made camera on board for this or that (navigational orientation?) purpose and was not submitting any pictures from it:
The US gear was intermixed with “more specialized Chinese sensors and other equipment” with the purpose of snapping photos and capturing videos and other information to transmit to Beijing, according to the Journal.
Despite the spy balloon’s surveillance capabilities, the Defense Department does not believe the spy balloon collected data while it was flying over US territory, Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday.
Via Reuters the Pentagon confirmed that the ‘spy balloon’ was just a balloon that was not spying at all:
A Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States earlier this year before being shot down did not collect information as it went across the country, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
“We assess that it did not collect while it was flying over the U.S.,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters.
The balloon spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before the U.S. military shot it down off the Atlantic Coast on Biden’s orders.
Biden had already confirmed that the balloon was ‘blown of course’ which had been immediately clear to me and to anyone who could look up and understand the relevant weather maps of pressure systems and their atmospheric wind directions and strength.
The balloon was also not a spying device because there are obviously much better ways, like satellites, to gain more precise information than a randomly floating weather balloon will ever be able to catch.
The Biden administration is intentionally using anti-Asian racism to create an ‘enemy’ by alleging that the Chinese are doing wrong in this or that or in whatever may randomly float over the horizon. At the same time it is copying those Chinese policies it had previously criticized:
Bidenomics seems increasingly likely to play a pivotal role in US President Joe Biden’s upcoming 2024 presidential election campaign. With great fanfare in a June 28 speech in Chicago, he offered a stirring endorsement of “industrial policy” as the centerpiece of his economic strategy. … For the US, there is a certain irony, possibly even hypocrisy, in embracing industrial policy as an effective strategy to counter China. Washington has long been critical of Chinese industrial policy as one of its most egregious anti-competitive sins. That was a key allegation in the Trump Administration’s March 2018 Section 301 report that quickly became the foundational evidence for tariffs and the broader trade war that was to follow. The Section 301 report argued that China was unique in relying on the subsidies and targeting of industrial policy—a conclusion I took strong issue with in Chapter 4 of Accidental Conflict, in which I presented evidence of a legacy of industrial policy strategies in Japan, Germany, and, yes, the United States. And now the Biden Administration, which has endorsed most of the tactics of Trump’s trade war with China, is embracing the very same industrial policy approach that China has long practiced.
Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Doing like China does, because what China does is successful, is now the new normal.
Next: A U.S. weather balloon, with a defunct Chinese camera on board, unintentionally crossing China. “U.S.A., U.S.A., …”
Unfortunately the U.S. is not good at imitating China’s policies:
[T]he point I am trying to make here is that both approaches rely on the government’s ability to target the so-called vital, strategic industries of the future. Japan failed miserably at that, and the US didn’t exactly distinguish itself the last time it tried—ironically aimed at the same semiconductor industry that is getting all the attention today. Indeed, the failure of the then widely-heralded Sematech effort of the late 1980s seems all but forgotten. … The US economy is performing well by many accounts. Competitiveness, however, always remains a major challenge. Bidenomics is aimed at addressing this key challenge, a goal I certainly applaud. But is industrial policy, one of China’s hallmark tactics that we, ourselves, have been so critical of, really the best way to pull it off?
The tax-payer money that Biden is now providing to industries is likely to bump up stock prices and CEO wages through major bullshit projects like the over-hyped garbage in-garbage out patter recognition algorithms that are sold to the public as Artificial Intelligence.
Is there, after all the previous promises and investments, any autonomous driving vehicle out there today that is trusted to do no harm? No?
I was over run by a group of very tough, young criminals living in a re-hab group home located about 1/4 mile behind an old caretakers cottage I was renovating. The group home was at the end of an unpaved road in a heavily wooded border to a multi-thousand acre forest. My cottage was down closer to the highway.
As soon as the trades left, they swarmed to their new “clubhouse” to smoke and drink all sorts of stuff and the rubbish they left made it a big problem. Some friendly local cops and the caretakers that ran the house were helpless in discouraging my nighttime and weekend visitors.
The solution: I posted a little typed notice on the front door (no locks yet). “ Caretakers wanted! Meet me here at 6PM Tomorrow. Cokes and snacks provided.”
I was met by a hoard of 6–8 that you wouldn’t want to meet after dark. After a short intro, cooler opening and chip bags handed out, I explained the problem. Damn trespassers, always on days of no work, nights, weekends, neither the cops or I could catch them. The damn mess they left should be a shootin’ offense. I needed help with security.
My proposal was that if they would keep an eye out for trespassers, helped clean up any mess left by ones we couldn’t catch, and get license plate numbers, I’d let them hang out on the porch and every weekend I would fill a cooler with drinks and provide a couple of big bags of chips for weekends and do a monthly hot dog cook out for the couple of months left until I expected to move in.
Brinks Security could not have provided a more secure work site than I enjoyed for the remainder of the project. And Brinks does not offer the trash and debris pick up as a bonus. These kids took to the project as if there was a Nobel Peace Prize at stake.
These truants all, one arsonist, a couple of brawlers, most thieves, all turned out to be some pretty fair neighbors and great lookouts for my little hideaway.
Tex-Mex Calabacita con Puerco
Ingredients
2 tablespoons shortening
3 pounds pork chops, boned and cubed
3 or 4 serrano chiles, or more or less to taste
1 large onion
2 teaspoons whole cumin seed
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup flour
3 ounces squash (yellow or zucchini or Mexican squash), sliced, large slices quartered
1 can whole kernel corn, including liquid
2 cans Ro*Tel chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Heat shortening in Dutch oven; fry pork cubes in batches until browned. Return all pork to pan.
Place chiles and onion in food processor container and process until chopped (or chop together by hand).
Slice garlic and place with cumin seed and salt in a mortar and pestle and grind together. (The garlic and cumin seed and salt can be chopped in the food processor with the chiles and onion, but grinding it gives it more flavor).
Add chiles, onion, garlic, cumin and salt to pan with pork and cook over high heat until onion is transparent.
Sprinkle flour over pork and vegetables and stir to combine. Cook a few minutes to remove the raw taste of the flour.
Add all remaining ingredients plus about 1 tomato can of water — enough so that pork and vegetables are not quite covered with liquid. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover with a lid. Cook at a simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally, checking periodically and adding more water if necessary.
I was a witness to this during my first year of med school:
One of the second year med students and I decided to hit a pizza place one day for lunch. Our server, who looked like she was in her mid-20s, was walking over wearing a cast on her ankle and using crutches. The guy I was with said “watch this- I’ll show you how to pick up girls using your med school knowledge.” He mentioned her cast and then in an arrogant tone told her that she must have injured this and that tendon or muscle. Second year students can tell you the names of nearly every muscle in the body and tens of thousands of other medical facts but don’t know a lot of clinical information yet because they have not spent much time in the hospital. To make this scene worse he finished with a condescending look and said “oh, I’m sorry, sometimes I forget that you non-medical folks don’t know all of the advanced medical information that those of us in the profession know.” I was cringing.
We had our pizza, paid the bill, and as she was picking up the checks turned around and said to him “ hey sport, it wasn’t any of the muscles you mentioned, I actually injured a different set of muscles” then started listing them. She topped it off by explaining in excellent detail the surgical procedure using flawless medical terminology. His mouth was open, I was dying inside, and her mic drop comment as she walked away was “I’m a fourth-year medical student who just matched in orthopedics. You need to get some better pick up lines.”
The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki stated today that he has requested for the United States to begin the Deployment of Nuclear Weapons into Poland due to the recent transfer of Russian Tactical-Nuclear Weapons onto the Territory of Belarus.
Polish President, Andrzej Duda stated in October of 2022 that he had also spoken to U.S. Officials about the possible Deployment of Nuclear Weapons to Poland but this was before the transfer of Russian Nukes to Belarus.
What does Poland want with US Nuclear Bombs on its territory? What do they think it might accomplish?
If such devices were placed in Poland, the Polish government could NOT use them; they don’t have the Permissive Action Link needed to arm the bomb.
Moreover, having US Nuclear weapons on their territory only guarantees that Russia will target Poland with VERY MANY nuclear bombs to make certain Poland cannot achieve anything with any bombs they might get.
So what is Poland actually thinking? Unless they want to get our bombs, disassemble them, take out the enriched nuclear cores, install those cores in Polish-made bombs, then use them . . .
Việt Nam and China have issued a joint press statement on the occasion of Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính’s official visit to China and attendance at the 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Tianjin from June 25-28.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang hosts a welcome ceremony for Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính in Beijing on June 26, 2023. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang
HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam and China have issued a joint press statement on the occasion of Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính’s official visit to China and attendance at the 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Tianjin from June 25-28.
During the visit, PM Chính met with Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping and held talks with Premier Li Qiang. He also had meetings with Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) of China Zhao Leji, and Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Wang Huning.
The two sides have informed each other about the situation of their respective parties and countries, engaging in in-depth discussions and reaching important shared understandings on deepening the Việt Nam-China comprehensive strategic cooperation in the new context; as well as on international and regional issues of mutual concern.
They agreed to continue effectively implementing the joint statement on further deepening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Việt Nam and China, which was issued during Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng’s visit to China last year.
They agreed to maintain high-level exchanges and strengthen party-to-party, government-to-government, and parliamentary exchanges between countries. They agreed to enhance mutual learning and exchange experiences in promoting the cause of socialism building and seeking distinctive modernisation paths in each country. They vowed to promote the overall coordination role of the Việt Nam-China steering committee for bilateral cooperation in deepening exchanges and collaboration in such key areas as diplomacy, defence, law enforcement, trade and economy, and culture.
Việt Nam considers the development of relations with China as a strategic choice and top priority, while China views Việt Nam as a priority direction for its neighbourhood diplomacy. Both sides said they will engage in in-depth discussions on related specific measures.
The two sides concurred to actively promote strategic connectivity, accelerate joint work in building a high-quality “Belt and Road” initiative, strengthen connectivity in border roads and railways, build a multi-modal and efficient logistics system, accelerate the upgrading and connectivity of their border infrastructure, and promote smart border cooperation. They will step up mutual learning and exchange between their state-owned enterprises; explore opportunities to foster bilateral and multilateral cooperation in key mineral sectors. Việt Nam pledges a favourable business climate for Chinese enterprises investing in the country.
The two sides agreed to enhance friendship exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation between localities, especially border ones, raise the awareness of the two countries’ people, especially youths, about the bilateral friendship, and well organise exchange programmes, including the Việt Nam-China Youth Friendship Meeting, the Việt Nam-China border people festival, and the Việt Nam-China People’s Forum.
They will seriously materialise important common perceptions reached by leaders of the two Parties and countries, and the Agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement of sea-related issues, satisfactorily control disagreements at sea, foster maritime cooperation, and work together to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea).
Việt Nam and China will also push ahead with the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and on the basis of negotiation and consensus, soon reach a substantive and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS).
The Vietnamese side affirmed that it consistently supports the “One-China” principle.
On the basis of equality and mutual respect, the two countries will cooperate in human rights issues, promote dialogue and international cooperation in this field, and resolutely oppose the politicisation of human rights issues.
The two sides consented to persist in true multilateralism, work together to safeguard international justice and fairness, and enhance coordination in major international and regional issues.
They will maintain coordination and mutual support within international and regional frameworks such as the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, ASEAN-China Cooperation, and Mekong-Lancang Cooperation, while effectively implementing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Việt Nam supports China’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in accordance with standards and procedures of the agreement.
During the visit, the two premiers witnessed the signing of cooperation documents in market supervision, smart border gate development, and less-sensitive sea-related fields.
The two sides shared the view that the official visit to China by Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính was a great success, helping deepen the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, for peace, stability, and development in the region and the world at large.
PM Chính has on the occassion invited Premier Li Qiang to visit Việt Nam. The Chinese leader accepted the invitation with pleasure. — VNS
It was October 2016. At the UMass Club in Boston, Tom Ashbrook was set to interview the Woz for an alumni event. When I heard about this, I simply had to go. I had to meet the legend and get his autograph on my working Apple II.
Ticket prices were a staggering $250, so I called the event organizer and asked if I could volunteer for free entry. She said yes!!
So there I was in Boston, clutching my Apple II as I waited to be let in to his room. When Woz saw me and the artifact I was holding, he smiled and turned towards me. He started telling me about the making of the original Apple I and how he got color to work for the Apple II series. He also told me about his devotion to circuitry since a very young age.
When it was finally time to get his signature, I offered him a marker I brought. He then told me that I must be uncreative, because I couldn’t predict that he would bring a marker of his own. Simultaneously, he whipped out his personal marker. I just stood there with my mouth open; what could I possibly say!? I was too happy to care, and posed for the following picture.
Yesterday I took my young son to see a property I just closed.
He was in shock.
“What piece of JUNK did you buy, dad? Why waste your money on this?”
I laughed and asked, “Why is it that I find opportunity here, while you see a massive problem?
“But how can this be an opportunity, dad? The place is in ruins!”
It’s incredible how our reality is determined by how we perceive the world around us…
— While one is giving constructive feedback, the other person may feel criticized and offended.
— While some may feel they’re making the best use of their time, others will feel they’re wasting it.
Our beliefs, values, experiences, and even our mood will massively influence our perspectives.
I enjoyed helping my son change his perspective and visualize the opportunity I had found on this property.
It’s important to note that without his willingness to listen to me, his wrongful perspective wouldn’t have changed.
This made me think how important it is for us to stop, analyze and LISTEN to our trusted friends and advisors before we settle our ideas on stone.
Chinese ambassador wear Mao suit to meet Biden
He’s EXPOSING The UFO Secret Access Programs
Hey! He is saying that I have been saying for years. LOL! Plus lots of other things, curious. But don’t go too far down the “rabbit hole”. Just pay attention to the overview. Not the details.
So, after watching this video…
Now you know WHY I refer to reptilians, and Tall Greys as a “joke”. Stage-play, and other cover activities that are unbelievable, but used to hide the real truths.
Lots of reverse engineering stuff. But I was involved in actual work with DOMAIN.
Now you know WHY my entire section was “retired”.
Now you know WHY everyone in my MAJ branch fled to China when we had the opportunity.
The other day, a “fan” wrote to me for some of the comments / articles that I have generated on other venues. He said that he was sure that “Communist China must love me”. Huh.
He meant it is a compliment. I am sure, but the truth is that China doesn’t really know be from a “hill of beans”. I’m just another foreigner in China. Nobody special.
Just like the United States chucked me out. Useless. Discarded; a nobody.
And whether we are useful, or just discarded rubbish… it means NOTHING. What matters is how YOU deal with your life, under your own situation.
Are you making the world a better place?
Are you participating?
Are you doing good things and contributing… in your very own and unique way? That’s what is important.
I love China.
But that is just me.
Each and everyone of us must carve out our own little place on this planet. Make the world around you a good and sustainable one. Share your prosperity with others with no concern for profit or benefit. Be the “good guy”. No matter what.
Sense of humor. I’ve never met a single guy who was very funny.
Strength. Either physical or emotional. Preferably both. Some girls like “gentle giants” though.
Intelligence. Most girls I know are super attracted to smart guys. And if the guy is really gorgeous but dumb as a door knob, the girls get over them quickly.
Kindness. Yes, some girls are attracted to jerks. But they’re a masochistic minority. Most prefer a guy who could be nice to their mom and puppies.
Good hygiene. That’s a given. No one wants to smell too much body odor and see hairs growing out of your nose. Please.
Loyalty. Most girls are turned off by players. We were all raised on the fairy tales where prince and princess lived happily ever after, not where he texted his side chick.
Courage. I know, guys are human too. You have your moments where you’re intimidated or unsure. But brave men are inherently attractive.
Attraction. A girl wants that the guy to be really into her. Sometimes if a guy is aloof and cold, you’ll have some masochist girls taking it as a challenge. But most girls will just be turned off.
A crystal clear piece penned by Hu Xijin of the Global Times, the mouthpiece of the CCP.
It’s with a dance in my heart and a blazing flame in my soul that I copy down each word of the ante-penultimate paragraph, which absolutely deserves to be quoted in its entirety :
" China's military power is primarily used for strategic deterrence against the US, making it so that although the US military has advantages, it dares not resort to military blackmail against China. In addition, our military power is used to defend core interests, especially when it comes to the resolution of the Taiwan question, WE MUST HAVE THE FINAL SAY. We adopt a defensive military strategy, but in the Taiwan Straits region, WE HAVE GRADUALLY FORMED A LOCAL ABSOLUTE MILITARY ADVANTAGE. We will not engage in military confrontation with the US in regions far away from China's core interests. However, if the US military comes to China's nearby waters, especially if it intervenes militarily in the Taiwan Straits and assists the "Taiwanese military" in a possible future Taiwan Straits war, the People's Liberation Army will not hesitate to "BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF" THOSE US TROOPS. We will always make our determination clear to the US.
The U.S wanted to strong-arm China by banning Chinese companies, however it never knew it could backfire. The U.S Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen has already said that the U.S decoupling from China would be a disastrous mistake, that’s because she knows how China can make or break the U.S and its economy.
Just to show how essential China is for the U.S it canceled the 1.1 million tons of corn import order from the U.S but this should not be seen only from an escalating perspective, rather China wants to diversify countries so it can import grains at a better price but this has allowed the U.S to see how China can create shock waves and not only Tech but Agriculture and other sectors.
But how does this canceled order change things for not only the U.S and its Farmers but also the world’s grain prices.
According to the observatory of economic complexities (OEC) China is the world’s biggest exporter of goods and services, in other words China tops the list of producing and selling products to other countries and this allows China to generate excess revenues that could finance its phenomenal development.
However it appears that the U.S misunderstood it, it thought that if Chinese products were banned then China could be strong-armed, but this really backfired as the U.S forgot how much of the goods it exports to China, it also ignored the fact that if China stopped buying those products the U.S would struggle.
Then and now
FIRST TIME HEARING Spacehog – In The Meantime REACTION
A short & PERFECT explanation of everything happening now on the World stage by Michael Hudson.
In a nutshell, the most clumsy behavior, coming from a staggering hubris, of the international bully aka US/KFC-AZAEL (Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American EstabLishment) triggered an awakening of the Global Majority (88% of the global population).
Using Hudson’s words appearing in this piece : ** What happened is a change in consciousness. **
The upshot will be civilizational in scope.
This time, the US/KFC-AZAEL doesn’t have as adversaries the usual downtrodden & disorganized Third World countries but the clear-minded coalition of the REAL international community together with the might of the last Three Sovereign Civilizational States : China, Russia, Iran.
Together, the people of the World will trigger the collapse of the Western World. This collapse doesn’t necessarily mean disorder and chaos in the streets of the Western nations.
That is a caricature more related to fear porn and definitely not going to the core essential.
The collapse of the Western World means the definitive & irreversible end of the Western global predatory system or using Hudson’s technical expression, the rent extraction system.
The collapse of the Western World also means the end of the Western overweening & laughable pretensions to superior morality & better understanding of reality.
That’s what I call the core meaning of the collapse of the Western World. Not wishing to appear too flippant nor too cynical, I still want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the neo-cons; their utter imbecilic decisions having certainly contributed a lot to this marvelous acceleration of Universal History. Whom the Gods want to destroy, they first made mad .. 再 见 ! Quan
Herodotus (History, Book 1.53) tells the story of Croesus, king of Lydia c. 585-546 BC in what is now Western Turkey and the Ionian shore of the Mediterranean. Croesus conquered Ephesus, Miletus and neighboring Greek-speaking realms, obtaining tribute and booty that made him one of the richest rulers of his time. But these victories and wealth led to arrogance and hubris. Croesus turned his eyes eastward, ambitious to conquer Persia, ruled by Cyrus the Great.
Having endowed the region’s cosmopolitan Temple of Delphi with substantial silver and gold, Croesus asked its Oracle whether he would be successful in the conquest that he had planned. The Pythia priestess answered: “If you go to war against Persia, you will destroy a great empire.”
Croesus therefore set out to attack Persia c. 547 BC. Marching eastward, he attacked Persia’s vassal-state Phrygia. Cyrus mounted a Special Military Operation to drive Croesus back, defeating Croesus’s army, capturing him and taking the opportunity to seize Lydia’s gold to introduce his own Persian gold coinage. So Croesus did indeed destroy a great empire, but it was his own.
Fast-forward to today’s drive by the Biden administration to extend American military power against Russia and, behind it, China. The president asked for advice from today’s analogue to antiquity’s Delphi oracle: the CIA and its allied think tanks. Instead of warning against hubris, they encouraged the neocon dream that attacking Russia and China would consolidate U.S. control of the world economy, achieving the End of History.
Having organized a coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014, the United States sent its NATO proxy army eastward, giving weapons to Ukraine to fight an ethnic war against its Russian-speaking population and turn Russia’s Crimean naval base into a NATO fortress. This Croesus-level ambition aimed at drawing Russia into combat and depleting its ability to defend itself, wrecking its economy in the process and destroying its ability to provide military support to China and other countries targeted for seeking self-dependency as an alternative to U.S. hegemony.
After eight years of provocation, a new military attack on Russian-speaking Ukrainians was conspicuously prepared, ready to drive toward the Russian border in February 2022. Russia protected its fellow Russian-speakers from further ethnic violence by mounting its own Special Military Operation. The United States and its NATO allies immediately seized Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves held in Europe and North America, and demanded that all countries impose sanctions against importing Russian energy and grain, hoping that this would crash the ruble’s exchange rate. The Delphic State Department expected that this would cause Russian consumers to revolt and overthrow Vladimir Putin’s government, enabling U.S. maneuvering to install a client oligarchy like the one it had nurtured in the 1990s under President Yeltsin.
A byproduct of this confrontation with Russia has been to lock in America’s control over its Western European satellites. The aim of this intra-NATO jockeying was to foreclose Europe’s dream of profiting from closer trade and investment relations with Russia by exchanging its industrial manufactures for Russian raw materials. The United States derailed that prospect by blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, cutting off Germany and other countries from access to low-priced Russian gas. That left Europe’s leading economy dependent on higher-cost U.S. Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).
In addition to having to subsidize domestic European gas to prevent widespread insolvency, a large proportion of German Leopard tanks, U.S. Patriot missiles and other NATO “wonder weapons” are being destroyed in combat against the Russian army. It has become clear that the U.S. strategy is not simply to “fight to the last Ukrainian,” but to fight to the last tank, missile and other weapon being deleted from NATO stocks.
This depletion of NATO’s arms was expected to create a vast replacement market to enrich America’s military-industrial complex. Its NATO customers are being told to increase their military spending to 3 or even 4 percent of GDP. But the weak performance of U.S. and German arms on the Ukrainian battlefield may have crashed this dream, while Europe’s economies are sinking into depression. And with Germany’s industrial economy deranged by the severing of its trade with Russia, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told the Die Welt newspaper on June 16, 2023 that his country cannot afford to pay more money into the European Union budget, to which it has long been the largest contributor.
Without German exports supporting the euro’s exchange rate, the currency will come under pressure against the dollar as Europe buys LNG and NATO replenishes its depleted weaponry stocks by buying new arms from America. A lower exchange rate will squeeze the purchasing power of European labor, while lowering social spending to pay for rearmament and provide gas subsidies is plunging the continent into a depression.
A nationalist reaction against U.S. dominance is rising throughout European politics, and instead of America locking in its control over European policy, the United States may end up losing – not only in Europe but most crucially throughout the Global South. Instead of turning Russia’s “ruble to rubble” as President Biden promised, Russia’s balance of trade has soared and its gold supply has increased. So have the gold holdings of other countries whose governments are now aiming to de-dollarize their economies.
It is American diplomacy that is driving Eurasia and the Global South out of the U.S. orbit. America’s hubristic drive for unipolar world dominance could only have been dismantled so rapidly from within. The Biden-Blinken-Nuland administration has done what neither Vladimir Putin nor Chinese President Xi could have hoped to achieve in so short a period. Neither was prepared to throw down the gauntlet and create an alternative to the U.S.-centered world order. But U.S. sanctions against Russia, Iran, Venezuela and China have had the effect of protective tariff barriers to force self-sufficiency in what EU diplomat Josep Borrell calls the world “jungle” outside of the US/NATO “garden.”
Although the Global South and other countries have been complaining about U.S. dominance ever since the Bandung Conference of Non-Aligned Nations in 1955, they have lacked a critical mass to create a viable alternative. But their attention has now been focused by the U.S. confiscation of Russia’s official dollar reserves in NATO countries. That dispelled the thought of the dollar as a safe vehicle in which to hold international savings. The Bank of England’s earlier seizure of Venezuela’s gold reserves kept in London – promising to donate them to whatever unelected opponents of its socialist regime U.S. diplomats designate – shows how sterling and the euro as well as the dollar have been weaponized. And by the way, what ever happened to Libya’s gold reserves?
American diplomats avoid thinking about this scenario. They rely on the one unique advantage the United States has to offer. It may refrain from bombing them, from staging a color revolution to “Pinochet” them by the National Endowment for Democracy, or install a new “Yeltsin” giving the economy away to a client oligarchy.
But refraining from such behavior is all that America can offer. It has de-industrialized its own economy, and its idea of foreign investment is to carve out monopoly-rent seeking opportunities by concentrating technological monopolies and control of oil and grain trade in U.S. hands, as if this is economic efficiency, not rent-seeking.
What has occurred is a change in consciousness. We are seeing the Global Majority trying to create an independent and peacefully negotiated choice as to just what kind of an international order they want. Their aim is not merely to create alternatives to the use of dollars, but an entire new set of institutional alternatives to the IMF and World Bank, the SWIFT bank clearing system, the International Criminal Court and the entire array of institutions that U.S. diplomats have hijacked from the United Nations.
The upshot will be civilizational in scope. We are seeing not the End of History but a fresh alternative to U.S.-centered neoliberal finance capitalism and its junk economics of privatization, class war against labor, and the idea that money and credit should be privatized in the hands of a narrow financial class instead of being a public utility to finance economic needs and rising living standards.
The irony is that America’s historical role has been that although it itself was not able to lead the world forward along these lines, its attempts to lock the world into an antithetical imperial system by conquering Russia on the plains of Ukraine and trying to isolate China’s technology from breaking the U.S. attempt at IT monopoly have been the great catalysts pushing the global majority along these lines.
Russian Reacts to THE CRANBERRIES – Zombie | MADE me CRY
American exports to China
BabantheKidd FIRST TIME reacting to Bobby Brown – Every Little Step
A fun reaction video…
American exports to China
Oven-Fried Tex-Mex Onion Rings
Ingredients
1/2 cup plain dry bread crumbs
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon water
2 medium onions (about 10 ounces), sliced 3/8 inch thick
2 egg whites
Instructions
Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Spray large nonstick baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
Combine bread crumbs, cornmeal, chili powder, ground red pepper and salt in medium shallow dish; mix well. Stir in butter and water.
Separate onion slices into rings. Place egg whites in large bowl; beat lightly.
Add onions; toss lightly to coat evenly.
Transfer to bread crumb mixture; toss to coat evenly.
Place in single layer on prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until onions are tender and coating is crisp.
They are primarily responsible for almost all our Military Industrial and Space Development
Everystep we took was with their technical know how and machinery. They trained thousands of our Pilots and Engineers until we could develop our own 100% indigenous training.
They gave us our Rocketry base. They helped almost all our Launch programs until the Late 80s, they gave us our first Space launch Programs, computers and processors until 1994.
Tank Design, Aircraft Design, Tech Collaboration, Wind Tunnel Guidance, Aircraft Carrier Development, Submarine Technology, Naval Avionics – without the Russians we would be nowhere
Radar and Aero Engineering (Cranwell) were the only two areas where Britain has helped us.
They built our entire Foundation so that now we are slowly overlaying ourselves.
Like US to Israel
They taught us to lay our entire Intelligence Apparatus
RAW and IB were British Intelligence oriented
However Radio Surveillance, Radio Tracking, Interception were all taught to us by Russians
From 1955 to 1987, over 2400 Joint Monitoring Intelligence Apps were carried out with Egypt, Yugoslavia and India participating with Czechoslovakia overseen by USSR
During that period post ’62 – we had no intelligence failures especially in the ’65 War
They were our earliest Nuclear Program Helpers
They helped us hugely.
Tarapore, Narora and now the latest in Kundakulam – all have their Roastom training and guidance
Of course France and canada played a role , a good role even by 1979–80
However it was Primarily Russian Collaboration from 1956–1974 upto Smiling Buddha
So we owe them almost everything.
And they did it without any Bullying strings whatsoever
They never demanded we join Military Alliances like US did of Pak
They never demanded we send troops to Afghanistan
They never demanded that we forcibly buy Oil from them at higher rates.
They were instrumental in avoiding a Two front War with Pak today thanks to their 1971 War counter to Nixon
Right or wrong, Russians are our Mentors and Friends
Even God would smite us if we ever went against them
If the Ukraine conflict continues on its current trajectory, it will end in a total disaster for humanity
Dmitry Trenin is a research professor at the Higher School of Economics and a lead research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. He is also a member of the Russian International Affairs Council.
Professor Sergey Karaganov’s “Tough-but-necessary decision” article
– which claims that by using its nuclear weapons, Russia could save humanity from a global catastrophe – has provoked plenty of reaction both at home and abroad. Partly because of the author’s status – he has been an advisor to both President Boris Yeltsin and President Vladimir Putin – and also due to the belief that his opinion may possibly be shared by some people in positions of power.
Dmitry Trenin, an extremely respected Russian expert who served in the Soviet military gives his response.
***
Professor Sergey Karaganov’s recent article brought into public focus the thorny issue of the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict. Many reactions to the piece boil down to the well-known reasoning that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and thus it cannot be fought.
Against this background, President Vladimir Putin, responding to a question at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, said that nuclear weapons are a deterrent and the conditions for their use is defined in a published doctrine. He explained that the theoretical possibility of using these weapons exists, but there is no need to use them now.
In principle, nuclear weapons have been “on the table” for Russia from the very beginning of the Ukrainian conflict precisely as a means of deterring the US and its allies from becoming directly involved. Nevertheless, repeated public reminders from Putin and other officials about Russia’s nuclear status have so far not prevented a growing escalation of NATO’s participation. As a result, it has become clear that nuclear deterrence, on which many in Moscow have relied as a credible means of securing the country’s vital interests, has proven to be a much more limited tool than they expected.
In fact, the US has now set itself the task – unthinkable during the Cold War – of trying to defeat another nuclear superpower in a strategically important region, without resorting to atomic weapons, but instead by arming and controlling a third country. The Americans are proceeding cautiously, testing Moscow’s responses and consistently pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of arms supplied to Kiev, as well as the choice of targets for them. From starting with anti-tank ‘Javelins,’ to eventually cajoling allies to send actual tanks, the US is now apparently pondering transferring F-16 fighter jets and long-range missiles.
It is likely that this US strategy is based on the belief that the Russian leadership would not dare use nuclear weapons in the current conflict, and that its references to the nuclear arsenal at its disposal are nothing more than a bluff. The Americans have even been calm – at least outwardly about the deployment of Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus. Such “fearlessness” is a direct result of the geopolitical changes of the last three decades and the change of generations in power in the US and the West in general.
The fear of the atomic bomb, present in the second half of the twentieth century, has disappeared. Nuclear weapons have been taken out of the equation. The practical conclusion is clear: there is no need to be afraid of such a Russian response.
This is an extremely dangerous misconception. The trajectory of the Ukrainian war points to an escalation of the conflict both horizontally (by expanding the theater of military action) and vertically (by increasing the power of the weapons used and the intensity of their use). It must be soberly acknowledged that this momentum is heading towards a direct armed confrontation between Russia and NATO. If the accumulated inertia is not stopped, such a clash will take place, and in this case the war, having spread to Western Europe, will almost inevitably become nuclear. And after some time, a nuclear war in Europe will most likely lead to an exchange of blows between Russia and the US.
The Americans and their allies are truly playing Russian roulette. Yes, so far the Russian response to the bombing of Nord Stream, the drone attack on the strategic Engels airbase, the entry of Western-armed saboteurs into the Belgorod region and many other actions by the Washington-backed and controlled side has been relatively restrained.
As Putin recently made clear, there are good reasons for this restraint. Russia, the president said, is capable of destroying any building in Kiev, but will not stoop to the methods of terror used by the enemy. But Putin added that Russia was considering various options for destroying Western warplanes if they are based in NATO countries and directly take part in the war in Ukraine.
So far, Moscow’s strategy has been to allow the enemy to take the escalatory initiative. The West has taken advantage of this, trying to wear down Russia on the battlefield and undermine it from within. It makes no sense for the Kremlin to go along with this plan. On the contrary, it’s a better idea to clarify and modernize our nuclear deterrence strategy, taking into account the practical experience of the Ukrainian conflict. The existing doctrinal provisions were formulated not only before the start of the current military operation, but also apparently without a precise idea of what might happen in the course of such a situation.
Russia’s external strategy includes a basket of foreign diplomacy, information campaigns and other aspects – in addition to the military elements. The main adversary should be given an unambiguous signal that Moscow will not play by the rules set by the other side. Of course, this should be accompanied by a credible dialogue with both our strategic partners and neutral states, explaining the motives and objectives of our actions. The possibility of using nuclear weapons in the current conflict must not be concealed. This real, not just theoretical, prospect should be an incentive to limit and stop the escalation of the war and ultimately pave the way for a satisfactory strategic balance in Europe.
Regarding Russian nuclear strikes against NATO countries, as raised by Professor Karaganov: Hypothetically speaking, Washington would most likely not respond to such an attack with a nuclear response of its own against Russia – for fear of a Russian retaliatory launch against the US itself. This would dispel the mythology that has surrounded Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty for decades and lead to a profound crisis for NATO – possibly even the dissolution of the organization. It is possible that, in such circumstances, the Atlantic elites of NATO and the EU would panic and be swept aside by patriotic forces that would see for themselves that their security does not in fact depend on a non-existent US nuclear umbrella, but on building a balanced relationship with Russia. It is also possible that the Americans could decide to leave Russia alone.
It could well be that the calculation just described would ultimately be correct. But it is unlikely.
Yes, a US nuclear strike on Russia would probably not follow immediately. It is unlikely that the Americans would sacrifice Boston for Poznan, just as they were not going to sacrifice Chicago for Hamburg during the Cold War. But there will probably be some sort of response from Washington. Perhaps of the non-atomic type, which, without speculating too wildly, could be sensitive and painful for us. It is likely that with it, Washington would try to pursue a goal similar to ours: paralyzing the Russian leadership’s will to continue the war and creating panic in our society.
Moscow’s leadership is unlikely to capitulate after such a blow, since, at this stage, Russia’s very existence would be at stake. It is more likely that a retaliatory strike would follow, and this time, one can assume, against the main adversary rather than its satellites.
Let us pause before this point of no return and summarize our analysis tentatively.
Should the nuclear bullet be demonstrably inserted into the cylinder of the revolver that the US leadership is recklessly playing with today? To paraphrase a late American statesman: Why do we need nuclear weapons if we refuse to use them in the face of an existential threat?
On the other hand, there is no need to scare others with words. Instead, we have to prepare practically for any possible turn of events by carefully considering the options and their consequences.
The war in Ukraine has become protracted. As far as we can tell from the actions of the Russian leadership, it expects to achieve strategic success by relying on Russian resources, which are many times greater than those in Ukraine. It also relies on the fact that Moscow has much more at stake in this war than the West. This calculation is probably correct, but it should be taken into account that the opponent assesses Russia’s chances differently than we do and may take steps which could lead to a direct armed clash between Russia and the US/NATO.
We must be prepared for such a development. To avoid a general catastrophe, it is necessary to put fear of armageddon back into politics and the public consciousness.
In the nuclear age, it is the only guarantee of preserving humanity.
Nothing is cost-effective to the US military anymore. This DDG(X) program is mostly for cost-cutting by reducing quantity and making up by more advanced features. But US is clearly not the leader in this technological race. China already has 8 Type 055 in active service, plus more on the way (cooking dumplings). In any wars, preponderance in quantity is always the decisive factor. No exception. Same applies to the J-20 vs F-35 (with new ones stored pending final decision on revisions) and all munitions. This trend will continue to exacerbate the US disadvantage. The US is BROKE.
American exports to China
Russia STRIKES US Soldiers In Ukrainian Pizza Restaurant
I was about 40 and on my way home from my pool league one night, I went home the back way. That’s why I came up over a hill at an intersection and was confronted with a police road block. There was no other way to go.
Of course I’d been drinking, not lots but some. I’d planned to drink more when I got home. Besides that, the case that my cues go in looks like a rifle case and was laying out on the back seat. On top of that, my new insurance card was still sitting home on the kitchen table.
The cop looked in my window and said into his radio, “Let this one through. It’s just an old lady.”
I smiled, thanked him and left and cussed him the whole rest of the way home.
American exports to China
MY MOM IS PISSED!! My Mom Reacts To Thomas Sowell – Facts About Slavery Never Mention In School
United Airlines Flight 232
This to me was some of the most heroic yet tragic crash-landings I have ever witnessed in Aviation. This wasn’t done by one pilot, but an entire crew. Flight 232 from Denver to Chicago suffered a complete loss of hydraulics due to a tail engine explosion, causing the crew to divert to Sioux City. These pilots were flying a plane with zero flight controls.
It had no wing flaps, it had no rudder, no elevators, no VS, no brakes for landing; the plane could not even deploy its wheels without manual deployment and gravity. They could not control the pitch, the orientation, direction or the altitude with their flight controls.
The pilots had to solely rely on their two remaining engines to control the entire plane.
As there was a loss of flight controls, the plane banked right and nearly became inverted. To combat this, the pilots increased power on the right engine to keep the plane horizontally stable.
The plane also tried to pitch down, for which the pilots increased engine power even more to stop it from diving. But this caused the plane to overshoot and pitch up, causing a stall, so the pilots repeatedly had to increase and decrease engine power to keep the plane from falling out of the sky while keeping the right engine at high power.
While calling an emergency, the pilots had to make a right turn to the nearest airport. Since the airplane wants to bank right, the pilots used precious minutes of their time to commit a full left turn circle formation by using maximum power on the right engine to make the move.
For about 30 minutes, against complete loss of flight controls and multiple dangers, the pilots managed to keep the plane steady solely using the wing engines. But as engine power was high, it was flying too fast and too high for a safe landing. These pilots now had another dilemma: they had to slow down the plane to decrease altitude and speed while keeping the plane fast enough to keep it stabilized.
Unfortunately, luck was not on their side. Even after deploying gears to slow the plane down and managing to get the plane to descend, it was going way too fast for the plane to touch down in one piece. And so, the plane shattered across the field in Sioux City Airport going 270 km/h faster than normal.
It might not sound like a successful landing, but it turned out over 60% of the occupants of this flight, including all pilots, survived the crash. There were 52 children on this flight – only 11 died. For such extreme conditions this plane underwent, touching the runway at nearly 3 times over the maximum landing speed and dropping nearly 9 m/s, catching fire, it was a miracle that anyone survived such a trip.
Everybody on this plane was supposed to be dead, but these pilots managed to wrestle back 184 people lives from their fate. Those men, with remarkable decision-making, communication and teamwork under possibly one of the worst conditions a passenger airplane could experience managed to look death in the eye and beat him at his own game.
Edit: Aye guys, thanks for the up-votes. I just wanted to say that this was really a time where people came together at the right time and everybody did their jobs to the most perfect ability that set a standard and changed flying for years to come.
So I want to give credit to everybody on the ground as well, specifically emergency services without whose help and timing, a lot more people would have died. I also want to give credit to the ATC for handling this flight as well as the rest of the airport staff that provided critical medical attention to the injured. Clear weather as well.
And lastly the flight attendants, who unfortunately took the heaviest brunt on that crash for not only getting passengers into crash position but also moving them out of the plane broken in pieces when they were wounded as well! A group effort indeed!
First thing is when you need a QUAD and AUKUS to counter you, that means you have to be congratulated for your growth and rising power
That’s huge FACE for Xi Jingping
That the Western World fears Chinas rise so much that they need so many Abbreviations
Next let’s see how Xi Jingping dealt with either?
With UTTER CONTEMPT
Let’s see the AUKUS first
Australia, UK and USA
Let’s see QUAD next
Japan, India, Australia and USA
First let’s neutralize India
Simplest thing. A Land invasion can pulverize the growing Indian economy and send it into Ukraine mode within a year and send Modi scrambling to the Negotiating Table
So India is neutralized by a simple land threat
That will be so for at least 20–25 years until India really achieve a minimum 60% indigenous mass equipment manufacturing for a full scale defense (India is at 9% as of 2023)
India needs at least $ 10 Trillion to stand upto China by which time China may stand to $ 30 Trillion
Next let’s Neutralize Japan
Japan’s entire Arsenal and manufacturing is 1/18 of China or around 5%
Japan was outproduced by USA in 1943 and today China beats that USA by almost 2.5 times
China’s land batteries can pulverize the entire Japanese shipping lines and blockade their access to Oil and Gas in a matter of minutes with Russia’s help.
That leaves UK and Australia
Lackey puppets whose military is zero
No way would they be the slightest threat to China
That leaves USA
Yes US is a serious adversary. Always was.
So that’s just US again no matter whatever form anything takes
China’s only real adversary is USA and everyone else is a second fiddle player with zero threat perception
South Korea is countered by North Korea
India is countered by a Two front crushing pincher plus a potential Indian Ocean lock in
Phillipines and Taiwan can be pulverized to pieces with mere land based launch attacks alone
Equivalent to Mexico and US
As they say, it’s childs play
The only time Xi would be terribly worried would be with a US — Russian alliance
That would worry Xi and give him sleepless nights
Xis greatest piece of luck was Biden treating Putin as a pariah and cementing an alliance with Russia which now makes Chinas position 20 times stronger
There are Two Lions facing an Older Lion and a bunch of small dogs and vultures
My husband is a native Indonesian and a retired lawyer from the Indonesian consular section at the Indonesian Embassy abroad( KBRI). .𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀..In Bali, weed is also highly illegal. The possession, sale, and consumption of marijuana in Bali is punishable with 10 years in prison. Those caught trafficking weed in Bali can receive the death penalty. Weed laws in Bali are strictly enforced. Tourists caught smoking weed in public can sometimes manage to bribe their way out of a problematic situation.Using cannabis or weed in Indonesia can lead to a prison sentence of up to four years. Possession of marijuana, cannabis or weed incurs a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison and a maximum 8 billion rupiah in fines (around $560,000).
Producing, exporting, importing, or distributing any kind of drugs comes with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a fine of 10 billion rupiah.
In some cases, the punishment for weed in Indonesia can be the death penalty. Such cases include the production, import, export, distribution, sales, purchase for dealing purposes, transport, and provision to others leading to permanent injury or death of cannabis in amounts of more than 1 kg or over five plants.
While rare, executions for drug smuggling do occur in Bali and Indonesia, even for tourists. In 2018 eventually nine travelers from Australia were convicted of smuggling cannabis out of Indonesia. Two were eventually sentenced to death and executed by a firing squad. Cannabis trafficking has incurred the death penalty in Indonesia. to death and executed by a firing squad. Cannabis trafficking has incurred the death penalty in Indonesia.
Nine Arrive at Indonesian Execution Island as Jokowi Spurns Clemency Pleas
Australian death-row prisoners Andrew Chan, center, and Myuran Sukumaran, left, are seen in a holding cell waiting to attend a review hearing in the District Court of Denpasar, on the Indonesian island of Bali, on Oct. 8, 2018
In the darkness of early morning hours Wednesday, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were woken by the Kerobokan prison guards in Bali. It took them 10 minutes to wash and dress for the transfer to Nusakambangan, the prison island in Central Java, where death-row prisoners are set to face the firing squads.
Chan and Sukumaran, sentenced to death in for drug trafficking, are among a group of 10 prisoners slated to be executed in Indonesia. Despite numerous and repeated pleas from across the globe to spare them — some of whom, like the two Australians, say they have reformed behind bars — Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, stands firm on his decision not to pardon drug convicts on death row.
BABYMETAL- HEADBANGER. Rock Singer’s FIRST TIME reaction
Oh there are so many things you could talk about beginning with the Democracy, Corruption, Rabble dominated elections, Inefficient Leadership, Disjointed Leadership, Poorer Quality of Education, Reservations etc etc. You could end up publishing a 700 Page Book on this.
To summarize why China is so ahead in everything however requires just two words – Decision Making & Accountability
Source: Alamy Stock Photo
China is divided into provinces and each Province has a Provincial Committee.
This Committee controls activities like Commerce, Agriculture, Industry, Education, Water Supply for the entire province, the villages and even the Cities within them.
Each Committee has a Sub committee consisting of Specialists. The Education Sub committee has Teachers and Education Experts most of whom have Degrees from Australia or Singapore or US or UK. The Industrial Sub Committee have experts on Industrial Production etc. No Political Hacks in the Sub Committee (Only in the Committees)
And Sub Committees have extraordinary powers.
They can make decisions in hours. They can offer a subsidy of 30% on a crop in 4 hours after a single meeting if 2/3 of the Sub Committee members agree. Even the Main Committee cannot oppose a Sub Committee decision unless 100% of the Committee members are opposed (Even one single person saying OK will ensure that the decisions go through).
A Sub Committee in a Chinese Province took the decision to Liquidate 36000 Swine (Pigs) to prevent an outbreak of Swine Flu in 2015. The Decision was implemented in 3–4 hours and the Swine Farmers were compensated with Money or Stock Animals. All decided by the Sub committee. Beijing was informed of this only a few days later.
This is called Decision Making Power
A Sub Committee can decide to clear out a Village in 42 days to accommodate a Manufacturing Plant and the Local CCP officials have to comply (The Party Hacks). They cannot object or write to Xi Jingping (Unless Xi Modifies the Laws).
The Result is BRUTAL EFFICIENCY
Decisions get taken in a matter of days or hours compared to months and years.
A New Plant has to be opened. Industrial Sub Committee clears it in 3–4 weeks. No interference from the CCP or its hacks.
A New disease is infecting Chickens – the Sub Committee can authorize liquidation of 500000 Birds without a 10 second hesitation – even if 200000 of them belong to the CCP Head of the District.
In India – the Opposite is true
There is No Decision making that can be done quickly.
You have State Ministers, Central Ministers, MPs, MLAs, Opposition Parties, Laborers, Sanghs, PILS that HC and SC will keep deciding on.
As a result – if there is a fear of a Crop Infection – the Farmer must cooperate – otherwise we have a Crop devastation in months. If some farmers who may not be literate enough ignore the blight even if a Zealous young agricultural officer (Assuming decent quality officers) points it out, the officer has to pass it to his boss to will toss it in the can and his boss and his boss and this minister and this community etc etc – until the Crop infection hits and destroys 50% of the crop leading to higher prices and more cribbing by the farmers.
If a Good Minister makes a decision that could improve life – BANG!!! A Nutcase goes to Supreme Court and files a PIL and delays it for months and months.
If a Decent Minister like Mr Goyal or Mr Gadkari implements a Traffic Fines and Violation Rule (Hasty in the short run since roads are so bad) – BANG!!! State Governments will destroy the plan. Fines on masks are an apt example.
This is one of the Biggest Reason why India fails even when compared to Democratic countries.
This is a Former Railways Minister of China.
In 2011 – there was a Train Crash and 47 People Died and 472 were Injured.
The Chinese Government coughed up $ 3.785 Million Equivalent and conducted an Inquiry. In exactly 151 Days- the Committee presented the report.
A Single Signal Box had failed. A Young Engineer had sent 14 Memos to the Corresponding Officials who had ignored them. It would have cost $ 75000 equivalent to have modified the issue.
276 Officials were investigated and 251 were Acquitted or let off with a warning or fired with no further consequences.
25 Officials were found to be guilty and sentenced to terms between 15 months to Death Sentence for 4 People. The Railways Minister was sentenced to death. And not for his politics – as even the most liberal Chinese in US admitted.
The Best part was that in 151 Days or 5 months – the Issue was finished. 25 people were in Jail and new replacements had been hired and the boxes were modified.
Its called Accountability. A Single Signal Box fails because you did not modify it when you should have – Your fault – You are convicted of something called LOSS OF PUBLIC LIFE THROUGH CONSPIRACY OR NEGLIGENCE.
If Negligence is proven its a huge fine or 7 years jail.
If Conspiracy is proven – its a hail of bullets.
(The Man was reprieved and is serving a life sentence now)
Every Action in China is accountable. An Accident – Inquiries and the reason will always be detected and the wrong doers be punished. Brutally at times.
An Engineer who used a slightly inferior cement to finish his work faster on a bridge which collapsed ended up with a 1 year sentence and 100000 Yuan fine for Negligence. The Committee members were sentenced to between 4–7 years and Million Yuan fines for Negligence because They made the decision!!!!
An Abusive Cop was awarded 64 years Jail by the LEPPA courts for PUBLIC ABUSE (Commuted to 16 years in 2019). Policemen cannot beat up anyone (Unless for Political Reasons). A Policeman can beat you if you protest politically but if he beats you for any other reason – he will be roasted alive by the system.
Even in HK- Police have carte blanche to beat up and tear gas protestors but the same police beat someone for not paying interest for a loan shark – the policeman is boiled by the system and spends 1–7 years in Prison and a permanent spot on the blocklist.
Accountability keeps a country in check. Minimizes errors and ensures every decision better be as clean as possible.
In India – Engineers get 10 years in Jail while the Ministers and Officials who ordered him to do shoddy work end up with Crores of rupees and a handful of eyewash suspensions.
In China the floods caused a lot of trouble this year.
An Inquiry was set up and 198 people were examined. Ultimately it was found to be a Design error in the 1970s (They did not estimate so much rainfall).
A COVID 19 inquiry was set up and 750+ people were examined to examine the cause.
In India Demonetization destroyed the economy
Has a single inquiry been set up to examine?
We have had 10,000 decisions from 1947 to present which have all been horrible for the country. Millions of Accidents. Yet has a single inquiry resulted in massive change?
The Answer is NO. The Usual Arrest of Scapegoats, Eye Wash Suspensions but at the end of the day – Fearlessness among the Officials that the System is rigged in their favor and even if there is an Accident or public death – nothing is going to happen.
A Failed Giant Wheel in a UP Fair killed 8 people. The Giant Wheel Owner spent 5 1/2 months in Jail and faces a Case (For 21 years from 1999) but the Authorities who permitted the Giant Wheel, the Safety Inspector who issued the safety certificates and permits – all retired comfortably or are in promoted posts.
So China – Excellent Decision Making and Accountability
India – Zero Decision Making and Zero Accountability
In Every sphere this is the same.
Shri Narvane wants Blankets for his boys – he needs 100 permissions to get them sanctioned.
In China – a single call to the Office of the Procurer and in 10 hours – you have Blankets ready.
XYZ wants to build a Manufacturing plant for a Chemical in India – he needs the same license for safety from State and Centre which will take 9 months at the earliest and 24 months normally as every office in the State has to wet their beaks and every half wit will put in his thoughts.
XYZ wants to build the same Manufacturing Plant in Guangzhou. The Committee will conduct the inspections and issue a permit in 2 Weeks flat. No opposition from anywhere including Beijing.
By the time Indian permissions are still forthcoming – the Chinese factory will have imported their third batch of products.
However…..
In China – Manufacturers who produce shoddy products are hauled up and by law their entire shareholding can be taken by the Govt if they continue to produce inferior products
In India – Manufacturers have carte Blanche and can do what they like.
Thats the Long and Short of it.
As they say in Hindi “SAALA SYSTEM HI KHARAB HAIN”
Yes, actually I didn’t buy it. I got it for free……. It wasn’t a car, But an RV…. Yes an actual RV. It was a 2002, 26 foot class A RV. It was in perfect condition. Just didn’t run. Inside was perfect. The RV only had 16000 miles on it. Generator only has 30 hrs on It. The RV was practically new. The guy that owned it didn’t want it anymore. He was paying storage to park it. He said he didn’t want to pay storage anymore for an RV that didn’t work. I guess it wouldn’t start one day. He took it to a shop and they told him the engine was blown and he needed a new one. The cost would have been around $8,000. Crazy. So he just parked it. So this guy who I didn’t know came to my work wanting to dispose of the RV. I said I would take it. I got the RV to my Mechanic. He looked at it and replaced a $70 part on the fuel system…. RV started right up!!!!! Ran perfect. Took it to a smog shop and it passed in a few min. I couldn’t believe it. I got an $25000 (today’s value, new was over $100k) RV for free!!!! Best RV ever. I have driven that thing all up and down California. Amazing. What a find….
The Truth Can Be Scary! Paul Harvey: If I Were The Devil…
The real risk of China’s presence in Cuba
China’s enhanced intelligence-gathering and new military presence in Cuba shows Beijing simply no longer cares what the US thinks
The Wall Street Journal reported this month that the People’s Republic of China has heavily invested in a cash-strapped Cuba in exchange for access to an electronic intelligence collection (ELINT) facility, and negotiated an agreement to train Chinese soldiers on the north side of the island.
These developments have been met with great concern in Washington, particularly due to the strategic threat that the PRC’s presence in the region poses.
China’s history of US intelligence collection through Cuba can be traced back to 1999 when Cuba granted the PRC access to facilities at Bejucal, a city just south of the capital, previously operated by the Soviet Union, to collect intelligence on the United States.
More recently, the Biden administration’s response to the WSJ’s report confirmed that the Chinese had indeed been operating an intelligence facility in Cuba for some time, and had only upgraded it in 2019. This ran counter to presidential spokesman John Kirby’s characterization of the reports of China’s “building” of the base.
However, the dialogue left unclear exactly how much money the PRC has invested towards the 2019 upgrade and whether or not it was included as part of the debt restructuring and investment credits awarded by the PRC to Cuba this past November.
By contrast, the possible rotation of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military personnel through the island for training crosses a small, if important, threshold with respect to an enduring Chinese military presence close to the US mainland.
Regardless of the minutiae involved, both developments showcase an increased disposition by both Cuba and the PRC to take risks through explicitly US-focused military initiatives, in ways that suggest it’s willing to take similar risks in other areas as well.
This has significant implications for the United States, necessitating an appropriate, and carefully crafted response from Washington to both current and future events involving both parties.
In the case of Cuba, the government’s willingness to host military threats to the United States has remained consistent since the 1962 missile crisis.
That being said, the regime’s willingness to permit PRC military operations on the island, with the added risk that they might be discovered by US counterintelligence, more greatly highlights the regime’s current desperation for resources amid increasingly severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine – which have prompted a growing exodus of refugees from the island and inspired scattered protests that led the government to temporarily shut down the internet.
Such desperation is consistent with Cuban government behavior surrounding shortages, such as offering Russian investors notable tax breaks, long-term land leases, and options to repatriate profits, in exchange for investments aimed at addressing deficiencies in the country’s petroleum supply, rum and food production.
As for the PRC, the willingness to host anti-US-focused military capabilities for both intelligence collection and training in proximity to the continental United States is a stark departure from the PRC’s otherwise restrained military engagements in the region.
Even if the PLA electronic intelligence presence in Cuba is not new, the 2019 upgrade suggests a decreased concern over alarming or upsetting the United States, which may be, in part, a move emboldened by Xi Jinping’s government’s growing military power and confidence as well as growing military tensions with the United States.
It suggests a growing PLA willingness to construct military operations against the United States in the Western Hemisphere, which will surely fuel a reassessment of the interpretation of its security, people-to-people and commercial activities in the region.
The presence of the PLA is ever-expanding. The intelligence operations at Bejucal are probably not a game-changer in terms of capabilities. However, they pose a dangerous complement to the expanding array of other PRC operations to act on and use against the United States in both peace and wartime.
PRC options to use against the United States also include the numerous Latin American military, police and other government officials who regularly travel to mainland China for “people-to-people diplomacy,” some of whom may be used to provide insights to the Chinese and be labeled by them as friends or “paid consultants.”
As seen by the practices of PRC “police stations,” other options include ethnic Chinese in the region who may be induced by the PRC to cooperate in the interest of familial ties. In addition, the PRC capabilities may also be supplemented by those of Cuban intelligence and those of other anti-US regimes, with personnel in both the United States and throughout the region.
Beyond its facilities and human intelligence capabilities and options, the PRC also has the ability to capture data relevant to US security in the region through its vast and expanding digital footprint there. This is because any Chinese company operating within the United States, under the 2017 PRC National Intelligence Law, is required to turn over any data that may be relevant to security to the PRC.
Some of these architectures, such as Huawei, ZTE, Xiaomi, Oppo and others in the region’s telecommunications infrastructure, can utilize exploitable sensitive data against Latin American government officials and political entities. For example, Huawei uses cloud computing, along with “Smart” and “Safe Cities,” which utilize surveillance technology. Didi Chuxing, a ride-hailing application, has been known to collect trip data on its users.
These are but a few examples of Chinese companies operating within the region that deal with sensitive data that can be subject to exploitation.
In the event of war between the United States and China over Taiwan, anti-US countries close to the United States like Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua would likely be too vulnerable for the PLA to base in them traditional forces such as aircraft and ships for attacks against the United States.
Still, Cuba and other such countries could serve as key staging areas from which the Chinese could observe and disrupt US deployment and sustainment flows, along with other war-critical operations, which would put the United States and its allies at risk.
Both the presence of the Chinese-operated electronic intelligence facility and the development of a PLA training operation on the island will certainly help the PRC to create favorable conditions to counter the United States.
While it is true that the United States and other democratic states conduct international waters and airspace operations under the freedom of navigation principle (FONOPs), the United States cannot simply tolerate an intelligence collection facility 100 miles from its shore operated by its principal geopolitical rival, nor the rotations of PLA military personnel through the island. Such acts of espionage go beyond the simple characterization of “what rivals do” and should be met with a response.
Besides military strikes or other extreme measures that would ultimately be counterproductive for the relationship with the region, the United States most likely can neither persuade nor coerce Cuba and the PRC into abandoning their US-focused military cooperation.
However, this should not prevent the United States from exploiting all other available means to maintain pressure on, and isolate, the Cuban regime and China. Doing so helps limit the ability to extend both anti-US intelligence collection and other capabilities elsewhere.
It also strongly signals to others that the United States draws the line, and will extract a high price, for explicitly collaborating with extra-hemispheric rivals in ways that threaten US security.
Evan Ellis(r_evan_ellis@hotmail.com) is Latin America research professor with the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. The views expressed here are his own.
This Is So Accurate! Paul Harvey Freedom To Chains 1965 | REACTION
Pennsylvania Dutch Sour Cream Cabbage
Ingredients
1 medium head cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup vegetable oil (for frying)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pint (2 cups) sour cream
2 cups distilled white vinegar
Instructions
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add cabbage, salt and pepper and cook until tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Mix sugar and flour together in a medium bowl, then add sour cream and mix well; finally stir in vinegar and mix well.
Add mixture to cabbage and simmer all together until desired consistency is reached.
Yield: 8 to 12 servings
“I Was Made In China” – Funniest EVER AGT Audition?! | Australia’s Got Talent 2022
This is from Michael Crichton’s 1969 novel, made into a film in 1971 by Robert Wise, who had directed West Side Story and the Sound of Music, and would go on to direct the first Star Trek movie. I would describe it as a science fiction medical procedural alien pandemic thriller.
It doesn’t mess with your mind or turn you into a zombie, it just kills you. Death isn’t painful or gruesome, nothing like that, it’s instantaneous. The original un-mutated form clots your blood into dry sand in a matter of seconds.
But… it has no DNA, RNA, amino acids, or common organic chemicals. It’s extraterrestrial, falling to earth on a satellite that was knocked out of orbit. It turns any energy you can throw at it into food, Godzilla style, so it can’t be killed. And it mutates quickly to becoming non-lethal, eating plastic, and escaping out into Earth’s upper atmosphere, where it keeps mutating.
It’s scary as existential dread, us alone in a cold, empty, hostile universe, where the first and only extraterrestrial life we find is a virus that defies our understanding.
There are plenty of real diseases as bad as anything in fiction, by the way.
AFRICAN GIRL FIRST TIME HEARING LUCIANO PAVAROTTI – NESSUN DORMA | THIS IS A MASTER CLASS
My very first professional job in an engineering firm about a million years ago lol.
Designing a concrete retaining wall to stop rubble falling down a hill and into a person’s backyard. A very simple design. Concrete block, reinforcement. I got the sketches from a senior engineer, PhD, always made sure to tell everyone. I drew them as given to me, made a blueprint, and added a note saying I seem to be missing any details for horizontal tie backs, long rods that are drilled into the hill to stop the wall from falling over.
Dick head rights a large angry response in red Sharpie on the drawing basically saying, how dare some scum like me without a PhD have the audacity to question his truly godlike and glorious level of knowledge. Do the fucking drawings as I’m told or quit.
Alrighty then asshole.
I mentioned this to one of my co-workers and he tells me, keep that drawing safe as if it is your firstborn child. Hide it somewhere. Hide it somewhere very good. Make a photocopy of his note. Hide that somewhere even better.
Quite some time passes and a bunch of rubble falls down the hill, and doesn’t the freaking wall fall over. All because there are absolutely no tie backs keeping it from falling over.
Later one evening as I’m about to go home I get called down to the CEO’s office. Inside are a couple of their lawyers, all of the senior staff, and little old me. Probably the youngest person in the entire company.
Lawyer proceeds to tell me I am fucked. I did not do this to PhDs specifications and they are going to screw me six ways of Sunday.
Like fuck I think. I say wait here, under a few protests I stomp out, down to my office, find the drawing, come back in unfold the part with his note on it. He does not look happy. The lawyer does not look happy. In fact no one looks happy except me.
I look up and say any other questions? The lawyer says no I think we’re done here kind of have that drawing please. Me: not a fucking chance. And I’m quite willing to physically fight anyone who tries to take it from me. There were no takers lol. So back to my office, grab my shit and went home. The next day told my boss, he laughed, my coworker laughed, bet the PhD didn’t laugh. And that was that. Not surprisingly, when my term of employment ended, they didn’t renew it. How dare I not become the fall guy!
MY FIRST TIME LISTENING THE CRANBERRIES – ZOMBIE REACTION (Quite Emotional For Me)
China will not be another Soviet Union, but forge its own path
The New York Times, citing a public opinion poll by the Roper Center, said Americans’ views of China are starting to resemble their views of the Soviet Union decades ago. This has reinforced the hardline China policy adopted by the US government, and vice versa. The NYT article also cited experts who claimed that China and the US “are really in a serious competition,” with escalation on one side leading to escalation on the other, and that they are in a cold war.
The US is moving toward a new cold war.
As the article said, a series of policies toward China since the Trump era, including the “competition” mentioned by US President Joe Biden, have increased the American public’s hostility toward China. However, I believe that China will never become another Soviet Union, participating in the “serious competition” led by the US, or a true Cold War. China will have the wisdom and the ability to increase the powerful variables into the historical trajectory and steer mankind toward a different future.
First, China indeed is not the Soviet Union.
Fundamentally speaking, China is an open country, while the Soviet Union was closed. China’s opening-up was a result of its own will, as well as the general environment. China operates as a market economy, with a prominent export-oriented nature, and there is a high degree of freedom in personnel and cultural exchanges with the outside world. In contrast, during the Soviet Union era, ordinary people of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries were unable to travel to the West. These countries operated under a planned economy, where people earned the same no matter whether they worked hard or not. Additionally, there was no Internet or channel for the public to express their demands, and information was highly restricted.
Today’s Chinese society is completely different.
Chinese people’s views on the US are becoming more and more negative, and the “hostility” toward the US is increasing. However, this “hostility” is primarily directed at the US policy toward China and its hegemonism, rather than being “incompatible” with the US. Most Chinese people support, or do not oppose the idea of easing relations with the US.
As China is not the Soviet Union, the US will certainly miscalculate if it treats China as the Soviet Union. It will mess itself up, and its China policy will yield minimal results. For example, the idea of “decoupling” will not hinder China’s economic development, but will promote China’s independent technological innovation and damage the interests of leading American technology companies. While the US attempts to strategically encircle China, many of these efforts are merely superficial. Despite spending significant resources, the US will not be able to effectively contain China’s rise.
China needs to maintain strategic composure.
This composure, first and foremost, means that we are firmly aware that we are not the Soviet Union. At the same time, we are determined not to follow the Soviet Union’s path, but to forge our own unique strategic path. China will not engage in global military competition with the US; instead, we will pave the way globally through economic cooperation. In doing so, the win-win mechanism of China’s economic exchanges with other countries will mobilize more global forces to stand with China and dismantle the US strategy of containing China. The presence of US military bases and alliance systems around the world will become ineffective and will not be of much help to the US.
China’s military power is primarily used for strategic deterrence against the US, making it so that although the US has military advantages, it dares not resort to military blackmail against China. In addition, our military power is used to defend core interests, especially when it comes to the resolution of the Taiwan question, we must have the final say. We adopt a defensive military strategy, but in the Taiwan Straits region, we have gradually formed a local absolute military advantage. We will not engage in military confrontation with the US in regions far away from China’s core interests. However, if the US military comes to China’s nearby waters, especially if it intervenes militarily in the Taiwan Straits and assists the “Taiwanese military” in a possible future Taiwan Straits war, the People’s Liberation Army will not hesitate to “beat the crap out of” those US troops. We will always make our determination clear to the US.
China’s public opinion will inevitably form an opposition to that of the US. The more rampant the US side is, the more determined we become.
At the same time, as a whole, the Chinese people cannot be restrained by the political and opinion elites of the US. We must prevent ourselves from unconsciously approaching the role of the Soviet Union just because they treat China as such. This should be a long-term vigilance for us.
How the US describes and treats us is one thing, while it’s another crucial matter for us to adhere to China’s comprehensive self-development and maintain a big picture and pace. China’s development must be prioritized over struggle against the US. Self-development and self-strengthening must always be the focus of China.
In this way, the US’ containment strategy against China will ultimately end in shameful failure.
Therefore, I also believe that the most important thing is not how to label the current tension between China and the US, but rather, we need to have a different mindset and approach from the Cold War era. We must fully mobilize and utilize the enormous resources and advantages that the Soviet Union did not have, and draw a beautiful strategic curve for the Chinese people in the 21st century to break through the US containment.
PLA Has Capability, Confidence to Smash Taiwan Separatist Attempts, Foreign Interference: Spokesman
I do not have enough time to devote myself to the needs of my little daughter. She (at her age) is 24-7, and I am working multiple jobs and multiple projects. But, you know, I always try to give her priority. So, I have these little events. One of which is an occasional movie with her and myself. I try to do it weekly.
Our time.
Give her momma a break.
So we sit down on the sofa, and watch a movie. Given her age, and my activity schedule, we usually break the movie down into two segments,; the first half on one day, and the the rest on another.
During the movie, we eat a snack. Mostly being a small bag of potato chips, or some crunchy “kid snacks”, and we sit down and watch the movie. I like “American style” Lays (yellow bag) potato chips. We set the bag down, and using scissors, cut a big hole on the side so it forms a kind of disposable tray.
I also make sure that she went to the bathroom before we get started.
Mostly we watched downloaded movies in torrent format, then saved on the drive. I just pull them up and we watch uninterrupted.
The movies that I select are based on things that I want her to concentrate on…
Love
Tenderness, compassion
Independence
Winning over adversity
And so my list is not going to be the average fare that you find on the internet. In fact, you might be surprised in the lack of Disney films (though some are included), and the high concentration of Studio Ghibli films (all in English over dub animation).
Most of the videos you can find easily on the internet with a little bit of sleuthing. Since my child is bilingual (English and Chinese) versions of the movies in these languages are fine, and interchangeable. However, we seek out English versions (say for example) the Japanese movies.
Here’s my preferred videos, in no particular order…
A delightful fantasy that will bring out the child in anyoneHave you ever wished that you could escape your dull and stressful life at school or work and go on a magical adventure of your own, with one of your closest friends at your side, facing all sorts of dangers and villains, and unraveling the mystery of a lost civilization that's just waiting for someone to discover all its secrets?
Even if you're not quite that much of a fantasy-lover, have you ever wished you could simply experience what it's like to be a kid again, and not have a care in the world, for just a couple of hours?
This is exactly what Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky" is all about.
Pazu, a young but very brave and ambitious engineer, lives a rustic life in a mining town until one day, a girl named Sheeta falls down from the sky like an angel and takes him on a journey to a place far beyond the clouds, while all the while they have pirates and military units hot on their trail.
Simply put, it is just the incredible adventure that every kid dreams of at one point or another, and I can't help but feel my worries melt away every time I see it.
An English dub of this film was produced by the Walt Disney Company in 1999 (originally intended to be released that same year), but wasn’t released on DVD until 2003. The English dub shortens the title to “Castle in the Sky,” removing the word “Laputa,” since it means “the whore” in Spanish.
Cat Woman (2004)
A adult film, not an animation. Talks about a strong woman, transformation, change, righting wrongs, and being a cat.
I want my daughter to be strong, and tough. When we watch this movie, she loves the scenes of cats, and how “cat woman” behaves. For days afterwards, she acts a little cat-like in her walk, talk and playing ball. LOL.
Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) is a visual artist who is stuck working in the advertising division of a large beauty product manufacturer, Hedare. When she acquires information that could potentially put the company out of business, they try to dispose of her. Because she had previously, unwittingly passed a "test", however, she is saved by a group of cats and transformed into a Catwoman.First, let me note that I loved this film. It's a 10 out of 10 for me. Since I'm well aware that most critics, professional and amateur alike, have trashed this film, I'll focus on why I thought it was so good. Maybe this will help some new viewers consider giving it a look, and possibly encourage some reevaluation by those who have already seen the film.The script immediately drew me into the film, and although I'm male, I identified with Patience. I'm also a visual artist. I have also worked for a company similar to Hedare in the past (although a much smaller and less nefarious beauty product company). I lived in an apartment that looked, on the outside, almost exactly the same as Patience's apartment complex. I also had neighbors who night after night played loud music or television until three or four a.m., while I first tried to block out the sound in any way that I could, then asked politely for them to turn the music down, and so on, until I finally called the cops on them so I could get some sleep.Not that I need to identify with a character to like a film, but that made this one have extra resonance with me in the beginning. Additionally, I was immediately drawn in by the fantastic cinematography and set design. Those kinds of things are just as important in a movie as the story is. Film is a visual and aural artform. The whole package is important. Creative, attractive visuals such as those in Catwoman are part of the package.The script, including the subtexts, worked well for me. Catwoman is a film about discovering identities, peeling away literal and metaphorical masks, and the difference between various stages of public versus private "faces". That the plot is centered on a beauty product manufacturer, then, is perfect. These themes permeate every aspect of the film. For example, Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt) is continually peeling away the appearances of Patience, throughout the length of the film, and Patience is doing the same for herself--discovering her "true self". I can't think of a scene that doesn't touch on this theme in some way. That's very clever and thought-provoking scriptwriting, and it doesn't end there. There are also themes about femininity cleverly woven through the film, for example.I thought the cast did a fantastic job. Berry is great as a Catwoman, and subtly referenced most of the previous screen Catwomen. She also incorporated a lot of crafty cat-like behavior. I enjoyed the supporting cast, especially Alex Borstein as Patience's friend, Sally. The effects worked well for me, and at times they were also very subtle and clever, such as Catwoman's whip representing a tail in many shots (most of this was achieved via digital effects). I was also impressed with the creativity and different approach of many of the fight scenes. It was nice to see Brazilian martial arts incorporated for a change.Some of the negative criticism probably stems from a kind of purism that is disproportionately found among comic book fans when it comes to comic book films. I'm not much of a purist, but in any event, for anyone paying close attention, you'd note that Berry's character isn't supposed to be Selina Kyle. In the mythology of as presented here, "Catwoman" isn't a lone token, but a type. Patience is just another instantiation of a long line of catwomen. So departures from previous portrayals of Selina Kyle aren't relevant, even if we believed that filmmakers were obligated in some way to previous depictions of the "same" fictional characters (which I don't believe, not being a purist).Catwoman is worth a (second) chance if you can leave some of your preconceptions at the door and if you're prepared to think a bit about a comic book film.
Epic (2013)
Shrinking to the size of ants, and inhabiting a huge ancient forest; with a mad-scientist father… it’s stuff that kids just eat up. The parade scenes, and all the interplay is mesmerizing to my daughter. She just cannot keep her eyes off it.
I didn't think I'd like this movie, but I took my 10-year-old cousin to see it anyway, and I really loved it.I've heard this film compared to everything--FernGully, The Borrowers, Avatar, etc., and while it is another film in that genre and it may be a little cliché, it does create its own fascinating world and tell its story in a unique way. Its themes are heavy (family and belonging, the balance between growth and decay/life and death) but are handled in a successfully child-friendly manner.The animation and design are gorgeous. I love the cute fairy-like flower and leaf people; I even love the design of the goblin-like bad guys (the Boggan). I want to see more stories set in this incredible little world. I also appreciate how much care went into animating that forest.While the characters are pretty familiar, they're still delightful. I thought the choice of voice actors was particularly good. I liked Amanda Seyfried as the main character, M.K. (Mary Katherine), I looooved Colin Farrell as Ronin, and I have to say, I was really pleasantly surprised by Beyonce as Queen Tara. She has a voice just like honey, which fits the queen's sweet, playful personality. Queen Tara emerges as one of my favorite animated characters of all time (and NO, I do not find her voice "too ghetto." I don't appreciate people sniffing down their noses at others that way) because she carried so much of the movie with what turned out to be really minimal role. Plus, I always love to see people of color portrayed positively in children's films.I would definitely take kids to see this again, although it might be too scary for kids younger than 6 and too slow for kids older than 12. Folks have to admit, this is a fun movie to watch, and highly imaginative kids especially will love it.
Free Guy (2021)
Just fun. Modern. Interfaces clearly with social media usage by children. Totally relatable, with deep messages…
…strong woman character. Nice guy.
A message of helping others…
One glance at FREE GUY, the newest big budget offering from Hollywood's favorite action-star/comedy master Ryan Reynolds, will cause most to approach with valid skepticism.
The plot seems like a cheap knockoff of films like Ready Player One or even The Matrix, but made in a crude fashion to make more money at the box office.
The actual movie, however, could not be further from the worst estimates.
Not only is FREE GUY constantly hilarious due to Reynolds and an inventive screenplay, and not only is this possibly the feel-good event of the summer, but it also has a considerable amount of thought put into the meaning of its premise and places a mirror in front of modern-day video game culture.To put it simply, perhaps the main reason this movie comes together so well is because of Ryan Reynolds' constant charisma and hilarity. Most of his dialogue is clearly either written by him or created by him on the spot (I have no idea how he hasn't received a screenwriting credit for this and the Deadpool movies), and the film is that much better as a whole because of it. He also interacts with the other actors in the film very well, including Jodie Comer and Joe Keery, two underrated actors who prove here that they aren't just one-time stars from their respective television shows (Killing Eve and Stranger Things). The ensemble combines to create the most consistently funny movie of 2021 so far.However, this movie isn't just hilarity and crazy antics, although it could easily get by on those aspects alone.
FREE GUY has tons of heart and authenticity despite its virtual reality-based plot, and is about very human emotions such as disillusionment, the feeling of being trapped, and, of course, love.
There are times where the heartwarming aspects of this film resemble a charming romantic comedy and others where it gets so existential that it almost feels like The Truman Show.
It never dives quite as deep as the latter film, but the fact that it even has the guts to include these themes made this easygoing big-budget movie a far better watch for me.
Sure, the last thirty minutes are very cheesy and contain a lot of clichés, but the buildup is so solid that it earns some dumb rom-com moments near the end.FREE GUY is worth going to see because it is one of the few quality films right now that increases one's faith in human nature.
Lately I feel as though I have lost my faith in humanity with all that is happening in the world, so it is refreshing to get a movie that feels confident in the human experience.
Maybe I'm looking too deep into the message of FREE GUY and maybe it was conceived just so Ryan Reynolds could screw around for two hours, but either way the price of admission is well worth it for an amazing time at the theater.
Home (2015)
A fun adventure about an independent girl searching for her mother (a big hit with my young daughter) and her cat. It teaches to face face your fears, friendships, promises, and handling adversity. All to a fun soundtrack.
...there's something so utterly sweet and innocent about Home that it zooms by with an enchanting charm.
When people tell you to calm down by going to your happy place, it probably looks something like this.
It's arguably the most child-centric movie Dreamworks have produced for a few years too.
The adult-targeted humour is kept to a minimum and the physical comedy is amped up to levels that is normally irritating but here works an absolute treat.
Its success can be attributed, in a big way, to the lovable alien Oh (Jim Parsons). A clumsy go-getter with endearing optimism, cuddly colour-changing looks, and amusing speech patterns, Oh steals the spotlight whenever he is on screen, which is about 95% of the time.
As his plucky partner in adventure, Tip, Rihanna's precocious human child is fairly stock standard, whilst Steve Martin's dim-witted leader of Oh's Boov race lands a few hilarious moments among some dull ones. Vibrant, energetic and with an unexpected tear-jerking finale, Home falls on the right side of simple.
Here’s the Music Video, with scenes from the video.
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
In a time of war and falsity here it is a dancing poetry from Japan against all the cruelty and pain.
The moving castle leads us to a magic place where life has a strong value and elderly people have an important role to play. Also in an apparent hostility or in a scarecrow, Hayao Miyazaki gives us the chance of finding a friend and not letting the dream go down.
The perfect technique and the emotional stream are in complete harmony. If the jury of the Venice Film Festival had been more far-seeing, it would have given a more prestigious prize to this masterpiece.
Kikis Delivery Service (1989)
One of our favorites. A young girl leaves home with her cat to begin her start as a young witch. Calm, peaceful and enchanting. My little girl loves the imagery, pace and feeling of the movie.
One of the greatest children’s films ever made
This ranks up there with Pinocchio as the greatest movie for children ever made. One huge problem with most animated children's films are that the plots are so conventional and often contain very 1950s ideals for society that they become detrimental to society.
One's childhood is the most impressionable time in their life, so movies that are directed towards them teach them what places different sorts of people play in society.
There is a very humorous, but also very serious bit of dialogue in a film called The Last Days of Disco where characters discuss the effects Lady and the Tramp could have on little girls, depicting a young female dog falling for a vagabond Tramp.
This, they muse, sets young women up to fall for rebellious men later in life.
This may seem like a humorous idea, but it's absolutely true.
Even good Disney movies give children these standards. As nice as The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella or Snow White and the Seven Dwarves may be, they basically teach that it is the woman's place to grow up and get married, prefereably to a handsome rich man (perhaps the rich part is never said, but both the main male characters in these films do happen to own castles).
The writers of these films probably had no idea that that is what they were doing, but it is.
That is why Pinocchio is the best Disney movie. It is probably the only Disney animated film that I can think of that actually concerns the predicament of its target audience: children. I can hardly think of a single (American) animated film besides it that has a child as its main character (oh, the Jungle Book, which is also excellent).
Then comes Kiki's Delivery Service.
It is an absolutely perfect movie about a young girl out on her own trying to handle the responsibilities of life. It is, in my opinion, the best movie that a child can watch.
And not only will it teach children, it is also marvelously animated, directed, and written.
There is a plethora of great characters, exciting moments, and imaginative situations. It should also expand a child's mind, not only because of the imagination involved, which will help to break children away from conventions in their film experience, thus making them more intelligent, but because it comes from another culture.
It doesn't overtly show its Japaneseness, unless you count the imagination involved (though you should count that as a credit towards Hayao Miyazaki, who is the greatest genius of animation as far as I'm concerned). But it may spark an interest in children old enough to understand that someone from another country made it. Also, for younger kids, Miyazaki's fantastic, equally good My Neighbor Totoro. 10/10
(ps: I have only seen the English dubbed version of this film. I find it perfectly acceptable and great.
Nothing made me cringe, anyway. I think Kirsten Dunst did a very good job characterizing Kiki, a much better job than Claire Danes did characterizing San from Princess Mononoke.)
Labyrinth (1986)
A kids’ movie. I remember watching this on Betamax in the late 1980’s. But my daughter absolutely adores it.
Labyrinth was directed by Jim Henson of the Muppet and The Dark Crystal fame. It was produced by George Lucas and featured David Bowie as the villain Goblin King. It's also one of Jennifer Connelly's first films. And it just might be the best live-action Alice in Wonderland film ever made.
Sarah (Connelly) is a proud cloudcuckoolander, someone whose head is permanently stuck in the clouds and who can very easily lose entire days playing make-belief in the parks. And then she's given the unenviable task of looking after her baby brother while her parents go out on a date. And of course the kid gets kidnapped by goblins within fifteen minutes. Top notch job there, Sarah.
To Sarah's credit, she's obviously distraught by this and does everything she can to get her brother back. Nevertheless, her character is a bit tough to get behind most of the time. You can see that her heart is in the right place, but otherwise she's a brat. Not helping the matter is Connelly's acting. It's atrocious, especially in the early scenes. As the movie progresses, she does get better, but she's not going to be winning any Oscars anytime soon. (Which is ironic because fifteen years later she did just that with her role in A Beautiful Mind.)
But, putting that aside, the film is otherwise a whole lot of fun. David Bowie is an absolute blast, although the songs he's given to sing could have been better. Jim Henson's puppet work is also on full display and is easily the best part of the film. Furthermore, the story has that mad, no logic whatsoever dream quality to it, which makes it enjoyable to watch, and the characters aside from Sarah are very enjoyable.
Mars Needs Moms (2011)
This plays upon the “must save momma” theme that my daughter is a big fan of. Her eyes are glued to the video, and he’s hopping up and down as they race to save “momma”. It’s one of our favorites.
I wasn't going to watch this movie at all because of the terribly low score (4) on IMDb. Luckily, my kids talked me into it, and I was very pleasantly surprised indeed.I am amazed that this movie scored so low. Yes, granted, its nothing groundbreaking; there are plenty of well-worn formulas applied. But its far from unusual in this regard, and the story is full of fun situations and characters.Visually, its very nice to look at, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying the time I spent watching it. So did my kids, 8 and 10, who both thought it was great! I don't usually review movies here, but I often check the ratings before watching films. In this instance, I am amazed at the low rating this film received, and feel its unrepresentative of the actual quality.
I wasn't expecting this at all. I really wasn't. I hadn't read the bad reviews, however I saw the trailer and figured it would be quite cheesy and probably lame. Oh no aliens took my mother and I have to stop them! Sounded like a cheesy cartoon which would involve shooting aliens and running around to find his mom and save her, yada yada yada.Well... boy was I surprised.The movie started out with the whole alien world and because I knew the title was Mars needs Moms it implied the aliens were looking for moms. I watched them show two moms who's kids weren't listening, then it showed a third one who minded his mom. Satisfied by this result, it shows the boy and his mom and how the boy is in that age where he doesn't know why he should listen to his mom. Before they go to bed he says he wishes he didn't have a mom. The emotion from that makes you feel so bad.Now many scenes later the mom got abducted by the aliens, and the boy managed to hitch a ride and meets some new friends and learns a lot. By the time the ending comes you really hope he can save his mom.
The emotions I felt were amazing.
More amazing though was the fact that I eve got some tears near the end. I won't say what happens, but it was very emotional and powerful to me.So I would recommend this movie to anyone. And I'm 18 for your information, so hearing that a young adult got tears from a movie like this must be something.
Meet the Robinson’s (2007)
“Keep on moving forward”
Lewis is an 12-year-old orphan who is always inventing things. However, in a science fair, he meets Wilbur, a 13-year-old boy from the future who is chasing after a Bowler Hat Man who came to the past to steal Lewis' invention, a machine that shows memories. When he steals it, Wilbur takes Lewis to the future, as Wilbur explains he is chasing the villain due to him stealing a time machine. This would lead to an adventure where Lewis meets Wilbur's family, The Robinsons, and stop The Bowler Hat Man from changing the future.
This is a horribly underrated film.
The characters are actually enjoyable, especially the members of Wilbur's family, from Uncle Art, the galactic pizza delivery guy voiced by the late Adam West, to Tiny The T-Rex, each character has an unique personality and talent.
Also, the film is beautifully animated and teaches a lesson: keep going forward, despite your failures.
This is worth checking out.
Moana (2016)
Just fun, and a great happy movie with depth.
Wow, what a great great movie! The visuals in this movie are breathtaking!! They are so gorgeous! But, besides the visuals there is such a heart and imagination and creativity to this movie. Moana is such a likable, smart, and relatable person. the voice work for Moana is so sweet and so good. The chemistry between Moana and Maui is so great and so natural. The songs in this movie are so charming, catchy and fun! But, How Far I'll Go is such an emotional song and it has such heart...I dare say I like it a little more than Let It Go! The way Moana sings it and you can feel it!! Wow, I just looved this movie and it is great for kids and adults. I will always love it and I wanna see it again!
My Neighbor Totoro aka Tonari no Totoro (1988)
This is our all-time favorite movie to watch. If you are a father, and you want to spend an afternoon with your daughter, this is perfect. Track down the English version. I got mine via a torrent.
This is the movie I watch to restore my faith in humanityI first saw "My Neighbor Totoro" when I was maybe seven.At the time, I thought that it was really boring(that was still when I liked Disney movies). Years later, when I discovered "Princess Mononoke" I learned that MNT was by the same director and watched it again. And I find that I appreciate this film a whole lot more now then I did when I was seven.
The animation is absolutely stunning(as with all Miyazaki films)and the story is deceptively simple, told with patient, subtle attention to detail. The best example IMO is the scene where Mei falls asleep on Totoro's stomach.It's fruitless to try and describe it;you have to see it for yourself.
I absolutely agree with Roger Ebert who called "My Neighbor Totoro", "One of the most beloved of all family films".
Its colorfully bright and sparkling animation is enchanting.
It is incredibly realistic and at the same time makes us along with two main characters, the young sisters ready for a miracle to happen any minute.
The gentle story is touching, uplifting, funny, and tender without being overly sentimental or didactic.
The film takes place in the early 50s, when 10-year-old Satsuki and her baby sister, curious and energetic 4-year-old Mei spend one summer in an old house in the country side with their University professor father while their mother recovers from a serious illness in the nearby hospital.
The great master Hayao Miyazaki remembers well what it is like to be a child, to see magic in the everyday life and be always ready to encounter it.
This ability usually disappears as the child becomes adult but it stays forever in a few chosen, and they become the visionary Artists - just like Miyazaki himself.
The film is partially autobiographical for the writer/director/storyboard artist. "When Miyazaki and his brothers were children, his mother suffered from spinal tuberculosis for nine years, and spent much of her time hospitalized.
It is implied, yet never revealed in the film, that Satsuki and Mei's mother also suffers from tuberculosis.
He once said the film would have been too painful for him to make if the two protagonists were boys instead of girls." (From the IMDb film trivia)
Totoro of the title is an adorable funny blue forest spirit who lives in the nest beneath a huge tree and makes the trees grow and the winds blow.
Totoro becomes the friend and protector of the sisters and one day he sends them on the bus journey that is like nothing they and the viewers could ever imagine.
I wish I could ride that cat bus.
What a wild and kind imagination an artist should have to create it.
How much happier we all are knowing that Hayao Miyazaki exists and makes his amazing films at the Studio Ghibli for which King Totoro is the mascot.
Spirited Away (2001)
No only a classic, but a movie about a young girl who is trying to get her parents back. There’s magic, dragons, friends, and so many details to mention that it boggles the mind.
This is a wonderfully imaginative and fantastical children's fantasy. It is easy to see why it was perhaps the critical hit of 2002. The film is glorious to look at. It is a testament to old fashioned animation techniques that seem to be resigned to foreign animations. Of course there is some use of computer imagery for certain shots but they blend seamlessly and the overall artistry involved is superlative.
This is the first Hayao Miyazaki film I have seen and I will certainly watch his others. The story plays on many elements successful with kids films, that transport you back to your own childhood and also allows the young audience to connect with the themes in the movie too. The story centres around Chihiro, a young girl about to move into a new place and who feels insecure about the new environment she will be living in. These fears become a part of her encounter with a strange abandoned amusement park that she and her parents find when they reach a dead end in their car. At the park they find that their is a stall that is seemingly open, with glorious displays of mouth watering food. There are no people about but Chihiros parents decide to gorge themselves on this bounty and pay later. As Chihioro explores she comes across a strange boy who warns her to get out before dark. It is too late however, because as night falls, ghosts are awakened, and then by the time she gets back to her parents they are turned into pigs. She then finds that the route she came from is gone and she is now trapped in this place, her only allie being the boy she met earlier. She is told to get a job at the centre piece of the park, a bath house run by Yubaba, an evil power mad witch. This is a bath house for the spirits and Chihiro has to find a job there before she is found and turned into an animal herself, then unable to save her parents.
The story is imaginative and the characters and animations endlessly unique and strange. This is just so much more creative than Hollywood. The characters are likeable and we become engrossed with Chihiros adventures inside this bathhouse, and the characters she comes into contact with as she tries to get her parents back as humans and whilst trying to get back to the human world. What I also loved in this film is that the animation gives it a real sense of cinematography, the drawing makes the film stand out in a way that American animations rarely do. Another film I think of that looked really good was Bellville Rendezvous. Another great point in fact the best part of it, is the fantastic score. It really is uplifting and very original. This is just great film making.
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
Oh, the dog; Snowy makes this movie fun for the young kids, it’s really fun for the entire family. Treasure, adventure, high-seas adventure, planes, desert, and so much more…
As you may know Tin Tin is a very old character and there has been books and TV programs made about his great adventures by his inventor Hergé.
This new film has been voted the best animated film and once you've seen this film you'll know why.
The film is well paced out and there's never a dull moment in this film. The 3D in this film is spectacular and it's well worth seeing this film in 3D if you can.
The film is around 1 hour 47 minutes long and in this time Steven Spielberg manages to squash in a good few adventures into one in this film.
This makes it much more exciting and you really get to know how Tin Tin and Captain Haddock were in the old days.
As a projectionist, I've seen this film about 6 times now and I still don't get bored watching it.
Absolutely brilliant film, I really recommend going to see this film as soon as you can.
Hope the review helps your thoughts on the film. Thanks for reading, I'll be making more reviews on the films that I see at my cinema so you can get the latest thoughts from me on the films. Thanks again BPH projectionist
One of my daughter’s favorite movies. Cats, kids. School. And magical adventure. The English dub version is just lovely.
After the wild but fully justified furore surrounding Spirited Away, Studio Ghibli's next production is a much lower key affair, clearly aimed at a younger market. Having said that, this cynical thirty-something loved it to bits. Ghibli purists seem to be somewhat snobbish about the studio's output, but If this is an example of one of their films designed more for harmless family entertainment, I can stand to see a lot more of it.
This is a wonderful fantasy film, cute and funny, and full of remarkable and memorable characters. The animation is solid and detailed, occasionally even breathtaking, and the soundtrack is gorgeous. The brisk running time ensures the light story doesn't outstay its welcome. In fact, I could easily have watched more, and I'm already looking forward to Ghibli's or Miyazaki's next flight of fantasy.
Up (2009)
There are many more that I can add, but I really want to add this masterpiece. It is well known, but should never be over-looked if you want to share some time with your daughter….
This post is a free (short) science fiction story called “Surface Tension”. It’s a classic story, and well worth the read.
A contributor wrote a story (or two) Heh Heh… and it was good, I’ll tell you what. But I will not publish it here. What I will say is that it reminded me of another story. Not that I know why… the two stories are completely different in every way. But it did jar my memories, and so I unearthed this gem.
It’s a story I read when I was 12 years old or so, and man oh man, did it awaken my soul and stir up some stuff inside.
It’s funny that way. How unrelated things can come together and create thought movements.
Such as this post…
“Surface Tension” by James Blish first appeared in the August 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. In 1957 it was published by Gnome Press as The Seedling Starsalong with three other pantropy stories by Blish to make a fix-up novel.
When the Nebula Awards were being created in the 1960s, the Science Fiction Writers of America voted for their favorite science fiction short stories published before the advent of the awards and “Surface Tension” was included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One in 1970.
The version of “Surface Tension” in The Big Book of Science Fiction is different from the one that appeared in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
It has “Sunken Universe” (Super Science Stories, May 1942) inserted into it after the introduction, which is the way it is in The Seedling Stars. However, the introduction had additional paragraphs not in the Hall of Fame version, and I expect a careful reading of the later sections should show changes too. H. L. Gold was known for editing stories and Blish was known for rewriting his stories, so we don’t know which happened.
My guess is Blish came up with additional ideas to add to the story for the book version. I’ve read the slightly shorter version three times before over my lifetime, and a few paragraphs in this version stood out to me as new. Mainly they were about the original crew theorizing about their future pantropic existence.
Lately I’ve been writing about why I disliked a story, but for “Surface Tension” I need to explain why I love a story, and that might be even harder to do.
Every once in a while, a science fiction writer will come up with an idea that’s so different that it lights up our brains.
Wells did it with “The Time Machine.”
Heinlein did it with his story “Universe.”
Brian Aldiss did it with his fix-up novel Hothouse.
Robert Charles Wilson did it with his novel Spin.
“Surface Tension” is one of those stories. It has tremendous sense of wonder.
I’m torn between explaining everything that happens and not saying anything. But I need to talk about “Surface Tension,” so if you haven’t read it, please go away and do so.
As I’ve said before about great short stories, they have a setup that allows the author to say something interesting – not a message, but an insight.
The setup for “Surface Tension” is five men and two women have crashed on the planet Hydrot that orbits Tau Ceti. Their spaceship can’t be repaired, their communication system was destroyed, and they don’t have enough food to survive.
However, their ship is one of a swarm of seed ships spreading across the galaxy that colonizes each planet with customized humans adapted for each unique environment.
In other words, Blish has a lot to say with this story.
Because no large organisms can survive in the current stage of Hydrot’s development, the crew decide to seed it with intelligent microorganisms.
The seven will die, but each of their genes will be used to fashion a new species of roughly humanoid shape creatures that can coexist with the existing microorganisms of the freshwater puddles on Hydrot.
They won’t have their memories, but they will have ancestral abilities.
The crew creates these creatures and inscribe their history on tiny metal tablets they hope will be discovered one day by their tiny replacements.
From here the story jumps to the underwater world of the microorganisms and we see several periods of their history unfold. Blish used his education in biology to recreate several concentric analogies of discoveries that parallel our history in his puddle world of tiny microorganisms.
The wee humanoids form alliances with other intelligent microorganisms in wars to conquer their new environment.
Then they begin an age of exploration that eventually parallels our era of early space exploration. But you can also think of it paralleling when life first emerged from the sea to conquer the land.
One reason this story means so much to me is Blish makes characters out of various types of eukaryotic microorganisms and that reminds me of when I was in the fourth grade and our teacher asked us to bring a bottle of lake water to class.
That day we saw another world through the eyepiece of a microscope.
Blish made that world on a microscope slide into a fantasy world where paramecium becomes a character named Para who is intelligent and part of a hive mind that works with the transhumans.
Their enemies are various kinds of rotifers. However, I know little of biology and don’t know what the Proto, Dicran, Noc, Didin, Flosc characters are based on.
The main transhuman characters are Lavon and Shar who’s personalities are preserved over generations.
I wondered if the seven original human explorers (Dr. Chatvieux, Paul la Ventura, Philip Strasvogel, Saltonstall, Eleftherios Venezuelos, Eunice Wagner, and Joan Heath) were archetypes for the microscopic transhuman characters? Blish suggests that in the opening scene:
However, I never could decipher who Lavon and Shar were. Each time I reread this story I notice more details, and more analogies. “Surface Tension” is both simple and complex.
At a simple level its just a space adventure tale about exploration and survival.
But in creating a fantasy ecology, Blish hints at the deeper complexity of a writer becoming a worldbuilder.
And Blish is also philosophical about the future of mankind, reminding me of Olaf Stapledon.
This is the kind of story that can blow adolescent minds. Like mine.
The entire story is HERE in PDF form. Enjoy the free download and the great story!
The following is the 29th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings.
I hope that you enjoy this article.
-MM
Who are the Unseen 5?
It should be noted they are an entirely separate organisation to the Elder Guardians. Whereas the EG first contacted me in 2012, my experience with the Unseen 5 happened on the same night I met the all being/ god (supreme consciousness that connects all others in existence, in which the soul amnesia was discussed) in November 2016. To clear up some confusion, the Unseen 5 are not stationed in the same soul/ consciousness origin point as the EG; they remain inside of the traps in the astral/etheric planes in the orbital pathways of the {astral} earth, approximately half way between the earth and the moon, if it could be equated in astral terms (my interpretation), but have technology that keeps them completely concealed from any and all things traversing those planes
(this was directly told to me).
Whereas the EG are a bunch of old wisened sages that are charged with the up keep of the soul origin point, the Unseen 5 is a military-like intelligence gathering organisation, first and foremost. Their original purpose was to gain information on the non physical entities that have invaded the regions surrounding earth (both physically and non physically) and to act as a protectorate for the earth environment to stop further damage resulting from this invasion (again, directly told to me). They can be considered as the SAS or “special forces” equivalent of the astral plane, as they operate as a small cluster behind enemy lines for recon purposes, and are, as was specifically mentioned to me by their leader, directly responsible for preventing total and complete take over of earth and its surrounding space from this non physical invasion force, several times over. They exist above and separate to any military/ intelligence organisations currently deployed on earth.
Entry (into this inner office) is specifically only for elite lucid dreamers that have mastered control of the dream state, and have, through their own determinations reached a similar understanding of this non physical invasion and how it is being carried out – the idea that our consciousness’s have been dumbed down and placed in bodies with specifically engineered in restrictions, is a big part of such understanding. Astral projectors alone – as far as I am aware – are not approached for initiation, as the test for entry takes place within the dream state; they only present themselves to those who pass such a test.
This does not mean astral projectors are not valued, just that I do not think they will be granted entry into the actual operation “war room” on their astral projection abilities alone; my understanding is that that astral projectors are utilised more as the foot soldier “grunts” of the astral planes, whereas lucid dreamers are reserved for more specialised espionage like roles and tasks that involve “consciousness hacking” (it must be understood that consciousness is the predominant technology that all U5 operations revolve around – LDers are prime candidates to use this technology because the navigational skills required to properly LD directly translate over into the control interfaces of this consciousness technology. Consciousness is still greatly insulated from accessing this technology during a standard AP).
It is important to address the elephant in the room here, that the U5 are interested only in obtaining information objectively and respect that some of us have belief systems that directly contradict their collected intelligence and goals; they simply have no intention of imposing themselves on others and changing their beliefs, but it should be understood that this presents a level of discrimination in exactly who it is they vet for potential recruitment, similar to how the SAS and other special forces organisations only have a very specific criteria for the people they bring into their regiments. This may seem unfair, but we must realise our thoughts on the matter are insignificant, as the role the U5 plays, far transcends our concepts of fairness and any belief systems we may attach our attention to. My advice is a commitment to rigorous self psychological analysis into one’s own thought constructs and why they have taken up such belief systems, and analysis into whether this was something they truly believed in, or if it was something imposed on them by someone else.
Any and all entities that travel in the non physical planes are monitored and scrutinised at a level far, far above the capabilities of physical earth bound intelligence agencies by the U5. This is a fact, as it was, again, directly told to me and I was shown the actual process of how this monitoring is carried out. This scrutinisation includes a complete tracing of all non physical traffic’s points of origin before coming into the non physical planes, and to where it goes after leaving them. A dossier is then compiled on each piece of traffic’s entire (past and future) history which is taken directly from the “akashic records”, or, to be more specific, directly from the energy signature of the consciousness under question – hence the need for LDers to be able to merge their consciousness with and properly navigate into this akashic template.
If you have ever consciously APed/ LDed, or projected consciousness into the astral planes such as is done via remote viewing, you can safely bet your bottom dollar you are known to the U5 and that they have a dossier on your entire life at their fingertips which includes a holographic film reel of your entire time in the astral planes and all activities you were engaged in; seeing the way this archive is accessed and managed, I gotta tell you, is damned impressive. As you can imagine, this is a monumental and seemingly impossible logistical workload for 5 members to carry out, hence the ability to tap into and access higher order information via the higher self is crucial to becoming an operational member within their ranks, again something LDers will have more experience being able to do than typical astral projectors.
Of the 5 members the (non human non physical) leader remains stationed permanently in this orbital office. The remaining four (current incarnates at the time of my initiation) members are appointed a single task each which they are expected to focus on during their time spent within the organisation during their LDs. Together, these tasks comprise a larger operational parameter which directly relates to the waging of inter-dimensional (non physical ) warfare and coordination of “special assets” through unified assault and recon teams into non physical infrastructure that has been identified by the U5 as “high value” targets. While the U5 are not interested in “waking people” up like the EG, their overall goal of stopping the cogs of the reincarnation regime aligns. They are more concerned with unifying and training assets that are already awake to a much higher degree than normal and only bother with LDers who have shown a strong commitment to this end through their own initiative.
It is for this reason both organisations provide each other with valuable information. My task, as it was relayed to me by the U5 leader, involved the recruitment of other potential lucid dreaming candidates / astral projectors, as well as non physical (discarnate) consciousnesses located in different planes, and making the organisation known to the physical (and non physical) earth community, hence my Ordo Occultum Astrum (Order of the Hidden star) is to act as the physical division of this non physical based organisation. Recruitment into this physical division is now open to those with these particular skillsets, and other parties interested din putting a stop to these malicious systems in place within the non physical planes.
As a result of my tasks and responsibilities put to me by their leader, I am the only one currently incarnated on earth that is authorised to mention who they are specifically, what they are capable of, and provide an explanatory overview of their capabilities and the technologies they disclosed to me – this is my area of focus. I appreciate this sounds narcissistic, but it is what it is; to put it simply, I earned my position within their ranks through my own understanding of the advanced capabilities of consciousness during the LD state, picked up over years of pushing and proving myself, and they figured I was the best candidate to translate it into a language that is usable for other LD assets. They asked me to do this, and I obliged, as I understood the extreme importance of it.
Please understand that my curriculum of using LD to establish contact with such non physical intelligences is approved by the U5, the EG and the All Being respectfully, and is something I am extremely honoured to be able to provide. It is to act a handbook or guide to help other LD assets achieve their maximum potential, and all information pertaining to it is to be made available for free, of which this Ordo Occultum Astrum is to act as the only official channel of which to distribute such information. Again I am asking for a great deal of trust from other LD assets that the information I am providing on Lucid Dreaming is legitimate. I am hoping by spending countless hours writing about this so it can be presented to you all for free is a worthy enough feat for that trust.
It is also worth mentioning that until my initiation, the other 4 members were the only other 4 people incarnated on earth (current at 2012) that knew about this organisation- again, this was directly mentioned to me by the leader.
Member numbers were apparently higher in centuries past than they are now, due to some (unknown by me) event that dwindled them down to 5; it seems that the leader wishes to rebuild these numbers in order to ease the logistical workload for each of its members, though this is to come second to building an inter-dimensional strike force.
Quite frankly, he demonstrated to me his disappointment that not enough Lucid Dreamers/ Astral Projectors take their skills seriously, and use them as a means to go on “astral holidays” rather than put them to meaningful use.
If you are in my order, it is because I have identified certain traits and skills within you that I think would provide initiation potential if honed.
However, all initiations remain at the ultimate authority and discretion of the U5 leader – at the end of the day I am just the messenger and have no control over whether or not you will get in.
These are the prequisites for entry into the Unseen 5:
An understanding that dreams can be hijacked and manipulated by third parties external to the consciousness having the dream, and supplanted with holographic scenarios of the third party’s choosing that can take the form of normal or extremely vivid dreams.
The area of effect is the void space (which I have written about elsewhere, including in my auto biography), where thought imagery directly manifests as the dream environment.
This same void space acts as a hub for the routing of all psychic information through a network that connects all other consciousnesses in existence in a hive mind like arrangement.
The holographic imagery employed by the U5 and other non physical factions is injected as a false thought directly onto this communication line, with the intention of creating a “controlled dream”, while the consciousness remains in a docile and unconscious state.
This must be understood as fact and not just a theory. This technology is used to control people through “divine inspiration.” Thus, unless information has come from a direct connection to the akashic template, it is to remain suspect and seen as potentially compromised.
An understanding that all consciousnesses have access to very specific parts of the greater (physical and non physical) universe. These areas are those that each consciousness was supposed to govern at the expectation of source upon their creation.
Therefore, each consciousness acts like a key to a very specific location that cannot be accessed without the authorising energy signature embedded into the governing consciousness. Again, fact, not theory. Certain access points have been breached by unauthorised entities through the manipulation of astral bodies/ energetic bodies.
An understanding consciousness is at a severely reduced and handicapped state when in the body, and that the body is a mechanism engineered specifically to provide this handicap.
The life objective of the candidate must be to unlock this handicap and reach a higher state of awareness, ie the acquisition of all soul memory, aka connection with higher self (hermetic teachings are a wealth of information for this). The ability to see from a third person, objective perspective and view one’s current incarnation as “insignificant” when compared with their soul’s complete history, which spans many of such incarnations, is required, as it defines one of the core values of the Unseen 5.
Therefore emphasis must be placed on what one’s soul achieves through the accumulation of incarnations, and not just materialistically in a single one of them.
Think of it like a computer game; you may think that one cycle is important as you are engaging in it, but after you die, respawn, lose all your accumulations and then progress past where you were up to, that last cycle you played becomes furthest from your mind and seemingly “unimportant”.
A fearless attitude towards projecting into dangerous and unsettling territory during an OBE, with the expectation of torture/ consciousness doping/ consciousness imprisonment and other harsh repercussions if caught. This does not exclude the potentiality of complete disconnection of consciousness from the physical body (ie death) due to it being kept for too long in one of these consciousness prisons.
I am not going to lie, there is some incredibly dangerous shit out there you will be expected to navigate through, though I would suggest the U5 would not approach you if you weren’t ready to face it.
A strong understanding of your worth, and an unfaltering insistence on understanding absolute authority remains with you and you alone, and that such authority is determined by the energetic component that gives animation to your physical and energetic bodies (soul).
This commitment to the self as master authority of your operations will see you disregard any other such false authority that would impose itself upon you and try and claim it out ranks you.
All apparent guides you MUST remain suspect of and only follow their advice if you are 100% sure it aligns with your operations and values, and have an energetic (soul time memory) understanding of.
Nothing is permitted to claim authority over you and your soul’s evolutionary progress – this is not how source operates. Anything having you signing or giving away your authority during an OBE must be immediately refused. This will comprise the main aspect of the holographic dream scenario the U5 will test you with if they have been considering you for potential candidacy.
A high level of service to others sentience, and the commitment to helping others. This is not negotiable; anyone who would try to enter the organisation for their own materialistic gain will be vehemently denied access, as service to others sentience (like the Domain) is part of the core values of the U5.
All service to self entities will simply be ignored for candidacy, but will be scrutinised by the U5 at an even higher level thereafter. Recommended demonstration is sponsorship of another person that needs it for a period of at least 5 years.
This sponsorship will be to the point that you are “on call” to them and ready to drop everything you are doing at a moment’s notice to help them with their predicament.
This doesn’t necessarily mean just giving them money, but actual emotional and psychological support they need. This is based on my own personal values and commitment to SD (mentioned in my autobio) – if it worked for me, then it should work for others.
Just remember, the U5 will know if you fake your sincerity to this. This falls back on the idea holographic technology is used along with other manipulation tactics to trick certain consciousnesses into giving away consent.
I don’t want to know about it if you make it in. You’ll be made aware of your area of focus by the U5 leader. This will likely involve expected secrecy of that position. I am just here to make you aware of them, and that the fact they are very, very real. The exception to this will be if your tasks involve telling me about it or if my legitimacy is ever called into question, in which I am hoping you’ll come to my aid. If your tasks involve remaining quiet about it in such a scenario, well then shit happens, forme I guess.
There will be no need for the physical division, this Ordo Occultum Astrum (Order of the Hidden Star), to receive updates on U5 operations. This is not how they work.
Humans are not on a need to know basis, as much as they might crave the attention of being told how things are progressing. It is like a war general telling a baby about his plans to drop bombs on another country; humans are seen as spiritually infant by the U5’s standards so don’t expect updates like with the supposed Ashtar Command/ Arcturian Council.
Anyone suggesting such updates is to be treated with a high amount of suspicion.
They will only make their operations known to individual members if it is a requirement of their tasks. The only reason you know about them is because it was a requirement of my own.
It would be extremely unwise to try and fuck with the U5.
This is not the FBI and neither is it the CIA. These are the real bogeymen of the astral world in control of technologies that would make those organisations weak at the knees and piss themselves with envy.
Doing so would have dire consequences for your consciousness that is just not conceivable from your current limited state of awareness: remember, you are operating from the perspective of trying to gain something for a single physical existence – the U5 are operating from a much higher perspective that supersedes what you consider as being “important” and the bullshit justifications you would give yourself to feel better about such indiscretions – like, say, petty squabbles between nations. This cannot be overstated. Any moles that might have ideas of playing the typical spy and sabotage shit will eventually regret it.
My (physical) division of this organisation, is not to remain secret. All information relating to its operations is to be made available to anyone who is interested in it.
Members are encouraged to share it with whoever they feel appropriate, though discussions are to be kept strictly within the official channels and not deviate out of them.
All lucid dreamers, astral projectors and remote viewers who have had direct experience with the subjects contained in this article during their own OBEs are welcome.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the 28th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings.
I hope that you enjoy this article.
-MM
Daegonmagus Intel Obtained Through A Deliberate LD Recon Operation
11/09/2022
Looks like lucid dreaming is back on the menu, boys. So yeah, I have been putting it in my affirmations to basically regain my lucid dreaming abilities, as I have been going through a several year long dry patch.
I thought I was being a little too optimistic asking for at least one LD a week.
Now I should also mention, I have just finished up my 3 month period of my affirmation campaign, and am on about day 5 of the rest period – too optimistic my arse.
My LDs appear to be coming back, so far weekly and boy, they are a lot more vivid than they used to be.
I first noticed this clarity back at the end of June when I had my little flying fun with the consciousness craft.
Last week it involved stealing another craft out of some compound and using it to drop anti matter bombs on some mining operation setup in a forest.
Last night it was something a bit more important, which I will get to in a moment. I also need to make an amendment here to a past article where I mentioned there seems to be a 10 hour lag between having a thought and it manifesting in the dream state.
Scratch that; I have noticed lately it is more like 7 hours.
This comes from having dreams about multiple subjects I was thinking of that I could pin point back to thinking 7 hours before my usual bed time. So handy hint, try and find that 7 hour point before your sleeping time and use it to run your self through some “am I dreaming scenarios”.
You might surprise yourself.
Anyways, getting back to the LD. Our youngest had woken up around 4:15am, which, of course, woke me up a long with it. After spending some time thinking of the usual shit one thinks of that keeps them from falling asleep at that hour, I decided to try LDing.
After propping my right heel so it sat on top of my left foot and rolling my right ear into the oversized triangular pillow hugging my neck, I immediately I noticed I was somewhat tense (guys get into the habit of recognizing this if you want to master LDing ).
So, I made the effort to relax that tension away, and within moments I had a stream of hypnogogic imagery flowing through my head.
This imagery is the sweet point; you have got to get this to flow like a gentle stream past you without letting it turn into a torrent that takes you into unconscious sleeping.
The hard part is trying not to focus too intently on it. So, doing what I do, and relaxing into the gentle stream of hypnogogic imagery, I once again carried my conscious awareness into the dreaming state.
I was in a place I have been in before, sort of a seedy alleyway type deal.
I was 100% lucid and aware, so I asked a dream character if he realized he was dreaming (remembering a post from a lucid dreaming facebook group where someone did similar), and he sort of stopped and got aggressive threatening to wake me up.
Other dream characters started attacking me, but rather than annihilate them, I just smiled at them and made my abilities very obvious to them and they all stopped and left me to my business, figuring I wasn’t worth the trouble.
The dream started to become distorted and break apart, but I swiftly kept it together by focusing on background objects; I seem to be getting much better at this and can keep the dream stable completely automatically without even thinking about it; this was impressive even for my standards.
I used the broken environment opportunity to picture the consciousness craft facility with the intention to try and fly another consciousness craft.
I was successful in generating the same building, but it was broken from the distortions generated by the run in with the other dream characters.
I seem to be stuck in an area of this facility somewhat reminiscent of a reception waiting area.
I look out the windows, and it is pretty damned obvious I am off world.
The architecture of the buildings outside seems futuristic and many years evolved from our modern standards.
I walk down a small hallway and find a door to my right but it is locked by what appears to be key code entry.
I manifest a card and use it to gain entry.
Within seconds of walking through the door, I had a completely stable dream environment; I was here, in this place, not just dreaming it, there was no doubt about it.
This seemed to be a different part of the same consciousness craft facility, but more open, sort of like a small hangar.
Up in front of me is a curved wall, and behind that another hallway that branches off from the curved wall.
I take the curved hallway and find it takes me to similar doors that led to the consciousness craft hangar; big, thick metal doors that had some sort of red paint outline at their top.
The doors opened, and the similar hooking consciousness thing happens, then I find myself in what seems to be some kind of futuristic space mall.
Up ahead of me was what appeared to a small commercial spaceship rental company in the middle of the mall.
On a small circular stage they had two retro what looked like cars they were showcasing. These looked like standard convertible cadillacs or similar, but they did not have wheels (floated a foot off the ground) and had a single small compartment in the middle towards the front instead of seating.
Upon getting closer, I noticed a tall sign about 8 ft above me plonked right at the edge of the platform.
It was written in a retro 60s style cursive hand like you’d expect to find at old retro diners.
I looked at the sign and could read the name off it as clear as day (if the cursive allowed it);. It wasn’t just a name but a whole sentence alluding to the retroness of these cars being the gimmick that this company was selling; I noted the name Schweigler {something } Schwarz. Schweigler I am 90% sure of, Schwarz was 100%, specifically for RVing later. Middle initial was something like R.
I step onto the platform to get a better look at these convertibles.
Then it suddenly dawns on me. No fucking way; these are commercialized versions of the consciousness craft I flew a few months ago.
Someone, presumably Schweigler and Schwarz, had taken the technology that modulates your consciousness into them for powering.
I get the distinct impression I am in some sort of future world line.
In the compartment in the front is a cylinder sort of object with a spherical or dodecahedron shaped clear crystal in it.
A sales representative comes over, a young woman probably in her early 20s, maybe even her late teens, and goes through the usual sales pitch with me.
She seems human.
I pretend I am a dumb old man who has no idea what he is that I am looking at, but I have already figured out what these things are, and come to the realization I am on an espionage operation and need just a little bit more information from her.
She tells me you place your consciousness inside the crystal, then you are able to power the car.
She asks me if would like to take one for a test drive, to which I play coy telling I’d probably break it. She insists, and before she even gets a chance to tell me how to do it, I am projecting my consciousness into the crystal the same way I’d come accustomed to using the spherical portals.
I can feel all my quanta break apart as it all goes into the crystal, kind of like a very brief hyperdrive from starwars.
I am now consciously tethered to the convertible, so I hover it up off the ground and take off tpwards a space port, no longer paying any attention to the sales representative.
Somehow I wind up in a completely different place; I am now inside this strange building made entirely of centuries old wood that looks severely rotted.
There a people everywhere, just sort of sitting and existing and in a somber state of mind. What the fuck is this place?
I untether my consciousness from the convertible and am again moving around like I have a body.
I do a little exploring, trying to pick up on any conversation threads I can to figure out where this is.
This place is weird and new, and somewhat confusing; it is as if someone built several buildings and walk ways between them out of these same decrepit and rotten wood, then entirely enclosed those walkways with even more rotten wood.
There was no outside, everywhere you walked there was just this wooden roof above you making it quite disorientating as to where exactly you were.
I got the impression there wasn’t anything outside of the wood, not even ground. Thick dust and cobwebs lined every surface, and to get to each building you had to navigate through small flights of steps.
Recon gathered here told me this was a capturing outpost for discarnate consciousness that had died from physical earth bodies.
They were basically been housed here against their will, and had been for up to centuries.
There was no conceivable way to exit this place. I don’t even know how I got here, but It had something to do with that Cadillac convertible. Was this how Schweigler and Schwarz had built their empire?
I did not like this. These souls were desperate.
They had just been dumped here and left to rot along with the wood. I vowed to do something about it. Just then, a demonic voice began speaking to me, taunting me and telling me that he was the one who had put them here. I can’t remember what I told it, but it seemed to anger it to no end. It told me to wait until I expire from my physical body and see what it has in store for me then, to which I told it to go right ahead.
This angered it more, and without warning part of this weird cluster of buildings just got ripped into oblivion and I found myself standing on a verandah overlooking nothing but blue sky, as this voice boomed out at me from the space below.
I told it it had no authority over these people and that they deserved more than to be used as its slaves or pets.
It threw whatever insults and threats in regards to my own soul it could throw at me, to which I stood firmly and told it to fuck right off.
Others started to stand up and stand by my side, as my quashing of it words turned into a speech fit for rallying soldiers.
This demon did not like this one bit. It was if I was breaking its spell that gave it hold over the other souls; they were no longer in somber states, but now had purpose burning in their eyes.
Others were telling it to fuck off along with me.
The demon retreated back into the depths of the sky void, and after that I woke up. I have explicit memory of thousands of these discarnate consciousnesses agreeing to fighting for me against the amnesia/ reincarnation regime.
Questions for Domain Commander:
What is this space port mall place, and is it and the consciousness craft I flew several months back Domain owned and operated, or owned by a third party? Who are Schweigler {something} Schwarz? I suggest this name be paid particular attention to and traced as it is somehow strongly linked to this. Was I operating from a future worldline?
MM comments
When DM was LDing this event, my wife bought a new car. Just a Toyota sedan. It’s a good, simple, reliable hybrid car. Nothing special. But brand new, being a 2022 model.
I did not write or talk about this to anyone. It’s a personal MM moment, and something done out of necessity. Nothing to report on.
Yet…
You have to wonder.
It is entirely possible that DM was picking up on MM physical actions and activities. If so, then that would explain the car dealership, the new “retro” models, and the futuristic mall.
There is no doubt that PSI abilities and LD ability go “hand in hand”.
But don’t hold me to that.
It could be coincidence. But, you all know what I say about coincidence, don’t you?
In any event, it is a tricky world out there. So much going on and we interpret what we see with our experiences. DM is connected to others in his group, whether he realizes it or not, and is connected to MM as well. Again, is probably not realizing it at all.
The combined “chatter” on this PSI “party line” will absolutely influence his LD experiences. And thus what he experiences is colored by the “chatter” on the PSI party line.
This bit of extraneous data should not disparage or confuse his experiences.
Personally, I think that it enhances it.
Like special jet fuel that allows his LD experiences to go further, have better color, and depth and richness. Which is why I say “clean out your closets”, and “make new friends”, and experience more of the world. They supercharge your abilities.
The combination of affirmation campaigns, and MM associations are “turbo charging” DM’s LD experiences.
The only problem that remains is how to improve the sorting and filtering of the input “feed” during these events. What is actual intel, and what in influenced intel? Things need to be filtered better. Somehow. So that while they are turbocharged, they are not overwhelmed by distractions and confusions. Whether PSI or environmental.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This is a video that I have referred to in a Patrion post that I made yesterday 30AUG22.
It involves the remote viewing of the “Tunnel of Light” that one observes upon death.
I advise that we use the KISS principle in everything; (Keep It Simple, Stupid), otherwise known as let’s just focus on full understanding of the core elements, and not get too sidetracked.
For instance…
A car.
It takes you from A to B.It can be cheap or expensive, based on HOW it transports you.It requires energy to operate.
Food
You need it to survive.It can taste good or bad depending on your culture and habits.Digestion of it is a human requirement.
So, here, the Remote Viewers were all over the place, and offer some good stuff. But it will need to be sorted (into “boxes”), parsed and put into context.
From DM
"This is very, very similar to my experiences. This is THE best video i have watched so far on the traps. This is legit. "
Very interesting. I am trying to process this video. I really don’t know what to think, but I will query the Domain Commander for some answers later on. -MM
This is a nice mystery that has turned the archeological world on it’s side. It’s a great read and I really hope that you all enjoy what is presented here. Translated from an old scan. Correct, and edited to fit this venue. I doubt that you will be able to find a complete recounting of this story elsewhere in the Western Internet today.
…
Father Carlo Crespi, who comes from Milan, has lived in the small town of Cuenca, Ecuador, for more than 50 years. He was a priest of the Church of Maria Auxiliadora.
Crespi was accepted by the local indians as a real friend.
They (the local indians) used to bring him presents from their hiding places.
Over a period of time thefather had so many precious objects stored in his house and the church that one day he receivedpermission from the Vatican to open a museum to display them.
This museum (in the Salesian School at Cuenca) grew and grew Until in 1960 it was oneof the biggest museums in Ecuador, and Crespi was recognized as an archaeological authority.
But he has always been a rather embarrassing servant of his church, for he asserts vehementlythat he can prove that there was a direct connection between the Old World (Babylon) and the New World (pre-Inca civilizations); and thatgoes right against prevailing opinion.
Complicating matters, on 20th July 1962 there was an act of arson and the father’s museum was burnt down.
What Father Crespi managed to salvage from the damaged museum was housed in two long narrow rooms, which were in a terriblemuddle.
Brass, copper, sheet-metal, zinc, tin and stone and wooden objects and in the midst of them all pure gold, sheet-gold, silver and sheet-silver.
Eric Van Danken in His book Gold of The Godssays of this Treasure “Let the Vatican grail guardianFather Crespi of Cuenca be the key witness to the pre- Christian origin of the metal treasures. He said “‘Every’ thing that the Indians brought me from the tunnelsdates to before Christ. “Most of the symbols and pre-historic representations are older than the Flood.’”
“Father Crespi has partiallystacked his metal plaques bymotifs, for example those withpictures of pyramids.
I took a close look at more than 40 objects.
Allthe pyramid engravings have four things in common: a sun, but more frequently several suns,is depicted above the pyramid; snakes are always flying next to or over the pyramid; animalsof various kinds are always present….
“Professor Miloslav Stingi is the leading SouthAmerican scholar in the Iron Curtain countries; he graduated in the ancient civilizationsof America. today he is a member of the Academy of Sciencesat Prague and author of archaeological and ethnological books.In versunkenen Mayasta~dten(1971), for example, is highly acclaimed. Professor Stingl, who was a guest in myhouse, saw the photographs I had taken at Cuenca. ‘If these pictures are genuine, and everything indicates that they are, because no one makes forgeries in gold, at any rate not on such a large scale, this is the biggest archaeological sensation since the discovery of Troy. Yearsago I myself supported the view that the Incas had no writing in the alphabetical sense of the word. And now I am facedwith Inca writing. To beable to give a precise scientific verdict I should have to subject each plaque to a detailed and lengthy examination, and compare each one with material already available. For the moment I can only say that I am dumbfounded. The sun was often part of the scenery in known Inca engravings, but man was never equated with the sun, as I see time and again in these photographs. There are representations of men with sun's rays round their heads and there are men depicted with star points coming from them. The symbol of holy power has always been the head. But in these pictures the head is simultaneouslysun or star. That points tonew direct connections.’”
J Golden Bartonin 1998 tells of a visit see Father Crespi with Dr. Paul Chessman from BYU and others in the late 1970’s. He writes (ref. 2): “High in the Andes mountains of Ecuador lies beautiful Cuenca, a peaceful city with red Spanish tile roofsand worn cobble stone streets. Townspeople go about their daily business happily trading with each other and the native Indians who populate the hills and valleys surrounding the village.
The Indians speak the tongue of their Quechua" ancestors, who watched the sun rise over the Amazon hundreds of years before. With weathered and rosy cheeks they radiate a simplicity of harmony with the rugged mountains where they have worked time out of mind.
The men of the tribe wear a single long braid of hair down their back underneath a Panamanian hat. Men, women and children are dressed in the same black and brown earth-tone cloth, edged with bright colored trim. Each shuffle along the paths long known by their forefathers, carrying them back and forth from village to village. Not many tourists travel this way and the service is unrushed but thorough.
“A few blocks from the center of the village stands a Catholic "College of Salesino."
Young men and women from prosperous families attend this secondary school, its classrooms facing a clay and terrazzo tiled courtyard.
Entering through a side door, we found ourselves in a small open-air enclosure facing stately, hand-carved wooden gates.
A friendly young man bid us enter through old wooden doors and ushered us into a private chamber.
A few moments later, a bearded, monkish-looking man with twinkling eyes and a benign smile arrived and embraced Dr. Cheeseman. Although an octogenarian, he appeared in lively good health, despite his quaking robes which betrayed a shaky hand.
We had heard that he was senile, but his personal behavior only radiated complete mental iompetence.
So this was Father Carlos Crespi, Ecuador's unlikely focus of a unique archaeological controversy that continues to baffle everyone who has heard about it.
“He led us into an inner court of the school yard, where old Spanish wooden doors faced inward, and the oft-scrubbed floors gleamed with sunlight bouncing off the polished terrazzo.
We were unprepared for what was to come.
Father Crespi took a large key from a ring that hung from a braided belt around his robe, then moved to an obscure wooden door and turned the lock. Together with a single helper, he disappeared into the dark room.
Both soon reappeared with a largepiece of metal that had been molded and hammered into a long sheet.
It looked like it might be made of gold. The sheet was inscribed with a curious artworkbeyond identification.
“Next, they dragged something from the darkness too large to be carried, and only with strenuous exertions were they able to lean it against the stuccowall.
It stands twenty-two inches high and about seven inches wide its weight must have been prodigious.I reached my hand to touch the object and noticed it featured a dark covering, as if it had been painted.
At first, I supposed it must have been made of lead, because it was soft and almost pliable.
Then the nailsof my fingers bit into thebody of the figure through the paint and the gleam from the tell-tale scratch left no doubt that it was made of pure gold.
Our cameras began to click, and in the excitement Father Crespi talked excitedly, hardly stopping to breathe. He was our enthusiastic instructor, showingus each new piece as though it had just been brought to the light of day for the first time.
“What other wonders did his black vault contain, we wondered? The old man's nimble fingers joined the ends of two barren electric wires and the chamber was instantly revealed in the radiance of an incandescent globe.
The gleam of gold, silver, and bronze everywhere added to the brightness of its interior.
Shelves of dusty, worn ceramics, starry-eyed idols posturing in hideousstances or strange proportions.
Stacked from floor to ceiling were hundreds of large cardboard pieces on which were wired metal bracelets, earrings, nose rings, and necklaces,some untarnished by time. Hide-scrapers, tools, implements of war, spears, axes, clubs, of wood, metal and stone were stacked everywhere.
Father Crespi's mysterious room seemed overburdened with the treasures of an unknown antiquity. It literally over-flowed with bizarre artifacts, many wrought in precious metals.
Most intriguing were the innumerable plates of bronze, brass and gold.
Many bore strange inscriptions and hieroglyphic symbols. Others were replete with the engravings of incongruous animals--elephants, snakes, jaguars, wild beasts of every kind.
The images of horse-drawn chariots were clearlyetched into metal, calling to mind Juan Moricz's description of "a Roman chariot" in his underground chamber.
“Wephotographeda plateinscribed with representations of what appeared to be Egypt's step-pyramid.
Still more plates contained artwork with what looked like Assyrian or Babylonian symbols.
We grew dizzy with the gleaming opulence and historicalanomaly all around us.
Newell Parkin, a banker from Bountiful, Utah, Dr. Paul Cheeseman, Wayne Hamby, an undergraduate student from Brigham Young University, D. Craig Anderson, a Utah State UniversityResearch Associate, whoacted as our interpreter, and I spent the afternoon amid these otherworldly splendors.
In all my travels throughout the world, my visit to the Crespi Collection was to be their crowning experience.
“We asked Father Crespi how he came by suchmarvelous things. He said he headed the local parish for over fifty years after studying at Italy's University In Milan, where the subject of archaeology had caught his interest.
Following graduation, he became a priest and was assigned to Ecuador's beautiful city of Cuenca to work among theIndians.
In time, he came to lovethem. Moreover, in South America he had opportunity to further his archaeological interests.
To his great surprise and delight, the religious celebrations over which he presided brought a host of Indians bearing gifts to the kindly man who performed baptisms and marriages and was their friend in trouble.
Aware of Father Crespi's enthusiasm for archaeology, the grateful Indians brought him ancient objects long hidden in the jungle.
Soon, his collection steadily increased until, after fifty years, it filled many rooms.
“A museum was constructed to house these remarkable gifts, but a few years before our visit it was seriously damaged by an arsonist's fire.
Father Crespimanaged to salvage three full rooms of the relics, one of relatively obscure and unimportant tributes, another filled with items of curious antiquity, but the last was a treasury of gold artifacts.
Residing high amongthe Andes mountains in an obscure village, the old man had no interest in fame or fortune.
Few travelers knew of his collection and even fewer scientists.
He was a private person with a big heart and a deep interest in the past. ‘Where and how do the Indians find these incredible things.,’ we wondered.
‘Oh, they just get them from the caves and subterranean chambers inthe jungles,’ he answered in an offhand manner.
'There are over 200 kilo-meters of tunnels starting here in Cuenca.
They run from the mountains down to the eastern lowlands near the Amazon."
Wayne Hamby, an assistant to Cheeseman, spent a few more days with Father Crespi to catalogue and photograph the entire collection.
His results went into the files of Dr. Cheeseman, who died after his retirement from the faculty of Brigham Young University.
“Two years following our visit to the kindly priest,I returned to Cuenca with Ben Holbrook, our two young sons, and a pair of Ecuadoran LDS missionaries acting as interpreters.
We were greeted by a young priest, who informed us that Carlos Crespi had passed away in January 1980, and his collection was no longer available for public view.
In spite of my effortsto convince him that we had traveled a long distance to view the relics, he stubbornly refused to allow us tosee the treasures.
He insisted that the room with the artifacts could not be shown on orders from the Vatican.
To my knowledge, no one from the outside world has seen the treasure since the death of the old Padre.“.
Mr. Barton heard rumors that much of the treasure had been shipped to Rome to the Vatican.
Richard Wingate a Florida based explorer and writer visited Father Crespi four times during the mid to late 1970’s and photographed the extensive artifact collection. He says this concerning his visits:
“IN A DUSTY,cramped shed on the side porch of the Church of Maria Auxiliadora in Cuenca, Ecuador, lies the most valuable archaeological treasure on earth.
More than one million dollars worth of dazzling gold is cached here, and muchsilver, yet the hard money value of this forgotten hoard is not its principal worth.
There are ancientartifacts identified asAssyrian, Egyptian, Chinese, and African so perfect in workmanship and beauty that any museum director would regard them as first-class acquisitions.
Since this treasure is the strangest collection of ancient archaeological objects in existence, its value lies in the historical questions it poses, and demands answers to.
Yet it is unknown to historians and deliberately neglected in the journals of orthodox archaeology….
‘Ah,’ the priest said, ‘enough flattery, then, let’s take a look.’ Without ceremony, he forced a key into an ancient, rusty padlock and opened the rickety door to his museum.
He touched two bare wires together and a watery yellow light went on.
FatherCrespi was smiling like a man with a very remarkable secret.
I was skeptical of the reports I had heard about this place, but now that cautious attitude gave’ way to unabashed astonishment.
Stacked against the far wall were golden mummy cases in the quasi-Egyptian style with a black, baked-enamel finish.
A dozen complete sets of gleaming, golden ceremonial armor, beaten-gold Chaldean-style helmets, and golden inscribed plaques were piled haphazardly on the floor.
These dazzling memoirs of lost times were scatteredamong an array of beautifully carved Pacific Oceanic and African-styled wooden statues,shields of a rich, red copper, pottery, canes, sheets, androlls of silver-colored metal, and strange, unidentifiable gears, pipes,and wheels which might have been parts to long-lost technological systems.
Rolls of intricately figured sheet metal stood haphazardly piled around the shed.
The priest explained that it had been torn off the interior walls of long abandoned, vine-choked buildings in the inaccessible eastern jungle.
The Indianartifact hunters bring this wallpaperin three different metals: gold, a metallurgically unique, untarnished silver, and an unknown alloy with the appearance of shiny aluminum.
Every square inch of the peculiar sheet metal is decorated with intricate designs, some of them depicting long-forgotten ceremonial occasionsand some of them humorous andcartoon like.
Therolls come in heights that vary, for the most part, from eight to twelvefeet, and they are often fifteen to thirty feet long.
These lengths are composed of many individual four-foot sheets which have been artfully riveted together.
He showed me a dozen bronze plaques. Seemingly,they were among his favorite acquisitions.
The illustrations borne by the plaques made me catch my breath.
Images of Egyptian princesses and Assyrian gods stared at me with a severity undiminished by the passage of centuries.
One of the plaques bore the image of a Caucasian man writing linear script with a quill pen.
Linearscript?
A quill pen?
Needless to say, the Andes Indians did not have a written language when the Spanish arrived, let alone a tool for writing.
There were reportedly fifty-six solid gold plaques originally, but after a disastrous arson in 1962,which local political fanaticsclaimed credit for, Father Crespi had molds made by a local casket maker and the best dozen of his precious plaques were duplicated in coffin-handle bronze.
The original gold plaques lie safe today in a bank vault.
“Father Crespi granted me permissionto take photographs. Since most museums jealously guard their treasures from photographers, the priest’s open generosity won me over.
Lack of space inside the shed forced me to set up my tripod and camera in the sunlit outer courtyard.
The priest himself brought his treasures out for me to record on film.
Hours passed, and the usual, afternoon equatorial winter rain began.
The Fatherwas growing tired. We quit for the day.
I had exposed over ten rolls of film, taken more than three hundred pictures, and covered only a tiny percentage of the seventy thousand artifacts which filled the museum’s three rooms to their ceilings.
“As it turned out, I made not one but three additional visits to Father Crespi in Cuenca, exposed over three thousand frames, and Istillhave captured only 2 percent of the collection onfilm.
Between my secondandthird trips, the Padre’s treasure hunters apparentlyhit upon a fresh cache inthe jungle caves.
So manynewpieces arrived during thisperiod that I was forced to climb over heaps of newly unearthed objects in order to get to certain items that I particularly wanted to photograph.
I found myself in the classic one- step-forward, two-steps-back situation, for new articles were arriving more rapidly than I could take pictures of the old!
“One of the reasons for my continued efforts was my apprehension for Carlo Crespi’s advanced age.
He was born on April 29, 1891, and when he dies, the integrity of the collection is by no means assured.
It might be saved and protected by benevolent church authorities, but an auction to private dealers seems just as likely.
If the priceless museum is somehow disbursed before modern techniques of dating and evaluation can be applied to its artifacts, a great chance for the reevaluation of the history of the Western hemisphere will have been missed.
“In spite of the plethora of startling material in his museum, Father Crespi regrets that he missed acquiring most of the ‘treasure unearthed in the jungle, including mostof the best articles, because he simply couldn’t match prices with other bidders.
Maintaining the jungle museum has proven a difficultadventure for the Father in other ways as well.
The collection weathered an arson fire in 1962 which melted many objects, burned others, and substantially diminished its value.
Another fire occurred in 1974.
There have also been instances of outright theft.
A few archaeologists whohaveheard of the collection are prone toan understandable condescension, because the shedful of artifacts poses a violent offense tothe procedural r~es of their fraternity.
The articles in the trove have been discovered in sloppy, unsupervised, surreptitious digs by wholly untrained J ivaro Indian diggers.
Crespi is not even an accredited museum curator.
Although not an uneducated man~he holds a master’s degree in anthropology from a Milan, Italy, university.
The priest has no formal archaeological training, and the time he gives to hisimmense collection is stolen from a heavy schedule of parish duties, as I saw on my visits.
Crespi, furthermore, occasionallyexpresses a salty indifference to the judgment of the accepted experts.
Theclassification system of his museumis best described as chaotic.
It does not make highly publicized acquisitions at blue ribbon auctions, for the Father wouldn’t have the money, even if he had the need.
Nor does it have advanced dating machinery, assistant curators, guards, guides, set hours, or any of the other appurtenances of the respectable, contemporary museum.
And yet the affection in which the Padre is heldby his Shuara (Jivaro) collectors,has made it possible for him to accumulate the most significant single assemblage of South Americanartifacts anywhere.
“Carlo Crespi was raised in the prosperous northern Italian -city of Milan, where, after a youth spent with a comfortably wealthy family, he decided to jointhe Salesian Fathers. Morethan fifty-five years ago this missionary order sent Father Crespi to South America.
Ever since that voyage, Father Crespi has lived a life of voluntary poverty, sleeping on the floors of native huts with only a single blanket, and carelessly eating poor but lovingly offered food.
He has cared for the people, listened to their stories of fabulous deep-jungle temples, explored the treasure-filled Tayos caves, and stubbornly provided a museum for the strange artifacts of the country…
WhenFather Crespi and his Indian diggerstell of the places where they find their artifacts, they described giant pyramids, immense, deserted cities, fantastic sacred tunnels, and caves.
The cities, they say, still shine with a mysterious, cool bluish light when the sun goes down.
The tunnels are reportedly large enough to drive a locomotive through.
They have cut-stone entrances and walls which, by native account, are as smooth as glass.
And it is thesetunnels, at least according to the Indian explorers, that hold the bulk of the material being offered to the Maria Auxiliadora museum and to other collectors.
It is a fantastic tale, but when one sees the evidence, the thousands of gold treasured trinkets, the story of a vast tunnel system become nearly plausible.
“Although legend tells of this tunnel network honeycombing all of Ecuador and Peru, the only part of it that has, to my knowledge, been documented, is located in the very dangerous Jivaro country, between the Santiago and Morona rivers, near Tayos.
Unfortunately, this area is decidedly out of bounds for the foreign adventurer.
The local Indians have killed at least fourinquisitive outsiders in the last two years.
Yet the tunnels of the Shuara tribes (Jivaro) have been photographed.
A naturalized Ecuadorian named Juan Moricz took several rolls of high-quality pictures, verified in this way the accounts the natives have been giving Crespi, and subsequently lay legal claim to the entire tunnel network.
His grandiose claim was denied by the courts, but his photographs cannot be.
<Portion unrecoverable>...less than the bullion value of the precious metal.” (p. 139)The “heavy mineral crust enamel coating” of many artifacts indicates that they were “buried under searing volcanic heat.” (p. 139) Concerning sophisticated artifacts, like the Phoenician calendars, the golden Middle Eastern helmets, the golden armor, and the golden plaques: these “would bring hundreds of thousands of dollars and perhaps millionson the private market; to suggest that a sophisticated forger unloaded them on the priest for a low price is to deny the greed that motivates forgery!” (p. 140) Concerning a cast steel shield: “Steel casting is beyond the metallurgical capacity of present day Tayos Indians.” (p. 143)
(B) Fakes
Regarding fakes (which Crespi knowingly purchasesin his casual, humanitarian style, at the same time chiding the seller): “The modern solder and hacksaw marks give them away.” (p. 136)
(C) Hybrid real-fakes
Far from creating fakes in order to reap high profits, some of the Indian diggers in Ecuador have cut up and reshaped genuinely ancient and priceless materials in order to get any kind of price at all for it. We have mentioned earlier the ebony column...carved with the Ecuadorian national seal and decorated with gold cut from a sheetof mysterious ancient wallpaper.” (p. 139)
Picture (p. 36)—“Obviously genuine copper ‘radiators’ were redecorated by Indian discoverers.”
Picture (p. 39)—“Heavy brass ‘bass viol’ a real-fakesoldered together from original thick wall sheeting.” The brass sheet metal is genuine and very old, but the instrument was crafted by modern forgers. One can see where existing designs on the brass sheets were cut through in the manufacture of the article.
Picture (p. 142)—“Genuine silver wrapped goldtrimmed elephant. Yet decorated with modern brass thumb tacks.”
Picture (p. 146)—“Bottom of tin can. Clumsily fireblackened to simulate real volcanic mineral patina on genuine objects. The carbon on this olive oil can be rubbed off on a sheet of paper. The black patina on most of Crespi’s material is enameled to the metal.”
In summary:“The genuine green porphyry patina onmany of the articles,...the enormous quantities of cheaply bought gold articles, the metallurgical uniqueness of some of the artifacts (such as the platinum nose cone and the radiators), the Mid-eastern artistic motifs, and the abundance of art ides for which little or no market exists (such as the air pipes and the ‘wallpaper’) pose difficult questions for thosewho carelessly write the collection off as a hoax.” (p. 140)
References 1.Eric Van Daniken Gold of The Gods (1973) 2.J. Golden BartonThe Lost Gold ofAncient Ecuador,Ancient American Vol.4 Number 25, 1998 3.Richard Wingate Lost Outpost of Atlantis 1980Everest House Publishing Company 4.Wayne Hamby Voices From The Dust1977 Osmond Publishing Company
Summary
I hope that you enjoyed this little glimpse in the statist-overturning world of the good Father.
It’s war over Taiwan just like RAND specified. This comes at the heels of the great proxy war loss in Ukraine.
What has been made perfectly clear:
1. Taiwan is part of China. This is internationally recognized and has been since all the way back to soon after WWII.
2. China does not want Pelosi to "visit", and certainly not for her publicly expressed purpose of sedition and promises of military support from the US for such a purpose.
3. China will act in its sovereign interest on this and every other matter and if it so wishes it will be with any degree of violence of its choosing.
4. China repeatedly and consistently states points 1 to 3 and has done so every since the "one China" policy came into force a long time ago.
Simple, unambiguous, and clear.
There is nothing to not understand in the above.
-Sunny Runny Burger
Big changes everywhere, and I am smack dab in the middle of a big move. I will be quiet on all platforms for about a week. Do not fret. I am well, and I am safe.
America has decided to pick on China. And they are pushing towards this end with aggression.
[1] Biden calls Xi Peng
First up. Watch this very telling description of the talk between President Biden, and Xi Peng of China…
About 16 minutes. Well worth the watch.
Now,
[2] Check out this stuff from Hal Turner…
China Armor Headed To Fujian – Across from Taiwan; Navy Starts Live Fire Drills in Taiwan Strait
China is extremely displeased with the potential trip by USA Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan, and they are openly warning of military action if the Speaker dares to try landing in Taiwan without approval from, and transiting through, Beijing.
Pelosi is reported to have begun her Asia trip yesterday, with stops in various countries. One potential stop may be into Taiwan.
In the past, if any high ranking political official from any country, wanted to go to Taiwan, that official asks for permission from Beijing, then travel TO Beijing, and later heads to Taiwan. This is the way it has always been given that the world has a “one China” policy and that Taiwan is part of China.
Last year, however, U.S. officials began flying directly into Taiwan. To China, this was like getting a finger stuck in their eye. It was insulting and demeaning that the island was being treated as if it were its own country, which it is not.
So when it became public knowledge that Speaker Pelosi was planning an Asia trip, with a stop in Taiwan, China decided they’d had enough.
It was made known in China official state media that Beijing will not tolerate direct flights by foreign officials into Taiwan. The U.S. basically ignored those challenges.
China’s “Global Times” newspaper, then began running a series of stories with accompanying editorials making clear a direct flight by Pelosi would not be tolerated.
In response, the Pentagon made known that the US Navy is setting-up concentric circles of “protection” for Pelosi’s plane!
Not only does Pelosi plan to enter Taiwan without getting approval from, or transiting through Beijing, now the US military is saying they will provide military protection for here to actually do it! It’s almost as though the U.S. no longer acknowledges that China is its own sovereign country, and it makes the rules.
The Pentagon announcement of military protection for Pelosi’s plane caused even more backlash. Just yesterday, the top Editor of the ‘Global Times” which is the mouthpiece of the China Communist Party, said the following:
Yes. From the Chinese point of view, it is a MILITARY INVASION.
While some may say “He’s just an Editor giving a newspaper opinion” readers must understand that media in China is tightly controlled by the Communist Party. Absolutely nothing appears in China media unless it is approved by – or speaks for – the Communist Party. So while the remarks above appear in a newspaper, they are very much the actual positions of the China government.
In addition to that very blunt and direct warning of having Pelosi aircraft FIRED UPON, China’s army began moving trainloads of Armor into Fujian Province, which is in mainland China, precisely opposite Taiwan:
Even more ominous, China’s Navy announced sudden, unscheduled, LIVE FIRE naval exercises in the Taiwan Strait:
It is therefore clear that China has had quite enough of the US thinking it can do whatever it wants. There very well may be a serious confrontation over Pelosi’s trip . . . if she tries to enter Taiwan.
UPDATE 8:58 AM EDT —
CONFIRMED! Pelosi has taken off in a US Air Force C-40 aircraft, headed out toward the Pacific Ocean, as of early Saturday morning:
UPDATE 10:39 AM EDT —
Pelosi’s plane made a landing in Hawaii around 9:00 AM EDT:
“If Pelosi tries to visit Taiwan, the Chinese will respond militarily.
Asked to comment on a recent Financial Times report which suggested Beijing would respond military should the speaker of the House visit Taiwan, China’s government confirmed the contents as true:
‘We are seriously prepared,’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in regards to the article.
‘If the US side is bent on going its own way, China will take strong measures to resolutely respond and counteract. The United States should be held responsible for any serious consequences’” the official added.
We do not know what kind of military response, but at the moment, the American aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group, including a guided missile destroyer and a guided missile cruiser, set out from Singapore on Monday heading northeast towards the South China Sea, according to ship-tracking information provided by Beijing-based think tank the South China Sea Strategic Probing Initiative. The US military has not disclosed its final destination, but the route would bring the carrier group to the Taiwan Strait if it continues in the same direction.
The US administration fears that China could introduce a no-fly zone over Taiwan ahead of a possible visit by Speaker of the US House of Representatives
These provocations are a threat to the whole world, as are the provocations to Russia. Yet, the US and its cronies have failed to overthrow Hong Kong, they have failed to create an economic disaster in Xinjiang to destabilize this crossroad on the Belt and Road, and they failed in the Tibet Autonomous Region which is now a thriving region with no abject poverty or slave ownership of serfs and with protected religious and social mores, they failed the Trump trade war, and they will fail in Taiwan. They are failing in Latin America, they are even failing in Panama to safeguard their neoliberal democratic ‘free world’.
While failing everywhere, American politicians live in virtual reality and most seriously believe that the world belongs to them…”
UPDATE 10:52 AM EDT —
Video has just been sent to me from minutes ago, showing part of the LIVE FIRE drill being conducted by China military off the coastline of Fujian Province, opposite Taiwan:
UPDATE 10:56 AM EDT —
China has just CLOSED the Taiwan Strait:
PLA Helicopters in Fujian Province take-off for “exercises.” A group of Z-10 attack helicopters of the People’s Liberation Army of China takes to the range on the shores of the Taiwan Gulf during a large-scale live-fire exercise.
UPDATE 11:10 AM EDT —
Taiwan is now deploying Air Defense Missiles, including at Taoyuan International Civil Airport!!!!!
UPDATE 1:00 PM EDT —
U.S. Navy vessels in the area of Taiwan have begun their own, unscheduled, LIVE FIRE Exercises.
UPDATE 1:30 PM EDT —
Video from a US Navy source aboard fleet nearing Taiwan. Look what shows up at 23 seconds into the video . . .
UPDATE 2:00 PM EDT —
From early this week, Taiwan has been engaging in actual Civil Defense Drills, with Sirens and evacuations, so people of the island know where to get into shelters when China attacks.
UPDATE 3:00 PM EDT —
The Editor of China’s “Global Times” has tweeted the official position of China’s Communist Party:
"If Pelosi really visits Taiwan as planned, the Tsai Ing-wen authorities are accomplices.
The mainland will definitely carry out severe punishment actions on Taiwan at the same time.
The unbearable consequences will fall on Tsai authorities." -
Hu Xijin 胡锡进
@HuXijin_GT China state-affiliated media
UPDATE 4:00 PM EDT —
From earlier in the day, video now emerges of China moving a division of the HQ-22 medium-range air defense system of the People’s Liberation Army of China toward the coastline of Fujian Province. (This is a CORRECTION from previously mis-identified hardware)
UPDATE 4:35 PM EDT —
China’s military is still engaged in LIVE FIRE Exercises in Fujian Province, now firing missiles out to sea:
The Russian Wikipedia page for Pelosi has been updated to show her death date as 31st July, 2022.
UPDATE 5:34 PM EDT —
The map below may be helpful for readers to grasp the potential theater of war in and around Taiwan:
[3] Nuclear armed B-1 with four fighter wing escorts
Clearly, America is flying a nuclear armed B-1 bomber alongside the American leadership with four squadrons of support fighters into Chinese national territory.
This is obviously a war move, and technically an invasion.
[4] Russia and China hold High-level discussions
Not reported in the Western “news” media.
Conclusions
I will be going silent for the next week. Not so much because of geopolitical issues, but due to personal reasons. Do not worry.
…
On the Geopolitical front, the United States is run by pure maniacs and they are doing more than “just” provoking China.
"If US fighter jets escort Pelosi’s plane into Taiwan, it is an invasion.
The PLA has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi’s plane and the US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making the tactical movement of obstruction.
If ineffective, then shoot them down"..
-Hu Xijin, Chinese state journalist and the former editor-in-chief and party secretary of the Global Times. From HERE
They are flying military aircraft with American leadership into China.
China will respond.
…
American “news” media will go full-on bullshit. “Proud and just America fighting for democracy against the evil ruthless vile Chinese. With America winning battle after battle… Yada. Yada. Yada.”
You won’t know anything. The truth will be hidden.
Keep in mind that China DOES NOT PLAY GAMES.
I do not know what they will do.
But I do know that it will HURT.
Life will be forever changed (for all of us) within the next 48 hours.
I hope that this puts a smile on your face and warmth in your heart.
I want to post some uplifting happy stuff.
I hope this post makes the grade.
It all began in 2004, when the first cat cafe opened its doors in Osaka. Since then, the petting zoo/coffee house hybrids have invaded Tokyo, and business is booming. After removing your shoes and washing your hands, you can relax or play with the cats and kittens while you have your drink. Prices are reasonable, and the rules are simple: no flash photos, no grabbing tails or waking sleeping kitties.
.
.
.
.
.
Life is too short not to spend it with friends, family and our furry little friends. There are numerous cat, dog, and bird themed coffee houses and tea houses in China. They are nice to visit, and to spend some time in.
This is one in Japan.
It’s a great way to enjoy yourself and to make friends with some of the creatures that roam the tea / coffee establishments.
I know that this is a short post, but I am in the start of a new affirmation campaign and a large number of affirmations are coming into reality, and that means all sorts of upset, stress and change. Don’t freak out. It’s normal!
The following is the 27th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings.
I hope that you enjoy this article.
-MM
The Mantids Finally Showed Up….right before an uninstigated conversation about manifestation through intent.
Yep. They finally showed up….in our goddamned fucking house….in our goddamned fucking bedroom….after being a bunch of total fucking jackasses. We’d all just got our flu shots because there is a few flyers going around suggesting that “hey, guys, everyone got caught up in Covid and forgot all about the flu which has now mutated into some horrible chimera amalgamation of all the worst parts of Scott Morrsion, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden probably due to the use of gain of function research, so come and get a free vaccine for it before you turn into pile of useless shit”….and considering it spelt vaccine with a c, and that it wasn’t covid, I figured it would probably be ok. That and the fact our kids get royally sick when they get sick, to the point they are down and out for the count for weeks at a time. So, skipping that whole schpeel (I love all of you whether you are vaxed or not), coincidentally we all came down with blocked noses the day afterwards (I knew we should have got it earlier, just our luck).
Anyway, we have everyone in our room because it easier and cheaper to warm everyone with one heater than several sprawled out through several rooms, and because the chicken bird scared the absolute shit out of our daughter to the point she will not go back in her room at night time.
The problem is, my eldest son has autism, and having a blocked nose when he is trying to sleep might as well be the same as trying to saw ones own leg off with a teaspoon. Unfortunately he got quite bad, and was himself scaring his younger brother and sister, so I had to get him out of the house and take him for a drive at 1 in the morning to calm him down.
We were gone for about 20 minutes, during which he calmed down, we had a little talk about his interests etc, and eventually made our way home. He goes to bed, and everyone finally gets some sleep.
Storme tells me in the morning, when we were out, she saw a group of mantids around his bed, one of them very clearly, as solid as a physical object, the others just barely visible. They way she describes it was that it looked just like a tall praying mantis, but unusually thin (about 3 feet tall and body as thick as her arm, head the size of two fists put together), and when it walked it was really weirdly robotic. She said she saw it scuttle off and then it just faded away into nothing.
Strange right?
Well we all know there has been very bizarre happenings in and around this house; I have heard weird rushing noises like when a low flying aircraft pulls air through a bunch of nearby trees which sets the dog of in an act of investigation. SD has seen things wearing what appears to be the invisibility camouflage Predator uses when he is being hunted by Arnie (the amateurs stepped in a puddle of water and made a very obvious footprint when she caught it, then bailed snapping bunch of twigs in the process.), as well as ships halfway through their own cloaking operation. Then there is the case of the mysterious chicken bird my daughter has seen…
Speaking of which; now that SD has seen the mantids up close and their beaky like nose, snout whatverthefuck she thinks they very much could be the one and the same thing. The movement is very similar between the two.
So anyway, that particular day, we have some guy show up to check out some minor leaks in our roof. He is in the kitchen, and he sees my survival knife on the bench.
“Is that a military knife?” he asks me. It’s a Gerber LMF Infantry 2, so yeah, I guess I could see how he thinks that.
I tell him yeah and ask if he was in the army. “Yeah. I was involved in radiological and biological warfare”…
Well fuck me, this just got interesting.
Naturally I ask him his thoughts on COVID, if he thinks it is a biological weapon etc, and he says “Definitely. It’s the most perfect bioweapon ever made.” We get to talking and after a brief conversation about healthy dietary plans, the conversation veers back toward all this shit going on with COVID, and vaccines (I may have by this point mentioned a certain ex spook friend living in China who is quite adamant the US dropped it on them).
Somehow we get talking about CRISPR and gene splicing, and out of no where he says “you know, like, so what if I want to create a fucking Aryan kid with blonde hair and blue eyes and wings coming out of its back”….Ok, that was some weird shit to say, particularly to someone who just wrote an article on the occult connection of the Nazi’s and the Aryan race, and another one on his workings with four armed angels in the astral planes.
Very strange thing indeed.
Speaking of Nazi’s, we mention SD’s grandmother was born in A Nazi PoW camp (without a belly button, however the fuck that is possible), and had a bunch of experiments done on her where she had to have blood tests done every day….We’ve been talking an hour at this point, and suddenly I find this guy talking about the Nazi bell {alleged} time machine and some story about how they got it to levitate (I didn’t tell him I know someone whose actually seen it).
What in the fuck is going on here? This guy just pops in to fix my roof and is just opening with all this shit that is pretty much everything I have been writing about for the past year; I am not even leading him in this direction – just chucking in a few bits I know when he brings it up – it is all him. I forgot this seems to be something that happens with me when I write; things very definitely do seem to just randomly manifest (hence why I had some idea of affirmation campaigns before I came on across MM).
Write a fictional novel about the Goetic spirit Astaroth and he turns my TV on to a program with Astaroth’s Star in the middle of the day; write a book about a plane falling out of the sky due to the quantum thoughts that really gave them lift being exposed, and a week later flight MH370 goes missing (that one did actually freak me the fuck out).
Speaking of manifestation; after our conversation about Die Glocke, this guy then starts to tell me about how when he was doing radiological and biological warfare, the military brought in some Olympic Athletes. “Me and my colleagues were trying to understand what all the Athletes had in common” he told me. Turns out they had all won gold. Also turns out they had all won gold through rigorous manifestation campaigns, which they committed to quite more aggressively than even MM seems to when he does an Affirmation Campaign.
Apparently there was one woman who would think about gold wherever she went – whenever she’d walk into a room all she saw in her mind’s eye was gold on the wall; gold paintings, golden dinner table, golden dog shit on the carpet made out of gold. Whenever she took a shower… One morning she woke up the day of an Olympic swim, and felt so appalling she was almost ready to throw in the towel and call her swimming career quits. She called her coach who said “just focus on gold”. Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold. GOLD. She ended up competing and guess what she won (I’ll give you a hint, you can spell the first part of Australia with its chemical symbol.)
According to my guy here, the army knew very well about the powers of manifesting when it came to intent. The point he was making was that they sprinkled it in amongst their troops training regimes to make them collectively manifest certain goals.
“Yeah, right” I say, pretending I am one of those guys that thinks it is all bunch of new age hocus pocus bullshit. Little does he know I am 1 and a half months into my own affirmation campaign, which may involve connecting with these very fucking kinds of people (normies bore the shit out me).
He proceeds to tell me about how he has used this concept all his life since he was a little kid, to help manifest his business desires. He tells me a story about how he was doing fly in fly out work, and one day just quit his job as it was affecting his relationship with his new girlfriend, after being in the game for about 5 years. He’s thinking he needs to find a cheap $1000 utility truck and do it up as a means for starting his own business. He’s at the airport coming home, and sees this little old lady looking kind of lost. “Are you alright there , mam?” he asks, and she tells him “well, not really, I am new to Perth and I am bit confused about how to get where I am supposed to be going”.
“Do you need me to call you a taxi, or someone to come get you?” he asks her.
“Actually I would quite appreciate that if you could”. She replies.
He takes her to the waiting lounge where there is a pay phone, and they proceed to wait in the long line that has formed to use it. The old lady strikes up a conversation while they are waiting, asking him what he is doing with himself, that sort of thing.
“Well I have just come out of five year job from the mines, as it was affecting my relationship with my girlfriend, now I need to find something a bit more local”. He offers her some of his qualifications etc as part of the small talk.
Meanwhile a guy standing behind them has been listening to the whole conversation. He interjects.
“Excuse me, buddy, but I am the owner of this company that builds elevators for the commercial sector and a vacancy just came up.” He flicks him a business card and says ”Send me your resume, and we’ll see what we can do” A day later he got the job.
But it doesn’t stop there. The same day, he is talking to his friend who tells him “check out this ad for this utility truck I just came across.” This guy shows him the ad in a paper, or on his phone or whatever, and he looks at it:
“Not bad for $1000, eh? All it needs is a bit of doing up and it make a great work ute”
“Send me the number”he says, without batting an eyelid.…it was the same ute we had now both walked up to and whose trailer he was lying on top quite casually as we talked, which was now going on 2 hours.
I figured fuck it, might as well go all in.
I tell him how my spook guy living in China is an ex Majestic agent who was given the actual process of how this manifestation shit works by the ETs he was involved with, then proceed to tell him about said proper process, 3 months on, and 3 months off then 3 on again yada yada yada. He kind of looks at me, and nods, probably thinking I am a fucking nut job, but kindly suggests he isn’t thinking that.
The conversation about manifesting of desire thing comes full circle:
“So getting back to the vaccine thing. You wipe out the old and the weak, you are left with the young and strong. You then start seeding the concepts you want to see manifested into that generation, and……well, you get the idea.”
He then seems to realize the time and has to shoot off.
Well that was certainly interesting. Almost like a higher force was telling me EXACTLY what is up with the vaccines. Either that or it was just, like, his opinion, man.
Even more interesting is that that night SD and I had a fight and she sees another fucking mantid in the mirror (but not out of it) next to our bed.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the 26th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings.
I hope that you enjoy this article.
-MM
Lucid Astral Projection – The Consciousness Craft Launch Facility and Something Dwelling in the Red Planet:
I’m, fucking back baby. WOOOHOOO.
Last night I woke up around 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I figured I might as well try meditating with a goal to induce an LD. I was playing around with visualisations of a tunnel that would burrow me outside of the Astral Plane bubble surrounding earth. My goal was to try and contact the EG.
This was the first proper wake induced lucid dream I have had in years where I have been able to keep 100% of consciousness during the transition.
As I reached hypnogogia, my dream environment changed into a sort of hospital like facility with lots of corridors. Although it was dark, it had a warmness feeling to it that reminded me of whenever I went to my grandma’s place. As hypngogia set in properly, I found myself walking down this corridor. On the left was some sort of reception desk with a cafeteria behind it. Just up ahead from the reception desk was a door, and that was where I was heading.
There were two female staff at the reception desk, who I said a quick hi to as I walked past. They were the facilitators of whatever was on the other side of the door This all happens in less than a minute.
I approach the door and as I get right to its frame I step over the threshold. Some sort of invisible hook catches me in the middle of the head, and then I realize this is it. This is the transition I have been waiting a very long time to experience properly again.
My consciousness inverts, and I feel that all too familiar feeling of entering the void space, and my consciousness properly disengaging from my body.
But this time something different happens; when the hook hit me, it sort of turned my consciousness upwards as it was transitioning, I feel the hallway beyond the door sort of “capture” me as I do so.
As I plunge into the void space, I realize for the first time ever I am looking upwards into the shaft of the cylindrical like chamber, rather than at the side.
I realize this is a fucking tunnel into outer space; I can see stars from where I am obscured by its edges.
Some thing else is also different; this void space is a lot more clearer than I remember it being.
It is hard to explain, but movement in the void space used to create quite a level of disorientation. Although I could “feel” the depth of this space being quite huge and around me, I could never really “see” it.
Now I can see the stars and they are crystal clear; sparkling like diamonds in front of me, just begging for me to come and claim them.
I oblige, and propel myself forward, with only a small amount of velocity.
Something happens, and I find my momentum picking up until I am soaring through this tunnel hurtling towards the stars; I can even hear the reverberation of this velocity coming off the interior walls of whatever this tunnel thing is.
Suddenly I come out of the tunnel and plunge into outer space like a diver into water.
I realize it is some sort of station set up on an asteroid or something near earth.
I am 100% conscious and aware of my sleeping body. I seem to still be in the solar system, but still quite far from earth, probably a few light years away.
After a quick piloting test of control where I move my consciousness forward, back, left right, up and down I conclude that yes, something is very very different here this time.
It seems a fog has been lifted that usually makes such effortless control tiresome; like a polluted pond has now been cleaned and the water is perfect to swim in. Well, space is my water, and I am itching for a swim.
I propel myself forward and “open up the burners”, so to speak. I am like that guy taking a new mustang out to a straight stretch of road and just fucking gunning it to see how fast it can go before his nerves kick in and make him punch the brakes.
Seems I have a new ‘stang and I want to see what this baby can do.
Fuck me, this awesome.
I am burning fast, and I mean REALLY FUCKING FAST.
If this is what the upgrades entail, then holy shit they were worth it.
Something gives me the impression my consciousness might actually be merged with a space craft of some sort.
I have propelled fast before, but never anywhere even remotely close to this. This is impressive even for my standards.
I am actually using this craft like it is my own fucking body, zipping around like a majestic unicorn that has just popped a bag of Ecstasy before going on an episode of dancing with the stars.
Saturn and Jupiter fly past me in a manner of seconds.
Then come the stars.
This isn’t anything like hyper drive in star wars or star trek. The planets and stars appear as tiny dots that just sail effortlessly past you like bits of dust in a windstorm.
Within about 30 seconds I have journeyed so far out of the solar system that I don’t even know what galaxy I am in.
I am very, very, very far from my physical body at this point.
I remember my goal of trying to establish contact with the EG. As the thought pops into my mind, almost instantaneously I start hearing the voice of the Grand Elder coming through (I haven’t heard this since February 2019), but it is broken and patchy like the tuning is not quite right.
I realize the interference is caused by the distance between me and them.
Although I am far from the solar system I am still even much further from the edge of the universe/ astral bubble.
“Hello. Hello? Can you hear us”.
I hear them say, but it doesn’t seem as though can get anything intelligible from so I give up.
As I am hurtling through space I notice some activity in a certain sector of the galaxy I am in.
There seems to be a tentacle of the anomaly bleeding through, but it is no where near the concern it once was.
It is concerning to see it this close to earth, but at the same time it doesn’t seem as malicious as it once was.
An “Eh, I’ll get to that a different time” thought pops into my head.
As I sail over it, I hear a dark demonic voice trying to lure me in.
I turn to check it out and notice it is coming from a red planet that looks almost identical to Mars off in the local vicinity of where I am (I cannot recall at this point whether I had turned around and journeyed back to our solar system or not, but I think that is the case).
I feel kinda sorry for this voice.
It is trying really hard to put on a show to scare me, but the whole thing just comes off as really lame and like something out of a kids PG movie.
Sort of like a real bad James Earl Jones Darth Vader rendition.
It is my responsibility to check into any malicious forces I find – I guess this is why I was cleared for launch back at the facility, to come and investigate this area of space – so I project towards it.
The red planet suddenly becomes very big in front of me.
I swear this is Mars, judging from its colour and patterns. If not then it must have a twin that is a spitting image.
I enter its atmosphere and realize that there is indeed something malicious going on; the first thing I notice is that a shroud is being used on the surface to plunge it into an astral darkness.
Even from this state, it is impossible to see several feet in front of me.
The voice lingers and tries to lure me in with some cheap promise of finding something I need, but I just tell it to fuck off, figuring it easier to go back and report this to base command and have it taken out remotely.
The main difference was that there was no fear of this entity; I was just observing it from an emotionless state of being.
I wake up, then quickly ride that lucidity train back through the transition before my mind gets too awoken.
Once again, I wind up back at the same launch facility, this time with SD by my side.
We walk the hallways trying to find the launch room, but end up getting lost in the corridors.
We take a wrong turn and end up outside.
There is a nicely manicured garden outside and I notice the buildings themselves are made of bricks and seem quite old.
The dream starts to become broken, but I realize that if you just look up and focus on the bricks, its stops it from falling apart (try this when trying to create a solid dreamscape).
SD attends to other business and I end up going to check out one of the buildings. It seems to be a sort of dormitory for other astral travellers/ lucid dreamers.
I notice a person there who I have been speaking to in recent weeks about their heightened astral projection experiences.
We have a brief chat, and then I make my way over to another room that seems to be mine.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the 25th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benifit in reading his writings.
I hope that you enjoy this article.
-MM
Project Morpheus
Earlier this month, I started a new project which will eventually comprise part of a larger project I have opened up on my site, www.daegonmagus.wix.com/author, for “Documenting the Other Worlds”.
This is actually an offshoot of another project I started a few years ago and never got around to finishing, which sort to put every frequency in the audible spectrum, between 20-20kHz on one track in what I called the “Pandora Chord”. Drawing on some sound engineering experience I picked up over the years, in my latest project, I decided to try and replicate some of the noises SD and I have experienced during some of our lucid dreams.
These vary from bizarre “UFO” type sounding noises, to the perceived change in sound of an aero plane going overhead as consciousness goes through the transition into the sleeping state and beyond into the void space.
I am hoping that these audio tracks will provide at least starting point for understanding what exactly happens to consciousness as it falls asleep, and give others an idea of the sorts of environments us LDers find ourselves having to navigate through. I am confident in my assertions that telepathy can be understood through using a similar model of radio propagation theory, and that the void space experienced during one of these conscious transitions into the sleep state acts as the main terminal by which telepathic information can be decoded and broadcast.
Thus my eventual goal will be to devise apparatus that will allow these sounds to be broadcast through open space in a similar manner, with an effort of contacting nearby entities. Guess I am officially “that” guy now huh?
This project soon evolved into the creation of a track specifically to try and induce a lucid dreaming session, based heavily on the Monroe Institute’s research into inducing OBE’s.
Whereas the Monroe Institute used a 4HZ offset frequency between those frequencies played in the left ear vs those played in the right, I opted to use a 2Hz offset frequency based primarily on the frequency of the physical world being “locking” onto to a dreamscape from a waking LD I once had. I also took some inspiration from Royal Rife and his assertions that lower sideband harmonics of certain frequencies can be used to destroy certain pathogens and viruses, and used a specific combination of frequencies that are spaced exactly an octave (a doubling of frequency) apart in the left ear, whilst introducing the 2 Hz variants of each of those frequencies in the right.
Originally I based these frequencies on the Binary number system of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 etc, but as my recording software’s signal generators only allow a minimum of 20Hz, I was forced with starting at 32Hz. I then applied phasers to these frequencies that adjust themselves through the peak ranges in timings of 2 to 4 Hz, again multiples of these frequencies.
I attempted to record this into a stereo track using an unbalanced mono line, which introduced some digital noise into the track which I realized sounded quite a lot like the tinnitus sound I usually hear during an OBE (which intensifies during an astral projection, right at the moment the astral body separates from the physical), so I left it in.
I then re-recorded the frequency tracks using a balanced line. The resultant track is a combination of what appears to be a Tibetan singing bowl mixed with both the tinnitus and UFO “Whoop Whoop” sounds, with a mechanical like noise overlaid, which I assume is caused by certain collision points of the frequencies during sampling, similar to aliasing. This Mechnical noise is very reminiscent of the type of chthonic noises heard during a sleep paralysis/ LD experience.
The listener is encouraged to try and focus on the other phantom noises that seemingly present themselves.
I then used the track for a total of 15 to 20 minutes each morning and evening before going to bed. After day 3 or 4, I noticed a very strong feeling of dissociation from my surroundings, very similar to that felt when under the influence of marijuana.
This feeling I noticed was more prominent when looking at areas with many patterns of shadow contrasted against light, an example being piles of leaves in a lightly shaded area. The effect I witnessed was that a diamond like wavy “ghost” pattern was perceivable between me and the leaves as a sort of visual noise.
This feeling kept all day and only began to subside after about 3 days after my last dosing of the audio track. In addition this, there was also a prolonged energetic feeling felt deep within the solar plexus, vaguely similar to morphine when it enters the vein.
Upon review of the lengths associated with nervous system pathways, and the idea the body acts as a tuned antenna that emits a carrier wave that consciousness attaches to, based on these nervous system pathways, further experimentation will see the offset frequency between left and right ears changed to 3Hz.
For the aeroplane going overhead, I downloaded a sample of an aeroplane off the internet. One should note, this aeroplane sounds a little bit different to what I actually heard, but for demonstration purposes will do. I started by stretching majority of the track out to about twice its normal length (slowing the frequencies involved in the process). I then placed a phaser that polls through the entire range of frequencies every 0.07Hz. The track is thus a close representation, but not exact. My Plan is to simulate other typical noises in a similar fashion to see what they would sound like in the void space.
For the UFO noise I used a simple 128HZ signal, with a 4hz timed phaser. I am very interested in hearing from others who have heard this noise or something similar to it either during an “encounter” or an OBE experience.
I am also interested in hearing from others who experience similar feelings of association or the energy bursts I have felt.
I suspect this combination of phaser arrangement on a specific frequency might have something to do with disrupting consciousness to achieving a “cloaking” effect. I believe the key to unlocking consciousness from the body lies in the way these crafts use these frequencies, particularly during LDs/APs.
Edit, for some reason, this track is proving difficult to record and will be uploaded at another date. Refer to the above inducer test track to get an idea of the “Woo Woo” sound.
The lucid fizz sound is the tinnitus sounding noise mentioned above. I extracted it from the recording with the introduced mechanical noise using some 7 band EQs to filter out the lower frequency components. It is about 90% accurate to what I hear on a regular basis.
Sometime I get random bouts where one of my ears will be overloaded with a high pitched frequency (different to the tinnitus sound), which, more often than not becomes somewhat disorientating. This just so happened to happen about 2 days into using the lucid dreaming test audio.
I made a mental note of the sound and quickly rushed to my computer, which was on and had a signal generator setup. I then scrolled through the frequencies until I got withina close ballpark of this disorientating “Information Download Frequency”, which I found was at 2925 Hz. I believe further investigation of this frequency is warranted.
Any information supplemental to my experiments from the Commander is most welcome.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
These two unusual and very original stories [1] are examples of a rare genre invented by the brilliant author of Lucky Jim: “SF-drink”. They had me chuckling and even hooting, an enjoyable and all-too-rare experience indeed, and I dare say that they will have you doing the same!
1. The 2003 Claret (1958) A scientific team in 1970 is anxiously awaiting the return of a member of their team who had been sent on man’s first exploratory mission into the future, to 2010 to report on the social and political situation then. But what intersts the scientific team most is the wine situation in those far-off days, and what the time-traveler has to tell them about the reversal of tastes that has occurred is quite a shock indeed.
2. The Friends of Plonk (1964) Where people in 2145 after a terribly dsstructive atomic war try to recreate the fabled drinks of the past with no documentation at all apart from some garbled descriptions of the ceremonies surrounding the consumption of fine wines and liqueurs. With astonishing results.
THE 2003 CLARET (1958)
’How long to go now?’ the Director asked for the tenth time. I compared the main laboratory chronometer with the dial on the TIOPEPE (Temporal Integrator, Ordinal Predictor and Electronic Propulsion Equipment). ’He should be taking the trance-pill in a few seconds, sir,’ I said. ’Then there’s only the two minutes for it to take effect, and we can bring him back.’ ’Supposing he hasn’t taken the pill?’ ’I’m sure he’d survive the time-shift even if he were fully conscious, sir. It’s instantaneous, after all.’ ’I know, but being snatched back from fifty years in the future can’t do a man’s mind any good, can it? We just don’t know what we’re up against, Baker. I wish those blasted politicians had let us go slow on this project. But no, there mustn’t be any delay or the Russians will have developed time-travel before the Atlantic Powers, so we bundle Simpson off to the year 2010 and if we lose him or he turns up a raving lunatic it’s our fault.’ The Director sat moodily down on a work-bench. ’What happens if he gets tight?’ ’He won’t have done that, sir. Simpson’s one of the Knights of Bordeaux. They never get drunk — isn’t it a rule of the society?’ ’I believe so, yes.’ The Director cheered up a little. ’He’ll probably have a good deal to tell us, with any luck. The Douro growers are saying that last year was the best since 1945, you know, Baker. Imagine what that stuff must be like where Simpson is. Just one glass — ’Did you actually tell Simpson to sample the wines in 20I0 ?’ The Director coughed. ’Well, I did just make the suggestion to him. After all, part of our terms of reference was to report on social conditions, in addition to the political situation. And drinking habits are a pretty good guide to the social set-up, aren’t they? Find out how people treat their port and you’ve found out a lot about the kind of people they are.’ ’Something in that, sir.’ I’m a beer man myself, which made me a bit of an outsider in the team. There were only the four of us in the lab that night — the VIPs and the press boys had been pushed into the Conference Room, thank heaven — and all the other three were wine-bibbers of one sort or another. The Director, as you will have gathered, was fanatical about port; Rabaiotti, my senior assistant, belonged to a big Chianti family; and Schneider, the medical chap, had written a book on hock. Simpson was reputedly on the way to becoming a sound judge of claret, though I had sometimes wondered whether perhaps tactical considerations played their part in his choice of hobby. Anyway, I considered I was lucky to have got the job of Chief Time-Engineer, against competition that included a force-field expert who doubled as an amateur of old Madeira and an electronics king named Gilbey [2] — no relation, it turned out, but the Director couldn’t have known that at the time. ’The receiver is tuned, Dr Baker.’ ’Thank you, Dr Rabaiotti. Would you like to operate the recall switch, sir?’ ’Why, that’s extremely kind of you, Baker.’ The Director was shaking with excitement. ’It’s this one here, isn’t it?’ His hand brushed the trigger of a relay that would have sent Simpson shooting back to about the time of Victoria’s accession. This may have been half-deliberate: the Director often got wistful about what pre-phylloxera stuff might or might not have tasted like. ’No, this one, sir. Just press it gently down.’ The switch clicked and instantly the figure of Simpson — tallish, forty-ish, baldish — appeared in the receiver. We all gave a shout of triumph and relief. Rabaiotti killed the power. Schneider hurried forward and there was tension again. `I’d give a case of Dow 1919 to see him conscious and mentally sound,’ the Director muttered at my side. ’Everything all right so far,’ Schneider called. ’I’ve given him a shot that’ll pull him round in a minute or two.’ We lit cigarettes. ’Pity conditions wouldn’t allow of him bringing anything back,’ the Director said. ’Just think of a forty-year-old 1970 all ready to drink. But I suppose it would have cost too much anyway. Next time we must find a better way of handling the currency problem. Very risky giving him raw gold to pawn. And we’re restricted to a lump small enough not to arouse too much suspicion. Oh, well, he should have been able to afford a few glasses. I hope that champagne’s all right, by the way?’ ’Oh, yes, I put it in the molecular-motion-retarder myself, with the setting at point-three. It’ll be nicely chilled by now.’ ’Splendid. I do want the dear boy to get a decent livener inside him before he faces all those cameras and interviews. I should have preferred a dry port myself, or possibly a Bittall, but I know what the occasion demands, of course. It’s a Lambert 1952 I’ve got for him. I don’t understand these things myself, but the Director of Lunar Projectiles swears by it.’ ’He’s coming round now,’ Schneider shouted, and we all pressed forward. There was an intense silence while Simpson blinked at us, sat up and yawned. His face was absolutely impassive. Very slowly he scratched his ear. He looked like a man with a bad hangover. ’Well?’ the Director demanded eagerly. ’What did you see?’ ’Everything. At least, I saw enough.’ ’Had there been a war? Is there going to be a war?’ ’No. Russia joined the Western Customs Union in 1993, China some time after 2000. The RAF’s due to be disbanded in a few months.’ Then everyone hurled questions at once: about flying saucers, the Royal Family, the sciences, the arts, interplanetary travel, climatic conditions in the Rheingau — all sorts of things. Simpson seemed not to hear. He just sat there with the same blank look on his face, wearily shaking his head. ’What’s the matter?’ I asked finally. ’What was wrong?’ After a moment, he said in a hollow voice, ’Better if there had been a war. In some ways. Yes. Much better.’ ’What on earth do you mean?’ Simpson gave a deep sigh. Then, hesitantly, to a silent audience and with the bottle of champagne quite forgotten, he told the following story.
The landing went off perfectly. Hyde Park was the area selected, with a thousand-square-yard tolerance to prevent Simpson from materialising inside a wall or halfway into a passer-by. Nobody saw him arrive. He changed his gold into currency without difficulty, and in a few minutes was walking briskly down Piccadilly, looking into shop-windows, studying dress and behaviour, buying newspapers and magazines, and writing busily in his notebook. He had several fruitful conversations, representing himself according to plan as a native of Sydney. This brought him some commiseration, for England had just beaten Australia at Lord’s by an innings and 411 runs. Yes, everything seemed normal so far. His political report and much of his social report were complete by six-thirty, and his thoughts started turning to drink: after all, it was a positive duty. As he strolled up Shaftesbury Avenue he began looking out for drink advertisements. The beer ones had much in common with those of 1960, but were overshadowed in prominence by those recommending wines. MOUTON ROTHSCHILD FOR POWER, BREEDING AND GRANDEUR, one said. ASK FOR OESTRICHER PFAFFENBERG – THE HOCK WITH THE CLEAN FINISH, enjoined another. MY GOLLY, MY ST GYOERGHYHEGYI FURMINT, bawled a third. Well, practical experiment would soon establish what was what. Simpson slipped quietly through the doorway of an establishment clearly devoted to drink. The interior was surprising. If some French provincial cafe had not been gutted of decor and furnishings to get this place up, then a good job of duplication had been done. Men in neat, sombre clothing sat at the tables talking in low tones, wine-glasses and wine-bottles before them, while aproned waiters moved silently about. One of them was decanting a red wine from a bottle that was thick with dust and cobwebs, watched critically by all the nearby drinkers. Simpson crept to a seat in an unfrequented part of the room. A waiter approached. ’What can I bring you, monsieur?’ Here it must be explained that Simpson was not quite the claret-fancier the Director thought him. He enjoyed claret all right, but he also enjoyed other French wines, and German wines, and Italian wines, and Iberian wines, and Balkan wines, and fortified wines, and spirits, and liqueurs, and apéritifs, and cocktails, and draught beer, and bottled beer, and stout, and cider, and perry— all the way down to Fernet Branca. (There were some drinks he had never drunk — arak, kava, Gumpoldskirchner Rotgipfler, methylated spirits — but they were getting fewer all the time.) Anyway, feeling dehydrated after his walk round the streets, he unreflectingly ordered a pint of bitter. ’I’m sorry, monsieur, I don’t understand. What is this bitter?’ ’Bitter beer, ale; you know. Haven’t you got any?’ ’Beer, monsieur?’ The waiter’s voice rose in contempt. ’Beer? I’m afraid you’re in the wrong district for that.’ Several men turned round, nudged one another and stared at Simpson, who blushed and said, ’Well. . . a glass of wine, then.’ ’France, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria . . .’ Simpson tried to think. ’A claret, please. Let’s say — a nice St Emilion.’ ’Château Le Couvent, Château Puyblanquet, Château Bellefore Belcier, Château Grand Corbin d’Espagne . ..’ ’Oh . . . I leave it to you.’ ’Bien, monsieur. And the year? Will you leave that to me too?’ ’If you don’t mind.’ The waiter swept away. Conscious that all eyes were upon him, Simpson tried to sink into his chair. Before he could compose himself, a middle-aged man from a nearby table had come over and sat down next to him. ’Well, who are you?’ this man asked. ’A — a traveller. From Sydney.’ ’These days that’s no excuse for not knowing your wines, friend. Some of them Rubicons and Malbecs are as firm and fully rounded as all bar the greatest Burgundies. And I found a Barossa Riesling on holiday this year that was pretty near as gay as a Kreuznacher Steinweg. You well up on the Barossas, friend?’ ’No, not really, I’m afraid.’ ’Thought not, somehow. Otherwise you wouldn’t stalk in here and screech out for beer. Ger, ought to be ashamed of yourself, you ought.’ ’I’m awfully sorry.’ ’Should hope so and all. Now, I’m an honest working man, see? I’m a DRIP, I am.’ ’A drip?’ ’Domestic Reactor Installation Patentee. Don’t they go in for them down under? Now you listen to me. When I come in here to meet my colleagues and crack a bottle or two after the daily round, I don’t want my palate soured by some toff yelling out about beer, especially not when we got a really elegant Gevrey Chambertin or Chambolle Musigny or something of that in front of us. It’s psychosomatic, like. Just the idea of beer’s enough to cut off some of the subtler overtones, get me?’ ’I’m sorry,’ Simpson said again. ’I didn’t realise. But tell me: don’t you eat while you’re drinking these wines?’ ’What, and foul up the taste-buds with fat and sauces and muck? You got a nerve even mentioning food in a place like this. We’re oenophiles in here, I’ll have you know, not a bunch of pigs. Ah, here’s your claret.’ The stranger held the glass up to the light, then sniffed it delicately. ’Right, now let’s see what you got to say about this. And get on with it.’ Simpson drank. It was the most wonderful wine he had ever known, with a strange warm after-taste that seemed to seep upwards and flood his olfactory centres. He sighed deeply. ’Superb,’ he said at last ’Come on, come on, we want more than that; you got to do better than that. Give us a spot of imagery, kind of style, a reference to art, that type of stuff.’ ’It’s — I don’t know — it’s the richness of summer, all the glory of . . . of love and lyric poetry, a whole way of life, profound and . . . some great procession of — ’ ‘Ah, you turn me up,’ the man said violently. ’This is a 2003 Chateau La Bouygue, reconstituted pre-phylloxera of course. Now, light and free, not rich in association but perfectly assured without any insincerity, instrumental where the ’01s are symphonic, the gentleness of a Braque rather than the bravura of a Matisse. That’s as far as you can go with it. Love and lyric poetry indeed. I never heard such slop in my life. You aren’t fit to come in here, friend. You get off out to one of the pubs with your boss-class pals, that’s where you belong.’ Simpson threw down some coins and ran, a gust of ill-natured laughter sounding in his ears. He felt like walking the streets for the two hours in 2010 that still remained to him, but a nagging curiosity emboldened him to ask to be directed to a pub. The place he finally made his way to was on the corner of a narrow street on the edge of Soho. It was a red-brick affair like a miniature grammar school or a suburban bank. As he approached, a bus drew up and a crowd of young people got off, chattering loudly to one another in what Simpson made out as a version of the upper-class tones current in his own time. He was more or less swept in through the front door of the pub, and had no time to puzzle out the significance of a notice above the entrance, painted by hand with what seemed deliberate inelegance, and bearing the legend: CRACKED UP BY THE WALLOP AND SCOFF MOB. He found himself in a large, ill-lighted and crowded room of which the main feature was a long counter that ran from end to end zigzag-wise, as if to accommodate as many as possible of the tall stools that were closely packed along it. What were evidently glass sandwich cupboards stood every couple of feet along the red plastic top. A group of people, half-crowd, half-queue, was clustered round the entrance, and Simpson mingled with them. He noticed that most of the stools were occupied by persons drinking beer or some such liquid out of pint glasses and eating rolls or sandwiches. Conversations were bawling away around him. ’My dear, simply nobody goes to the Crown these days. Simon and I were given fresh crisps the last time we went.’ ’It doesn’t surprise me. We had some mustard that couldn’t have been more than a day old.’ ’The wallop’s first-class down at the George, and as for the scoff— the bluest piece of ham you ever saw. A really memorable thrash. I’m getting the secretary of the Mob to crack them up in the next issue of the Boozer Rag.’ ’Have you bagged stools, sir?’ ’I beg your pardon?’ ’Sorry, mate. Have you bagged, mate?’ ’No, I’m afraid not. May I see the head potman?’ ’I’ll get him over directly, mate.’ ’Shall we start thinking about what we’re going to have? Pickled onions to start? With a glass of mild?’ ’Nuts for me. Mixed and salted.’ ’Right, that’s three onions, one nuts. And then I can recommend the cheese rolls. They know me here and always see that I get the three-day-old, with plenty of rind.’ After some time, Simpson obtained a stool and ordered a pint of bitter from the grubby barmaid. ’Certainly, love. A fresh barrel has just come on.’ `Oh, I’ll have mild instead, then.’ ’By all means, love, if you wish for it. Your taste is your own. And what will you have in the way of scoff, love?’ ’Oh, er — nothing to eat, thank you.’ `If I may say so, love, with all due respect, you might perhaps do better at the wine-bar if you don’t wish for any scoff. We have standards to maintain here, love.’ ’I’m awfully sorry. What. . . scoff do you recommend?’ ’Our gherkins have frequently been cracked up, love. Not a dish is sold till it’s two days old.’ ’They sound delightful. One dish, please.’ ’Very good, love. With cigarette-ash garnishings, of course.’ The beer came. It was horrible. The gherkins came. Simpson took no notice of them. Dazedly he watched and listened to those around him. A kind of ritual seemed to be being enacted by a group of four immediately next to him. The two couples raised their pints in concert, intoned the word ’Cheers’ in a liturgical manner, poured a few drops on to the front of their greasy pullovers, and sank their drinks in one swallow. Afterwards they all sighed loudly, wiped their mouths with their hands, banged the empty glasses down on the counter, and spoke in turn. ’Lovely drop of wallop.’ ’First today.’ ’I needed that.’ ’Lays the dust.’ ’You can’t beat a decent pint.’ ’Full of goodness.’ ’Keeps your insides working.’ ’It’s a real drink.’ When this point was reached, all four shouted ’Let’s have another’ in unison, and were immediately served with fresh drinks and small plates of sandwiches. The bread on these was curled up at the corners, revealing purple strips of meat criss-crossed with gristle. One of the men felt the texture of the bread and nodded approvingly. ’I told you this place was good,’ his friend said. Then the party got down to what was clearly the pièce de résistance, alternately biting at the sandwiches and taking pulls of beer, chewing the resulting mush with many a belch of appreciation. Simpson lowered his head into his hands. The talk went on. ’What’s the fighting like here?’ ’Oh, excellent. The governor of the boozer gets it under way at ten-thirty sharp, just outside on the corner. I did hear a whisper that he’s going to allow broken bottles for the last five minutes tonight. The police should be with us by then. They’re very keen round here.’ ’At the Feathers, you know, they kick off at ten-fifteen inside the bar. Don’t know whether I agree with that.’ ’No. After all, it’s only the finale of the evening.’ ’Absolutely. Shouldn’t make it too important.’ ’Definitely not. Getting tight’s the object of the exercise.’ ’Quite. By the way, who’s that fellow next to you?’ ’No idea. Wine-bar type, if you ask me.’ ’Hasn’t touched his gherkins. Refused fresh bitter. Shouldn’t be here at all.’ ’Couldn’t agree more. I mean, look at his clothes.’ ’Wonder how long since they were slept in.’ `If they ever have been.’ ’Disgusting.’ ’And what would you like to follow, love?’ This last was the barmaid. Simpson raised his head and gave a long yell of fury, bewilderment, horror and protest. Then he ran from the room and went on running until he was back at the point where the TIOPEPE was to pick him up. With shaking fingers he put the trance-pill into his mouth.
The Director broke the silence that followed the end of Simpson’s story. ’Well, it’s a long time ahead, anyway,’ he said with an attempt at cheerfulness. ’Is it?’ Simpson shouted. ’Do you think that sort of situation develops in a couple of weeks? It’s starting to happen already. Wine-snobbery spreading, more and more of this drinking what you ought to drink instead of what you like. Self-conscious insistence on the virtues of pubs and beer because the wrong people are beginning to drink wine. It’ll be here in our time, don’t you worry. You just wait.’ ‘Ah, now, Simpson, you’re tired and overwrought. A glass of champagne will soon make you see things in a different light.’ ’Slip away with me afterwards,’ I murmured. ’We’ll have a good go at the beer down in town.’ Simpson gave a long yell — much like the one, probably, he vented at the end of his visit to 2010. Springing to his feet, he rushed away down the lab to where Schneider kept the medical stores. ’What’s he up to?’ the Director puffed as we hurried in pursuit. ’Is he going to try and poison himself?’ ’Not straight away, sir, I imagine.’ ’How do you mean, Baker?’ ’Look at that bottle he’s got hold of, sir. Can’t you see what it is?’ ’But . . . I can’t believe my eyes. Surely it’s . . .’ ’Yes, sir. Surgical spirit.’
THE FRIENDS OF PLONK (1964)
The (technical) success of Simpson’s trip to the year 2010 encouraged the authorities to have similar experiments conducted for a variety of time-objectives. Some curious and occasionally alarming pieces of information about the future came to our knowledge in this way; I’m thinking less of politics than of developments in the domain of drink. For instance, let me take this opportunity of warning every youngster who likes any kind of draught beer and has a high life-expectancy to drink as much of the stuff as he can while he can, because they’re going to stop making it in 2016. Again, just six months ago Simpson found that, in the world of 2045, alcoholic diseases as a whole accounted for almost exactly a third of all deaths, or nearly as many as transport accidents and suicide combined. This was universally put down to the marketing, from 2039 onwards, of wines and spirits free of all the congeneric elements that cause hangovers, and yet at the same time indistinguishable from the untreated liquors even under the most searching tests — a triumph of biochemitechnology man had been teasingly on the brink of since about the time I was downing my first pints of beer. Anyway, by a lucky accident, the authorities suddenly became anxious to know the result of the 2048 Presidential election in America, and so Simpson was able to travel to that year and bring back news, not only of the successful Rosicrucian candidate’s impending installation at the Black House, but also of the rigorous outlawing of the new drink process and everything connected with it. After one veiled reference to the matter in conversation, Simpson had considered himself lucky to escape undamaged from the bar of the Travellers’ Club. For a time, our section’s exploration of the rather more distant future was blocked by a persistent fault in the TIOPEPE, whereby the projection circuits cut off at approximately 83.63 years in advance of time-present. Then, one day in 1974, an inspired guess of Rabaiotti’s put things right, and within a week Simpson was off to 2145. We were all there in the lab as usual to see him back safely. After Schneider had given him the usual relaxing shots, Simpson came out with some grave news. A quarrel about spy-flights over the moons of Saturn had set Wales and Mars — the two major powers in the Inner Planets at that period — at each other’s throats and precipitated a system-wide nuclear war in 2101. Half of Venus, and areas on Earth the size of Europe, had been virtually obliterated. Rabaiotti was the first to speak when Simpson had stopped. ’Far enough off not to bother most of our great-grandchildren, anyway,’ he said. ’That’s true. But what a prospect.’ ’I know,’ I said. ’Well, no use glooming, Baker,’ the Director said. ’Nothing we can do about it. We’ve got a full half-hour before the official conference — tell us what’s happened to drink.’ Simpson rubbed his bald head and sighed. I noticed that his eyes were bloodshot, but then they nearly always were after one of these trips. A very conscientious alcohologist, old Simpson. ’You’re not going to like it.’ We didn’t.
Simpson’s landing in 2145 had been a fair enough success, but there had been an unaccountable error in the ground-level estimates, conducted a week earlier by means of our latest brain-child, the TIAMARIA (Temporal Inspection Apparatus and Meteorological-Astronomical-Regional-Interrelation Assessor). This had allowed him to materialise twelve feet up in the air and given him a nasty fall — on to a flower-bed, by an unearned piece of luck, but shaking him severely. What followed shook him still further. The nuclear war had set everything back so much that the reconstructed world he found himself in was little more unfamiliar than the ones he had found on earlier, shorter-range time-trips. His official report, disturbing as it was, proved easy enough to compile, and he had a couple of hours to spare before the TIOPEPE ’s field should snatch him back to the present. He selected a restaurant within easy range of his purse — the TIAMARIA’s cameras, plus our counterfeiters in the Temporal Treasury, had taken care of the currency problem all right — found a vacant table, and asked for a drink before dinner. ’Certainly, sir,’ the waiter said. ’The Martian manatee-milk is specially good today. Or there’s a new delivery of Iapetan carnivorous-lemon juice, if you’ve a liking for the unusual. Very, uh, full- blooded, sir.’ Simpson swallowed. ’I’m sure,’ he said, ’but I was thinking of something — you know — a little stronger?’ The waiter’s manner suffered an abrupt change. ’Oh, you mean booze, do you?’ he said coldly. ’Sometimes I wonder what this town’s coming to, honest. All right, I’ll see what I can do.’ The ’booze’ arrived on a tin tray in three chunky cans arranged like equal slices of a round cake. The nearest one had the word BEAR crudely stamped on it. Simpson poured some muddy brown liquid from it into a glass. It tasted like last week’s swipes topped up with a little industrial alcohol. Then he tried the can stamped BOOJLY. (We all agreed later that this must be a corruption of ’Beaujolais’.) That was like red ink topped up with a good deal of industrial alcohol. Lastly there was BANDY. Industrial alcohol topped up with a little cold tea. Wondering dimly if some trick of the TIOPEPE had managed to move him back into some unfrequented corner of the 1960s, Simpson became aware that a man at the next table had been watching him closely. When their eyes met, the stranger came over and, with a word of apology, sat down opposite him. (It was extraordinary, Simpson was fond of remarking, how often people did just this sort of thing when he visited the future.) ’Do excuse me,’ the man said politely, ’but from your expression just now I’d guess you’re a conozer — am I right? Oh, my name’s Piotr Davies, by the way, on leave from Greenland Fruiteries. You’re not Earth-based, I take it?’ ’Oh . . . no, I’m just in from Mercury. My first trip since I was a lad, in fact.’ Simpson noticed that Piotr Davies’s face was covered by a thick network of burst veins, and his nose carried the richest growth of grog-blossom Simpson had ever seen. (He avoided looking at the Director when he told us this.) ’Yes,’ he struggled on after giving his name, am a bit of a connoiss — conozer, I suppose. I do try to discriminate a little in my — ’ ’You’ve hit it,’ Piotr Davies said excitedly. ’Discrimination. That’s it, the very word. I knew I was right about you. Discrimination. And tradition. Well, you won’t find much of either on Earth these days, I’m afraid. Nor on Mercury, from what I hear.’ ’No — no, you certainly won’t.’ ’We conozers are having a hard time. The Planetary War, of course. And the Aftermath.’ Davies paused, and seemed to be sizing up Simpson afresh. Then: ’Tell me, are you doing anything tonight? More or less right away?’ ’Well, I have got an appointment I must keep in just under two hours, but until then I — ’ ’Perfect. Let’s go.’ ’But what about my dinner?’ ’You won’t want any after you’ve been where I’m going to take you.’ But where are you — ?’ ’Somewhere absolutely made for a conozer like you. What a bit of luck you happened to run into me. I’ll explain on the way.’ Outside, they boarded a sort of wheelless taxicab and headed into what seemed to be a prosperous quarter. Davies’s explanations were copious and complete; Simpson made full use of his supposed status as one long absent from the centre of things. It appeared that the Planetary War had destroyed every one of the vast, centralised, fully automated distilleries of strong liquors; that bacteriological warfare had put paid to many crops, including vines, barley, hops and even sugar; that the fanatical religious movements of the Aftermath, many of them with government backing, had outlawed all drink for nearly twenty years. Simpson shuddered at that news. ’And when people came to their senses,’ Davies said glumly, ’it was too late. The knowledge had died. Oh, you can’t kill a process like distillation. Too fundamental. Or fermentation, either. But the special processes, the extra ingredients, the skills, the tradition — gone for ever. Whisky — what a rich, evocative word. What can the stuff have tasted like? What little there is about it in the surviving literature gives a very poor idea. Muzzle — that was a white wine, we’re pretty sure, from Germany, about where the Great Crater is. Gin — a spirit flavoured with juniper, we know that much. There isn’t any juniper now, of course. `So, what with one thing and another, drinking went out. Real, civilised drinking, that is — I’m not talking about that stuff they tried to give you back there. I and a few like-minded friends tried to get some of the basic information together, but to no avail. And then, quite by chance, one of us, an archaeologist, turned up a primitive two-dimensional television film that dated back almost two hundred years, giving a full description of some ancient drinks and a portrayal of the habits that went with them — all the details. The film was called ’The Down-and-Outs’, which is an archaic expression referring to people of limited prosperity, but which we immediately understood as being satirically or ironically intended in this instance. That period, you know, was very strong on satire. Anyway, the eventual result of our friend’s discovery was . . . this.’ With something of a flourish, Davies drew a pasteboard card from his pocket and passed it to Simpson. It read:
THE FRIENDS OF PLONK Established 2139 for the drinking of traditional liquors in traditional dress and in traditional surroundings
Before Simpson could puzzle this out, his companion halted the taxi and a moment later was shepherding him through the portals of a large and magnificent mansion. At the far end of a thickly carpeted foyer was a steep, narrow staircase, which they descended. When they came to its foot, Davies reached into a cupboard and brought out what Simpson recognised as a trilby hat of the sort his father had used to wear, a cloth cap, a large piece of sacking and a tattered brown blanket. All four articles appeared to be covered with stains and dirt. At the same time Simpson became aware of a curious and unpleasant mixture of smells and a subdued grumbling of voices. In silence, Davies handed him the cap and the blanket and himself donned the sacking, stole-fashion, and the trilby. Simpson followed his lead. Then Davies ushered him through a low doorway. The room they entered was dimly lit by candles stuck into bottles, and it was a moment before Simpson could take in the scene. At first he felt pure astonishment. There was no trace here of the luxury he had glimpsed upstairs: the walls, of undressed stone, were grimy and damp, the floor was covered at random with sacks and decaying lumps of matting. A coke stove made the cellar stiflingly hot; the air swam with cigarette smoke; the atmosphere was thick and malodorous. Against one wall stood a trestle table piled with bottles and what looked like teacups. Among other items Simpson uncomprehendingly saw there were several loaves of bread, some bottles of milk, a pile of small circular tins and, off in a corner, an old-fashioned and rusty gas-cooker or its replica. But his surprise and bewilderment turned to mild alarm when he surveyed the dozen or so men sitting about on packing-cases or broken chairs and squatting or sprawling on the floor, each wearing some sort of battered headgear and with a blanket or sack thrown round his shoulders. All of them were muttering unintelligibly, in some instances to a companion, more often just to themselves. Davies took Simpson’s arm and led him to a splintery bench near the wall. ’These blankets and so on must have been a means of asserting the essential democracy of drink,’ Davies whispered. ’Anyway, we’re near the end of the purely ritualistic part now. Our film didn’t make its full significance clear, but it was obviously a kind of self-preparation, perhaps even prayer. The rest of the proceedings will be much less formal. Ah . . .’ Two of the men had been muttering more loudly at each other and now closed physically, but their blows and struggles were symbolic, a mime, as in ballet or the Japanese theatre. Soon one of them had his adversary pinned to the floor and was raining token punches upon him. (We’re rather in the dark about this bit,’ Davies murmured. ’Perhaps an enacted reference to the ancient role of drink as a sequel to physical exertion.’) When the prostrate combatant had begun to feign unconsciousness, a loud and authoritative voice spoke. ’End of Part One.’ At once all was animation: everybody sprang up and threw off his borrowed garments, revealing himself as smartly clad in the formal dress of the era. Davies led Simpson up to the man who had made the announcement, probably a member of one of the professions and clearly the host of the occasion. His face was sprayed with broken veins to a degree that outdid Davies’s. ’Delighted you can join us,’ the host said when Simpson’s presence had been explained. ’A privilege to have an Outworlder at one of our little gatherings. Now for our Part Two. Has Piotr explained to you about the ancient film that taught us so much? Well, its second and third sections were so badly damaged as to be almost useless to us. So what’s to follow is no more than an imaginative reconstruction, I fear, but I think it can be said that we’ve interpreted the tradition with taste and reverence. Let’s begin, shall we?’ He signed to an attendant standing at the table; the man began filling the teacups with a mixture of two liquids. One came out of something like a wine-bottle and was red, the other came out of something like a medicine bottle and was almost transparent, with a faint purplish tinge. Courteously passing Simpson the first of the cups, the host said: ’Please do us the honour of initiating the proceedings.’ Simpson drank. He felt as if someone had exploded a tear-gas shell in his throat and then sprayed his gullet with curry-powder. As his own coughings and weepings subsided he was surprised to find his companions similarly afflicted in turn as they drank. ’Interesting, isn’t it?’ the host asked, wheezing and staggering. ’A fine shock to the palate. One might perhaps say that it goes beyond the merely gustatory and olfactory to the purely tactile. Hardly a sensuous experience at all – ascetic, almost abstract. An invention of genius, don’t you think?’ ’What — what’s the . . . ?’ ’Red Biddy, my dear fellow,’ Piotr Davies put in proudly. There was reverence in his voice when he added: ’Red wine and methylated spirits. Of course, we can’t hope to reproduce the legendary Empire Burgundy-characters that used to go into it, but our own humble Boojly isn’t a bad substitute. Its role is purely ancillary, after all.’ ’We like to use a straw after the first shock.’ The host passed one to Simpson. ’I hope you approve of the teacups. A nice traditional touch, I think. And now, do make yourself comfortable. I must see to the plonk in person — one can’t afford to take risks.’ Simpson sat down near Davies on a packing-case. He realised after a few moments that it was actually carved out of a single block of wood. Then he noticed that the dampness of the walls was maintained by tiny water-jets at intervals near the ceiling. Probably the sacks on the floor had been specially woven and then artificially aged. Pretending to suck at his straw, he said nervously to Davies: ’What exactly do you mean by plonk? In my time, people usually. . .’ He broke off, fearful of having betrayed himself, but the man of the future had noticed nothing. `Ah, you’re in for a great experience, my dear friend, something unknown outside this room for countless decades. To our ancestors in the later twentieth century it may have been the stuff of daily life, but to us it’s a pearl beyond price, a precious fragment salvaged from the wreck of history. Watch carefully — every bit of this is authentic.’ With smarting eyes, Simpson saw his host pull the crumb from a loaf and stuff it into the mouth of an enamel jug. Then, taking a candle from a nearby bottle, he put the flame to a disc-shaped cake of brownish substance that the attendant was holding between tongs. A flame arose; liquid dropped on to the bread and began to soak through into the jug; the assembled guests clapped and cheered. Another brownish cake was treated in the same way, then another. ’Shoe-polish,’ Simpson said in a cracked voice. ’Exactly. We’re on the dark tans this evening, with just a touch of ox-blood to give body. Makes a very big, round, pugnacious drink. By the way, that’s processed bread he’s using. Wholemeal’s too permeable, we’ve found.’ Beaming, the host came over to Simpson with a half-filled cup, a breakfast cup this time. ’Down in one, my dear chap,’ he said. They were all watching; there was nothing for it. Simpson shut his eyes and drank. This time a hundred blunt dental drills seemed to be working at once on his nose and throat and mouth. Fluid sprang from all the mucous membranes in those areas. It was like having one’s face pushed into a bath of acid. Simpson’s shoulders sagged and his eyes filmed over. ’I’d say the light tans have got more bite,’ a voice said near him. ’Especially on the gums.’ ’Less of a follow-through, on the other hand.’ There was the sound of swallowing and then a muffled scream. ’Were you here for the plain-tan tasting last month? Wonderful fire and vehemence. I was blind for the next four days.’ ’I still say you can’t beat a straight brown for all-round excoriation. Amazing results on the uvula and tonsils.’ ’What’s wrong with black?’ This was a younger voice. An embarrassed silence, tempered by a fit of coughing and a heartfelt moan from different parts of the circle, was ended by someone saying urbanely: ’Each to his taste, of course, and there is impact there, but I think experience shows that that sooty, oil-smoke quality is rather meretricious. Most of us find ourselves moving tanwards as we grow older.’ `Ah, good, he’s . . . yes, he’s using a tin of transparent in the next jug. Watch for the effect on the septum,’ Simpson lurched to his feet. ’I must be going,’ he muttered. ’Important engagement.’ ’What, you’re not staying for the coal-gas in milk? Turns the brain to absolute jelly, you know.’ ’Sorry . . . friend waiting for me.’ ’Goodbye, then. Give our love to Mercury. Perhaps you’ll be able to start a circle of the Friends of Plonk on your home planet. That would be a magnificent thought.’
’Magnificent,’ the Director echoed bitterly. ’Just think of it. The idea of an atomic war’s too much to take in, but those poor devils . . . Baker, we must prepare some information for Simpson to take on his next long-range trip, something that’ll show them how to make a decent vodka or gin even if the vines have all gone.’ I was hardly listening. ’Aren’t there some queer things about that world, sir? Shoe-polish in just the same variants that we know? Wholemeal bread when the crops are supposed to have — ’ I was interrupted by a shout from the far end of the lab, where Rabaiotti had gone to check the TIAMARIA. He turned and came racing towards us, babbling at the top of his voice. ’Phase distortion, sir! Anomalous tracking on the output side! Completely new effect!’ ’And the TIOPEPE’s meshed with it, isn’t it?’ Schneider said. ’Of course!’ I yelled. ’Simpson was on a different time-path, sir! An alternative probability, a parallel world. No wonder the ground-level estimate was off. This is amazing!’ ’No nuclear war in our time-path — no certainty, anyway,’ the Director sang, waving his arms. ’No destruction of the vines.’ ’No Friends of Plonk.’ ’All the same,’ Simpson murmured to me as we strolled towards the Conference Room, ’in some ways they’re better off than we are. At least the stuff they use is genuine. Nobody’s going to doctor bloody shoe-polish to make it taste smoother or to preserve it or so that you’ll mistake it for a more expensive brand. And it can only improve, what they drink.’ ’Whereas we . . .’ ’Yes. That draught beer you go on about isn’t draught at all: it comes out of a giant steel bottle these days, because it’s easier that way. And do you think the Germans are the greatest chemists in the world for nothing? Ask Schneider about the 1972 Moselles. And what do you imagine all those scientists are doing in Bordeaux?’ ’There’s Italy and Spain and Greece. They’ll — ’ ’Not Italy any more. Ask Rabaiotti, or rather don’t. Spain and Greece’ll last longest, probably, but by 1980 you’ll have to go to Albania if you want real wine. Provided the Chinese won’t have started helping them to get the place modernised.’ ’What are you going to do about it?’ ’Switch to whisky. That’s still real. In fact I’m going to take a bottle home tonight. Can you lend me twenty-five quid?’
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It’s an easy question, actually. Over the last few weeks, the World has polarized into two halves.
One side “The West” is uni-polar. They want the world ruled by the United States; a “rules based order”; it’s a world where the United States makes the rules and the changes them as it sees fit. Those in this camp consist of North America, Europe, and Australia / Japan.
The other side; “The East” is multi-polar. It follows the rules set forth by the UN; the community of nations. Russia, China, India, and most of Asia, including Africa, and South America fall into this camp. They believe that all nations, and all societies are equal, and that no singular nation, or block of nations, should determine the course of human societal evolution.
This situation could well exist for some time.
The only way for it to end would be for the complete collapse and annihilation of the United States. That’s probably not going to happen. (Well, unless the American leadership are so absolutely incompetent that they allow it to happen. Which is, after all, a realistic possibility.)
So we have a world divided into two halves, and a mighty “cold war” is starting to emerge. This currently includes energy, soon to include currency. but should eventually result in trade as well. And at that, the West, will probably suffer dearly.
As everything that The Westuses and consumes comes from The East.
The West, ruled by the United States, will continue to make and break rules as it deems fit. The fact is that the United States has been flaunting the resolutions by the UN for many decades. And this codification into a formalized “The West” will be the death blow to that organization; the UN. It will become superannuated by the nations of the West. For, after all, all the member states in the West are proxy nations.
Out of practicality, aside from eventual necessity, the UN will need to move in one of the geographical regions of The East. It is, after all, a most logical conclusion. In fact, the 4FEB22 joint declaration of Russia and China during the Winter Olympics precisely alluded to exactly this; a New reborn UN.
This article discusses that.
But before we get too involved here in these details, let’s throw in some contemporaneous pockets of “news”, some pretty girls, some cats, food, and other subjects as well. A fine smorgasbord of topics. They all really do a fine, fine job in messing up the computer algorithms that assign trolls, ‘bots, and attacks on the MM website. I’ve got to tell youse guys, I mean, it drops to ZERO.
My life has never been so easy.
I’ll tell you what.
Peter has some things to say…
Russia has the world’s largest land mass with all the wealth in the ground and all the water they need who can grow more food than they can ever eat and armed to the teeth to repel any brain-f*cked dickweed that thinks they can dictate their will to Mother Russia because of economic sanctions.
What a joke! Why would a country like Russia need paper lies from the Empire of Lies to prove that they have a good economy?
If China had what Russia has, China would have told the Empire to go stick their head up their butt long ago. But that day is coming sooner than later. When the Dollar Hegemony goes, the world will have peace.
By the way, I don’t see any pundits noting that the current geopolitical situation is highly favorable to China.
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1. China is “hands off”. While the fight with Russia is ongoing, no one wants to start a second front with China, empty threats notwithstanding. Hence, all quiet on the eastern front.
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2. Lies will be exposed. The lies of the Western politicians and Western mainstream media will be exposed when Putin’s boys burn the Neo-Nazis as an offering to the souls of those who had died in the struggle against the German Nazis. That’s when the lapdogs realize they better not pin their hopes on the Empire of Lies.
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3. New Economic structures. Any country with a foreign reserve needs to figure out how to protect its assets from being taken by a lawless overlord. People should learn by now if they hadn’t known before that you do not own anything you cannot defend or hide. By this time, almost everyone must realize that the USD will be going down. It’s time to get on a lifeboat. Thanks to the Empire, which is exposing its own lies.
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4. A lesson for Taiwan. The destruction of Ukraine, as unfortunate as it will be unless a surrender is forthcoming, is an object lesson for the Taiwanese authorities. While China would not want to, nor would it need to take such a drastic military action in Taiwan, the threat of doing so is very potent. Taiwan is also an island; people have nowhere to go. China is in a very advantageous position to press for unification negotiations. There are more and more people in Taiwan wanting to start unification negotiations.
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5. China and India are together. Wonders of wonders, China and India find themselves on the same front, defending Russia against the Empire of Lies. All those virulently anti-China channels from India have turned around and directed their vitriol against the Empire. Sure is fun to watch.
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6. China the peacemaker. Eventually, China will have to be a guarantor of peace for the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The Empire of Lies and its lapdogs have shot their wad. Why should anyone trust them?
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7. China will help rebuild Ukraine. The West, seeing that they won’t be selling weapons to Ukraine, will walk away. Good riddance!
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PM
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Princess Bride – Battle of Wits
This classic scene is from the 1980s movie “The Princess Bride”. It is well worth watching.
Stuffed Peppers
One of my all-time favorites. It’s also something that can only come from the household kitchens. Yum! Stuffed peppers with ground beef and rice are topped with a seasoned tomato sauce. Making classic stuffed bell peppers is easier than you think. You’ll find the full recipe below, but here’s a brief overview of what you can expect:
Prepare the Rice and Beef
Cook rice until tender in a covered saucepan. Meanwhile, cook ground beef in a skillet until browned and crumbly.
Stuff the Peppers
Hollow the bell peppers by cutting off the tops and scooping out the seeds and membranes. Arrange the peppers in a single layer in a baking dish. Stuff the peppers with a prepared filling of rice, ground beef, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Top each filled pepper with a mixture of tomato sauce and Italian seasoning.
Bake
Bake until the peppers are tender, basting with sauce every 15 minutes.
How Long to Cook Stuffed Peppers
These stuffed peppers use cooked ground beef, so they should be fully baked within an hour. You’ll know they’re done when the peppers are tender. The whole recipe, including prep time, should come together in about 90 minutes.
How to Store Stuffed Peppers
Store leftover stuffed peppers in an airtight container in the fridge for three to five days. Make sure they’re completely cooled before storing to slow bacteria growth.
Can You Freeze Stuffed Pepper?
Yes! You can freeze stuffed peppers — and you should if you don’t plan to eat them within five days. Frozen stuffed peppers taste great when thawed and reheated, so this is a great way to meal prep. To freeze baked stuffed peppers: Wrap each completely-cooled stuffed pepper individually in storage wrap, then follow it with a layer of aluminum foil. Store the peppers in the freezer for up to three months.
Thaw frozen stuffed peppers in the fridge overnight. Reheat them in the oven at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until heated through.
Japan pushes India to denounce Russia — RT World News
India has come under increased Western pressure to distance itself from Moscow and sever its economic ties, after it abstained from a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russia's military action in Ukraine, choosing instead to remain neutral alongside China, Pakistan, South Africa, and 30 other countries.
India is also facing criticism for buying Russian oil, available at discounted prices as some countries have been avoiding it in fear of retaliatory sanctions from the US. The Indian government, however, has reportedly adopted a pragmatic approach and was “exploring all possibilities” to ensure the country's own energy security.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, with a stated goal to “demilitarize and denazify” its government, ensuring that its NATO membership aspirations no longer pose a threat to either Russia or the newly recognized Donbass republics, which have suffered seven years of siege by Kiev forces. The US and its allies have accused Russia of starting an “unprovoked” invasion to occupy Ukraine.
It should be located inside one of the major nations of The East. That goes without saying. If you look at things from this perspective, a number of candidates present themselves…
China (Manufacturing & Technology hub)
Russia (Resource hub)
India (Population and technology hub)
Iran (Oil and Energy hub)
Kazakhstan (BRI hub)
Brazil (South American hub)
South Africa (African hub)
Most people would “knee-jerk response that China would be the location, but I argue “not so fast”. If there was one singular location, then yes, China makes sense. However, the impression that I am getting is that United Nations Part Two might be more “mobile”. Perhaps periodically cycling between hosing nations. Much like the Olympics are today.
Yes. Indeed, it’s a new world that is evolving and manifesting. And the ways of the old are falling away to the wayside like the skin of a dinosaur-sized snake.
How old are you?
TWICE “SCIENTIST” Choreography Video (Moving Ver.)
Yes. The West is undergoing collapse. But the East is doing just fine. Here is the latest video that my little daughter is learning the dance moves to. It’s pretty representative of the mood in Asia these days.
China makes semi-secret delivery of missiles to Serbia
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Russian ally Serbia took the delivery of a sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft system in a veiled operation this weekend, amid Western concerns that an arms buildup in the Balkans at the time of the war in Ukraine could threaten the fragile peace in the region.
Media and military experts said Sunday that six Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes landed at Belgrade’s civilian airport early Saturday, reportedly carrying HQ-22 surface-to-air missile systems for the Serbian military.
The Chinese cargo planes with military markings were pictured at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport. Serbia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment.
The arms delivery over the territory of at least two NATO member states, Turkey and Bulgaria, was seen by experts as a demonstration of China’s growing global reach.
“The Y-20s’ appearance raised eyebrows because they flew en masse as opposed to a series of single-aircraft flights,” wrote The Warzone online magazine. “The Y-20′s presence in Europe in any numbers is also still a fairly new development.”
Serbian military analyst Aleksandar Radic said that “the Chinese carried out their demonstration of force.”
By Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and widely cross-posted
Vast swathes of NATOstan have been corralled into behaving like a Russophobic lynch mob. No dissent is tolerated.
By now it’s abundantly clear that the neo-Orwellian “Two Minute Hate” Russophobic campaign launched by the Empire of Lies after the start of Operation Z is actually “24/7 Hate”.
Vast swathes of NATOstan have been corralled into behaving like a Russophobic lynch mob. No dissent is tolerated. The full psyops has de facto upgraded the Empire of Lies to the status of Empire of Hate in a Total War – hybrid and otherwise – to cancel Russia.
Hate, after all, packs way more punch than mere lies, which are now veering into abject ridiculousness, as in U.S. “intelligence” resorting to – what else – lies to fight the info war against Russia.
If the propaganda overdrive has been lethally effective amidst the zombified Western masses – call it a “win” in the P.R. war – in the front where it really matters, inside Russia, it’s a major fail.
Public opinion support for both Operation Z and President Putin is unprecedented. After videos of torture of Russian POWs that caused widespread revulsion, Russian civil society is even bracing for a “Long War” lasting months, not weeks, as long as the targets of the Russian High Command – actually a military secret – are met.
The stated aims are “demilitarization” and “denazification” of a future neutral Ukraine – but geopolitically reach way beyond: the aim is to turn the post-1945 European collective security arrangement upside down, forcing NATO to understand and come to terms with the concept of “indivisible security”. This is an extremely complex process that will reach the next decade.
The NATOstan sphere simply cannot admit in public a series of facts that a military analyst of the caliber of Andrei Martyanov has been explaining for years. And that adds to their collective pain.
Russia can take on NATO and smash it to bits in 48 hours. It may employ advanced strategic deterrence systems unmatched across the West. Its southern axis – from the Caucasus and West Asia to Central Asia – is fully stabilized. And if the going gets really tough, Mr. Zircon can deliver his hypersonic nuclear business card with the other side not even knowing what hit it.
“Europe has chosen its fate”
It may be enlightening to see how these complex processes are interpreted by Russians – whose points of view are now completely blocked across NATOstan.
Let’s take two examples. The first is Lieutenant General L.P. Reshetnikov, in an analytical note examining facts of the ground war.
Some key takeaways:
– “Over Romania and Poland there are airborne early warning aircraft of NATO with experienced crews, there are U.S. intelligence satellites in the sky all the time. I remind you that just in terms of budgets for our Roscosmos we allocated $2.5 billion a year, the civil budget of NASA is $25 billion, the civil budget of SpaceX alone is equal to Roscosmos – and that is not counting the tens of billions of dollars annually for the entire U.S. feverishly unfolding the control system of the entire planet.”
– The war is unfolding according to “NATO’s eyes and brains. The Ukronazis are nothing but free controlled zombies. And the Ukrainian army is a remotely controlled zombie organism.”
– “The tactics and strategy of this war will be the subject of textbooks for military academies around the world. Once again: the Russian army is smashing a Nazi zombie organism, fully integrated with the eyes and brain of NATO.”
Now let’s switch to Oleg Makarenko, who focuses on the Big Picture.
– “The West considers itself ‘the whole world’ only because it has not yet received a sufficiently sensitive punch on the nose. It just so happened that Russia is now giving him this click: with the rear support of Asia, Africa and Latin America. And the West can do absolutely nothing with us, since it also lags behind us in terms of the number of nuclear warheads.”
– “Europe has chosen its fate. And chose fate for Russia. What you are seeing now is the death of Europe. Even if it does not come to nuclear strikes on industrial centers, Europe is doomed. In a situation where European industry is left without cheap Russian energy sources and raw materials – and China will begin to receive these same energy carriers and raw materials at a discount, there can be no talk of any real competition with China from Europe. As a result, literally everything will collapse there – after industry, agriculture will collapse, welfare and social security will collapse, hunger, banditry and chaos will begin.”
It’s fair to consider Reshetnikov and Makarenko as faithfully representing the overall Russian sentiment, which interprets the crude Bucha false flag as a cover to obscure the Ukrainian army torture of Russian POWs.
And, deeper still, Bucha allowed the disappearance of Pentagon bioweapon labs from the Western mediasphere, complete with its ramifications: evidence of a concerted American drive to ultimately deploy real weapons of mass destruction against Russia.
The multi-level Bucha hoax had to include the Brit presidency of the UN Security Council actually blocking a serious discussion, a day before the Russian Ministry of Defense struggled to present to the UN – predictably minus the U.S. and the UK – all the bioweapon facts they have unearthed in Ukraine. The Chinese were horrified by the findings.
The Russian Investigative Committee at least persists in its work, with 100 researchers unearthing evidence of war crimes across Donbass to be presented at a tribunal in the near future, most probably set up in Donetsk.
And that brings us back to the facts on the ground. There’s a lot of analytical discussion on the possible endgame of Operation Z. A fair assessment would include the liberation of all of Novorossiya and total control of the Black Sea coastline that currently is part of Ukraine.
“Ukraine” in fact was never a state; it was always an annex to another state or empire such as Poland, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and crucially Russia.
The landmark Russian state was Kievan Rus. “Ukraine”, in old Russian, means “border region”. In the past, it referred to the westernmost regions of the Russian Empire. When the Empire started expanding south, the new regions annexed mostly from Turkish rule were called Novorossiya (“New Russia”) and the northeastern regions, Malorossiya (“Little Russia”).
It was up to the USSR in the early 1920s to jumble it all together and name it “Ukraine” – adding Galicia in the west, which was historically non-Russian.
Yet the key development is when the USSR broke up in 1991. As the Empire of Lies de facto controlled post-Soviet Russia, they could never have possibly allowed the real Russian regions of the USSR – that is, Novorossiya and Malorossiya – to be again incorporated to the Russian Federation.
Russia is now re-incorporating them – in an “I Did It, My Way” manner.
Vamos a bailar in European Puerto Rico
By now it’s also quite clear to any serious geopolitical analysis that Operation Z opened a Pandora’s box. And the supreme historical victim of all the toxicity finally let loose is bound to be Europe.
The indispensable Michael Hudson, in a new essay on the U.S. dollar devouring the euro, argues half in jest that Europe might as well surrender its currency, and go on like “a somewhat larger version of Puerto Rico.”
After all, Europe “has pretty much ceased to be a politically independent state, it is beginning to look more like Panama and Liberia – ‘flag of convenience’ offshore banking centers that are not real ‘states’ because they don’t issue their own currency, but use the U.S. dollar.”
In synch with quite a few Russian, Chinese and Iranian analysts, Hudson advances that the war in Ukraine – actually in its “full-blown version as the New Cold War” – is likely to last “at least a decade, perhaps two as the U.S. extends the fight between neoliberalism and socialism [meaning the Chinese system] to encompass a worldwide conflict.”
What may be seriously in dispute is whether the U.S., after “the economic conquest of Europe”, will be able to “lock in African, South American and Asian countries”. The Eurasia integration process, rolling in earnest for 10 years now, conducted by the Russia-China strategic partnership and expanding to most of the Global South, will go no holds barred to prevent it.
There’s no question, as Hudson states, that “the world economy is being enflamed” – with the U.S. weaponizing trade. Yet on the Right Side of History we have the Rublegas, the petroyuan, the new monetary/financial system being designed in a partnership between the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and China.
And that’s something no puny Cancel Culture War can erase.
Let’s see how old you actually are…
China calls for ‘objective’ analysis of Russia’s claims about US biolabs in Ukraine
A “fair, objective and professional” assessment is needed for the materials Moscow has provided, the Chinese Foreign Ministry says
The international community should provide a “fair, objective and professional” assessment of Russia’s allegations regarding alleged US military laboratories in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
In March, Russia shared evidence obtained from laboratories across Ukraine that apparently confirms that Pentagon-funded labs were working on “biological weapons components,” and may have been connected to suspicious outbreaks of dirofilariasis, tuberculosis, and avian flu over the past several years.
According to the latest data revealed by military spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov on March 30, Kiev was planning to use drones to deploy pathogens against the Donbass republics, as well as Russia itself.
Speaking at a regular press briefing on Friday, Zhao said the US has still not come up with a “constructive response” to Russia’s statements, and called on the international community to give serious consideration to Moscow’s claims.
He said, as quoted by TASS, that China
“would welcome a fair, objective and professional assessment by the international community of the documents provided by Russia on the basis of the UN mechanisms and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction.”
China has consistently encouraged the US to make public all information about its biolabs. Two weeks ago, China’s permanent representative to the UN, Zhang Jun, told the UN Security Council that following the revelation by Russia of the newly discovered documents,
“the party concerned should respond to questions, and offer timely and comprehensive clarifications to remove the doubts of the international community.”
Several days prior to that, Beijing disclosed for the first time the alleged number of US-controlled biolabs.
Saying that laboratories in Ukraine are just the
“tip of an iceberg,” Zhao revealed that the Pentagon “controls 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world.”
Noting that the US
“has been exclusively obstructing”
the establishment of an independent verification mechanism, the Foreign Ministry spokesman called on the US to
“publish the relevant details as soon as possible, including which viruses are stored and which research has been carried out.”
The US has long claimed that allegations about military-funded biolaboratories in Ukraine are ‘Russian disinformation’.
In March, however, US diplomat Victoria Nuland testified before the Senate that
“biological research laboratories in Ukraine”
did exist, and that Washington was working with Kiev
“to ensure that the materials of biological research do not fall into the hands of Russian forces.”
How you know you are getting old…
John Lear In Memoriam, 1942-2022 (80 yrs)
John Lear died this year. He was an active member of the UFO community, and was instrumental in providing substance to a story, that was up until then, was peopled with Grade B science-fiction fantasies. He got many things wrong, but he was spot on in regards to United States involvement in the extraterrestial “issue”.
Lear passed away in his sleep Tuesday night [March 29, 2022] at his Las Vegas home, according to his daughter Allison. Lear is the son of Bill Lear, who developed the Lear Jet.
Here is an interview that he had that I was able to collect. Please enjoy.
John Lear, a distinguished pilot and ufologist, discusses specific encounters with UFOs in an interview with investigative journalist George Knapp. Lear discusses alleged abductions by UFOs and government coverups of UFO encounters. This is an episode of On The Record, a 30 minute TV show broadcast on KLAS TV in Las Vegas in 1987.
George Knapp: Hello and welcome to On The Record. Flying saucers, extraterrestrials, monsters from outer space. The government has been telling us for years that they’re not real. They’re weather balloons or swamp gas or reflections from the sun or the ravings of lunatics. But serious UFO researchers say a breakthrough may be very close. Some of the government scientists who worked on the top-secret Project Blue Book are ready to talk. What’s more, a series of revealing government documents have trickled out of the federal files, documents that paint a much different picture of the UFO phenomenon. One of the most dedicated UFO researchers lives right here in Las Vegas. His name is John Lear, and he is my guest today. Mr. Lear, thanks for being here.
John Lear: Okay George.
Knapp: To begin with, you’re a pilot, an airline pilot, captain, you have held 17 different world speed records at one time or another. You’re a member of the famous Lear family that all Nevadans are pretty much familiar with, a former State Senate candidate. You don’t sound like the kind of guy who would get hooked up in something that a lot of people would say as a bunch of nonsense.
Lear: No, it’s just by coincidence that I got really interested in this about two years ago. My father saw a UFO and my brother did, and they were very interested, but there was really no proof as far as I was concerned to really look into it until about two years ago.
Knapp: Your father and brother saw them. Can you give details?
Lear: My brother saw one when he was flying a P-38 from Phoenix to Los Angeles at night. It just appeared in front of them. He made two turns, 90 degree turns, it stayed in front of him and then disappeared, and my father was flying at night, I believe over the Arizona desert and saw one too.
Knapp: So you started, you got an interest because of the other members of your family. How did you start out?
Lear: I had an interest but there was really nothing I could put my finger on. And like I say, two years ago, a friend of mine came through town, we had flown in Southeast Asia together and he was retiring from the Air Force. He came over and we started talking about where he had been for the last 15 years and he mentioned that he had been stationed at Bentwaters (Royal Air Force Base) and I said, oh, Bentwaters, that’s where the flying saucer supposedly was in 1980. He said, “No, John, not supposedly. It was,” he said. “I don’t care if you believe me or not, it landed. I didn’t see it because we were confined to quarters. But I know people who did and I’ll give you the names and if you ever see them, tell them you know me, and they’ll tell you the whole story.” Since then, I ran into one of the security police, who was within 10 feet of the saucer and actually saw the three aliens get out and go up to General Gordon Williams, who was the Wing Commander at that time.
Knapp: There was quite a bit of documentation regarding this Bentwater incident. Why don’t you go into that a little bit?
Lear: There’s the Colonel (Charles) Halt memo that came out under the Freedom of Information Act, and it told about the mysterious lights and beaming down and everything that happened in the forest, except the actual alien landings, that wasn’t in the memo. There was also the tape Colonel Halt tape, forest tape, that he made over a period of eight hours. And there’s a 20-minute segment that we’ve been able to get a hold of that you can hear him running through the forest and, and being worried saying the thing’s after us.
Knapp: Now why do you suppose that hasn’t come out? I mean, this particular incident. Why hasn’t it come out if so many people, and you’ve told me about this before, have seen it, or seen these aliens? Why haven’t some of them come forward?
Lear: A lot of them have come forward, but they’re just not getting any press. It’s something that people just don’t want to deal with. The press doesn’t want to deal with and people aren’t going to listen to something unless Dan Rather or any of your big press people are going to tell them about it and they’re just too spooked. The Air Force has made an art form of ridiculing people who have talked about this thing. They’ve done an excellent job of covering it up for the last 40 years. George basically what we’re dealing with here is, I’ll give you the bottom line.
Knapp: Okay, I want to hear your thesis.
Lear: I’m not trying to sell a book and then trying to promote a lecture. This is based on what I’ve come across after intense research in the last year. And I have found out that the government has retrieved between 10 and 15 actual flying saucers, three of which have been in perfect condition, one of which they tried to fly. They have between 30 and 50 alien bodies in cryogenic storage. We even have the name of the person whose job it is to show these bodies to the heads of state and the people who are authorized to see them. They represent at least five different civilizations.
Knapp: I can’t imagine Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw, if that were to come to their attention, a story of that magnitude, that they wouldn’t do something with it.
Lear: Well, I can’t I can’t answer that question. I don’t know why they don’t do it. There certainly is enough evidence based on what I’ve looked at. For instance, the Linda Moulton Howe documentary in Denver for the CBS affiliate there called A Strange Harvest. Since 1975 to 1980 when she made the documentary, there’s at least 9,000 cattle mutilations. Now, the government said that the mutilations were normal, your desert predator did these. But they weren’t. They were mutilations.
Knapp: I think we have a picture of these somewhere. Maybe we can see that as you’re talking. Well, that’s the next picture. There we are.
Lear: This is the mutilation New Mexico State Police did the research, or the investigation on, and they cut out certain parts. The cut was made with a laser beam far sharper than anything we have. As a matter of fact, they were able to determine that they cut between the cells and didn’t cut the cells themselves. We presently don’t have this kind of technology.
Knapp: Well, we don’t know that we have this kind of technology, or you and I don’t know that we don’t, but that doesn’t prove necessarily that it’s ET.
Lear: No, except that there’s usually a visual sighting of a flying saucer or a light, a strange light, at each one of these sightings.
Knapp: Okay, you mentioned the saucers and the bodies. Now what kind of proof do you have that that is true? How do you know that?
Lear: Well, let me take a look. Let me read to your first what the Air Force says about the bodies. First of all, I’m going to read from the introductory space science Volume Two Department of Physics, United States Air Force. This is Chapter 13, Unidentified Flying Objects. Now this is what the Air Force has the students at the Air Force Academy read and it says, “The most commonly described alien is about three and a half feet tall, has a round head, arms reaching to or below his knees and is wearing a silvery spacesuit or coveralls. Other aliens appear to be essentially the same as Earth men, while still others have particularly wide wraparound eyes, and mouths with very thin lips. And there was a rare group reported to be about four feet tall, weight of around 35 pounds and covered with thick hair for clothing. Members of this last group are described as being extremely strong.” Now I’m not making this up. This is an Air Force, you can pick out an Air Force physics book and read this stuff. At the end of the chapter, they go on to say, this leads us to believe in the unpleasant possibility of alien visitors to our planet or at least of alien-controlled UFOs. Now the picture that we have of the big head that the Air Force describes, this picture was drawn by an army surgeon. These are one of the bodies that was recovered in the famous Roswell incident of 1947.
Knapp: Tell us about that.
Lear: It was the first flying saucer that crashed and was recovered by the Army. It was covered up. There have been several books about it, they recovered four beings, and one of the surgeons that was responsible for the autopsy drew that picture and came up with some of these interesting things in the autopsy. I’ll just read a couple lines; three and a half to four and a half feet tall, two round eyes without pupils, no ear lobes, nose is vague, neck described as being thin, arms described long and thin reaching down to the knee section, you can see that there’s a web portion in the hands, no teeth, no apparently reproductive organs. Brain capacity unknown, colorless liquid prevalent in the body without red cells, no lymphocytes. And there’s more in that particular report.
Knapp: This is an autopsy report and you said the government goes to great lengths, the Air Force in particular, to discredit this kind of stuff. Where did this come from? How did you get this?
Lear: That came in the private, that came from the private collection of Leonard Springfield, who was one of the premier researchers. He worked for the Air Force in the early ‘50s in a secret project reporting UFOs, then as a civilian he continued his private research, and this is out of his collection.
Knapp: Why does the government want to hide this? Why doesn’t the Air Force just come forward? What doesn’t, you know, why don’t they level with us if this is all true?
Lear: Well, there’s not really much they can say based on what I’ve been able to find out. George, they’re really … you know, what could they say about it? They’ve been researching it for many, many years. And based on my information, let’s say that the president decided to make an announcement. This is if he made it today, this is what I think that he would say: “My fellow Americans, I come before you tonight with an announcement of great importance. Despite all our denials, flying saucers do, in fact exist, where they come from we do not know, who is in them we do not know, where they are from we do not know, nor do we know how they got here or what they want. We are unable to duplicate any of the metals found on the several craft we have recovered, nor are we able to figure out how they are propelled. We have hidden these facts from you over the past 40 years, in hopes that we could give you more answers. Unfortunately, we are no closer to answers today than we were 40 years ago. God bless you all.”
Knapp: In other words, you find it highly unlikely that the president would ever make a statement anything like that.
Lear: No, it’s just, it’s too big, it’s massive. The problem is not only just the fact that there are five and as many as 10 different civilizations visiting us. Apparently, and this is from the research that I’ve done, at least 90% of them are hostile. And when I say hostile, if not hostile, they have a completely different set of morals than we do.
Knapp: Okay, I’ll tell you what, we’re going to come back to the president and aliens because there have been some statements made by presidents including President Reagan. We’ll be right back.
Knapp: Welcome back. UFOs, are they real? We’re talking with John Lear on the subject. Mr. Lear mentioned a couple of minutes ago about what the president might say about UFOs. Do you believe that various presidents have been informed about what you believe to be the truth on UFOs?
Lear: Each president has been informed up to and including President Reagan. I’m not sure to the extent they are informed. Privately, I don’t believe they are given the full briefing. The people that control this information is an organization that we know of as MJ-12. They’re a top group of military and scientists. I do know that when the president becomes president, it takes at least three or four months before he actually gets the clearance to know everything there is. And that doesn’t mean they tell him, but it does take three or four months to get it. Now talking the president … let’s talk about what the president has actually said, has he mentioned anything about aliens?
Knapp: President Reagan?
Lear: President Reagan on Dec. 4, 1985. This is a copy of the speech from the White House, just before he went over to Iceland. He says, “I couldn’t but one point in our discussions privately with Secretary General Gorbachev, when you stop to think that we’re all God’s children, wherever we may live in this world, I couldn’t help but say to him, just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held, if suddenly there was a threat to this world, from some other species from another planet outside in the universe. We’d forget all our local differences that we have between our countries and we would find out once for all, that we really are all human beings here on this earth together.”
Knapp: He couldn’t be just making a supposition for purpose of making a point? You’re saying he’s trying to tell us something?
Lear: Well here, one week ago at the 42nd General Assembly in front of the UN, Sept. 21. He says, “In our obsession with the antagonism of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world and yet, I ask you, is not an alien force not already among us?” Now, this is right out of a White House speech. I’m not making this up.
Knapp: What did he mean by this alien force? I mean, does it say, does he go on to say something?
Lear: Yeah, he says, what could be more alien to the universal aspirations of our people than war and the threat of war. But the point is, why would he even bring up aliens? I mean, it’s pretty far out for the president of the United States to mention threats from outer space.
Knapp: Okay, what about President Carter?
Lear: President Carter, we have the quote from Carter when he was during his election campaign. If I become president, I’ll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and the scientists. I am convinced that UFOs exist because I have seen one.
Knapp: Jimmy Carter says he saw one?
Lear: That’s Jimmy Carter. He saw one in 1973
Knapp: But he didn’t, he didn’t tell us, did he?
Lear: He didn’t. The pressure is enormous on these people to cover this stuff up.
Knapp: How can that be? Are they afraid of a panic, that people would panic?
Lear: There’s the panic problem and there’s also the problem that, in fact, in Cro-Magnon Man, there may have been some tinkering to make us what we are today. That’s been borne out by several researchers, that we couldn’t have developed, exactly, there’s the missing link. Something had to happen to get us going. Between 4,000 and 8,000 BC, we had just been going along and for hundreds of thousand years not doing anything. All of a sudden, bang, we started making pottery, invented the wheel, invented fire, and everything took off. What was the key that did that? I don’t know. But it causes one to think.
Knapp: You mentioned a couple of minutes ago before the break that you think 90% of these visitors are hostile. What makes you think that? That doesn’t fit with what we think of as ET, you know.
Lear: If you read some of these books that are on the newsstands, one is called Intruders, one is called Communion. They apparently come down, and when I say apparently, this is taken from 300 hypnosis cases. A friend of mine has done 140 of them. And the people are abducted, they’re taken up into a saucer, usually lasts about an hour. They do all kinds of experiments, they give them shots, they poke them, they cut them, they do all kinds of things and wipe out their memory and send them back. Only after several months of some psychological problems do they end up going to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist on trying to find out what the problem is, in the use of hypnosis, finds out that this person has been abducted.
Knapp: What’s the reason for that? What are they trying to learn?
Lear: There’s three things that they’re trying to do with these abductions. The first thing is they’re trying to monitor us. It started in the early ‘40s and they’d put a little unit, very small bb type object way up in the back side of the brain and they’d leave it there for about 18 years. They’d pick them up and put it in about 4 years old. 12 years old, they would pick them up and monitor it, then about 18, they’d take it out. The second thing they did is they put a post hypnotic suggestion, according to many of the people that have been hypnotized, and we found out what they’ve told them, apparently, within the next two to five years, there is going to be a big event, something enormous is going to happen and these people who have been abducted, and there’s probably over 100,000 of them, have been given some place to go and something to do but under our best hypnotic techniques, we cannot find out what it is.
Knapp: So how do we know that that’s true?
Lear: Because they said where they’re going to do something, they know that they’re going to do something, but under the hypnosis, they can’t find out exactly what it is. The third thing that they do is genetic experiments. They’ve been cross breeding. There’s a very good book out now called Intruders written by Budd Hopkins and it’s about a cross breeding experiment with a girl in Indianapolis. They actually, the big head, which we call the big head in research, the little three and a half foot tall with a big head. They cross breed that with this girl in Indianapolis, and there were seven children. Just last fall, before the book was published, they brought the oldest and the youngest to show to her, and they let her name all seven. Now this book has been thoroughly researched by Budd Hopkins and although it sounds strange, believe me when I tell you, you may not find out in a month, a year, five years or 10 years. But you’ll look back at what I’m telling you now, and you’ll say to yourself, “Oh, my gosh, the son of a gun was right. “
Knapp: Well, where’s this girl? Now, she’s just living?
Lear: She lives in Indianapolis. She lives in town, or just outside of town. She just got married. Budd went to her wedding. We all know who she is. She gets along, you know, just fine. It doesn’t mean just because she was abducted and gave them children doesn’t mean it was the end of the world. It was just a part of her life.
Knapp: Why don’t we see a lot of photographic evidence as many cameras and video gear. Why don’t we see a lot of that?
Lear: There are a lot of …
Knapp: Before you go on, the pictures that we showed in the beginning of this program, you say they’re baloney, they’re phony.
Lear: That’s right. The pictures you showed at the beginning were called the Meiers Incident. It’s called the visitors from Pleiades, and any ufologist worth his salt knows, and who has researched that case, knows that he cannot back it up with the negatives and the essential information to prove that something like that happened, so we look at that as suspect.
Knapp: So in other words, you run into your share phonies as well in your research.
Lear: Absolutely, there’s not that many, but there are a few out there. There are so many people that have real stories to tell that we’re just so busy with those. For instance, let’s take the November 17 Japan Airlines incident.
Knapp: I’ll tell you what, we’re going to take another break and we’ll do that when we come back. Stay with us.
Knapp: Welcome back. We have a few minutes left with John Lear. We’re talking about UFOs. You’re about to tell me about the Japanese Airline Incident. It’s probably something that’s still in the memory of our viewers.
Lear: Yeah, the Japanese Airline Incident was a cargo 747 that had taken off from Iceland flying to Anchorage. And as he passed over the United States border and the northern part of Anchorage, he was intercepted by a UFO that was twice the size of an aircraft carrier. And he was followed about 40 minutes. He made a complete 360-degree right turn, he made a descent of 5,000 feet and the thing stayed with him. Regardless of what you hear, the FAA did have him on radar and so did the Air Force. If you have a picture there. This is a 26-page document made by Bruce Maccabee who’s a physicist employed by the Naval Surface weapons laboratory and one of the most respected figures in ufology.
Knapp: I don’t think we have that picture. So go ahead.
Lear: Okay, I’m just going to hold it up here and you can see the size of the 747 to the UFO. Now the UFO was not brightly lit like that. It’s just made like that for reference. It was dark, but this is what he saw beside him.
Knapp: Whose rendition is this?
Lear: This is the captain’s. This is from the captain’s rendition when he was debriefed by the FAA. Now, certain UFO de-bunkers have said what he saw was the planet Jupiter. Well, this is an insult to all transport category captains around the world. I mean, the guy knows a difference between something that’s twice as big as an aircraft carrier and the planet Jupiter.
Knapp: I’ve also heard that it’s the reflection of his own plane.
Lear: What the, the radar?
Knapp: Yeah.
Lear: That was an attempt to describe it. You can’t imagine what pressure these people are under to cover this stuff. It’s tremendous pressure. It really is.
Knapp: Okay. You’re going to tell me that the church, did you want to go further into the JAL Incident?
Lear: No, that’s it. I just want to say it has a 26-page report, it had the captain and the ATC conversation. It had the radar plots, and it had the Air Force plots and the FAA radar plot. There was no question about it. The thing followed him.
Knapp: The church, what do they think about UFOs?
Lear: Well, here’s a copy from the London Evening News, July 21, 1987, and says, “Prepare to meet thine aliens. Vatican theologians have acknowledged that there could be life on other planets. Now they plan to train missionaries capable of working in space and meeting aliens. Jesuit scientists at the Vatican Observatory in Prescotti near Rome have reported moving lights and other identified phenomena in the sky. Starting in September, the Vatican university will have a special UFO section.”
Knapp: You’ve said before you thought that a lot of their intentions were hostile and you’ve mentioned before that a lot of the sightings around the military bases. Why don’t we see them here? Las Vegas, we’ve got a lot of military bases here.
Lear: Well, the in fact there have been a lot of a lot of reports of UFOs in around Las Vegas, not specifically over the Air Force bases. We have the Test Site and of course, we don’t know what’s going on there, and we have Nellis Air Force Base. But there have not really been a lot of sightings over there. The main Air Force sightings were in 1975. And the UFOs descended on every Strategic Air Command base guarding the perimeter of the northern United States. They hovered over the nuclear weapons storage area and they stayed there with impunity for up to two and three hours over a period of three days.
Knapp: And nobody heard about it?
Lear: Well, there were a few reports, but you really don’t, I have a I have a report 150 pages long of the F-106s that were sent out to chase them. And the helicopters, and notifying the Canadian authorities and the security patrolman that were sent down to actually see what was going on and they’d come up on these things and they’d say, “I’m not going any further.”
Knapp: You think maybe it’s a top-secret area if the Air Force actually does have them, maybe they’ve got them here?
Lear: I’m certain they do. Up at the Test Site there’s a report that of the three that they’ve got in perfectly good condition, at least one is up at the Test Site and has flown and one was being flown as of 1981.
Knapp: By us?
Lear: By us.
Knapp: We mentioned at the top of the show that perhaps a breakthrough might be coming. That some of these people from MJ-12 or from the Project Blue Book who are in on the government’s research and saw some of the stuff might be ready to talk we got about a minute left. Why don’t you tell me about that?
Lear: It’s our information that half of, part of MJ-12 wants to release it, part of it doesn’t. We’re hoping that we can do this but of course, as researchers we’re not aware of all the ramifications, we just know of what we’re looking at, so we would like to see them release it but we really don’t know if they are.
Knapp: Okay. John Lear. It’s been very interesting. You keep us posted.
Lear: Sure will.
Knapp: Thank you. We’ll see you next week with more of On The Record.
Now I know that I am getting old…
China ‘Decodes’ An Orbiting US Satellite
To protect its space assets, China has devised a new cyber defense.
China has developed a new cyber defense infrastructure that can automatically detect security flaws in orbiting satellites, according to military experts participating in the project
There are thousands of satellites in orbit, each with hundreds of components that could be vulnerable to hackers due to software or hardware flaws.
As launch prices have decreased, there are now more satellites rotating in low earth orbits in 2022, opening the frontier of space to big private sector launch projects. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, there were 4,852 satellites in orbit at the start of 2022.
We have all felt the pangs of hunger. Going for a few hours or most of a day without food, we are aware of the keen signal that our body gives our mind that we are hungry–a sharp ache or pang that can drive out most other thoughts. But what is severe hunger like over a longer period?
This is really unknown to most of us.
Detailed information about people that have to go without food for long periods due to causes such as conflict and drought is not readily available. Yet it is important to get some idea of what long term hunger is like to help us understand people whose hunger is more acute and gone on much longer than that which we have experienced.
I can tell you that I and my wife experienced severe hunger for weeks at a time, and the longest that we went without food was five weeks.
You all have no idea how desperate and angry a hungry person can get. Do not underestimate this situation.
To help us understand hunger existing not for a day, but many weeks, we present, in abridged form, a description provided by Tony Hall (formerly a Congressman from Dayton, Ohio and ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) in his 2006 book, Changing the Face of Hunger (pp. 74–89). He undertook this fast to protest an action of Congress. He fasted from April 4 to April 26, 1993–three weeks and one day.
Being hungry for three weeks, in Hall’s words:
Physically and psychologically, the first week of the fast was the hardest. I was horribly hungry–I could say ‘in agony’ –and getting weaker by the day. I thought constantly about what I would like to eat–that last meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and Caesar salad; some future meals with some of my favorite foods, such as steak, roast beef, and key lime pie….
Family mealtimes were the worst.
I couldn’t go to the table because the food would be too tempting, and not being able to eat it would be agonizing. Janet, Matt, and Jyl would try to hide from me when they snacked between meals….. I followed Dick Gregory’s advice to fill up on water. I really poured it down. Since it was the only thing I was consuming, I paid a great deal more attention to it than I ever had before. I really noticed the difference in taste when drunk from the tap at home, the office, or someplace else. My sense of smell also heightened throughout the fast. I could tell what people had eaten because their bodies gave off aromas that I had never noticed before….
The hardest day of the fast came on Easter, which was my seventh day without eating. Janet and I had gone on a retreat in Maryland with some friends, and our friends prepared a typical big American holiday dinner–turkey, potatoes, dressing, pie, cake. It drove me nuts. I had to leave them, go outside and take a walk, to get away from those wonderful aromas. I decided that if I could get through this day, I would be over the hump.
I did, and I was.
Just as Dick Gregory said, the sensation of hunger faded in about a week. It’s as if the body gives up on getting food and stops demanding it. From then on, I could join my family at mealtimes and not be bothered a bit . It was a revelation about the poor and the hungry, to whom I came to feel exceptionally close as the fast went on. I now fully understood, in a way I never had before, a strange phenomenon I had witnessed during famines: starving children who refused to eat when food was finally offered to them.
The absence of hunger pangs did not mean I wasn’t feeling the physical effects of the fast, however. I’d wake up in the morning feeling fine. My head would be clear. I would think I had lots of energy.
But after noon, I would fade.
The energy would desert me and weakness would take over. I’d need to nap. Then, when I woke from the nap, I’d feel like I couldn’t get up because I was so tired. Lacking the fuel of food, my body temperature apparently dropped, and I felt cold all the time. It also seemed my brain slowed down in the afternoon; I felt “dull.” I thought of poor children who don’t do well in school, who fall asleep in the afternoon, who become poor students because of poor nutrition. Remarkably, some of my vital signs–blood pressure, the results of blood tests–actually improved.
[On April 26, Hall ended his fast.] Because the fast had been a very public endeavor, I thought the breaking of it should be as well. I invited some reporters to my office…and had a V-8. I hadn’t eaten for twenty-two days, and that thick, salty vegetable juice tasted exceptionally good…Unfortunately I could only sip a little bit. Because my stomach had essentially been shut down for three weeks, I would have to coax it gradually back to use, maybe not being able to enjoy a full meal till the end of the week. I had lost twenty-three pounds–dropping from a robust 180 to a gaunt 157….
Now imagine some very large urban youth with guns and a fierce hunger. How would you be able to deal with them?
Food storage tips: Stock up on foods in gallon buckets
More stuff for my friends in the United States. Now is not the time to buy a new car. Now is the time to change your eating habits, and start being more conservative; grandparent-like in the creation of a larder. -MM
In a long-term survival scenario, storing food in gallon buckets is a good way to stock up on beans and rice, which can be used to make different dishes. These ingredients also pair well with other items you may have in your stockpile, such as canned meat and vegetables.
If you don’t have buckets yet, look for five-gallon buckets that are also food grade. If you can’t find food-grade buckets in stores near your area, line the buckets with Mylar bags instead to keep the food clean.
If you prefer something lighter, ask for four-gallon buckets from the nearest bakery. These buckets will be lighter and easier to carry. As a bonus, four-gallon buckets are often free, or only a couple of bucks.
If you can’t decide between the four- and five-gallon buckets, get whatever’s easier for you to lift and move around your stockpile.
What to store in gallon buckets
While bulk foods go well with gallon buckets, other items suit different storage methods like cans or Mylar bags. These items include more expensive foods that spoil quickly with exposure to air or moisture, or items that you don’t use often.
Keep items like dehydrated and dried foods, freeze-dried foods, milk and powdered eggs in cans or their original packaging.
Foods like beans, flour, pasta, rice, sugar and wheat go well with gallon buckets. Generally, each bucket will hold about 25 pounds of food. This will vary slightly depending on the shape of the food you want to store.
Most buckets are usually 12 inches wide and are HDPE (#2) buckets. You can also use PP (#5), which also have gasketed lids like the HDPE buckets.
When filling buckets, tap the sides to help the contents settle down so that you can fit more in. You need to pack the food compactly and get as much air space out as possible so the oxygen absorbers can work properly.
You can only pack 25 pounds of food in a bucket, even if the bucket isn’t filled completely. However, it’s better to fill the bucket completely before adding the oxygen absorbers so that all the oxygen can be removed once the buckets go into storage.
For optimal long-term storage, line the buckets with Mylar bags. Next, fill the Mylar bags with food, add the appropriate number of oxygen absorbers, then seal.
You can skip the Mylar bags if you regularly rotate your food supplies, you’re using food-grade buckets and if you plan on using up your beans, oats, rice and wheat within five years. (Related: Food supply 101: How to store rice properly.)
Here are some tips on how much food you can store in five-gallon buckets and the oxygen absorber capacity needed. Note that the data below provides estimates for the amount of food that will fit in each bucket.
The actual results may vary depending on how much you are able to tap your buckets and settle the contents.
Black beans – 37 pounds (lbs.) of food, (3,000 oxygen absorber capacity)
Once you have buckets of food, you have to figure out a way to store them in your stockpile. Since the buckets won’t last forever, you need to keep them away from sunlight.
Putting excessive weight on the buckets will deteriorate plastic buckets. Note that 5 gallon buckets should only be stacked three to four buckets high, with the heaviest buckets on the bottom.
You can stack buckets higher only if those on top contain very light items like medical supplies. At most, the buckets on top of your pile should not exceed two pounds.
While there are other ways to store bulk foods, buckets are one of the most efficient methods to use because they can keep out moths and are rodent-resistant. Buckets are also waterproof.
Note that since plastic is not completely impermeable, buckets should not be stored directly on concrete. Just place some 2×4 boards underneath the buckets so they’re above the concrete.
Get food-grade buckets and stock up on bulk foods like beans and grains before SHTF.
So… Beijing’s Dynamic Zero Policy Does Not Work Fighting Omicron Variant? Eh?
A pretty good video. Well worth watching.
High Value kitty
Just another day at the job.
Notice the guy in the orange vest. He is NOT the owner of the ship. he is the community government health official. He employs a “ratter”; a kitty cat, to go forth and secure the premises from rats and mice. China; it does not play.
An oldie, but goodie. Placed here for my friends in the United States. These are 'round out your storage items, and most are extremely cheap. For instance, we bought a load of 100 disposible lighters for under USD $3. -MM
Stockpiling necessary supplies is at the very core of prepping. Most of us start out by trying to build a stockpile of food to see us through an emergency and will probably still be stockpiling food when the SHTF. But stockpiling food isn’t all there is to be ready for a disaster. There are many other things we need and use on a day-to-day basis.
Stockpiling food, without bothering to stockpile these other necessary items might not guarantee our death, but it will sure make our lives more uncomfortable. Too much of that discomfort could lead to death; perhaps not directly, but by permitting weakness and disease to bring us to an end.
There are literally hundreds of things that we could use in a post-disaster world; more than can fit in this list. But the items I’ve listed below are probably the most important things to include in your stockpile, either for your own personal use or to use as barter goods.
Disposable Butane Lighters – Fire is one of the things we use the most in a survival situation. Even though it is not considered one of the top three survival needs, it is useful for all three of them. It’s much easier for people who aren’t skilled at starting fires to start them with a disposable lighter than to try and do it any other way.
Waterproof Matches – The waterproof match is the standard fire starter for use in a survival situation. While many people have switched over to butane lighters, matches are still useful. Be sure to get the strike anywhere kind.
Fire Accelerants – Commonly referred to as “fire starters,” chemical fire accelerants or tinders work to get the fire from your matches or lighter into the larger kindling, so that your fire can keep burning. Make sure you have a good stock, as this is essential with damp wood.
Water Filters – Water purification is essential to survival, as water that has microscopic pathogens can spread disease and even kill us. If you use a filter for purifying water, be sure to have plenty of them.
Firewood – Many preppers are planning on heating their homes and cook with a wood fire in a post-disaster world; but few have enough firewood to do that. It takes four to six cords of firewood to heat a home through the winter.
Salt – Salt is not only essential for survival, it’s nature’s number one food preservative. Yet it can be extremely hard to come by. if you’re going to preserve food in a post-disaster world, you’d a better plan on having plenty of salt on hand.
Canning Jar Lids – I’m assuming you have canning jars; but how many lids do you have? They’re not considered reusable, so you’d better have plenty.
Batteries – Ok, batteries aren’t really a survival necessity; but we’ve got lots of things we use every day, which are battery operated. Stocking batteries, especially AA and AAA sizes, will make your life in a post-disaster world much better.
Toilet Paper – If you want to see something that people will kill for in a post-disaster world, I think this is it… especially women. Do you have any idea how much TP your family goes through?
Personal Hygiene Supplies – While we’re talking about TP, we don’t want to forget things like soap, toothpaste, and shampoo. Cleanliness in a post-disaster world is important as a means to help combat the spread of disease.
Plastic Bags – Nobody is going to be making plastic, let alone plastic bags in a post-disaster world. Yet they are something we use all the time. If you are planning on using a bucket toilet, you’re going to need a lot of bags just for that. But you’re going to need them for a lot of other things too.
Ammunition – This is probably one you’ve already thought of, but it’s so important, it bears mentioning. Make sure you’ve got enough for all the calibers you use, as well as the most common calibers out there. Ammo Storage Tips Every Prepper Should Know
Alcohol – Probably the best barter item there is.
Tobacco –The second-best barter item there is.
Antibiotics – If you want to keep your family healthy, I’d recommend putting in a good stock of the most common antibiotics. You can buy these over the counter in Mexico, without a prescription. Make sure you print out information on dosages and to tell you which antibiotics are the best to use in different situations.
Over the Counter Medicines – Self-diagnosis and treatment is dangerous; but sometimes it’s all we have available to us. Having a good assortment of over the counter medicines will make it possible to treat at least the symptoms of common ailments.
Prescription Medicines – If you have family members that need maintenance doses of prescription medicines for chronic conditions, you need to have a stock of those on hand for them. If you can’t get that stock, then look for natural alternatives which will keep them going.
First-aid Supplies – If you ever want to see an environment ripe for injuries, just look at any place that has been hit by a disaster. You and your family will be doing things you normally wouldn’t do, many of which can lead to serious injuries. Be prepared for more than scraped knees and cut fingers; be prepared for treating major injuries. DIY Dollar Store First Aid Kit
Seed – If the situation continues, you’re going to have to start producing your own food. That means growing a vegetable garden, amongst other things. Have lots of seed on hand, so that you can plant a big garden.
Gardening Chemicals and Fertilizer – There are a number of common chemicals used for gardening, as well as common fertilizers. You’ll need all of that if you’re hoping to get a bountiful harvest.
Fishing Gear – Fishing is probably the easiest way of harvesting food from nature. There’s just one problem with it, I have yet to meet a fisherman who doesn’t lose hooks, lures and other gear on a regular basis. So that means you’d better have plenty, so that you can keep on fishing, even after losing your favorites.
Fuel – Ok, this one is a bit tricky, as gasoline doesn’t store easily. It tends to lose its potency pretty quickly. But then, even less potent gasoline is better than no gasoline. And there are additives you can get, which will help that gasoline to last longer.
Repair Parts – If you’ve got gear that you are going to use to survive, you had better have some way of repairing it. That includes parts for just about anything you are planning on using as part of your survival. For example: If you’ve got some of those old Coleman lamps, which can burn gasoline, you should have rebuilt kits for the air pump.
Hand Tools – We are so used to using power tools for just about everything, that many people don’t have hand tools anymore. Do you have a crosscut saw? How about a hand-crank drill? You’re going to need them, if you can’t connect your power tools.
Honing Stones – To keep knives and other sharp tools sharp.
Rope – Always useful. We tend to stock paracord, which is excellent; but you might want some heavier rope as well.
Sewing Supplies – There probably won’t be any shortage of clothing lying around in a post-disaster world, but there will be of sewing supplies. You’re going to need to be able to fix clothing, as well as taking it in as you lose weight.
Sturdy Shoes – Good shoes are important, and by good I mean something that is rugged and will hold up, giving your ankles support. Most of the shoes we wear today won’t do that; they’re more decorative than anything else.
Rugged Clothing – Rugged jeans, flannel shirts and other work clothing are going to be useful as well. The stuff you wear to the office just isn’t going to make it when you’re chopping wood.
Work Gloves – This is one thing you don’t want to try sewing yourself. Nor do you want cheap work gloves to try and do hard work in. Get several pair for each member of the family, especially those who do the hard physical work of survival.
Vitamins – Your diet probably won’t be well-balanced in a post-disaster world. It will be mostly carbohydrates and fats, with a little bit of protein thrown in. The micronutrients that nutritionists tell us we need will be notoriously absent. Good vitamins can help overcome this problem, helping you to remain healthy.
Reading Glasses – Even if you don’t wear glasses now, that doesn’t mean you never will. Keeping a variety of reading glasses around, in different magnifications, may help you to be able to do things as you age, that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. (You can get a wide selection really cheap at a Dollar Store or other such bargain place.)
Antibacterial Hand Cleaner – This is a good one to help prevent the spread of disease. Clean hands aren’t going to contaminate food or contaminate other people.
Spices – One of the best ways of getting the most out of the food that you do have available to you is to change its flavor. This can be especially good when you have children, who can be notoriously difficult when it comes to unfamiliar foods. Disguising what it is and making it taste similar to something they like is one of your best ways of dealing with this.
Bullion (also known as soup stock) – Anything can be turned into a soup or a casserole, if you have soup stock to go with it. Generally speaking, having beef and chicken flavors is enough, as they go with everything else. (Stock up on lots and lots of chicken bullion.)
Flashlights – There’s no such thing as enough flashlights. They don’t last forever and you really can’t fix them.
Leather and Leather Stitching Supplies – Our ancestors used leather for a wide variety of things, like making shoes and harnesses. We’ll need it for making a variety of repairs, like resoling shoes.
Lime – This is one of those things that people forget about. Lime is used in outhouses to help keep the odors down, as well as reducing the population of insects.
Wicking – If you’re going to make candles, you’re going to need wicks for them. While just about any cotton string can be used for that, a cotton string isn’t all that common anymore. A few yards of wicking doesn’t cost all that much and it will allow you to make your own candles.
Candles – Speaking of that wicking, it would be a good idea to have a bunch of candles, already made, on hand.
Oil-burning Lamps – A good oil-burning lamp will work off of just about any flammable liquid, providing you with light. The best is oil, of any sort; but if you have something else, they’ll burn that too. Just try it outside first, to make sure it’s not going to blow up the lamp.
Insect Repellant – Nobody likes becoming the mosquito’s dinner. Yet there are more of them in the world than there are of us. Good idea to be ready to deal with them and keep them off your body.
Pest Control – Speaking of dealing with insects, it’s a good idea to be able to kill them too, as well as trapping mice and other pests. Don’t skimp, as you won’t be able to run back to the local store for more.
Cleaning Supplies – Yeah, who thinks about stockpiling cleaning supplies? But if you want to keep the cockroaches and ants out of your home, you’re going to want to have the necessary cleaning supplies to keep your home clean. This is important for fighting disease as well.
Aluminum Foil – We talk about using aluminum foil for cooking in a survival situation and most people include it in their survival kit. But how many of us have extra aluminum foil back home, to use for cooking food in the wake of a disaster?
Charcoal or Propane – Whatever fuel your barbecue grille runs on, be sure to have plenty on hand. That grille is going to be your first alternate stove. You may move to a fire pit later; but in the first month of surviving in the post-disaster world, that grille is it. Medicinal Uses for Activated Charcoal
Cast-iron Pots – Okay, this really isn’t a supply; it’s more like gear. But if you’re going to cook on your barbecue grille, it would be a good idea to have cast-iron cookware on hand. That grille is going to be a bit rough on your Teflon cookware.
Wind-up Mechanical Clock – Maybe you won’t care about what time it is in a post-disaster world and maybe you will. Either way, it might be a good idea to have a clock that you can count on running when there aren’t any batteries to run it.
Chlorine Bleach – Not only is bleach good for cleaning, it’s the easiest means of purifying water. Just add 8 drops of standard (non-scented, non-color safe) bleach to a gallon of water, stir it and allow it to sit for 20 minutes. That will kill all the microscopic pathogens, making it safe to drink.
Hard Candy – Everyone likes something sweet; but unless you’re keeping bees, that’s going to be pretty scarce in a post-disaster world. Hard candies will keep for a long time, can be eaten slowly, extending the enjoyment and can also be used to soothe a sore throat.
So, there you have it; my “top 50” list. However, much you think you need, try to stockpile more; lots more. If you don’t use it yourself, you can use it as barter goods, getting things that you need.
Nuclear War Between U.S. and Russia (2019 Simulation)
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Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The following is the 24th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benifit in reading his writings.
I hope that you injoy this article.
-MM
Part 24 – Cattle Mutilations, Missing Time, Broken and Misplaced Memories, Ghost and UFO sightings; Wooroloo is the Place to be For Paranormal Activity. 5 star Recommend
I’ve been meaning to do an article on this for while. It entails a bizarre event I unwittingly found myself caught up in when I was about 16 years old, that my friend was {apparently} also involved in. Since it happened, this event has left me with some puzzling question. And guess what, SD was also involved with it. This was a good year or so before I had even met her. In fact, this event has had such an effect on me that I wrote a short story about it a few years ago, trying to make light of the weirdness of the situation through the use of dark humour, which can be found on my website at Daegon Magus | Author for anyone who is interested. In all seriousness though, there isn’t really anything humorous about it. Considering the circumstances surrounding the event from both our vantage points, SD and I believe there is a very real possibility this was an alien abduction scene with a level of memory suppression of what actually took place being employed on both of us. Thinking about that and what “may” have happened to me really gives me the heeby jeebies.
To start this story off, I need to explain the town I lived in as a kid. Wooroloo is a semi rural town situated about 55km East of the Perth CBD.
It houses an abbatoirs, a cemetery and both a minimum and maximum security prison, and an old tuberculosis clinic-come-hospital all within a few short kilometers of each other. My house was situated on the edge of the thin strip of bushland that insulated these facilities from the town centre. I could quite literally grab my pushbike and tour close to these facilities (with the exception of the maximum security prison) within an hour. I’d heard rumours as a kid that this strip of bushland was haunted; that some guy from one of the prisons hung himself here and would sometimes appear as a ghost to those wandering about.
Speaking of ghosts, my grandmother, who lived on the same block of land as my father (she gifted him the top half for his 21st birthday, while her house was situated on the bottom half on the otherside of a creek a few hundred metres away) saw the ghost of her late husband, Gordon, my father’s step father, one night; the ghost of Gordon appeared at the foot of her bed and sort of just sat there smiling at her for a little while. She described it as a somewhat pleasant experience.
School was about 3 quarters of kilometre away at the end of our road in the centre of town. It was a pretty small primary school with just over a hundred kids in total in the whole school. Note that I have written previously of having broken memories involving “something” happening with peers from my class that is directly related to my first contact experience with the Elder Guardians, and a recent dream that I suggested was a memory of an abduction involving a squid like looking race of beings with this same class.
The first thing I remembered upon coming into the presence of the Elder Guardians (as my memory was unlocking, but was yet to be fully unlocked) was that what I was experiencing was related to that something happening to myself and about 5 or 6 others that had been mind wiped from us. Although I couldn’t pin point it to more than some strange abduction event, I knew it was very very relevant. These peers of mine, who I no longer talk to have something to do with it, I am sure of it, even if they do not realise any of it.
Getting back to the event in question, unbeknownst to me at the time of this particular experience, SD was living with her boyfriend just down the road from this school, in what she described as being a very haunted house.
In this house, SD told me very weird things used to happen; loud music would randomly start playing from a room they could never quite find or put their finger on as to the tune even though it sounded very familiar. They’d think they found the room it was coming from, only for them to open the door and it would randomly change to coming from another room. Sometimes the rooms would suddenly drop several degrees in temperature for no apparent reason. There was an instance where her boyfriend, Roger, scared the shit out of his little brother because he came out of his room with red eyes after being asleep in there for three days straight (though he thought it was only a night’s worth).
Roger told her that he used to have strange {lucid} “dreams” where weird beings would take him away to scary dream places whenever he fell asleep with his head against a certain wall, though being religious, he never thought to dig deeper into them and experiment with them like I had been doing a lot of up until that point. Later they found out a teenager had hung himself in the back yard, which they figured accounted for all the spooky action at not very far distance.
A little further along down the road from Roger’s place is what is known colloquially by townsfolk as the gravel oval; a big patch of dirt that motor bike riders like my friend Zak like to take their bikes and bush banger cars out to thrash them into oblivion.
One night Roger’s dad was outside having a smoke looking toward this gravel oval (Bailup Park, as it called on google maps) when he noticed about 13 little lights come out of the ground, ascend to a low point in the sky and just start dancing in front of him before all shooting off in different directions. As someone who was apparently fairly sceptical of UFOs and aliens, this was apparently a big game changer for him.
It is important to note here that the gravel oval is not really situated near any cattle grazing property. There is a horse stud up the road, and that is about it. Nothing that would involve any cows though, as most of the larger paddocks are situated on the outskirts of town. There is a small paddock next the gravel oval, but I don’t think the owners ever had cows in it. I could of course be be wrong. Regardless, the most likely place you’d find cattle would be outside of the town centre, like in the paddocks surrounding the abbatoirs, which is 3.8km south east, as the crow flies.
The Event:
This particular night, my friend Nick was having a party. Nick lived quite close to the abbatoirs, only a few hundred metres away on the same road. My other good friend, Matt, had caught the bus home with me, and after spending half an hour so at my house having some food and getting ready, we headed out on foot to Nick’s sometime in the afternoon, probably around 5pm, considering my school bus got back into town from high school at about 4:30. So it was still definitely day time.
Given the road to Nick’s headed back into town, and wrapped around it before heading back towards his house, it was quicker for us to cut through the {haunted} bush as it shaved off a couple of kilometers of walking. After the bush, you’d pop out at the fenceline of a farm owned by the minimum security prison – not exactly something they really approved of if they caught people wandering around it, but I knew a spot where the fence was broken enough to make easy access.
After 100m or so you come to another boundary fence line of the cemetery where my brother was buried. I had this ritual where I’d sit and talk to him for a little while, then kiss my two fingers and rub them on his cross, as a way to say “see you”. We then walked down the road, past his friend Phil’s house, to Nicks which was only a few house past Phil’s.
So anyways, the party kicked off and it got dark.
I had some alcohol that night but not enough to get anything beyond super talkative. It was during the period where I was starting to not find enjoyment in drinking too heavily, and had found what it meant to drink conservatively.
My memories of conversations with people at the party and other very specific details, even to this day, suggest that this was definitely the case. If not, I wouldn’t remember these details. Just trust me on that. I remember it was getting late and I decided to head home as I couldn’t be bothered staying at Nick’s with the inevitable lack of sleeping equipment.
It was a cold night, and I’d done my fair share of using piles of shoes and dog’s beds as matresses. Another testament to my sobriety – when you are drunk these things are not too much of a problem, but when sober they seem quite unappealing for bedding material for some strange reason. Actually, I was quite sober when I slept on a pile of shoes, but that is a story for another time.
So I was looking for Matt to tell him I was planning on heading home. It was somewhere on the other side of midnight, maybe even heading into the early hours of the morning – 1 or 2 am. Something like that. I wanted to try and get home and into bed before the 3am dip in temperature came about, because I wasn’t one for bringing jackets or long pants to these kinds of shindigs. I was kitted out in a standard T shirt and some shorts and my sensitive bits were in danger of inverting due to the cold. Eventually I found Matt and he told me to head off without him as he was having a good conversation with a girl he fancied. He planned on staying at Nicks. Cue MWI slide here.
This is where the memory distortion comes into play, that I don’t think can be completely contributed to my alcohol consumption (as my brother in law tried to suggest) given that I was very definitely sober when I left. I will tell you I was completely alone, on account of Matt wanting to chat up the girl he was talking to. In fact, I remember very specifically I was alone as I headed down the road and back toward the abbatoirs. It was pitch black and I couldn’t see five feet in front of me, which eventuated in me walking into one of the shoulders, slipping on the gravel and scraping my knee on the road.
So I was about half way along the paddock next to Phil’s house (still on the road). We don’t get snow here, so it probably wasn’t exactly life threatening, but being nothing but shorts and T shirt, the cold was really biting at me. It was dead silent too; that really eerily unnerving kind of silence. All of a sudden I heard this sound I figure was about 25 to 50m into that paddock that was RIGHT FUCKING NEXT TO ME.
It was so odd, in that it sounded like a bunch of dangling chains hanging from a fair height, followed by a very mechanical conveyor belt starting up, followed by a cow mooing which melded into a horrible shriek as something cut its head off, followed what sounded like a gushing of A LOT OF FUCKING WATER. Like, more water (or blood) than a cow’s body could hold.
And then, just like that, it all stopped.
Back to nothing but total silence. Neither even the flicker of flame from a candle light to illuminate the area. It all happened in the middle of a field in total darkness. And make no mistake about it, this was quite definitely a cow being brutally murdered by a mechanical machine of some sort.
I am going to be honest, whatever it was, it scared the absolute fucking shit out of me.
I was a stone’s throw away from something out of a Stephen King novel.
After my trip in the ditch I had been walking quite carefully and slowly making sure I had a firm footing so I didn’t trip up again, but upon hearing this, I just fucking bolted into darkness without even thinking about it. There could have been a tree in front of me for all I knew and I would have hit it at full sprint it was that dark.
Holding my arm out, I couldn’t even see it.
There was no moon either, which made it even worse. The question of doubling back to Nick’s or even Phil’s didn’t was a no go, because it meant crossing back past the noise, something I was very definitely not going to do. The only other option was to head towards the cemetery and try and get home. Yeah I know, real horror story kind of shit.
So off I went, back through the cemetery and the prison farm until I eventually made it home unscathed (I think).
The whole way home I tried rationalising what the fuck it was I had just heard, telling myself it was just a late night butchering at the abbatoirs. Only problem with that though was that the abbatoirs had stopped butchering cows several years prior to focus on pigs; they were now called Linley Valley Pork to allude to this fact.
And 1 – 2 in the morning seemed a bit off their usual 9 – 5pm schedule. Not to mention it being an occupational health and safety violation doing it in total darkness. What got me was those damned chains. These sounded like they were hanging from a good height and were a good length. And the conveyor belt….this would have had to have been some big machinery to cart out into the middle of a field, then there is the question of the instant start up; there simply was no hint at a generator or diesel engine you’d expect would be needed for such a piece of machinery.
The whole thing took maybe 5 seconds, which obviously is a lot less than you’d need to start up and shut something with one of these engines down.
If this was some kind of late night cow heist, as my mother in law suggested, it was incredibly daring, dangerous and using some advanced equipment. It’s not like a cow is easy killing even in full day light with a taser to knock it out, let alone in the middle of a field in total darkness. And yeah my brother in law (not SD’s brother, my sister’s boyfriend) worked at this abbatoirs so I have a good idea of what killing a cow to slaughterhouse protocol involves; he went through the whole process with me a number of times.
So I had this strange thing happen, and, figuring I was alone, I didn’t mention it to anybody. Being so close to the abbatoirs (if you call over 600m away close), I just knew people would misconstrue it, say I was drunk (like my brother in law did) and that it was probably just them doing a late night kill. Plus I had no proof of my claims.
Added to that, I genuinely didn’t like talking about it. It was the creepiest shit that had ever happened to me. I kind of put it out of my mind for a few years, until Matt came over one day to catch up. This was long after I had met and married SD and we were living together in the house where I had my first Elder Guardians contact experience. I think this was a few months before that.
Matt was sitting on the couch and out of nowhere says “hey remember that fucked up noise that sounded like a cow getting slaughtered we heard that night coming home from Nick’s?”
It turns out Matt was very definitely with me when it happened, even though I have a very specific memory of him staying at Nick’s and me leaving without him. Apparently he changed his mind soon after and caught me just as I was leaving. Interesting considering I didn’t tell anyone because I knew I had no proof.
And just when you thought this story couldn’t get any more weird and creepy, SD, told us she had heard the exact same thing one night at the gravel oval where Roger’s dad had seen the UFO cluster. We had obviously talked about it a little bit between us, but to Matt this was new news.
SD’s story:
It was a full moon(suggesting it was a completely different night) and was late evening, on the cusp of getting dark, probably around 7pm. Her and Roger decided to go for a walk around town to have a look at the moon.
They thought they were gone for about half an hour, an hour at most, but when they got back, Roger’s dad, sitting out on his porch having his nightly puff, remarked that they had been gone a long time.
Confused, SD said “no, we have only been gone an hour”. Roger’s dad said, “nope, you’ve been gone hours. It’s almost midnight.”
Confused, SD stood there trying to figure out the where the missing time had gone while Roger talked to his dad. They were out there about 15 minutes, when they heard the same noise – according to SD it was the exact same dangling of chains, followed by a conveyor belt starting up, followed by a cow getting slaughtered and a rushing of a large body of water or liquid – coming from where she guessed was the gravel oval (less than 100m away from Roger’s house where his dad had seen those dancing lights).
Errgh this is getting messy, when you consider the obvious dream bond we have together.
What the fuck did we witness?
This is curious because not only is it over 2.5km, as the crow flies, from the gravel oval to where I was when I heard it, but, like I said, there are not many cows around this part of town.
Surely if something was poaching people’s stock, you would have heard about it in such a small town. This was the type of town where one’s dirty laundry was everyone else’s. But, I guess if it was a weird enough situation, it could have intentionally slipped mind when hitting up the local gossip network. I am curious though, if anyone in these areas did have any missing or butchered cattle to report, I’d definitely like to know about it.
Some notes:
The abbatoirs stopped killing cows for quite a number of years before this event even happened. I remember there was a big front page article about it all over the local newspaper.
Given rumours that the abbatoirs was trying to buy out people in the area, one could argue it was a ploy by them to freak the house owners into selling, but then, this doesn’t explain why SD heard it on the other side of town where the abbatoirs would have no claim.
My experience would have taken place somewhere between 400 to 500m away from the main butchering facility of said abbatoirs, in vacant land that was insulated from abbatoirs owned land by several houses. There is no reason for an abbatoirs to be carrying out killings this far away from its building where all the equipment to do a proper job is all set up, or 3km away if you go by SD’s account, or even at this time of night. If it was a cow heist, this was an incredibly stupid part of town to do it from, when you could go further out and nab one from a much larger field further away from houses.
My auntie (who lived in a granny flat next to my grandmother on the same block as my dad’s house) also held a supervisor position at these abbatoirs for a number of years including when I had this experience and sometime afterwards. Both her and my brother in law agree the time of night and way the killing I heard was carried out without light was very far out of the safety protocols of abbatoirs.
From what I know about killing an animal that size, doing it in total darkness through cutting it’s throat is practically suicide. You’d have to be pretty desperate, or on some serious drugs, to even try it. None of it makes any sense, and honestly I think the suggestion it was a heist is quite a lame one, for reasons mentioned above.
Either way you look at it, there is something very strange going on, in a town that seems to have a knack for paranormal shit happening in it. Admittedly I didn’t really come past all that much after Nick’s party. I ended up moving town a year or so later, and didn’t come back for a number of years. All I know is that I have memories of this event that deviate from those of Matt, and both SD and Roger had missing time when they heard their version of it
SD suggested that maybe what we heard was really a carry over hearing event from an abduction; that maybe we all got abducted, something happened on the ship, then we were mind wiped and what we heard was like an echo of when they swapped us into this timeline. I don’t know, but given I have broken memories of other abductions with my class mates, I can’t rule this out altogether. It certainly explains SD’s and Roger’s missing time. As for me, I don’t recall having any missing time, but considering the fact that I was out in the middle of nowhere in total darkness – which was somewhat disorientating as it was – and that when I finally got home, the last thing on my mind was to check the time, it is a possibility I can’t ignore.
There is also the fact I have no memory of Matt being with me, even though he proved he was (he mentioned it before I had brought it up, which is what surprised the shit out of me). I do have this memory of being sort of frozen in place for a few seconds after it happened, but I figured this was just out of the sudden startling nature of the whole thing. Maybe that was when “they” put me back? Who knows?
This town also has a knack for serial arsonists to light he bush surrounding it on fire. When I was 7 I had to evacuate to my other grandma’s place because a fire was raging through town.
During that fire, a firefighter went out and lit another fire down the road. Our neighbours house ended up burning down; I went over there the next day with my dad and my brother (my dad was in the fire brigade) and all that was left was a fridge in the middle of burnt out rubble.
Only this year another arsonist who was part of the same bush fire brigade went around lighting fires IN THE EXACT SAME AREA as the first guy.
And if that isn’t enough coincidence for you, yet another big fire happened last year in the same area I heard the cattle mutilation which burnt down something like 50 houses. This was caused by a guy using an angle grinder in in the middle of 40 degree C summer on dry, dead grass.
I always joke that the aliens must have a stupidity amplifier in operation in town, though SD has had lucid dreams which suggest there is in fact some kind of shrouding equipment connected to the amnesia devices that is located here.
Any information the Domain can provide on this town and what is going on there would be appreciated.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
I can't remember a time when war propaganda has been this intense.-dwp
Crappy title regarding a strange period of time.
Well, the world is quickly switching from one uni-polar governmental operation to a multi-polar one. And we are watching it in real time. Oh, sure, the “West” is kicking up a fuss, and the United States is in hysterics, but that will fade in time.
Sometime, hopefuly sooner than later, the United States will decide to scrap the decades old RAND plans and accept a new reality.
However, that will have to be forced by necessity, and the rest of the world is waiting for that moment to come. Hopefully sooner than later, as the longer it is delayed, the larger the risk of catastrophic fiasco.
Here, we continue on our menu of current events, and toss in views of what we all used to have. It is a lfiestyle that predates the neocon monsters that have corrupted the United States government so badly. I hope you enjoy this article.
Been there. Done that.
Young boy picks out a girl
This video has been making it’s arounds. A boy is in a Business KTV, and when the girls come out in the lineup, he runs up and picks a girl immediately. LOL video 8MB
The “news” about China
China is falling apart. Andy day now… any day now… the people will “rise up” and accept democracy™ and freedom™. That’s the narrative, don’t you know. Of course the idiots regurigating this bullshit have exactly zero experience with China. They are fine “cannon fodder”. LOL!
From Drudge Report 8APR22.
The fiction is “off the charts”.
On the domestic side
Singapore abstains from UN vote on Russia: MFA says awaiting probe on human rights violation in Ukraine
Singapore suddenly adjusted her pro US foreign policy, they now are not so trigger-happy against Russia. Abstention in UN vote: MFA says Singapore is awaiting findings on human rights violation in Ukraine
This has everything. Meat pie. Beef. beans, and taste! The key is the unique set of ingredients. But all are commonly available.
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
2 to 3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (11-1/2 ounces) condensed bean with bacon soup, undiluted
1 jar (16 ounces) thick and chunky picante sauce, divided
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
3/4 cup sliced green onions, divided
Dough for double-crust deep-dish pie
1 cup sour cream
1 can (2-1/4 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained
Directions
Preheat oven to 425°. In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until beef is no longer pink. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Drain. In a large bowl, combine soup, 1 cup picante sauce, cornstarch, parsley, paprika, salt and pepper. Fold in beans, 1-1/2 cups cheese, 1/2 cup onions and beef mixture.
On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle; transfer to a 9-in. deep-dish pie plate. Trim even with rim. Add filling. Roll remaining dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle. Place over filling. Trim, seal and flute edge. Cut slits in top.
Bake until crust is lightly browned, 30-35 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting. Serve with sour cream, olives and remaining picante sauce, cheese and onions.
Once the go-to hangout spot for American teens and a symbol of opportunity for small business owners, diners are one of the most beloved remnants of mid-century America.
Scattered across the country, diners come in many shapes and forms, from roadside railcar-style establishments to tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurants in the country’s biggest cities.
Here’s what diners looked like during their heyday...
Republica – Ready to Go (Official Video)
Big British group from the 1990s. They made a splash on the music scene and then faded away. They maintained domestic signifigance for some time, but most of the world remains unaware of them.
Good Map ever of Ukraine.
It’s from the Western leadership. So it’s really not all that accurate. But it’s a good map never the less. You can zoom in, and all that. The actual military territories and Russian locations are entirely deceptive. It seems that Russia has made no gains. But that’s not the intention. This is not World War I. Don’t “pull a Hitler” and maintain 19th century thinking.
Beijing warns of ‘forceful measures’ if Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan
It is possible that China may declare Taiwan airspace a “no fly zone”. If so, in this senario, they will shoot down any Taiwan jet and destroy Taiwan military bases that dare to fire the first shot.
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It’s possible, but not probable.
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Imagine if “Xi the great” follows “Putin the great” to declare a ban on accepting US currency. What will happen to the Western economies, their cost of living, manufacturing supply chain, currency value, and world confident in Holding US treasury debt?
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The truth is that the United States is playing a zero sum game, and blindly believe in its might with nary a second thought.
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US House Speaker is expected to arrive in Taipei on Sunday, according to media reports
Beijing says Washington ‘must be fully responsible for the consequences’ if it goes ahead
Nancy Pelosi postpones Asia trip after testing positive for Covid-19
Imagine that. What “bad luck”.
A US Congressional delegation to Asia has been postponed after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tested positive for Covid-19.
The announcement followed a warning by China that it would take strong measures if the trip included a visit to Taiwan, as media reports in the region had claimed.
Pelosi's deputy communications director Drew Hammill said in a tweet on Thursday that the planned Congressional delegation to Asia, to be led by Pelosi over the two-week Congressional break, "will be postponed to a later date."
"After testing negative this week, Speaker Pelosi received a positive test result for Covid-19 and is currently asymptomatic. The Speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided. The Speaker will quarantine consistent with CDC guidance, and encourages everyone to get vaccinated, boosted and test regularly," Hammill tweeted.
Railcar-style diners were modeled after rail carriages or sometimes converted from the original train cars into stand-alone eateries. Diners were constructed in factories and then shipped to their destinations, much like mobile homes, and were relatively affordable to purchase at just $1,000.
Once they arrived, the utilities simply had to be connected. Since diners, or “lunch cars,” had to be shipped using a truck or railcar, they were designed to be narrow.
AUKUS is “Anglo-Saxon small bloc” to serve U.S. hegemony: Chinese FM spokesperson-Xinhua
It’s pretty obvious, and if you tabulate all the public speeches from the USA and from Australia, you can clearly see that the Chinese spokesperson is just stating facts. Why this is signifigant is that the Chinese government is officially recognizing that a military build up prior to an American invasion / war upon China is the purpose of AUKUS.
Until the Great Depression, most diners could be found in the Northeast.
After World War II ended and the suburbs began to boom, more and more people began opening diners nationwide.
The small businesses could prove extremely profitable for owners. Since the restaurants themselves were so small, and the kitchens so narrow, not many employees were required.
Sneaker Pimps 6 Underground/Lyrics/Kelli Ali
A top charter in the mid-1990s. I wonder if anyone remembers this song. I think it kind of defined what it was like in those years.
Chinese democracy seems to work pretty good.
In a comparative sense. But America has “American” democracy™. That’s superior Right?
With the implementation of cross-country highways in the 1960s, diners continued to grow in popularity.
Travelers along the new highways could stop off and grab a quick bite at the roadside establishments.
Interior of a roadside diner.
Many diners featured a row of bar stools along a counter, allowing many people to be served without much effort from the diner’s staff.
Sophie B. Hawkins – Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover
Here’s a “blast from the past”. This song was pretty famous back in the 1990s. It is about… well, you know… there is a person, a certain someone… that you really like. But, you know, there are taboos and you cannot have a relationship with that person.
I don’t think you people understand how big of a deal all this economic stuff that is happening actually is. It’s very difficult even for me to watch it all playing out in real time.
Basically, the whole world had agreed to a US-run financial system that was outside of the realm of politics. Then, the United States decided to violate international law and ban Russia from the global financial system, ostensibly because they believed that Vladimir Putin is a very mean person.
Global economies will be rethinking how safe it is to rely on the US dollar in their foreign currency holdings, the deputy head of the International Monetary Fund, Gita Gopinath, said on Tuesday.The statement comes after half of Russia’s forex holdings were effectively confiscated by international financial institutions amid sanctions placed on Moscow following the launch of its military operation in Ukraine.“We are likely to see some countries reconsidering how much they hold of certain currencies in their reserves,” she stated in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine.Gopinath said the IMF sees “increasing fragmentation” in global payments systems as one of the consequences of the current events. However, she stated that the US dollar, traditionally considered the world reserve currency, is not likely to suffer an “imminent demise.”Still, depending on how long the crisis in Ukraine lasts, there could be larger effects, Gopinath said.
I don’t know how many hardline “everything is a conspiracy” people read this website.
Personally, I’m a moderate conspiracy guy. As a rule, I only publish conspiracies that can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. In terms of my personal mind, I believe some conspiracies that I wouldn’t publish, because I understand they can’t be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
There is some gray area, of course. You can use deductive logic to conclude something without necessarily having all of the facts documented. For example: when the CIA (or one of its tentacles) releases documents admitting to doing some dastardly thing decades earlier, and then says “yeah, but we stopped doing that,” you can deduce that they are almost certainly still doing it.
The logic is:
They lied about doing it in the first place while they were doing it
They have a history of saying they stopped doing things and then getting caught still doing them
If they were doing it in the first place, and nothing has changed, they still view it as worth doing
Everything they want to do in secret is done in secret, under the guise of national security
They’ve repeatedly demonstrated that there is no consideration of any type of morality in their secret deeds
etc.
So, with for example any of the human experiments that the CIA was involved in – whether it be testing chemical weapons on the public or doing mind control techniques on patients in psych wards – you can assume with very high confidence that, given that they’ve admitted to doing these things in the past, they are still doing them now.
Viewing Everything That Happens as a Conspiracy Can Lead to Tangled-Up, Nonsensical Thinking
I am the first person to admit “conspiracies are real.” I am not some rabid person who goes around condemning people as “conspiracy theorists.” I’m always interested in hearing people out. I think I’m about as open-minded as a person can be without having a gaping hole in my head. I like engaging people in discussion of every kind of idea.
The World Economic Forum’s Great Reset is the most obvious conspiracy of the current year. I don’t “believe” in this – I know it is real, because I’ve read their publications, and seen their policies enacted around the world. However, you have to match your beliefs with facts with reality, or you end up getting sucked into a void.
There is a sect of people who think everything is a conspiracy, and use backward logic to explain anything that happens as part of the conspiracy. Again, I don’t know how many of these people there are, and I know that these people tend to be much more vocal on the internet than people who are not in this subculture. But I have seen a lot of people claim some version of “the West is using the Russia conflict to destroy its own economic system on purpose.”
These people are correct in stating that the US and the rest of the West have a plan – this “Great Reset” thing – to make basically everyone poor, jobless, living in state housing and eating state food, ultimately reducing the population so that the elite can dominate the limited resources remaining on earth. (If you follow the WEF documents and presentations, they are very big into the idea that they are going to use emerging technology to basically become immortal, extending their lives through gene therapy and bionic implants and such, so they believe they will need these resources to build an empire in outer space. They literally believe that and you can read it on their website. It’s not a “theory.”)
So, when you see them destroying the global economic system, it is easy to say “see, this is that thing.”
And indeed: they are clearly spinning this stuff in that direction. You see US officials coming out and saying that it’s time to start riding the bus if you can’t afford an \$80,000 Tesla.
Earlier this month Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told American families to buy electric vehicles if they desire gas savings, now he’s telling them to take the bus.https://t.co/r5Iw6UA9cBpic.twitter.com/CKqrviNwDA— MRCTV (@mrctv) March 22, 2022
This is clearly part of the program, and they’re exploiting the Ukraine situation to push this agenda.
Meanwhile in France, their dictator just came out and said that he’s going to start issuing food rations when everyone starts starving because of a border skirmish in the former USSR.
However, “everything is going according to plan” just doesn’t work, because ultimately, these big decisions on the geopolitical stage regarding the dollar as reserve currency only serve to empower China.
China can’t be sanctioned because they produce too much of what America uses. China has also formed a global trade network that they could use to blockade the United States.
Diners became popular due to their large menus featuring American food staples like hamburgers, fries, and club sandwiches.
Most diners had galley kitchens that made it easier for cooks to move from one dish to another, making service quicker than in a traditional restaurant.
Do you think that I am giving enough airtime to the humble American hamburger, or is more time needed?
Here’s an accurate meme posted by a Chinese official:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that when the West talks about the "int'l community", they mean: pic.twitter.com/RZNOwDymX2— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) March 17, 2022
Saudi Arabia is going to start trading oil in yuan.
Countries are going to start dumping dollar reserves.
America is going to be a third world country, while China becomes the dominant world power.
So then, if you are going to say that this is all going according to plan, you have to say that the US leadership wants to transfer all of its global power to the Chinese.
But why?
That’s where the hang-up is. It doesn’t make any sense why the US and Western establishment would be interested in transferring power to China.
In order to square that circle, you have to really start going into nutty type conspiracies. And when I say “nutty,” I’m saying that not as an insult, but as an objective descriptor. You would have to come up with an explanation as to how China is secretly on-board with the global Western (frankly, primarily Jewish) agenda.
There is no indicator of that, really at all. In fact, China’s culture is virtually the diametric opposite of Western Jewish culture.
To make it make sense, you are forced into a few necessary assertions, all of which are fantastical:
China has a secret deal with Western powers to implement a feminist-anal-tranny-Jewish slave grid
China purposefully did the reverse of the feminist-anal-tranny-Jewish agenda instead of a push for democracy (I guess as some kind of fake-out)
For some reason, China has refused all Western attempts to “democratize” (another fake-out?)
The Taiwan occupation, the Western-backed Hong Kong riots, and every other thing that the US has done to try to undermine Chinese society was part of a massive fake-out (who are they faking out? People on internet forums?)
The West has some kind of secret mechanism through which to ensure that China upholds this theoretical secret agreement, which is why they are willing to surrender all global power to China upfront, without any visible guarantees that China will uphold the secret agreement
None of this, to me, is serious in any way. People try to work backwards from what they see happening, then they hit the brick wall of these fantastical and possibly outright nonsensical assertions which are necessary to uphold the logic train they are riding.
There is no way to say this is all part of the plan without saying the plan is to transfer all power to China, and there is no explanation of why that would be the plan.
The hardline conspiracy people will then start listing off a series of allegedly unexplainable questions, rather than confront the underlying hard wall their logic has hit.
For example:
Why would the US transfer its manufacturing base to China in the 1990s?
Why would the US implode its own economy and status as a world power?
Why are the Chinese allowed to invest in Western infrastructure?
These are fair questions and worth considering. But to claim that the only possible explanation is “a secret deal with the Chinese,” despite the stated problems with that theory, is absurd.
My explanations for these questions are simpler: in general, I would answer those questions with “the West made bad decisions.” I would attribute these bad decisions by a decadent and decaying elite feebly attempting to manage complex systems they don’t understand.
With the first question – the issue of transferring the manufacturing base – this was well documented at the time. Western think-tanks explained in a virtually infinite number of white papers and books that when the Chinese quality of living was escalated, they would “democratize” and integrate with the West. Needless to say, that did not happen. Instead, China installed a new Emperor who organized a wide-ranging program to promote ultranationalism and reinforce traditional Chinese cultural values.
Samuel P. Huntington, who died in 2008 at the age of 81, is one of the globalist thinkers who disagreed with the consensus, arguing that China could, unlike Western countries, modernize and still maintain traditional culturally conservative values, which would then make it “unintegratable” into the Western order, which is based on modernist ideas.
If anyone wants to understand Huntington’s predictions further, they can read his book “Clash of Civilizations.” It’s kind of boring if you don’t have all the background knowledge, but not particularly difficult for someone with high school level reading skills.
This is the map he gave of the different civilizations that were to “clash” in the modern world:
You can overlay that with the above Chinese meme about the “international community.”
Meanwhile, China has spent the last two decades reaching out to these various other civilizations, and most of them get along very well with the Chinese. During the same two decades, the West has been engaged in brutal, pointless, and very expensive wars, serving no clear purpose anyone can explain beyond “Israeli security interests.” (Those countries could have been conquered a lot easier with Netflix and pornography, but the Jews wanted war. That’s the theme of all of this – the globalist agenda is continually undermined by bizarre Jewish psychology.)
The Chinese have also peddled a lot of influence in the West, primarily through being productive and exploiting the transnational ideology of the West.
Finally, to be clear: I don’t doubt that Western politicians have been bribed or that the Democrat Party in particular has a fair number of Chinese intelligence operatives and assets. The story of Fang-Fang the Chinese spy going around having sex with American politicians seems to be true, and that has probably happened a lot without the spies getting identified. But espionage and intelligence operations fit into my paradigm, rather than the “everything that happens wouldn’t happen unless it was a conspiracy” paradigm.
As well as being quicker to make, dishes served at diners were cheaper, too.
Items like pancakes, sausages, meatloaf, burgers, and sandwiches were typically served in the restaurants and still are in diners today.
The meals were low-priced, making diners popular even before their rise in the 1950s. During the Great Depression, diners provided an inexpensive way for families to go out to eat.
It’s the Same with Russia
These same kinds of issues come up when talking about how Putin is secretly working for Klaus Schwab – but those arguments aren’t even really important enough to address, because at this point, Russia is a de facto proxy state of China. To elaborate: China and Russia are in a binding alliance, and China is a much more powerful country than Russia, therefore: de facto proxy state – at least as regards Russia’s moves on the geopolitical stage. If China was allied with America, Russia would already be crushed (that’s why so many people tried to warn American planners that they had to choose one or the other).
Putin and the Russians obviously have their own objectives and so on; I don’t think they are a vassal state of the Chinese. But it is clear that Putin made sure the Ukrainian intervention was approved by China, and they would not have approved it if they didn’t think it served their interests. As we’ve seen, it has very much served their interests. Frankly, I am virtually positive that the Chinese knew how the US would react and did the math on how this would play out, ultimately resulting in the collapse of the dollar, and thereby the American Empire.
Meanwhile, by every single fact we are able to observe, the decadent leaders of the West are acting as though Russia and China are Iraq and Libya. It appears that they genuinely believe they can use brute force and threats of brute force to come out on top in this conflict. (It’s also worth mentioning that the West, due to the ultra-low moral character of its leaders and the utter lack of any unifying ideal beyond anal sex, has lost the ability to cooperate cohesively as a single body in the way that the Chinese do.)
Please note: Unlike the theoretical secret deals between the West and the Chinese (or Russia), the deals between China and Russia are very much visible and are largely committed to paper.
The West started this conflict, of course. I don’t know when they realized Russia was going to move into the Ukraine, but they had ample opportunity to prevent it by simply agreeing to the previous status quo. They appear to believe that they can create a protracted conflict in the Ukraine like they did when Russia invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s. That shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the situation. Ukraine has historically been a part of Russia. There is not really any such thing as a “Ukrainian identity” outside of being a vassal state. In the west of the country, they tend to feel closer to Poland, and there is some bad blood all around with regards to the USSR. But none of this is in any way similar to fanatical Islam. The US has backed neo-Nazism as a kind of “Ukrainian ISIS,” but you can’t rally a country around cartoonish neo-Nazism (particularly while the entire leadership of the country is Jewish).
The idea of using neo-Nazis as rebels against a Russian occupation or a Russia-backed government in the Ukraine is nonsensical, and reeks of the kind of stupid thinking that led to America’s Afghan debacle. The US government pays people to lie to them, and when people tell the truth, they get fired and end up on obscure livestream interviews answering superchats. These liars are telling the decision-makers that the Ukraine is Afghanistan and a protracted conflict can be used to drain Russia, which will ultimately result in the collapse of the Putin government.
The fact that they have no idea what they’re doing is blatant in the fact that they are sanctioning the entire Russian race. Putin’s support is going up rapidly among the people, many of whom didn’t like his policies before but now feel compelled to rally around him since they are being attacked personally for their race by the West.
Diners typically operate around the clock, allowing patrons to stop by at any time for a meal.
Since diners are open all night long, many pop culture depictions of diners involve a feeling of loneliness and isolation.
Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting “Nighthawks” shows a diner and its few occupants late at night. The painting is based on a diner in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
So, China Ruling the World, Huh?
We are clearly facing down a world ruled by the Chinese. A lot of people are uncomfortable with that. But most of the discomfort comes from the idea that the Chinese are somehow going to rule us in the same fashion that the US has ruled the world since World War II. They have no such plans for us. The Chinese have a vision of conquering the world through commerce, rather than war, threats of war, and geopolitical maneuvering.
We started out on the issue of the economic dominance of the US, and that economic dominance is indeed the key to everything. However, US economic dominance was entirely a result of US military might.
The reigning US philosophy for global economic dominance has been: “we will literally bomb you.”
Conversely, the Chinese philosophy has been: “we will sell you high quality products at reasonable prices.”
Chinese people do not really even understand what white people are, and they don’t have very much interest in learning. If a Chinese person outside of the major urban centers sees a white person, they don’t register them as a person, but rather as some kind of weird exotic creature that has popped up in their environment for mysterious reasons. The reaction is similar to if you were walking down the street, and saw Doraemon float in on a cloud.
You might stop and look at him in awe, you might take out your phone and take a selfie, you might just ignore him completely because your brain cannot register the existence of a Doraemon floating around.
This is to say: it’s a purely insular culture, which Westerners do not understand any more than they understand us. As an example: instead of trying to trace their origins as a people, the Chinese believe – and teach children in school – that China has always existed. In their thinking, China is the “Middle Kingdom” that sits between Heaven and a mass of strange barbarians who may be interested in buying products.
When the Mongols consistently raided them, stealing their women and wealth on horseback and riding off with the booty, they said “cannot allow.” Instead of mounting an army to crush the Mongols, they built a gigantic wall, and told the Mongols that if they wanted Chinese products, they would have to buy them at the wall.
It is precisely the same logic as a Chinese immigrant family setting up a store in an all black neighborhood and covering the counter, cash register, and expensive items with bulletproof glass.
China has always been, fundamentally, a merchant empire, and that hasn’t changed. If it were not for the belligerence of the West, they wouldn’t have bothered to build up a large military at all. Historically, virtually every war the Chinese have fought has been a civil war, as they don’t look at the rest of the world as enemies or friends, but rather customers and potential customers.
China has de facto economic dominance over most of Southeast Asia and a lot of Africa. They’ve not interfered with any of these countries’ political processes, and they’ve shown no interest in doing so. I’ve repeatedly pointed out that they should have sent advisors to Burma during their (still ongoing) political crisis, given that they’ve got such a large stake in the Burmese economy, but they did not. Even when it is obviously to their benefit, and the problem would not be difficult to mediate, they stick to a policy of non-interference.
Similarly, they had huge investments in Vietnam, but made no attempt to interfere with the politics there. The locals started to resent Chinese being richer than locals. This ended up in massive pogroms of Chinese businesses in 2014. It didn’t get a lot of media attention in the West of course, but it was a pretty big deal. They burned more than a dozen factories, and were just smashing anything with Chinese characters on it (they can’t visibly tell the difference between each other, because Vietnamese people are really just Southern Chinese). They ended up accidentally smashing or burning a bunch of Taiwanese and even Japanese businesses (I guess they didn’t attack Korean businesses, because Korean characters have that circle thing that makes them really obvious).
Several people were killed. China’s response was basically “this is very disrespectful behavior. We cannot continue doing business with you.” They didn’t threaten them with a war, or try to do regime change. The Vietnamese government said they would secure Chinese investments, and then only arrested two people. (The Wikipedia page on these “protests” is not very good, but might be a starting point for people who want to look into it more.)
China pulled most of their investment, and Vietnam continued to pivot towards America, a country that they had relatively recently had a relatively brutal war with. Some Western-owned factories moved to Vietnam from China, but mostly the result of the pogroms and lack of action by the government to the pogroms just meant more money for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia – countries where the local barbarians are more amenable to gentlemanly business practices.
Vietnam has effectively been cut out of the One Belt, One Road project, while the Chinese are doing expensive infrastructure projects and building factories everywhere else. Instead of using Vietnamese ports, China is going through neighboring Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia, then running a waterway shipping line past Vietnam.
This is why they’re going crying to the US State Department about fishing waters. I guess we’ll see how that gamble works out for them. (Obviously, at some point, they’re going to end up begging for the Chinese to come back – assuming they don’t end up being used in some kind of Western military operation.)
Note this: America still has military in Thailand. However, when push comes to shove, Thais are going to side with the Chinese, because dumping money into a country works a lot better for building stable relations than putting your military inside a country.
This little variation on Pork Chops is very, very delicious and so easy to make!
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 bone-in pork loin chops (3/4 inch thick)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large skillet, heat butter over medium heat. Brown pork chops on both sides. Transfer to a greased 11×7-in. baking dish; sprinkle with onion.
In a bowl, mix remaining ingredients; pour over chops. Bake, covered, until a thermometer inserted in pork reads 145°, 15-20 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Pay attention to this;
If the West wants to fight a bioweapons war, the East can do the same thing.
Two COVID Variants Just Combined Into a ‘Frankenstein’ Virus
The first subvariant of Omicron, the latest major variant of the novel coronavirus, was bad. BA.1 drove record cases and hospitalizations in many countries starting last fall.
The second subvariant, BA.2, was worse in some countries—setting new records for daily cases across China and parts of Europe.
After Biden and Blinkedin warned China that serious consequences would occur if China failed to sanction Russia, there have been outbreaks up and down China with this second subvariant BA.2. No other actions occured (aside fromt he mysterious mid-air breakup of a domestic airliner).
Now BA.1 and BA.2 have combined to create a third subvariant. XE, as it’s known, is a “recombinant”—the product of two viruses interacting “Frankenstein”-style in a single host.
With its long list of mutations, XE could be the most contagious form of the coronavirus yet. “From the WHO reports, it does appear to have a bit more of an edge in terms of transmissibility,” Stephanie James, the head of a COVID testing lab at Regis University in Colorado, told The Daily Beast.
But don’t panic just yet. The same mix of subvariants that produced XE might also protect us from it. Coming so quickly after the surge of BA.1 and BA.2 cases, XE is on track to hit a wall of natural immunity—the antibodies left over from past infection in hundreds of millions of people.
Those natural antibodies, plus the additional protection afforded by the various COVID vaccines, could blunt XE’s impact. For that reason, many experts worry less about XE and more about whatever variant or subvariant might come after XE.
Now, it appears that a deadly variant of the BA.2 has been detected in the USA. It's now known as XE.
The subvariant hasn’t shown up in U.S. tests yet. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t reached U.S. shores. “It might not be detected by the standard analysis pipeline,” Rob Knight, the head of a genetic-computation lab at the University of California, San Diego, told The Daily Beast. Major new forms of SARS-CoV-2 can require tweaks to testing methods.
XE is a nasty bug, owing to potentially dozens of mutations to its spike protein, the part of the virus that helps it grab onto and infect our cells. And it’s a strong reminder that the pandemic isn’t over. Even with widespread natural immunity and highly effective and safe vaccines, SARS-CoV-2 keeps finding pockets of unprotected people—and opportunities to evolve.
Diners have appeared in pop culture favorites like “Grease,” “Seinfeld,” “Gilmore Girls,” and “Twin Peaks.”
“In the movies, the diner is a special kind of space, a mythic place, a zone of escape,” film critic John Patterson told the BBC.
Suzanne Vega, who wrote the ’80s hit song “Tom’s Diner,” said, “The attraction of the diner is that it’s a sort of a midway point between the street and home.”
Trade is Better Than War
Frankly, if you read Thomas Jefferson – who was not an Orientalist – his vision for America was not dissimilar from that of the “Middle Kingdom” of China. He thought America should base its relationships with other countries on trade, rather than military or political antagonism (let alone moral lecturing).
This thinking was based primarily on the fact that the US had been a colony, and so understood the complexities of running an empire, which requires you to rule over people in foreign lands. Most all of the original American thinkers thought trade was a better way to interact with and influence the world than direct military rule.
Basically, this thinking ended with the Spanish-American war. Before that, America had wars, but they were all basically necessary (the Civil War is obviously complicated, but it was not a foreign war so doesn’t apply here). Because of the alleged sinking of the USS Maine by the Spanish – which turned out to be a fake news hoax – the US did an “intervention” in Cuba, and then “intervened” in the Philippines.
Irony of all ironies, however, the actual first “intervention” in a dumb foreign conflict was the support for the British during the Second Opium War.
The short story is: The US initially refused to get involved, and then were talked into sending a small number of troops by the British. After a few brief skirmishes, the US signed a neutrality agreement with China, effectively abandoning the British to their stupid adventure in global Jewish drug-peddling (the opium racket was run by the Jewish Sassoon family, and the entire scheme of conquering the Chinese by getting all the peasants addicted to drugs was a Jewish plan that the British went along with – the British have a proud history stretching back to Cromwell of cooperating with maniacal Jewish schemes). Then a US Navy commander went rogue and attacked the Chinese in defense of the British, claiming it was a race war, and “blood is thicker than water.” I agree with the sentiment, of course, but not in the context of a Jewish drug scheme on the other side of the planet.
So: our nation’s first stupid foreign adventure was against the Chinese as a part of a Jewish plot – and thus will be our last foreign adventure.
The Dragon’s Breath blows away the Empire of Dust.
Diners brought together people from different economic levels
Michael C. Gabriele, who wrote “The History of Diners in New Jersey,” told the Telegraph that “diners are the state’s ultimate gathering places — at any moment, high school students, CEOs, construction workers, and tourists might be found at a counter chatting with the waitresses and line cooks.”
During the civil rights movement, diners became a popular place for activists to hold “sit-ins” in restaurants that refused to seat black people, despite many of them employing black people to work there.
In 1964, Congress outlawed segregation through the Civil Rights Act, but many diners in the South continued to segregate their establishments, afraid that “seating blacks would drive away white patrons.”
Worse Things Have Happened to Better People
It goes without saying: no Chinaman ever tried to convince my son to cut his dick off. No Chinaman ever flooded my country with immigrants and pornography. No Chinaman ever called me “goy.”
China is not going to invade America. They are going to allow it to commit suicide. Over time, a new order will be established in America, and that new order will have the option of trading with China. Probably, during the chaos of this collapse, China will buy up a lot of the resources in America, and this will mean that a new emerging order will be tied in to the global economic order run by the Chinese. That’s unfortunate, but hey – your son gets to keep his dick.
A world with China as the central global superpower will be peaceful and based on independent countries engaging in voluntary commerce. It’s sad to see people getting so fussy over it.
I get that it’s also sad that the white man is not going to be the dominant force on the planet anymore. But in truth, we haven’t been for a long time. Everything that we associate with Western dominance in the modern age is really Jewish dominance.
Basically, 80 years ago, white people had a big war with each other and the good guys lost. Everything that’s happened since then has been effectively predetermined – a series of chaotic and revolutionary events driven by the chaotic and revolutionary spirit of the Jewish race. The Jews ultimately destroy everything. They can’t help themselves.
So, here we are.
Railcar-style diners are still manufactured in factories today, but they’re much more expensive to purchase and ship.
New diners can reportedly cost more than $1 million to produce, and restoring or renovating old ones can be extremely pricey as well. Instead, many ’50s-style diners in operation today are built on-site to cut costs.
US oil imports from Russia increase by 43%
If you are confused, well; welcome to the club.
In the past week, the US administration has increased its imports of Russian oil by 43%, reaching 100,000 barrels a day.
I have so much information to share with you today, and I will do my best to be brief. But be warned that this article is going to be longer than usual. Global events are moving so quickly now, and I believe that they are going to move even more rapidly in the months ahead. Sadly, the changes that we are witnessing will have a very real impact on the daily lives of every man, woman and child on the entire planet. As I discussed yesterday, a global food shortage has arrived. In fact, members of Congress are now using words like “famine” and “starvation” to describe what conditions will soon be like all over the world.
For example, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst just told Fox Business that our planet is facing “impending famine”…
About 40 to 45 percent of the production in Ukraine will be decreased this year because of the war and the scarcity of supplies that go into the planting season. And we know that Ukraine also supports about 400 million people around the world with its food products. So we do see that we have an impending famine. And I’ve heard from David Beasley at the World Food Bank that he’s now going to have to take from the hungry to feed the starving.
And U.S. Senator Cory Booker has previously warned that we could soon see tens of millions of people “dying of starvation”…
“Democrats and Republicans in Congress need to quickly come together and approve emergency global food aid in order to prevent tens of millions of people, including millions of children, from dying of starvation,” Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, told Reuters.
They aren’t exaggerating.
Even Joe Biden recently admitted that food shortages are “going to be real”.
The one thing that could provide a ray of hope would be an end to the war in Ukraine.
But it appears that isn’t going to happen any time soon. In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that his nation will not accept anything less than “victory” in the war…
Special Report’s Bret Baier interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday evening, touching on a wide variety of topics, including what a victory looks like for Ukraine and what Putin is hoping to achieve.Baier asked the Ukrainian leader at the start of the interview how he believes the “war will end” prompting an explanation from Zelenskyy that only “victory” will be acceptable to his country.
Good luck with all that.
Now that the Russians have pulled their forces away from Kiev to focus on the eastern front, there is a lot less pressure on Zelenskyy to compromise on a peace deal.
And the fact that this conflict has made him one of the biggest celebrities on the entire planet actually gives him an incentive to keep it going.
Meanwhile, millions upon millions of people are already deeply suffering. In Somalia, we are being warned that an “impending famine” is at the door…
What we are now seeing is impending famine similar to that which occurred in 2010/2011 in which more than a quarter of a million people died – including 133,000 children under the age of five. Although some donors have committed to fund Somalia’s Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) which seeks US$1.5 billion, not even 4% of funding required to meet Somalia’s humanitarian needs have been allocated. Like the novel coronavirus, which had impacted many of Somali households, the Ukraine crisis has driven inflation and rising costs in Somalia, particularly for food and energy, at a time when families are already incredibly desperate.
The reason why the situation in Somalia has become so desperate is because that nation normally gets more than 90 percent of its wheat from either Russia or Ukraine…
Finally, in the Horn of Africa 13 million people are already suffering from hunger. Ethiopia imports around 40 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine, Kenya 30 percent, and Somalia over 90 percent.
Meanwhile, the food crisis in Yemen just continues to escalate. One man that was recently interviewed admitted that he and his family “live like ants”…
Experts are warning that the world faces a historic famine. The war in Ukraine is only one of many problems plaguing the global distribution of food.In Yemen, Ghalib al-Najjar skips meals so that his children have enough food. He says he and his family “live like ants or fish…we eat what we can find.”
An ongoing wave of violent protests in Peru shows how the Russian invasion of Ukraine is affecting markets around the world, sparking unrest and deepening political divides.Rising fuel costs originally triggered the protests, which started last week, but quickly intensified into large anti-government demonstrations with marches and road blockades.
So far at least six people have died in the chaos, and protesters continue to block at least nine major roads.
In Afghanistan, it is being estimated that 95 percent of the entire population does not have enough food to eat right now…
Afghanistan has faced grave hunger crises before. Two decades ago, people in the country were so hungry they resorted to eating wild grass.But the situation in the country now is unprecedented.Exacerbated by an unusually cold winter and the worst drought in decades, the economic upheaval that came with the Taliban takeover has left 95% of Afghans without enough food.
We haven’t seen anything like this in a really long time.
The World Food Program estimates that 285 million people face starvation.The head of the World Food Program, former South Carolina Governor David Beasley, says the world food supply already faced a catastrophe before the war in Ukraine.“We’re so short of funds already, and now with Ukraine, we’ve got 50-percent rations for people, for example, in Yemen, I’ve just cut 50 percent rations for eight million people. Niger, 50 percent rations, Chad 50 percent rations. And 50 percent don’t have anything, those who are in extreme need,” Beasley said.
Of course this is just the beginning. As I specifically warned in Lost Prophecies and 7 Year Apocalypse, conditions will eventually become far more severe than they are at this moment.
Here in the United States, nobody is starving just yet, but the cost of living is escalating at a frightening pace.
According to a Bloomberg report, the average U.S. household will need to spend 5,200 dollars more just to have the same standard of living as last year…
“Inflation will mean the average U.S. household has to spend an extra $5,200 this year ($433 per month) compared to last year for the same consumption basket,” Bloomberg Economics reports.Having to spend an extra $433 per month to get the same is a hefty, even gargantuan ask for anyone — especially parents who are already struggling to keep a roof over their kid’s heads and food on the table.
And our historic supply chain crisis just continues to get even worse.
The wait times for semiconductor deliveries rose slightly in March, reaching a new high, after lockdowns in China and an earthquake in Japan further hampered supply.Lead times — the lag between when a chip is ordered and delivered — increased by two days to 26.6 weeks last month, according to research by Susquehanna Financial Group.
The system is crumbling all around us, and we really are in the early stages of a full-blown economic implosion.
Initially, it will be the poorest nations that suffer the most.
Millions upon millions of innocent people don’t have enough to eat right now, and that number will rise with each passing day.
Normally, most Americans don’t pay too much attention to what is happening on the other side of the world, but food scarcity is growing in the United States too.
So if you and your family have enough food to eat tonight, you should be very grateful, because at least for now you are one of the lucky ones.
What Chinese houses look like
You know, you can easily see glimpses of China by looking at the backgrounds in the Douxing videos. here, we have a girl dancing in the front of her home, and in her living room. I can tell you that this is normal. This is what China is like, and to all those people who mistakenly believe that the Chinese nation is going to collapse any day, well… don’t hold your breath. video 2MB
Quick Chicken and Dumplings
Using precooked chicken and ready-made biscuits, this hearty dish is comfort food made simple. It’s the perfect way to warm up on chilly nights.
1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried sage leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions
Cut each biscuit into fourths; set aside. In a large saucepan, saute onion and green pepper in oil until tender. Stir in the chicken, broth, mushrooms, bouillon granules, parsley, sage, rosemary and pepper.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; add biscuits for dumplings. Cover and simmer (do not lift cover while simmering) 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a dumpling comes out clean.
By the 1970s, the rise in fast-food restaurants led to a decline in the popularity of traditional diners.
As McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King restaurants continued to pop up nationwide, it became difficult for small business owners to compete with the huge corporations also selling cheap, convenient food.
While there were reportedly over 1,000 diners in New York City around 30 years ago, just 398 remained in 2015, according to a Crain’s New York Business article citing the city’s Department of Health records at the time.
One way to view civilization collapse is to say that every nation dies when its marginal costs exceed potential profits. This means that each action is so encumbered — red tape, taxes, unions, corruption — that none of them are worth doing.
At that point, people stop trying to improve things and simply make do with what they have or stop using it. In this way, even technological civilizations revert to third world subsistence agriculture.
The Soviets went out hard because they imposed the burden of socialism on every action. The West has done the same with insurance, unions, high taxes, regulations, and diversity costs.
Individual industries do it too. You may notice that every software product you own is blighted with constant trivial updates, and that almost every company wants to sell you a “service” instead of a product.
For example, why own a software package like Microsoft Office when you can pay a monthly fee to use an online service “in the Cloud” (translation: on servers owned by someone else)? Makes sense, until you realize you are re-buying the software every ten years.
Microsoft realized it had a problem with Windows XP, Windows 7, and Office 2007: if you do something right enough, people will never buy another product unless forced. That means you need to downsize your company.
In other words, the end result of Microsoft would be to make a really good operating system and software, then fire everyone but five guys who answer the emails and keep selling the stuff.
Businesses need to find new horizons in order to stay ahead of this, just like societies constantly need new goals to avoid stagnation, but with all of the regulatory, tax, and affirmative action costs, they cannot afford to do that.
Instead they become rent-seekers, having built something great and now trying to extract as much money out of it as possible. Consequently they want you to pay them fifty bucks a month, however they have to justify it, so they can count on consistent profits and limit their size accordingly.
These are signs of a sick economy, and that usually means a sick society, since it has made crazy-stupid decisions to the point that it no longer operates as an economy but as a tax and rent-seeking cash cow.
All of that is extracted from the average wagie, which means that he pushes his employer to find ways to make more money in the world outside of his borders, at which point globalism — effectively created by unions driving labor offshore at the same time that democracy decided that with the Soviets out of the way, it might as well complete what it started in WW1 and take over the world — becomes a ruthless profit-seeking activity.
We saw this starting two decades ago when grocery stores began offering those little customer loyalty cards. If you got the card, you got better prices and enough coupons to keep you coming back.
As long as they got their $50 a month out of you, life was easy for them. Multiply that amount times their number of consumers times twelve and they know their baseline revenues, which enables them to keep hiring their friends and other bloat.
Software updates are another variation on this. They ship you “free” updates every month that eventually require you to upgrade your gadget because it cannot handle the bloat and waste of the new updates.
When margins overwhelm profit potential, everyone turns into a rent-seeker. “I have this title or ownership, therefore hand me things.”
Entropy wins at that point. No one can act to improve anything, and everyone forms a little hugbox dedicated to preserving the gimmedats of the status quo.
A civilization avoids this state by doing two things: first, it cuts external costs so that margins do not overwhelm profit potential, and second, it socializes mature products by granting monopolies that then cut staff.
If, for example, we decided that Microsoft Office 2019 was the best that an office suite could ever get and had no flaws, it would make sense to transfer it to another authority which would be five guys in an office with a monopoly and no interest in expanding it.
That would force Microsoft to find new fields to till, new mountains to climb, and new visions to dream instead of milking the past in a rent-seeking pattern that ends with everyone paying them a subscription fee just to enjoy normal tools.
We know that tech is grinding to a halt because it has invented nothing new for a long time. The grand visions of Google sputtered and died; Facebook has turned into Second Life; Twitter now seems like a good place to go get state propaganda but not much else.
This means that transition is on the wind. The old ways no longer work. Every time you see a service fee or update, console yourself with the knowledge that this is simply a grave being dug for worldwide democracy and the NWO.
In New York City, few original diners remain. However, the recent embracing of nostalgia — think, the rise in speakeasies — has also revitalized the typical American diner.
A recent addition to New York’s Soho neighborhood is the trendy ’50s-style Soho Diner, part of the Soho Grand Hotel. Other New York diners, like the Waverly Diner and the Empire Diner, have managed to keep their doors open despite changing tastes.
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CIA tries to import insects that devistate crops
China inspects all packages. It’s a 100% full scan policy. This is because for decades, the United States has been busy introducing plagues, insects, and viruses to destroy China via destruction of it’s food base, and in any and all forms. This is known as “hybrid war”.
China has not retaliated…yet.
But if and when they do, the United States will collapse like the house of cards that it is.
This is typical, and apparently it’s a common enough event. Once discovered, the Chinese then send the packages on (minus the insects) and watch who gets the packages. Then the person just disappears after their mandatory interview with the PLA. video 3MB
Unfortunately, the sanctions the US put on Russia do not appear to be harming Russia at all, even as they are furthering the destruction of the economy of the West, and setting the stage for a collapse of the dollar as reserve currency.
Russia has just announced that if Europe wants its oil, they’re going to have to pay in rubles. This will heavily reenforce the ruble, of course. Presumably, it will make up for most or all of the damage that the sanctions have caused.
Russia will now accept payment for gas exports to “unfriendly countries” in rubles only, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the government on Wednesday.The president explained that Russia plans to abandon all “compromised” currencies in payment settlements. He added that illegitimate decisions by a number of Western countries to freeze Russia’s assets destroyed all confidence in their currencies.“I have decided to implement in the shortest possible time a set of measures to change the payments for – yes let’s start with this – for our natural gas supplied to the so-called unfriendly countries in Russian rubles, that is to stop using all compromised currencies for transactions,” the Russian president said.“It doesn’t make sense to deliver our goods to the EU and the US and get paid in dollars and euros,” he added.
For those who don’t know the details: it is impossible for Europe to shut off Russian gas any time soon. They will literally freeze to death, or have to figure out some kind of wooden steam system.
People were saying Russian might just shut off the gas and let Europe deal with the situation, but this is much better.
The ruble bottomed out on March 7, and has been largely recovering. It’s only down 13% over the month of war.
If you consider that Russia is currently under the most severe economic sanctions in history by the most powerful economic entity in history – it’s not looking too bad.
That 13% isn’t going to affect anyone’s life in Russia, it only affects international trade. Not a big deal. No one in Russia is suffering from this, unless you consider being denied PornHub, Netflix, and McDonald’s as “suffering.”
This ultimatum to Europe will give it its 13% back.
Meanwhile, the Russian stock market, which was closed on the day of the incursion into the Ukraine, was reopened and is doing fine.
Russia’s stocks continued to rise sharply on Thursday as the Moscow Exchange reopened for limited trading this week, after suspending most of its transactions on February 28.The ruble-based MOEX benchmark went up more than 11% to 2,743 points. The dollar-denominated RTS index of leading Russian stocks was down slightly, to 888.59 points.The Moscow Exchange resumed trading in 33 Russian equities, including shares of Gazprom, Sberbank, Aeroflot, and other domestic firms. Oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil were both up by 20% and 16%, respectively. Aluminum company Rusal rose more than 14%, while Norilsk Nickel jumped more than 22%.
So, basically, the US operation against Russia has been like a situation where a guy breaks into your house and is waving around a gun at your family, then he goes ahead and puts the gun in his mouth and blows his own brains out. You’re going to have to clean the brains off the wall, and repair the locks on the door, but otherwise you’re going to be good. The intruder, however, is not so good. He’s just blown his own brains out.
This is all happening very quickly.
It’s hard to keep up with.
But the US has effectively committed a very public suicide in the name of a bizarre moral signaling campaign about how they are very good people and so oppose the very bad Russians.
It now looks to me as though this thing was planned over a very long period of time. Since the Maidan, Russia, presumably working with China, has set a trap for the United States in the Ukraine. They knew that after the revolution, the West wouldn’t be able to help itself, and would move NATO forces into the country, and NATOize the country, and so they planned the response – and understood the US response.
There had to be an invasion, because they had to get the US to act in this deranged way, which is the result of both unfathomable hubris and the general degrading of the culture into a state of nonstop moral panic.
The US has already lost.
Putin has demonstrated hypersonic missiles in the Ukraine. These cannot be shot down by any of NATO’s missile defense systems, meaning if NATO tries to attack Russia conventionally, Russia can strike targets across Western Europe. Moreover, there is just no way to invade Russia.
The only remaining options are to back off or start a nuclear war.
It is looking like they will do some kind of chemical attack false flag hoax in the Ukraine, but I don’t even understand what purpose that serves. The only people who will believe that are the “international Community,” which America is already dragging down to hell with them.
There are other theories. Alex Jones and others are saying that Western intelligence is planning to assassinate Joe Biden and blame Russia. That seems a bit outlandish, but I guess you never know. Still, I don’t really see what purpose that would serve. Russia can just say they didn’t do it. Then what changes?
The wheel is already turning.
The jig is up.
The Church – Under The Milky Way
Continuing with the 1990s theme, perhaps a reader or two might remember this little gem…
Family. Rufus. It’s all about a greater purpose. video 1MB
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Probably most cat owners have dreamed of building their cat a little home at some point, but not like this! Peter, the founder of the ZenByCat organization, and the builder of this wonderful cat paradise that we’re about to show you, slowly but surely executed his life’s dream: living in harmony surrounded by the cuddly and perfectly happy rescued fluffballs.
Just how many cats, you might ask? Over twenty. But it’s alright, Peter’s house is built for it. Literally. So scroll right down and check out the catopia, the Shangri-La of cat homes, except this one exists for real.
God bless this man.
Here’s Peter, the founder of the “House of Nekko”
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Nobody could’ve imagined that he’d turn his house into catopia (cat utopia), but he did
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Peter, who bought the house in 1988, has designed the house to meet all of the needs of his rescue cats
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It has platforms specially made for cats to roam around without sacrificing the high ground
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There are tons of plants and feeding spots so they feel like the kings and queens of the jungle
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Separate feeding spots ensure that they’re never fighting for their food
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It even has spiral stairways that have access to floors only cats can get to
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Even the bathroom is decked out to suit the needs of the felines
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Yes, this is a cat hamster wheel
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There are even some plant-themed rooms just so they feel like in great outdoors
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The house has lots of high spots that cats love
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Of course there are scratchers and beds, too
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“I heard you like cat houses, so we put a cat house inside a cat house, so you can live while you live”
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Overall, Peter has over 20 rescued indoor cats living with him
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The cats are well taken care of. As if all of it is not enough, they even have their own pillows and blankets
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Peter’s ZenByCat non-profit organization was found to fight a deadly disease called FIP, Feline Infectious Peritonitis
The story of Zen By Cat begins with a kitten Peter adopted in, 2016, Miss Bean.
Miss Bean was diagnosed with Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). With her condition rapidly deteriorating Peter seemingly had no choice but to euthanize her.
But before the decision was final, Peter received a message from a friend of his. She said she knew a vet at UC Davis, who might be able to get Miss Bean into a Drug Trial for young kittens with FIP.
Peter decided he had to try.
Over the course of the next 31 days Peter and Miss Bean went on a roller coaster of improvements and setbacks against FIP.
Sadly, Miss Bean lost her fight on July 26, 2016.
In honor of Miss Bean and all other victims of FIP, Zen By Cat was set up as a nonprofit to raise money and awareness for FIP research. Since this, Dr. Pederson and others at UC Davis, have made great strides in their research and have successfully cured many cats from FIP, including Peter’s cat Smokey.
But there is still work to be done to bring the drug that saved Smokey and others to market.
Peter’s workstation just screams “I love cats”
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And last but not least, an obligatory stalking window
Conclusion
Sure, the world is undergoing a realignment. And the West, led by the United States, is putting up a fit, and a fight. But it will lose, and the world will calm down soon enough.
This little article is designed to show you what one person can do to make their little corner of the world a better place to live in.
Participate.
Contribute.
Make the world a better place.
And if the rest of the world howls, let them howl. You have far better things to do with your time. I believe in you.
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my cat section in my happiness index here…
There’s quite a bit going on in the world today. And if you listen to the “news”, well, it’s all very frightening. It just seems like the entire world is going to shit. Well, it seems that way, but don’t be so sure that that is the case. Actually, the people in control are actually very smart, and they live in Asia.
But the USA, well, it’s going to Hell in a handbasket.
Here we are just going to throw out some representative articles about the global Geo-political situation mixed up with other tidbits of a MM interest. I hope that you enjoy this adventure.
Rufus gets wet
You have to stop being a spectator and start participating in life. Stop watching and start doing. Here is what happens when you make that change. you become a Rufus, and your entire life changes. video 2MB
American Consumers Ditch Brand Names For Generic Food As Inflation, Shortages Hit Supermarkets
U.S. consumers’ loyalty to brand names at supermarkets is quickly evolving as they try new grocery products amid snarled supply chains and high inflation.
Top food companies like Kraft Heinz Co. and Kellogg Co. are at dire risk of losing market share as supermarket operators grapple with shortages and fill empty store shelves with lower-cost brands, industry insiders told WSJ.
American households are money-conscious more than ever as inflation hits four-decade highs and takes a bite out of their monthly spending budgets. Some consumers have broken ranks of years and years of brand loyalty only to buy whatever is on the shelf, often generic brands.
“We see people make more choices on items because they are available,” said Tony Sarsam, chief executive officer of grocery chain SpartanNash Co.
Sarsam said SpartanNash had reduced shelf space for food products from major brands because of shortages, allowing it to expand room for local brands, which had more dependable supply.
Private-label consulting company Daymon Worldwide Inc. conducted a survey between May 2020 and August 2021 and found 70% of U.S. consumers bought new or tried different brands in a post-pandemic world. This means brand loyalty could be collapsing as consumers buy what is available and the cheapest.
Even though consumers generally buy familiar brands, industry analysts show high inflation and belt-tightening by households have forced many to find a better deal to make their dollars go further, even if that means buying generic brands.
84.51 LLC, a data analysis business of supermarket giant Kroger Co., also confirms consumers are switching to low-cost brands.
Kroger’s 84.51 said that 90% of consumers are willing to try another brand if their primary brand is unavailable.
WSJ spoke with one consumer in Fort Lauderdale who has been, like many other Americans, trying out new brands because the ones they wanted were out of stock or because prices were too high.
The days of supermarkets carrying only top-shelf brands could be over as shortages and inflation open new opportunities for food companies that can deliver low-cost products.
The shift in shopping behavior is a significant warning for major brands as supermarkets are desperately trying to fill shelf space amid shortages. People are more inclined to try new brands, and many seek low-cost ones.
“There hasn’t been a lot of customer resistance,” said Jonathan Weis, chief executive of Weis Markets Inc., referring to consumers trying generic brands. “They’d rather get orange juice than no orange juice,” he added.
Your comments please.
Old-Fashioned Tangy Cabbage
Here’s something fun and super easy to make.
When was the last time that you had a side of cabbage with your meal? Probably in ages. I’ll tell you what, you are not going to get this in a restrurant as you will have to make it yourself. There is not a single fast-food establishment that will serve this great dish. But don’t worry. It’s delicious and easy to make.
Old-Fashioned Tangy Cabbage is the perfect go-along for almost any main dish. It’s a simply delicious combination of cabbage and apples, simmered in cider and a few other great seasonings, too!
Your comments please.
What You’ll Need
1 green cabbage, shredded (about 12 cups)
2 red apples, cored, seeds removed, and cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
What to Do
In a soup pot, combine all ingredients.
Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium, and cook 25 to 30 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed and cabbage is tender.
People have hardships
Oh, yes they do, and a Rufus is aware of them. This is becuase a Rufus has experienced them himor herself. We know. We understand, and we are there to help. Be the helping-hand Rufus. Show empathy and understanding. video
Your comments please.
The United States should have heeded Lee Hsien Loong’s advice.
By Global Times Published: Apr 01, 2022 12:21 AM
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Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is on an eight-day visit to the US. Lee mentioned many times the solidarity and cooperation of the international community.
He reminded Washington that if the US cuts off China, “the price is very high.”
He also emphasized that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework should be built “on a win-win basis,” and “as a way to engage the region and not just on strategic or security and potentially hostile basis.”
This is not the first time that Lee raised kind reminder to Washington.
He has expressed similar views many times before, including describing the two superpowers, China and the US, as “conjoined twins,” and warning that clash between the two powers would be a disaster for the world.
In addition, Lee has many times expressed the attitude that Singapore cannot take sides.
Singapore is one of the US’ closest partners in Southeast Asia, though not a formal treaty ally. Former US president Barack Obama once said Singapore is an anchor for the US presence in the region. At the same time, Singapore has significant influence in ASEAN. Therefore, Lee’s remarks are sincere to Washington and representative and symbolic in ASEAN.
“When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.” This phrase is being brought up more and more frequently today, which reflects a sense of realistic anxiety. ASEAN countries are reluctant to be forced to take sides between China and the US, and they are more worried about becoming a wrestling ring in the game of major powers.
Singapore can be regarded as one of the countries that have achieved a relatively good balance between China and the US.
But with the promotion of the US’ strategic containment against China, it has become more and more difficult to maintain this balance. It is noticeable that when Lee made objective remarks on China-US ties this time, he was labeled a “Beijing whisperer.”
But in any case, even if the US covers its ears, wears a blindfold and exerts brute force, it still cannot change the reality that the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy is unpopular in the region.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi recently said publicly that the US needs a stronger economic agenda for the Asia-Pacific region, as opposed to its current focus on security issues. “What the people want is prosperity, not only security… our people will ask what is the meaning of developing the concept if [‘the Indo-Pacific strategy’] doesn’t bring economic benefits for the people,” she noted. ASEAN countries are generally aware that the US only wants to create a “bridgehead” against China in the region.
For a while in the past, some countries believed that if they made enough concessions, the US could provide enough support to them. However, it has been proven time and again that US promises are like window paper.
Washington’s “America First” agenda, which only cares about itself and not others, has made some countries suffer and made others more alert. Singapore had actively embraced the US-sponsored Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but it ended in vain, with the US withdrawing from the agreement. Today, the US is trying to promote another NATO in the Asia-Pacific and expand NATO to the region, embedding more risks of conflict in the region.
As a country embedded in globalization, Singapore cannot afford a geopolitical confrontation between major powers and attaches particular importance to the security and stability of its surrounding environment. Thus, it is extraordinarily sensitive to geopolitical risks and has a forward-looking judgment on the situation. In the past two years, Singaporean politicians have warned on various occasions that the Asia-Pacific region is moving in a very dangerous direction and have repeatedly expressed their call for the US to accept China’s rise, and that they “don’t wish to be forced into making invidious choices,” while stressing that this is also in the fundamental interests of the US. Such voices of reason, however, are often ignored by Washington.
An unavoidable reality is that though the US wants to weave a tight net to besiege China, the net cannot withstand scrutiny. Be it the Five Eyes alliance, Quad or AUKUS, none of the members are ASEAN countries. Public opinion has noticed that at the press conference after US President Joe Biden met with Lee Hsien Loong, Biden mentioned the Indo-Pacific six times, but Lee hardly used this term which is an American concept that carries strong bloc politics, and chose “Asia Pacific,” a clear indication of a gap with the US’ stance.
A just cause has many helpers while an unjust one finds few followers. No force can run counter to the trends and hearts and minds. Even though Washington can continue to fool the public opinion, it cannot fill up the hollowing out of the Indo-Pacific strategy. If Washington cannot even listen to the advice of Singapore, a close ally, reality will teach it a profound lesson.
Barry White
He has been such an inspiration in my life. Seriously. Most especially his later stuff. And unfortunately he died young. Be that kind of inspiration.
Learning about China by looking at the Chinese girls here
This is a great and a fun way to get a snapshot of another nation. You take a look at the society, and in this case, you look at the women and girls there. Of course, if all you do is watch American “mainstream media” you might think that Chinese girls are flat-chested, thin waifs that tremble becuse they are overwhelmed by the great mass of horny menfolk (due to the one child policy). Of course, it’s a massive lie, but heck. If you want to be stupid, stay that way. I just don’t give a fuck. Here’s what Chinese girls really look like. Video.
Do these girls look like they are downtrodden, helpless, thin, look like little girls desirous of American democracy?
Model Trains
About twenty five years ago I subscribed to a HO scale catalog. This was sort of my dream book. There, I would leaf through the pages in this 30mm thick (one inch think… telephone sized book) catalog with all sorts of glossy images of toy trains and homes, and buildings.
Its not that I actively had a HO layout or was involved in this hobby. Instead, it was a fantasy that I employed to relax with.
I would go to the bathroom, and take a nice dump while I would leaf though the pages. There, I would imagine the model layouts that I could construct, were I to have thousands of dollars in disposible income. Alas, it never happened, but it was a nice escape.
Though, for me, instead of visualizing trains, and train lines, I actually visualized building towns, bridges, farms, and tiny, tiny communities. All peopled with tiny, tiny people.
You can visit their web page here, and get lost in the latest in cool minitures and tiny, tiny people.
Of course, there are locomotives and train cars galore.
Did you ever have a train set growing up? How old were you and what kind was it?
Chinese patriotism
The big lie parroted and regurgitated thoughout the Western media is that the Chinese are downtrodden, unhappy and yearning for democracy. All that needs to happen is a “regime change” and then the United States can come on into China and fix things the “American Way”. It’s a big bunch of sloppy, juicy bullshit. The Chinese approval ratings for the Communist Party are around 98%.
Here’s some glimpses of just how overwhelmingly patriotic the Chinese are about their Communist Government. video 74MB
The United States is supposed to be the beacon for the world. Why isn’t this level of patriotism experienced inside the ‘States?
Inside Info: Israeli Pay Sheet for Internet TROLLS
Israel pays people to be Internet TROLLS, and to intentionally “steer” Internet conversations and information in a pro-Israel direction. The pay sheet below shows what these TROLLS are being paid to do:
So while YOU are out on the net, perusing public opinion about issues and news, these folks seem to be out there intentionally steering content to achieve THEIR goals.
They don’t have to tell the truth. They don’t have to actually believe what they’re posting. They get paid to post.
Remember that as you peruse the Internet. There are people and groups and entities deliberately manipulating what you read to manipulate YOUR opinion and views.
As I have clearly stated, the algorithms that decide which websites to harrass are totally flummoxed by the MM systems of multiple subjects covering a wide variety of topics.
Australia’s big new move on China: Major announcement expected
A major announcement is expected to be made in response to a controversial decision involving China and a crucial Australian site. It appears the Australia is going to place a massive American logistics base near Darwin port, or break their contract with the Chinese. Why would they do such a thing?
The door has been left open to building a new port facility in Darwin port amid concerns over a Chinese company leasing the existing port.
A Defence review found there was no national security grounds to recommend the Morrison government to overturn the port’s 99-year agreement with China’s Landbridge Group.
Buried in a media release from Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was the inclusion of $1.5bn for “new port infrastructure” in Darwin.
Asked if it was for a new Darwin port, to be announced as an election commitment, Defence Minister Peter Dutton did not rule it out.
“There's a massive commitment from the government into the Northern Territory and that does look at port development and ways in which we might be able to look at support through contracts in defence for example,” Mr Dutton told reporters in Canberra.
It seems “new” and fancy. When really, it’s a flavor experiment that is really a fun thing to make up on a nice lazy weekend.
Sourdough bread adds a special artisan touch to this easy Italian Style Sourdough Melt. Inspired by a famous San Francisco sourdough bread, this sandwich is easily made at home.
What You’ll Need
2 tablespoons pesto
4 slices sourdough bread
1/4 pound sliced deli ham
1/4 pound sliced deli salami
1 tomato, sliced
4 slices provolone cheese
What to Do
Spread pesto evenly over one side of each bread slice. Equally divide the ham, salami, tomato, and provolone cheese on two slices of the bread.
Heat sandwiches open-faced in a toaster oven, or on a baking sheet in a 350 degree F. oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
Top with remaining 2 slices of bread, and serve.
MM discusses public services
It’s a nice walk around near my house. I just chat some about public services, streets, easy transportation access. Maintenance. Public toilets. Trash pickup. Etc.
Do you like my walk abouts? If so, then tell me your thoughts.
The Euro-weenies to order China to sanction Russia
The European Union and China will hold a virtual summit today. Before the summit started Brussels has strewn rumors that it would pressure China to not support Russia. That’s not going to happen. As of 4FED22, Russia and China are one single nation; a United Asia.
China is of course rejecting any pressure and retaliates by pointing out Europe’s weak strategic autonomy:
Hours before the China-EU leaders' meetings on Friday, Chinese analysts warned that China-EU relations cannot be kidnapped by the Ukraine crisis, and Europe should no longer be abducted by the US in foreign policy, as it will greatly undermine the EU's own interests, making it difficult to ensure economic recovery and people's livelihood, and runs counter to Europe's aim of pursuing strategic independence. ...As the Russia-Ukraine conflict stretches to over a month, Europe has sustained great pressure resulting from sanctions against Russia and its over-reliance on US-led NATO security structure."The EU is now kidnapped by the US on security, but that does not conform to the strategic independence EU has pursued," [Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies] said.To avoid being caught in hot water again, the EU must take control of its own destiny. And developing ties with China provides the EU an opportunity to develop in a more balanced and comprehensive way in the long term, he said.
Its reliance on the U.S./NATO is Europe’s core strategic weakness. The U.S. has used it to infiltrate Europe’s decision making structures.
How could EU possibly consider that they have any persuasive power to dictate to China? The truth is easy to see. China shall satisfy its national interests. Nothing more, and nothing less. Meanwhile, the EU will satisfy its master’s interests; The Unittied States.
These bucco’s are all a bunch of hallucinating fruit-cases.
I am not at all exaggerating. This is the absolute definition of insanity. When you have repeatable experiences that has time and time again, proven a repeatable result, and yet, a person (or organization) insists on a different result. Sheech! Didn’t China reject Europe’s requests of abandoning Russia multiple times in the past?
>The recent failed attempt by 3 Ukrainian helicopters to evacuate troops from Mariupol was a desperate mission with very low chances of success. This raises the question why would Ukraine risk what little is left of its airforce for something so suicidal?
>Macron started spamming Putin with calls, demanding permission to carry out a "humanitarian evacuation" in Mariupol with the help of French, Greek forces.
>The head of the French military intelligence is getting fired for "failures" to "proper assess" the situation in Ukraine.So we have:
>.ua suicide mission to evacuate someone>Macron shitting bricks and begging Putin>Head of French military intelligence getting sacked
Further sources indicate the presence of two #France intelligence #DGSE operatives (both said to be dead) on board the crashed helicopter. This would explain #Macron's desperate please to #Putin as of late to organize a French-led evacuation from #Mariupol#MARIUPOL—With respect to the 2nd chopper shot down, it fell several kilometres off the coast of Mariupol, in the #Azov sea. The location is currently being investigated.#MARIUPOL—Sources indicate that, at #Azovstal, a group totaling 20—of #US (#American) & #UK (#British) military advisors of #Azov defenders, as well as several UK #SBU (#Ukraine|ian secrete police) advisors—is holed up, together with Azov fighters. They were too late to evacuate.
You get this great item of clothing on the internet, and you can’t wait until it arrives. You check the size and and put it on, and this is what happens…
Women can add their thoughts.
Secrets
Everyone has a story to tell. Some are good, and some are not so good. But that’s life. It’s what makes us human. Here’s a story from a man that holds a secret inside that he can never let out.
A while back, I was cheating on my wife with a coworker. It went on for months, and I never really cared for the woman I was cheating with. She was super hot, though.
After a while my coworker started getting really crazy and threatening to tell my wife (whom I had a child with and a baby on the way) about everything. Obviously, I kept trying to cut things off because I realized I was making a mistake.
She lost it one night and was freaking out and texting me telling me she was going to come to my house, and a drunk driver hit her. She died instantly.
No one knows I was having an affair, and my family went to her funeral.
Some secrets are left buried. There’s no need to tell anyone about this, and there’s no justifiable reason to do so.
Oh Hell no!
Yikes!
Your comments.
Why Chinese audiences don’t love Hollywood blockbusters any more?
A new change By Chen XiPublished: Mar 30, 2022 07:24 PM
March is coming to an end, but the three highly anticipated foreign language films The Batman, Moonfall and Uncharted have failed to inject new life into the current stagnant Chinese mainland box office.
As of Wednesday, the total box office of the three films has not been able to surpass the 300 million yuan ($47 million) mark, with The Batman, Moonfall and Uncharted grossing 117 million yuan, 74.68 million yuan and 90.31 million yuan respectively, according to China’s ticketing platform Maoyan.
The current surge in COVID-19 cases nationally has probably been a large barrier preventing them from maximizing their box office as Maoyan shows that as of Tuesday only 46.8 percent of mainland theaters are open.
Pessimistic outlook
China’s Qingming Festival holiday is set to kick off in the beginning of April. In recent years, more small and medium-budget domestic films have chosen to debut during this time because, unlike the Spring Festival, they do not have to worry about competing against big blockbusters.
For example, Sister took home 860 million yuan when it was released during the Qingming Festival period in 2021, driving the overall box office of this period to a record high.
However, due to the current COVID-19 outbreak in China, four domestic films that were set to debut during the Qingming Festival have delayed their release dates. This has allowed two foreign language films Escape Room: Tournament of Champions and Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania to take the lead in the schedule, although they may find the Chinese film market a tough nut to crack, according to a report from Maoyan on Wednesday.
The report noted that more domestic films are likely to be released in April only after the outbreak is brought under control.
Looking at the overall schedule, only one to two foreign language movies are set to be released each week throughout April in the mainland film market, including the highly anticipated The Secrets of Dumbledore, US action thriller film Ambulance and Indian blockbuster Drishyam.
Inevitable trend
Chinese film observers, however, say that the COVID-19 pandemic has only been a “catalyst” and that it is inevitable for Chinese audiences to eventually lose interest in Hollywood movies.
According to industry insiders, there are many reasons behind this trend.
First of all, Hollywood has been producing fewer original stories in recent years as the industrialization of Hollywood has caused it to focus more on movie franchises, comic book adaptations and visual effects blockbusters, Shi Wenxue, a film critic based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“Whether it is The Batman or Spider-Man, Hollywood only captivates audiences through nostalgia without any creative expression about the current international situation and the impact of the pandemic on human beings,” he added.
Shi is not the only one to think this way.
The hashtag “Why does the Chinese audience dislike watching Hollywood movies?” began trending on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo recently. Some netizens said they feel the main reason is that Hollywood has indeed become too commercialized, producing routine “fast-food”-like movies without any innovation by assembly line, and that the current Hollywood output is incomparable with past classics such as The Godfather, Forrest Gump and Avatar.
Shi Chuan, vice chairman of the Shanghai Film Association, told the Global Times on Wednesday that films from other countries, especially those made in Japan, South Korea and India, also pose a threat to Hollywood movies in China.
“Movies like Japanese film Shoplifters and Indian blockbuster Dangal achieved huge success in the Chinese film market, as the stories from neighboring countries resonate more with Chinese audiences. This shows that only good stories can hit people’s hearts,” he said.
He added that in the past, when the China’s economy was lagging behind the rest of the world, people only had access to simple means of entertainment, and so were naturally attracted to the technology and culture of economically developed regions. However, now that Chinese audiences are more open-minded and confident, their taste in movies has improved.
The huge successes of Wolf Warrior 2, The Wandering Earth and The Battle at Lake Changjin prove that the Chinese film market has been rapidly developing.
“We create our own heroes and most of them are adapted from real historical stories, which makes them more convincing.”
In 2020, China surpassed North America to become the world’s largest film market in terms of box office.
Shi pointed out that a deeply rooted reason for the decline may also stem from Chinese audiences questioning the US-centric ideology on display in Hollywood films, which tend to be about the American Dream or portray the ideological embodiment of US hegemony.
“Chinese no longer believe in US heroes in their stories. In the current international context, we don’t seem to need this kind of salvation, let alone fully identify with what they value,” he said.
The policy was adopted by NFL owners during their annual meeting on March 28 and requires all 32 NFL teams to hire an offensive assistant coach who is “a female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority,” regardless of whether or not the team already has a coach who satisfies those requirements among their staff.
In the Clinton 1990s, the wisdom circulated that White America was getting replaced and therefore, business needed to cater to the New Americans.
Various comically condescending attempts followed, after which point they finally hit on a solution of sorts: continue affirmative action but through private industry.
To be part of the goodthinker club in the coastal cosmopolitan metroplexes where the executives, publicists, journalists, and investors live, therefore, it seemed like a logical rationalization from precedent to start with more of these programs, even though it is steadily driving away their core audience.
It is one hell of a piss-boor business model.
The curse of the white cat.
White cat owners please chime in.
Why it is important to not use cheap measuring tapes
This is shocking!
It gives “China” a bad name. Though, actually the white tape looks to be from Vietnam.
My son was very troubled. VERY troubled. If you have seen the movie “We Need To Talk About Kevin”, it will really help to understand what I’m talking about, because I swear to God when I watched that film I thought I was watching a documentary of my life, I felt like the writer must have had cameras hidden in my damn house, that’s how accurate it was. The only difference is that in the movie, the boy appears normal to his father and only reveals his true nature to his mother, with my son he didn’t have that mask. His insane behavior was the same with everyone.
From the day he was born, my son just came out wrong. He was planned, my wife and I tried to get pregnant and were ecstatic when he was born. He was wanted and loved. We showered affection on him and really tried to give him a happy childhood. But from the day we brought him home from the hospital, he was miserable. He cried for 13 months straight. I’m not exaggerating, 13 months without a break, he cried until he had no voice left and kept crying, you could see his little face scrunched up and no sound coming out, totally hoarse. There were times he would literally be crying in his sleep, I’ve never seen or heard of any other kid able to do that. We brought him to doctors, specialists, tried changing his diet, held him, rocked him, toys, swaddling, music, mobiles, everything we could think of. Nothing worked. 13 months of grating, grinding, no sleep hell.
Once he got over the crying stage, we thought we were out of the woods. But it quickly became clear that for some unknown reason, he was just angry at being alive. I never saw that kid have a genuine, joyous smile once in the time I knew him. I saw him grin a vicious, horrible grin many times, taking a perverse pleasure from causing pain or suffering or breaking a rule, but a smile from real pleasure at something nice? No, never. Not once. He had no interest in anything positive; he was fueled by hate, and everything he did was bent toward that.
As soon as he could walk, his mission in life was to destroy things. He would break or try to break anything that came in his range, smash it, chew it, throw it in the toilet, whatever he could. After a while he figured out how to get his diaper off and took great pleasure in shitting and pissing anywhere he could. After a while he figured out he could hide it, and started pissing and shitting in places we wouldn’t find right away, grinding it into carpets making it even more of a problem to clean and making the house stink. When he got older, (ages 9-15) he would piss and shit in our bed, until we got a lock on our door and he wasn’t able to get in anymore; then he’d just take a dump in the hallway in front of our room. That biological warfare started around a 2 and a half years old and he never grew out of it.
I’ll try to speed it up as I could literally go on for days about this stuff, but as he grew older, he became more and more unmanageable. He would bite, kick, scream, scratch and spit at anyone trying to do anything with him. He was kicked out of school twice before he was 9, then let him back in and then kicked him out for good, he had to change schools. The next one put him in a special class that kept him away from the other students. We had to install a door and lock on the kitchen because he would steal knives and use them to gouge the walls/furniture or chase people with them. When he was 10, he stabbed me pretty good in the hip and ass, I still have the scars. As he grew older, he grew darker. He moved into setting things on fire, and torturing local animals. There was a stray dog that hung out around the park near our house, my son blinded it in one eye with a BBQ fork. He would dip cat’s tails in gasoline and light them on fire. He became a violent, stinking, vicious beast that lived in our house. We couldn’t do anything with him.
YES, we had the kid in fucking therapy. He saw a psychiatrist twice a week, and had god knows how many different medications prescribed to him over the years. Nothing worked. Therapy didn’t work. Meds didn’t work. Nothing fucking worked. He was like a poison cloud of hate and fury lashing out at anything in his reach.
When my son was 16, my wife got pregnant again. I can’t tell you how different our reaction was. Instead of joy, we felt horror. This pregnancy had not been planned, and we really were at a loss over what to do. My son had been such an unending nightmare for 16 years, we couldn’t take the idea of starting again from the beginning. We talked a lot about terminating, but a) access to abortion was not as easy in those days as it is now, and b) my wife was very against it. We talked about many options. In the end, we decided that my wife would have the baby, and if it turned out evil we would put it up for adoption. We knew we just couldn’t do it again with another child like our son.
We had a daughter. She was normal. Suddenly we saw what our lives should have been like the whole time, how things would have been had our son not been himself. She laughed at things. She breast fed without biting (she didn’t have teeth yet anyway, but you could tell she was just trying to eat, not tear her mom’s breast off). After 4 months she was sleeping through the night. She was happy. She was NORMAL. I can’t describe the relief and happiness that we both felt, I don’t have the words for it.
This where I believe I may have started really pulling back from my son. Up until that time, whatever mistakes I made, I had always tried to do the best for my son, I am convinced of that. I tried to help him and love him and care for him, I really tried. But when my daughter was born, my wife and I both instinctively just turned toward her. She became our focus, not from malice, but just because she was so much EASIER. She was so happy and sweet, every moment we were with her was like magic. I understand this was wrong, but we honestly couldn’t help it. I don’t have a better explanation than that.
My son hadn’t given a shit about my wife being pregnant, I honestly don’t know if he really understood it, but when we brought our daughter home he started acting out even more. I didn’t think it was possible, but he took it up another notch. At this time he was 17, and we were having blow-out screaming matches daily. Usually after we fought, he would storm out of the house and disappear for hours at a time, or come back the next morning. It was a relief. I started to actually look forward to our fights because it would get him away from us for a while.
After the birth of our daughter, my relationship with my son was almost entirely gone, our only real interactions were screaming at each other. My wife was even worse with him, she just had nothing left. By that time, if our son even came in to the same room as her, she would just stop whatever she was doing and start screaming “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY! GET THE FUCK OUT!” until he left. He started spending more and more time out of the house, which was a blessing for us. I have no idea what he got up to out in the world, but we were just happy it wasn’t being inflicted on us.
As a consequence of our son’s behavior, we had invested heavily in locks around our house. All of the cheap, thin interior doors in our home had been replaced with think, dense wood doors that couldn’t be kicked through, equipped with keyed locks that my wife and I carried keys to. I know it sounds extreme, but locks and heavy doors were the best way we had found to create safe spaces from him. I was not locking my son in rooms like a prisoner, he had free reign of the house and could come and go as he pleased. My wife and I would lock OURSELVES in rooms to protect ourselves from him, if anything WE were the prisoners in our own home.
On the day in question, I had fought with my son in the morning and he had left the house in a rage. My wife and I were enjoying some peace and quiet in the kitchen while our daughter napped in our bedroom. And then my daughter began crying. Any parent who has young children can tell you, you get used to your child’s cries and you can tell after a while what they need, they cry differently if they are hungry, or need changing, or are just restless and want to be held. Babies can communicate pretty well before they can speak. This cry was none of those things. This cry was terror. The second we heard it my wife and I were both up out of our chairs and running to the room. The door was locked of course, and it took a few seconds to get the right key and get it open.
My son was in the room. We lived in a bungalow, and the bastard had climbed in the window to get to her. He was standing over her crib with a steak knife in his hand. I have no idea where he got it, it wasn’t one of ours; we controlled our knives very carefully and always kept them in locked drawers. I think he may have stolen it from one of our neighbor’s houses. He had broken her skin twice already, once in the belly area and once on her arm. I could see blood running down. When I entered the room he was dragging the back of the knife down her face, not cutting, almost tickling her with it, teasing her while she screamed. He looked up at us and smiled.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was already moving, running to put myself between them. I didn’t think about it, I just moved instinctively. Even with that, my wife got there faster, it was like a movie on fast forward, she got to our son and bashed his hand away, knocking the knife across the room and then shoved him with her whole body weight, so hard that he flew away from the crib and bounced off the wall. I picked up my daughter and held her while my wife screened us. I could see her shaking, almost convulsing. I can remember the smell of the room, the sound of my daughter screaming and wailing. The look on my son’s face as he stood there. Just nothing. Blank, dead, there was nothing in his eyes, no emotion. He looked like an alien to me. I watched my wife take a step toward him. I could have reached out and stopped her, but I didn’t. She stepped forward again, very close to him. I could have stopped her again. But I didn’t. She waited, looking at him for maybe 3 to 5 seconds without moving. And then she punched him in the face.
Now until this point, you may have been picturing my wife as a typical woman, small frame, dainty, delicate. This is not the case. My wife does have a small frame, but dainty and delicate she is not, never has been since I’ve known her. Since her early teens, my wife has been a boxer. MMA didn’t exist back then, but karate and boxing were big in those days, and my wife was a VERY talented amateur. She was about 130 pounds, she carried a lot of muscle and she knew how to punch. I had 70 pounds on her back then, and I have no doubt that in a real fight between me and her she could have and would have pounded me flat. Neither of us had ever laid a hand on our son in anger before, but something broke in her that day, and all the years of anger and pain and sorrow and frustration just came pouring out. When she hit him his head snapped back and blood started pouring out of his nose. He hardly reacted, he just looked at her with this shocked expression like he didn’t know how to process what had just happened. She waited another second. And then she hit him again.
I could have reached out and stopped her. I could have dragged her out of the room, taken her away, calmed her. I didn’t. I just stood there and watched while she systematically started to pound him to a pulp. Every time he brought his hands to cover one part she would blast him somewhere else, body, head, body, head, over and over. He started screaming, crying out, yelling for her to stop. It’s the most genuine reaction I’d ever seen him have to anything in his whole life. But she wasn’t stopping. I watched her ramping up, hitting harder, faster, working him like a heavy bag. He tried to swing at her and she slipped him easily. She was on auto pilot, sinking down into her training. I stood there watching for a minute. Then I turned my back on them and took my daughter out of the room.
I brought my daughter to the kitchen and gave her a bath in the sink. I found that he had cut her a third time on the sole of her foot. All the cuts were superficial. I cleaned her up and held her until she calmed. I put Polysporin and Band-Aids on her cuts. In our bedroom, I could hear my son screaming, calling my wife horrible names, telling her he would cut her head off and fuck her corpse. After a while, I didn’t hear him saying anything anymore, didn’t even hear him crying out. I assumed that he must have been knocked out. But I could still hear her beating him.
That went on for a long time. Long enough for my daughter to drift off to sleep in my arms. I just sat at the kitchen table waiting for her to finish. Finally she came out and sat down across from me. Her hands were swollen and red. Her face and arms were splattered with blood. Her chest was heaving. We just stared at each other without saying anything. After a while I asked her “Is he dead?” She looked back at me and answered “I fucking hope so”. I nodded. That was all there was to say about that. I understood how she felt perfectly. I felt the same. I didn’t know what to do, so we just sat there waiting silently. Eventually my wife started crying and went to go take a shower. I just stayed where I was holding our daughter.
After a long while, I heard moaning and sobbing coming from our room. It turned out that my son wasn’t dead. I went in to see how bad it was, and it was… pretty bad. I’ve never seen a more merciless beating laid onto anyone, before or since. He was lying on the floor, rolling around with blood leaking out of his face, lying in a pool of vomit. His nose was squashed flat out across his face, both of his eyes were completely swollen shut and starting to blacken already. I could see that a couple of his fingers were bent out at weird angles and he had pissed his pants. I think he must have been missing teeth, but I couldn’t see any on the floor and I couldn’t see inside his mouth, his lips were all puffed up and swollen. From talking to my wife about it later, I know now that she had systematically beaten every part of his body, focusing heavily on his legs. She told me she kicked him in the groin repeatedly until her legs got tired, and had kept beating his body long after he had passed out.
When my wife came out of the shower, I still didn’t know what to do about our son. I didn’t know whether to call the police or an ambulance, take him to the hospital myself, I honestly didn’t have any idea what to do. After a while I realized that I simply didn’t care what happened to him anymore, and we decided to just let him live or die on his own. There was an in-law suite in the basement that we had never really used, and my wife, my daughter and I just moved down there. We simply ceded the top floor of the house to my son and locked everything down, separated our lives entirely. There was plenty of food in the upstairs cabinets, enough for a couple weeks or more, he had a washroom and bedrooms to use. We had a washroom in the basement, a small kitchenette, and a separate entrance so we just stopped going upstairs. We just decided we were done with him. I figured we’d let his food run out and see what happened.
Over the next week we could hear him moving around upstairs sometimes. I think he just spent most of time lying in bed recovering. I went to work, watching on high alert in case he attacked me in the driveway, but he never did. My wife stayed home with our daughter. She was never out of our sight. One night we heard him going ballistic, smashing things and banging. We didn’t respond. He never tried to get downstairs or get near us though. I think he was afraid that if he got near us again, my wife might finish the job on him. After three weeks down in the basement, we hadn’t heard anything from up above for a few days, and I ventured upstairs to the main floor of the house.
The place was demolished, and there was no sign of my son. He was gone. It took months to repair the damage he had done and get the main floor back to normal again. There was food and shit smeared all over the walls and broken glass on the floor, big holes in the dry wall, he had ripped the place apart. He tore up the linoleum in a corner of the kitchen and emptied an entire foam fire extinguisher into the living room. I feel thankful that he didn’t burn the house down with us in it, I’m honestly not sure why he didn’t, the kid wasn’t shy about lighting things on fire. After that, I lived in fear every day that he would come back, that he would ambush us out of the blue and try to kill us. We moved house about 3 years later and I finally stopped being afraid that he would show up again, as now he had no idea where we were. I finally felt safe from him.
All this happened a long time ago. My son was born in the spring of 1971, my daughter was born in ’88. I’m an old man now, I’ll be 70 this year and my wife passed from cancer in 2016. My daughter is 31 now, I moved in with her and her husband after my wife passed. I’ve got two granddaughters and they are the joy of my life. I see a therapist a couple times a month to talk about all this. I don’t know where my son is. The last time I saw him was when he was lying on the floor of our bedroom, bleeding and smashed. I haven’t heard from him since he left, more than 30 years now. I don’t want to.
I carry a lot of guilt from that time, and a lot of conflicted emotions. I didn’t beat him myself, but I allowed him to be beaten, and I thought he deserved it. I was happy it happened. I didn’t try to kill him, but I would have been happy if he died. I will say that I do hope he was able to overcome his demons and go live a normal life somewhere. If he wasn’t able to do that, if he stayed the way he was, then I truly do hope someone out there killed him. When I knew him he was a rabid dog, and whichever way it went I just hope he isn’t still out there hurting anyone else.
…
This entire write up has shooken me. As someone who was married to a mentally ill person, I could very much relate to the situation that I found myself in when her personality went Dr Jekkle and Mr Hyde. Comments?
MM commentary
I’m sure that he moved into politics, and is probably in a great position of power inside Washington DC today.
A great deal on a “fixer Upper”.
It looks like a lot of work, don’t you know.
‘Tattooed Lady”, Rory Gallagher performs live at Rockpalast (1977)
When asked how it felt to be the greatest guitar player in the world, Jimi Hendrex responded “Ask Rory Gallagher”. Please enjoy this section of one of the guitar greats from my youth.
This ornament has a hole for a light to poke through so it mimics the lit lighter from Die Hard.
Die Hard is a classic Christmas movie. Don’t you think?
Remember to be the Rufus
It defines your sentience. When the going gets tough, the survivors are those that are members in a community. The idea that the lone-wolf can win and survive is just a Hollysood fantasy. History celarly tells us otherwise. Be that Rufus. video.
The alarm bells are ringing. Are you going to step up to the plate and participate in life, or are you going to still stand by and be a spectator? Be a Rufus. video 2MB
“Russia is Succeeding Wildly in its Objectives!” Scott Ritter on the War in Ukraine
Outstanding interview! Read this and get a fresh perspective. -MM
Transcript – Interview with Scott Ritter, March 23, 2022
Global Research: The last time you were on the show, about a month before Russia authorized a military incursion into Ukraine you mentioned that if it did happen it would not be trying to occupy the country. It would be in your words “lancing the boil.” An attempt to demilitarize and destroy Ukraine as a modern nation-state. It seems based on mainstream media coverage that it is in fact trying to occupy the country. Millions of Ukrainians are literally leaving the country as we speak, and this is not an operation that would end in days. It’s now approaching a month. Several Russian soldiers have been killed. They seem to be bogged down outside of cities. Certainly NATO is not yet going to engage them it’s true. Russia isn’t succeeding, no doubt due in part, it seems, to the resistance of the Ukrainian soldiers.
So let me ask you if you’ve changed your mind about what you said two months ago. I mean, did you err in your assessment of the Russian logistics in the situation?
Scott Ritter: NO! I’m a hundred percent correct! I mean, the fact of the matter is Russia isn’t occupying Ukraine!
Ukraine is a nation of forty one million people. Now, they say ten million of those are displaced, some internally some have fled. That still leaves thirty million people occupying expansive areas of terrain, including cities such as Kiev where you have over three million people. Russia came in with two hundred thousand troops. Military math just simply says no, you’re not occupying Ukraine with two hundred thousand troops!
So, let’s just stop that kind of nonsense right off the bat! This is politicized rhetoric, what people say, that Russia is trying to occu – because what you’ve done now is create a straw man that says therefore Russia has failed in its objectives!
Russia is succeeding wildly in its objectives! I don’t have to speculate. Russia has stated what its objectives are! There are two military objectives that will lead to one political objective.
The first military objective is de-Nazification. That is, the absolute destruction, liquidation, annihilation of the neo-Nazi and ultra-right wing nationalist military formations and the political parties that sustain them, along with any legislation that empowers them.
For instance, legislation passed in January of 2021 which made Stepan Bandera, a right wing Nazi supporting, Jew killing Ukrainian nationalist, elevated him to the status of national hero! And then went around – they passed additional legislation which named streets after him, named boulevards, named places, raised monuments and then also brought back into the mainstream people of his ilk. Nazis, people who had enlisted and served in Waffen SS units during World War II. People who had served in Einsatzgruppen that killed Jews during World War II. These people are now rehabilitated, and their names are put up in places of honour!
The Russians want to eliminate this. They want legislation passed in Ukraine which de-legitimizes Nazis instead of praising Nazis.
The Russians are doing very well on this front! They’re in the process of finishing off the last Nazi defenders of the city of Mariupol. This is where the Azov battalion, now a regiment, was headquartered. These are right-wing neo-Nazi extremists, many of whom have swastikas and other Nazi symbols tattooed on their bodies. This is where they tormented the Russian speaking population for the past eight years! They are now in the process of being killed, or captured by the Russians.
That is what de-Nazification looks like. Similar de-Nazification processes are taking place elsewhere in Ukraine anywhere where the Russian forces find a neo-Nazi national unit of Ukrainian army. So anybody who thinks that the Nazis are doing well against the Russians, think again!
The second is de-militarization! This means that Russia is going to dismantle the NATO army that had been built in Ukraine. A lot of people don’t realize that there were 260,000 active duty Ukrainian military personnel, most of whom have been trained by NATO in the past eight years to NATO standards. That means that Ukrainian military units were inter-operable with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. You could take a battalion, a NATO trained Ukrainian troops, and place them under NATO command and they would perform well.
This isn’t theory. This is reality. Ukrainian troops participated in numerous NATO-led operations around the world and in Europe. So, Russia has said that this – the existence of a NATO proxy-force is unacceptable, and that its goal is to de-militarize Ukraine.
Now, this could be done peacefully with Ukrainian soldiers staying in their barracks, while the Russians dismantled and removed from Ukraine all NATO provided equipment and oversaw the reorganization of Ukrainian military in a manner which made it no longer a de-facto proxy of NATO. Or if they wanted to resist, Russia would destroy them.
Now Russia came in a little soft handed early on. They didn’t bomb the barracks. They went out of their way to avoid unnecessary deaths among the Ukrainian troops. But the Ukrainians decided to fight!
Lets be clear here. This is a big army: 260,000 active duty, 310,000 reservists and security forces. Normally in the military if you want to launch an offensive operation, you want a three-to-one advantage. That is, for every single defender, you want three of your own troops. Russia went into Ukraine with a three to one disadvantage! Meaning for every single Russian, there were three Ukrainians. And yet, Russia is winning on the battlefield. They are advancing at a rate faster than the German army advanced during the Blitzkrieg of World War II! They are engaging the Ukrainian forces on large scale combat operations the likes of which have not been seen in Europe since World War II. And they are prevailing.
They are in the process of entrapping 60-100 thousand Ukrainian troops in Eastern Ukraine, one of the largest bedlam development cauldron type operations seen since World War II. They are doing the same around Kiev. And they are doing the same in the area of Odessa.
A lot of people will look at video-tapes that have been put out on YouTube and elsewhere showing destroyed Russian columns, dead Russian troops. This is war on a scale that people can’t imagine! It’s well beyond anything the United States and its allies undertook in Iraq and Afghanistan. When you have war on this level, there will be tactical setbacks.
Ukrainians who are extremely hard fighting, well-trained, well equipped groups are capable of limited combat success. And they are enjoying limited combat success on the battlefield. There is multiple occasions where they had defeated the Russians. Where they have inflicted serious casualties on the Russians. But from an operational and strategic stand-point, the Russians are winning and winning decisively. Ukrainians cannot sustain their defence. They lacked a logistical depth. They’re running out of gas. They’re running out of ammunition. They’re running out of food and water. Their troops are worn out, worn down, and are rapidly disintegrating as we speak. As we speak!
The Ukrainian defences in Eastern Ukraine are collapsing. They’re starting a panicked retreat westward. They’re going to be cut off by the Russians, and probably killed by the Russians if they don’t surrender to the Russians. So no, the Russians are doing quite well. People are…
GR: Did you say the Russians, I mean, put on your military and analyst glasses for a moment. Is Russia going to prevail? And how far away is the victory? IS it weeks away, or…
SR: Russia will prevail. And I believe that Russia is closer to victory than they were starting this conflict. Meaning that Ukrainian military is collapsing as we speak, and the ability for Ukraine to sustain large scale resistance is diminishing if not being eliminated.
This war’s over! It’s all over but the shouting! That’s all just a statement of fact.
GR: If you’re right about this, then what do you make of the role of Zelensky in this situation? Because he’s been speaking to governments around the world, and he’s a national hero and everything. But dies he think that he can still win this? The forces will, you know, “close the sky” and all the other things? Or is there something more going on in terms of seeing the writing on the wall as it were?
SR: Well, Zelensky knows what the outcome of this will be.
Think about it for a second. Every time he says, “if you just close the skies, if you just give us a no-fly-zone, we can win!” But what’s he really saying? That the Russians are winning the war! Okay? I mean there’s no other way of interpreting that!
GR: Yeah…
SR: He’s not saying, “hey, don’t worry about not closing the skies because we’re doing pretty well on the battlefield. We’re going to win this thing!” He’s saying that if you don’t close the skies, we have lost this war!
GR: Ahhh! Okay…
SR: And that’s exactly what’s happening. Because NATO is not going to close down the skies, and Ukraine is losing the war. He knows this. His generals know this. His troops know this. This is why at every single chance, everybody involved in the Ukrainian resistance is demanding a no-fly-zone because without this, they’re doomed, and they know it!
GR: What about the sanctions aspect of it. I mean, are they going to wear down the Russian public over time? Or will the boomerang effect of the sanctions wear down the US, Canada, and the EU first? How do you see that the sanctions aspect playing out?
SR: Well, let’s look at this strategically for a second. Joe Biden looked Vladimir Putin in the eye last June and threatened him with massive sanctions should he act on Ukraine. Sanctions like you’ve never seen before! Alright, now Putin as soon as he got done changing his pants and everything because I’m sure that just scared him to death. He had months to sit down with his inner circle and say, “how do we prepare for this?” Nothing the U.S. and its allies are doing has taken the Russians by surprise. NOTHING! They anticipated EVERYTHING! And they have a plan in response.
As for instance today, when the sanctions came out, remember Russia had 650 billion dollars in sovereign fund in reserves – foreign reserves, gold reserves – and half of that was dispersed in banks around the world. And people went, “why would you do that?” Because the West is going to freeze them, which the West did. And the answer is because Russia was setting the West up for a trap, which was sprung today.
Today, Vladimir Putin gave a speech in which he said the following: “Because you froze our assets illegally, you have defaulted on every obligation you have in regard to Russia. Therefore, Russia will not only never again accept foreign currency, you know, for payment for Russian services or goods, we are going to demand from this moment on that all nations that are on the non-friendly list that is everybody who sanctioned them must now pay in Russian Rubles for natural gas.
Okay Europe cannot survive! One of the big things that came out of this economic sanctions was that the United States had been promising Europe, “Don’t worry about Russia gas! We have a plan B! We will be able to bring together resources and make sure that you have the gas you need!”
Well, there is no plan B. There aren’t the resources available. There’s not enough gas. And Europe will shut down immediately.
Now, Russia hasn’t shut off the pipelines. Because Russia was laying a trap. Russia now has confirmed that Europe is addicted. Germany has admitted right now that if Russia turns off the gas pipelines, Germany won’t have any gas for next winter. It’s over! All she wrote! Their economy will collapse! The French economy will collapse! Every economy in Europe will collapse! And there will be a rebounding effect in Canada and the United States.
So now, Europe is in the difficult position of if they want to keep the gas going, that they must keep going in order to survive, they’ve got to pay in Russian Rubles. Take a look at what’s happened to the Russian Ruble just today! IT’s rebounding! Everbody said the Ruble is collapsing. No! It’s the dollar that’s collapsing right now! Because the Russians have laid a trap. They set the trap. And this is just the first of many! The Russians have many other traps out there that they have set, and they can initiate at a time of their choosing. So, the notion that the sanctions…
Look, the sanctions are hurting Russians right now. There’s no doubt about that. But the sanctions also liberated Putin for the first time since he took power to be able to divorce Russia from the Western economy. And in doing so, eliminate in totality any leverage the West had over Russian domestic political affairs. The West used to be able to threaten sanctions. And the Russians are saying, “gosh, maybe we don’t want to do that so we’ll…” The West no longer has – the West has sanctioned everything. It’s over!
Putin has said, “thank you very much! Thank you! You’ve done me a big favour! The first thing you’ve done by freezing all the assets is that you have disembowelled the oligarchs!” You know that corrupt class of Russian businessmen that came to life during Boris Yeltsin’s ten years as a president. That Putin inherited!
Putin was able to neuter them politically by telling them that if they get involved in domestic politics he will destroy them, and he did. Several of them have been forced to flee to London and elsewhere because Putin will put them in jail for life.
The others that remained were able to retain their riches and continue to get rich, but they were not allowed to be involved in politics. But their existence has always been a thorn in Putin’s side. He doesn’t like them. He doesn’t want them. And he hates the fact that he needed them.
But now that the West has gone in and seized all their assets, they’re bankrupt and broke! And guess what! Putin doesn’t want them now! He’s told them to get the heck out of Russia! HE has no use for them! Go live where you wanted to live over there! You’re no longer welcome here!
The other thing that’s happened is about 20 percent of the Russian population that was relatively apolitical, who tended to vote for the status quo, meaning vote for Putin would have turned on Putin had Putin initiated a divorce with the West. These are the Russian middle class whose economic well-being had become so intertwined with the West that there could be no thought of breaking with the West. If any move by Russia, by Putin, by anybody, to do so would have caused a backlash that any democracy, and Russia is a democracy, would have cost the incumbent the vote. Putin would have been voted out.
But now that the West has sanctioned Russia, it is not Putin that has made the divorce, it’s the West!
Putin is now applying shock therapy to these people, seeking to rapidly reinstate their middle class status, by pivoting eastward to China, to India, to elsewhere, to recapitalize the Russian economy. And now that he has made gas based upon the Ruble standard, those Rubles that these Russians had in the bank that last week were worth nothing, they’re worth twice as much today! And this time next week, they’ll double in value again! And the middle class is going to forget the West ever existed.
GR: Amazing analysis! Scott Ritter, it’s been a pleasure hearing your unique take on this situation. We thank you so much for your time!
SR: Thanks for having me!
Do you think that Scott is right?
The United States spending tax dollars
So true.
Don’t Rely on fate
It is up to YOU, no one else, to adjust to change, and make and forge a great wonderful life to live in. That means control of your thoughts, and control over your actions. Don’t rely on others. Don’t rely on fate. Don’t pretend that somehow space aliens are going to come down and prevent a nuclear war. (They sure as fuck didn’t stop any of the bioweapons attacks, and pretending that Bioweapon World War III isn’t in process; it’s a “pandemic”, is just a childhood fantasy.) Stop living childish dreams. Now is your time. NOW IS YOUR TIME. Make a difference today.
You have to do kind, just and maningful things. Sure, it’s nice to watch heroes in action, but just smiling, buying a cup of coffee for a co-worker, inviditng a co-worker to your home for cards, or volunteering at an animal shelter are all fine Rufus actions. Make a difference. Now is that time. video 6MB
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I’ve really got to spend more time on the MAJestic / Domain stuff.
This article describes what it is like when I communicate via the EPB to The Domain Commander. I have placed this here to help clarify things. I think that most MM readers are aware of these facts and issues, but newbies are probably ignorant of the issues involved and how things work.
Quick Review
Que science-fictiony “grade B” music here…
MM, as part of his entry in MAJestic, had seven ELF probes placed in his brain, and then used a dimensional teleporter to enter a facility of The Domain. Then, by using the portal, his non-physical body was modified and an EBP was implanted in his physical body.
MM was an active participant in MAJestic from 1983 until the ELF probes were shut off in 2006. MM is retired from MAJestic. The ELF probes have been mothballed.
Retirement lasted from 2006 to 2011. However, EBP implant became dominant in 2006, and resulted in a cornucopia of writings.. MM internet presence began in 2019.
In 2021, MM reviewed Alien Interview and parsed it. It answered many of the missing “puzzle pieces” in MAJestic operations, and opened up a clear connection between the entities present during the EBP medical probe, and present day MM life inside of China.
This connection opened up a clear comm bridge. Active comm with the Domain Commander occured in 2021.
First MM books published in 2022.
Presently, MM uses the EBP to continue to communicate with the Domain Commander. MM has no dealings with MAJestic.
This article discusses how the EBP operates during comm.
Some points
Only those with an EBP installed can communicate in this matter.
Further, you have to be “attuned” to the fact that communication is going on.
It is not automatic. It is something that you acquire from practice. The more I do it, the better at it, I become.
Orders not words
Communication is in an array of images, thoughts, emotions, physical feelings, and expressions that are difficult to put into words. They are rarely transmitted into words.
For instance I would image a bottle of “Lydia E. Pinkham” and depending on the context, I would transcribe that as either…
Woman’s medical issues.
A need for MM to calm down and not be upset.
The start of industrial mass production.
A need for medical care.
It would depend on the context, and my nudges towards the meanings.
In the instances where I tried to capture exact words or phrases, I would be images that I would assemble into words. Often generating nonsensical words.
Ma + Des. Esc / ap + Leon.
Any and all things could be used to generate impressions that I would then translate onto paper…
Pictures
Memories
False memories
Scenes from my life
Scenes from movies
Slide shows
Diagrams
Songs
Music
Talking, chatting
Feelings, emotions, senses
Smelling things.
Physical reactions.
We can only communicate with that I understand
If you want the Commander to explain to you what happened to your mother when you were a girl of 7, I will not be able to help you out.
The Commander is not omniscient. It reads my thoughts and responds back to them in images, emotions or feelings. Never exact words.
When I translate what I see or experience, they are my interpretations of what the Commander expressed to me.
When I comm with the Commander, it is based in an understanding that I have. Thus, I try to transcribe it. If I know a person, such as yourself (the reader), in greater detail, I can get more accurate responses. Otherwise, all that I can provide is generalities. As the information that I get, while accurate, can be misunderstood by myself. (I am sure that you understand.)
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But there is something else.
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When the comm opens up, there’s something else. Man, it is hard and difficult to describe. He / it / she is not speaking to me. It is data transfer with emotions. Multiple channels. I feel things, while I get “understandings”. Sometimes I get pictures, images, slide-shows, movies, memories of my past events. It’s like the commander is running a “show and tell” for me.
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So instead of “hearing” words and phrases, something else is happening. I am getting ideas and concepts all tangled up with emotion and feelings. No one is “talking” to me. No one is EVER talking to me.
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If anything, it’s a thought impression. Although, such “prepackaged” statements are easy to read. Such as…
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You’re Welcome.
No.
Yes.
Don’t do THAT!
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So when I understand you better, I can translate what the answers are, better keyed to your very being. It’s important.
The Commander has a personality
This is absolutely true. He / it / she has a sense of humor and can express emotive actions to me. These add a better dimension to the feelings that I am experiencing. For instance, a “bad feeling” can be “Horrible”, or “minor inconvenience” depending on the data stream provided to me.
It’s personality shines, and “tickles” me from time to time, and that results in some odd responses that I record down on paper.
The strongest emotions
The strongest emotions that I have felt had to do with the “Lost Battalion” members of The Domain. It was like watching your first love dying before your eyes. It was that gut / heart-wrenching.
I can honestly say that it is profoundly unlike anything that I have ever experienced. There’s real anger, want, need, turmoil, emotion, angst in these question and answer sessions.
Additionally, I am in communication with some half-awoke members of the Domain that are in full realization now. I can tell which ones are who, simply by the emotional responses and the intensity of that connection with the Commander. It is a close attachment that is indescribable.
How I know that I am with an active COMM
Well, it’s not like I am talking with myself, or getting answers from myself. It’s not like that at all. There is a physical feeling that occurs. I absolutely know that I am in contact. It’s sort of like wearing a very tight pair of jeans and a minuscule tee shirt. You feel lightly squeezed.
Further comm is clear. Messages and data flows easily, and emotions and physical things like goosebumps hit me strongly. Sometimes, my wife (Ms. MM) comes up and wonders why my face is all bright red.
It is nothing at all like the ELF probes. This is like my entire being is all engaged.
Can I picture the Commander during the COMM?
No. It’s not like I can “see” him in my “mind’s eye”. I can image listening to him / it / she being intimate near me. Like being RIGHT THERE.
IT is difficult to describe. It’s like he is like a thin transparent jello that surrounds me and I feel “saturated” at the time. Couple that saturation with the feeling of being squeezed, and you know kind of what it is like. I am it, it is me. Boom!
Not really sudden, instead it is, as in; “realized”.
What about other events going on…
The Commander will open up a COMM and communicate, and the world might be in turmoil all around me. He won’t stop.
The baby is screaming, the dog is shitting, the Mrs is upset about something, there is a fire on the stove. It doesn’t matter. The Commander continues on. And it’s up to me to retain it or not.
That suggests many things. But I don’t know the real reason for it.
I can tell youse guys that a lot of good intel fell to the wayside while I was cleaning up dog shit, an emergency with my staff hit, or when the waitress poured hot grease on my lap accidentally.
This can be a pain in the ass sometimes. Like when I am picking up some obviously thick detailed intel, but I have to go to the head and take a dump, or there’s a knock at the door, and the police are checking my visa status, or my kid thought it was a good idea to start banging pots and pans with my cellphone.
Those with small children will understand.
What it’s like when I do a Q&A
I generally try to do it when things are settled and peaceful. It’s a heck of a lot easier that way.
I am open to COMM and I open up a channel.
It’s actually automatic. Literally. I just think of the Commander and read the questions, and responsive images and thoughts flow towards me.
Finding quiet time is often not possible. Which is why I prefer to perform the Q&A sessions late at night.
Sequence of events
How I, MM, got to where I am now. Another Commander explanation. Thrown to me while I was walking in a mall.
I had to experience events. Thus, my entire stint in MAJestic up to and including “retirement” was about obtaining experiences, and obtaining vocabulary to transpose.
Then, I had to set down and start writing. I was instructed to write, and write and write. During this time, the Commander guided my thought process.
Then came the narratives about how the reality universe works and all that.
Then, Alien Interview, and that got me thinking, and when my thoughts were ripe…
The Commander opened up a direct Channel. And so here we are.
It wasn’t at all like you might assume.
Other Points
If the Commander wants to make a point, or tell me to “underline” something, or respond to a personal “Hello” or what ever, he / it / she “pinches” me with a physical event. Many times it’s a wave of “goosebumps”, or a sudden slap of emotion.
Limitations
Obviously, I cannot communicate on subjects that I know nothing about. I also am limited in explaining new and complex subjects that are brand new to me.
So since I know nothing about the construction of dolls, or the history of pet lizards, or the latest theories in universal mathematics topography, don’t expect me to find out the “secrets” regarding those items.
I also do not want to spend too much time on the reasons for inmates’ imprisonment. Often the images transmitted to me are very disturbing, even if I do not know what is going on. I have had some kind MM followers ask me sincerly, and they described a very happy and healthy home life. I asked, and got a picture of a very bad life in the Old Empire. I am sure that this knowledge really upset the questioner, and they never returned.
Do not ask about things you do not want to hear about.
I know that I have lost more than one follower when the answer was ugly and not what they wanted to hear. I am sorry for that. But, if you ask, and the Commander answers, I just record what he says. Nothing more.
The Domain Commander can discuss the Prison Complex, Space, the Universe, and his society within the Domain. Asking questions about personal marriage troubles, or any of that issue, such as cancer or illness, is beyond his ability. I’m sure that he can try to answer, but that’s not really optimal use of this resource. And I am not well versed in those issues either.
The Process
Generally, when I sit down, and read the Questions, I am given immediate feedback. I then collect that feedback as it comes. Then later, I clean up the impressions and add and tighten up the responses to something readable.
When I put the questions down on the WordPress template, I do so without the names or background of who asked the question. So for me, it’s really a double-blind inquiry. There are, however, certain individuals who I obviously know who asked the question. This is due to the content in the question, or the context. But overall, I do not know who asked the questions.
I just throw out answers as they come to me.
Discomfort
Doing this takes time. It’s emotionally and physically draining, and occupies a great deal of my own personal time and private time. Don’t expect me to do it all the time for free.
Sometimes, I feel like some novelty, like a side-show clown act, used to amuse a curious 17 year old.
In the pipe
When I am asked a question, I place it on my wordpress template, and when time permits, I go down the list. Oldest first. I refer to this as “putting the questions in the pipe”.
Right now with all the Geo-political shit going on, this has moved off to the side for a spell.
Some of the questions are insulting
It is like some of youse guys are fucking with me. In fact, I had to DEL a troll who was asking all sorts of bullshit.
Be serious or shut the fuck up.
The easy solution is to charge $100 per question. Since each question takes around five hours to do, wirte, parse and transcribe, that means my answer rate of pay is a very reasonable $20/hour.
I am not planning to do it.
Right now my thoughts on this matter are binary.
I answer sincere questions.
If I am provided with bullshit, I throw the questioner into the cornfield harshly.
Conclusion
This is just a quick and simple write-up on what it is like to participate in the COMM with the Domain Commander. I do hope that this provides some insight to the searcher and in future questions.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Domain index” over here…
It’s just not feasible to have a government, or any large institution, that is so totally based on lies as the current Western system to last very long.
Right now, the West is running on fumes.
A machine was built by serious people, and it is now being managed by unhinged lunatics, morons, and unrepentant fiends.
They are crashing the ship.
-The UNZ
No. Ukraine and Taiwan are not really identical. They are two different situations. But there actually is a similarity between the two. And that similarity is the United States.
The US involvement in both is identical.
The systems employed by the control and manipulation are identical.
Color revolutions took control of both at the same time, identically.
The ruling government is owned and controlled by the United States with the same, identical systems.
And both are used to “suppress” the giant nation next to them identically.
This is obvious.
Now, I am not going to go through all the background, others have. Instead, I am presenting a fine video for your review, and then we will go from there.
Yeah, unhinged America is torching what took a century to build: the global economy, global finance, international trade, international relations, international law, et al. There is no coming back from where things are now. Best case scenario is total clusterfuck. Worst is thermonuclear war and end of Western civilization. I’m better on the latter.
-Anonymous
There are many, many, MANY similarities between what is going on in Taiwan and Ukraine. So let’s cut the bullshit.
The systems used to engage Russia are identical to the systems that will be used to engage China.
So, yes, the United States will cross a Chinese RED LINE and start a war
It’s not if. It’s when.
Putin looks clinical and professional.
Kim looks unsure.
And Xi should be avoided at all costs.
-<redacted>
Remember…
The United States (and it’s proxy nations) are proceeding in their plans to “suppress” Russia and then “pivot to Asia” to “suppress” China.
The United States (leading the West) are still following the same tired-old “take over the world” script written decades ago, and implementing the plans set forth. (Follow the links for the RAND plans to initiate war. When you read them, you will discover that the US government has been following them exactly, word for word, precisely to the letter.)
These plans have been telegraphed, and well understood by the Russian and Chinese leadership. And since the United States is following that old script, they are easy to anticipate and handle.
And they will use Japan and Australia to make it happen. How do we know? Well, the RAND report on how to suppress China clearly makes this point.
Australia’s defense spending tops $500b
That’s a lot of money. Money that could end all poverty in Australia and cut the prices of food, gas and rent by 35% for everyone! But no. It’s going towards American-manufactured weapons and weapons systems. Sheech!
Dominic Giannini
More than half a trillion dollars will go towards Australia's defence forces by the end of the decade to combat "a period of profound uncertainty and disruption", according to the 2022/23 budget papers.
Almost half of the $575 billion spend will be pumped into defence capabilities, including $38 billion to boost the workforce by 18,500 personnel, $50 billion for frigates and destroyers, and $10 billion for naval infrastructure.
There is also $6.4 billion for Collins class submarines, $3.5 billion for up to 75 Abrams tanks and armoured vehicles and $1 billion for howitzers and resupply vehicles…
But the “news” is being wishy-washy on everything. There’s “no proof” don’t you know. It’s all opinion and alleged. Everything is suspect. Nothing is real, and it’s an onslaught of lies that work to avoid the simple truth of matters, and disguise them in vague terms.
Consider Russia.
Is the United States at war with Russia?
Easy question. Easy answer.
Yes it is.
It is also at war with China. Call it economic war, hybrid-war, cyber-war, social war, color-revolution war, proxy war… but a war is a war. Stop pretending that it isn’t. You all should be ashamed. Really, really ashamed of yourselves.
A war, is a war.
Stop pretending that it is not.
Finian Cunningham
March 23, 2022
The Pentagon has admitted it is providing the Ukrainian military with “actionable intelligence” in combat operations against Russian forces. If that is confirmed then the United States is at war with Russia. The implications are grave for two nuclear powers.
The admission came last week during congressional testimony by Ronald Moultrie, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. He was speaking to the House Armed Services Committee, proudly telling Congress members how the Pentagon was helping the Ukrainian military fight Russian forces: “We are making a difference in accurate, actionable, and timely intel.”
That indicates the Americans are involved in providing information to the Ukrainians for lethal targeting of Russian troops.
It is an incredibly sensitive admission. Only two weeks before Moultrie’s testimony, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee had reportedly sought to downplay any such informational exchange between American and Ukrainian forces. “We are providing some intelligence” to Ukraine, but we’re “not providing the kind of real-time targeting,” said Representative Adam Smith who chairs the committee. The downplaying is understandable because such intelligence-sharing implies that the U.S. is a direct participant in the conflict.
One possible area where the Pentagon is “making a difference” is the reported high number of senior Russian commanders who have been killed on the battlefield. Since the Russian intervention in Ukraine on February 24, it is claimed in Western media reports that up to six top-ranking officers have been killed.
The latest reported victim was the deputy commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Andrey Paliy. The governor of Sevastopol, Crimea, was quoted by Reuters as acknowledging the death of the naval chief on Sunday. He was apparently killed during the battle for the port city of Mariupol.
Yes, The United States is at war. It is fighting both Russia and China right now, and the battles are a raging all over. But, in this article, I want to discuss the idea that all three nations fight wars differently.
United States
It follows plans made by think-tanks. it employs figurehead puppets to seduce the people, while the actual decisions ae mde behind closed doors in corporate offices, and smoking private rooms.
In action, the United States acts as a crazed lunatic, and uses mass resources to destroy everything. It is like a plague of locusts. Destroy everything, then come in and take what you want, and salt the earth beahind.
Russia
While Russia might be strong, powerful and nuclear, they are careful and humane.They have the power to destroy the world fifteen times over, but refrain from doing so. They still hope that some day, they will be respected in the East. So they try to be proper, kind and modest. But, if they are backed in a corner, they will be absolutely ruthless. They are like hard-core bikers on meth.
China
China, on the other hand…
… are lethal and nasty. Merit driven. Work together as one singular organism, and utilize cutting edge technology in massive numbers. They are like a cat after a rat. It’ll be over in seconds.
Why?
Well, the Chinese don’t think like Europeans, Westerners, or Russians. They are different.
It was some twenty years after the end of the Vietnam war that a security conference was held between leading military figures from both America and Vietnam. Following the conference a U.S. Air Force General approached a Vietnamese General.
The American had been a fighter pilot captain during the conflict, the Vietnamese general had been a Colonel in the N.V.A. The American asked (paraphrasing): “You have to tell me, we knew your Army was continually crossing the Mekong, we flew sorties up and down the river and could never find your bridges.” “I know,” said the Vietnamese, “we built them three feet under water.”
In that instant the American understood why America lost the war. His “Road to Damascus” moment was informed by how the different combatants approached problems. Had that been an American problem, how an Army crosses a wide, deep and fast flowing river, they would have solved the problem differently. They would have built a suspension bridge, they would have had bases on either side to protect it. They would have had Bowling alleys and Burger Kings and would have been flying in Bob Hope to entertain the troops. Why? Because they could, when you have resources they become the answer to every problem. The Vietnamese didn’t have resources, so they were resourceful.
And that, as the American realized, was why the Vietnamese won, and America lost.
The general may have learned a lesson, but if he told anyone, no one listened. Many of the same mistakes were repeated in Afghanistan, with the same results. Resources are not the answer to every problem. As with Americas war on drugs, war on crime, war on poverty, all resources do is obscure the underlying problem and present false, ineffective solutions.
-Strategic Culture
Both Russia and China have formed a new nation. It is a united Asia. They share trade, technology and intelligence.
Both Russia and China are being attacked by the United States.
It is on a host of levels and avenues, and as much as possible, proxy nations and entities are being used to disguise the United States from culpibility. That’s the situation. The entire world knows this, it’s just that (for some reason) it’s taboo to speak the truth.
I argue that World War III is being fought right now.
I argue that it has been going on, at least since 2008.
I argue that China and Russia are aware of this.
I also argue that they have waited until after their 4FEB22 agreement to take the necessary actions…
So what is next?
Offensive actions.
We’ve been on the road to perdition for a long time, but we came to a peak on that highway in 2019 and the path has been straight down since, with our chariot of fire accelerating at breakneck speed towards its final destination with catastrophe and ruin.
The rise and fall of the American Empire will be far more rapid than the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
With the inept and reckless leadership in place presently, I only hope we still have a nation after they successfully provoke World War 3.
-Burning Platform
Both China and Russia, are not “punching bags”. They can only take so much bullshit before they decide to “turn the tables” and go on the offensive.
No. I am not really talking about Ukraine. That’s a military-technical measure that occurred on the border of Russia. What I am talking about is offensive actions against the source of the conflict.
The source of the conflict is the United States.
And it has to be within a near-by timetable. It cannot be delayed. The United States is building a large number of Aircraft Carriers, building and setting up a Pacific-NATO known as the QUAD, and the longer this action is delayed, the greater the rist of a massive, and horrific Mutual Assured Destruction fiasco.
Both Russia and China have to be smart; be timely, and be proactive in their actions.
Bioweapons labs in the Ukraine
Russia has lost all of it’s biological weapons, research and systems upon the fall of the Soviet Union. The ONLY nation that maintains the technology, the labs, and the systems to inject them into societies is the Untied States.
And they have hundreds of these labs, and bases all around the world.
During the invasion of the Ukraine, the Russians have been able to capture, and secure a large number of the labs and study them…
Igor Kirillov, Head of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, explained this week the results of the analysis of documents found in Ukrainian military biolabs:
The U.S. funded biolabs in Kiev, Odessa, Lvov and Kharkov, awarding $32 million, in order to “study” pathogens of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis and hantaviruses. Their use can be disguised as natural disease outbreaks.
Six families of viruses (including coronaviruses) and three types of pathogenic bacteria (causative agents of plague, brucellosis and leptospirosis) have been identified as having characteristics suitable for infecting humans from animals.Research has even been carried out on the transmission of diseases through bats.
There are a number of documents confirming the transfer of biological samples taken in Ukraine to the territory of third countries, including Germany, Great Britain and Georgia.
The transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza by wild birds was studied at the Kharkiv Institute of Veterinary Medicine.
The transfer of 5,000 blood serum samples taken from Ukrainian residents to the Pentagon-supported Richard Lugar Center in Tbilisi, Georgia, was confirmed.
Another 773 assays were transferred to the United Kingdom, while an agreement was signed to transfer “unlimited quantities” of infectious supplies to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Germany’s leading animal disease center.
The findings of these biolabs cannot be ignored.
Ukraine as one of the satellite states of the United States served as a space for biological weapons to start gaining ground in the new forms of warfare against Russia (and the world, looking at it in perspective).
It is suspicious that the Ukrainian-US biolabs are located along the perimeter of the Russian border, considering that these facilities were also reported to have used samples from people of different ethnicities living in the Russian Federation and other Eurasian countries. It should be considered to be an attack vector, and very nefarious one at that.
If you were a responsible leader, you would recognize the reality of this threat vector. Obtain the materials and technology, and add it to your arsenal of weaponary.
History of using Bioweapons to “suppress” China, Russia and Iran.
I have covered this elsewhere. I have discussed this on multible levels, and in various media. Including video interviews, television, radio, and my articles on MM.
The United States waged biowarfare on China starting (maybe longer, but I did not go that far back) in 2017. This was by direction of John Bolton, and under the permission of President Donald Trump.
There were eight bioweapons (min) that were used against livestock. The goal was to create a famine inside of China. They were dispersed in a selection of ways and means, with the use of drones to contaminate and infect the widely spread out pig farms of great interest. As the drone componentry had tooling marks indicative of United States or UK manufacture.
Sloppy. Very sloppy guys.
When these did not work, three bioweapons were used to “suppress” the Chinese people. The first was COVID on CNY. I suppose you could argue that it was the “crown jewel”. As the “B strain” that hit China was particuliarly lethal and really caused a mess. While the “A strain” was released inside the United States and it’s allies six months early so that those nations would obtain “herd immunity”.
The other two bioweapons were really very bad.
They were two really nasty lethal viruses that both caused your internal organs to liquify and forced the compromised to vomit them out, or shit them out. The first was a mutiated tick virus with HIV inserts that broke out in Beijing; a city that has no ticks what so ever. And the second a modification of a swine flu but was airborne, also had HIV inserts, and high transmissibility.
But of course, China was at DEFCON 1.
China found the bioweapons, tracked them to their sources, and went full lock-down. And as soon as they were discovered, well…
…Donald Trump was evacuated, and the USA went to DEFCON 1. As the “news” said, “as a precaution” and “the President had contacted coronavirus.”
When nothing happened by China, three days later, Donald Trump left from his bunker, and declared that he was “cured” or coronavirus within three days. And nothing was presented to the public in the “news” media.
But China… heh, heh…
…China does things on it’s own timetable, and at it’s own pace for it’s own advantage. And they never forget.
They MIGHT forgive, but they will not forget.
Lethal Chicken virus
And right now, things are still in process. The United States is all in alarm and proceeding in their attacks against China, and Russia. It’s active. It’s full-spectrum. It’s everything (except the kitchen sink) full spectrum (minus overt kintetic fighting USA to Asia) and very active on all levels.
So, if you watch the Western “news” you won’t be aware of any of this. (There’s) Thousands of articles investigating every single nuiance about how Russia is losing the war in the Ukraine, the effect of how great the sanctions against Russia are, and how evil and villainous China is.
But NOTHING about China and Russia making offensive moves against the “bright and shiny house on the Hill”; Washington DC and the United States.
But there is some UNRELATED NEWS.
News about chickens. News about Turkeys. News about Pigeons.
Odd news. Seemingly unimportant news.
From the CDC…
March 7, 2022—To date, highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses (“H5N1 bird flu viruses”) have been detected in U.S. wild birds in 14 states and in commercial and backyard poultry in 13 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspective Service (APHIS).
Based on available epidemiologic and virologic information about these viruses, CDC believes that the risk to the general public’s health from current H5N1 bird flu viruses is low, however some people may have job-related or recreational exposures to birds that put them at higher risk of infection.
CDC is watching this situation closely and taking routine preparedness and prevention measures in case this virus changes to pose a greater human health risk.
Right now, the H5N1 bird flu situation is primarily an animal health issue. The U.S. Department of Interior and USDA APHIS are the lead federal agencies for this situation.
They are respectively responsible for outbreak investigation and control of bird flu in wild birds and in domestic birds (poultry). USDA has publicly posted the genetic sequences of several of the recently detected U.S. H5N1 bird flu viruses. These viruses are from clade 2.3.4.4b, which is the most common H5N1 bird flu virus worldwide at this time. Comparing information about these newer viruses to previously circulating H5N1 bird flu viruses helps inform the human health risk assessment.
Background on H5N1
Ancestors of the H5N1 bird flu viruses infecting wild birds and poultry in the U.S. beginning in 2021 first emerged in southern China in 1996 and caused large poultry outbreaks in Hong Kong in 1997, which resulted in 18 human infections.
The bird outbreak was controlled, but H5N1 bird flu viruses re-surfaced in 2003 to spread widely in birds throughout Asia, and later in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, causing poultry outbreaks and sporadic human infections.
Related H5N1 bird flu viruses were even found in wild birds and poultry in the U.S. and Canada during 2014 and 2015, causing large poultry outbreaks, but then they disappeared. Since 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) external icon, has received reports from 19 countries of more than 860 human infections with H5N1 bird flu viruses, with about 53 percent of those resulting in death. CDC has spent many years studying the properties of H5N1 viruses over the years.
Once detected in polutry, the entire farm must be killed off. There is no way to stop the virus. Once infected, the entire population becomes infected and dies.
It has a very high rate of transmissibly. It is quick and infects the entire bird population within days.
The outbreak is in 13 states within the United States. The CDC says that there is nothing to be concerned about.
The death rate for those unfortunate humans who have contacted this virus is 53%
Roughly 53% of people diagnosed with H5N1 and 50% of people diagnosed with H7N9 have died.
-Avian Flu
Daegal report review
I do not know what lies in the future. But I do know that the future has been remote viewed. And the results were presented in The Deagal Report.
The Deagel corporation is a minor branch of US military intelligence, one of the many secretive organizations which collects data for high-level decision-making purposes and prepares confidential briefing documents for agencies like the National Security Agency, the United Nations, and the World Bank.
It’s a work of “love” from some retired intelligence assets, and like most of us ex-spooks, it’s hosted outside of the United States. Just like MM here. We have VERY good reasons to do so. Reasons that are far too complex to get involved in right this moment. But we DO KNOW what we are doing. Never doubt that.
Deagel is known, for example, to have contributed to a Stratfor report on North Korea. With this kind of pedigree, Deagel should be seen as a legitimate player in the intelligence community and not merely a disinformation asset.
If so, then it must be assumed that its population predictions for 2025, as well as its industrial output predictions on a nation-by-nation basis, are based on strategic assumptions which are shared and well understood by other players in the intelligence community.
Until the start of the Covid ‘pandemic’ many commentators were perplexed by the Deagel spreadsheets.
Perhaps they were part of a psychological operation?
However, in light of recent events, we are obliged to consider a possible connection between the projected massive reduction in the population of certain countries, forecast by Deagel, and other trends going on right now.
Trends?
What trends?
Devaluation of the Dollar with an out of control American Congress.
Strange insistence in using a mRNA vaccine instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine.
A global pandemic that America is just fucking up royally.
Desire for a war with China.
Desire for a war with Russia.
Desire for a war with Iran.
China, Russia and Iran forming a unified Asian block.
Race war in the United States.
Progressive onslaught and control of all electronic media.
Looming bubbles in just about every facet of American life.
And so on and so forth…
And then, theres the nuclear angle
Russia is on full nuclear alert. China is on full nuclear alert, and the United States is moving it’s nuclear weapons all around Asia. Just like it was depicted in the movie Threads (2.5 minutes)
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The Deagel scenario
The Deagel corporation was asked to explain the thinking behind its strange set of population and output figures. While we cannot take its response at face value, it nonetheless paints a picture that is very similar to the world we now see. And this is not an exaggeration at all.
Consider…
[1] A fake American GDP
In short, they argued that the US government has greatly over-stated the real level of US GDP. This means the country will be fatally exposed when the next economic crisis strikes. And an economic crisis is striking.
They also take into account a “pandemic scenario” – their term – caused by Ebola or a similar pathogen. This, they say, would cause an exceptionally high death rate, placing extreme pressure on healthcare providers across America and greatly reducing economic output.
[3] A financial crisis with the US Dollar
This pandemic could quickly spiral out of control and create an international financial crisis:
“The collapse of the Western financial system will wipe out the standard of living of its population while ending Ponzi schemes such as the Stock Exchange and the pension funds.”
Trying to figure it out…
They try to explain the predicted dramatic fall in the population of the US by reference to a massive outward migration of millions of Americans seeking economic relief in other countries, but this is unconvincing.
They seem to concede this themselves when they add a further explanatory factor – widespread suicide in response to economic distress. But this too is unsatisfactory.
Their primary reason for predicting a colossal drop in the population of the US by 2025 – a fall of up to 70 percent – is the scale and severity of the alleged pandemic.
As they put it,
“the death toll will be horrible.”
Map
Here’s a map showing the predictions made in the forecast. You see that Asia is unscathed, while America and the West suffer horribly.
Japan will lose 1/5th of it’s population!
Australia will lose a full 1/3rd of it’s population!
Canada will lose 1/4th of it’s population!
The United States will lose almost 3/4ths of it’s population!
Timing
By all accounts, historically, the massive drop in population at this time is validated by the “Fourth Turning” predictions. The date and timing all agree with the Strauss and Howe model for America.
This model is United States centrist, and acknowledges that different societies and different cultures have different “turnings” and generational changes.
Casualty Figures
The casualty figures are gargantuan. And they are all centered around the Western block.
United States
Europe / NATO
QUAD (minus India that opted out)
What a coincidence!
This 2012 remote viewing would associate such an enormous death toll with a bi-polar world, and that the East (Asia) would be unscathed, while the West (The USA) would have massive casualties.
It’s an American centered fiasco
USA Leadership = 70% drop in population
Europe / NATO = 50 – 70% drop in population
QUAD = 20 – 35% drop in population
Based on historical precedents, and the Deagel predictions, these kinds of numbers and figures can only be associated with an American centered disaster. Not really a global one. Because if it was a global disaster, then the causality figures would be more uniform.
.
Europe
The countries that will suffer the greatest reduction in population, according to Deagel (as per 2014), are:
Aside from massive devistation in Europe, you have to admit… the numbers are horrific. They are pretty darn specific. Don’t you know.
In 2020, Deagel revised their assessment of the 2012 forecast. They did not change the data nor the results. They reviewed the possible causes as things developed…
Deagel 2020 revision to the original 2012 Deagel Forecast
BlueNarwhal:
Forecast disclaimer revision in 2020:
In 2014 we published a disclaimer about the forecast. In six years the scenario has changed dramatically.
This new disclaimer is meant to single out the situation from 2020 on-wards.
Talking about the United States and the European Union as separated entities no longer makes sense. Both are the Western block, keep printing money and will share the same fate.
After COVID we can draw two major conclusions:
[1] The Western world success model has been built over societies with no resilience that can barely withstand any hardship, even a low intensity one. It was assumed but now we’ve got the full hard confirmation beyond any doubt.
[2] The COVID crisis will be used to extend the life of this dying economic system through the so called “Great Reset.”
The Great Reset; like the climate change, extinction rebellion, planetary crisis, green revolution, shale oil (…) hoaxes promoted by the system; is another attempt to slow down dramatically the consumption of natural resources and therefore extend the lifetime of the current system.
It can be effective for awhile but finally won’t address the bottom-line problem and will only delay the inevitable.
The core ruling elites hope to stay in power which is in effect the only thing that really worries them.
The collapse of the Western financial system – and ultimately the Western civilization – has been the major driver in the 2012 forecast along with a confluence of crisis with a devastating outcome.
As COVID has proven Western societies embracing multiculturalism and extreme liberalism are unable to deal with any real hardship.
The Spanish flu one century ago represented the death of 40-50 million people.
Today the world’s population is four times greater with air travel in full swing which is by definition a super spreader.
The death casualties in today’s World would represent 160 to 200 million in relative terms but more likely 300-400 million taking into consideration the air travel factor that did not exist one century ago.
So far, COVID death toll is roughly 1 million people.
It is quite likely that the economic crisis due to the lock-downs will cause more deaths than the virus worldwide.
The Soviet system was less able to deliver goodies to the people than the Western one. Nevertheless Soviet society was more compact and resilient under an authoritarian regime. That in mind, the collapse of the Soviet system wiped out 10 percent of the population.
The stark reality of diverse and multicultural Western societies is that a collapse will have a toll of 50 to 80 percent depending on several factors.
But in general terms the most diverse, multicultural, indebted and wealthy (highest standard of living) will suffer the highest toll.
The only glue that keeps united such aberrant collage from falling apart is over-consumption with heavy doses of bottomless degeneracy disguised as virtue.
Nevertheless the widespread censorship, hate laws and contradictory signals mean that even that glue is not working any more.
Not everybody has to die.
Migration can also play a positive role in this.
The formerly (known as) second and third world nations are an unknown at this point. Their fate will depend upon the decisions they take in the future.
Western powers are not going to take over them as they did in the past because these (Western) countries won’t be able to control their very own cities let alone those countries that are far away.
If they remain tied to the former World Order they will go down along with the Western powers. However, they won’t experience the same kind of brutal decline that the Western powers will experience so brazenly. This is partially because they are poorer and (obviously) not diverse enough. Instead they are stronger than the Western powers because they are actually quite homogeneous. This is their advantage. And that they are used to deal with some sort of hardship. Though, not precisely the one that is coming.
If they switch to China they can get a chance to stabilize but will need to depend upon the management of their own resources.
We expected this situation to unfold and actually is unfolding right now.
With the November election triggering a major bomb if Trump is re-elected. (Did not happen.)
If Biden is elected there will very bad consequences as well.
There is a lot of bad blood in the Western societies and the protests, demonstrations, rioting and looting are only the first symptoms of what is coming.
However a new trend is taking place overshadowing this one.
The situation between the three great powers has changed dramatically.
The only relevant achievement of the Western powers during the past decade has been the formation of a strategic alliance, both military and economic, between Russia and China.
Right now the potential partnership between Russia and the European Union (EU) is dead with Russia turning definitively towards China. That was from the beginning the most likely outcome.
Airbus never tried to establish a real partnership but rather a strategy to fade away the Russian aerospace industry.
Actually Russia and China have formed a new alliance to build a long haul airliner.
Western Europe (not to mention the United States) was never interested in the development of Russia or forming anything other than a master slave relationship with Russia providing raw materials and toeing the line of the West.
It was clear then and today is a fact.
Russia has been preparing for a major war since 2008 and China has been increasing her military capabilities for the last 20 years. Today China is not a second tier power compared with the United States. Both in military and economic terms China is at the same level and in some specific areas are far ahead.
In the domain of high-tech 5G has been a success in the commercial realm but the Type 055 destroyer is also another breakthrough with the US gaining a similar capability (DDG 51 Flight IIII) by mid of this decade (more likely by 2030).
Nanchang, the lead ship of the Type 055 class, was commissioned amid the pandemic and lockdown in China.
Six years ago the likelihood of a major war was tiny.
Since then it has grown steadily and dramatically and today is by far the most likely major event in the 2020s.
The ultimate conflict can come from two ways.
[1] A conventional conflict involving at least two major powers that escalates into an open nuclear war.
[2] A second scenario is possible in the 2025-2030 time-frame. A Russian sneak first strike against the United States and its allies with the new S-500, strategic missile defenses, Yasen-M submarines, INF Zircon and Kalibr missiles and some new space asset playing the key role.
The sneaky first strike would involve all Russian missile strategic forces branches (bombers and ground-based missiles) at the different stages of such attack that would be strategic translation of what was seen in Syria in November 2015.
There was no report that the Russian had such a capability of launching a high precision, multiple, combined arms attack at targets 2,000+ kilometers away.
Western intelligence had no clue.
The irony is that since the end of the Cold War the United States has been maneuvering through NATO to achieve a position to be able to execute a first strike (nuclear) over Russia and now it seems that the first strike may still occur but the country finished would be the United States.
Another particularity of the Western system is that its individuals have been brainwashed to the point that the majority accept their moral high ground and technological edge as a given.
This has given the rise of the supremacy of the emotional arguments over the rational ones which are ignored or deprecated.
That mindset can play a key role in the upcoming catastrophic events.
At least in the Soviet system the silent majority of the people were aware of the fallacies they were fed up.
We can see the United States claims about 5G being stolen from them by China or hypersonic technology being stolen by Russia as the evidence that the Western elites are also infected by that hubris.
Over the next decade it will become obvious that the West is falling behind the Russia-China block and the malaise might grow into desperation.
Going to war might seem a quick and easy solution to restore the lost hegemony to finally find them into a France 1940 moment. Back then France did not have nuclear weapons to turn a defeat into a victory. The West might try that swap because the unpleasant prospect of not being Mars and Venus but rather a bully and his dirty bitch running away in fear while the rest of the world is laughing at them.
If there is not a dramatic change of course the world is going to witness the first nuclear war.
The Western block collapse may come before, during or after the war.
It does not matter.
A nuclear war is a game with billions of casualties and the collapse plays in the hundreds of millions.
Spinach and Cheese Stromboli
Need something that’s classically Italian? Try a Spinach and Cheese Stromboli. Refrigerated pizza dough is our shortcut to making this tasty meal in less than 15 minutes. It’s a quick and easy vegetarian stromboli recipe that’s guaranteed to fill you up. We’re sure you’ll agree, this simple Italian dinner is unquestionably tasty.
What You’ll Need
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (13.8-ounce) package refrigerated pizza dough
What to Do
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil. Add spinach and garlic and sauté 3 to 5 minutes, or until garlic is golden. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, combine ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, the oregano, and salt. Add spinach mixture and stir until well blended.
Unroll pizza dough and with your fingertips or the heel of your hand, spread dough out to a 10- x 15-inch rectangle. Cut in half lengthwise to make two 5- x 15-inch rectangles. Spread half the spinach mixture onto each piece of dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge. Fold each piece of dough over and pinch the edges to seal securely. Place on prepared baking sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
Statements of prediction
Including remote viewing into the calculus, and taking into account all the knowns…
The American leadership class does not contain diplomatic professionals. Instead there are unskilled political donors who are making life and death decisions.
The mRNA vaccination is a real mystery, and there HAS to be a reason behind using it instead of the traditional “Dead Host” vaccination.
The approved 2021 Federal budget includes an enormous military funding outlay that is obviously in preparation for a major war.
The American government, and their media are all talking about an upcoming major war with China.
American military is retreating from Afghanistan, and four bases in Korea, while making QUAD arrangements with Australia and Japan.
Red Line violations with Russia provoking a war in Ukraine.
Red Line posturing with China concerning Taiwan.
The end of the USD.
Sanction-crazy United States and threatening the entire world with “consequences”.
A unified Asian block to include Russia, China, India and Iran.
All of this is very disturbing, and considered alone would be cause enough to suggest that a major war is just on the horizon.
But…
America (The United States) is crumbling from rot from within…
Racial hate.
Proliferation of firearms, and the establishment of armed groups.
Balkanization.
Economic bubbles.
Social bubbles.
The wealth gap is enormous.
Infrastructure funding is too late.
Rules, regulations and laws are all off the charts.
Couple that with a failed bio-weapons attack on China, and the fiasco which was the Trump neocon administration, followed by the bumbling Biden administration… and hard-core neocon Religious extremists, and industry interests desiring of conflict, war and strife (all for various reasons), and you have a poisonous stew.
The “Genie is out of the bottle”, and I do not think that the looming “mountains” on the horizon can be avoided. The inertia associated with the clustering of world-lines is way too strong. So my guess (and I hope that I am wrong) is that the United States will sleep-walk into a war with Asia, and then before it happens, Asia will strike preemptively.
No matter what the details are, the remote viewing forecast is quite clear.
The United States Military Empire is going to start another major war. It is intended to be a distraction from the domestic failures, and regardless as to how much money President Biden is plowing into the economy, it’s not going to make any difference.
America is toast.
Burnt to a crisp; blackened, burned toast.
And it’s only a matter of time…
And then when the moron, presses the button, flicks the switch, or twists the knob, all Hell will break loose.
Engage Russia in warfare via proxy.
Engage China in warfare via proxy.
All in all, the USA will suffer horribly, and the combination of everything else will only turn a fiasco into an Hellish nightmare.
Ooey-Gooey Bacon Grilled Cheese
A classic grilled cheese sandwich is good, but a grilled cheese sandwich that’s made with three different kinds of cheeses, and a creamy, bacony dip is even better. This Ooey-Gooey Bacon Grilled Cheese is going to blow you away with its incredible taste. Once you’ve had a taste of it this way, you’ll find it hard to go back to the old way!
What You’ll Need
1/2 cup refrigerated cheddar and bacon dip
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
8 slices homestyle white bread
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, softened
Senario Flush Out
It appears, assuming that…
Degal remote viewing is correct (and it appears to be)
The USA continues on the Ukraine proxy attack. (Certainly appears that way.)
The USA continues with the Taiwan proxy attacks… (All evidence confirm…)
Then, we can expect a confluence of a number of calamity vectors. Economic, Medical and Military.
Economic
Economic; Loss of USD as a global currency.
Economic; Deshrouding of the fake GDP towards it’s actual value.
Economic; Collapse of the Western trade / logistic systems. (I hope not.)
Economic; Sanction blowback. (The US cannot sanction the world.)
Economic; Energy strangulation. (And the domino effect…)
Medical
Bioweapon / pandemic effects. (Not just Covid.)
Lack of serious quarantine and containment procedures. (It’s binary.)
A decrease in the access to medicines (because of trade / sanctions).
Overwhelmed medical care facilities. (Largest contributor.)
Military
Nuclear strikes. (Actual or threat vectors.)
Shipping blockages. (Part of the USA plan, but sanctions can enable.)
Regional conflicts and revolutions.
I argue that we are looking at the confluence of these three vectors and they center like a target reticle cross-hair on the United States and it’s allies. All of them can contribute synergistically towards a regional catastrophic result.
But… Keep in mind.
You can control YOUR reality. And maybe this mountain of turmoil is sitting off somewhere on your world-line template, you can still navigate around it. Remember, after all, for all the turmoil and strife during World War II, Canada, South America, and Africa was relatively left alone.
Maybe you don’t want to move to Greenland, Patagonia, or Zambia. But you don’t really need to. All you need to do is control your little bit of reality. And if you do that, then everything will work out just fine.
Some final thoughts
Keep in mind that the Deagel remote viewed the future correctly. They printed their results in 2012.
They PREDICTED a bio-warfare induced pandemic.
They PREDICTED an Australian military alliance with the United States.
They PREDICTED that America would start entering a period of "popping" of the various economic bubbles.
They PREDICTED a bio-polar world separated into East and West.
All of which came true by 2020.
Deagel did NOT change their forecast for 2025. It still stands. They just changed their thinking on how it would come about.
They remote viewed 2025 in great detail.
There will be [1] a massive die off of people in America, and Australia. The rest of the world will fare much better. And, most importantly, a [2] bio-weapon or pandemic figured predominantly in their calculus.
In 2012, they believed that there would be some kind of bio-weapon or pandemicthat would kill off so many Americans. But they couldn’t (for the life of them) answer why Australia of all places would also have a large die-off. At that time they never could of imagined the QUAD set up by Mike Pompeo, and that the Morrison government would wholeheartedly want to declare war on China. Instead, they figured that it must be a very serious pandemic with some other mystery event that complicated things in a negative manner.
In 2020, in the midst of the (three agent) bio-weapon attacks on China, and the absolute failure of America in securing it’s homeland, as well as the strong alignment of the Australian Morrison government to the war-loving neocons in Washington DC, the revised reasoning became one of nuclear war. Thus they reasoned that since the 2020 pandemic wasn’t that bad (being in the United States, and getting the “safe” bioweapon), and the drums of war were beating so loudly, that it must be nuclear war with bio-weapons used simultaneously.
Whether there is a nuclear event, or a bio-weapon event, no matter who caused it, or who instigated it, America will be absolutely and totally devastated. A 70% kill off implies that America would indeed be thrown back to the bronze age.
My advice?
You cannot change what is going to happen. It is pretty much set in stone. The only thing that you can do is to save yourself.
Flee the United States as fast as you can.
Go to a nation with a safer rating on the Deagel scale.
Consider fleeing any nation that is allied with the United States as well. The UK, and those European nations that are part of NATO perform very poorly. Though you will probably have an easier time of it than being the United States, it will still be a very rough life in those places.
It will be a scene out of the movie “Threads“, and you all should get a copy of this movie and watch it right now.
Threads Nuclear Detonation Scene
And when you watch it, keep in mind that what it portrays is EXACTLY what Deagal predicts will happen to America and it’s allies. Watch it and realize that you have two to three short years to save yourself and your family.
A final comment
Everyone is aware that nuclear war is horrible and undesirable. However, the American leadership are making ZERO efforts to deescalate tensions in the Ukraine. Instead they are throwing weapons there. They are making ZERO efforts to deescalate tensions around Taiwan.
Russia and China have formed a major block. THEY DO NOT PLAY.
I cannot predict the future.
But others have.
This is what they predicted… 10 minute video. It is well worth viewing.
.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The following is the 23nd part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benifit in reading his writings.
I hope that you injoy this article.
-MM
Part 23 – Briefing For the Domain Commander: Intel Gathered During LD Escape From Simulation Out of Two Pocket Universes to the Main Programming Hub
{daegonmagus}
26/03/2022
I was put into a dream simulation that seemed designed to completely break my spirit.
This scenario featured SD who seemed to very troubled by her own hallucinations.
It began some building we had been staying in on what I was led to believe was a holiday. This building was nothing special, just a bunch of dingy rooms with a sort of open hallway that ran next to them. I was “awoken” into the dream by SD, but not lucid.
This was the start of the simulation.
SD seemed deeply troubled by something. I asked her what was up and she replied that she had stayed with another couple while I was still asleep. Confused by what she meant, I got up and tried talking to her, but she came more erratic in her behaviour, and made less sense. It was like she was on drugs, talking non sensical bullshit, seemingly glitching and going off track every sentence. I started to really worry about her mental health, and suggested we go for a walk. During it became evident that SD was suffering from severe mental stigma and seemed to be hallucinating quite heavily. It seemed her every action was designed to cause me as much anguish and heartache as possible.
She took me to the edge of town where this couple she stayed with were living in a makeshift humpy in what appeared to be a children’s playground; it was literally just a few pieces of wood smacked together on a some sand to make a rather unstable frame that they draped a sheet over. Sd explained she had been sleeping with them, and wanted to join their family and live in this humpy of theirs. The situation had very cult like vibes and I realised that SD was very clearly not her usual self. She was arguing with me, accusing me of thins that were not true and attacking my character at the hands of these frauds.
I was now starting to feel deep sorrow at the depth of my core, but I knew SD wasn’t herself and was damned if I was going to let her stay with these people. I managed to convince her to come with me, and we walked back to our house which was located a few kilometres away in a set of units that had been tightly bunched together. The whole way SD abused me, but I bit my tongue and told myself she didn’t really mean it. But the abuse just got worse and worse. It was really starting to cut through my soul, wanting nothing but for her to be better, yet being told I was the cause of all such anguish.
Then all of a sudden something snapped, spurred on by my anguish. I realised it was a simulation and I began to reject it. A very strong voice that may or may not have been mine, came through telling me that this was definitely the case, and it started to all make sense. What happened next was like the AI in control of the simulation realised I had cottoned onto its game and began talking to me, trying to convince me that it was necessary for my development.
Again I refused to believe it. When that didn’t work, it manifested agents (pretty much agent smiths/MIB)to come and collect me, but again I refused to let them. Even though I was not lucid, I was starting to realise my power. I could wave my hand and they would simply just disappear. Not only that, I was starting to see the pocket universe outside of this simulation as an overlay on the top of my surroundings that would sort of glitch in and out.
The AI seemed to realise it had a big problem on its hands and sent down a space shuttle to meet me. I was now interacting with both the simulation and the outer pocket universe as I walked. In the simulation, the walk way was a cave, but in the outer pocket universe I was walking down a sort of walkway or bridge far up in the sky, where this space ship styled shuttle landed to try and collect me. Once again I told them I reject there simulation, brought my hand down and their ship exploded in front of me. I had properly awoken in the outer pocket universe and had full control over my lucid dreaming abilities, despite the consciousness doping blockages put in place.
I was still heavily doped, but I could cut through it with sheer willpower. I was aware of the simulation I’d just come from, and now also aware of my earth body back here.
So walked up the landing which seemed to be floating in mid air above the clouds. At higher level was an arrangement of very modern looking buildings stretching for several acres.
I entered a building closest to the bridge I had just come from. This building was not entirely enclosed and had several walls missing; it seemed to be some sort of building where newly arriving guests were entering. In this building, was set up a variety of Virtual Reality screens arranged around tables which had other doped up and comatose bodies on. Some of the screens had a real time image of the reality they were experiencing.
realised this was a fucking product display room; the guests were clientele that would walk around to these VR systems and express their awe at the technology. It reminded of a phone shop where you go in and browse from the various laid out models at your own leisure. They were the investors of this project, and there was from between 30 to 50 of them now gathering in the foyer of this building where a bunch of chairs were laid out. It seemed they were waiting for the project admins to give some sort of presentation.
I walked in, and upon realising what this place was, becoming sickened by it, started executing as many of these investors as I could. I was like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator; I’d simply just point from person to person with my hand and they would be instantaneously vapourised. It was kind of weird; if you have ever been very drunk and had to try and act sobre this is kind of what it felt like being under the consciousness doping agent. I’d have periods where I would just stop and sort of zone out, and I would have to use a tonne of conviction and sheer willpower to bring my awareness back to my surroundings. I would have looked like a malfunctioning robot to anyone watching me.
It took a few moments for them to realise that one of their projects had woken up and was quite fucking pissed at what they had going on here. Through my bouts of coherency, I’d unleash chaos. Once they did, everyone started running out of the building and evacuating the area to their nearby space craft or vehicles or whatever they had been arriving in just outside. Guards were sent in to try and subdue me, but I wouldn’t let them; there is a good reason they keep us all doped, because once we regain access to our proper LD power we become somewhat unstoppable. I think they were hitting me with doping agents like darts, which is what was making my consciousness flitter in and out, but the best they could manage was only a few seconds, then id snap out of the daze and hit them back.
After taking out the guards, I walked to over to the VR systems and was able to create a kinetic bomb explosion by clenching my fist and focusing. It was like I was drawing in unseen energy that I would go off like a stick of TNT (is this an ISBE technique the Commander is familiar with?) I destroyed as many of these systems as I could find, maybe ten of them, maybe more then walked back outside. I wanted to get an indicator of where this place was, or who was in charge of it.
In front of me was the descending bridge where I’d come from the simulation, to my left was just a drop off into the sky, with a small port for the investors shuttles right on the edge, and to my right was a large dirt clearing the size of a small football oval which appeared to have some sort of scaffolding setup smack bang in the middle of it. Beyond the clearing were some more R&D buildings that were much bigger than the small product display room I’d just come from. This cluster of buildings was of a higher elevation to the display/ presentation room probably 10 to 20m higher, and was about 250m away. At this point I had become probably about 80 percent lucid, so I was piloting this body with a good understanding of my earth body that existed somewhere below the dream simulation that I’d come from. Once the guards were gone and I was out of the building, I no longer had to worry about my consciousness trying to go back to the simulation world.
I walked over the ridgline to the clearing and noticed the scaffolding appeared to be some sort of a rocket launch facility, but instead of the typical straight up design of conventional rockets, the scaffolding setup seemed to take the form of a T shape shuttle/ craft, as if the shuttle had wings protruding out each side for a few metres. What was odd was that instead of being located near the middle, the wings protruded from quire near the front end of the shuttle, behind what looked like a cockpit of heavily tinted glass.
At the end of the wings, were what I assumed were thrusters taking the form of tear drops. I specifically remember a tail section mounted close to the ground that was very typical of a tail found on a glider; it reminded me of the one found on a US military Predator drone given its seemingly “upside down” arrangement (if you took a predator drone and move the wings so they were just behind the tip of the shuttle and fattened the body so it resembled more of a rocket/ missile, then added jet turbines to the tip of each wing, this would be very close to what it looked like; same white colour). My impression was that unlike the investor shuttles, which were for local travel within the atmosphere of this world, this craft was specifically for higher altitude penetration.
I navigated so I was directly under the scaffolding holding up the right wing and looked up. Right there I saw what was unmistakably the NASA logo. I could see this clear as day; the blue circular background with the word NASA outlined in white, the little stripe of red; it was 100 percent the same logo and I could see and interpret it clear as day. I am certain I did not randomly generate this image. I noted that I had achieved my objective, and as I did a launch alarm sounded from the building that had been arranged obviously to monitor any launches.
Very soon after this everything went white and I woke up. I assume they took the opportunity to use the shuttle thrusters to melt me while they had a chance.
End Notes:
The simulation layer seemed to act as a buffer between the outer pocket universe and this physical reality. The way in which the AI was trying to create a scenario that would elicit an specific emotional response is typical of what the leader of the Unseen 5 told me, as well as what the Grand Elder told me during my last encounter with him in a similar consciousness doping facility.
SD has had a dream with a similar AI trying to evoke similar emotions towards me in which the AI tried to spin a similar story of helping her evolution when she resisted it. We have had some synchronised dreams over the last few weeks which suggest similar emotion evoking simulations running.
There was several circumstances prior to my going to sleep which may have aided in having this experience. The first was that it was right after contacting my handler and asking for possible nuclear attack locations (this handler presented itself to me in adream a week or so ago)
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the 22nd part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 22 – Operation Rainbird – A Contingency Plan for a Transcontinental Clandestine Communications Network in Case of Major SHTF & Grid Down
This is an idea I have had bouncing around for awhile now. Whilst I would have preferred to talk to other operators in the prepping/ survivalist communities beforehand to flatten out some of the problems, my concern with the Ukraine situation is that we are edging ever the more closer to a scenario where more conventional communications avenues may become knocked out.
Added to this is the rumours that America will be experiencing a blackout of this very nature in the next 36 hours (I know, usually these rumours turn out to be BS), so I figured I’d bite the bullet and write down the necessary protocols for dispersal to anyone who wants them. That way the kinks can be worked out a later date and broadcast of the Rainbird Network.
What is Rainbird?
Operation Rainbird is a contingency plan to provide a functional clandestine communications network in the event of a downed grid system that knocks out more conventional communication infrastructure, such as mobile phones and internet in more than one country. As the events unfolding in Ukraine steer us closer and closer toward global nuclear warfare, we cannot be sure that these conventional communications systems will continue to remain in place, particularly when taking out the internet for an entire nation is as easy as cutting a few undersea cables.
Even without nuclear warfare, such communications networks may still become targets for attack through malicious means such as cyberwarfare or EMP attacks (which can also occur through the detonation of nuclear weapons) rendering them useless for prolonged periods of time, particularly if supply chain issues make immediate repair of this infrastructure impossible.
The question we need to ask ourselves is “are we really ready to be cut off from the world in this manner, and have our network reduced to that of our immediate localities?” In the event of any war, whether nuclear or not, it makes sense to be able to stay as up to date as possible especially in regards to geopolitical situations unfolding in the rest of the world. Operation Rainbird is to provide coordination of this radio infrastructure so that at least key information can be relayed over as wide an area of the earth as possible were this downed grid scenario to take place.
The ultimate goal of Operation Rainbird is to have a member committed to its implementation in as many countries and states/provinces as possible who is not shy about utilising any foreign contacts (particularly those within the survival and prepping communities, as they will be more likely to appreciate the value of such a network) to disperse the protocols as far as possible.
While the main goal of Operation Rainbird is to provide a continuous bridge of international communication between its members, its concept is simple and requires no radio operation skill of those responsible for its implementation, as well as no commitment to purchase any expensive equipment; members will be given a simple set of instructions pertaining to calling frequency and scheduled operating times and modes they are expected to write down which can then be passed on to a more proficient radio operator when the opportunity presents itself.
Given that amateur radio is a hobby enjoyed by people all over the world, there is potential infrastructure on every continent, in many neighbourhood’s that could theoretically provide such a communications bridge if only its use could somehow be coordinated. On the other hand, if you are radio operator, often times trying to make contact with someone else even from a local area can be hit and miss, if you don’t know when they will likely be online.
This is where the members of operation Rainbird come into play; Operation Rainbird member’s tasks will be to convince these radio operators to operate their radios according to the Rainbird schedule to pass along any important information about local events etc that may have implications for the broad range of listeners.
These radio operators would then be in a better position to pass the message along a chain of other Rainbird operators, knowing that there will be great deal of them listening in different parts of the world at the specific times outlined in the schedule. The name Rainbird comes from the idea that Rainbirds “sing to their friends when it becomes too dark to see, so they know what the other is doing”.
All that would be required of non operator members of Operation Rainbird will be to keep an eye out for potential amateur radio equipment in their area, which is usually identifiable by the large antenna towers in an operator’s back yard. If the tower is big enough to be seen over several blocks, it will likely be functional for the frequencies Rainbird will use.
It is recommended Rainbird members briefly study some images of such setups whilst they still have access to the internet to get a general idea of what to look for, as well as study potential radio clubs in their area in case no other local operators can be found. It could be that they have driven past an amateur radio operator’s house a million times and never even realised it. For those who wish to get more in depth, I recommend purchasing the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) handbook and keeping it in a safe place, as it will provide a crash course lesson in radio theory from beginning concepts in electronics all the way up to advanced radio theory.
Each member should be aware that as Rainbird utilises open communication channels, there is no way to safeguard any of the information coming through. It should be regarded as an unsecure channel only to be initiated as a last resort for the purpose of urgent message passing to other nations/ states/provinces, as use of these frequencies is generally banned from all except those who have the appropriate licenses in place, and can be met with heavy fines. In other words, Rainbird members vow not to implement Operation Rainbird unless they are certain their conventional communications infrastructure will be down for a prolonged period as this may actually prove to be detrimental to Rainbird’s cause. There is, however, no punishment simply for listening, regardless of whether or not you have a license.
An example of a real world situation where radio helped in mitigate the confusion surrounding a disaster involving a whole community of people was during the 2019 bushfires of NSW, Australia. The fires, which were estimated to have burned 5.3 million hectares, wreaked havoc upon the NSW forests and covered much of the coast all the way to the State of Victoria.
As the Fires pushed their way south, residents near the town of Mallacoota fled to the beaches to escape where they became trapped for a period of several weeks.
With communications and power infrastructure down, those 1000 or so trapped in and around Mallacoota were no longer able to get information about their situation out to friends and family, and for five days they had no access to fuel or food unless they were smart enough to take out cash before hand.
Several satellite phones had to be airdropped into the area with instructions for anyone who found them to call a specific headquarters. Although amateur radio came into play during these bushfires, had a system like Rainbird been in place, the coordination of information from people within the disaster zone could have mitigated even more confusion to those viewing events from the outside. While a in a natural disaster resources such as satellite phones may be available, in a war time scenario this may not prove possible for various reasons, such as the area being too hot for air drops, or satellites that provide the back bone for such systems being taken out.
In addition to this, many emergency response groups would only be suited for catering to their local community. In such scenarios the affected victims would be left fending for themselves, unless they had a way to coordinate to their own communications effort.
The general protocols for Rainbird, which are hereto suggested to be written down and safe guarded by the reader are thus:
The determined frequency of Operation Rainbird will be on the HF band of 7Mhz/40 metres. This band has been chosen for its ability to provide intercontinental communications, or at the very least interstate communications, at the same time utilising an antenna length that is practical in case of its inclusion as a piece of wire in portable emergency communication kits.
More specifically, 7.2Mhz will be used as the optimal frequency as it sits roughly in the middle of the common amateur radio range of 7.000Mhz to 7.300MHz, and lies outside of the morse code portion. In the case of pile up (too many operators on the same frequency) is recommended to vary this frequency up or down the spectrum by 10Mhz increments.
The operation mode of Rainbird is to be Single Side Band (SSB) AM as it allows for a much lower power consumption vs other methods, to suit those operators with minimal powering resources for their radios.
The operational schedule is to coincide with specific phases of the moon. As the moon is a natural constant that can be easily seen by anyone no matter of their location on earth, it can be used as a medium of synchronisation regardless of if one is in possession of a watch or calendar, which may become displaced in a real crisis situation.
Furthermore, a moon’s phase can be broken down into easily identifiable portions that are roughly one week apart, that will allow further opportunity to make a communication if the first attempt is missed. Therefore, where power resources for communication is limited, the day and night of a full moon should be made first priority for contact, followed by the new moon, and then by the half moon’s between each.
This will give first a monthly, then fortnightly, then weekly opportunity for contact through operators who are synched to the same moon cycle. Where power is not a crucial factor for determination of how often an operator may be online, it is suggested to also include the day and nights immediately before and after these phases of the moon in case other Rainbird operators have slightly miscalculated them (ie thought it was a full moon when the actual full moon was a day later).
DOMAIN47 is to be used as the common callsign to put a call out for all potential Rainbird Operators that might be listening but not in a position to communicate back. A standard message guiding civilians to a safer location would include something along the lines of “Callout to all Rainbird Operators utilising DOMAIN47 callsign, this is {operator’s callsign}.
Message to be passed along to {targeted area/ people of communication}; location {town/suburb of state/ province and country} has been cut off from all supply and exit due to {reason}. Multiple civilians now fleeing area, as situation becomes dire. Please advise on closest known safe haven, to escape effects of {disaster}”.
Or perhaps medical expertise is required: “Callout to all Rainbird operators identifying under callsign DOMAIN47. This is {operator callsign}. Immediate assistance required for a casualty due to {disaster} which caused {injury}. Access to doctor is not currently possible. Requesting assistance from any medical experts in the vicinity of {location} or at the very least an on air guide to conduct {medical procedure}. ”
Whilst Rainbird is aimed at providing an intercontinental communications bridge, it is suggested Rainbird members have their own handheld CB/VHF/UHF radios for local communications. This way they would be able to rapidly share any information coming through their nominated operator with those in their immediate vicinity with minimal lag time.
While there is no requirement for those wish to come online as Rainbird participants during a crisis situation, by emailing me your intention to join at daegonmagus@protonmail.com of your general location, I will be able to compile a map of potential reach of the network and hopefully refine its protocols further before a major SHTF event.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
I once read an article. It’s maybe six years ago that said that SJW types were scouring old used bookstores for “sexist” and “racist” books. Buying them up in huge lots and burning them, and generally trashing them outright.
I don’t know if it was true or not.
I certainly hope not.
What I do know is that my brother told me that when he visits the used books stores, he simply cannot find science fiction anthologies or collections of short stories anywhere. He said that he visited perhaps fifteen stores in the Colorado region and none could be had.
It would be a shame to see my boyhood erased simply becuase some bight-eyed utopian wanted to make the world better though tyranny.
Sigh.
But that’s the United States today. The internet is a corporate-technologist controlled dictatorship-based white-board. Things pop up, and then are erased as new narratives take hold, develop, conduct their purposes and then die.
Then new narratives materialize.
Now, it’s Ukraine. It was Coronavirus. Before that it was China. Before that was 5G radiation, before that was…
I need a beer.
By the way. You do know that beer goes great with steaks, meats, potatoes, and all sort of fine delicious and tasty foods. How about a fine, fine pot roast, eh?
It’s an old clichéd joke to say you read adult magazines for the articles. However, if you’re talking about men’s mags from the 1950s and 60s, there might actually be some truth in your statement.
Magazines like Playboy, Adam, Jem, and Rogue often featured genuinely well-written articles and short fiction.
Getting published in a men’s magazine wasn’t the shameful smudge on an author’s reputation as it is today – in fact, it was a common stepping stone for soon-to-be-famous authors.
Like Ray Bradbury.
But it isn’t just the stories that deserve respect – it’s the artwork that complimented them. Often sleazy and purposefully outrageous, the illustrations were designed to entice you to read the story in a not-so-subtle way.
Here in this article, we are going to present some most excellent examples. Grab some snacks, pour a large bowl with potato chips, get some nice dip, and start reading.
Oh, and don’t forget a tall frosty glass of beer. Or, if you are like MM, a fine bottle of wine , and share with your beloved pet.
Have fun.
Be with your kitties.
I mean, more like this…
Let’s begin our fun adventure…
They were two drunken lovers having an affair in her bed while her husband was away. But, was he away? Wasn’t that he – respected adviser to the President – they now overheard plotting to kill the man in the White House?
Lured by his smoldering eyes and magnetic personality, adoring women flocked to Rasputin. Peasant girls, prostitutes, princesses – they came, they saw, and they were conquered!
We got home about midnight. Shelia, the sitter, lay fast asleep on the couch. Maria woke her. Then I drove her home… an hour later, she’d been raped and strangled – and I was suspect number one!
Getting Avis pregnant, and other sinful shenanigans, proved that the passionate pastor simply didn’t practice what he preached…. it finally took the electric chair to deliver him from all evil.
As the whistling whip snaked across her back, the young woman writhed in pleasure. For this was the joy that she’d paid to feel and relish.
I could hear Ted’s screams, but I couldn’t get to him, the bull sea lions were surrounding me and the angry sea was at my back…
With a 2,000-horse-soldier combat team, the mad Russian set out to take all Asia for a harem. And he would have made it if he hadn’t touched the man millions call God.
The Sewer rats are the only ones you’ll share your secret with.
The couple’s honeymoon yacht turned into a craft of horrors when it was boarded by a lust-crazed psychopath who butchered anyone who dared invade his private inlet.
Big blondes in dime-store dresses, tender teenagers with eager smiles, they converge in front of fancy bars and good hotels in all the big towns bordering the hill country.
According to one automotive expert, these prestige-heavy imported hot rods are often badly made, unsafe, cash-eating tin cans perfectly designed for carrying you to the morgue.
A wanton, lush-bodied kitten of a blonde, she gave Mike Webster the sweetest, most loving hideout any murderer-on-the-run ever had.
Housemaids, heiresses, coeds and countesses – this brawling blackmailer sampled them all on a 75-year love binge so bawdy his memoirs still can’t be printed…
In life, she was a nymphomaniac with a very high taste in jewels and men. In death, she was Mike Shayne’s fourty-first murder case.
Laos was in flames, and in that bloody, steaming jungle hid a broken and dying pilot guarding a cargo the Reds would give their birthright to get…
In the waning days of world war two, Germany was in a state of utter collapse and chaos.
Angel terror across Dixie… Girl Rage Rampage!
In the grim violence of the Mate Grosso, two lusting men and two equally desire lashed females were stripped of all defenses before the furious onslaught of body-snatching banditoes…
…!
Jack Murphy primed her talents and showed her to the right people, all the while sating his desires on the sensuous blonde’s promise of passionate reward.
Roaring out of the back alleys of Los Angles on their souped-up hogs, four piston-fast “leather jacket looters” and their “desire debs” hatched a plot for the greatest armored truck robbery ever attempted.
…she didn’t even have time to…
A tough yank enforcer, two revenge-hungry nymphs vs. a crazed murder genius.
An Englishman who produced a .30 caliber carbine compact enough to fit in a cigarette pack…
Everyone in the third-floor room tried to laugh off what was happening to the girl on the bed – everyone but her boyfriend and the doctor, who found more in her stomach than just milk and cookies.
…he turned an island into a cross between Fort Knox and the sexiest Siegfried line ever built.
Those oriental Nazi dancing girls were all they were supposed to be… and more.
A murderer at the age of eleven, Ben Hogan led a life of crime and depravity that had no equal outside of Hell.
Blood was dripping from his slavering fangs…
With a bleching sound, the torrent gushed into the street. For tipplers it was a perfect way to die. For others it was an unheard of death.
…his wrist and ankles manacled to a steel bed.
Women, whiskey and dope made the Japanese town of Chitose “the wickedest city in the far east”.
They pumped two bullets into Al Cooke and left him for dead, but he wasn’t ready for the grave yet… not until he could get the laust laugh.
he was determined to even an old score. But the grim climax with the giant tusker was unexpected.
The trappers poured into camp hunting for their week of women…
Murderous females who were armed to the teeth tricked Fred hardin into stopping his car for them. Then, by threatening to slit the throat of his wife on a moment’s notice, forced him to accompany them on a journey through Hell.
To save his mate from a fate worse than death, the incredibly swift cat invaded a camp swarming with professional hunters, ready to kill or be killed if necessary…
Brother Briggs’s 3,300,00 members game kept his desert empire polygamy happy until the day the disciples caught on to the reason behind the leaders 9-1 ratio.
The Reds were bleeding the West of vital defense secrets. And even after a seven-year manhunt, counterintelligence had only one clue – a case of nylon undies.
“Being a Lady of the Night in jolly old London is never easy – but when somebody wants to carve you up, it’s sheer murder”
“He writhed in agony as they tore at his wife’s clothing… Dan’s car was the only weapon which could avenge their heinous crime.”
“Trapped by the mafia’s maniacal sadist, Garry had only one chance to save himself and the woman he loved”….And by the looks of things, Garry had damn well better hurry up!
“Reilly was doomed to a life without women – unless he could force the leprechaun to lift its double-whammy”
Possibly my favorite of all time.
One moment of frenzied passion could destroy his only chance for a perfect future.
“The telephone had killed his wife – and the telephone offered the perfect revenge”
Until he saw with his own eyes, the refused to believe a United Nations report -40,000 girls to be kidnapped this year in Europe and Africa and marched across the Sarah for sale to wealthy Arabian harem owners!
In an age of charm and delicacy, Madame Laramie was a demon incarnate.
The gallows beckoned and even Rand’s woman couldn’t save him from the gambler’s double-cross.
One minute you’re there, the next… poof! you’re ashes. Never a dull moment for drinkers.
Threatened with ultimate degradation, Mira became a slave to the strangest of passions.
The farewell party was so wild, he almost missed the journey…
Parker knew he must kill his wife’s lover… but he had one growing problem…
“Was Marie Antoinette a victim of character assassination, or did she diddle?”
“It was no ordinary shipboard romance. Her bull of a husband was along for the ride. Yet Allen knew he had to have her”
“Telsa had to save the mission from destruction because of Heroq’s passion to remain a Homo sapien”
As this illustration from 1968 demonstrates, artists were free to stylize their work by the late sixties, rather than stick to the somewhat homogeneous look of the mid-century illustrations.
“With five sex-starved wives to satisfy, a man can have a myriad of problems”
“Dollar for dollar, corpse for corpse, Holmes might have become America’s most successful lady killer – if one pretty doll hadn’t talked out of turn and exposed the most shocking mass murder in history”
“There are so many physiological differences between men and women that it is hard to believe they belong in the same species, says this noted psychologist”
The hang-up on the telephone saved him from getting hung up on the couch.
“The night was cold – and so was his wife. All of which led to Pete Landon’s tantalizing adventure.”
“Telling others what a big make out artist you are could very well help you become one”
All the hush-hush planning for the Allied invasion of Europe almost went out the window of a beautiful Hungarian’s bedroom.
“Iona screamed as Peggy stripped for the two men…. only one desperate gamble could stop the crazed convicts”
With a quick slap of the hand, Joe sent the shake-down artist to the floor.
He was a hostage of the Orient’s most notorious fighting brigade – a band of torture-trained females currently terrorizing the border region of Vietnam.
“If sexy strategist Suzanne had been a general, the South might have won the Civil War”
Broom and Board; a Witches tale.
“Hollywood’s a bad influence”… with the sordid Harvey Weinstein stories in the news of late, a very appropriate title. We’ll end here. Until next time.
Fun huh?
Yes. It was.
Back in the day, these magazines were everywhere. Young guys like myself would take our shoe-shine box and earn a few quarters spit-shing shoes and then use the money for candy and other treats. I used to happily get those comic books that were on this wire revolving display.
This was at the local corner drugstore.
I would ride my bike there, and just leave it outside. There was no crime. And even if someone stole it, the community would easily track down who stole it and bring it back. I’d park my banana-seat, long handlebars, Schwinn bicycle outside and go in. The mesh screen door would slam behind me with this little tiny brass bell ringing as I entered.
At that store was a selection of scant housewares, household good, woman’s cosmetics, and a pharmacy in the back. They always had this counter at the side where you could get a simple hamburger platter, eggs and toast, a milkshake or some other delicious treat. Though, as a boy who only had coins, I would get a soda out of the machine outside.
These small town businesses have largely disappeared in America. The small towns are deserted. Big mega-retailers like Wal-Mart and other enormous “box stores” pretty much devistated the smaller communities. Which is a real shame.
A real shame.
Oh, I’ll bet that you are all wonderign what these strange businesses might look like. Well, they came in many different sizes and shapes. Some were just standard brick storefronts, while others were standalone oeprations.
Here’s a very “modern” small-town drugstore.
And what’s more, there were many, many other establishments in the small towns throughout the United States.
Here’s The Krystal. It’s a “fast food” hamburger “joint” that popped up and existed before McDonald’s acted like “The Borg” and assimulated all of them.
And there were all sorts of establishments to eat.
Most people, having two hour lunches, would eat and then go home and take a nap before returning back to work. In those days, long lunches with naps were the norm.
Here’s a typical restaurant at lunch time.
My father had a routine that he would have a lunch at the tavern across from the mill where he worked, and on Thursdays, he would mosey over to the Barber Shop for a haircut and trip afterwards.
Those were the days.
When I entered the work force, they were busy removing benefits left and right, eventually asking us to dash for a 15 minute drive through burger, and return back to a “Lunch Meeting”. This continued though the 1990s. Eventually they eliminated technnical and engineering / manufacturing work completely.
It wasn’t profitable, they said.
Conclusion
We have to understand what we lost before we can understand what we need to change.
The United States today is in turmoil. This is at every level. But if you want to simplify everything, it’s really easy. Greed and the search for profits over all has bankrupted the nation. It hollowed it out, and destroyed the population and society in the process.
It will change.
But right now, most people have no idea what they lost, so how are they supposed to regain any true and real freedoms?
I’ll tell you what…
Real freedom is going into a Men’s-only Barber Shop, picking up a “Girlie Magazine” while a baseball game plays in the backgound. You light up a cigarette, and inhale it deeply.
Is it sexist? Yes.
Is it racist? I don’t know.
Is it unhealthy? Probably.
But so what? It’s no ones business except yours alone.
Freedom is absolute.
You either have it or you do not.
Bye Bye America. You were a dream; and ideal that was never truly possible.
When I was a boy, my father bought me this used hard-cover book.
I was in the bedroom, playing around. He came home from work, and handed me the book. Stuck around a while, and then back downstairs. I way a young boy. Maybe eleven years old.
I loved the illustrations in it. They were well done, beautiful, really. I treasured that book. And I kept it with me for years and years until I was “retired”, and my belongings sold by my “friends” and “family” for what ever profit they could derive from our relationship.
Later, as I got older, I realized what I once had. Sigh.
It’s called life.
Today, we will visit the beautiful illustrations of pirates and buccaneers that so colored my childhood with adventure, treasure and high piracy on the seven seas.
Pyle created images which made the public buy a magazine or a book for its cover alone.
Vincent Van Gogh admitted to his brother Theo, he was struck “dumb with admiration” when he saw Howard Pyle’s illustrations in a magazine. Pyle (1853-1911) was the top American illustrator circa 1880-1910. His work made top moolah pulling in five times the going rate or $75 for a double-page spread in Harper’s Bizarre, 1878.
Pyle created images which made the public buy a magazine or a book for its cover alone. In modern parlance: his work was cinematic, powerful, and dramatic. If he’d been born a few decades later, Pyle may have been a film director. He used strange angles to look down on battle scenes or cast figures centre frame while mayhem occurred all around. He sketched deserted figures in a landscape which explained the whole narrative in a single frame.
When I, as a boy of perhaps 11 or 12 was given the Book of Pirates by my father, I was enthralled.
The book was a collection of popular pirate stories, which mostly centered around brave non-pirates who crossed paths with an infamous pirate and yet who lived to tell the tale.
Sure, they were very romanticized stories focusing on the more adventurous side of piracy than the true aspect of it (though the sacking and slaughter of entire towns is mentioned, just not in gory detail). But for me, as a young boy, I found it all to be an enjoyable, quick read.
Pyle was born in Wilmington, Delaware. His parents early recognised his prodigious talent for drawing and painting. They encouraged him to focus on developing this talent. He was lucky he got sent to a private school which fostered his genius.
When he first moved to New York to become a magazine illustrator, he had no idea how to sell himself. He needn’t have worried.
One glance by the editor of Pyle’s artistry pulled in commissions.
He was soon illustrating books like the The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood which created the imagery we are all familiar with today. Or books about knights in shining armour like Men of Iron and Otto of the Silver Hand.
Publishers would hire Pyle knowing no matter how trashy the novel, Pyle’s artwork would make it a hit.
In the 1890s, Pyle, by then married with seven kids, was asked to teach drawing at university.
This led him to set up the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art in 1900. His school launched a whole new generation of artists who shaped the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
As a young boy, when I read the book, what really stood out were the absolutely stunning and beautiful illustrations throughout the book. Looking at them, you could smell the rum, fish and cannon powder and hear the ocean and gun shots.
Every book, magazine, and Hollywood film used Pyle’s illustrations of pirates to dress Errol Flynn as Captain Blood or Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow.
What is not well know, however, is that once he mastered his work, he turned to teaching others in his technique.
Howard Pyle was an instructor at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry (now Drexel University) from 1894-1900, and in that time, he taught a generation of celebrated illustrators including, Maxfield Parrish, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Frank E. Schoonover, and Violet Oakley.
More than 20 oil paintings will hang in the Paul Peck Gallery, including Howard Pyle’s “Here, Andre! A Spy! (1897)” on display with a variety of works on paper, as well as accompanying artifacts.
A majority of the exhibit will be presented in the Paul Peck Alumni Center, which is a historic Frank Furness designed building itself.
Some of the featured original paintings and drawings decorated American homes during their time period — also gracing the covers of publications such as Ladies’ Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post.
“A.J. Drexel founded the Drexel Institute in 1891, and when he died, he made it clear that his vision should be accessible to men and women from all backgrounds, which was unique for a college of that time period,” said Paula Marantz Cohen, Pennoni Honors College dean.
“Pyle’s time at Drexel undoubtedly shaped the field of American Illustration. He was an early parallel advocate of Drexel’s philosophy of ‘learning by doing’ encouraging his students to go out into the world to study their subject matter, an approach reflected in Drexel’s present-day Co-op program.
Not long after Drexel’s founding, Philadelphia’s publishing industry took off — greatly influencing Pyle’s artistic philosophy.
Pyle honored Drexel’s mission of experiential, democratic learning. His influences greatly contributed to illustrative painting and drawing becoming one of the truest forms of applied art.
He taught his students to be practical and commercially focused by observing reality first-hand.
“Today everyone knows the name Norman Rockwell but few people know the name Howard Pyle, let alone his art or his impact on generations of artists and American illustration,” says Judy Goffman Cutler, co-founder of the National Museum of American Illustration.
After his death from Bright’s disease in 1911, a giant compilation of Pyle’s illustrations of swashbuckling buccaneers was published under the title Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates.
It became a go-to-book for Hollywood costumiers and pulp fiction illustrators when conjuring up those daring pirates of the seven seas.
The book that I dedicate this entire article towards is a formula for (almost) every piece of swashbuckling fiction, namely scarred pirate captains, roguish and witty surogates, forced romance and the triumph of the just and lawful citizen whose virtue is rewarded with oh-so-fairly-gained and definitely-not-tainted-by-piracy wealth.
It’s perfect fodder for the young boy in all of us, and yes, you girls too.
Many pirates were women. And I hear that many of them were absolutely ruthless.
I lament that I lost the book to someone who found more pleasure in getting the fifty cents from a used book store from it, than any real value. To others, I suppose it’s just an item to profit from. Not one that held value. For me, the greatest pleasures of this book are the occasional descriptions that place you on a ship or an island, where you can briefly feel yourself bobbing over the swells or smell the brine.
The illustrations in the book are phenomenal, and it reads like you are at the bar or a pub during a rainy day and your friend is recounting a story his grandfather once told him.
Here’s an excerpt from the book…
Then the pirates marched into the town, and what followed may be conceived. It was a holocaust of lust, of passion, and of blood such as even the Spanish West Indies had never seen before. Houses and churches were sacked until nothing was left but the bare walls; men and women were tortured to compel them to disclose where more treasure lay hidden.Then, having wrenched all that they could from Maracaibo, they entered the lake and descended upon Gibraltar, where the rest of the panic-stricken inhabitants were huddled together in a blind terror.
I will admit that the writing style is old and not easy for all of us used to contemporaneous feeds.
After him came one Mansvelt, a buccaneer of lesser note, who first made a descent upon the isle of Saint Catharine, now Old Providence, which he took, and, with this as a base, made an unsuccessful descent upon Neuva Granada and Cartagena. His name might not have been handed down to us along with others of greater fame had he not been the master of that most apt of pupils, the great Captain Henry Morgan, most famous of all the buccaneers, one time governor of Jamaica, and knighted by King Charles II.
But for a young boy of eleven the stories were rich and ripe of adventure…
The attack of the castle and the defense of it were equally fierce, bloody, and desperate. Again and again the buccaneers assaulted, and again and again they were beaten back. So the morning came, and it seemed as though the pirates had been baffled this time. But just at this juncture the thatch of palm leaves on the roofs of some of the buildings inside the fortifications took fire, a conflagration followed, which caused the explosion of one of the magazines, and in the paralysis of terror that followed, the pirates forced their way into the fortifications, and the castle was won. Most of the Spaniards flung themselves from the castle walls into the river or upon the rocks beneath, preferring death to capture and possible torture; many who were left were put to the sword, and some few were spared and held as prisoners.
With the text and the illustrations, as well as the swash-buckling battles, it was a great escapist adventure for me to live out my boyhood dreams.
As for the bulls, as many of them as were shot served as food there and then for the half-famished pirates, for the buccaneers were never more at home than in the slaughter of cattle.
Then they marched toward the city. Three hours' more fighting and they were in the streets, howling, yelling, plundering, gorging, dram-drinking, and giving full vent to all the vile and nameless lusts that burned in their hearts like a hell of fire. And now followed the usual sequence of events—rapine, cruelty, and extortion; only this time there was no town to ransom, for Morgan had given orders that it should be destroyed. The torch was set to it, and Panama, one of the greatest cities in the New World, was swept from the face of the earth. Why the deed was done, no man but Morgan could tell. Perhaps it was that all the secret hiding places for treasure might be brought to light; but whatever the reason was, it lay hidden in the breast of the great buccaneer himself. For three weeks Morgan and his men abode in this dreadful place; and they marched away with one hundred and seventy-five beasts of burden loaded with treasures of gold and silver and jewels, besides great quantities of merchandise, and six hundred prisoners held for ransom.
Whatever became of all that vast wealth, and what it amounted to, no man but Morgan ever knew, for when a division was made it was found that there was only two hundred pieces of eight to each man.
The rest of them sailed away to the East Indies, to try their fortunes in those waters, for our Captain Avary was of a high spirit, and had no mind to fritter away his time in the West Indies, squeezed dry by buccaneer Morgan and others of lesser note. No, he would make a bold stroke for it at once, and make or lose at a single cast.
On his way he picked up a couple of like kind with himself—two sloops off Madagascar. With these he sailed away to the coast of India, and for a time his name was lost in the obscurity of uncertain history. But only for a time, for suddenly it flamed out in a blaze of glory. It was reported that a vessel belonging to the Great Mogul, laden with treasure and bearing the monarch's own daughter upon a holy pilgrimage to Mecca (they being Mohammedans), had fallen in with the pirates, and after a short resistance had been surrendered, with the damsel, her court, and all the diamonds, pearls, silk, silver, and gold aboard. It was rumored that the Great Mogul, raging at the insult offered to him through his own flesh and blood, had threatened to wipe out of existence the few English settlements scattered along the coast; whereat the honorable East India Company was in a pretty state of fuss and feathers. Rumor, growing with the telling, has it that Avary is going to marry the Indian princess, willy-nilly, and will turn rajah, and eschew piracy as indecent. As for the treasure itself, there was no end to the extent to which it grew as it passed from mouth to mouth.
And now Blackbeard, following the plan adopted by so many others of his kind, began to cudgel his brains for means to cheat his fellows out of their share of the booty.
At Topsail Inlet he ran his own vessel aground, as though by accident. Hands, the captain of one of the consorts, pretending to come to his assistance, also grounded his sloop. Nothing now remained but for those who were able to get away in the other craft, which was all that was now left of the little fleet. This did Blackbeard with some forty of his favorites. The rest of the pirates were left on the sand spit to await the return of their companions—which never happened.
As for Blackbeard and those who were with him, they were that much richer, for there were so many the fewer pockets to fill. But even yet there were too many to share the booty, in Blackbeard's opinion, and so he marooned a parcel more of them—some eighteen or twenty—upon a naked sand bank, from which they were afterward mercifully rescued by another freebooter who chanced that way—a certain Major Stede Bonnet, of whom more will presently be said. About that time a royal proclamation had been issued offering pardon to all pirates in arms who would surrender to the king's authority before a given date. So up goes Master Blackbeard to the Governor of North Carolina and makes his neck safe by surrendering to the proclamation—albeit he kept tight clutch upon what he had already gained.
It was a glorious thing for our captain, for here were thirteen Yankee crafts at one and the same time. So he took what he wanted, and then sailed away, and it was many a day before Marblehead forgot that visit.
Some time after this he and his consort fell foul of an English sloop of war, the Greyhound, whereby they were so roughly handled that Low was glad enough to slip away, leaving his consort and her crew behind him, as a sop to the powers of law and order. And lucky for them if no worse fate awaited them than to walk the dreadful plank with a bandage around the blinded eyes and a rope around the elbows. So the consort was taken, and the crew tried and hanged in chains, and Low sailed off in as pretty a bit of rage as ever a pirate fell into.
The end of this worthy is lost in the fogs of the past: some say that he died of a yellow fever down in New Orleans; it was not at the end of a hempen cord, more's the pity.
The cheat was kept up until the fruit of mischief was ripe for the picking; then, when the governor and the guards of the castle were lulled into entire security, and when Davis's band was scattered about wherever each man could do the most good, it was out pistol, up cutlass, and death if a finger moved. They tied the soldiers back to back, and the governor to his own armchair, and then rifled wherever it pleased them. After that they sailed away, and though they had not made the fortune they had hoped to glean, it was a good snug round sum that they shared among them.
Their courage growing high with success, they determined to attempt the island of Del Principe—a prosperous Portuguese settlement on the coast. The plan for taking the place was cleverly laid, and would have succeeded, only that a Portuguese negro among the pirate crew turned traitor and carried the news ashore to the governor of the fort. Accordingly, the next day, when Captain Davis came ashore, he found there a good strong guard drawn up as though to honor his coming. But after he and those with him were fairly out of their boat, and well away from the water side, there was a sudden rattle of musketry, a cloud of smoke, and a dull groan or two. Only one man ran out from under that pungent cloud, jumped into the boat, and rowed away; and when it lifted, there lay Captain Davis and his companions all of a heap, like a pile of old clothes.
Capt. Bartholomew Roberts was the particular and especial pupil of Davis, and when that worthy met his death so suddenly and so unexpectedly in the unfortunate manner above narrated, he was chosen unanimously as the captain of the fleet, and he was a worthy pupil of a worthy master. Many were the poor fluttering merchant ducks that this sea hawk swooped upon and struck; and cleanly and cleverly were they plucked before his savage clutch loosened its hold upon them.
Not a word was spoken after they had thus left the shore, and presently they might all have been ghosts, for the silence of the party. Barnaby True was too full of his own thoughts to talk—and serious enough thoughts they were by this time, with crimps to trepan a man at every turn, and press gangs to carry a man off so that he might never be heard of again. As for the others, they did not seem to choose to say anything now that they had him fairly embarked upon their enterprise.
And so the crew pulled on in perfect silence for the best part of an hour, the leader of the expedition directing the course of the boat straight across the harbor, as though toward the mouth of the Rio Cobra River. Indeed, this was their destination, as Barnaby could after a while see, by the low point of land with a great long row of coconut palms upon it (the appearance of which he knew very well), which by and by began to loom up out of the milky dimness of the moonlight. As they approached the river they found the tide was running strong out of it, so that some distance away from the stream it gurgled and rippled alongside the boat as the crew of black men pulled strongly against it. Thus they came up under what was either a point of land or an islet covered with a thick growth of mangrove trees. But still no one spoke a single word as to their destination, or what was the business they had in hand.
The night, now that they were close to the shore, was loud with the noise of running tide-water, and the air was heavy with the smell of mud and marsh, and over all the whiteness of the moonlight, with a few stars pricking out here and there in the sky; and all so strange and silent and mysterious that Barnaby could not divest himself of the feeling that it was all a dream.
So, the rowers bending to the oars, the boat came slowly around from under the clump of mangrove bushes and out into the open water again.
There he lay for I know not how long, staring into the darkness, until by and by, in spite of his suffering and his despair, he dozed off into a loose sleep, that was more like waking than sleep, being possessed continually by the most vivid and distasteful dreams, from which he would awaken only to doze off and to dream again.
It was from the midst of one of these extravagant dreams that he was suddenly aroused by the noise of a pistol shot, and then the noise of another and another, and then a great bump and a grinding jar, and then the sound of many footsteps running across the deck and down into the great cabin. Then came a tremendous uproar of voices in the great cabin, the struggling as of men's bodies being tossed about, striking violently against the partitions and bulkheads. At the same instant arose a screaming of women's voices, and one voice, and that Sir John Malyoe's, crying out as in the greatest extremity: "You villains! You damned villains!" and with the sudden detonation of a pistol fired into the close space of the great cabin.
Barnaby was out in the middle of his cabin in a moment, and taking only time enough to snatch down one of the pistols that hung at the head of his berth, flung out into the great cabin, to find it as black as night, the lantern slung there having been either blown out or dashed out into darkness. The prodigiously dark space was full of uproar, the hubbub and confusion pierced through and through by that keen sound of women's voices screaming, one in the cabin and the other in the stateroom beyond. Almost immediately Barnaby pitched headlong over two or three struggling men scuffling together upon the deck, falling with a great clatter and the loss of his pistol, which, however, he regained almost immediately.
What all the uproar meant he could not tell, but he presently heard Captain Manly's voice from somewhere suddenly calling out, "You bloody pirate, would you choke me to death?" wherewith some notion of what had happened came to him like a flash, and that they had been attacked in the night by pirates.
The vessel in which they sailed was a brigantine of good size and build, but manned by a considerable crew, the most strange and outlandish in their appearance that Barnaby had ever beheld—some white, some yellow, some black, and all tricked out with gay colors, and gold earrings in their ears, and some with great long mustachios, and others with handkerchiefs tied around their heads, and all talking a language together of which Barnaby True could understand not a single word, but which might have been Portuguese from one or two phrases he caught. Nor did this strange, mysterious crew, of God knows what sort of men, seem to pay any attention whatever to Barnaby or to the young lady. They might now and then have looked at him and her out of the corners of their yellow eyes, but that was all; otherwise they were indeed like the creatures of a nightmare dream. Only he who was the captain of this outlandish crew would maybe speak to Barnaby a few words as to the weather or what not when he would come down into the saloon to mix a glass of grog or to light a pipe of tobacco, and then to go on deck again about his business. Otherwise our hero and the young lady were left to themselves, to do as they pleased, with no one to interfere with them.
As for her, she at no time showed any great sign of terror or of fear, only for a little while was singularly numb and quiet, as though dazed with what had happened to her. Indeed, methinks that wild beast, her grandfather, had so crushed her spirit by his tyranny and his violence that nothing that happened to her might seem sharp and keen, as it does to others of an ordinary sort.
Do you want to read the book for free?
Well you can.
Complete with illustrations. Just simply click on the button here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Not the kind of title that you would expect from me, eh?
I woke up on Wednesday and found this article posted all over my LinkedIN feed. It’s from ZeroHedge, and discusses famine, starvation, disunity, sadness, in the evil gloom that lies under the shadow of the evil Chinese communist regime. The article goes to great lengths to describe a hopeless population, upset but powerless, to deal with on-going famine and the massive corruption of the CCP regime.
Here’s the article…
Well, I own a home in Shenzhen, and live across the bay from it. Everyday, I’m here, either looking at Shenzhen, or visiting it.
That’s what happens when you live next to a big city. You do know it’s population is 14 million people. That’s easily three times the size of New York City.
My relatives who live “on the island” (Long Island) feel the same way about “THE City” (New York).
Anyways. I live next door to Shenzhen, and own homes in Shenzhen. I visit it often, and I live right across the bay. From my living room, I can see the gleaming skyscrapers and glimmering light off the water.
I live in the Shenzhen region.
I live in the very place this article is written about.
It is now March. The same date and time when the article was written.
The purpose of this article is to present videos to show what life is like in Shenzhen, and the neighboring areas under the evil repressive Chinese communist regime. Especially, and most notably, at the time that this article was written and published.
I think videos do better than some text written by a moron who doesn’t even realize that it doesn’t even snow in Shenzhen. Never has. Never will. It’s a fucking tropical area. Sheech!
Snow?
Blizzard? Give me a break!
Shenzhen?
It’s tropical.
When was the last time it snowed in Hawaii? Sheech!
So I went and took videos all week to illustrate what it is like in the Shenzhen – Zhuhai area; my home.
We start with food. After all, that’s what the article is all about. It’s about a lack of food, resulting in starvation, followed by famine.
Food
There is no famine.
No starvation anywhere in China. And certainly NOT in Shenzhen.
I swear, Western “news reports” have morphed into fantasy / science fiction episodes with very little resemblance to reality. I am convinced that they are handed a bullet-list of bad things to say about China, and then write a fantasy narrative based upon the bad things.
It’s got to be exactly that.
No other explanation is possible. Not even remotely.
Who is doing this? It must be the people, or entities, that pay them. Either a government, or an NGO aligned “fake” pseudo organization. It must be. It takes time, and effort to write these articles. They just don’t magically appear out of the air.
I took all of these videos the SAME WEEK that this “news” report wrote about starvation in the Shenzhen / China area. I filmed in different middle-class restaurants throughout this general region. (You can tell by the different dishes and tablecloths.) None of these meals were overly expensive. Just typical middle-class Chinese fare.
Since I don’t eat at Fast Food, you won’t see any videos of the fast food franchises that are big here in China. Sorry, but it’s not my thing. I tend to eat at home, and then go out once or twice a day to a nice, reasonably priced restaurant. So I didn’t change my routine. Just filmed the food to show that there is no starvation, nor famine.
Pork with peppers and bitter melon. Very delicious. I ate this in one of the many local malls. Sorry for the noise, it like the rest of China, are filled with many people enjoying their time eating delicious food. video 26MB
Very Spicy Beef. Here’s a different restaurant. This one specializes in beef. Very delicious. video 31MB
Chinese Sloppy Joe and a fine wide noodle salad. All so very delicious. You can see why I have gained so much weight since I moved to China, eh? video 35MB
Stuffed Baozi with vegetables. Very delicious. I love the meat versions, especially the pork version. This was particularly delicious. video 53MB
Some Chinese vegetarian food. All good and healthy. Tasty too, but you know guys, I do love my meats. LOL. video 42MB
Handmade noodles with peanuts. Very, very delicious. I think most of my American readership would love these food dishes. Too bad you cannot get them out in the States. Just here in China. video 36MB
Guys. You DO KNOW, that if there were REAL famine and REAL starvation, you would not see meals like this anywhere. In a nation with a population of 1.4 billion people, you would be overwhelmed.
Even posting pictures on the (so called anonymous) internet would get you targeted. In China, no one is isolated, and no one is alone. We are all connected together.
Toys – Legos
Here are some videos that I took in a toy store. These are Chinese Lego’s. Same lovely Lego brand, only marketed to the Chinese. Interesting cultural differences, eh?
Military Lego kits. If I were still a boy, I would really enjoy playing with these Legos. Especially the DF-41, and the J-20. video 31MB
Chinese Harbin Ice Festival. There are all sorts of fascinating Chinese-themed Legos for the local markets. And of course, since the Chinese have so many things to celebrate, the diversity of the products are pretty intriguing. video 30MB
Starving girls in Shenzhen
All of these girls live in Shenzhen. According to my untrained eyes, these girls don’t look like they are starving, unhappy or desirous of regime change for democracy™. I guess that I am not so good at picking out starving, hungry waifs like the BBC, FOX “news” and CNN are.
But what do I know? I only live here, and I have never seen anyone starve. And I’ve been living here or nearly twenty years.
But I am not a qualified “journalist”. I guess that to qualify, you must accept money from a Western government, and then write to their narrative. There are many who have “sold their souls” for some gold coins and baubles. It has generated a small cottege industry. Don’t you know.
No one is starving.
I think much of it has to do with the fact that the Chinese government believe that food is a natural Right, and makes sure that it is plentiful and cheap. This is considered a REAL Right.
Not the psuedo “Rights” like the United States has. You know a Right with exceptions…
Freedom of Speech… controlled by the FCC, and Tech-oligarchy.
Right to bear arms… restricted by the government agency ATF.
Ninth Amendment… restricted by the FDA, FCC, NSA, and many, many others.
Tenth amendment…dead. A worthless, meaningless, phrase.
China believes that a fundamental Right is FUNDAMENTAL.
Of course, you’d never hear about that in the Western “news”. In that for-profit cesspool, everything comes at a price. It’s a land with a million tiny hands in your wallet.
Let’s look at the starving waifs yearning for freedom™ and democracy™…
And here’s the second gal. Love that fine tan dress. I like how it moves. You can tell that she’s hungry. After all, look at the sad and forlorn expression on her face.
Here’s a girl being sexy in the kitchen. Sorry that you can only see her backside. But I guess you might think that she is starving because she is not obese like so many American women. But that’s just cultural. The Chinese eat far better, healthier, and have far less stress than their American counterparts. video 5MB
Here’s another girl. She’s considered to be fat. In China, due to the diet, and perhaps genetics, the fat tends to go to the chest area, not to the stomach. As us, Americans and Europeans must deal with. I really think that the fact that GMOs are banned in China has a lot to do with it. video 2MB
This woman has great posture. I really cannot see the kind of starvation that resembles hunger like I saw when I lived in Pennsylvania. There, at that time, people couldn’t afford food, and with the collapse of the steel industry, many had to make due. They would fish, and eat rabbit, and other things to keep their bellies full. I’m not seeing it in China. Sorry. video 6MB
Elementary / kindergarten teacher. I suppose that this girl is borderline starving. You can tell by her sunken ass-cheeks and lack of stomach.
She reminds me of the many friends that I made when I first arrived in China. Many girls. Many dates. Many fun times.
But I must tell you, we all ate very well, and no one was starving. video 1.5MB
Life in Shenzhen / Nanshan / Zhuhai
Various “home” videos taken by myself. All in Shenzhen, and Zhuhai. All that I took with my fine four-year-old Huawei cellphone camera, with DouXing editing and music. Enjoy…
A view of the Shenzhen-Zhuhai-HK-Macao bridge. It’s that long bridge in the background. video 11MB
At the ferry port from Shenzhen to Zhuhai. This view is taken on the second floor of the Shenzhen side, where you go to the kiosks to get your tickets. video 11MB
One of our photo shoots. This was taken a few months ago. For you newbies, yea MM does photoshoots. It’s all a part of the affirmation campaigns along with thought direction for manifested reality, don’t you know.
Anyways, do these people look like they are starving and desirous for democracy™ and freedom™? video 26MB
Eating dinner in a small local restaurant at night. Friends, and family. That’s little mm playing with the cell phone. Oh, I’m so bad. Don’t worry, it was for less than 20 minutes. video 44MB
Here’s what it is like riding a bus at night. Do these people look like they are ready to revolt against the evil CCP regime? Sheech! You have got to be an idiot to believe the anti-China narrative. video 65MB
Prekindergarten education. Learning starts at two years old in China. Then there’s kindergarten, followed by elementary school, and military training, and into the pipe with middle school and upwards. video 45MB
What it is like on the streets. After all, the picture that is being sent to millions of people is snowy winter Shenzhen filled with unhappy and starving Chinese. So what’s the real story? video 2MB
Conclusion
Most “news” out of the collective West (in this case referring to China) are nothing more than made-up, fabricated lies. Lies that have no resemblance to the truth.
It’s a well-funded (to 5 billion dollars) effort (by the United States federal budget) to demonize China to the point where all Westerners (and most especially Americans) are filled with hate and loathing towards China.
This is for a build up for a major war.
Make no mistake. The USA is on a War-footing. A war, that the United States expects to win. For, after all, everyone knows, that it is exceptional™.
You don’t have to believe me.
But here it is.
This is what it is like. This is what China is like in Early March 2022, while articles on Gab, Zerohedge, Free Republic, and FOX regurgitate the “starving Chinese” lies.
This is the real deal, and no, I am not “brainwashed by the evil CCP”. Sheech! And no, I don’t live in exclusive areas. This is what it is like.
Lower-middle class life.
In Shenzhen / Zhuhai China. Real deal reporting. Real home-made videos. Real experiences. Real thoughts, and real reporting. All for free.
Soak it in and take a good, hard look at what “news” you read. Becuase if one simple thing like this can be distorted and twisted out of reality, what else can be? Eh?
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my China Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Often times we come across strange items, and objects. They appear mysterious to us. And this is pretty much due to the fact that they are often found without context. We know nothing at all about what is going on regarding the object or issue, or why. So we try to seek answers. This is true whether it is a dusty object hidden behind a wall partition, or a political issue. Such as the “war in Ukraine”. We need context to fully understand what is going on.
Consider Ukraine…
All the media is filled with the Hate-Russia; Punish-Russia narrative. It’s pretty thick. And all the articles are missing one very important thing; context. As this screen capture from The Drudge Report clearly points out.
But then we search, if we are intelligent, and look for context regarding the issue. Like this one from Fred…
Why did Russia invade the Ukraine? Contrary to American media, the invasion was not unprovoked.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, America has been pushing NATO, which is a US sepoy operation, ever closer to Russian borders in what, to anyone who took fifth-grade geography, is an obvious program of military encirclement.
Of the five countries other than Russia littoral to the Black Sea, three, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria, are now in NATO. America has been moving toward bringing in the Ukraine and Georgia. After Georgia would have come Azerbaijan, putting American forces on the Caspian with access to Iran and Kazakhstan. This is calculated aggression over the long term, obvious to the—what? Ten percent? Fifteen percent?—of Americans who know what the Caucasus is.Putin has said, over and over, that Russia could not allow hostile military forces on its border any more than the US would allow Chinese military bases in Mexico and China or missile forces in Cuba. Washington kept pushing.
Russia said, no more.
In short, America brought on the war.Among people who follow such things, there are two ways of looking at the invasion.
First, that Washington thought Putin was bluffing, and he wasn’t.
Second, that America intentionally forced Russia to choose between [1] allowing NATO into the Ukraine, a major success for Washington’s world empire; or [2] fighting, also a success for Washington as it would cause the results it has caused.
Context: for America, it was a win-win.
Context is everything. Without it; without context, the object hold no meaning. Though, however, that doesn’t stop our minds from trying to piece together narratives and a background as to what is going on.
The strange book
People discover strange things all the time, but this random book has to be one of the strangest discoveries ever found.
This masterpiece comes with no context. Some websites suggest that it was found in a yard sale, or an estate sale. Others offer a more curious story of it being found in an attic, or behind a sealed wall. It’s really hard to identify what the real truth is. All that is known is that his “book” or “box of papers” was found, and the new owners found it intriguing.
The box was handmade from wood, fit with hinges, a handle and a pair of locks.
From what was written here, it appears that the author had “an experience” that was definitely not and “everyday one”.
Inside the box were all sorts of carefully drawn works. Some drafts, and some sketches. The creator of the documents was indeed trained in the professional line-art and drafting skills. Here’s a hand-drawn table of the elements.
This patent is not filed with the United States patent office – but the drawings are remarkably detailed. But this is not the weirdest part…
This drawing was dated 1939 – why would someone discard this?
Oddly, this map shows air travel routes.
A lot of the maps are hand-drawn with a “center” noted on it.
The maps represent aerial patterns and/or routes of some type.
There were quite a few of the maps.
And the mystery continues…
A note; perhaps from the previous owner.
Another map with a “center” on it.
A piece of the past – a note from a very old veterans affairs office.
The artist depicts an event from Tampa, FL in 1977. He notes the event to be extraterrestrial in nature.
Yes, I suppose that it is odd to see extraterrestrial UFO illustrations on the same page with angelic-looking creatures.
Drawing of an entity.
A slight summary of the events.
Geometric shapes that are related.
Another drawing of one of the entities – looks strangely like something out of the biblical book of Ezekiel.
An additional sketch of the same being.
Beings from the side view.
The artist was fixated on these creatures for some time.
Was this a dream, or did this really happen? Was it a fantasy? Was it a story plot for a movie? Or, was he trying to pierce together theories, ideas, concepts and visions? No one knows.
One might say this looks like wheels within wheels, wings full of eyes and creatures with 4 heads (man, ox, eagle and lion) from the book of Ezekiel.
The drawings seem to mix biblical and extraterrestrial visions.
A close-up of the corner.
The details of this drawing include some of the patent drawings seen earlier.
A different view of one of the patent drawings.
It appears that these new train wheels might have come from the train he drew earlier.
What are your thoughts?
Whatever your conclusion – someone who was working too hard, a drug-induced vision, or a true extra-terrestrial experience… it sure is a puzzle. Unfortunately, we cannot ask the artist and know for sure. All we know is that this person experienced something very odd. Perhaps he knows something that we don’t.
Do you want more?
I have more articles like this one in my OOPART Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the 21st part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.
-MM
Part 21 – How SD and I both dreamt Joe Biden is planning on assassinating someone close to the Ukrainian Conundrum
SD and I have been having our usual synch dreams again. In the past 2 weeks we have had 2 that both seem to have an alarming number of parallel elements. I won’t go into the details of the first one as they seem somewhat irrelevant at this point in time, but it seems we are a having the same dream in which certain elements are being distorted to create confusion. SD suggested that perhaps something is tampering with our memories, and I have to agree that it certainly seems this way. This is an ongoing (recurring) dream I will get to later when I have more on it.
As for the second dream; I originally posted this up on the dream share forum. At the same time I sent MM an email with a copy and pasted version of the synched dream, to which he asked me to write it up for publication, as he considered it extremely important.….so here we are.
Combined dream that SD and I both had the night before yesterday:
I was minding my own business, I guess on some kind of holiday in this really strange town I have been to before. Nothing special just buildings and dirt….not really any where I would choose to go if I was given a coherrent choice in the matter. I take note here that I seem to have had dreams of an old school friend I no longer see. Someone appears. I can’t remember who or what, but I don’t think it is completely human. It tells me I am needed on a special assignment – The President of the USA – the one and the same Joe Biden is having a meeting and I am to go to it at once. It is important I be there, but for what reason it is not yet given. I finish my drinks or whatever it is I am doing, and agree to it. I get up and stand near my handler, and the next thing I know I am being whisked away Harry Potter port key style to a completely different place (I suppose the equivalent of a different country in the dream world). I have a vivid memory of it being like swirling, spiralling sensation where my surroundings just turn into a blurr of light, before I go through an all too familiar void of burgundy/ brownish/ goldish colour.
I am now standing in front of what appears to be a hotel room plonked on a block of land that seems eerily similar to a house i rented a few years ago. It is by no means a flash hotel by any stretch, but not shabby either; just a bland plain inconspicuous thing where you would go to dodgy shit under the radar of scrutinization. I knock on the door, my handler standing next to me – I want to say he is wearing a hooded robe for some reason (this may be a confusion of another dream in this same house a few weeks back where a robed figure stabbed in the hand with a small needle like device which made me wake up)– and one of Joe’s representatives, a secretary or something opens the door and invites us in saying “oh good you are here. We have been expecting you. ” The interior of the appartment is a very similar layout to my old house, almost identical; a sort of kitchen to the right, some rooms to the left (which is where it is different as this veers off into onto a patio that seemingly leads to the other apartments) and a small dining room straight ahead overlooking the city where Joe and about 40 other people are engaged in what seems like friendly, but important banter. This house was weird in that it is sort of a circular arrangement in which you can get back to the kitchen from this same area – this is the familiarity that struck me.
Joe stands up and gives them a little speech, the content of which i can’t remember, but it is almost certainly to do with the Ukraine crisis and “those pesky Russian bastards, that seem to be throwing them at every turn”. I stand by the door as my handler disappears either somewhere into the crowd or back out the door – I am not sure if anyone else can see him/her/it, but get the feeling they can’t. As I am standing there i have a very faint understanding that SD is in the crowd, but for what reason I don’t know; I only figure it is related to why I am here. I spot her, but am unphazed by it, just simply figuring she is doing her thing, and trust her with it.
Joe finishes his speech and then walks around shaking everyone’s hand, he spots me standing there with my arms crossed, observing him. He makes eye contact with me, then quickly finishes up his conversation with his guest, not breaking the eye contact, so he can make his way over to me. He approaches me and, first thing I notice is that he is treating me with a measure of respect not given to his other guests. He offers his hand, but I don’t bother uncrossing my arms, to which Joe claps me on the shoulder and leans in so only I can hear him. There is no awkwardness to me refusing his hand, this is just the way I roll and Joe knows that. The offer was more of a subconscious formality more than anything. Straight off the bat he starts talking about a “hit squad”. I can’t remember if i am part of the squad or if Joe wants me to track one down, but again it centers on all the shit coming out of Ukraine; The word assassination/ assassin pops up numerous times, like, a -fucking – lot. I don’t speak, just stand there and listen to what Joe has to say. Essentially there is someone over there (Ukraine) causing America big problems, and they (the party present) are sick and fucking tired of it. Joe wants who ever this guy is assassinated, and he wants me to organise the whole thing at the same time giving him insulation from it all. I suddenly have an understanding that I am well connected within the criminal underworld – but not your average run of the mill Mafia type deal, but something much worse – and that such a task would be a piece of cake. I nod in silence, then leave the premises.
SD’s version: like me, hers begins with her on a sort of vacation, but it is a lot more fragmented. She is met by her handler, to which similar things about her being needed for an important assignment are spoken, before she is whisked off to a similar apartment/ hotel room. She is now standing in a crowd of people, and again Joe Biden is giving a speech in front of them. She looks over and sees me at some point and remembers that there was something do with assassin’s and a hit squad being spoken of. Again, she had some sort of involvement in it, like she needed to help go find them or something.
Man these synched dreams have become so common between us that it really isn’t even a shock to us anymore. We just start picking each other for details and offer each other suggestions of what we think is going on. Both SD I agreed it seemed like our consciousnesses were being used to RV a certain scenario. I had MM ask the Commander if this was could possibly be happening. I’ll leave it up to him whether to publish what he told me.
But wait, there’s more, and it ties in with MMs response to this dream. When Putin first went into Ukraine, I had yet another dream in which SD’s astral self was telling me the Ukraine thing was all connected with things that are going on in the non physical planes. It was suggested there was a faction vying for the totality of the non physical realm as well another vying for both the physical and non physical planes (of course, I am never told who these factions actually are). SD’s handlers wanted her to reveal this to me as they wanted me to join them but were apprehensive about whether I would freak out about it or not. Much to their surprise, my response was “well, what the fuck are we waiting for”. There was also something mentioned about potassium iodide and honey comb being extremely important.
A strange stargate like portal opened up in front of me which I jumped into. The next thing I know I am in the back of what appears to be a long truck being used as an operations control room in some street, which could have very easily been Ukraine (it was clearly very more “astral like” than the physical Ukraine though). I was standing next to this other guy and over to our left was – I kid you not – an angel with four arms typing away at a computer. This was a beautiful creature. It had greyish semi translucent skin, very similar to the texture of a dolphin and (I think) was bald with intensely blue eyes, and stood about 8 ft tall. It was very robotic the way it moved, similar to Arnold Schwarnegger in the terminator movies, expressionless face, never blinking.
Suddenly our soldiers outside of the truck bring in another downed angel on a stretcher, again with four arms. They bring the stretcher right up to us where all the medical equipment is located. Straight away we know this one had been corrupted and was in need of some intensive “cleaning” and purging of all the corruption our enemies had done to it. I tell this guy next to me “yeah we kind of accidentally found out potassium iodide and honey comb knocks them out cold, like chloroform on humans” (well this is getting weird). Grace – the angel at the computer; “her” name was Grace, can you fucking believe it – realises there is a potential threat behind her, abruptly gets up out of her chair – her wings are fucking enormous; she stretches them when asserting dominance – and stomps over to this other {darkened} angel. Without warning she cracks her in the face with all five arms, and with lightning speed draws a semi auto handgun from somewhere and starts offloading it into this angel’s face at point blank range. The other angel starts stirring from sleep; meanwhile me and the other guy are just sitting here laughing our arses off at this {apparently} very normal angel greeting. The last thing I remember is the darker angel getting up off the bed before returning the greeting to Grace and the whole truck becoming smashed to pieces. Bikie brawls got nothing on Angel fights, apparently.
So I tell SD about this dream, and her response is “ahh, so you’ve finally met the angel ones”. Apparently she has had quite a lot of lucid dreams with them (none with four arms though), even an strange abduction experience with some, and her description matches Grace’s character; expressionless robots, with wings that fold up in their back when not in use, almost like vinyl type feathers. According to SD they were made so certain consciousness from the completely} non physical realm have a vehicle by which to enter and view the {not completely} non physical realm for very short periods of time (those ones can’t just come here like others can).
Certainly was an interesting dream that one. As was the Joe Biden hit squad dream.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Robert F. Young (1915-1986) was a prolific science-fiction writer whose 200-odd stories were published in all of the leading s-f magazines of his day as well as in Colliers, The Saturday Evening Post and Playboy. Although many of his stories were also published in book form, they are today almost all out of print and are unfortunately very hard to find, even in second-hand bookstores, on the Internet or elsewhere.
This charming and very inventive tale first appeared as the cover story of the December 1964 issue of Worlds of IF magazine.
It recounts with humor and brio, the adventures of a time-travelling explorer, and had me hooked from the beginning, had me smiling and chuckling throughout, and left me with a most agreeable warm feeling about having so well spent my reading time.
As an added bonus, the story solves a long-standing literary mystery as to the identity of the visitor who interrupted Coleridge in 1797 while the poet was writing down his masterpiece Kubla Khan, which he had just composed in his sleep. The visitor had hung around for an hour, and afterwards Coleridge hadn’t been able to remember the rest of the poem, which has thus remained unfinished. Now we know why!
It is I dare to say a fine example of the quality of the writing of an author of humble origins (science-fiction fans were astonished to learn, towards the end of his life, that he had been a full-time janitor in a Buffalo public school during most of his writing career) who is well worth discovering or rediscovering.
“When Time Was New” (1964) by Robert F. Young
The stegosaurus standing beneath the ginkgo tree didn’t surprise Carpenter, but the two kids sitting in the branches did. He had expected to meet up with a stegosaurus sooner or later, but he hadn’t expected to meet up with a boy and a girl. What in the name of all that was Mesozoic were they doing in the upper Cretaceous Period!
Maybe, he reflected, leaning forward in the driver’s seat of his battery-powered triceratank, they were tied in in some way with the anachronistic fossil he had come back to the Age of Dinosaurs to investigate. Certainly the fact that Miss Sands, his chief assistant who had cased the place-time on the tirnescope, had said nothing about a couple of kids, meant nothing. Timescopes registered only the general lay of the land. They seldom showed anything smaller than a medium-sized mountain.
The stego nudged the trunk of the ginkgo with a hip as high as a hill. The tree gave such a convulsive shudder that the two children nearly fell off the branch they were sitting on and came tumbling down upon the serrated ridge of the monster’s back. Their faces were as white as the line of cliffs that showed distantly beyond the scatterings of dogwoods and magnolias and live oaks, and the stands of willows and laurels and fan palms, that patterned the prehistoric plain.
Carpenter braced himself in the driver’s seat. “Come on, Sam,” he said, addressing the triceratank by nickname. “Let’s go get it!”
Since leaving the entry area several hours ago, he had been moving along in low gear in order not to miss any potential clues that might point the way to the anachronistic fossil’s place of origin – a locale which, as was usually the case with unidentifiable anachronisms, the paleontological society that employed him had been able to pinpoint much more accurately in time than in space. Now, he threw Sam into second and focused the three horn-howitzers jutting from the reptivehicle’s facial regions on the sacral ganglion of the offending ornithischian. Plugg! Plugg! Plugg! went the three stun charges as they struck home, and down went the a posteriori section of the stego. The anterior section, apprised by the pea-sized brain that something had gone haywire, twisted far enough around for one of the little eyes in the pint-sized head to take in the approaching triceratank, whereupon the stubby forelegs immediately began the herculean task of dragging the ten-ton, humpbacked body out of the theater of operations.
Carpenter grinned. “Take it easy, old mountainsides,” he said. “You’ll be on all four feet again in less time than it takes to say ’Tyrannosaurus rex’.” After bringing Sam to a halt a dozen yards from the base of the ginko, he looked up at the two terrified children through the one-way transparency of the reptivehicle’s skullnacelle. If anything, their faces were even whiter than they had been before. Small wonder. Sam looked more like a triceratops than most real triceratops did. Raising the nacelle, Carpenter recoiled a little from the sudden contrast between the humid heat of the midsummer’s day and Sam’s air-conditioned interior. He stood up in the driver’s compartment and showed himself. “Come on down, you two,” he called. “Nobody’s going to eat you.”
Two pairs of the widest and bluest eyes that he had ever seen came to rest upon his face. In neither pair, however, was there the faintest gleam of understanding. “I said come on down,” he repeated. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” The boy turned to the girl, and the two of them began jabbering back and forth in a sing-song tongue that resembled Chinese, but only as the mist resembles the rain.
It had no more in common with modern American than its speakers had with their surroundings. Clearly they hadn’t understood a word he had said. But, equally as clearly, they must have found reassurance in his plain and honest face, or perhaps in the gentle tone of his voice. After talking the matter over for a few moments, they left their aerie and shinned down the trunk, the boy going first and helping the girl over the rough spots. He was about nine; she was about eleven.
Carpenter stepped out of the compartment, vaulted down from Sam’s steel snout and went over to where they were standing. By this time, the stego had recovered the use of its hind legs and was high-tailing – or rather, high-backing it over the plain. The boy was wearing a loose, apricot-colored blouse which was considerably stained and disheveled from his recent arboreal activities, a pair of apricot-colored slacks which were similarly stained and disheveled and which terminated at his thin calves and a pair of open-toe sandals. The girl’s outfit was identical, save that it was azure in hue and somewhat less stained and disheveled. She was about an inch taller than the boy, but no less thin. Both of them had delicate features, and hair the color of buttercups, and both of them wore expressions so solemn as to be almost ludicrous. It was virtually a sure bet that they were brother and sister.
Gazing earnestly up into Carpenter’s gray eyes, the girl gave voice a series of sing-song phrases, each of them, judging from the nuances of pronunciation, representative of a different language.
When she finished, Carpenter shook his head. “I just don’t dig you, pumpkin,” he said. Then, just to make sure, he repeated the remark in Anglo-Saxon, Aeolic Greek, lower Cro-magnonese, upper-Acheulian, middle English, Iroquoian and Hyannis-Portese, smatterings of which tongues and dialects he had picked up during his various sojourns in the past. No dice. Every word he spoke was just plain Greek to the girl and the boy.
Suddenly the girl’s eyes sparkled with excitement, and, plunging her hand into a plastic reticule that hung from the belt that supported her slacks, she withdrew what appeared to be three pairs of earrings. She handed one pair to Carpenter, one to the boy, and kept one for herself; then she and the boy proceeded to affix the objects to their ear lobes, motioning to Carpenter to do the same. Complying, he discovered that the tiny disks which he had taken for pendants were in reality tiny diaphragms of some kind. Once the minute clamps were tightened into place, they fitted just within the ear openings. The girl regarded his handiwork critically for a moment, then, standing on tiptoe, reached up and adjusted each disk with deft fingers. Satisfied, she stepped back. “Now,” she said, in perfect idiomatic English, “we can get through to each other and find out what’s what.” Carpenter stared at her. “Well I must say, you caught on to my language awful fast!”
“Oh, we didn’t learn it,” the boy said. “Those are microtranslators – hearrings. With them on, whatever we say sounds to you the way you would say it, and whatever you say sounds to us the way we would say it.”
“I forgot I had them with me,” said the girl. “They’re standard travelers’ equipment, but, not being a traveler in the strict sense of the word, I wouldn’t have happened to have them. Only I’d just got back from foreign-activities class when the kidnapers grabbed me. Now,” she went on, again gazing earnestly up into Carpenter’s eyes, “I think it will be best if we take care of the amenities first, don’t you? My name is Marcy, this is my brother Skip, and we are from Greater Mars. What is your name, and where are you from, kind sir?”
It wasn’t easy, but Carpenter managed to keep his voice matter-of-fact. It was no more than fair that he should have. If anything, what he had to say was even more incredible that what he had just heard. “I’m Howard Carpenter, and I’m from Earth, A.D. 2156. That’s 79,062,156 years from now.” He pointed to the triceratank. “Sam over there is my time machine – among other things. When powered from an outside source, there’s practically no limit to his field of operations.”
The girl blinked once, and so did the boy. But that was all. “Well,” Marcy said presently, “that much is taken care of: you’re from Earth Future and we’re from Mars Present.” She paused, looking at Carpenter curiously. “Is there something you don’t understand, Mr. Carpenter?”
Carpenter took a deep breath. He exhaled it. “In point of fact, yes. For one thing, there’s the little matter of the difference in gravity between the two planets. Here on Earth you weigh more than twice as much as you weigh on Mars, and I can’t quite figure out how you can move around so effortlessly, to say nothing of how you could have shinned up the trunk of that ginkgo tree.”
“Oh, I see what you mean, Mr. Carpenter,” Marcy said. “And it’s a very good point, too. But obviously you’re using Mars Future as a criterion, and just as obviously Mars Future is no longer quite the same as Mars Present. I – I guess a lot can happen in 79,062,156 years. Well, anyway, Mr. Carpenter,” she continued, “the Mars of Skip’s and my day has a gravity that approximates this planet’s. Centuries ago, you see, our engineers artificially increased the existent gravity in order that no more of our atmosphere could escape into space, and successive generations had adapted themselves to the stronger pull. Does that clarify matters for you, Mr. Carpenter?”
He had to admit that it did. “Do you kids have a last name?” he asked. “No, we don’t, Mr. Carpenter. At one time it was the custom for Martians to have last names, but when desentimentalization was introduced, the custom was abolished. Before we proceed any further, Mr. Carpenter, I would like to thank you for saving our lives. It – it was very noble of you.”
“You’re most welcome,” Carpenter said, “but I’m afraid if we go on standing here in the open like this, I’m going to have to save them all over again, and my own to boot. So let’s the three of us get inside Sam where it’s safe. All right?”
Leading the way over to the triceratank, he vaulted up on the snout and reached down for the girl’s hand. After pulling her up beside him, he helped her into the driver’s compartment. “There’s a small doorway behind the driver’s seat,” he told her. “Crawl through it and make yourself at home in the cabin just beyond. You’ll find a table and chairs and a bunk, plus a cupboard filled with good things to eat. All the comforts of home.”
Before she could comply, a weird whistling sound came from above the plain. She glanced at the sky, and her face went dead-white. “It’s them!” she gasped. “They’ve found us already!”
Carpenter saw the dark winged-shapes of the pteranodons then. There were two of them, and they were homing in on the triceratank like a pair of prehistoric dive-bombers. Seizing Skip’s hand, he pulled the boy up on the snout, set him in the compartment beside his sister, and told them to get into the cabin fast. Then he jumped into the driver’s seat and slammed down the nacelle.
Just in time: the first pteranodon came so close that its right aileron scraped against Sam’s frilled head-shield, and the second came so close that its ventral fuselage brushed Sam’s back. Their twin tailjets left two double wakes of bluish smoke.
Carpenter sat up straight in the driver’s seat. Ailerons? Fuselage? Tailjets? Pteranodons?
He activated Sam’s shield-field and extended it to a distance of two feet beyond the armor-plating, then he threw the reptivehicle into gear. The pteranoclons were circling high overhead. “Marcy,” he called, “come forward a minute, will you?”
Her buttercup-colored hair tickled his cheek as she leaned over his shoulder. “Yes, Mr. Carpenter?”
“When you saw the pteranodons, you said, ’They’ve found us already!’ What did you mean by that?”
“They’re not pteranodons, Mr. Carpenter. Whatever pteranadons are. They’re kidnapers, piloting military-surplus flyabouts that probably look like pteranodons. They abducted Skip and me from the preparatory school of the Greater Martian Technological Apotheosization Institute and are holding us for ransom. Earth is their hideout. There are three of them altogether – Roul and Fritad and Holmer. One of them is probably back in the spaceship.”
Carpenter was silent for several moments. The Mars of A.D. 2156 was a desolate place of rubble, sand and wind inhabited by a few thousand diehard colonists from Earth and a few hundred thousand diehard Martians, the former living beneath atmosphere-domes and the latter, save for the few who had intermarried with the colonists, living in deep caves where oxygen could still be obtained. But twenty- second century excavations by the Extraterrestrial Archaeological Society had unearthed unquestionable evidence to the effect that an ultra-technological civilization similar to that of Earth Present had existed on the planet over 70,000,000 years ago. Surely it was no more than reasonable to assume that such a civilization had had space travel.
That being the case, Earth, during her uppermost Mesozoic Era, must have presented an ideal hideout for Martian criminals, kidnappers included. Certainly such a theory threw considerable light on the anachronisms that kept cropping up in Cretaceous strata. There was of course another way to explain Marcy’s and Skip’s presence in the Age of Dinosaurs: they could be A.D. 2156 Earth children, and they could have come back via time machine the same as he had. Or they could have been abducted by twenty-second century kidnappers, for that matter, and have been brought back. But, that being so, why should they lie about it? “Tell me, Marcy,” Carpenter said, “do you believe I came from the future?”
“0h, of course, Mr. Carpenter. And I’m sure Skip does, too. It’s – it’s kind of hard to believe, but I know that someone as nice as you wouldn’t tell a fib – especially such a big one.”
“Thank you,” Carpenter said. “And I believe you came from Greater Mars, which, I imagine, is the planet’s largest and most powerful country. Tell me something about your civilization.
“It’s a magnificent civilization, Mr. Carpenter. Every day we progress by leaps and bounds, and now that we’ve licked the instability factor, we’ll progress even faster.”
” ’The instability factor’? ”
“Human emotion. It held us back for years, but it can’t any more. Now, when a boy reaches his thirteenth birthday and a girl reaches her fifteenth, they are desentimentalized. And after that, they are able to make calm cool decisions strictly in keeping with pure logic. That way they can achieve maximum efficiency. At the Institute preparatory school, Skip and I are going through what is known as the ’pre-desentimentalization process.’ After four more years we’ll begin receiving dosages of the desentimentalization drug. Then —”
SKRRRREEEEEEEEEEK! went one of the pteranodons it sideswiped the shield-field.
Carpenter watched it as it wobbled wildly for a moment, and before it shot skyward he caught a glimpse of its occupant. All he saw was an expressionless face, but from its forward location he deduced that the man was lying in a prone position between the two twelve-foot wings.
Marcy was trembling. “I – I think they’re out to kill us, Mr. Carpenter,” she said. “They threatened to if we tried to escape. Now that they’ve got our voices on the ransom tape, they probably figure they don’t need us any more.”
He reached back and patted her hand where it lay lightly on his shoulder. “It’s all right, pumpkin. With old Sam here protecting you, you haven’t got a thing to worry about.”
“Is – is that really his name?”
“It sure is. Sam Triceratops, Esquire. Sam, this is Marcy. You take good care of her and her brother – do you hear me?” He turned his head and looked into the girl’s wide blue eyes. “He says he will. I’ll bet you haven’t got anybody like him on Mars, have you?”
She shook her head – as standard a Martian gesture, apparently, as it was a terrestrial – and for a moment he thought that a tremulous smile was going to break upon her lips. It didn’t, though – not quite. “Indeed we haven’t, Mr. Carpenter.”
He squinted up through the nacelle at the circling pteranodons (he still thought of them as pteranodons, even though he knew they were not). “Where’s this spaceship of theirs, Marcy? Is it far from here?”
She pointed to the left. “Over there. You come to a river, and then a swamp. Skip and I escaped this morning when Fritad, who was guarding the lock, fell asleep. They’re a bunch of sleepyheads, always falling asleep when it’s their turn to stand guard. Eventually the Greater Martian Space Police will track the ship here; we thought we could hide out until they got here. We crept through the swamp and floated across the river on a log. It – it was awful, with big snakes on legs chasing us, and – and – ”
His shoulder informed him that she was trembling again. “Look, I’ll tell you what, pumpkin,” he said. “You go back to the cabin and fix yourself and Skip something to eat. I don’t know what kind of food you’re accustomed to, but it can’t be too different from what Sam’s got in stock. You’ll find some square vacuum-containers in the cupboard – they contain sandwiches. On the refrigerator-shelf just above, you’ll find some tall bottles with circlets of little stars – they contain pop. Open some of each, and dig in. Come to think of it, I’m hungry myself, so while you’re at it, fix me something, too.”
Again, she almost smiled. “All right, Mr. Carpenter. I’ll fix you something special.”
Alone in the driver’s compartment, he surveyed the Cretaceous landscape through the front, lateral and rear viewscopes. A range of young mountains showed far to the left. To the right was the distant line of cliffs. The rear viewscope framed scattered stands of willows, fan palms and dwarf magnolias, beyond which the forested uplands, wherein lay his entry area, began. Far ahead, volcanos smoked with Mesozoic abandon.
79,061,889 years from now, this territory would be part of the state of Montana. 79,062,156 years from now, a group of paleontologists digging somewhere in the vastly changed terrain would unearth the fossil of a modern man who had died 79,062,156 years before his disinterment
Would the fossil turn out to be his own?
Carpenter grinned, and looked up at the sky to where the two pteranodons still circled. It could have been the fossil of a Martian.
He turned the triceratank around and started off in the opposite direction. “Come on, Sam,” he said. “Let’s see if we can’t find a good hiding place where we can lay over for the night. Maybe by morning I’ll be able to figure out what to do. Who’d ever have thought we’d wind up playing rescue-team to a couple of kids?”
Sam grunted deep in his gear box and made tracks for the forested uplands.
The trouble with going back in time to investigate anachronisms was that frequently you found yourself the author of the anachronism in question. Take the classic instance of Professor Archibald Quigley.
Whether the story was true or not, no one could say for certain, but, true or not, it pointed up the irony of time travel as nothing else could. A staunch Coleridge admirer, Professor Quigley had been curious for years – or so the story went – as to the identity of the visitor who had called at the farmhouse in Nether Stowey in the county of Somersetshire, England in the year 1797 and interrupted Coleridge while the poet was writing down a poem which he had just composed in his sleep. The visitor had hung around for an hour, and afterward Coleridge hadn’t been able to remember the rest of the poem. As a result, Kubla Khan was never finished. Eventually, Professor Quigley’s curiosity grew to such proportions that he could no longer endure it, and he applied at the Bureau of Time Travel for permission to return to the place-time in order that he might set his mind at ease. His request was granted, whereupon he handed over half his life-savings without a qualm in exchange for a trip back to the morning in question. Emerging near the farmhouse, he hid in a clump of bushes, watching the front door; then, growing impatient when no one showed up, he went to the door himself, and knocked. Coleridge answered the knock personally, and even though he asked the professor in, the dark look that he gave his visitor was something which the professor never forgot to the end of his days.
Recalling the story, Carpenter chuckled. It wasn’t really anything for him to be chuckling about, though, because what had happened to the professor could very well happen to him. Whether he liked it or not, there was a good chance that the fossil which the North American Paleontological Society had sent him back to the Mesozoic Era to investigate might turn out to be his own.
Nevertheless, he refused to let the possibility bother him. For one thing, the minute he found himself in a jam, all he had to do was contact his two assistants, Miss Sands and Peter Detritus, and they would come flying to his aid in Edith the therapod or one of the other reptivehicles which NAPS kept on hand. For another, he had already learned that outside forces were at work in the Cretaceous Period. He wasn’t the only candidate for fossildom. Anyway, worrying about such matters was a waste of time: what was going to happen had already happened, and that was all there was to it.
Skip crawled out of the cabin and leaned over the back of the driver’s seat. “Marcy sent you up a sandwich and a bottle of pop, Mr. Carpenter,” he said, handing over both items. And then, “Can I sit beside you, sir?”
“Sure thing,” Carpenter said, moving over.
The boy climbed over the backrest and slid down into the seat. No sooner had he done so than another buttercup- colored head appeared. “Would – would it be all right, Mr.. Carpenter, if – if -”
“Move over and make room for her in the middle, Skip.”
Sam’s head was a good five feet wide, hence the driver’s compartment was by no means a small one. But the seat itself was only three feet wide, and accommodating two half-grown kids and a man the size of Carpenter was no small accomplishment, especially in view of the fact that all three of them were eating sandwiches and drinking pop. Carpenter felt like an indulgent parent taking his offspring on an excursion through a zoo.
And such a zoo! They were in the forest now, and around them Cretaceous oaks and laurels stood; there were willows, too, and screw pines and ginkgos galore, and now and then they passed through incongruous stands of fan palms.
hrough the undergrowth they glimpsed a huge and lumbering creature that looked like a horse in front and a kangaroo in back. Carpenter identified it as an anatosaurus. In a clearing they came upon a struthiomimus and startled the ostrich-like creature half out of its wits. A spike-backed ankylosaurus glowered at them from behind a clump of sedges, but discreetly refrained from questioning Sam’s right of way. Glancing into a treetop, Carpenter saw his first archaeopteryx. Raising his eyes still higher, he saw the circling pteranodons. He had hoped to lose them after entering the forest, and to this end he held Sam on an erratic course. Obviously, however, they were equipped with matter detectors. A more sophisticated subterfuge would be necessary. There was a chance that he might bring them down with a barrage of stun-charges, but it was a slim one and he decided not to try it in any event. The kidnappers undoubtedly deserved to die for what they had done, but he was not their judge. He would kill them if he had to, but he refused to do it as long as he had an ace up his sleeve. Turning toward the two children, he saw that they had lost interest in their sandwiches and were looking apprehensively upward. Catching their eye, he winked. “I think it’s high time we gave them the slip, don’t you? ”
“But how, Mr. Carpenter?” Skip asked. “They’re locked right on us with their detector-beams. We’re just lucky ordinary Martians like them can’t buy super Martian weapons. They’ve got melters, which are a form of iridescers: but if they had real iridescers, we’d be goners.”
“We can shake them easy, merely by jumping a little ways back in time. Come on, you two – finish your sandwiches and stop worrying.”
Their apprehension vanished, and excitement took its place. “Let’s jump back six days,” Marcy said. “They’ll never find us then because we won’t be here yet.” “Can’t do it, pumpkin – it would take too much starch out of Sam. Time-jumping requires a tremendous amount of power. In order for a part-time time-machine like Sam to jump any great distance, its power has to be supplemented by the power of a regular time station. The station propels the reptivehicle back to a pre-established entry area, and the time-traveler drives out of the area and goes about his business. The only way he can get back to the present is by driving back into the area, contacting the station and tapping its power-supply again, or by sending back a distress signal and having someone come to get him in another reptivehicle. At the most, Sam could make about a four-day round trip under his own power but it would burn him out. Once that happened, even the station couldn’t pull him back. I think we’d better settle for an hour.”
Ironically, the smaller the temporal distance you had to deal with, the more figuring you had to do. After directing the triceratank via the liaison-ring on his right index finger to continue on its present erratic course, Carpenter got busy with pad and pencil, and presently he began punching out arithmetical brain-twisters on the compact computer that was built into the control panel.
Marcy leaned forward, watching him intently. “If it will expedite matters, Mr. Carpenter,” she said, “I can do simple sums, such as those you’re writing down, in my head. For instance, 828,464,280 times 4,692,438,921 equals 3,887,518,032,130,241,880.”
“It may very well at that, pumpkin, but I think we’d better check and make sure, don’t you?” He punched out the first two sets of numerals on the calculator, and depressed the multiplication button. 3,887,518,032,130,241,880, the answer panel said. He nearly dropped the pencil.
“She’s a mathematical genius,” Skip said. “I’m a mechanical genius myself. That’s how come we were kidnaped. Our government values geniuses highly. They’ll pay a lot of money to get us back.”
“Your government? I thought kidnappers preyed on parents, not governments.” “Oh, but our parents aren’t responsible for us any more, Marcy explained. “In fact, they’ve probably forgotten all about us. After the age of six, children become the property of the state. Modern Martian parents are desentimentalized, you see, and don’t in the least mind getting rid of – giving up their children.”
Carpenter regarded the two solemn faces for some time. “Yes,” he said, “I do see at that.”
With Marcy’s help, he completed the rest of his calculations; then he fed the final set of figures into Sam’s frontal ganglion. “Here we go, you two!” he said, and threw the jumpback switch. There was a brief shimmering effect and an almost imperceptible jar. So smoothly did the transition take place that Sam did not even pause in his lumbering walk.
Carpenter turned his wristwatch back from 4:16 P.M. to 3:16 P.M. “Take a look at the sky now, kids. See any more pteranodons?”
They peered up through the foliage. “Not a one, Mr. Carpenter,” Marcy said, her eyes warm with admiration. “Not a single one!”
“Say, you’ve got our scientists beat forty different ways from Sunday!” Skip said. “They think they’re pretty smart, but I’ll bet they’ve never even thought of trying to travel in time. . . How far can you jump into the future, Mr. Carpenter – in a regular time-machine, I mean?”
“Given sufficient power, to the end of time – if time does have an end. But traveling beyond one’s own present is forbidden by law. The powers-that-be in 2156 consider it bad for a race of people to find out what’s going to happen to them before it actually happens, and for once I’m inclined to think that the powers-that-be are right.”
He discontinued liaison control, took over manually and set Sam on a course at right angles to their present direction. At length they broke free from the forest onto the plain. In the distance the line of cliffs that he had noticed earlier showed whitely against the blue and hazy sky. “How’d you kids like to camp out for the night?” he asked.
Skip’s eyes went round. “Camp out, Mr. Carpenter?”
“Sure. We’ll build a fire, cook our food over it, spread our blankets on the ground – regular American Indian style. Maybe we can even find a cave in the cliffs. Think you’d like that?”
Both pairs of eyes were round now. “What’s ’American Indian style,’ Mr. Carpenter?” Marcy asked.
He told them about the Arapahoes and the Cheyennes and the Crows and the Apaches, and about the buffalo and the great plains and Custer’s last stand, and the Conestogas and the frontiersmen (the old ones, not the “new”), and about Geronimo and Sitting Bull and Cochise, and all the while he talked their eyes remained fastened on his face as though it were the sun and they had never before seen day. When he finished telling them about the settling of the west, he told them about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln and Generals Grant and Lee and the Gettysburg Address and the Battle of Bull Run and the surrender at Appomattox.
He had never talked so much in all his life. He wondered what had come over him, why he felt so carefree and gay all of a sudden and why nothing seemed to matter except the haze-ridden Cretaceous afternoon and the two round-eyed children sitting beside him. But he did not waste much time wondering. He went on to tell them about the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, and about what a wonderful dream the founding fathers had had and about how much better it would have turned out if opportunistic men had not used it to further their own selfish end and about how relatively wonderful it had turned out anyway, despite the many crimes that had been committed in its name. By the time he finished, evening was on hand. The white cliffs rose up before them, shouldering the darkening sky.
At the base of the cliffs they found a jim-dandy of an untenanted cave, large enough to accommodate both Sam and themselves and with enough room left over to build a campfire. Carpenter drove the reptivehicle inside and parked it in the rear; then he extended the shield-field till it included the cave, the side of the cliff and a large semicircular area at the base of the cliff. After checking the “front yard” and finding that it contained no reptiles except several small and harmless lizards, he put the two children to work gathering firewood.
eanwhile, he generated a one-way illusion-field just within the mouth of the cave. By this time Skip, at least, had shed his reserve. “Can I help build the fire, Mr. Carpenter?” he cried, jumping up and down. “Can I – can I – can I?”
“Skip!” Marcy said. “It’s all right, pumpkin,” Carpenter told her. “You can help, too, if you like.”
The walls of the cave turned red, then rosy, as young flames grew into full-fledged ones.
Carpenter opened three packages of frankfurters and three packages of rolls and showed his charges how to spear the frankfurters on the end of pointed sticks and roast them over the fire. Afterward he demonstrated how to place a frankfurter in a roll and smother it with mustard, pickle relish, and chopped onions. It was as though he had flung wide magic casements opening on enchanted lands that the two children had not dreamed existed. The last vestiges of solemnity departed from their faces, and during the next half hour they created and consumed six hot dogs apiece. Skip got so excited that he nearly fell into the fire, and the smile that had been trying all afternoon to break upon Marcy’s lips at last came through, teaching the flames to burn bright.
Carpenter had made a pot of cocoa in Sam’s kitchenette, and nothing more was needed to round out the cookout except marshmallows. Was it remotely possible, he wondered, that his efficient chief assistant had included such nostalgic delicacies among the various supplies in Sam’s tail-compartment? It was doubtful at best, but he took a look anyway. To his delight, he found a whole box of them. Again, he performed a demonstration, while the two children looked on in open-mouthed awe. When the two marshmallows which he had speared on his stick turned golden brown he thought for a moment that Skip’s eyes were going to fall out of his head. As for Marcy, she just stood there and stared as though Carpenter had said, “Let there be light!” and the first day had come into being.
Laughing, he removed the marshmallows and handed one to each of them. “Skip!” Marcy said when the boy popped his into his mouth and dispatched it with a single gulp. “Where are your manners?” She ate hers daintily.
After the marshmallow roast, he went outside and cut enough laurel and dogwood branches for three mattresses. He showed the children how to arrange the branches on the cavern floor and how to cover them with the blankets which he took out of Sam’s tail-compartment. Skip needed no further invitation to turn in: exhausted from his enthusiastic activities and becalmed by his full stomach, he collapsed upon his blanket as soon as he had it in place. Carpenter got three more blankets, covered him with one of them and turned to Marcy. “You look tired, too, pumpkin.”
“Oh, but I’m not, Mr. Carpenter. Not in the least bit. I’m two years older than Skip, you know. He’s just a kid.”
He folded the remaining two blankets into impromptu pillows and placed them a few feet from the fire. He sat down on one of them; she sat down on the other. All evening, grunts and growls and groans had been coming sporadically from beyond the shield-field; now they were supplanted by an awesome noise that brought to mind a gigantic road-repair machine breaking up old pavement. The cavern floor trembled, and the firelight flickered wildly on the wall. “Sounds like old tyrannosaurus,” Carpenter said. “Probably out looking for a midnight snack in the form of a struthiomimus or two.”
“’Tyrannosaurus,’ Mr. Carpenter?”
He described the ferocious theropod for her. She nodded after he had finished, and a shudder shook her. “Yes,” she said, “Skip and I saw one. It was a little while after we crossed the river. We – we hid in a clump of bushes till he passed. What terrible creatures you have here on Earth, Mr. Carpenter!”
“They no longer exist in my day and age,” Carpenter said. “We have terrible ’creatures’ of another order – ’creatures’ that would send old tyrannosaurus high-tailing it for the hills like a flushed rabbit. I shouldn’t be complaining, though. Our technological debauchery left us with a cold-war hangover – sure; but it paid off in quite a number of things. Time travel, for one. Interplanetary travel, for another.” At this point, the road-repair machine struck a bad stretch of pavement, and, judging from the ungodly series of sounds that ensued, blew a rod to boot. The girl moved closer to him. “Take it easy, pumpkin. There’s nothing to worry about. An army of theropods couldn’t break through that shield-field.” “Why do you call me ’pumpkin,’ Mr. Carpenter? On Mars, a pumpkin is an unpleasant squashy vegetable that grows in swamps and midden-marshes.”
He laughed. The sounds from beyond the shield-field diminished, then faded away, as the theropod thundered off in another direction. “On Earth, a pumpkin is quite a nice vegetable – or maybe it’s a fruit. Whichever, it’s quite respectable. But that’s beside the point. ’Pumpkin’ is what a man calls a girl when he likes her.”
There was a silence. Then, “Do you have a real girl, Mr. Carpenter?”
“Not actually, Marcy. You might say that figuratively speaking I worship one from afar.”
“That doesn’t sound like very much fun. Who is she?”
“She’s my chief assistant at the North American Paleontological Society where I work – Miss Sands. Her first name is ’Elaine,’ but I never call her by it. She sees to it that I don’t forget anything when I retro-travel, and she cases the placetimes over a time-scope before I start out. Then she and my other assistant, Peter Detritus, stand by, ready to come to the rescue if I should send back a can of chicken soup. You see, a can of chicken soup is our distress signal. It’s about as big an object as a paleontologivehicle can handle in most cases, and the word ’chicken’ in our language connotes fear.”
“But why do you worship her from afar, Mr. Carpenter?”
“Well you see,” Carpenter said, “Miss Sands isn’t just an ordinary run-of-the-mill girl. She’s the cool, aloof type – a goddess, if you know what I mean. Although I don’t see how you possibly could. Anyway, you simply don’t treat goddesses the way you treat mere girls – you keep your distance and worship them from afar and humbly wait for them to bestow favors upon you. I – I worship her so much, in fact, that every time I’m near her I get so frustrated that I can hardly say anything. Maybe after I get to know her better it’ll be different. So far, I’ve known her three months.”
He fell silent. Marcy’s hearrings twinkled in the firelight as she turned and looked gently up into his face. “What’s the matter, Mr. Carpenter – cat got your tongue?”
“I was just thinking,” Carpenter said. “Three months is quite a long time at that – long enough for a man to tell whether a girl is ever going to like him or not. And Miss Sands isn’t ever going to like me – I can see that now. Why, she doesn’t even look at me unless she absolutely has to, and she won’t say two words to me if she can possibly avoid it. So you see, even if I did stop worshipping her from afar and got up enough nerve to tell her that I love her, she would probably only be annoyed and tell me to get lost.”
Marcy was indignant. “She must be out of her mind, Mr. Carpenter – just plain out of her mind. She should be ashamed of herself!”
“No, Marcy – you’ve got her all wrong. You can’t expect a girl as beautiful as she is to go for a good-for-nothing time-bum like me.”
“A good-for-nothing time-bum indeed! You know, Mr. Carpenter, I don’t think you understand women very well. Why, I’ll bet if you told her you love her, she’d throw herself into your arms!”
“You’re a romantic, Marcy. In real life, such things don’t happen.” He stood up. “Well, young lady, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. Shall we call it a day?” “If you wish to, Mr. Carpenter.”
She was asleep by the time he pulled her blanket up to her chin. As he stood there looking down at her, she turned on her side, and the firelight caught the buttercup-hue fuzz on the back of her neck, where her hair had been cut too short, and tinted it red-gold. All he could think of were buttercup-clad meadows in spring, and the warm clean sun rising and ushering in the dew-jeweled day . . . After checking to see if Skip was all right, he went over and stood in the cave mouth and stared out into the darkness. With tyrannosaurus’ departure, the lesser Cretaceous creatures had come out of their hiding places and were making their presence known again. He glimpsed the grotesque shapes of several ornithopods; he saw an ankylosaurus standing immobile by a coppice of fan palms; he heard lizards scurrying both inside and outside the shield-field. A moon subtly different from the one he was most accustomed to was climbing into the prehistoric heavens. The difference lay in the number of meteorite craters. There were far fewer of them now than there would be 79,062,156 years in the future.
He realized presently that although he was still looking at the moon he was no longer seeing it. He was seeing the campfire instead, and the girl and the boy enthusiastically roasting marshmallows. Why hadn’t he gotten married and had children? he wondered suddenly. Why had he passed up all the pretty girls he had ever known, only to fall hopelessly in love at the age of thirty-two with a beautiful goddess who preferred not to know he was alive? What had given him the notion that the thrill derived from adventure was somehow superior to the contentment derived from loving and being loved? – that getting the bugs out of historical and pre-historical times was more important than getting the bugs out of his own life? That a lonely room in a boarding house was a man’s castle and that drinks drunk in dim-lit bars with fun-girls he could no longer remember the next day spelled “freedom”?
What treasure had he expected to find in the past that could equal the treasures he had passed up in the future?
The night had grown chill. Before lying down to sleep he added more wood to the fire. He listened to the flames crackle and watched their pale ffickerings on the cavern walls. A lizard regarded him with golden eyes out of prehistoric shadows. In the distance, an omithopod went Waroompf! Beside him in the Mesozoic night the two children breathed softly in their green-bough beds. Presently he slept.
The next morning, Carpenter wasted no time in getting the show on the road. Marcy and Skip were all for remaining in the cave indefinitely, but he explained to them that, were they to stay in one place, the kidnappers would find them that much sooner, and that therefore it would be better if they kept on the move. Thus far, everything he had told them had rung a bell in their language just as everything they had told him had rung a bell in his, but this time, for some reason, he had a hard time getting through to them. Either that, or they just plain didn’t want to leave the cave. Leave it they did however – after ablutions performed in Sam’s compact lavatory and a breakfast of bacon and eggs cooked in Sam’s kitchenette – when he made it clear to them that he was still the boss. He hadn’t as yet decided on a definite plan of action. While trying to make up his mind, he let the triceratank pick its own course over the plain – a feat for which its hypersensitive terrainometer more than qualified.
Actually, he had only two choices: (1) – continue to play big brother to the two children and elude the kidnappers until they gave up or until the cavalry, in the form of the Greater Martian Space Police, arrived on the scene, or (2) – return to the entry-area and signal Miss Sands and Peter Detritus to bring the triceratank back to the present. The second choice was by far the safer course of action. He would have settled for it without hesitation if it had not been for two things: (a) Marcy and Skip, while they undoubtedly would be able to adapt to a civilization as similar to their own as twenty-second century terrestrial civilization was, might never feel completely at home in it, and (b) sooner or later, they would come face to face with the demoralizing information that their own civilization of 79,062,156 years ago had long since turned to dust and that the technological dreams which they had been taught to regard as gospel had come to nothing. A possible third choice lay in taking them back to Earth Present, keeping them there until such time as the kidnappers gave up and left or until the Space Police showed up, and then returning them to Earth Past; but such a procedure would involve several round trips to the Cretaceous Period. Carpenter knew without having to ask that, owing to the fantastic expense involved, NAPS’ budget couldn’t support even one such non-paleontological round trip, to say nothing of several.
Pondering the problem, he became aware that someone was tugging on his sleeve. It was Skip, who had come forward and climbed into the driver’s seat. “Can I steer him, Mr. Carpenter? Can I?”
Carpenter surveyed the plain through the front, lateral, and rear viewscopes; then he raised Sam’s head and took a long look at the sky through the nacelle. A dark speck hovered high above the line of cliffs they had left less than an hour ago. As he watched, it was joined by two others. “Later on, Skip. Right now, I think we’ve got company.”
Skip’s eyes had found the specks, too. “The pteranodons again, Mr. Carpenter?” “I’m afraid so.”
The specks grew rapidly larger, resolved into winged shapes with narrow, pointed heads. Marcy had come forward, and her gaze, too, was directed at the sky. This time, she didn’t seem to be in the least bit frightened, and neither did Skip. “Are we going to jump back in time again, Mr. Carpenter?” she asked. “We’ll see, pumpkin,” he said.
The pteranodons were clearly visible now. There was no question but what they were interested in Sam. Whether they would try attacking him again was another matter. In any event, Carpenter decided that, even though the triceratank’s shield-field was in operation, his best bet would be to head for the nearest stand of trees. It was a stand of palmettos, and about half a mile distant. He threw Sam into high, and took over the controls again. “Come on, Sam,” he said, to keep the kids’ morale from faltering, “show Marcy and Skip what you can do!” Sam took off like a twentieth-century locomotive, his flexible steel legs moving rhythmically, his alloy-hoofs pounding the ground in a thunderous cadence. Nevertheless, he was no match for the pteranodons, and they overtook him easily. The foremost one swooped down a hundred yards Lead, released what looked like a big metal egg and soared skyward.
The metal egg turned out to be a bomb. The crater that it created was so wide that it took all of Carpenter’s skill to guide Sam around it without rolling the reptivehicle over. Instantly he revved up the engine and shifted into second. “They’re not going to get us that way, are they, old timer?” he said. “URRRRRRRR!” Sam grunted.
Carpenter glanced at the sky. All of the pteranodons were directly overhead now. Circling. One, two, three, he counted. Three . . . yesterday there had been only two. “Marcy,” he said, suddenly excited, “how many kidnappers did you say there were?”
“Three, Mr. Carpenter. Roul and Fritad and Holmer.”
“Then they’re all up there. That means the ship is unguarded – unless there’s a crew.”
“No, Mr. Carpenter – there’s no crew. They did the piloting themselves.”
He lowered his gaze from the circling pteranodons. “Do you kids think you could get inside?”
“Easy,” Skip said. “It’s a military-surplus flyabout-carrier with standard locks, and standard locks are simple for someone with a little mechanical ability to disengage. That’s how come Marcy and I were able to escape in the first place. You just leave everything to me, Mr. Carpenter.”
“Good,” Carpenter said. “We’ll be there waiting for them when they come back.”
With Marcy doing the figuring, retro co-ordinate calculus was a breeze. Sam was ready for jump-back in a matter of seconds.
Carpenter waited till they were in the stand of palmettos, then he threw the switch. Again, there was a shimmering effect and a slight jar, and daylight gave way to pre-dawn darkness. Behind them in a cave at the base of the cliffs, another triceratank stood, and another Carpenter and another Marcy and Skip still slept soundly in their green- bough beds.
“How far did we jump back this time, Mr. Carpenter?” Skip asked.
Carpenter turned on Sam’s headlights and began guiding him out of the stand of palmettos. “Four hours. That should give us plenty of time to reach the ship and get set before our friends return. We may even reach it before they start out – assuming of course that they haven’t been searching for us round the clock.” “But suppose they spot us in this time-phase?” Marcy objected. “Won’t we be in the same pickle we just got out of?”
“It’s a possibility, pumpkin. But the odds have it overwhelmingly that they didn’t spot us. Otherwise they wouldn’t have gone on searching for us – right?” She gazed at him admiringly. “You know something, Mr. Carpenter? You’re pretty smart.”
Coming from someone who could multiply 4,692,438,921 by 828,464,280 in her head, it was quite a compliment. However, Carpenter managed to take it in his stride. “I hope you kids can find the ship now,” he said.
“We’re already on the right course,” Skip said. “I know, because I’ve got a perfect sense of direction. It’s camouflaged as a big tree.”
For the second time that morning, the sun came up. As had been the case yesterday, Sam’s size and mien cowed the various Cretaceous creatures they met although whether tyrannosaurus would have been similarly cowed had they come upon him was a moot question at best. In any case, they didn’t come upon him. By eight o’clock they were moving over the same terrain that Carpenter had come to not long after leaving the forested uplands the day before. “Look!” Marcy exclaimed presently. “There’s the tree we climbed when the humpbacked monster chased us!”
“It sure is,” Skip said. “Boy were we scared!”
Carpenter grinned. “He probably thought you were some species of flora he hadn’t tried yet. Good thing for his digestive system that I happened along when I did.”
They looked at him blankly for a moment, and at first he thought that the barriers of two different languages and two different thought worlds had been too high for his little joke to surmount. Such, however, did not prove to be the case. First Marcy burst out laughing, and then Skip.
“Mr. Carpenter, if you aren’t the darndest!” Marcy cried.
They went on. The landscape grew more and more open, with coppices of palmettos and clusters of fan palms constituting most of the major plant-life. Far to the right, smoking volcanos added their discolored breath to the hazy atmosphere. In the distances ahead, mountains showed, their heads lost in the Mesozoic smog. The humidity was so high that large globules of moisture kept condensing on Sam’s nacelle and rolling down like raindrops. Tortoises, lizards, and snakes abounded, and once a real pteranodon glided swiftly by overhead. At length they came to the river which Marcy had mentioned and which the increasing softness of the ground had been heralding for some time. Looking downstream, Carpenter saw his first brontosaurus.
He pointed it out to the kids, and they stared at it bug-eyed. It was wallowing in the middle of the sluggish stream. Only its small head, its long neck, and the upper part of its back were visible. The neck brought to mind a lofty rubbery tower, but the illusion was marred by the frequency with which the head kept dipping down to the ferns and horse tails that lined the river bank. The poor creature was so enormous that it virtually had to keep eating day and night in order to stay alive.
Carpenter found a shallows and guided Sam across the stream to the opposite bank. The ground was somewhat firmer here, but the firmness was deceiving, for the reptivehicle’s terrainometer registered an even higher frequency of bogs. (Lord! Carpenter thought. Suppose the two kids had blundered into one!) Ferns grew in abundance, and there were thick carpets of sassafras and sedges. Palmettos and fan palms were still the rule, but there were occasional ginkgos scattered here and there. One of them was a veritable giant of a tree, towering to a height of over one hundred and fifty feet.
Carpenter stared at it. Cretaceous Period ginkgos generally grew on high ground, not low, but a ginkgo the size of this one had no business growing in the Cretaceous Period at all. Moreover, the huge tree was incongruous in other first respects. Its trunk was far too thick, for one thing. For another, the lower part of it up to a height of about twenty feet consisted of three slender subtrunks, forming a sort of tripod on which the rest of the tree rested.
At this point, Carpenter became aware that his two charges were pointing excitedly at the object of his curiosity. “That’s it!” Skip exclaimed. “That’s the ship!”
“Well, no wonder it caught my eye,” Carpenter said. “They didn’t do a very good job of camouflaging it. I can even see one of the fly-about-bays.”
Marcy said, “They weren’t particularly concerned about how it looks from the ground. It’s how it looks from above that counts. Of course, if the Space Police get here in time they’ll pick it up sooner or later on their detector-beams, but it will fool them for a while at least.”
“You talk as though you don’t expect them to get here in time.”
“I don’t. Oh, they’ll get here eventually, Mr. Carpenter, but not for weeks, and maybe even months. It takes a long time for their radar-intelligence department to track a ship, besides which it’s a sure bet that they don’t even know we’ve been kidnaped yet. In all previous cases where Institute children have been abducted, the government has paid the ransom first and then notified the Space Police. Of course, even after the ransom has been paid and the children have been returned, the Space Police still launch a search for the kidnappers, and eventually they find their hideout; but naturally the kidnapers are long gone by then.”
“I think,” Carpenter said, “that it’s high time a precedent was established, don’t you?”
After parking Sam out of sight in a nearby coppice of palmettos and deactivating the shield-field, he reached in under the driver’s seat and pulled out the only hand weapon the triceratank contained – a lightweight but powerful stun-rifle specially designed by NAPS for the protection of time-travel personnel. Slinging it on his shoulder, he threw open the nacelle, stepped out onto Sam’s snout and helped the two children down to the ground. The trio approached the ship. Skip shinned up one of the landing jacks, climbed some distance up the trunk and had the locks open in a matter of seconds. He lowered an aluminum ladder. “Everything’s all set, Mr. Carpenter.”
Marcy glanced over her shoulder at the palmetto coppice. “Will – will Sam be all right do you think?”
“Of course he will, pumpkin,” Carpenter said. “Up with you now.”
The ship’s air-conditioned interior had a temperature that paralleled Sam’s, the lighting was cool, subdued. Beyond the inner lock, a brief corridor led to a spiral steel stairway that gave access to the decks above and to the engine rooms below. Glancing at his watch, which he had set four hours back, Carpenter saw that the time was 8:24. In a few minmutes, the pteranodons would be closing in on the Sam and Carpenter and Marcy and Skip of the “previous” timephase. Even assuming that the three kidnappers headed straight for the ship afterward, there was still time to spare – time enough, certainly, to send a certain message before laying the trap he had in mind. True, he could send the message after Roul and Fritad and Holmer were safely locked in their cabins, but in the event that something went wrong he might not be able to send it at all, so it was better to send it right now. “Okay, you kids,” he said, “close the locks and then lead the way to the communications-room.”
They obeyed the first order with alacrity, but hedged on the second. Marcy lingered in the corridor, Skip just behind her.
“Why do you want to go to the communications-room, Mr. Carpenter?” she asked. “So you kids can radio our position to the Space Police and tell them to get here in a hurry. You do know how, I hope.”
Skip looked at Marcy. Marcy looked at Skip. After a moment, both of them shook their heads. “Now see here,” Carpenter said, annoyed, “you know perfectly well you know how. Why are you pretending you don’t?”
Skip looked at the deck. “We – we don’t want to go home, Mr. Carpenter.”
Carpenter regarded first one solemn face and then the other. “But you’ve got to be home! Where else can you go?”
Neither of them answered. Neither of them looked at him. “It boils down to this,” he proceeded presently. “If we succeed in capturing Roul and Fritad and Holmer, fine and dandy. We’ll sit tight, and when the Space Police get here we’ll turn them over. But if something goes wrong and we don’t capture them, we’ll at least have an ace up our sleeve in the form of the message you’re going to send. Now I’m familiar with the length of time it takes to get from Mars to Earth in the spaceships of my day, but I don’t of course know how long your spaceships take. So maybe you two can give me some idea of the length of time that will elapse between the Space Police’s receipt of our message and their arrival here on Earth,” he asked.
“With the two planets in their present position, just over four days,” Marcy said. “If you like, Mr. Carpenter, I can figure it out for you right down to a fraction of a – “ “That’s close enough, pumpkin. Now, up the stairs with you and you too, Skip. Time’s a-wasting!”
They complied glumly. The communications-room was on the second deck. Some of the equipment was vaguely familiar to Carpenter, but most of it was Greek. A wide, deck-to-ceiling viewport looked out over the Cretaceous plain, and, glancing down through the ersatz foliage, he found that he could see the palmetto coppice in which Sam was hidden. He scanned the sky for signs of the returning pteranodons. The sky was empty. Turning away from the viewport, he noticed that a fourth party had entered the room. He unslung his stun-rifle and managed to get it halfway to his shoulder; then, ZZZZZZTTT! a metal tube in the fourth party’s hand went, and the stun-rifle was no more. He looked incredulously down at his hand.
The fourth party was a tall, muscular man clad in clothing similar to Marcy’s and Skip’s, but of a much richer material. The expression on his narrow face contained about as much feeling as a dried fig, and the metal tube in his hand was now directed at the center of Carpenter’s forehead. Carpenter didn’t need to be told that if he moved so much as one iota he would suffer a fate similar to that suffered by his rifle, but the man vouchsafed the information anyway. “If you move, you melt,” he said.
“No, Holmer!” Marcy cried. “Don’t you dare harm him. He only helped us because he felt sorry for us.”
“I thought you said there were only three of them, pumpkin,” Carpenter said, not taking his eyes from Holmer’s face.
“That is all there are, Mr. Carpenter. Honest! The third pteranodon must have been a drone. They tricked us!”
Holmer should have grinned, but he didn’t. There should have been triumph in his tone of voice when he addressed Carpenter, but there wasn’t.
“You had to be from the future, friend,” he said. “Me and my buddies cased this place some time ago, and we knew you couldn’t be from now. That being so, it wasn’t hard for us to figure out that when that tank of yours disappeared yesterday you either jumped ahead in time or jumped back in it, and the odds were two to one that you jumped back. So we gambled on it, figured you’d try the same thing again if you were forced into it, and rigged up a little trap for you, which we figured you’d be smart enough to fall for. You were. The only reason I don’t melt you now is because Roul and Fritad aren’t back yet. I want them to get a look at you first. I’ll melt you then but good. And the brats, too. We don’t need them any more.”
Carpenter recoiled. The dictates of pure logic had much in common with the dictates of pure vindictiveness. Probably the pteranodons had been trying to “melt” Marcy, Skip, and himself almost from the beginning, and if it hadn’t been for Sam’s shield-field, they undoubtedly would have succeeded. Oh well, Carpenter thought, logic was a two-edged blade, and two could wield it as well as one.
“How soon will your buddies be back, Holmer?”
The Martian regarded him blankly. Carpenter tumbled to the fact that the man wasn’t wearing hearrings then.
He said to Marcy: “Tell me, pumpkin, if this ship were to fall on its side, would either the change in its position or its impact with the ground be liable to set off an explosion? Answer me with a ’yes’ or a ’no’ so that our friend here won’t know what we’re talking about.”
“No, Mr. Carpenter.”
“And is the structure of the ship sturdy enough to prevent bulkheads from caving in on us?”
“Yes, Mr. Carpenter.”
“How about the equipment in this room? Is it bolted securely enough to prevent its being torn loose?”
“Yes, Mr. Carpenter.”
“Good. Now, as surreptitiously as you can, you and Skip start sidling over to that steel supporting pillar in the center deck. When the ship starts to topple, you hold on for dear life.”
“What’s he saying to you, kid?” Holmer demanded.
Marcy stuck her tongue out at him “Wouldn’t you like to know!” she retorted. Obviously, the ability to make calm, cool decisions strictly in keeping with pure logic did not demand a concomitant ability to think fast, for it was not until that moment that the desentimentalized Martian realized that he alone of the four persons present was not wearing hearrings.
Reaching into the small pouch that hung at his side, he withdrew a pair. Then, keeping his melter directed at Carpenter’s forehead with one hand, he began attaching them to his ears with the other. Meanwhile, Carpenter ran his right thumb over the tiny, graduated nodules of the liaison-ring on his right index finger, and when he found the ones he wanted, he pressed them in their proper sequence. On the plain below, Sam stuck his snout out of the palmetto coppice. Carpenter concentrated, his thoughts riding the tele-circuit that now connected his mind with Sam’s sacral ganglion: Retract your horn-howitzers and raise your nacelle-shield, Sam. Sam did so. Now, back off, and get a good run, charge the landing-jack on your right, and knock it out. Then get the hell out of the way!
Sam came out of the coppice, turned and trotted a hunched yards out on the plain. There he turned again, aligning himself for the forthcoming encounter. He started out slowly, geared himself into second. The sound of his hoofbeats climbed into a thunderous crescendo and penetrated the bulkhead of the communications-room, and Holmer, who had finally gotten his hearrings into place, gave a start and stepped over to the viewport.
By this time Sam was streaking toward the ship like an ornithischian battering-ram. No one with an IQ in excess of 75 could have failed to foresee what was shortly going to happen.
Holmer had an IQ considerably in excess of 75, but sometimes having a few brains is just as dangerous as having a little knowledge. It was so now. Forgetting Carpenter completely, the Martian threw a small lever to the right of the viewscope, causing the thick, unbreakable glass to retract into the bulkhead; then he leaned out through the resultant aperture and directed his melter toward the ground. Simultaneously, Sam made contact with the landing jack, and Holmer went flying through the aperture like a jet-propelled Darius Green.
The two kids were already clinging to the supporting pillar. With a leap, Carpenter joined them. “Hang on, you two!” he shouted, and proceeded to practice what he preached. The downward journey was slow at first, but it rapidly picked up momentum. Somebody should have yelled, ’TIMBER!” Nobody did, but that didn’t dissuade the ginkgo from fulfilling its destiny. Lizards scampered, tortoises scrabbled and sauropods gaped for miles around. KRRRERRUUUUUUMMMP! The impact tore both Carpenter and the children from the pillar, but he managed to grab them and cushion their fall with his body. His back struck the bulkhead, and his breath blasted from his lungs. Somebody turned out the lights.
At length, somebody turned them back on again. He saw Marcy’s face hovering like a small pale moon above his own. Her eyes were like autumn asters after the first frost.
She had loosened his collar and she was patting his cheeks and she was crying. He grinned up at her, got gingerly to his feet and looked around. The communications-room hadn’t changed any, but it looked different. That was because he was standing on the bulkhead instead of the deck. It was also because he was still dazed.
Marcy, tears running down her cheeks, wailed, “I was afraid you were dead, Mr. Carpenter!”
He rumpled her buttercup-colored hair. “Fooled you, didn’t I?”
At this point, Skip entered the room through the now horizontal doorway, a small container clutched in his hand. His face lit up when he saw Carpenter. “I went after some recuperative gas, but I guess you don’t need it after all. Gee, I’m glad you’re all right, Mr. Carpenter!”
“I take it you kids are, too,” Carpenter said.
He was relieved when both of them said they were. Still somewhat dazed, he clambered up the concave bulkhead to the viewport and looked out. Sam was nowhere to be seen. Remembering that he was still in tele-circuit contact, he ordered the triceratank to home in, after which he climbed through the viewport, lowered himself to the ground and began looking for Holmer’s body. When he failed to find it he thought at first that the man had survived the fall and had made off into the surrounding scenery.
Then he came to one of the bogs with which the area infested, and saw its roiled surface. He shuddered. Well anyway, he knew who the fossil was.
Or rather, who the fossil had been.
Sam came trotting up, circumventing the bog in response to the Terrainometer’s stimuli. Carpenter patted the reptivehicle’s head, which was not in the least damaged from its recent collision with the landing-jack; then he broke off liaison and returned to the ship. Marcy and Skip were standing in the viewport, staring at the sky. Turning, Carpenter stared at the sky, too. There were three specks in it. His mind cleared completely then, and he lifted the two children down to the ground. “Run for Sam!” he said. “Hurry!”
He set out after them. They easily outmatched his longer but far-slower strides, gaining the reptivehicle and clambering into the driver’s compartment before he had covered half the distance. The pteranodons were close now, and he could see their shadows rushing toward him across the ground. Unfortunately, however, he failed to see the small tortoise that was trying frantically to get out of his way. He tripped over it and went sprawling on his face.
Glancing up, he saw that Marcy and Skip had closed Sam’s nacelle. A moment later, to his consternation the triceratank disappeared.
Suddenly another shadow crept across the land, a shadow so vast that it swallowed those cast by the pteranodons.
Turning on his side, Carpenter saw the ship. It was settling down on the plain like an extraterrestrial Empire State Building, and, as he watched, three rainbow-beams of light shot forth from its upper section and the three pteranodons went PFFFFFFTTT! PFFFFFFTT! PFFFFFFTTT! and were no more.
The Empire State Building came solidly to rest, opened its street doors and extended a gangplank the width of a Fifth Avenue sidewalk. Through the doors and down the sidewalk came the cavalry. Looking in the other direction, Carpenter saw that Sam had reappeared in exactly the same spot from which he had vanished. His nacelle had reopened, and Marcy and Skip were climbing out of the driver’s compartment in the midst of a cloud of bluish smoke. Carpenter understood what had happened then, and he kissed the twenty-second century good-by.
The two kids came running up just as the commander of the cavalry stepped to the forefront of his troops. Actually, the troops were six tall Martians wearing deep-purple togas and stern expressions and carrying melters, while the commander was an even taller Martian wearing an even purpler toga and an even sterner expression and carrying what looked like a fairy godmother’s wand. The dirty look which he accorded Carpenter was duplicated a moment later by the dirty look which he accorded the two children.
They were helping Carpenter to his feet. Not that he needed help in a physical sense. It was just that he was so overwhelmed by the rapid turn of events that he couldn’t quite get his bearings back. Marcy was sobbing.
“We didn’t want to burn Sam out, Mr. Carpenter,” she said, all in a rush, “but jumping back four days, two hours, sixteen minutes and three and three-quarter seconds and sneaking on board the kidnapper’s ship and sending a message to Space Police Headquarters was the only way we could get them here in time to save your life. I told them what a pickle you’d be in, and to have their iridescers ready. Then, just as we were about to come back to the present Sam’s time-travel unit broke down and Skip had to fix it, and then Sam went and burned out anyway, and oh, Mr. Carpenter, I’m so sorry! Now, you’ll never be able to go back to the year 79,062,156 again and see Miss Sands, and—”
Carpenter patted her on the shoulder. “It’s all right, pumpkin. It’s all right. You did the right thing, and I’m proud of you for it.” He shook his head in admiration. “You sure computed it to a T, didn’t you?”
A smile broke through the rain of tears, and the rain went away. “I’m – I’m pretty good at computations, Mr. Carpenter.”
“But I threw the switch,” Skip said. “And I fixed Sam’s time-travel unit when it broke down.”
Carpenter grinned. “I know you did, Skip. I think the two of you are just wonderful.” He faced the tall Martian with the fairy-godmother wand, noted that the man already had a pair of hearrings attached to his ears. “I guess I’m almost as beholden to you as I am to Marcy and Skip,” Carpenter said, “and I’m duly grateful. And now I’m afraid I’m going to impose on your good will still further and ask you to take me to Mars with you. My reptivehicle’s burned out and can’t possibly be repaired by anyone except a group of technological specialists working in an ultra-modern machine shop with all the trimmings, which means I have no way either of contacting the era from which I came, or of getting back to it.”
“My name is Hautor,” the tall Martian said. He turned to Marcy. “Recount to me, with the maximum degree of conciseness of which you are capable, the events beginning with your arrival on this planet and leading up to the present moment.”
Marcy did so. “So you see, sir,” she concluded, “in helping Skip and me, Mr. Carpenter has got himself in quite a pickle. He can’t return to his own era, and he can’t survive in this one. We simply have to take him back to Mars with us, and that’s all there is to it!”
Hautor made no comment. Almost casually, he raised his fairy-godmother wand, pointed it toward the kidnappers’ prostrate ship and did something to the handle that caused the wand proper to glow in brilliant greens and blues. Presently a rainbow beam of light flashed forth from the Empire State Building, struck the kidnappers’ ship and relegated it to the same fate as that suffered by the three pteranodons. Turning, Hautor faced two of his men.
“Put the children on board the police cruiser and see to it that they are suitably cared for.” Finally, he turned back to Carpenter. “The government of Greater Mars is grateful for the services you have rendered it in the preserving of the lives of two of its most valuable citizens-to-be. I thank you in its behalf. And now, Mr. Carpenter, good-by.”
Hautor started to turn away. Instantly Marcy and Skip ran to his side. “You can’t leave him here!” Marcy cried. “He’ll die!”
Hautor signaled to the two Martians whom he had spoken to a moment ago. They leaped forward, seized the two children and began dragging them toward the Empire State Building. “Look,” Carpenter said, somewhat staggered by the new turn of events, but still on his feet, “I’m not begging for my life, but I can do you people some good if you’ll make room for me in your society. I can give you time travel, for one thing. For another—”
“Mr. Carpenter, if we had wanted time travel, we would have devised it long ago. Time travel is the pursuit of fools. The pattern of the past is set, and cannot be changed; and in it that has not already been done. Why try? And as for the future, who but an imbecile would want to know what tomorrow will bring?” “All right,” Carpenter said. “I won’t invent time travel then, I’ll keep my mouth shut and settle down and be good solid citizen.”
“You wouldn’t and you know it, Mr. Carpenter – unless we desentimentalized you. And I can tell from the expression on your face that you would never voluntarily submit to such a solution. You would rather remain here in your prehistoric past and die.”
“Now that you mentioned it, I would at that,” Carpenter said. “Compared to you people, Tyrannosaurus rex is a Salvation Army worker, and all the other dinosaurs, saurischians and ornithischians alike, have hearts of purest gold. But it seems to me that there is one simple thing which you could do in my behalf without severely affecting your desentimentalized equilibrium. You could give me a weapon to replace the one that Holmer disintegrated.”
Hautor shook his head. “That is one thing I cannot do, Mr. Carpenter, because a weapon could conceivably become a fossil, and thereby make me responsible for an anachronism. I am already potentially responsible for one in the form of Holmer’s irretrievable body, and I refuse to risk being responsible for any more. Why do you think I iridesced the kidnappers’ ship?”
“Mr. Carpenter,” Skip called from the gangplank, up which two Martians were dragging him and his sister, maybe Sam’s not completely burned out. Maybe you can rev up enough juice to at least send back a can of chicken soup.”
“I’m afraid not, Skip,” Carpenter called back. “But it’s all right, you kids,” he went on. “Don’t you worry about me – I’ll get along okay. Animals have always liked me, so why shouldn’t reptiles! They’re animals, too.”
“Oh, Mr. Carpenter!” Marcy cried. “I’m so sorry this happened! Why didn’t you take us back to 79,062,156 with you? We wanted you to all along, but we were afraid to say so.”
“I wish I had, pumpkin – I wish I had.” Suddenly, he couldn’t see very well, and he turned away. When he looked back, the two Martians were dragging Marcy and Skip through the locks. He waved. “Good-by, you kids,” he called. I’ll never forget you.”
Marcy made a last desperate effort to free herself. She almost, but not quite, succeeded. The autumn asters of her eyes were twinkling with tears like morning dew. “I love you, Mr. Carpenter!” she cried, just before she and Skip were dragged out of sight. “I’ll love you for the rest of my life!”
With two deft movements, Hautor flicked the hearrings from Carpenter’s ears; then he and the rest of the cavalry climbed the gangplank and entered the ship. Some cavalry! Carpenter thought. He watched the street doors close, saw the Empire State Building quiver.
Presently it lifted and hovered majestically, stabbed into the sky just above the ground on a wash of blinding light. It rose, effortlessly, and became a star. It wasn’t a falling star, but he wished upon it anyway. “I wish both of you happiness,” he said, “and I wish that they never take your hearts away, because your hearts are one of the nicest things about you.”
The star faded then, and winked out. He stood all alone on the vast plain. The ground trembled. Turning, he caught a great dark movement to the right of a trio of fan palms. A moment later, he made out the huge head and the massive, upright body. He recoiled as two rows of saberlike teeth glittered in the sun. Tyrannosaurus!
A burned-out reptivehicle was better than no reptivehicle at all. Carpenter made tracks for Sam.
In the driver’s compartment, with the nacelle tightly closed, he watched the theropod’s approach. There was no question but what it had seen him, and no question but what it was headed straight for Sam. Marcy and Skip had retracted the nacelle-shield, which left Carpenter pretty much of a sitting duck; however, he didn’t retreat to Sam’s cabin just yet, for they had also re-projected the horn-howitzers.
Although the howitzers were no longer maneuverable, they were still operable. If the tyrannosaurus came within their fixed range it could be put temporarily out of action with a volley of stun-charges. Right now, it was approaching Sam at right angles to the direction in which the howitzers were pointing, but there was a chance that it might pass in front of them before closing in. Carpenter considered it a chance worth taking.
He crouched low in the driver’s seat, his right hand within easy reaching distance of the triggers. With the air-conditioning unit no longer functioning, the interior of the triceratank was hot and stuffy. To add to his discomfort, the air was permeated with the acrid smell of burnt wiring. He shut his mind to both annoyances, and concentrated on the task at hand.
The theropod was so close now that he could see its atrophied forelegs. They dangled down from the neck-width shoulders like the wizened legs of a creature one tenth its size. Over them, a full twenty-five feet above the ground Rod attached to a neck the girth of a tree trunk, loomed the huge head; below them, the grotesque torso swelled out and down to the hind legs. The mighty tail dragged over the landscape, adding the cracking and splitting noises of crushed shrubbery to the thunder thrown forth each time the enormous bird-claw feet came into contact with the terrain. Carpenter should have been terrified. He was at a loss to understand why he wasn’t.
Several yards from the triceratank, the tyrannosaurus came to a halt and its partially opened jaws began opening wider.
The foot-and-a-half-high teeth with which they were equipped could grind through Sam’s nacelle as though it was made of tissue paper, and from all indications, that was just what they were going to do. Carpenter prepared himself for a hasty retreat into Sam’s cabin; then just when things looked blackest, the therodon, as though dissatisfied with its present angle of attack, moved around in front of the reptivehicle, providing him with the opportunity he had been hoping for. His fingers leaped to the first of the trio of triggers, touched, but did not squeeze it. Why wasn’t he afraid?
He looked up through the nacelle at the horrendous head. The huge jaws had continued to part, and now the whole top of the skull was raising into a vertical position. As he stared, a pretty head of quite another nature appeared over the lower row of teeth and two bright blue a eves peered down at him. “Miss Sands!” he gasped, and nearly fell out of the driver’s seat.
Recovering himself, he threw open the nacelle, stepped out on Sam’s snout and gave the tyrannosaurus an affectionate pat on the stomach. “Edith,” he said. “Edith, you doll, you!”
“Are you all right, Mr. Carpenter?” Miss Sands called down.
“Just fine,” Carpenter said. “Am I glad to see you, Miss Sands!”
Another head appeared beside Miss Sands. The familiar chestnut haired head of Peter Detritus. “Are you glad to see me too, Mr. Carpenter?”
“Well, I guess, Pete old buddy!”
Miss Sands lowered Edith’s lip ladder, and the two of them climbed down, Peter Detritus was carrying a tow cable, and presently he proceeded to affix it to Sam’s snout and Edith’s tail respectively. Carpenter lent a hand. “How’d you know I was in a pickle?” he asked. “I didn’t send back any soup.”
“We had a hunch,” Peter Detritus said. He turned to Miss Sands. “There, she’s all set, Sandy.”
“Well, let’s be on our way then,” Miss Sands said, She looked at Carpenter, then looked quickly away. “If, of course, your mission is completed, Mr. Carpenter.” Now that the excitement was over he was finding her presence just as disconcerting as he usually found it. “It’s completed all right, Miss Sands,” he said to the left pocket of her field blouse. “You’ll never believe how it turned out, either.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Sometimes the most unbelievable things of all turn out to be the most believable ones. I’ll fix you something to eat, Mr. Carpenter.”
She climbed agilely up the ladder. Carpenter followed, and Peter Detritus brought up the rear. “I’ll take the controls, Mr. Carpenter,” the latter said, pulling the ladder. “You look bushed.”
“I am,” Carpenter said.
In Edith’s cabin, he collapsed on the bunk. Miss Sands went over to the kitchenette and put water on to boil for coffee and took a boiled ham down from the refrigerator-shelf. Up in the driver’s compartment, Peter Detritus closed the nacelle and threw Edith into gear.
He was a good driver, Peter Detritus was, and he would rather drive than eat. Not only that, he could take a paleontologivehicle apart and put it back together again blind-folded. Funny, why he and Miss Sands had never gone for each other. They were both so attractive, you’d have thought they would have fallen in love long ago. Carpenter was glad that they hadn’t of course – not that it was ever going to do him any good.
He wondered why they had made no mention of the Space Police ship. Surely, they must have seen it when it blasted off . . .
Edith was moving over the plain in the direction of the uplands now, and through the cabin viewport he could see Sam shambling along behind on motion-provoked legs. In the kitchenette, Miss Sands was slicing ham. Carpenter concentrated on her, trying to drive away the sadness he felt over his parting with Marcy and Skip. His eyes touched her slender shapely legs, her slender waist, rose to her cupreous head, lingering for a moment on the silken fuzz that grew charmingly on the back of her neck where her hair had been cut too short. Strange, how people’s hair got darker when they grew older – Carpenter lay motionlessly on the bunk. “Miss Sands,” said suddenly, “how much is 499,999,991 times 8,003,432,111?”
“400,171,598,369,111,001,” Miss Sands answered.
Abruptly she gave a start. Then she went on slicing ham.
Slowly, Carpenter sat up. He lowered his feet to the floor. A tightness took over in his chest and he could barely breathe. Take a pair of lonely kids. One of them a mathematical genius, the other a mechanical genius. A pair of lonely kids who have never known what it is like to be loved in all their lonely lives. Now, transport them to another planet and put them in a reptivehicle that for all its practicability is still a huge and delightful toy, and treat them to an impromptu Cretaceous camping trip, and show them the first affection they have ever known. Finally, take these things away from them and simultaneously provide them with a supreme motivation for getting them back – the need to save a human life – and include in that motivation the inbuilt possibility that by saving that life they can – in another but no less real sense – save their own. But 79,062,156 years! 49,000,000 miles! It couldn’t be!
Why couldn’t it?
They could have built the machine in secret at the preparatory school, all the while pretending to go along with the “pre-desentimentalization process”; then, just before they were scheduled to begin receiving doses of the desentitalization drug, they could have entered the machine and time-jumped far into the future. Granted, such a time-jump would have required a vast amount of power. And granted, the Martian landscape they would have emerged on would have given them the shock of their lives. But they were resourceful kids, easily resourceful enough to have tapped the nearest major power source, and certainly resourceful enough to have endured the climate and the atmosphere of Mars Present until they located one of the Martian oxygen caves. The Martians would have taken care of them and have taught them all they needed to know to pass themselves off as terrestrials in one of the domed colonies. As for the colonists, they wouldn’t have asked too many questions because they would have been overjoyed to add two newcomers to their underpopulated community. After that, it would merely have been a matter of the two children’s biding their time till they grew old enough to work and earn their passage to Earth. Once on Earth, it would merely have been a matter of acquiring the necessary education to equip them for paleontological work.
Sure, it would have taken them years to accomplish such a mission, but they would have anticipated that, and have time-jumped to a point in time far enough in advance of the year A.D. 2156 to have enabled them to do what they had to do. They had played it pretty close at that, though. Miss Sands had only been with NAPS for three months, and as for Peter Detritus, he had been hired a month later. On Miss Sands’ recommendation, of course.
They had simply come the long way around – that was all. Traveled 49,000,000 miles to Mars Past, 79,062,100 years to Mars Present, 49,000,000 miles to Earth Present, and 79,062,156 years to Earth Past.
Carpenter sat there, stunned.
Had they known they were going to turn out to be Miss Sands and Peter Detritus? he wondered. They must have – or, if not, they must have gambled on it and taken the names when they joined the colonists. All of which created something of a paradox. But it was a minor one at best, not worth worrying about. In any event, the names certainly fitted them.
But why had they passed themselves off as strangers? Well, they had been strangers, hadn’t they? And if they had told him the truth, would he have believed them?
Of course he wouldn’t have.
None of which explained why Miss Sands disliked him.
But did she dislike him? Maybe her reaction to him resulted from the same cause that was responsible for his reaction to her. Maybe she worshipped him as much as he worshipped her, and became as tongue-tied in his presence as he did in hers. Maybe the reason she had never looked at him any longer than was absolutely necessary was that she had been afraid of betraying the way she felt before he learned the truth about her.
He found it suddenly hard to see.
The smooth purring of Edith’s battery-powered motor filled the cabin. For quite some time now there had been no other sound.
“What’s the matter?” Miss Sands said suddenly out of clear blue sky. “Cat got your tongue, Mr. Carpenter?” He stood up then. She had turned, and was facing him. Her eyes were misted, and she was looking at him gently, adoringly . . . the way she had looked at him last night, in one sense, and 79,062,156 years ago in another, by a Mesozoic campfire in an upper Cretaceous cave. Why I’ll bet if you told her you loved her, she’d throw herself into your arms!
“I love you, pumpkin,” Carpenter said.
And Miss Sands did.
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Mort Künstler is best known today for his vivid paintings of scenes from American history, specifically the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. These works have been featured in books and calendars, and spotlighted in exhibitions around the country.
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Less known is Künstler’s early work in men’s adventure magazines, a unique genre that populated newsstands from the 1950s through the late ‘70s. Also known as “men’s sweats,” because most covers featured a sweaty, shirtless guy facing some type of peril, scores of adventure titles vied for a reader’s attention with eye-popping headlines such as “Death Orgy of the Leopard Women” and “Weasels Ripped My Flesh!”
Men’s adventure magazines were the bastard child of the popular pulp magazines of the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s, and many of the artists who worked for the pulps also put paint to canvas for this next evolution, most famous among them being Norm Saunders. Numerous publishers saw an easy buck in the men’s adventure magazines, but none more so than Martin Goodman’s Magazine Management, whose titles included Male, Stag, Action For Men, Battlefield, Complete Man, For Men Only, Man’s World, and many others.
Künstler started working for the men’s adventure magazines shortly after graduating from Pratt Institute in the early 1950s.
“I was a hungry guy, and I was persistent,” he says. “I clicked with several [men’s adventure magazine] publishers, and it almost became a competition for my services. I ended up with Magazine Management mostly because they paid better and offered me as much work as I could handle.”
Künstler also did a lot of work for other publishers, whose titles included True, Argosy, Adventure, American Weekly, and The Saturday Evening Post. The men’s adventure magazines specialized in lurid headlines and even more lurid covers, often depicting over-the-top war stories, daring tales of escape, deadly encounters with dangerous animals, and sex. Most of the stories were pure fiction but presented as fact – an easy way to lure gullible readers. Künstler illustrated them all with a straight face.
“I always tried to make my covers and interior illustrations as believable as possible,” he says. “That was my knack, and instrumental in why the magazines sold so well. And I was rewarded as a result. It worked out very well and I had a lot of fun with it.”
The stories with a sexual component sometimes made Künstler a little uncomfortable, and he admits to turning down a couple of assignments because of that. When he did say yes, however, the results were stunning – sexy in a clean, classical style.
“By today’s standards, none of them are offensive,” Künstler says, “but they were slightly risque. I never painted an illustration in which a woman’s breasts were seen; they were always covered by long hair or a torn blouse.”
Now, if you will, picture, if you can, a time before man buns and rompers on the covers of “men’s magazines.” A time before the easy reach of internet porn, when magazines were a source of escape, fantasy and inspiration.
We’re not talking GQ, Maxim or Esquire, but instead titles that left nothing to the imagination, like Complete Man’s Magazine or True Men Stories or All Man or my personal favorite (for obvious reasons), Stag.
The publishers didn’t try to mine focus-group-driven demographic data to determine their audience. The editorial staff knew who they were after: Men.
Real men.
Guys who were just coming back from war or who were headed back into it.
Guys who were away from their families, girlfriends and wives, who wanted nothing more than to feel like a man in an environment that was trying to rob them of their souls.
They wanted to be transported back into the shit and to read stories about survival and sweat and combat and conquest.
These men’s magazines of the 50s and 60s offered the perfect respite from life’s drudgery. Packed with heroic stories of war or more salacious articles like the “‘Private Love Club’ Girls of London.”
Ads for well-paying jobs like meat cutting (“People Must Eat!”). These magazines went straight to the heart of what drives men to be only slightly-better-dressed cavemen. Action, adventure, women, fighting, danger, lust and an unwavering addiction to being a proud American.
The covers of these magazines were absolute works of art, typically depicting pulse-pounding scenes such as an outdoorsman shooting bloodthirsty wolves trying to attack his downed horse, a sailor rescuing crewmates from Nazis, or a swimmer beating a shark to death with a raft paddle.
Many of the publications featured artwork depicting the age-old damsel-in-distress with an imminent rescue by a Burt Lancaster-meets-Paul Newman type.
The foes didn’t matter — Nazis, bloodthirsty Mongolians or Pacific Island natives. What these stories had in common was that they raised the heart rate of the reader.
When I scrounged around the dusty, moldy boxes in an old used book store in a collapsing central Pennsylvania building, they had no idea that I was a fan of Men’s Magazines.
Before I unwrapped them, I could smell the musty pages that instantly transported me back to my grandfather’s basement, where I first saw some of these rags.
There was a stack there against a back wall sitting in a wooden apple crate wedged between an old oil tank piled with books and the remains of a sewing machine buried under bags of paperbacks.
I remember when I was a young boy.
Sometimes I would sneak down and leaf through them, not really understanding what I was looking at, but nonetheless fascinated by the pictures. I mean, how is an eight-year-old supposed to understand the subtle intricacies of article titles like “Nude Love Slaves of the Master of Pain”?
I got to see barely covered boobs on the covers and that was enough for me. (The “Playboy” stash would be uncovered later, scrounging though garbage cans outside. And yes, that was a different level of reading comprehension.)
Decades later, I still remember the impact of some of those covers, and this treasure trove that arrived in the mail was a perfect walk down memory lane.
I fell into the articles and pictures again, completely consumed by them.
Seriously, the cover images blew me away and I wanted to find out more about the artists who designed them.
Research kept leading me back to Mort Künstler, an illustrator and artist best known for his historical, war-themed pieces.
However, Künstler started like many of us do, freelancing for jobs as a way to pay the bills. In the 50s and 60s this meant illustrating the covers for many of the men’s pulp titles.
Want a man depicted fighting a shark? Künstler was your go-to guy.
There were others, of course.
Norman Saunders was also very well known for his illustrations across all men’s magazines, eventually branching out from pulp into westerns and science fiction. Saunders spent time as an MP and as a member of the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II.
Perhaps the military experience fine-tuned his skill at creating lifelike fantasy perfectly suited for pulp.
Throughout that period Künstler and Saunders progressed in their careers, prolifically creating works for magazines like National Geographic and Newsweek.
As cover art was slowly replaced by photography in the 70s, Künstler shifted directions and became a historical artist, while Saunders worked for Topps trading cards and continued illustrating other fantasy magazines.
There were several other artists that helped to shape this era as well, but many were never credited or else worked under pseudonyms so as to not affect their “real” art careers.
What they left in their wake, though, was an epic genre of images that sparked the imagination like no photography ever could.
At the time these magazines were being published, the country was in the midst of a cultural shift. Hippies were on the rise, political correctness was in its infancy, and we had Viet Nam looming.
These men’s magazines offered a release and a non-PC point of view. Drawn in by the cover art, the men who bought these mags were captivated by their stories that often blurred the lines between fact and fiction.
Inside these 25-cent rags there were no glossy pages or color photos. Each page was filled with black-and-white text on cheap, newspaper-type material. The articles were littered with testosterone-fueled, somewhat realistic fiction.
These pieces weren’t exactly an imitation of hardcore journalism — unless you are thinking of that other sort of hardcore.
Essentially, these magazines were eighty pages of pulp fodder, laced with sex, adventure, history and menace. The ads were reflections of society at the time, too.
Flipping through them, you could almost picture Don Draper sipping a third martini in his office before noon, dreaming up quick-hit ads that sold everything from love pills to binoculars to early precursors of cell phones.
What’s interesting is that all of the same types of ads are still in play today, only the quality of the images and sales copy has changed.
Suffice it to say, men are always going to be men, drawn to the same stuff. These magazines just gave zero F’s about subtlety. Remember, they weren’t trying to appeal to Harvard-educated executives. Their core readership were the GIs that had served in World War II or Korea, or who would be going to Viet Nam.
Pictures were key, but in-depth research was not. The heavyweight titles and subtitles were enough to keep the pages turning.
One of my favorite patriotic pictorials was simply titled, “Invasion!” It included grainy black-and-whites from Normandy. That would be cool in and of itself, but the subtitle was even better: It can be a platoon carrying M-1s or an Army corps backed by atomic cannon.
Once they’re dumped on that beach, an invasion boils down to just plain guts. Guns, guts, military superiority, nostalgia and pride. All the ingredients that would ensure the reader would come back for more.
But once the initial content got the reader’s heart pumping, it was time to send that blood elsewhere.
Toward the middle of the magazine were the women. Bikinis, bed sheets, blondes and brunettes — the centerfolds were tame by today’s standards.
Remember though, there was no Tinder, Instagram or PornHub for a guy to get his fix.
For a quarter, the reader was immersed in a world that catered to his every desire. From Japanese wrestling girls to The Case of the Nude Lady Bartenders.
These literary gems also tried to answer medical questions like “What is Sexual ‘Excess?’” (A good question if we’ve ever heard one.)
The back pages of the magazines were very much like they are today. A collection of ads, business “opportunities” and promises of better living through consumption. The publishers had the formula nailed.
As societal tastes have changed over the decades, so has the content of most major men’s magazines. Impossibly beautiful men living impossibly extraordinary lives are the substance that publishers and advertisers think we want.
As a middle-aged man with a few kids and a world-class “dad-bod,” I just can’t relate. I want to hear stories from guys with scars that they got in some unknown part of the world. Authenticity is what sells, and a bit of creative license here and there just makes the reading fun.
So, the next time you’re cruising the local bookstore or men’s magazines at the supermarket, take a look at the covers and ask yourself if there is anything actually piquing your interest.
Do you really want to learn “7 Secret Tips to Grooming the Perfect Beard?”
Or do you want to see a leather-clad biker saving his old lady from the clutches of the Nazi sadists?
Yeah, us too.
Yeah. I know.
It’s an old clichéd joke to say you read adult magazines for the articles. However, if you’re talking about men’s mags from the 1950s and 60s, there might actually be some truth in your statement.
Magazines like Playboy, Adam, Jem, and Rogue often featured genuinely well-written articles and short fiction.
Getting published in a men’s magazine wasn’t the shameful smudge on an author’s reputation as it is today – in fact, it was a common stepping stone for soon-to-be-famous authors.
But it isn’t just the stories that deserve respect – it’s the artwork that complimented them. Often sleazy and purposefully outrageous, the illustrations were designed to entice you to read the story in a not-so-subtle way.
In my mind, Mort Künstler was one of the best. And I hope that I can impress upon you all why I loved his work. What follows are some of his art, and I hope that it teleports you all to another time and place…
Defending a house full of school girls from the rampaging communist menace…
Escaping on a raft with beautiful ladies and trying to navigate over rapids while the enemy tries to bomb you with explosives tied to kites…
Assault on a Nazi German stronghold…
Fighting off pacific islanders while on a captured Japanese patrol boat, while you protect the beautiful lasses who want to be saved…
Fending off ME-109s with a “tommy gun” while in a high altitude balloon, as you try to infiltrate the German V2 secret rocket program…
Rescuing women in a slave rape camp from their evil Nazi captors…
The crew of a merchant marine ship sunk by the Japanese, take control of the submarine and claim it for themselves…
Fighting off mutant, rapid, attack gophers…
Blowing up a secret Nazi installation while saving a beautiful scuba-dame…
Crashing through a bases gate with a red haired raven…
Battling sharks while shipwrecked on the high seas…
Fighting the evil communist Chinese with help from pretty attractive native women…
Special forces seize the personal quarters of a ranking Nazi German officer and commandeer his (ahem) possessions…
Military vet fights off thugs to protect the pretty lass…
Bank robbery, mission impossible style…
Hunting bigfoot for fine eating…
Taking over a Nazi German training aircraft and using it to bomb German bridges…
When the airfield is under attack, the hero races to a forgotten vintage biplane on display…
Dealing with evil Chinese triad mobsters…
Secret mission and convincing an attractive lass to help…
Separating the women from the Japanese as spoils of war…
Captured and a meeting of the Sheik…
When elephants rampage!
Freeing Russian women from the pleasure quarters…
Battle of Midway.
The fighting of the giant stingray!
A femme fatale…
Braving the wild rino!
Fighting a very agressive panther.
Staked down in the sand and being fed upon by vultures…
There’s a new shirtless cowboy in town…
Lone survivors. A man and two lovely women.
Mob action on board a yacht.
An art of seduction…
Seduction of two Nazi officers.
The rescue of a dame…
Battle in the skies…
A bank robbery…
Saling in the rough South Pacific…
Fighting together…
Party times Nazi style…
Balloon fun…
Rescue of trapped ladies from the Japanese…with tanks!
Plans within plans…
More heists…
Capture of a German military train…
Raid in a casino…
Seduction of Nazi elite…
A ruse for the big attack…
A surprise awaits inside the tent…
A paratroop rescue from the wild barbarians…
Hiding from the evil Chinese commies…
Seizing the beauty from the military base…
A bomb based bank heist…
Remember the Catina!
battle on the high seas…
The rewards of vice…
Stealing the oil…
Placing bombs on the hulls of the evil Japanese navy…
Mobsters caught poaching…
Capturing a key bridge…
And inside of China, some serious skull duggery…
Shootout in the subway…
Brave race for life…
Top secret mission to the South Pole.
The rewards of ill gains can provoke female inspiration…
Escape from a prisoner of war camp…
A historical battle…
Or battling the evil Chinese communists on their home turf…
Tromping though Vietnam…
Or being rescued by attractive native dames…
A civil war story…
Or fighting the wild indians…
Surprise awaiting at home…
Learning how to survive in the Northern wilderness…
Fighting the British…
Defending the South…
Destruction of the South…
Fun and games in the French Foreign Legion…
Secret mission to destroy the evil communist navy…
Taking away valuable assets…
Breaking up an evil Nazi party…
Destruction of a SAM missile complex…
Gathering of battle forces…
Taking over the port…
Taking over Nazi submarines…
Fighting a wild bear…
Prep for battle…
Recon the enemies new secret weapon…
Wagon train adventures…
And so on, and so forth.
I hope you all enjoyed this. My fingers are tired. Have a great rest of the day.
Do you want more?
I have more articles like this one in my Art Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The young Russian artist Elena Limkina reveals the inside of her fascinating sketchbook, where each page contains beautiful drawings in ink or watercolor. A wandering into the world of the artist through her creative diary, where she experiments styles and techniques, moving from architectural drawing to animal or floral illustration.
Throughout my life, I have maintained my own MM sketchbooks. Being both an artist, an engineer, and a scientist, having a well documented record of my thoughts was important. And like this artist, my books were very similar to these works.
I would use ink, pencil, and blue pencil in the journals. The light blue pencil was used to outline the shapes, and then I would use an ink pen to illustrate. I preferred to use a light green, or light tan notebook with lines. And for highlighting, I would use a white pencil.
On some notebooks, I would use a light wash of watercolor. This helped me add depth to my sketches.
However, many of my notes also incorporated formula, calculations, part numbers, addresses and the like. So I would often use a red pen, a blue pen, and sometimes other colored pens to highlight specific information.
I would use a yellow highlighter for passwords and access codes. And many of my notebooks used tape to hold in various photos, documents and other items that I wished to include in my journals.
One of the things that I was doing, up until I was incarcerated for my “retirement” was to print out photos on adhesive-backed paper. I would then cut out the paper, and place it nicely and tightly in the journal.
This included photos of new friends that I would make during my trips to China and the KTV establishments, maps, schedules and photos of projects.
Often, people would see me writing in my books and would want to take a look, and they would really love to go page by page through it. I am sure that it was meaningless to them, but they really seemed to like the mixture of sketches and thoughts.
Honestly, it looked a lot like the notebook that the Saint used in the movie of the same name. With sketches, and papers, and photographs.
I always instructed my engineers, designers, and interns to take up the habit of using and engineering notebook and using it in a more or less traditional manner. I also insisted that they do this religiously, as all it takes is one computer melt down to wipe away years of hard work.
The younger “kids” don’t understand as they believe that once in the “could” the data is forever safe. I don’t believe that that is true at all.
But having a journal is more than that. You can write down your dreams and monitor your personal non-physical life. You can include your affirmations. You can internally debate your wishes and dreams in your journal, and you can write down things in one place so that you would never forget about them. Whether it is a recipe, or some notes, you will always know where to find the information.
Most people, in modern society, do not understand the concept of privacy. Especially Americans, I am sad to say. Even though the Bill of Rights authorize “security and privacy in one’s personal papers and documents”, that hasn’t been functionally true for centuries.
I am one to tell you that AS A FACT.
In fact, it was my journals that were used against me when I was “retired”. Ah. Any excuse serves a tyrant.
But privacy is a natural need. We all require time alone. Whether it is to gather our thoughts, take a dump in the toilet, say our affirmations, pray, or masturbate. We, as humans, require privacy. Anyone who cannot recognize that basic need is an evil, selfish, and self-centered busybody.
Run away from them as fast as you can.
My first wife maintained dream journals, and as she gradually lost her mind (she had a mental illness), her journaling became an obsession. She would wake up and spend five hours writing down her dreams. Which was obviously unhealthy.
My brother maintained magick journals for his studies, incantations, and other projects that he worked on. He loved to use these thick, soft leather-bound books with a strap to hold everything tight and in place. While I really used a spiral bound lined notebook that I would buy in packs of ten.
Notebooks offer a person, such as myself, a canvas to illustrate our thoughts and concepts. It was when I was in prison that I cluttered up my notebooks (well, actually, there were just tablets of paper. We were unable to own notebooks in the ADC.) with sketches of the MWI and world-line travel.
Long time readers of MM will be able to imagine the kinds of sketches and drawings that I made regarding souls, consciousness, and travel on the MWI. As well as thoughts on the teleportation device, and the mathematics behind it’s operation.
I would place my personal thoughts and concepts there in my journals. While in prison, I used a kind of pencil known as a “golf pencil” because of its diminutive size, and I sharpened it with sandpaper that I could get from the commissary store. We were also permitted a small pen. I would use that to ink my sketches.
All was very crude, but it served its purpose. Yes, there were others while in prison that maintained a sketchbook where they practiced their art. But most of the people int eh ADC were illiterate. Often what we would call “urban youth”, “trailer park trash”, and “gang members. Folk like myself were a minority.
Of course, most of my sketch books, journals, and writings occurred while I was working as an inventor, designer, engineer, and scientist for the US government, large technical corporations and the like. And when they would let me go (i.e. fire me / downsize me / lay me off) they would demand to retain my journals and notebooks, often claiming that they contained company secrets.
These notebooks shown here are obviously not mine, but they have well been mine. The look, the feel, and the drawings are all similar.
I seriously encourage everyone to have their own journal or notebook. I do not suggest that they rely on electronic media, no matter how seductive it appears, and I have had multiple bad experiences in using these software programs.
Aside from the computer dying and a hard-drive death meant the end of everything that I wrote and collected, but other things happened as well. For instance, I once used an electronic diary. It was nice and worked really well. Then it suddenly stopped working.
As it turned out, the diary was only configured to work for five years, then you had to ask for an upgrade for a small fee of course. So when it stopped working, I called the company and discovered that they went out of business and all of my writings and documents were unable to be recovered.
And don’t get me started on Microsoft. You are typing away, and suddenly MS wants you to register, and pay for yearly updates. And when you don’t pay, you are locked out of your documents. It wouldn’t be all that bad, but last year they demanded $350 from me.
It’s one of the reasons why I switched to Lunix.
And forget about freeware. Or donationware. My experience with them have been hit or miss. You have to have one that is directly configured for your needs. Right now I have three folders (on my Lunix computer) each one containing a separate group of files unique to that particular program. All of which are not available in Lunix format.
Now, of course, there are benefits to using electronic media. For instance, you can lock it with a password. That makes it safe so that only you or the NSA can open it up. Passwords are transparent to the American government. If you don’t believe me, read my story about how I was retired.
But there are some disadvantages to putting things in journals. For one, they take up space. Unless you have a lot of room, and don’t mind hauling them around, it could be a problem. Another thing is many people, notably your spouse and the United States government, have no respect for boundaries, personal space, privacy or secrecy.
If you don’t want anyone to access them, you must either write in code, not write at all, or use symbology that only you understand.
This woman does a nice job in her artistic renderings and I find her work noteworthy. It’s a joy to look at, and takes and carries me away to an other place and other thoughts. I start to muse and dream. All very good things.
What ever your desires are, I urge you all to start sketching and journaling.
Of course, I no longer have my notebooks.
When I was retired, the police seized many of my notebooks as evidence of my devious character. They were subsequently “lost”. The remaining notebooks were acquired by my father, desirous of protecting me, promptly burned them.
Those sketches and notes, that I made while in prison, were often confiscated and misplaced. I never got them back. Of the few that I was working on at the time of my departure from prison, were in my luggage that was misplaced and ended up in the lost-luggage section in Newark, NJ.
I started anew. A “blank slate” as they say. And married a woman who respects my privacy, my confidentiality and my space. If you don’t have that, perhaps you should reconsider your relationships and what kind of life that you have.
Do you want more?
I have more articles like this one in my Art Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
I woke up today, only to find my “news” feeds all stuffed up with a most amazing psyops campaign. Wow! I’ll tell youse guys, it’s really impressive. They must have unleashed every free ‘bot they could get their hands on. Jeeze!
According to the “news”, Russia is deeply regretting invading the Ukraine and trying to fight the forces of “democracy”, with little old grandmothers fighting to protect their cabbage patches, and fields littered with the carcasses of destroyed Russian armor.
“The same pilot who shot down six Russian warplanes, he was nicknamed the ‘Ghost of Kiev”. “A column of scorched Russian equipment near Konotop”. “Snake Island recaptured”. Such messages have quickly gone viral on Russian-language telegram channels, which are a major source of information for the world media.
The impression is that Russia has already lost the war and its last reserve are Kadyrov’s 10,000 guards, an army of absolute evil, who lined up outside the Chechen leader’s gloomy palace, preparing to be sent to Ukraine. Well, it also looks like Russia has lost the war, the war of fake news.The first time Ukrainian telegram channels were caught in a lie was on the morning of February 24, just a few hours after the war broke out, when they started spreading photographs of the first Russian tanks knocked out by the Ukrainian military.
It soon transpired, however, that the snapshots had been taken in Syria and were several years old, yet the unverified information about Russian losses had already been picked up by the media.
The fact is that the Russians had unwittingly played into the hands of the Ukrainian PR people.
The Russians advance in mobile, self-directed columns. Therefore, if a vehicle breaks down (the cruising range of a tank or infantry fighting vehicle is several times shorter than that of a civilian jeep), they simply abandon it, because they have to move fast.
Before long, the photos of the abandoned tank or APC appear on Ukrainian messenger services and in social networks as a “destroyed tank of the invaders.”
-Batko Milacic
Who are “they”?
“They” of course, is the United States DoD who is running this proxy war against Russia. Make no mistake about that. So the USA got what it wanted. The USA is fighting Russia, and it is doing so where they planned, and engaging it in such a way to become a long-drawn-out war.
It’s not going to be one. So don’t worry.
Now, you can go on the internet and read all about the brave Ukrainians, but Jeeze!, it’s all disinfo. I’m sure the well-armed, and well-dug-in neo-Nazi forces are fighting heroically. But they will be overwhelmed. The timetable is in motion, and the clock is ticking and things are going according to plan, so don’t worry about it.
Let others chat about that.
We’ve got better things to do.
I just got a comment from a Korean who is living in the High Desert of California. Yeah. I lived there, don’t you know. That’s where I got my MAJestic probe calibration and training. It’s awfully nice. Well, if you like pine tree forests on gravel, twisty and turny roads on the edge of cliffs with no guardrails, and fresh cool mountain air.
There’s a real Western “cowboy” vibe about the High Desert. And that has inspired me to present the work of one of the best “Western” themed artists that I have ever come across.Let’s take a look at some of his amazing work.
I hope you enjoy this post.
Mark Maggiori is a French painter who paints modern cowboys in the nostalgic American West. Maggiori’s approach is realistic and academically tuned.
Maggiori is a graduate from the prestigious Academie Jullian in Paris, France and currently resides in the United States.
At the age of 15, Maggiori visited the United States and drove cross-country with his uncle, it was love at first sight. Ever since that trip, he dreamed of returning to live in the American West.
After graduating Academie Jullian in 2000, Disney Studios recruited Maggiori with a prestigious Art Director position in Los Angeles, CA. Maggiori declined the offer to stay in Paris where he could be free to excel in various types of art including photography, animation, and music video directing, all while heading the rock band Pleymo as their lead singer.
In 2001 Pleymo signed with Sony records and toured the globe for 10 solid years, and still the dream of the American West never left him.
With his desire to discover America, he returned to the USA with a film camera and lost himself in the rural South for months.
Through directing music videos, he had the opportunity to wander the country, including Los Angeles, where his life changed.
Petecia Lefawnhawk, was a talented and very creative artist living in Los Angeles.
Maggiori was lucky enough to work with her in one of his music videos; this encounter changed the course of his life forever. Lefawnhawk introduced Maggiori to the ghost towns of the west, including Chloride, Arizona where she grew up.
It was in this setting that Maggiori directed a feature film “Johnny Christ” in 2010.
Soon after they visited the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City…and it was that day that Maggiori decided he would stop everything and dedicate his life to documenting the American West.
Today, Maggiori lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife Petecia and paints the American West full time.
“I love to paint and dream about the good old times, Cowboys always represented, for me, a time when America was still a promise land…a huge dream for whoever wanted it, before corporations and plastic…I am trying to paint pieces that will tell a story itself and bring to the viewer certain nostalgia, a moment to remember what it felt to be riding a horse on a wide-open range. I am so fascinated by the era 1860 to 1910 in Europe and in America. Those were some golden ages.”
– Mark Maggiori
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This next painting has got to be the best of the best…
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Lost mines
He’s a pretty awesome artist, eh?
As a boy, I grew up reading “Treasure Magazine” that talked about gold and silver and precious stones, all in great abundance in the California deserts. I would daydream about being a cowboy of the Old West, or even better, finding the discoveries that lie hidden in plain sight.
Things, like old belt buckes, and rusty old swords and pistols were of chief interest in those days. I also used to daydream about finding some of those “lost mines” and venturing inside to gather a handful of precious gold nuggets, and then becoming wealthy as only a ten-year-old boy could conceive.
Of course, when I actually lived in the desert, it was a different story. But still, the romance of the west is undeniable. Here’s some pictures of abandoned mines of the California deserts.
Keep out!
Of course, most of the mines areound Ridgecrest were just a hole in the ground that went deep, deep, deep down, and if you accidently fell into one of these holes you ain’t never getting out.
But if you start venturing up into the high mountains, you start seeing some green grasses and plants. And you can sometimes stumble upon scenes like this…
Or perhaps something like this…
Of course, Treasure Magazine no longer exists as a paper magazine. Instead, it went online with a host of other organizations.
The Lost Treasure Magazine Obituary
It’s a well-known fact that print is in decline. However, despite this, a number of niche magazines have been able to hold on. Sadly, Lost Treasure magazine met its untimely end in December 2018, ending its over 50-year run covering treasure hunters past and present.
Lost Treasure first launched way back in 1966 and from there it came out monthly from its Grove, Oklahoman headquarters, far from the epicenter of publishing. One of its common features were reviews of metal detectors that modern-day prospectors might use in their quest for gold.
Where Lost Treasure really went above and beyond, however, was in talking about the treasure hunters of old, not as events frozen in time, but in terms of their relevance for gold prospectors in the present day.
The lost treasures of America were a particular focus, as the name might imply, with a particular interest in gold lost during the War Between the States. But there were also gripping tales of old-time stagecoach robberies and the golden age of bank robbery. Lost mines were another focus of the magazine, as well as sunken pirate treasure still sitting around waiting to be taken.
Photos were used, but the magazine also had a distinctive style of drawings that kept readers coming back for more. These were old-timey looking illustrations of everything from six-shooters to scorpions, evoking the symbolism of the Old West. Most were in a charcoal-and-pencil format, which further evoked a bygone age, though watercolors did sometimes appear in the pages of Lost Treasure.
Sadly, it isn’t just the print version of Lost Treasure that disappeared when it ceased publication. The website and Facebook page likewise went the way of the Old West.
The magazine suffered from the generalized decline in publishing, however, its content did not lend itself to continued survival as a niche magazine. Information about metal detectors is not only readily available to the general public on the Internet, it is also much more reliable than the “reviews” in Lost Treasure, which were oftentimes glorified advertisements. What’s more, the historical events cataloged in the magazine are likewise easily available to anyone with an Internet connection. As with the reviews of metal detectors, the information is also far more accurate.
The treasure stories were what sold the magazine — the notion that you could go out today with nothing but a metal detector and be the man who discovered the next mother lode of gold ore to become a millionaire.
It was an aspirational magazine before there was such a word for such a thing. One didn’t need to strike gold or even hunt for it to appreciate Lost Treasure magazine. One could get a little piece of that life every time one opened up a copy of Lost Treasure. That was where the magazine’s enduring appeal came from rather than practical advice.
Practical advice is now readily available for those seeking to hunt treasure. What’s more, large capital investments are no longer necessary to get your start at hunting for treasure. Such materials can now be rented, allowing you to dip your toes in the pond to find out if a prospector’s life is for you or not.
Speaking of treasure…
Read the Reader’s Digest article that inspired Rick Lagina to hunt for treasure on The Curse of Oak Island
The Curse of Oak Island star Rick Lagina was just 11 years old when he picked up an edition of Reader’s Digest and first his eyes on an article that would change his life forever.
The January 1965 edition of the publication — which was at the time the best-selling magazine in the United States — included an article reprinted from The Rotarian magazine and written by David MacDonald.
The subheading, enough to entice any 11 year old worth their salt (and any mystery-loving adult for that matter), added: “There is something down there — but for 170 years no one has been able to solve the riddle of how to get at it.”
He didn’t know it yet, but for the young Rick — who like his younger brother Marty loved adventure stories like The Hardy Boys books — that article sealed his future.
The Reader’s Digest story was in fact the same one that sparked an interest in the Oak Island mystery in fellow treasure-hunter and The Curse of Oak Island star Dan Blankenship, who moved to the island the same year it was published.
The article delved into how the famous Money Pit was first discovered by 16-year-old Daniel McInnes all the way back in 1795, when he stumbled across an “odd depression” at one end of the island. McInnes and two of his friends, Tony Vaughan and Jack Smith, then found mystery oak platforms every 10 feet down as they dug deeper and deeper into the ground.
The article went on to chronicle the massive and repeated efforts by various teams over the decades to try and find out just what is down there. Booby traps, deaths, $1,500,000 (at the time) already spent on trying to uncover the island’s secrets — this story had it all.
The article also included a diagram showing what had been found at various depths in the Money Pit, and included a picture of a prominent oak tree that used to sit at the top — which has since gone.
The article ended with a 1955 quote from petroleum engineer George Greene, who had spent time drilling on the island for a syndicate of Texas oilmen.
It said: “Someone went to a lot of trouble to bury something here. And unless he was the greatest practical joker of all time, it must have been well worth the effort.”
And so with that sentence did the little Rick Lagina set off into a future that would one day see him and his more skeptical brother Marty find themselves at the center of the biggest treasure hunt the world has ever seen.
The Reader’s Digest article had a slightly different layout in the US and Canadian versions of the magazine — with it starting on page 136 of the American edition and more prominently, on page 22, of the Canadian one.
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Inspiration
And if you all are so inclined for some inspiration, perhaps these links might send you in the right direction. Happy treasure hunting!
FMDAC – The Federation of Metal Detector & Archaeological Clubs, Inc. (FMDAC) was organized in 1984 as a legislative and educational organization and incorporated as a non-profit, non-commercial, non-partisan organization dedicated to preserving the sport/hobby of recreational metal detecting/prospecting.
SMARTER HOBBY – Getting started with a metal detector. Everything you need to know.
THE RING FINDERS – Lost rings, lost watch, lost brooch, lost pendant, lost jewelry?
HOBBY HELP – A beginners guide to metal detecting.
KELLY NOELLER – Metal detecting treasure hunter. Learn how to metal detect, we have the equipment and knowledge for all your treasure hunting needs. Read my blog.
UNDERCOIL.COM – A beginners guide to metal detecting.
DETECTING RESEARCH SITE– Detecting Research is your online portal to help you expand your knowledge of places to detect.
Do you want more?
I have more articles like this in my Art Index here…
The following is the 19th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.
-MM
Part 20 – SD’s Premonition of an Imminent Nuclear Attack set for 28th February 2022
Let’s get a few things straight, right off the bat; I am not here to fear monger people with this article. I ummed and arred about whether I should bother typing it, and after considering things I believe it warrants putting down on virtual paper, given the current situation unfolding in Ukraine. We all know how delicate this situation is. We all saw it coming. What concerns me is that SD and I have had our fair share of “dreams” – both lucid and not – that allude to the very real kicking off of WW3. These premonitions, as I guess you could call them have, quite readily shaped both of our ideals on survivalism. From nukes going off in out neighborhood, through the unleashing of the “black dragon” in China, to the Covid vaccine toilet paper shortage, we have had a myriad of premonition like dreams between us that upon reflection many years later seem to be at the very least metaphorically describing things unfolding around us. Other times they have been pinpoint accurate, like the closing off regional borders in our state, and placing of military personnel in the exact same places we had the border closure dreams (in both of our dreams beyond the borders were represented by a void of total nothingness.)
Here’s the concerning part, and I hope to fuck it is a complete miss on my part. I must apologize for not getting out sooner; the Ukraine shit has been unfolding so fast I have been trying to keep up with it all.
Back at the start of February SD tells me “the 22nd is when shit is going to go down”. Ok, so to put this into context, like I said our dreams have shaped our survivalism ideals, and have solidified the idea that all out nuclear war is at this stage, more likely a “when” than it is an “if”.
So when she says the 22nd is when shit is going to down, assume that automatically translates as some sort of SHTF event leading to WW3.
I press her on what it will be, but she tells me she doesn’t know, only that someone or something suggested to her the 22nd or “possibly even the 23rd for us when you take into account different time zones”. She just can’t get out of her head the 22nd/23rd February 22.
That day rolls around and what happens….well, we all know the answer to that question. Putin decides enough is enough and drives his army into Ukraine.
But that is not all.
The night of Putin’s grand entrance, SD has another dream. She is literally woken up by her own voice shouting at her “THE 28th”.
Then, whilst in the hypnogogic/ sleep paralysis state, she is suddenly in the middle of a city, with modern western style skyscrapers, and a big bomb is going off. And I mean BIG.
She specifically mentions this thing has a mushroom cloud, and the explosion seems to “cut the tops off the buildings” before the shockwave breaks all the windows and hits her.
It is so vivid she can smell and taste all the sulphur and metal.
The next day, again she is in hypnogogia and she has a follow up dream to the blast; a woman is standing at a podium either addressing the bomb or announcing her country’s intent to become involved.
This woman, SD says, her clothing makes her looks like she could be chubby, blonde hair put up in a bun behind her head, 40 to 50 years old, wearing a business suit style jacket.
SD end’s up looking up female women in power to try and see if she can find anyone resembling her. She comes across what she said was an “exact match” but the fucking phone loses the page before she can figure out who it is.
She looks up secretaries of defense of European countries and says the at both the Czechoslovakian and Belgian secretaries of defense look very similar to the woman she saw giving the address.
Something else that concerns me is a dream I had back on November 25th which suggested a military was prepping for a major nuclear exchange. I went back through the dream share thread and found my write up on it:
“I was some kind of special forces military guy. Not sure what division, but I am fairly sure I wasn’t a SEAL. The people around me seem to be wearing American Military camos but they could have just as easily been Russian.
It was night time and I was on this long straight road that seemed to run for miles through fields of either dead yellow grass, wheat or some other type of crop.
There are multiple military bases every couple of kilometres along this road. I pass one in particular, and it has a big metal cylindrical missile thing sticking out of the ground in a clearing on the other side of the fence that hugged the road. it didn’t look like a typical missile – it was more like a giant tin can with a flat top and it’s protrusion from its silo wasn’t very high – only a little bit taller than me.
To begin with I was walking.
I receive a call from my superior officer. He tells me that I need to assemble all the military personnel from the nearby {standard} bases to the silos that are scattered around the area. My orders are to go to each silo and personally give the orders to their commanding officers to prime the nuclear warheads, and to their lower ranking personnel that we are preparing for a test launch.
The real reason he tells me is different; we are either preparing for a pre-emptive strike on our enemies, or preparing for a retaliation attack for some other shit “we” have planned, I can’t specifically remember.
IT could have even been that America was the enemy.
I hop in my jeep and drive down this road; there are ALOT of these silos surrounded by a whole farm’s worth of vacant land. I watch as hundreds upon hundreds of these silo doors open and out pop these giant tin cans, ready for me to give the launch signal. Satisified I make my way up the road to continue with the rest.
This didn’t feel like a standard dream looked similar to this but without the fins. Google image caption reads “US nukes stored in Netherlands”:
just checked my fb and get this – i have a fucking friend request from a woman named “{first name} Littleboy”…. holy shit that’s not good
The edges were sharper just like a tin can. They didn’t really look like a typical bomb/ missile shape – certainly not very aerodynamic. Though I do remember thinking of them as “littleboys” at some points in the dream and when I woke up.
Hence why I figured it was America – i am very much aware of the littleboy and fat man bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima/Nagasaki – fuck come to think of it a couple of them may have even been called Minutemans by some of the military staff. Whatever was going on, someone was arming practically their entire {ground based} nuclear arsenal for war.
Maybe the littleboy thing was for me to pay attention to the synchronicity.”
I sure as fuck hope me and SD are wrong on this one, but in case we aren’t, if you live in Europe, I suggest taking a spontaneous camping trip a few miles away from your house for a few days. Stay safe and let’s weather out whatever shit may unfold from here on out.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
During change, somethings die, while other trends are birthed. New starts, and new understandings flavor the lives and lifestyles of the survivors of the change.
I have long argued that many of the on-going bad elements that we have long endured are now starting to come to an end. It’s all about time and good riddance.
I just banned a jackass because a newcomer just simply PISSED ME OFF. I suppose that his voracious reading of my articles should have pleased me, but it did not. I don’t like to hear things like…
"What do these girls have to do with the article title? –It’s just more juvenile objectification of women, and a form of trolling."
I love women. Somehow that’s wrong? What’s the matter with you? And, by the way, how can I troll my own venue?
Don’t go a pulling that SJW shit with me bucko.
I don’t like, nor appreciates these mindless comments, as well as endless snipes, and swipes at myself and what I am doing here. Such as…
(On the subject of trolls and their behaviors) I stated; “They can take your nice happy and calm, pleasant day, and turn it into a sad stormy day of worry and distress.”
"If this is the case, then I submit that you have ego issues and need to learn to master your emotions."
So, then Trolls make everyone happy. And of course, if you disagree then you have a brused ego?
As well as a long steam of other silly bullshit such as…
Please accept my apologies, as I had to redact large portions of this section. It is not proper that I speak so freely about this at this time.
It cannot be “redacted” if it was never published.
Of course it’s published, you dunderhead. It’s published on the internet, and it’s published in book form. Haven’t read the main index? Obviously not. You can’t possibly be this moronic, this stupid, this foolish, this much of a simpleton.
You know, I waited two full days. Hoping that some other MM influencers would come to my defense, but no one did. I guess I must have expected too much.
“All MAJestic members, are service to others sentience.”
I doubt that far more than I doubt your story.
Sheech!
I don’t like getting up in the morning and checking my feeds to read comments about my life by a jackass. Do you? Do you feel better about yourself by reading those things? Do you think that this “individual” has improved your life, or helped you to understand the dialog or text better?
Rufus he is not.
I will argue that this individual is more sophisticated than most of the trolls and jerk-offs that I encounter. So it took me two entire days before I erased his presence. I will say one thing though, he was plowing though my articles at a prodigious rate.
He sure must have had [1] a lot of time on his hands, and [2] enjoyed the free stuff without appreciation of the effort it represents. Both high-swater-marks of trolling.
So he’s gone. Bye bye.
Well, for youse guys that is. I still have to manually erase him out. If he persists then I’ll give him some things to work out. There’s nothing quite like a cornfield to really occupy your time and give you a dose of “humble pie”.
How about this for a new world-line template?
Anyways, on to this article…
This article here is just a mish-mash of stuff that I have lying around and cluttering up my thought streams. It’s all over the place, and that’s fine. I just want to put some things down on paper and then move forward.
First up is a …
Pretty girl and her car
Here’s a photo taken some time around the 1940s. My guess is that she just bought the new car and was proudly photographed near it, being all “dolled up” and all. Looks to be early winter. Maybe Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio or New York.
She’s wearing a fox stole, white gloves, to match her white hat, and a black skirt outfit. The image takes me to a time and a place far away from here. That was not the reason for the photo (in the first place) but it is why I so admire it so.
She’s lovely.
Right?
Yes she is. She really is.
Here’s a beautiful Chinese girl…
She’s one of my favorites, don’t you know. (Actually, I think you all do know.) I think she is lovely.
Yeah. Maybe I am. You all got a problem with that? She’s beautiful. She’s pretty. She’s awesome and when I see her in the video it takes me away to calmer and sweeter states of being. And I love that feeling. I love the images and feelings that she generates inside of me.
The video is an object. But she is a teleporter to a new mental state. She carries me away.
Like a beautiful cat pal. Or, a nice hot fudge sundae. Or, a freshly baked fudge brownie with some nice delicious vanilla icecream on top.
Now, let’s go to something contemporaneous.
I mean, the United States does this all the time, but China (somehow) is a very bad entity for soing so. Right?
Is it legal for the Chinese government to build artificial islands, airfields, and deploy troops in the South China Sea islands?
It is often claimed that China is breaking international law by building artificial islands in the South China Sea and that it is illegal to militarise those islands.
The short answer is that it is “not illegal” to build an artificial island if it does not conflict with some other nations legal rights that might be defined under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), or other international agreements of which both China and the other nation was a signatory.
Building airfields and deploying troops on those islands is also “not illegal” if you are entitled to build and occupy the islands.
An analogous question might be “Is it legal for warships and aircraft carriers to cast anchor in International waters?”. An anchored aircraft carrier is an artificial island with an airfield and a military presence.
The UNCLOS offers a general protection to a nations territorial waters and exclusive economic zones that extend from baselines derived from recognised land territory’s baselines. However outside those boundaries, in the high seas, any nation is free to construct artificial islands and erect installations that are not otherwise restricted under international law.
The territorial sea extends to a limit of 12 nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal State. Within this zone, the coastal State exercises full sovereignty over the air space above the sea and over the seabed and subsoil. There is also a contagious zone of an additional 12 nautical miles that grants certain rights of legal enforcement.
The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends no more than 200 nautical miles (370 Km) from the territorial sea baseline and grants exclusive rights to marine resources, including the “exclusive” right to establish artificial islands, structures and installations.
Where zones intersect the zones of other states, the zones default to the median point between the respective baselines.
To be clear, artificial islands cannot acquire territorial rights on their own; they at best obtain a safety exclusion zone. So a nation cannot extend their territorial claims by constructing or extending islands anywhere. Smaller natural islands may be entitled a 12 nautical mile territorial claim but not a 200 nautical mile zones.
Having said that, two or more nations could be in dispute over every aspect outlined above or could be in dispute with the interpretation of international law applying to particular cases. And various interpretations of definitions and determinations could lead to quite different outcomes.
I am not commenting specifically on which islands could or could not be considered legally or illegally constructed or the selective outrage at China’s activities in the area to the exclusion of all others. But consider the following:
In the application of the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling on the status of Taiping Island, currently occupied by the Taiwan, which regards the largest island in the Spratly archipelago as a “rock” with limited maritime rights, and allows the Philippines to extend its EEZ at least as far as the island.
Taiwan, however, has a reasonable case to reject the ruling, and in any event continues to claim full maritime rights.
The Peoples Republic of China, with an overlapping claim to Taiping island can also dispute the ruling, even make a reasonable claim not to be bound by it, and therefore argue the legality of the establishment of an artificial island within Taiping Island’s claimed EEZ at Mischief Reef less than 80 nautical miles from Taiping Island.
And a very nice follow-up commentary…
It’s a well stated commentary rather than a rebuttal.
Answering a lie is to perpetuate it. If you gather all your information about China from the West, you will not get a smidgen of truth. China is not in the habit of engaging in tongue jousting. They simply defend their rights — bloviate all you want but I dare you to touch my cheese. I think they have good reasons to do so, as they are not adept at lying, and the West is a cesspool of lies populated by lying maggots who consume bullshit and regurgitate bullshit and know nothing but bullshit.
Here are a few facts that can be found if one makes a bit of effort and look underneath the superficial scum. I read these on the same day the Hague Arbitration Court came out with its decision. I think it’s by a female blogger who seemed to have some knowledge on the issues. The truth is therefore not arcane or hidden, it’s just never spoken in the Western lying machine. I’m doing this from memory but you’re welcome to check. The truth is out there.
1. The issue of the South China Sea (SCS) is not UNCLOS but sovereignty. There is overlap of course, but they are two very different issues. To talk only about UNCLOS but not China’s sovereignty claim is Big Lie Number 1. The Nine Dash Lines is China’s claim of sovereignty of the area of the SCS within those lines including all its islands and EEZ. It is a successor claim from the Republic of China (which is why Taiwan, still run by the government of the ROC, must maintain the same claim), as it was not contested by the victorious allies of the Second World War, and was recorded on maps of the era (published by the West). The PRC, which is the globally and UN accepted government of China, has a duty to defend this claim.
2. One must defend one’s sovereignty and negotiate for peaceful borders, not rely on third parties to decide your rights, especially not by those which have no jurisdiction and no teeth. The lesson of Munich comes to mind, when France, UK, and Italy decided to cede Czech Republic’s Sudetenland to Germany. That is what happens to countries which cannot defend their sovereignty. The meme that China is the big bully encroaching on its neighbors is laughable. It is Big Lie Number 2. Except for India, China has in fact negotiated stable land borders with all its neighbors including Vietnam and Russia, considering both these countries had land wars with China in recent decades. Even Bhutan, a de facto protectorate of India which had been prevented from reaching a border agreement with China, appears ready to defy its overlord in the near future.
3. The Nine Dash Lines and UNCLOS do have overlaps. It is not strange, as almost all neighbors sharing a coastline or are island nations have UNCLOS claims that overlap. UNCLOS has a suggestion for how to settle these disputes. Negotiate or arbitrate. Arbitration is however not a court of law, where one party can sue another based on the jurisdiction and laws of where the court is located. Even this jurisdiction must have some basis of prior agreement or when none is available, some basis in law. It does not get decided by one party of a dispute. Anyone who has any experience in arbitration (a mechanism actually used by many international companies doing business in China) understands that arbitration must be agreed to by both parties of a dispute. They must also agree to the quasi-judiciary organization that holds the hearing and makes the adjudication, share in the costs, and accept the decision with no further recourse. Since China never agreed to the arbitration initiated by the Philippines, never agreed to the jurisdiction of the court, never participated in the hearing, and never paid any costs relating to the one-sided arbitration, it was just a farce and a circus. To answer any questions coming from this comedy is to give substance to fart.
With the internet, everyone can have a voice and an opinion. I’ll readily admit that I have no real legal expertise. I have however quite a bit of experience working with top lawyers in Canada on both litigation and quasi-judiciary (Broadcast Commission) matters for well over ten years. For several years, I was also a court appointed receiver manager for the national television station I built. So I’m not speaking out of a vacuum. In fact, some of the cases I was involved in became landmark cases, causing the government to make real changes. While I’m no expert on UNCLOS or sovereignty claims, I usually apply whatever legal ideas I can understand and in most parts commonsense.
.
As I like to say, the First Law of Economics is “you do not own anything you cannot defend.” That is the meaning of sovereignty, the rest is bullshit and balderdash.
A beach beauty….
Looks like the 1960s. I can easily see myself (as a young boy) wearing the same clothes (as those two boys wore) as the folk in the picture. I can see myself there. Enjoying the sun. Listening to the waves crash, and enjoying the late afternoon sun as the beach gets deserted. Nice times.
I see the woman in the back is holding either a set of binoculars, or a purse. It’s difficult to see what it is. I don’t think that it is a purse. She’s also wearing a sleeveless top over her stunning green one-piece swimsuit.
Judging from the cars in the background, I would guess 1963, maybe 1965.
I do love these old photos.
It makes me want to crawl up into some old dusty attic and explore. Who know what I’ll find. Maybe a 1950 Lionel train set, a metal closet with all sorts of 1950’s womans’ hats, or a mason jar full of old pennies, buttons and indian arrow heads.
A beautiful girl showing off a nice pair of jeans
Actually I really like these jeans because they are warm. Today is frosty cold, and I am shivering while I type this. Normally Zhuhai is around 30°C (86° F) and 80% RH. But over the last few weeks it has been cold. 7°C (44°F) and spitting cold drizzle rain. Keep in mind that the homes here in the tropics are not heated. THus her outfit looks mighty appealing to me.
It was US & NATO military expansion and deployment to Russia border that caused the current Russia – Ukraine drama. However, the United States aggression against Russia can not be effective as long as Russia has the support of China.
So, in the past weeks, there are so many imaginary articles and news that link China to the conflict.
Below are 13 links and their headlines from the western media + a piece from the Global Times explaining the Western efforts to smear China. It’s the “Smear China campaign”.
First up, the United States overt propaganda mill; VOA…
China Eyes Risks and Rewards of US-Russia Standoff Over Ukraine
As I have often stated that everyone in China gets military training. It starts in first grade, and it really appeals to me. With disipline and organization, self esteem follows naturally.
This next Chinese girl is short and so very cute. I just want to run around with her in the wide forest and drink hot coco with her, and eat some buttered cinnamon toast. video 5MB
From my dad’s generation…
This next phot comes from the 1950’s somewhere in the United States. It’s a couple “making out” (i.e. “smooching”) in the back seat of a station wagon. Notice how the rear window opens up and is held up with a nice strut.
I’ll bet that they were playing some fine 1950s music. Maybe some Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, or Bobby Darin. Good times.
Those days are gone. But, you know, there are new days here that we can enjoy in a similiar manner.
Have you ever thought about a fine coffeecake and a cup of coffee?
China High Speed Train
China started making, designing and building their own domestic trains at the same time that the United States announced that it would build a High Speed Train network starting in California. Today, they are all over China and a normal everyday sight. Meanwhile 15 miles of track has been laid down in California. No trains. No stations. America has bumpkis.
I actually really like the display console behind her. It’s go these glass cabinets that you can display your treasures inside. Whether it is these cute collectable dolls, or dishes, artwork, or brick-a-brack. I really like it. Of course, I would stain it a dark brown instead of the light color but that’s just me.
You’ll notice that she has a fine oval face. Oval faces really fit the Chinese face and with a nice long black hair, it’s a super nice effect.
If it wasn’t for the styles of the automobiles, you would say that this is pretty much contemporaneous America. Most of America hasn’t changed much. Sure, theres some cell phone and all that, but the Untied States has been spending it’s money destroying mud huts, strafing cows, and bombing cabbage patches. Very little remains for domestic improvements and infrastructure.
And it hasn’t happened yet either, no matter the promises that President Biden made. The federal budget is all about more machines of war, and more efforts to “contain” China.
Some pictures of cats
Why not? Right?
I do love my relationships with the kitties and they always really mellow out the place and terrorize the rats and mice. I am a strong believer that every household needs a good mouser.
This cat here reminds me of my first childhood cat; Sedwick. We called his “Sedgie”. He died a ripe old age when I was living in Indiana. He was a good cat.
Cycles of life
So much truth here… perhaps the reason why everyone in China gets military training. Learns how to shoot, fight, and endure.
China understands. Build strong little soldiers for a stong unified nation. This is how it is done. Training starts in first grade. video 3MB
The start of the Playboy Empire
He was a man who had a dream. Then he followed his dream and it took him to many interesting places, along with attractive and interesting people. In this photo below he is in England in 1966. Ah. The “swinging 60s”.
Here’s the cover for the August issue of Playboy in 1966…
And a glimpse of what it looked like on the inside… this is the September 1966 issue…
And what the advertisements were like. This is the back side of the magazine. Each issue seemed to have either a cigarette ad, or a alcohol advertisement of one sort or the other…
My guess is that the men-folk would keep the playboy magazines in the bathroom on a low stool with other magazines, and then flip the cover over so that the Mrs’s wouldn’t notice (too much). Thus predominantly displaying the cigaretter or booze ad inside the privacy of the “man’s” bathroom.
You know, to fight those evil Japanese! Those horrible Germans, and those pesky Communists! We MUST spread freedom™ and democracy™ to the world, don’t you know!
This kid below has some wisdom to share…
You can do anything you set your mind to…
This kid is going places. He’s right. I hope, I sincerely hope, that school teachers, and peers don’t beat this inner strength out of him. video 50MB
Russia Has Just Issued An Ultimatum To Ukraine, And The Conditions For War Are Now Set
This is not a game. As this crisis has been unfolding in Ukraine, I have been seeing people all over the Internet cheer for either side like they would cheer for their favorite football teams. But these people don’t understand what is at stake. If World War III erupts in Ukraine, it will very likely lead to nuclear war between the United States and Russia down the road. So we should all be deeply grieved over what is happening, because we are getting really close to a point of no return.
One of the good things about the Trump years was that President Trump was not interested in messing with Russia. So the status quo in Ukraine was respected by both sides for four years, and there was relative peace in the region.
But then Joe Biden took power, and he has surrounded himself with an all-star team of warmongers. National security adviser Jake Sullivan, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are all card-carrying members of the War Party, and they don’t seem interested in finding a way to have peace with Russia at all.
After having his security concerns mocked and laughed at for the past year, Vladimir Putin finally admitted that negotiations are at “a dead end” on Monday. It would have been so easy to negotiate a peaceful solution with the Russians that would have kept Russia out of Ukraine, but that isn’t what the War Party wanted.
Now Putin has run out of patience, and on Monday he greatly escalated the crisis by formally recognizing the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and by announcing that he would be sending troops into the two separatist republics…
Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent on Monday and ordered the Russian army to launch what Moscow called a peacekeeping operation in the area, upping the ante in a crisis the West fears could unleash a major war. Putin told Russia’s defense ministry to deploy troops into the two breakaway regions to “keep the peace” in a decree issued shortly after he announced recognition for Russia-backed separatists there, drawing US and European vows of new sanctions.
I think that Putin wanted to make a move before the Ukrainians did. According to one Russian official, there were “almost 60K Ukrainian military personnel concentrated near the borders of the Republics of Lugansk & Donetsk”, and I think that Putin decided that the only way to keep Ukraine from overrunning the two republics was to move his own forces in first.
Hopefully that actually works.
Hopefully the Russians will stay in Donetsk and Luhansk, and hopefully the Ukrainians will stay on their side.
If that is the end result, there may still be hope of defusing the situation.
But I wouldn’t count on it.
Putin sounds like a man that is convinced that war is coming. The following comes from a very rough translation of his speech on Monday…
“from those who took power in kiev we demand to stop any and all military actions against donbass. otherwise, the consequences will be on ukraine. i count on the support of all patriotic forces in russia.”
Russia has essentially issued an ultimatum to Ukraine.
If Ukraine invades Donetsk and Luhansk, the Russians will invade Ukraine.
Of course some western media sources are actually using the term “invasion” to describe Russian troop movements into the separatist republics.
If you have bought into that propaganda, let me ask you a question. Do the people in this video look like they have just been “invaded”?…
Twitter can be a horrible place at times, but tonight’s decision by President Putin to recognise the Donbass republics is the news people there have been looking forward to for 8 years. I’ll sign off tonight with this video from Lenin Square in Donetsk. #Donbasspic.twitter.com/l8YJVF84tf— Dean O’Brien (@DeanoBeano1) February 21, 2022
This would be a good opportunity for both sides to take a deep breath and start backing down.
But that isn’t going to happen.
Western leaders continue to use extremely harsh rhetoric and they continue to insist that a full-blown invasion of Ukraine is imminent. The following is what Jake Sullivan just told the Today Show…
“We believe that any military operation of the size, scope and magnitude of what we believe the Russians are planning will be extremely violent. It will cost the lives of Ukrainians and Russians, civilians and military personnel alike,” Sullivan said during an appearance on NBC’s “Today.”“But we also have intelligence to suggest that there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies,” he added. “It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people to repress them, to crush them, to harm them.”
And another U.S. official is alleging that Russia has a list of people that they will be specifically targeting once the invasion has been completed…
“Disturbing information recently obtained by the United States that indicates that human rights violations and abuses in the aftermath of a further invasion are being planned,” Ambassador Bathsheba Nell Crocker, the US Representative to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, alleges in a letter to Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.“These acts, which in past Russian operations have included targeted killings, kidnappings/forced disappearances, unjust detentions, and the use of torture, would likely target those who oppose Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons,” reads the letter, which was first reported by The Washington Post and obtained by CNN.
So Russia plans to violently round up dissidents, activists and anyone else that is opposed to their rule?
Oh, you mean that it will be kind of like what just happened in Canada with the full approval of the U.S. government?
If the Biden administration actually cared about human rights, they would be condemning the horrific brutality that we just witnessed in Ottawa.
But of course that will never happen.
Let’s watch and see what happens over in Ukraine during the next several days. One very alarming sign is that the Russians have just closed off much of the airspace over the Sea of Azov…
Russia’s Aeronautical Information Center issued a NOTAM (a Notice to Airmen) on Sunday which will close most of the airspace over the Sea of Azov starting at midnight between Sunday and Monday, as the US continued to warn that Russia intends to invade Ukraine.
I don’t think that this indicates that a full-blown invasion of Ukraine is imminent.
But at this point the conditions for war have been clearly set.
If Ukraine invades Donetsk and Luhansk now, the Russians have made it exceedingly clear that they will invade Ukraine.
So this actually puts a lot of power into the hands of the War Party in Washington.
Joe Biden and his all-star team of warmongers now know exactly what it will take to spark a war.
Will they decide to pull the trigger?
Let us hope not, because once World War III begins nothing will ever be the same again.
Nice Chinese girl
With nice S-shaped body and a rocking red sweater. I like this build. I’ll bet you that she has that kind of smoth “baby bottom” stomach. You know, when you are thin and you feel comfortable in you clothing, and in your skin, everything fits you wonderfully. Like this gal.
Do you know what I haven’t had in a while? Yes. That’s right. Home made Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy.
If you have memories of eating the microwave meal version of Salisbury steak, don’t be scared off by this retro favorite. The home-cooked steak pairs excellently with a creamy sauce and when seasoned to perfection redefines what people loved about this classic in the first place. Take a second chance with this meal and it will be your new all-time favorite. It certainly is mine.
And for youse guys who wants to cook this bad boy up, well…
All behaviors are monitored by AI. Troll behaviors are observed and then the police come by and evaluate the criminal to set up treatment and punishment on a individual to individual basis.
That is why China is a nation of Rufus’s and many Trolls find themselves spending substantial time in work camps, and re-programming facilities.
Here’s what the world looks like when you imprison the mentally ill, and criminal in society… it becomes a paradise.
The Monday Taki post is up. The subject of it and today’s post is the new way to look at the system ruling over us. Of course, Sunday Thoughts is up behind the green door for those needing audio stimulation. Much of it is about the situation in Europe and the evolving Canadian dictatorship.
One of the problems with the Opposite Rule of Liberalism is that it relies on the old Left-Right dichotomy of American politics. This framing persists despite the fact that it is a vestige of a bygone era that no longer works today.
Democrats = Liberals
Republicans = Conservatives
It no longer exists.
The political divide is now between those who adhere to the basket of ideas called Western liberalism and those who defend the post-Marxist managerial state. The latter group is made up almost entirely of members of the ruling class.
The Haves = The post-Marxist managerial state.
The Have-nots = Western liberalism
In other words, we now live in a world divided by those in the system of control that hovers over the West and those who live under it. The Dirt People versus Cloud People framing is a much more honest, if a bit sarcastic, framework for the world.
Cloud People = Rulers
Dirt People = Serf / slaves
The ruling system is like a miasma that hangs over society, infecting the minds of the people and their relations with one another. We can see the elites at the top, just barely, but the system they control is all around us.
A big part of what ails society is this sense that things are not as they seem, but it is hard to get a read on why.
That noxious miasma that lingers in every aspect of society often leads people to doubt their own senses. Their experience tells them things about the world and people in it, but everywhere they look they are getting messages telling them that what they think they see is not true.
Instead, they are to believe something that is often the opposite of what they experience.
This is where the Opposite Rule continues to work. Those who are aware of the contradictions of daily existence can apply the rule to the information stream that comes from the system, filling the area around them. Whatever is in the air at the moment, start from some version of the opposite, and the truth will be near. The Opposite Rule of Liberalism is best restated as the Opposite Rule of Managerialism. This organic, self-aware system that rules over us is the opposite of truth.
A useful example comes from the daily barrage of “information” from the system about the crisis in Ukraine.
Here is a story from the New York Times headlined, “Russia has been laying groundwork online for a ‘false flag’ operation, misinformation researchers say.” Note that this story is not behind the usual paywall, as they want wide circulation of it. Note also that the writer is one of the infants they employ to copy and paste material into “news reports.”
This news report starts with a news report from a European based group called European Expert Association, which is described as “a research group that focuses on security in Ukraine.”
When you take a look at who these people are, it becomes obvious that they are Ukrainian activists.
These are not neutral observers searching for the truth about the crisis. More important, when you look at their resumes you see all the familiar NGO’s that are pushing for war with Russia.
NGO = CIA funded Neocon organization.
Of course, this is the New York Times, the first draft of history and the leader in the American news media. They do not just take this at face value. They hand it to a group called the Global Disinformation Index, a nonprofit “research” group. These are the go-to guys for the Times reports on misinformation and disinformation.
To the shock of no one in the Times offices, the researchers at Global Disinformation Index confirmed everything said the European Expert Association.
The reason the Times was not surprised by what they heard back from the Global Disinformation Index is the person running it is Anne Applebaum. She is a notorious warmonger and neoconservative.
Anne Applebaum.
Here she is advocating for the liquidation of the Afghanis and the Syrians as a “solution” to those problems. Applebaum is a big believer in what Stalin supposedly said about people causing problems for the regime. No man, no problem. Applebaum just scales it up.
Her partner in this enterprise is a Ukrainian activist named Peter Pomerantsev, who is probably on the payroll of a Western intelligence service. His biography does not pass the laugh test. His role in life has been to seed Western media with anti-Russian information dressed up as Ukrainian nationalism. The rest of the staff of the Global Disinformation Index all have an axe to grind with some enemy of the neocons, past, present or in the future.
Peter Pomerantsev.
The point of this walk through the swamps behind the ministry of disinformation is to illustrate how the new rule works;
If a media outlet is claiming to root out disinformation, you can be sure they are not doing that.
Instead, start with the assumption that they are waging a disinformation campaign.
That is what you see in the New York Times story and any story containing the words “Global Disinformation Index.”
Then you can begin to figure out what is really going on with the story.
Of course, the entirely new obsession with misinformation and disinformation by government and mass media is a big lie. Since forever, people have known that governments lie all the time.
They have known that the media is partisan, a form of activism more often than not. Yet suddenly we are being told that the media and the government are now declaring war in false information.
Since they are the only possible source of disinformation, this means war on themselves.
The big lie, for those unfamiliar, is a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. This is now the default tactic of the managerial state.
They tell us that Eskimo truckers protesting vaccine rules are white supremacists.
These outlandish whoppers are then signed off on by new experts who sagely tell us the moon is made of cheese.
Unlike normal propaganda techniques, this new tactic is not to further a cause, although it can be used that way as we see with Ukraine. The neocons are simply taking advantage of a defense mechanism that has evolved since the Cold War.
By flooding the zone with outlandish nonsense, the system prevents cogent analysis of what it is doing or contradicting it in any way.
It is a form of menticide to paralyze the people by suspending them in a solution of false narratives.
The concept of "menticide" indicates an organized system of judicial perversion and psychological intervention, in which a powerful tyrant transfers his own thoughts and words into the minds and mouths of the victims he plans to destroy or to use for his own propaganda.
-menticide
This is the utility of the Opposite Rule.
It helps clarify the new relationship between the leviathan and the people.
Rulers = leviathan
People = serf / slaves
Instead of viewing society as a hierarchical structure that is responsive to the will of the people, you see that it is an adversarial relationship between a ruling organism and the people.
This ruling organism is the vast administrative state made up of government, corporations, the academy, non-profits and the mass media.
It is a fully integrated organism.
The endless waves of information, mostly false information, is its primary defense mechanism against what it sees as a threat.
That threat is the people over whom it hovers like a noxious cloud.
The point of the false information is to keep the people in a fog of confusion about who really rules over them.
You cannot rebel against that which you are not even sure exists.
Menticide is the primary defense mechanism of this system of social control we call managerialism.
A nice night in the city
Isn’t she just great? Well, I love her.
One of my favorite things to do is get dressed up a tad and go out for a night in the city. Though it’s mostly a nice meal in a restrurant, followed by a coffee and a snack at one of the bars or coffee houses, I would love to go out and feel the night city air. Great times.
Superior or roughly comparable (depending on who your read) to all the American fighter aircraft. 100% Chinese designed. 100% Chinese avionics. 100% Chinese engines.
According To The ‘Big Mac Index’, China’s Yuan Is 34% Under-Valued
The Big Mac was created in 1967 by Jim Delligati, a McDonald’s franchise owner in Pennsylvania. It was launched throughout the U.S. the following year, and today you can buy one in more than 70 countries. However, as Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross details below, the price you pay will vary based on where you are, as evidenced by the Big Mac Index.
What Does the Big Mac Index Show?
The Big Mac Index was invented by The Economist in 1986. It is intended to be a lighthearted way to demonstrate the concept of purchasing power parity. In other words, it helps illustrate the idea that market exchange rates between countries may be “out of whack” when compared to the cost of buying the same basket of goods and services in those places.
Given that McDonald’s is one of the biggest companies in the world and the Big Mac is widely available globally, it means that the famous burger can be used as a basic goods comparison between most countries. It also has the advantage of having the same inputs and distribution system, with a few minor modifications (like chicken patties in India instead of beef).
Using the price of a Big Mac in two countries, the index can give an indication as to whether a currency may be over or undervalued. For example, a Big Mac costs ¥24.40 in China and $5.81 in the United States. By comparing the implied exchange rate to the actual exchange rate, we can see whether the Yuan is over or undervalued.
According to the Big Mac Index, the Yuan is undervalued by 34%.
Beyond currency misalignment, the index has other uses. For instance, it shows inflation in burger prices over time. If we compare the price of a Big Mac across countries in the same currency—such as the U.S. dollar—we are also able to see where burgers are cheaper or relatively more expensive.
Burger Costs Around the World
Big Mac prices have been converted from local currency to U.S. dollars based on the actual exchange rate in effect at the time.
Switzerland takes the cake for the priciest Big Mac, followed closely behind by Norway.
Both countries have relatively high price levels but also enjoy higher wages when compared to other OECD countries.
Venezuela has seen the largest jump in burger prices, with the cost of a Big Mac climbing nearly 250% since 2004. The country has been plagued by hyperinflation for years, so it’s no surprise to see large price swings in the country’s data.
While it appears that the price of a Big Mac has decreased in Turkey, this is because the prices are shown in U.S. dollars. The new Turkish lira has depreciated against the U.S. dollar more than 90% since it was introduced in 2005.
Finally, it’s worth noting that Russia has the cheapest Big Mac, reflecting the country’s lower price levels. Labor costs in Russia are roughly a third of those in Switzerland.
The Limitations of Burgernomics
The Big Mac Index is useful for a number of reasons. Investors can use it to measure inflation over time, and compare this to official records. This can help them value bonds and other securities that are sensitive to inflation. The Big Mac Index also indicates whether a currency may be over or undervalued, and investors can place foreign exchange trades accordingly.
Of course, the index does have shortcomings. Here are some that economists have noted.
Non-traded services can have different prices across countries. The price of a Big Mac will be influenced by the costs of things like labor, but this is not a reflection of relative currency values. The Economist now releases a GDP-adjusted version of the Big Mac Index to help address this criticism.
McDonald’s is not in every country in the world. This means the geographic reach of the Big Mac Index has some limitations, particularly in Africa.
The index lacks diversity. The index is made up of one item: the Big Mac. Because of this, it lacks the diversity of other economic metrics such as the Consumer Price Index.
Despite all of these limitations, the Big Mac Index does act as a good starting place for understanding purchasing power parity. Through the simplicity of burgers, complex economic theory is easier to digest.
Walking the rails in the countryside.
Gosh! I’ll bet this woman is so much fun!
She’s one of my favorites and she’s on the tracks. I used to do this don’t you know. We had all these traintracks that ran in and out and though the countryside in Western Pennsylvania. I would go hiking with my friends (when I was a boy) and often we would try walkign on top of the rails. Just like this girl does. So nice. Good memories.
How about taking a little short walk down some tracks alone with your cell phone set to OFF.
A reminder of how unified the Chinese are
This is a clip from a movie. It depicts a true event where (during the Korean war) no matter how many times the American military destroyed the bridges, the Chinese rebuilt them and kept on moving forward. True story. Remember that.
I really like her lipstick. Personally, I think that many women look great wearing lipstick, but the color and texture selection is critical. Not every color and texture fits every woman. In this case, this red sade really complements her skin complexion and her hair color. Don’t you think?
Do you all know what really pisses off a lot of Trolls?
It’s one of the first things that Trolls disparage.
It’s off-subject meandering. Whether pretty girls. Food. Cats. Personal stories, and all the rest.
It drives them bonkers.
It’s rambling trains of thought. They are unable (due to some kind of mental block, or mental illness) focus on wide-ranging topics. They can handle a singular topic, and get involved in it, but they really, REALLY hate meandering expressions of thoughts, images, senses and pictures of another life in it’s great complexity.
They cannot handle articles like this.
Their tiny minds cannot handle it.
You all know, that I am going to continue on my meandering adventures, for most healthy people can easily handle my topics and how they are presented. I hope that you too (my dear reader) understand why I structure MM the way I do.
There’s an order and a reason behind the “madness”.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I hate trolls. I mean, with a passion. They can take your nice happy and calm, pleasant day, and turn it into a sad stormy day of worry and distress.
They do not belong in your life.
Cut them out of it.
Now, if you’ve ever been the victim of persistent online trolling, then you know exactly how discombobulating it can feel. You might feel mixed emotions that range from confusion and anger to anxiety and sadness. And you wouldn’t be alone.
American Research has shown that roughly four in 10 Americans have personally experienced online harassment and that 62 percent consider it to be a major problem.
Which is probably why China has banned that behavior and will send you to a mental clinic for study and treatment if you engage in it, and why the USA openly allows it to occur.
You might ask: What causes trolling and what can I do about it? Well, before we can get to the psychology, we have to get our definitions in order.
Trolling Defined
Different aspects of the trolling phenomenon have gone by many names: trolling, harassment, cyberbullying, flaming, sh*t-posting, etc.
While these terms are not exactly the same, they do have a common theme: They all describe bad-faith, unwelcoming behavior that occurs online to disrupt conversations, often by parachuting into discussions uninvited.
It’s helpful to think about trolling on a spectrum of intensity and threat level. For example, on one end of the spectrum, there can be infrequent, mildly annoying but ultimately harmless trolling; and on the other end of the spectrum, trolling can bleed into a form that is severe, relentless, and dangerous.
The precise boundary between trolling and harassment is fuzzy. If trolling becomes persistent and targeted, then it might be considered harassment and can enter legal territory.
Trolling also has different styles.
Some trolling is overt and obvious: name-calling, personal attacks, character assassinations, spreading lies, releasing private information (i.e., doxing), complaining to employers, threats, etc.
And sometimes it can be covert and sneaky: social media stalking behind a block, “sealioning,” talking about someone without tagging or naming them (e.g., sub-tweeting), etc.
What Causes Trolling?
Trolling is multi-causal.
This means that it isn’t caused by any one reason, but rather by many reasons that can add up and interact with each other in a perfect storm to produce trolling.
The most helpful way to think about these causes is to divide them into two broad categories:
Reasons outside of a person (i.e., environmental factors) and
Reasons inside of a person (i.e., individual factors).
Environmental factors that contribute to trolling:
The online disinhibition effect: This phenomenon describes an illusion of invincibility and invisibility. A person is more likely to troll from behind a screen than face-to-face due to a false sense of security. Metaphorically, the online environment can produce a sort of mental veil that seems to open a release valve into some of the darker corners of human nature—not unlike the “liquid courage” and disinhibition that alcohol can provide. Unsurprisingly, combining the online disinhibition effect with alcohol use can be a recipe for disaster.
Anonymity: If a person engages anonymously online, then it’s like the online disinhibition effect has just taken steroids. It is easier to troll with the illusion of no accountability and no connection to one’s life off-line.
Tribalism: The power of the group can add more fuel to the fire. Like a pack of wolves, humans are social creatures and have an innate desire to be part of a group. When many members of a group are trolling a target, a sense of belonging can be achieved by conforming to the group’s behavior.
Individual factors that contribute to trolling:
Personality: There are many ways of understanding personality. In essence, personality traits are deeply ingrained patterns of thinking and behaving. One way to understand one particular aspect of personality is to focus on some of the darker sides of human nature, which researchers have called the dark tetrad: sadism, psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The dark tetrad has been found to be associated with trolling. Within the dark tetrad, sadism has been found to be the strongest predictor of trolling, which describes the tendency to derive pleasure or enjoyment from being cruel or demeaning to others. It is important to recognize that sadism in this sense occurs on a spectrum—people can have more or less sadistic tendencies.
Ideologically possessed beliefs: Some people are married to their beliefs and don’t believe in divorce. In other words, some people can rigidly over-identify with particular beliefs (e.g., about health, gender, racism, politics, etc.) to the extent that they might engage in trolling behavior when those beliefs are threatened. People don’t like it when their worldviews are poked and prodded because it can be very upsetting when someone is told that the way in which they understand the world is wrong. It can also feel personal and can result in lashing out for protection. Research has shown that people perceive trolling as more deserved and justified when they perceive that the target has committed an offense.
Conditioning: Not everyone finds demeaning people to be rewarding and reinforcing. But this is the experience of people with stronger sadistic tendencies. One framework to help understand trolling is what psychologists call operant and classical conditioning. Operant conditioning is the study of rewards and punishment to influence behavior. For some, this might dredge up images of rats or pigeons dancing for food pebbles. Basically, trolling behavior can feel rewarding in two ways: the pleasure experienced from getting a rise out of a target (positive reinforcement) and in some cases, the pleasure experienced by avoiding or distracting from aspects of life that are uncomfortable (negative reinforcement). Like a slot machine, randomly responding to trolling just strengthens the motivation for it to continue. Simultaneously, there are classical conditioning processes going on—reminiscent of a dog that salivates when you open the cupboard because they know they’re about to eat. A dog salivates because they’ve learned that the cupboard represents food. In the same way, people with sadistic tendencies that engage in trolling may salivate, so to speak, when they learn that their target represents the pleasure that they’ll experience when they troll.
What Can You Do About Trolling?
There isn’t exactly a one-size-fits-all approach to handling trolling because it’s complex, multi-causal, and ranges in severity. But there are surefire ways to cope. I belie that you kill them off quickly. They are toxic individuals that generate a toxic enviroment that everyone must endure. They do not improve the world that they participate in. Instead they destroy it.
It is important to remember that respectful disagreement is not trolling—and at the same time, no one is owed your engagement. It’s a priviledge. Not a Right.
Here is a great article by Michael Nuccitelli, Psy.D. It's well worth the read. Edited to fit this venue and modified by MM slightly to fit this venue.
130+ Types of Internet Troll and Online Provocateurs
Troll, a one-word term defining a highly dysfunctional online user who targets others using cyber harassment, internet defamation, online deception, cyberstalking, disinformation, extortion, duplicity and cyberbullying when the assailant and target are minors.
The Internet Troll and their Troll clones inhabit cyberspace like, “cockroaches hiding behind refrigerators waiting for the lights to be turned off“.
It’s time for Information Age society to exterminate these parasites, preventing them from replicating.
The Troll is the subject of this paper and this writer has compiled an abundant amount of information for the reader describing the Internet Troll, types of Troll and the Internet Troll’s relationship to this writer’s iPredator and Dark Psychology constructs.
As a forensic psychologist having spent the last 20 years working with criminal, addicted, psychopathological and cybercriminal minds, the Internet Troll is a unique and complex profile.
Trolls (aka, Internet Trolls) and the characters they assume, are driven by primitive psychodynamic themes.
One does not have to be a forensic psychologist or criminal profiler to understand how deeply disturbed they are.
The troll relies upon a fragmented unconscious and lives within a fantasy world of being powerful, in control and envied by all others.
They feel completely opposite of what is portrayed to others.
From an intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics standpoint, Trolls are plagued by immense feelings of inferiority, isolation, rage, paranoia and jealousy for peers.
Instead of getting professional help or support from loved ones, Trolls prefer their insignificant virtual world fueled by grandiosity fantasies.
Internet Troll: An Internet Troll is a colloquial expression used to define an online user who uses Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to purposely and actively provoke, defame, anger, tease, flame, or incite other online users.
Often, the Internet Troll does not know the target recipient(s) of their vitriolic statements and behaviors.
Internet Trolls regularly appear in all forms of online mediums ranging from online video gaming gatherings to chatroom and forum discussions.
When the Internet Troll’s inflammatory statements and actions do not include a direct or implied physical threat to the target(s), their behavior is categorizes as cyber harassment.
If the Troll’s verbal assaults include direct or implied physical threats to their target(s), their actions are than defined as cyberstalking.
The motivations for an Internet troll’s provocative, and often, bizarre behaviors are many.
Despite the variations in modus operandi, most trolls are seeking attention, recognition, stimulation pseudo-notoriety and retribution for some unknown perceived injustice.
Although there is no evidence or clinical research validating the psychology of the Internet Troll, it is commonly believed that the “Veil of Anonymity” afforded to every online user inspires some to engage in egregious behaviors.
Those who have begun to investigate the etiology of the Troll suggest that the anonymity of the internet contributes to what has been called, disinhibition effect.
It has been postulated that internet anonymity leads some to behave in asocial ways coupled with a lack of guilt or remorse for the harm they cause not being in the target’s physical presence or even knowing their identity.
Trollosphere
Trollosphere: The Trollosphere is the total of Internet Trolls using cyberspace and digital devices to provoke, judge and defame others.
Trollosphere represents all troll typologies, their jargon and cyber-attack patterns.
Just as the Blogosphere is segmented into blogger niches, the Trollosphere has targets and online environments favored by Trolls.
Trollosphere also includes the thoughts, feelings and perceptions online users’ experience, when alone or in groups, who share similar Troll definitions.
Meets all three criteria for being categorized as an iPredator.
A self-awareness of causing harm to others, directly or indirectly, using ICT.
The usage of ICT to obtain, tamper with, exchange and deliver harmful information.
A general understanding of Cyberstealth used to engage in criminal or deviant activities or to profile, identify, locate, stalk and engage a target.
Tends to have few offline friends and online friends often engage in the same type of online harassment.
Highly susceptible to the states of deindividuation and the disinhibition effect experienced by all online users. For internet trolls, these states are highly influential in their online lives.
They are psychopathological in experiencing power and control online fueled by their offline reality of being insignificant, angry and alone.
The severity and magnitude of psychological abuse they inflict upon their online targets is directly correlated to their probability of suffering from an Axis I, Axis II or Dual Diagnose mental illness.
When online, show a lack of empathy, have minimal capacity to experience shame or guilt and behaves with callousness and a grandiose sense of self.
From a psychodynamic standpoint, Internet Trolls create and sustain an intra-psychic myth of power, greatness and domination.Although all humanity is guided through life by internal myths and archetypes, the Internet Troll’s myths and archetypes are highly distorted.
They are developmentally immature, tend to be chronically isolated and have had minimal to no intimate relationships.
Affected Profundity Troll: “A mutant subspecies of Sophist Trolls, Affected Profundity Trolls post endless pages of pretentious drivel that is intended to appear wise, but which generally makes little sense (if any). Affected Profundity Trolls enjoy asking themselves questions, sometimes answering them and sometimes leaving them hanging, for they believe this looks intelligent and lends an aura of mystery to their incoherent ramblings.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Agenda Troll: “Agenda trolls are those participants who join a forum specifically to pursue an agenda of their own, often a feud or grudge with another member, or perhaps a dispute with some party not participating in that forum. When a flame war erupts on another board, for example, Agenda Trolls will follow their opponents to other forums in order to continue the spat.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Amazon Trolls: “Posts something negative, be it about the story, the writing or even the grammar, whilst the natural instinct is to respond, it is imperative that you avoid the temptation and instead, face the situation and take it on the chin. If you don’t, you potentially open yourself up to a world of pain. For the forums are also home to all kinds of trolls. And literary trolls like nothing than a sniff of a stroppy author. As a result, before you know it you could find yourself under attack and those attacks can be very personal indeed. They can also be relentless as literary trolls hunt in packs.” Doug Brinson, (2013)
Argumentative Prick Troll: You see these kinds of people in Facebook Groups. Or even with their own “dedicated” websites committed to attacking people they don’t like. These trolls will argue for the sake of arguing, and they won’t back down. Even if their argument makes no sense or has no real purpose. And in response: they’ll do something stupid (or drastic) to destroy your reputation or spread false rumors out of insecurity.
Arrogant Asshole Troll: You can call this group of trolls “elitists”. They’ve laid out an imaginary red carpet only they can walk on. Putting themselves on a fake pedestal and belittling anyone who sees the world different. These kinds of trolls have their head so far up their ass, they can’t see what’s in-front of them.
Artistic Troll: “A higher species of Classic Troll, Artistic Trolls are intelligent individuals who understand the subtle art of trolling, and who do what they do specifically to make others look foolish. Often employing the techniques of Deceptive Trolls, Artistics will string forumites along until some point in time designated by their own desires, at which point they will reveal the ploy, admit that it was a ploy, and laugh at everyone for being stupid enough to fall for it.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Back-Stalker: “This Internet Troll will pour through your archives until he or she finds something you wrote that contradicts something you’ve written more recently. It will be pointed out. Every time you write anything.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Baiter: “A special place in hell could be reserved for The Baiter. This troll has a serious case of superiority, and always an ulterior motive. Whether posting one-off comments or engaging in back-and-forth, the Baiter always wants to bring the discussion back to their wheelhouse. A Political Baiter, such as, will always turn the discussion back to politics, even if the original post is about pandas or the trials of wearing socks with sandals. It could be anything benign, and The Political Baiter will make comments about the “liberal media” or “liberal elite” or “anti-intellectual conservatism” that take the original content to a different (often inappropriate) contextual level.” (Criminal Justice Degree Guide)
Bar Friend: “How many times have you met someone who is a friend of a friend at a bar or party, only to come home and see a Facebook friend request sitting in your in-box? You don’t remember their name, and the conversation you had with them was superficial at best. It’s obvious they just want to add you to their growing list of friends and you honestly believe you’ll never see them again.” Don Reisinger, CNET (2008)
Big Man: “Driven by ‘Order’ forces. A Big Man does trolling by posting something pleasing to others to support their world view.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Bitter Troll: “Bitter Trolls are a curious cross-species. They can be trolls of any breed in their larval stages but become Bitters after their earlier activities are seen for what they were. What sets these trolls apart from other classifications is their behavior after they have been spotted and labeled as trolls. Angry, frustrated, and resentful about being “outed,” the Bitter Troll will wage a campaign of indignant complaints intended to focus attention away from the troll and on whomever is responsible for identifying the creature.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Boomerang: “Different name but posts sound familiar? This troll sets up new accounts to keep posting when blocked.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Bored Hater: “This guy loves to make problems, usually out of sheer boredom. His posts are vile and hideous for no other reason than riling up total strangers. His arsenal includes racism, sexism, homophobia and religious intolerance.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Bustr: “Bustrs are obsessive Bitters by whom you could practically set your watch. A Bustr never forgets, never forgives, and holds a grudge until the day it dies. Also a variant of Agenda trolls, Bustrs typically move from forum to forum complaining about the objects of their ire, often cutting and pasting age-old diatribes that have little meaning to most of their audiences. Most Busters are relatively incoherent, though a few of the more lucid ones are potentially dangerous stalkers.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Cannibal Trolls: “A troll that spends it’s time troll baiting other trolls. Wasting the time of those most intent of wasting the time of others. For instance, a Cannibal Troll could post something like this (“Hi. Does anyone know if it’s possible to use a background that would essentially turn my computer monitor into a mirror? Scanning a mirror doesn’t work”) He would do this purposely to attract trolls and feed of their negative comments. For every troll that pays attention to a Cannibal Troll another innocent bystander go’s unmolested.” (Urban Dictionary)
Chatroom Bob: “Driven by ‘Existential’ forces. A chatroom bob takes part in trolling to gain the trust of other members in order to exploit them.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Comment Trolls: “We’ve all met the Internet Comment Troll. The delightful little creature who somehow always shows up in the comments section of blogs, websites, and social media services to show off his superior intellect and set the world straight. The Internet Comment Troll is an expert in all matters and always takes pains to spread his wisdom. He particularly loves to dwell in tech-related realms, where he enlightens reviewers and enhances their work with his insights. Were it not for the Internet Comment Troll, online comment sections might actually be a place for meaningful.” JR Raphael, (2014)
Concern Troll: “A person who posts on a blog thread, in the guise of “concern,” to disrupt dialogue or undermine morale by pointing out that posters and/or the site may be getting themselves in trouble, usually with an authority or power. They point out problems that don’t really exist. The intent is to derail, stifle, control, the dialogue. It is viewed as insincere and condescending. The VineYard, (2007)
Connoisseur Troll: “The Connoisseur Troll is so full of himself that his head is lodged up his ass. A movie critic whose only credential is that he watched Citizen Kane once, a friend who considers himself a wine aficionado for being able to discern the difference between a Franzia Cabernet and a Mike’s Hard Lemonade and the guy who takes it upon himself to note when you mistakenly use “good” instead of “well” in a sentence are all examples of the Connoisseur. The troll will use his supposed “area of expertise” as a weapon to disagree with anyone’s opinion.” Josh Gross (2013)
Contrarian Troll: “A sophisticated breed, Contrarian Trolls frequent boards whose main opinions are contrary to their own. A forum dominated by those who support firearms and knife rights, such as, will invariably be visited by Contrarian Trolls espousing their beliefs in the benefits of gun control.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Copyright Trolls: “A pejorative term for a party that enforces copyrights it owns for purposes of making money through litigation, in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic, generally without producing or licensing the works it owns for paid distribution. Critics object to the activity because they believe it does not encourage the production of creative works, but instead makes money through the inequities and unintended consequences of high statutory damages provisions in copyright laws intended to encourage creation of such works.” (Wikipedia)
Crazy Troll: “This guy just makes no sense. You post something about gardening and he claims that all gardeners are women and all women are soul-sucking incubus. Incubi? Who are only out to lure men into bed so they can marry them, then divorce them and take all their money to buy more tomato plants and meth.” Kristen Lamb (2012)
Crybaby: “If someone says something mean to the Crybaby, she’ll become hysterical and swear she’s never coming back to the board. Of course, you’ll see her three days later when she slinks back for more abuse. The Crybaby often tells on you to the mods and swears she’s going to get you banned.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Crybaby: “This Internet Troll likes to take everything anyone says super-seriously and ends discussions by flouncing off. Despite promises he or she will not return, this troll always comes back.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Cryer: “They tend to take everything as a personal assault, and love nothing more than feeling offended. And if they can’t feel offended directly, they also love being offended on other people’s behalves.” Robin Edds (2013)
Cuckoo Troll: “Like most trolls, cuckoo trolls are tortured by a terrible nagging fear that no one will ever take what they have to say very seriously. This fear is well justified. Cuckoo trolls try to get around this by mimicking the values of their host community. So, for example, they will seek to mislead with comments like “What makes you think I’m a Labor voter?” or “Actually I’m very open-minded on the subject of climate science.” James Delingpole (2011)
Dead Kid Troll: “Prior to the Internet, “troll” garnered images of the Scandinavian mythological creature, a garish monster that lives under bridges and bothers the Billy Goats Gruff. And if you’ve heard of The Dead Kid Trolls, it’s not hard to see why the name fits. Alexis Pilkington was a high school girl that committed suicide in 2010, and she was cyberbullied after her death. Friends and relatives had to see comments like, “[s]he was obviously a stupid depressed, who deserved to kill herself. she got what she wanted. These types of trolls are certainly the worst; they’re extremely unsettling and counter to any healthy grieving process for a lost friend or child. Of the wretched trolls, these are the worst.” (Criminal Justice Degree Guide)
Debate troll: These are always looking for debate or argument and can never agree to lose even when they know they are in the wrong. They are always determined to have the last word
Debbie Downer Troll: “This type of Internet Troll likes to showcase his or her unhappiness with the world by bringing you down.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Deceptive or “Classic” Troll: “More sophisticated but often easily identified and exposed, the Classic Troll gratifies his ego by pretending to be someone or something he or she is not. Classics make up elaborate stories about themselves, sometimes weaving some amounts of truth into their lies. As a web of lies is difficult to build with consistency, however, Classics are often “outed” by other forumites.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Domination Trolls: “This is where the trollers’ strategy extends to the creation and running of apparently bona-fide mailing lists.” Team Technology (Beware the Troll)
Domination Trolls: “This is where the troller’s strategy extends to the creation and running of apparently bona-fide mailing lists.” (Net Lingo)
Don King Troll: “Related to Affected Profundity Trolls, Don King Trolls spout gibberish in the hope that they’ll either bore or confuse to death those with whom they disagree. The average Don King Troll is “a pursuitist who gromulates his adversarial computerists with height defining formulations to the disinterestingest adjunct.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Done-It-All: “These trolls know and have experienced everything. Their knowledge is paramount and they will drown you in facts and anecdotes until you give up.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Downer: “This troll complains about everything: too much information, not enough information, boring posts, it was better last year, someone else does it better and no one listens.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Elder: “Driven by ‘Escape’ forces. An Elder is an out bound member of the community, often engaging in “trolling for newbies”, where they wind up the newer members often without questioning from other members.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Emotionally-Charged Troll: “These Internet Mole People pop up, usually in the form of some other type of troll, to make you feel bad by playing on your emotions.” (The Band Back Together Project)
E-Venger: “Driven by ‘Vengeance’ forces. An E-Venger does trolls in order to trip someone up so that their ‘true colors’ are revealed.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Expert: “The Expert knows everything about everything and loves to share his knowledge. He’s a lawyer, a doctor, a senator, a pro-ball player, a historian, an engineer … in reality, of course, he’s an unemployed temp living with his mom.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Failoblog Troll: “Failoblog troll’s dream is to have a blog as successful as the one he trolls. Unfortunately – as you can see for yourself if you’re foolish enough to follow the link he provides to his tragically unread blog, he is incapable of expressing himself coherently, interestingly, or amusingly. His tone is bitter, thwarted, envious: like Iago, only without the quick-wittedness or charm.” James Delingpole (2011)
Flamer: “Has no interest in the topics discussed but just wants to cause trouble for their own amusement to lift daily grind boredom.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Flamer: “This Internet Troll likes to cause trouble. Anywhere. With anyone. For any reason. If there’s no trouble to be had? This Troll will cause some. This type of troll is especially fond of using words that aren’t considered PC.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Flirt: “Driven by ‘Social’ forces. A Flirt takes part in trolling to help others be sociable, including through light ’teasing’.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Flooder: “The Flooder tries to break forums by posting the same lame thing (LOL! ROTFL!) over and over and over and over and over and over…” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Foghorn Troll: This subspecies of troll is extraordinarily angry, yet the reasons for the anger may vary. Some Foghorns are angry only when they’re awake, but most Foghorns become inflamed about a single issue. They wander about the electronic forest shouting (figuratively speaking) anytime that one issue is unearthed. Usually, the Foghorn is obssessed more with his own voice than with the person toward which he is shouting. How do you combat the Foghorn? Ignore him. (Or, it has been suggested, steal his “CAPS LOCK” and “!” keys.)
Forum Cultist: “Forum cultists are extremely proud of the incredible Internet communities to which they belong. They pride themselves on the exclusivity of those communities and actually believe that “it can’t happen to them”, “it, ” of course, being their own banishment. Forum cultists place a very high premium on groupthink and generally react to differing opinions with outrage, banning all who dare to speak them.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Fraud Troll: “This person, who claims any number of things to gain the sympathy of the world, has none of the problems he or she claims to have.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Fraud: “Also known as the Romance Scammer or the Deposed Nigerian Prince, the fraud takes pleasure in robbing people of their cash or self-respect. If your friends warn you that something seems hinky, PAY ATTENTION!” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Frost Troll: “Like an infantile child who proudly sits in his own shit, the Frost Troll’s social ineptitude makes it nearly invulnerable to any criticism. Its Achilles heel is the rejection it faced as a youth. Maybe it was that rather unfortunately timed “cold sore” outbreak which was forever memorialized in the high school yearbook or that embarrassing first-time experience with the poor girl’s armpit.” Josh Gross (2013)
Frost Troll: “Taking its name from the loathsome Skyrim creature, you should tread carefully with the Frost Troll. These are the sort of guys who have convinced themselves that being an asshole qualifies as a legitimate sense of humor. The breed consists of those who blow cigarette smoke into a cancer survivor’s face, or who, even more offensively, wear an Ed Hardy V-neck.
Gasbag Troll: The Gasbag is a truly special type of troll, combining in one person two of the most odious skills of trollery. He combines a towering sense of intellectual self-approval with an almost-breathtaking ignorance of social perception. In other words, the Gasbag will spend an inordinate amount of time gracing you with his astute observations, even though his narcissistic logorrhea undermines his desire for the Internet community to respect him.How to respond to the Gasbag? Upon spotting a Gasbag, end the conversation as politely as possible. (Or, if you are especially skillful, you might manage to put him at odds with other Gasbags in the electronic community; in such an instance Gasbags will stand tête–à–tête forever, mooing at one another, ankle-deep in their own effluvia.)
Genuinely Funny Troll: “The concept of trolling isn’t necessarily wrong. Sometimes people say stupid things, and they deserve to be gently ribbed. Occasionally you’ll see someone write something you don’t agree with, and of course you have the right to reply. Keep your tongue in your cheek, don’t be cruel, and wonderful things can happen.” Robin Edds (2013)
Ghost: “Once you’ve become friends with people on Facebook, I think you enter into an agreement of sorts: you both decide to interact with each other and, most importantly, you both decide to use the service. They don’t have a profile picture and the only information that’s filled out in their profile is their name and birth date. They’re a member, but not really.” Don Reisinger, CNET (2008)
Grammar Hag: “This Internet Troll chooses only to pop in and out of your life to point out when you’ve misused a particular word, phrase, or used the wrong context. This troll always does so with a very satisfying flourish.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Grammar Nazi: “They’re physically unable to not point out any and every spelling mistake or grammatical error they find on the internet and are under the impression that such mistakes instantly discredit what the writer was trying to say. Basically, their dicks.” Robin Edds (2013)
Grammar Brit: “If you don’t speak or write in proper Queen’s English, you are an idiot.” They would be far better off just going to the local pub and quaffing a pint.
Griefers: “A common type of troll found on forums and on online games, where they take on very different meanings. Griefers exist to cause problems and delight in stirring up large-scale “flame wars” – Griefers are also (though not always) rude, abusive and sometimes downright cruel: many Griefers do this to provoke their victims into a response.” (Villains Wikia)
Harasser: “Cross this troll and they will find and post your address, weight and financial information on every platform in existence.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Hate Monger: “One of the most nauseating types of Internet trolls is The Hate Monger. This commenter blasts the Internet, and otherwise civil discussion, with hate speech. Be it sexist, racist, homophobic (“GAY!” is an oft-used trolling one-off), or otherwise, the Hate Monger reflects the ignorant dregs of humanity. You’ll see them everywhere, but particularly virulent is their presence on forums that children can easily read and those aimed at politico/societal discussion.” (Criminal Justice Degree Guide)
Hater: “They don’t need a motive, they just move from victim to victim saying not very nice things and making you feel like you’ve done something to deserve it. Which is nice.” Robin Edds (2013)
Holy Misroller (HM):“Holy Misrollers are those online forum participants who give Christians (or other religious adherents) a bad name. The HM believes himself or herself to be a Christian (etc.) and will generally tell anyone who’ll listen about his or her faith in God and in Jesus. At the same time, however, the HM will display decidedly un-Christian behavior, often making an *** out of him/herself. The HM is often characterized by a great deal of anger and hostility.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Honorable Nitwit: “Honorable Nitwits absolutely love to speak about honor. This breed invokes the concepts of honor, integrity, humility, and other traits straight from the Boy Scout Oath more often than a Klingon warrior on anti-depressants. Honorable nitwits are convinced that everyone around them suffers from a lack of honor, an idea they thoroughly fail to understand in attempting to use its lack to smear others.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Humor Trolls: “One of the more common types of trolls and although often destructive they also tend to be mischievous rather than outright malicious (exceptions do exist). Humor Trolls believe that the act of trolling is comedy and indeed some Humor Trolls can be funny to certain people, the major problem with this troll is the comedy is not always welcome and often disrupts the normal flow of online communities.” (Villains Wikia)
I’m Better Than You and You’re a Moron Troll: “This type of troll isn’t out-of-control-crazy, just more condescending and smugger. This troll looks for picky things to criticize as justification for why you are an idiot with the mental capacity of a sea cucumber. These trolls will also take time to spell out specific reasons why they are too good/talented/smart to listen to you.” Kristen Lamb (2012)
Iconoclast: “Driven by ‘Destructive’ forces. An Iconoclast takes part in trolling to help others discover ‘the truth’, often by telling them things completely factual, but which may drive them into a state of consternation. They may post links to content that contradicts the worldview of their target.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Idiot Troll: “This Internet Troll responds to every post you write with things a blithering idiot (or teenager) would say.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Idiot: “You haven’t seen them since you were 14, and you’re suddenly wondering why you accepted their Facebook friend request. They comment on your pictures of the Eiffel Tower telling you how much they love Blackpool. Hmm. Robin Edds (2013)
Insult Troll: These are obsessed with name calling and piling insults on anybody for any emotional response whatsoever. Excessive insulting trolling can be considered cyberbullying.
Internet Radio/Media Trolls: “Internet Radio Troll Formal Definition: A variant of Internet Troll describing internet radio show hosts, their networks and listeners who use online media platforms and social sites to defame & humiliate a person, group, cause or belief. Unique to their profile is how they provoke and encourage their listeners to engage in the same vitriolic behaviors. Unlike Internet Trolls who act alone or in small groups, Internet Radio Trolls manipulate as many listeners as possible to join in their cyber-attacks.” Michael Nuccitelli, Psy.D. (2014)
Internet Troll: “An Internet Troll is a colloquial expression used to define an online user who uses Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to purposely and actively provoke, defame, anger, tease, flame, or incite other online users. Often, the Internet Troll does not know the target recipient(s) of their vitriolic statements and behaviors. Internet Trolls regularly appear in all forms of online mediums ranging from online video gaming gatherings to chatroom and forum discussions.” Michael Nuccitelli, Psy.D. (2013)
Internet Police Troll: I’ve seen these types on Quora, Twitter, and pretty much everywhere online. They’re the ones who say “you can’t say this on Facebook” or – “you can’t have that kind of opinion”. They’re like “fake” vigilantes. Trying to take the law into their own hands, even though they have no “real” authority or power to do anything about it.
IRL Troll: “The IRL (that stands for In Real Life to all you AFK people) Troll is the type of person that acts like an Internet bottom-feeder in everyday life. It’s someone that spends too much time in front of a glowing screen, or perhaps it’s just someone who burned their mother’s copy of Emily Post. These are the people that you’re not entirely sure should be at every single dinner party that you go to, and it’s getting a little strange that they’re always there.” (Criminal Justice Degree Guide)
“I didn’t read what you said but here’s what I think” Troll. “He doesn’t read your piece. He doesn’t need to: he knows what he thinks already and what he knows is, he hates everything you stand for and you’re wrong and he’s going to say so, every column you write, regardless of the fact that the paucity of recommends he gets prove him to be a total Billy No Mates.” James Delingpole (2011)
Just Don’t Get It Troll: “Just Don’t Get It Troll is the feeblest form of troll life. In fact, he hardly qualifies as a troll at all because he doesn’t understand what proper trolling what is about, or indeed the interweb thing is really for, or anything. He’ll often begin his rants with “I can’t believe you get paid for writing this rubbish” or “How disgraceful that a fine newspaper like the Telegraph should allow its reputation to be sullied by such bilge”.” James Delingpole (2011)
Know-it-all: “Whatever you know, they know more. They spend a lot of their time attempting to discredit every Guardian article ever written, whilst still claiming it’s their favorite newspaper.” Robin Edds (2013) I’ve had people argue with me about the dumbest shit I’ve heard. Even if the wall is blue, these types of trolls will claim it’s “black” all in the name of “being right”. It’s like they have a complex and don’t want you being the person who’s correct. They’d rather be the person who’s right, for no reason other than their own insecurities.
Lame Teenager: “The Lame Teenager responds with clever sayings like, “I know you are, but what am I ?” and “I’m rubber and you’re glue…” Warning: Sometimes the Lame Teenager is really a 40-year-old guy who can’t think of anything better to say.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Let-Me-Hijack-Your-Post-To-Tell-My-Horrible-Story Internet Troll: “These Internet Mole People almost always leave you wondering why they left you the comment at all, except that you’re now probably feeling guilty for being upset about anything, ever.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Liar: “The Liar is the most common troll. He loves to lure in brainless high-school girls by pretending he’s a romantic 20-year-old sensitive poet. The Liar is fairly harmless—as long as you don’t set up an IRL meet-up.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Line Crosser: “In the words of Joey Tribbiani, “You’re so far past the line, you can’t even see the line. The line is a dot to you!”. They hide behind their online persona and think this means the usual rules of society don’t apply.” Robin Edds (2013)
Lurker: “Driven by ‘Surveillance’ forces. Lurkers make silent calls by accident, etc., clicking on adverts or ‘like’ buttons, using ’referrer spoofers’, reporting posts, modifying opinion polls or user kudos scores.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Marketing Genius:“A Marketing Genius is absolutely convinced that you are profiting from your participation in an Internet forum. If you have a link or a graphic block in your signature, the Marketing Genius just knows that this is your subtle attempt to assert your hypnotic powers on other bulletin board participants, luring them with the siren song of your complex and inscrutable advertising of your site.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums , Trolls)
Meh Troll: “Easily identified by its complete absence of originality and creativity, the Meh Troll is a common, but minor threat. It relies upon the beating of dead horses and archaic stereotypes when attempting comedy. Consider the guy who cannot help but offer grape soda to his black friend or who depends upon making fun of Justin Bieber and you’ll get the idea. At best, he’ll get a few nervous chuckles.” Josh Gross (2013)
MHBFYJenny: “Driven by ‘Forgiveness forces’. A MHBFY Jenny takes part in trolling to help people see the lighter side of life and to help others come to terms with their concerns.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Mutt: “Alternatively known as Dogs or Yapping Dogs. Mutts are pack animals characterized by their loud barking – vociferous, repetitive, usually ignorant, and irrational criticism of anything and anyone they do not like. Mutts often become obsessed with a few or even a single poster with whom they disagree, often for purely personal reasons. Like a dog gnawing at a bone, the Mutt will attack the object of its ire over and over, making a fool of itself in the eyes of those who understand such childish behavior for what it is.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Nellie McNeggerson: “Nellie likes to show her displeasure by negging every craigslist post you make, regardless of its content. If you say, “cool!” she’ll neg you. If you say “thanks!” she’ll neg you. She might even create multiple accounts so she can neg you four or five times.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Never-Give-Up, Never-Surrender Troll: “This troll is ALWAYS right and will battle to the death to prove it. There is no point in trying to fight her. If she can’t back something up with reality, she’ll make something up, just to show you how wrong you are.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Never-Gonna-Give-You-Up-Troll: “This Internet Troll is right. Always. And this troll will never, ever, stop telling you why. It doesn’t matter how many times you argue; this troll is right.” (The Band Back Together Project)
New Service Addict: “They became a friend of yours on MySpace, or maybe even followed you on LiveJournal, and ever since then, they’ve wanted to be your friend on every social network known to man. Sometimes you catch a serious one who signs up for all the newest services before anyone, and they immediately send out invites like they’re passing out candy to kids on Halloween.” Don Reisinger, CNET (2008)
Not A Troll, Trolls: “Not everyone expressing a dissenting opinion on your website is an Internet Mole Person.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Off-Topic Trolls: “Unclear as to whether these trolls are actually people or simply spam-bots.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Old Warrior: “The Old Warrior has been there and done that. He has little time to spare for those who have not been there and done that. The Old Warrior has been there and done that to such an extent, in fact, that he is always right. Anyone who disagrees with him, therefore, is wrong by definition and should shut the hell up. Old Warriors place a very high premium on one’s credentials relevant to the subject matter discussed, failing to understand the logical fallacy of appeals to authority.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Old-time Nobody: “Social networks provide a slew of opportunities to connect with old friends, but that doesn’t mean you need to befriend your third-grade buddy Bill, whom you haven’t had a discussion with in 20 years. Usually they mention a time in your life the two of you shared when you were kids. Maybe it’s not the end of the world, but it does get a bit awkward when they remember that time and you don’t.” Don Reisinger, CNET (2008)
Overtly Reflective Troll: “If you’ve ever known some tool (usually armed with an acoustic guitar) who speaks in an unnecessarily soft tone and refuses to use any other adjective but “deep” or “meta”, you are familiar with the Overtly Reflective Troll. It will tirelessly comment on the state of our existence and leave your nostrils with the overpowering stench of an overcrowded, but well-fed bullpen. The Overtly Reflective Troll doesn’t really believe its drivel, but just wants to make you look bad in front of the ladies.” Josh Gross (2013)
Patent Trolls: “A patent troll uses patents as legal weapons, instead of actually creating any new products or coming up with new ideas. Instead, trolls are in the business of litigation (or even just threatening litigation). They often buy up patents cheaply from companies down on their luck who are looking to monetize what resources they have left, such as patents.” (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Peacemaker: “Arguing with a troll is a dangerous game, but it turns out that some internet commenters are in fact normal people with unprecedented levels of common sense.” Robin Edds (2013)
Pedant Troll: “In his imagination, pedant troll is the very exemplar of reason, balance and moderation. He feels effortlessly superior to the ridiculous, extremist, purblind fool whose blog he haunts, and whom he likes to put down with his killer sarcasm, weapons-grade pedantry and niggling little quibbles masquerading as constructive criticism. If he were really as brilliant as he thinks he is, he would at the very least have a major blog of his own by now, and more likely be King of the World. Strangely, he has yet to achieve either of these things.” James Delingpole (2011)
Pedant: “This troll will refuse to listen if “there” and “their” is misused or there is a typo – mistakes automatically invalidate arguments.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Playtime Trolls: “An individual plays a simple, short game. Such trolls are relatively easy to spot because their attack or provocation is fairly blatant, and the persona is fairly two-dimensional.” Team Technology (Beware the Troll)
Playtime Trolls: “An individual plays a simple, short game. Such trolls are relatively easy to spot because their attack or provocation is fairly blatant, and the persona is fairly two-dimensional.” (Net Lingo)
Point Misser: “The Point Misser lacks the part of the brain that detects humor and loves nothing more than complaining about TV shows they haven’t even seen.” Robin Edds (2013)
Political Commentator: “Imaginative use of swear words and an ability to twist everything into an argument about misspending the taxpayer’s money is a must.” Robin Edds (2013)
Preacher: “Whatever the topic, they’ll find some way of turning it into a great theological debate. And all you wanted to do was Instagram a picture of your dinner.” Robin Edds (2013)
Pretend-novice: “Has an agenda to push but pretends to not to understand arguments against said agenda in order to push the agenda further. By appearing to be a new user, she can get away with combativeness without appearing aggressive or hostile and can always excuse any poor arguments as ignorance or genuine inquiry.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Priggish Grammar Troll: “No matter what the discussion is about, the Priggish Grammar Troll will ignore the argument and pick on the one word you used incorrectly, like “alot” or misuses of “they’re,” “their” and “there.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Profane Screamer: “If someone says something even remotely critical of the Profane Screamer, he’ll TYPE IN ALL CAPS, telling you what a @#$# you are and insulting your mom. The Profane Screamer is often a noob and often turns into The Crybaby.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Psycho Trolls: “These trolls have an unconscious psychological need to feel good by making others feel bad. Such people may use their real names on the internet, and they may not even realize that they are “trolling”. Team Technology (Beware the Troll)
Rabid Flamer: “This guy likes to make trouble for his own amusement. If nothing particularly nasty is going on, he’ll whip out his flamethrower and burn everyone in his path, especially denizens of parenting or pets chat rooms.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Ranting Troll: “Ranting troll has an ax to grind and his preferred place to do this is on your blog or in a review of your book. Like Crazy Troll, Ranting Troll makes some sense, though his argument might be very tangential.” Kristen Lamb (2012)
Religious Trolls: “These trolls use Bible Verses and religious scripture to justify being mean to others for no real reason.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Rent-A-Mob: “This troll will bring a like-minded troll army with them to fight the cause. Be warned, the army could be just one person in disguise.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Retroactive Stalker: “The Retroactive Stalker will go back in time to find every craigslist post you ever made until he finds something embarrassing you said, even if you posted it three years ago. After that, whenever you post anything new, the Retroactive Stalker will link to the old post(s) in an effort to discredit you.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Ripper: “Driven by ‘Thanatotic’ forces. A Ripper takes part in self-deprecating trolling in order to build a false sense of empathy from others.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Rip and Twist Troll: With great force, this species of troll rips your words out of context, and then slaps you around with your own decontextualized words. The Rip-and-Twist-er grazes on a number of different delicacies, but is best known for devouring Politician Poppies and Theologian Thistles because of their visibility and availability. Park Rangers in the Kingdom Come say this species is characterized by the ability to live rent-free well into their mid-40s. How to combat the Rip-and-Twist-er? Ignore. (Or, don’t write anything ever; let all of your thoughts for humanity be off-the-record.)
Self-Feeding Troll: “This guy likes to argue, even when everyone else in the fold tells him he’s wrong. Without support from his nonexistent friends, he changes handles or makes up new ones to show the fold how loved he is.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Serial Leaver: “If they can’t get their own way, they threaten to leave forever because of the vile bullying and then return a few days later. Repeat.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Sharing Troll: “Also known as the TOU Violator, this psycho will find out your personal information and post it on message boards when you anger him. For example, when he’s being an ass to someone and you step in to tell him to knock it off, he’ll use your real name or post your address.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Shock Trolls: “Shock Trolls are arguably one of the more malicious trolls and are fairly common in some parts of the internet, Shock Trolls delight in causing offensive and may infect computers with malware “for fun” or hack into sites and vandalize them. Shock Troll tactics often involve the use of disgusting, perverted or controversial imagery or texts and much like the Griefer Shock Trolls may find the resulting chaos to be amusing.” (Villains Wikia)
Shouter: “They’re angry. So, so angry. They’re angered by happy people, sad people, other angry people, cats, badgers, themselves, politicians and humus.” Robin Edds (2013)
Snert: “Driven by ‘Anti-social’ forces. A Snert takes part in trolling to harm others for their own sick entertainment.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Snob: “This troll will just post *yawn*, *slow hand clap* or a rolling eye gif after every post they deem below par.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Sock Puppeteer: “If you’ve got any concept of ROI, you’re clearly not a Sock Puppeteer. These people can’t actually have paying jobs. They’re entirely too busy ruining everyone’s Internet fun and potentially having an extremely odd personality disorder. The Sock Puppeteer is a curious type of troll who creates several alternate, additional accounts on a commenting forum to flank their original trolling comment or argument with support.” (Criminal Justice Degree Guide)
Social Justice Troll: These are some of the worst, most foul creatures on earth. Self-righteous assholes who think they’re “too good” to bow-down to logic and objective facts. That’s why they usually base EVERYTHING on how they feel, and their petty emotions. Even when the truth is staring them in the face. It’s the reason feminism is so toxic, and how the word has lost its meaning. Or how some guys end up in jail because of the bias towards women (even when it’s clear the guy did nothing). In the words of Koko Hekmatyar: “I find the thought that I’m from the same species to be depressing.”
Sophist Troll:“Sophist Trolls, or “philotrolls,” fancy themselves Enlightened Philosophers or Learned Experts of the highest order. Often well educated, Philotrolls are capable of speaking intelligently on a number of topics, and when the spirit moves them, they can be worthwhile forum participants. Unfortunately, Sophist Trolls are an extremely hostile and intolerant species.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Spam Troll: “When internet trolls put links into their already annoying long winded posts.
Spambot Troll: “Spambot troll is on a mission – quite possibly a paid-for mission to judge by the frequency with which he posts. His job is to sabotage the comments section by filling it with cut-and-paste postings of little relevance to the debate in hand. He was probably sent straight here from CACC – which also sums up the quality of the stuff he writes.” James Delingpole (2011)
Spambot Trolls: “Spambot Trolls might not even be people, but they crud up comments of otherwise civil discussions and they do so all over the Internet. They paste text and links into comments that often lead to data mining bugs or dead-ends, and there’s not much rhyme or reason to their names, words, or links. The Spambot Troll is like an automated Baiter; they just waste energy and space, and sometimes provoke a reaction, though it’s hard to imagine that anyone takes their bait.” (Criminal Justice Degree Guide)
Spambot Trolls on a mission of destruction: Usually its to flood a forum with so much nonsense that the entire forum has to be deleted to remove the poisonous pollution. Which is what MM did when a spambot troll flooded the China forum (consisting of 30 comments) with 30,000 advertisements for fake college degrees in Australia. 2021.
Spoiler: “The Spoiler likes to ruin people’s days. On the film fo, he gives away endings (“He was dead the whole time!”). On sports sites, he posts the final scores.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Stalker Troll: “It takes a fairly sick mentality to want to be a troll. If you were in any way healthy, you would prefer to hang out the blogs of people you agree with, rather than maliciously setting out to disrupt those of people you hate. Stalker troll is the sickest of the lot. He becomes obsessed with every detail of life of the person whose blog he infests, in the hope of gleaning titbits, which he can use against his nemesis. For example, one of the regular trolls on this blog makes frequent sneery references to the fact that I suffer from depression. This is bizarre.” James Delingpole (2011)
STD Troll: “As many of you know, a sexually transmitted disease is hard to kick, just like this troll. Even when you think you’ve lost it for good, it comes back for another round. Unless you are a Zen monk, you’ll quickly lose patience with this cretin and reward it with the desired reaction. The best way to fight this troll off is by doing something counterintuitive: agreeing with it (please keep in mind this philosophy only applies to STD trolls, you should really just stick with a good antibiotic for an actual STD). I refer to this as the “roll with the troll” defense.” Josh Gross (2013)
Stranger: “It happens to all of us: someone we don’t know tries to be our friend on Facebook. Their profile claims they graduated from the same college and they live in your general area. You know you’ve never met the person and even if you did, it was for a fleeting second and you don’t remember them at all.” Don Reisinger, CNET (2008)
Strategic Trolls: “A very serious form of game, involving the production of an overall strategy that can take months or years to develop. It can also involve a number of people acting together in order to invade a list.” (Net Lingo)
Strategic Trolls: A very serious form of game, involving the production of an overall strategy that can take months or years to develop. It can also involve a number of people acting together in order to invade a list.” Team Technology (Beware the Troll)
Swearer: “If anyone dares to disagree with them, this troll will reply IN CAPS AND WITH LOTS OF SWEARING *@!&. They will also tell you how ugly you and your mum are.” Emily Turner, (2013)
Tactical Trolls: “This is where the troller takes the game more seriously, creates a credible persona to gain confidence of others, and provokes strife in a subtle and invidious way.” Team Technology (Beware the Troll)
“This Is My CAUSE” Internet Troll (Internet Mole Person): “Person who defines themselves solely by their “cause,” and spends countless hours blathering on and on about it to anyone on The Twitter, The Facebook and blogs. They have a Google search set and hours each day to devote to blogs and they do that to leave comments about their “cause.” Which no one cares that much about. Or is a one-sided thing and almost always involves emotional manipulation and impassioned catch-phrases to get the very annoying point across.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Troll Behind A Troll Behind A Troll: “This Internet Troll, when he or she cannot summon up the support of others, will invent new screen names, logins, and profiles in order to support him or herself and his or her argument.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Troll: “Driven by ‘Chaos’ forces. A Troll takes part in trolling to entertain others, bringing some fun and mischief to an online community. (Crocels Trolling Academy)
Twister: “They take everything you say out of context and use it to make you sound like a douche. The tabloid journalists of the trolling world.” Robin Edds (2013)
Vengeful Troll: “The minute you anger the Vengeful Troll, he or she posts your personal information everywhere.” (The Band Back Together Project)
Vulgar Troll: “These, the crudest of all trolls, make no attempt to hide their species. Often, they make racist comments, or they may post porn and other spam. Vulgars usually confine their comments merely to primitive, profane, off-topic observations. When you log into the Really Profound Serious Philosophical Discussions board and see the post, “I smell my farts,” you’ve spotted the Vulgar Troll. Other species of troll sometimes revert to this form when cornered.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
Vituperator Troll: is also known in some regions as The Hater (Latin, Hayturs-Urgona-Hayt). This species sometimes fixates on one person or issue, but more often seems willing to express aversion toward all humanity or at least toward a large class of humanity. Migrating from savannah to savannah, attacking victim after victim, spraying them with invective, the Vituperator’s object is manipulative: to make the victim believe everything is his fault. This species of troll concentrates on scarring the victim—and not expressing any particular idea. How to combat the Vituperator? Ignore him. (Also, it has been suggested, you may repeat to yourself regularly that perennial philosophical truth: “vituperators gonna vituperate.”)
White Knight: “If the White Knight thinks someone hurts someone’s feelings, he’ll put on his shiny armor and joust for honor and goodness … even if the “attacked” person tells him to shut up.” Tamar Love Grande (2010)
Wizard: “Driven by ‘Creative’ forces. A Wizard does trolling through making up and sharing content that has humorous effect.” (Crocels Trolling Academy)
“WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN” Pseudo-Concern Trolls: “These Internet Trolls are precisely as you’d imagine. They take any instance where there might be an issue of perceived impropriety and exploit it.” (The Band Back Together Project)
YerATroll:“YerATrolls are those whining forumites who devote a tremendous amount of time and energy complaining about the tremendous amount of time an energy expended by Troll Bashers and Angry Forumites on the practice of troll-hunting. A self-righteous and hypocritical breed, YerATrolls spend all their time pointing fingers at everyone but trolls, petulantly demanding that their opinions be granted the significance the YerATroll believes they deserve.” (2006 Ubuntu Forums, Trolls)
YouTube Commenter: “Are you having a great day? Well, we’ve got the solution for you. YouTube.com is the web’s leading video sharing site and has become a hugely popular search engine. Comments on the videos are those of an open forum, with very little moderation (especially in the pre-YouTube-by-Google days), and are generally a web junkie’s daily reminder that everyone on the Internet (so, pretty much everyone in the world) is grossly ignorant, contributing to global idiocy in scads, and generally sucks really, really hard.” (Criminal Justice Degree Guide)
What challenges do trolls pose?
Trolls can pose some bona fide challenges. A lurking issue is that many trolls are anonymous or, at least, anonymous to us. Who are they? Are they real people who hide as strangers and comment only when they are criticizing? Or real persons operating under false identities? Or electronic robots? A second problem is that they are often uncivil, willing to escalate to comments that are mean-spirited, violent, racist, or pornographic. A third problem arise when trolls inflict psychological harm by targeting your readers and even hijacking a comment chain.
Why are there so many trolls?
Contrary to Scandinavian legends, trolls have an almost ubiquitous presence. Why are there so many? The first and most important answer is the increasingly toxic nature of ourpublic discourse as a whole. Public debate—especially as it centers on politics and/or religion—is increasingly uncivil. It is a symptom revealing our society’s internal sickness. Second, troll-proliferation (or, as some experts prefer, troliferation”) is made easy by the anonymity afforded by the Internet. A troll who might otherwise refrain from socially irritating or repulsive behavior feels free to do so behind a digital curtain. Third, trolling has metastasized because of the accessibility afforded by the Internet. Whereas a troll of yesteryear would have had difficulty in finding an audience, today’s troll has no difficulty whatsoever.
How can we respond (or not respond!) to critical comments on social media?
When one encounters ugly or unfair comments on the internet, one might immediately be tempted to respond in kind. For example, one might want to say, “Thank you for your comment. And may I add that you are cruelly depriving a village somewhere of an idiot?” Or, “I would argue with you, but it seems unfair to enter a battle of wits with such a lightly-armed man.” But such responses exhibit a lack of grace and wisdom.
Rather than mutating into one of many, many trolls, consider these options:
Control the comment string. Use old fashioned editorial judgment. If a comment seems to have been written by a troll, don’t approve the comment.
Ignore the comment. By ignoring it, you don’t give the troll what he wants, which is to put himself in the spotlight, to humiliate you or make you angry, etc. The big drawback with this option is that you may accidentally overlook a good-willed person with real frustrations, rather than a real troll who thrives on trollery.
Respond to the comment. On occasion, you might respond to the troll, usually for the purpose of managing one’s own personal media. On Facebook or a personal blog, for example, there might be a need to correct the troll’s comment for the sake of other friends or readers.
Make an end-run around the troll by speaking about him to your audience. “Welp. Looks like there’s a troll trying to attack people on this site and hijack the conversation. My best recommendation is for you to ignore him so that he will go back in his cave.”
Use humor. The best use of humor will not be mean-spirited, but instead will be a sort of light-hearted satire on dark arts of trollery: “Thank you for your unique contribution, which refreshes and challenges us all.”
Block/Report/Mute/Unfriend. For real trolls, this is the best solution.
Send to the Cornfield. Some trolls are too arrogant, or stupid and needs to be taught a lesson. If they persist, kill them with a trip into the cornfield. Let them experience the life that they are trying to create for others.
A Concluding Thought
One final thought. With the exception of bots, we must remember that trolls are human beings. We should treat them civilly even if they themselves are uncivil; in so doing, we contribute to the common project of neutralizing the toxicity of public discourse.
You ask them to stop and give them [1] a warning.
If they don’t listen, you then, [2] cut them off at the knees. And for 90% of the trolls, that sends them a-packing to “greener pastures”.
For the more recalcitrant trolls; [3] send them to the cornfield and forgetaboutit.
Remember, their problems are not yours. You have a responsibility to make the world a better place, and that means to be a Rufus. When you see others behaving badly you respond. Whether it is someone who throws trash out the window of their car, or someone being insulting on a forum, you MUST act and get them the Hell out of your (and others) lives. It’s your responsibility.
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my Happiness Index here…
This is a great science fiction story. This interesting tale of conflict and survival in a hostile and unknown land was first published in the September 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, with the striking illustrations by Williams that we have reproduced here.
Its author Hal Clement (1922-2003) was a trained astrophysicist who brought an emphasis on the “science” part of science-fiction that was particularly effective, interesting and convincing in this quite perfect little story that has so well passed the test of time.
He was serving as a pilot in the US Air Force at the time of publication of this story, and had flown dozens of combat missions during the war in Europe. He later retired with the rank of Colonel.
“Uncommon Sense” (1945) by Hal Clement
“So you’ve left us, Mr. Cunningham!” Malmeson’s voice sounded rougher than usual, even allowing for headphone distortion and the ever-present Denebian static. “Now, that’s too bad. If you’d chosen to stick around, we would have put you off on some world where you could live, at least. Now you can stay here and fry. And I hope you live long enough to watch us take off—without you!”
Laird Cunningham did not bother to reply. The ship’s radio compass should still be in working order, and it was just possible that his erstwhile assistants might start hunting for him, if they were given some idea of the proper direction to begin a search. Cunningham was too satisfied with his present shelter to be very anxious for a change. He was scarcely half a mile from the grounded ship, in a cavern deep enough to afford shelter from Deneb’s rays when it rose, and located in the side of a small hill, so that he could watch the activities of Malmeson and his companion without exposing himself to their view.
In a way, of course, the villain was right. If Cunningham permitted the ship to take off without him, he might as well open his face plate; for, while he had food and oxygen for several days’ normal consumption, a planet scarcely larger than Luna, baked in rays of one of the fiercest radiating bodies in the galaxy, was most unlikely to provide further supplies when these ran out. He wondered how long it would take the men to discover the damage he had done to the drive units in the few minutes that had elapsed between the crash landing and their breaking through the control room door, which Cunningham had welded shut when he had discovered their intentions. They might not notice it at all; he had severed a number of inconspicuous connections at odd points. Perhaps they would not even test the drivers until they had completed repairs to the cracked hull. If they didn’t, so much the better.
Cunningham crawled to the mouth of his cave and looked out across the shallow valley in which the ship lay. It was barely visible in the starlight, and there was no sign of artificial luminosity to suggest that Malmeson might have started repairs at night. Cunningham had not expected that they would, but it was well to be sure. Nothing more had come over his suit-radio since the initial outburst, when the men had discovered his departure; he decided that they must be waiting for sunrise, to enable them to take more accurate stock of the damage suffered by the hull.
He spent the next few minutes looking at the stars, trying to arrange them into patterns he could remember. He had no watch, and it would help to have some warning of approaching sunrise on succeeding nights. It would not do to be caught away from his cave, with the flimsy protection his suit could afford from Deneb’s radiation. He wished he could have filched one of the heavier work suits; but they were kept in a compartment forward of the control room, from which he had barred himself when he had sealed the door of the latter chamber.
He remained at the cave mouth, lying motionless and watching alternately the sky and the ship. Once or twice he may have dozed; but he was awake and alert when the low hills beyond the ship’s hull caught the first rays of the rising sun. For a minute or two they seemed to hang detached in a black void, while the flood of blue-white light crept down their slopes; then, one by one, their bases merged with each other and the ground below to form a connected landscape. The silvery hull gleamed brilliantly, the reflection from it lighting the cave behind Cunningham and making his eyes water when he tried to watch for the opening of the air lock.
He was forced to keep his eyes elsewhere most of the time, and look only in brief glimpses at the dazzling metal; and in consequence, he paid more attention to the details of his environment than he might otherwise have done. At the time, this circumstance annoyed him; he has since been heard to bless it fervently and frequently.
Although the planet had much in common with Luna as regarded size, mass, and airlessness, its landscape was extremely different. The daily terrific heatings which it underwent, followed by abrupt and equally intense temperature drops each night, had formed an excellent substitute for weather; and elevations that might at one time have rivaled the Lunar ranges were now mere rounded hillocks, like that containing Cunningham’s cave. As on the Earth’s moon, the products of the age-long spalling had taken the form of fine dust, which lay in drifts everywhere. What could have drifted it, on an airless and consequently windless planet, struck Cunningham as a puzzle of the first magnitude; and it bothered him for some time until his attention was taken by certain other objects upon and between the drifts. These he had thought at first to be outcroppings of rock; but he was at last convinced that they were specimens of vegetable life—miserable, lichenous specimens, but nevertheless vegetation. He wondered what liquid they contained, in an environment at a temperature well above the melting point of lead.
The discovery of animal life—medium-sized, crablike things, covered with jet-black integument, that began to dig their way out of the drifts as the sun warmed them—completed the job of dragging Cunningham’s attention from his immediate problems. He was not a zoologist by training, but the subject had fascinated for years; and he had always had money enough to indulge his hobby. He had spent years wandering the Galaxy in search of bizarre life forms—proof, if any were needed, of a lack of scientific training—and terrestrial museums had always been more than glad to accept the collections that resulted from each trip and usually to send scientists of their own in his footsteps. He had been in physical danger often enough, but it had always been from the life he studied or from the forces which make up the interstellar traveler’s regular diet, until he had overheard the conversation which informed him that his two assistants were planning to do away with him and appropriate the ship for unspecified purposes of their own. He liked to think that the promptness of his action following the discovery at least indicated that he was not growing old.
But he did let his attention wander to the Denebian life forms.
Several of the creatures were emerging from the dust mounds within twenty or thirty yards of Cunningham’s hiding place, giving rise to the hope that they would come near enough for a close examination. At that distance, they were more crablike than ever, with round, flat bodies twelve to eighteen inches across, and several pairs of legs. They scuttled rapidly about, stopping at first one of the lichenous plants and then another, apparently taking a few tentative nibbles from each, as though they had delicate tastes which needed pampering. Once or twice there were fights when the same tidbit attracted the attention of more than one claimant; but little apparent damage was done on either side, and the victor spent no more time on the meal he won than on that which came uncontested. Cunningham became deeply absorbed in watching the antics of the little creatures, and completely forgot for a time his own rather precarious situation. He was recalled to it by the sound of Malmeson’s voice in his headphones. “Don’t look up, you fool; the shields will save your skin, but not your eyes. Get under the shadow of the hull, and we’ll look over the damage.”
Cunningham instantly transferred his attention to the ship. The air lock on the side toward him—the port—was open, and the bulky figures of his two ex-assistants were visible standing on the ground beneath it. They were clad in the heavy utility suits which Cunningham had regretted leaving, and appeared to be suffering little or no inconvenience from the heat, though they were still standing full in Deneb’s light when he looked. He knew that hard radiation burns would not appear for some time, but he held little hope of Deneb’s more deadly output coming to his assistance: for the suits were supposed to afford protection against this danger as well. Between heat insulation, cooling equipment, radiation shielding, and plain mechanical armor, the garments were so heavy and bulky as to be an almost insufferable burden on any major planet. They were more often used in performing exterior repairs in space.
Cunningham watched and listened carefully as the men stooped under the lower curve of the hull to make an inspection of the damage. It seemed, from their conversation, to consist of a dent about three yards long and half as wide, about which nothing could be done, and a series of radially arranged cracks in the metal around it. These represented a definite threat to the solidity of the ship, and would have to be welded along their full lengths before it would be safe to apply the stresses incident to second-order flight. Malmeson was too good an engineer not to realize this fact, and Cunningham heard him lay plans for bringing power lines outside for the welder and jacking up the hull to permit access to the lower portions of the cracks. The latter operation was carried out immediately, with an efficiency which did not in the least surprise the hidden watcher. After all, he had hired the men.
Every few minutes, to Cunningham’s annoyance, one of the men would carefully examine the landscape; first on the side on which he was working, and then walking around the ship to repeat the performance. Even in the low gravity, Cunningham knew he could not cross the half mile that lay between him and that inviting air lock, between two of those examinations; and even if he could, his leaping figure, clad in the gleaming metal suit, would be sure to catch even an eye not directed at it. It would not do to make the attempt unless success were certain; for his unshielded suit would heat in a minute or two to an unbearable temperature, and the only place in which it was possible either to remove or cool it was on board the ship. He finally decided, to his annoyance, that the watch would not slacken so long as the air lock of the ship remained open. It would be necessary to find some means to distract or—an unpleasant alternative for a civilized man—disable the opposition while Cunningham got aboard, locked the others out, and located a weapon or other factor which would put him in a position to give them orders. At that, he reflected, a weapon would scarcely be necessary; there was a perfectly good medium transmitter on board, if the men had not destroyed or discharged it, and he need merely call for help and keep the men outside until it arrived.
This, of course, presupposed some solution to the problem of getting aboard unaccompanied. He would, he decided, have to examine the ship more closely after sunset. He knew the vessel as well as his own home—he had spent more time on her than in any other home— and knew that there was no means of entry except through the two main locks forward of the control room, and the two smaller, emergency locks near the stern, one of which he had employed on his departure. All these could be clogged shut from within; and offhand he was unable to conceive a plan for forcing any of the normal entrances. The view ports were too small to admit a man in a spacesuit, even if the panes could be broken; and there was literally no other way into the ship so long as the hull remained intact. Malmeson would not have talked so glibly of welding them sufficiently well to stand flight, if any of the cracks incurred on the landing had been big enough to admit a human body—or even that of a respectably healthy garter snake.
Cunningham gave a mental shrug of the shoulders as these thoughts crossed his mind, and reiterated his decision to take a scouting sortie after dark. For the rest of the day he divided his attention between the working men and the equally busy life forms that scuttled here and there in front of his cave; and he would have been the first to admit that he found the latter more interesting.
He still hoped that one would approach the cave closely enough to permit a really good examination, but for a long time he remained unsatisfied. Once, one of the creatures came within a dozen yards and stood “on tiptoe”—rising more than a foot from the ground on its slender legs, while a pair of antennae terminating in knobs the size of human eyeballs extended themselves several inches from the black carapace and waved slowly in all directions. Cunningham thought that the knobs probably did serve as eyes, though from his distance he could see only a featureless black sphere. The antennae eventually waved in his direction, and after a few seconds spent, apparently in assimilating the presence of the cave mouth, the creature settled back to its former low-swung carriage and scuttled away. Cunningham wondered if it had been frightened at his presence; but he felt reasonably sure that no eye adapted to Denebian daylight could see past the darkness of his threshold, and he had remained motionless while the creature was conducting its inspection. More probably it had some reason to fear caves, or merely darkness.
That it had reason to fear something was shown when another creature, also of crustacean aspect but considerably larger than those Cunningham had seen to date, appeared from among the dunes and attacked one of the latter. The fight took place too far from the cave for Cunningham to make out many details, but the larger animal quickly overcame its victim. It then apparently dismembered the vanquished, and either devoured the softer flesh inside the black integument or sucked the body fluids from it. Then the carnivore disappeared again, presumably in search of new victims. It had scarcely gone when another being, designed along the lines of a centipede and fully forty feet in length, appeared on the scene with the graceful flowing motion of its terrestrial counterpart.
For a few moments the newcomer nosed around the remains of the carnivore’s feast, and devoured the larger fragments. Then it appeared to look around as though for more, evidently saw the cave, and came rippling toward it, to Cunningham’s pardonable alarm. He was totally unarmed, and while the centipede had just showed itself not to be above eating carrion, it looked quite able to kill its own food if necessary. It stopped, as the other investigator had, a dozen yards from the cave mouth; and like the other, elevated itself as though to get a better look. The baseball-sized black “eyes” seemed for several seconds to stare into Cunning-ham’s more orthodox optics; then, like its predecessor, and to the man’s intense relief, it doubled back along its own length and glided out of sight.
Cunningham again wondered whether it had detected his presence, or whether caves or darkness in general spelled danger to these odd life forms.
It suddenly occurred to him that, if the latter were not the case, there might be some traces of previous occupants of the cave; and he set about examining the place more closely, after a last glance which showed him the two men still at work jacking up the hull.
There was drifted dust even here, he discovered, particularly close to the walls and in the corners. The place was bright enough, owing to the light reflected from outside objects, to permit a good examination—shadows on airless worlds are not so black as many people believe—and almost at once Cunningham found marks in the dust that could easily have been made by some of the creatures he had seen. There were enough of them to suggest that the cave was a well-frequented neighborhood; and it began to look as though the animals were staying away now because of the man’s presence.
Near the rear wall he found the empty integument that had once covered a four-jointed leg. It was light, and he saw that the flesh had either been eaten or decayed out, though it seemed odd to think of decay in an airless environment suffering such extremes of temperature—though the cave was less subject to this affect than the outer world. Cunningham wondered whether the leg had been carried in by its rightful owner, or as a separate item on the menu of something else. If the former, there might be more relics about.
There were. A few minutes’ excavation in the deeper layers of dust produced the complete exoskeleton of one of the smaller crab-like creatures; and Cunningham carried the remains over to the cave mouth, so as to examine them and watch the ship at the same time.
The knobs he had taken for eyes were his first concern. A close examination of their surfaces revealed nothing, so he carefully tried to detach one from its stem. It finally cracked raggedly away, and proved, as he had expected, to be hollow. There was no trace of a retina inside, but there was no flesh in any of the other pieces of shell, so that proved nothing. As a sudden thought struck him, Cunningham held the front part of the delicate black bit of shell in front of his eyes; and sure enough, when he looked in the direction of the brightly gleaming hull of the spaceship, a spark of light showed through an almost microscopic hole. The sphere was an eye, constructed on the pinhole principle—quite an adequate design on a world furnished with such an overwhelming luminary. It would be useless at night, of course, but so would most other visual organs here; and Cunningham was once again faced with the problem of how any of the creatures had detected his presence in the cave—his original belief, that no eye adjusted to meet Deneb’s glare could look into its relatively total darkness, seemed to be sound.
He pondered the question, as he examined the rest of the skeleton in a half-hearted fashion. Sight seemed to be out, as a result of his examination; smell and hearing were ruled out by the lack of atmosphere; taste and touch could not even be considered under the circumstances. He hated to fall back on such a time-honored refuge for ignorance as “extrasensory perception”, but he was unable to see any way around it.
It may seem unbelievable that a man in the position Laird Cunningham occupied could let his mind become so utterly absorbed in a problem unconnected with his personal survival. Such individuals do exist, however; most people know someone who has shown some trace of such a trait; and Cunningham was a well-developed example. He had a single-track mind, and had intentionally shelved his personal problem for the moment.
His musings were interrupted, before he finished dissecting his specimen, by the appearance of one of the carnivorous creatures at what appeared to constitute a marked distance—a dozen yards from his cave mouth, where it rose up on the ends of its thin legs and goggled around at the landscape. Cunningham, half in humor and half in honest curiosity, tossed one of the dismembered legs from the skeleton in his hands at the creature. It obviously saw the flying limb; but it made no effort to pursue or devour it. Instead, it turned its eyes in Cunningham’s direction, and proceeded with great baste to put one of the drifts between it and what it evidently considered a dangerous neighborhood.
It seemed to have no memory to speak of, however; for a minute or two later Cunningham saw it creep into view again, stalking one of the smaller creatures which still swarmed everywhere, nibbling at the plants. He was able to get a better view of the fight and the feast that followed than on the previous occasion, for they took place much nearer to his position; but this time there was a rather different ending. The giant centipede, or another of its kind, appeared on the scene while the carnivore was still at its meal, and came flowing at a truly surprising rate over the dunes to fall on victor and vanquished alike. The former had no inkling of its approach until much too late; and both black bodies disappeared into the maw of the creature Cunningham had hoped was merely a scavenger.
What made the whole episode of interest to the man was the fact that in its charge, the centipede loped unheeding almost directly through a group of the plant-eaters; and these, by common consent, broke and ran at top speed directly toward the cave. At first he thought they would swerve aside when they saw what lay ahead; but evidently he was the lesser of two evils, for they scuttled past and even over him as he lay in the cave mouth, and began to bury themselves in the deepest dust they could find. Cunningham watched with pleasure, as an excellent group of specimens thus collected themselves for his convenience.
As the last of them disappeared under the dust, he turned back to the scene outside. The centipede was just finishing its meal. This time, instead of immediately wandering out of sight, it oozed quickly to the top of one of the larger dunes, in full sight of the cave, and deposited its length in the form of a watch spring, with the head resting above the coils. Cunningham realized that it was able, in this position, to look in nearly all directions and, owing to the height of its position, to a considerable distance.
With the centipede apparently settled for a time, and the men still working in full view, Cunningham determined to inspect one of his specimens. Going to the nearest wall, he bent down and groped cautiously in the dust. He encountered a subject almost at once, and dragged a squirming black crab into the light. He found that if he held it upside down on one hand, none of its legs could get a purchase on anything; and he was able to examine the underparts in detail in spite of the wildly thrashing limbs. The jaws, now opening and closing futilely on a vacuum, were equipped with a set of crushers that suggested curious things about the plants on which it fed; they looked capable of flattening the metal finger of Cunningham’s spacesuit, and he kept his hand well out of their reach. He became curious as to the internal mechanism that permitted it to exist without air, and was faced with the problem of killing the thing without doing it too much mechanical damage. It was obviously able to survive a good many hours without the direct radiation of Deneb, which was the most obvious source of energy, although its body temperature was high enough to be causing the man some discomfort through the glove of his suit; so “drowning” in darkness was impractical. There might, however, he some part of its body on which a blow would either stun or kill it ; and he looked around for a suitable weapon.
There were several deep cracks in the stone at the cave mouth, caused presumably by thermal expansion and contraction; and with a little effort he was able to break loose a pointed, fairly heavy fragment. With this in his right hand, he laid the creature on its back on the ground, and hoped it had something corresponding to a solar plexus.
It was too quick for him. The legs, which had been unable to reach his hand when it was in the center of the creature’s carapace, proved supple enough to get a purchase on the ground; and before he could strike, it was right side up and departing with a haste that put to shame its previous efforts to escape from the centipede.
Cunningham shrugged, and dug out another specimen. This time he held it in his hand while he drove the point of his rock against its plastron. There was no apparent effect; he had not dared to strike too hard, for fear of crushing the shell. He struck several more times, with identical results and increasing impatience; and at last there occurred the result he had feared. The black armor gave way, and the point penetrated deeply enough to insure the damage of most of the interior organs. The legs gave a final twitch or two, and ceased moving, and Cunningham gave an exclamation of annoyance.
On hope, he removed the broken bits of shell, for a moment looked in surprise at the liquid which seemed to have filled the body cavities. It was silvery, even metallic in color; it might have been mercury, except that it wet the organs bathed in it and was probably at a temperature above the boiling point of that metal. Cunningham had just grasped this fact when he was violently bowled over, and the dead creature snatched from his grasp. He made a complete somersault, bringing up against the rear wall of the cave; and as he came upright he saw to his horror that the assailant was none other than the giant centipede. It was disposing with great thoroughness of his specimen, leaving at last only a few fragments of shell that had formed the extreme tips of the legs; and as the last of these fell to the ground, it raised the fore part of its body from the ground, as the man had seen it do before, and turned the invisible pinpoints of its pupils on the space-suited human figure.
Cunningham drew a deep breath, and took a firm hold of his pointed rock, though he had little hope of overcoming the creature. The jaws he had just seen at work had seemed even more efficient than those of the plant-eater, and they were large enough to take in a human leg.
For perhaps five seconds both beings faced each other without motion; then, to the man’s inexpressible relief, the centipede reached the same conclusion to which its previous examination of humanity had led it, and departed in evident haste. This time it did not remain in sight, but was still moving rapidly when it reached the limit of Cunningham’s vision.
The naturalist returned somewhat shakily to the cave mouth, seated himself where he could watch his ship, and began to ponder deeply. A number of points seemed interesting on first thought, and on further cerebration became positively fascinating. The centipede had not seen, or at least had not pursued, the plant-eater that had escaped from Cunningham and run from the cave.
Looking back, he realized that the only times he had seen the creature attack was after “blood” had been already shed —twice by one of the carnivorous animals, the third time by Cunningham himself. It had apparently made no difference where the victims had been—two in full sunlight, one in the darkness of the cave.
More proof, if any were needed, that the creatures could see in both grades of illumination. It was not strictly a carrion eater, however; Cunningham remembered that carnivore that had accompanied its victim into the centipede’s jaws. It was obviously capable of overcoming the man, but had twice retreated precipitately when it had excellent opportunities to attack him. What was it, then, that drew the creature to scenes of combat and bloodshed, but frightened it away from a man; that frightened, indeed, all of these creatures?
On any planet that had a respectable atmosphere, Cunningham would have taken one answer for granted—scent. In his mind, however, organs of smell were associated with breathing apparatus, which these creatures obviously lacked.
Don’t ask why he took so long. You may think that the terrific adaptability evidenced by those strange eyes would be clue enough: or perhaps you may be in a mood to excuse him. Columbus probably excused those of his friends who failed to solve the egg problem.
Of course, he got it at last, and was properly annoyed with himself for taking so long about it. An eye, to us, is an organ for forming images of the source of such radiation as may fall on it; and a nose is a gadget that tells its owner of the presence of molecules. He needs his imagination to picture the source of the latter. But what would you call an organ that forms a picture of the source of smell?
For that was just what those “eyes” did. In the nearly perfect vacuum of this little world’s surface, gases diffused at high speed—and their molecules traveled in practically straight lines. There was nothing wrong with the idea of a pinhole camera eye, whose retina was composed of olfactory nerve endings rather than the rods and cones of photosensitive organs.
That seemed to account for everything. Of course the creatures were indifferent to the amount of light reflected from the object they examined. The glare of the open spaces under Deneb’s rays, and the relative blackness of a cave, were all one to them—provided something were diffusing molecules in the neighborhood. And what doesn’t? Every substance, solid or liquid, has its vapor pressure; under Deneb’s rays even some rather unlikely materials probably evaporated enough to affect the organs of these life forms—metals, particularly. The life fluid of the creatures was obviously metal—probably lead, tin, bismuth, or some similar metals, or still more probably, several of them in a mixture that carried the substances vital to the life of their body cells. Probably much of the makeup of those cells was in the form of colloidal metals.
But that was the business of the biochemists. Cunningham amused himself for a time by imagining the analogy between smell and color which must exist here; light gases, such as oxygen and nitrogen, must be rare, and the tiny quantities that leaked from his suit would be absolutely new to the creatures that intercepted them. He must have affected their nervous systems the way fire did those of terrestrial wild animals. No wonder even the centipede had thought discretion the better part of valor!
With his less essential problem solved for the nonce, Cunningham turned his attention to that of his own survival; and he had not pondered many moments when he realized that this, as well, might be solved. He began slowly to smile, as the discrete fragments of an idea began to sort themselves out and fit properly together in his mind—an idea that involved the vapor pressure of metallic blood, the leaking qualities of the utility suits worn by his erstwhile assistants, and the bloodthirstiness of his many-legged acquaintances of the day; and he had few doubts about any of those qualities. The plan became complete, to his satisfaction; and with a smile on his face, he settled himself to watch until sunset. Deneb had already crossed a considerable arc of the sky. Cunningham did not know just how long he had, as he lacked a watch; and it was soon borne in on him that time passes much more slowly when there is nothing to occupy it. As the afternoon drew on, he was forced away from the cave mouth; for the descending star was beginning to shine in. Just before sunset, he was crowded against one side; for Deneb’s fierce rays shone straight through the entrance and onto the opposite wall, leaving very little space not directly illuminated. Cunningham drew a sigh of relief for more reasons than one when the upper limb of the deadly luminary finally disappeared.
His specimens had long since recovered from their fright, and left the cavern; he had not tried to stop them. Now, however, he emerged from the low entryway and went directly to the nearest dust dune, which was barely visible in the starlight. A few moment’s search was rewarded with one of the squirming plant-eaters, which he carried back into the shelter; then, illuminating the scene carefully with the small torch that was clipped to the waist of his suit, he made a fair-sized pile of dust, gouged a long groove in the top with his toe, with the aid of the same stone he had used before, he killed the plant-eater and poured its “blood” into the dust mold.
The fluid was metallic, all right; it cooled quickly, and in two or three minutes Cunningham had a silvery rod about as thick as a pencil and five or six inches long. He had been a little worried about the centipede at first; but the creature was either not in line to “see” into the cave, or had dug in for the night like its victims.
Cunningham took the rod, which was about as pliable as a strip of solder of the same dimensions, and, extinguishing the torch, made his way in a series of short, careful leaps to the stranded spaceship. There was no sign of the men, and they had taken their welding equipment inside with them—that is, if they had ever had it out; Cunningham had not been able to watch them for the last hour of daylight. The hull was still jacked up, however; and the naturalist eased himself under it and began to examine the damage, once more using the torch. It was about as he had deduced from the conversation of the men; and with a smile, he took the little metal stick and went to work. He was busy for some time under the hull, and once he emerged, found another plant-eater, and went back underneath. After he had finished, he walked once around the ship, checking each of the air locks and finding them sealed, as he had expected. He showed neither surprise nor disappointment at this; and without further ceremony he made his way back to the cave, which he had a little trouble finding in the starlight. He made a large pile of the dust, for insulation rather than bedding, lay down on it, and tried to sleep. He had very little success, as he might have expected.
Night, in consequence, seemed unbearably long; and he almost regretted his star study of the previous darkness, for now he was able to see that sunrise was still distant, rather than bolster his morale with the hope that Deneb would be in the sky the next time he opened his eyes. The time finally came, however, when the hilltops across the valley leaped one by one into brilliance as the sunlight caught them; and Cunningham rose and stretched himself. He was stiff and cramped, for a spacesuit makes a poor sleeping costume even on a better bed than a stone floor.
As the light reached the spaceship and turned it into a blazing silvery spindle, the air lock opened. Cunningham had been sure that the men were in a hurry to finish their task, and were probably awaiting the sun almost as eagerly as he in order to work efficiently; he had planned on this basis.
Malmeson was the first to leap to the ground, judging by their conversation, which came clearly through Cunningham’s phones. He turned back, and his companion handed down to him the bulky diode welder and a stack of filler rods. Then both men made their way forward to the dent where they were to work. Apparently they failed to notice the bits of loose metal lying on the scene—perhaps they had done some filing themselves the day before. At any rate, there was no mention of it as Malmeson lay down and slid under the hull, and the other began handing equipment in to him.
Plant-eaters were beginning to struggle out of their dust beds as the connections were completed, and the torch started to flame. Cunningham nodded in pleasure as he noted this; things could scarcely have been timed better had the men been consciously co-operating. He actually emerged from the cave, keeping in the shadow of the hillock, to increase his field of view; but for several minutes nothing but plant-eaters could be seen moving.
He was beginning to fear that his invited guests were too distant to receive their call, when his eye caught a glimpse of a long, black body slipping silently over the dunes toward the ship. He smiled in satisfaction; and then his eyebrows suddenly rose as he saw a second snaky form following the tracks of the first.
He looked quickly across his full field of view, and was rewarded by the sight of four more of the monsters—all heading at breakneck speed straight for the spaceship. The beacon he had lighted had reached more eyes than he had expected. He was sure that the men were armed, and had never intended that they actually be overcome by the creatures; he had counted on a temporary distraction that would let him reach the air lock unopposed.
He stood up, and braced himself for the dash, as Malmeson’s helper saw the first of the charging centipedes and called the welder from his work. Malmeson barely had time to gain his feet when the first pair of attackers reached them; and at the same instant Cunningham emerged into the sunlight, putting every ounce of his strength into the leaps that were carrying him toward the only shelter that now existed for him.
He could feel the ardor of Deneb’s rays the instant they struck him; and before he had covered a third of the distance the back of his suit was painfully hot. Things were hot for his ex-crew as well; fully ten of the black monsters had reacted to the burst of—to them—overpoweringly attractive odor—or gorgeous color?—that had resulted when Malmeson had turned his welder on the metal where Cunningham had applied the frozen blood of their natural prey; and more of the same substance was now vaporizing under Deneb’s influence as Malmeson, who had been lying in fragments of it stood fighting off the attackers. He had a flame pistol, but it was slow to take effect on creatures whose very blood was molten metal; and his companion, wielding the diode unit on those who got too close, was no better off. They were practically swamped under wriggling bodies as they worked their way toward the air lock; and neither man saw Cunningham as, staggering even under the feeble gravity that was present, and fumbling with eye shield misted with sweat, he reached the same goal and disappeared within. Being a humane person, he left the outer door open; but he closed and clogged the inner one before proceeding with a more even step to the control room. Here he unhurriedly removed his spacesuit, stopping only to open the switch of the power socket that was feeding the diode unit as he heard the outer lock door close. The flame pistol would make no impression on the alloy of the hull, and he felt no qualms about the security of the inner door. The men were safe, from every point of view.
With the welder removed from the list of active menaces, he finished removing his suit, turned to the medium transmitter, and coolly broadcast a call for help and his position in space. Then he turned on a radio transmitter, so that the rescuers could find him on the planet; and only then did he contact the prisoners on the small set that was tuned to the suit radios, and tell them what he had done.
“I didn’t mean to do you any harm,” Malmeson’s voice came back. “I just wanted the ship. I know you paid us pretty good, but when I thought of the money that could be made on some of those worlds if we looked for something besides crazy animals and plants, I couldn’t help myself. You can let us out now; I swear we won’t try anything more—the ship won’t fly, and you say a Guard flyer is on the way. How about that?”
“I’m sorry you don’t like my hobby,” said Cunningham. “I find it entertaining; and there have been times when it was even useful, though I won’t hurt your feelings by telling you about the last one. I think I shall feel happier if the two of you stay right there in the air lock; the rescue ship should be here before many hours, and you’re fools if you haven’t food and water in your suits.”
“I guess you win, in that case,” said Malmeson.
“I think so, too,” replied Cunningham, and switched off.
THE END
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my fictional Index here…
The following is the 19th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.
-MM
Part 19 – Aleister Crowley and his Thelemic Order of NASA… or was it M16?
“NASA are the most authoritative organisation on space and would never lie to us or keep secrets when it comes to the discovery of ETs!” Right…..anybody in the crowd? ……Anybody? This is a paraphrasing of a recent conversation with my brother in law in regards to the idea of Simulation Theory, and that we are living in a holographic world. So yeah, ok, he didn’t specifically mention ETs, I may have exaggerated that part, but when I brought up the quantum physics double slit experiment etc (real basic stuff, for I am no quantum phycisist) and the idea of astral projectors/ lucid dreamers being the witnesses of the other side of the quantum coin – the guys that see the world in wave form rather than particle form – you’d be amazed at how quickly the conversation turned towards NASA, and their recent announcement of a fucking meteor that could “potentially” wipe out earth, which is what was apparently really concerning him (I would have thought being trapped in a simulation would be a more concerning affair, but you know, that’s just me). Or you know, that his grandmother was born in a Nazi PoW camp, and he just seemingly overlooked the whole Operation Paperclip thing.
But yeah I am used to it. It is the usual deflection tactic when I hit upon a subject that get’s too deep for him. Cut me off mid sentence and trail off onto some shit that doesn’t even relate to anything I am talking about. Try and make himself sound smart because he read a few articles on the old innernet. Never mind I know a guy who is a qualified astrophysicist that would suggest it is a load of bullshit not worth worrying about {wink wink}. My brother in law always seems to have that one friend in a similar field of expertise that he has conveniently broached this exact subject with before and rattles off some half arsed excuse as to why I should believe this friend’s word over the experts I have spoken to. The experts whose first hand experiences I use as a basis for formulating my opinions on such matters. Not that I get more than two fucking words out before I am scoffed at with condescension when I use the small breaks between his egotism to try and explain why NASA is the last organisation on earth I would bother believing.
Mind you, this is a guy who is 31 years old and still lives with his mother, has never bothered trying to find his own place, turned down an opportunity at a plumbing apprenticeship when he was fresh out school (and now wonders why his life sucks) and thinks it is perfectly acceptable to use people with down syndrome as a means to joke about Robert Downey Jr’s mental capacity simply because he works with them (this is where the conversation ultimately headed). He seems to have some ever evolving qualification that varies quite substantially in respect to its field whenever he brings it up. One moment it’s a diploma in warehousing, the next it’s a certificate in carer services when he realises I actually managed an electronics factory and have real world experience with warehousing that trumps his theoretical knowledge any day……Next he’ll be telling me he got a fucking PhD in astrophysics in the 3 months I didn’t see him. Yeah, a real armchair researcher if ever there was one. But hey, I have to admit, I found it pretty impressive that he could at least entertain the idea of a simulation. A year ago that conversation would have been completely off the table.
Remind you of anyone? Seems to be the entire fucking UFO community whenever someone mentions something remotely out of the mainstream approved narrative. Like the guys on reddit that got the reddit admins to send me a message saying they were concerned for my mental health when I tried telling them my research suggests non physical entities are contacting people in the occult community (research which I have presented here in past articles that proves I am not the only one having these strange experiences, and that they are in fact fairly common in the occult community). This one is for you guys, if you have attention spans to read beyond three words (I know a lot of you found four of them to be too much to handle). Oh and while we are on the subject of PhD’s and arm chair research I should point out I have do in fact have a PhD…..in googling shit, seeing as it seems to be the accepted form expertise these days. But unlike my contemporaries, the crux of my argument is freely available on Wikipedia for those who do actually know how to research, not that I am expecting any of the reddit experts to be in amongst that crowd. Shall I continue?
Let’s get back to that statement “NASA are the most authoritative organisation on space and would never lie to us or keep secrets when it comes to the discovery of ETs!” Ok, so, the least you could do is get to know the parent organisation that you are basing your whole argument around before arguing with me on why I should bother to listen to them. If not, you might find yourself embarrassed at the idea it is pretty much like saying “the Freemasons are the most transparent society on the planet”. Or at the idea that “you’re a fucking nutcase” is as equally applicable to the founder of NASA as it is to yours truly. We will delve into this, but before we do, let’s dig into some of my arm chair research on a well known figure, and how it relates to the idea that if people were being contacted by non physical entities through means such as astral projection and lucid dreaming, NASA would be THE LAST FUCKING ORGANISATION ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET THAT WOULD BOTHER TELLING YOU ABOUT IT. Are you ready to take the words of L Ron Hubbard and Scientology just as serious as NASA? Something tells me that no, you are not, which highlights the fact you are too mentally immature to be having this conversation, and that your arm chair research is just a façade for “I can’t be fucked actually researching anything, before offering my opinion on it”.
Allow me to shit all over that egotistical ignorance you think is real world knowledge:
Edward Alexander Crowley was born on the 12th of October 1875, to pair of wealthy fundamentalist Christians of the Plymouth Brethren faith. His father, originally a Quaker, and also an Edward, was an engineer, and owned a family brewing business – Crowley’s Alton ales – which had allowed him an early retirement before his son’s birth. At the age of 11, Edward Alexander inherited a third of this wealth after his father died of tongue cancer. He soon began rejecting the religious views held by his parents, indulging in acts considered by them as morally indecent such as smoking, masturbating and having sex with prostitutes (in which he contracted gonorrhoea and syphilis – talk about a good time).
Such rebellion included a change of name from Edward to Aleister, when he attended the Trinity college in Cambridge to study Philosophy. This behaviour and rejection of the Christian faith would lead Edward’s mother, Emily, to eventually start calling him “the Beast”, which Crowley would later revel in and wear as a badge of honour. Later on in his life, Crowley would expound upon this title to include the number 666, which came from a derivation of the Hebrew alphabet known as Gematria – it had nothing to do with Satanism and the devil, as many people like to suggest. In Gematria, each Hebrew letter is assigned a numerical value and words are compared with other words of equal value. Crowley’s 666 came from the comparison of the word Therion – Greek for “wild beast” – with his own name, of which had an equal value. It was because of this that Crowley would eventually come to be known as Master Therion to his many students. Another name he was known by was Pedurabo.
Crowley believed he was the reincarnation of the well known magician and practitioner of alchemy, Eliphas Levi (amongst other notable figures from history) – who has been dubbed as the man who coined the term “the occult” – partly due to the magician dying in the same year he was born. I vaguely remember another self proclaimed occultist talking about their own reincarnation, [daegonmagus] – Part 2 – Contact with the Elder Guardians (metallicman.com), Not that that is relevant or anything….
Continuing on the down the Wikipedia entry on Crowley we come to learn a few interesting things some of which may or may not actually be true, and some which have a back trail of evidence to suggest they are legitimate claims. We learn about how Crowley joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn before seemingly tearing it apart, how he became friends with Theodore Ruess and was invited to join the Ordo Templi Orientis, or how he created his own Order of the Silver Star – the Argentum Astrum. Then there are the tales of him going out into the Egyptian desert with his wife Rose and engaging in conversation with a non physical intelligence he called Aiwass, whose message he wrote down and became the “Book of the Law” of what would go on to become his Thelemic religion. We read about the time him and his associate Neuberg went out into a desert and summoned the demon of the abyss, Choronzon, which Crowley allegedly deliberately let possess him. Some things about his later life drug addictions with coke and heroin. What we don’t read about is Crowley’s other exploits like providing commentary for the Goetia, aka the Lesser Key of Solomon the King:
Did you spot the NASA connection? If not, don’t worry; well get to it later. Just note, it is buried behind a link somewhere at the bottom of the page.
In that entry, we also learn about a “fictional” book Crowley wrote called Moonchild – the same book of Crowley’s I found in my grandmother’s library in her abandoned house. What isn’t mentioned is that Moonchild is a book about a bunch of occultists who are trying to incarnate the soul of a demon into the vessel of a new born human child. I started reading it at some point during the third decade of my life but gave up after a few pages as I found Crowley’s writing to be very poor and unimaginative. What can I say: I have standards.
“Moonchild is a novel written by the British occultistAleister Crowley in 1917. Its plot involves a magical war between a group of white magicians, led by Simon Iff, and a group of black magicians, over an unborn child. It was first published by Mandrake Press in 1929 and its recent edition is published by Weiser.In this work, numerous acquaintances of Crowley appear as thinly disguised fictional characters. Crowley portrays MacGregor Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers' magical name. Arthur Edward Waite appears as a villain named Arthwaite, and the unseen head of the Inner Circle of which SRMD was a member. "A.B." is theosophistAnnie Besant. Among Crowley's friends and allies Allen Bennett appears as Mahatera Phang, Leila Waddell as Sister Cybele, the dancer Isadora Duncan appears as Lavinia King, and her companion Mary D'Este (mother of Preston Sturges, and who helped Crowley write his magnum opus Magick: Book 4 under her magical name 'Soror Virakam') appears as Lisa la Giuffria. Cyril Grey is Crowley himself, while Simon Iff is either an idealized version of an older and wiser Crowley or his friend Allen Bennett.
Plot summary
A year or so before the beginning of World War I, a young woman named Lisa la Giuffria is seduced by a white magician, Cyril Grey, and persuaded into helping him in a magical battle with a black magician and his black lodge. Grey is attempting to save and improve the human race and condition by impregnating the girl with the soul of an ethereal being — the moonchild. To achieve this, she will have to be kept in a secluded environment, and many preparatory magical rituals will be carried out. The black magician Douglas is bent on destroying Grey's plan. However, Grey's ultimate motives may not be what they appear. The moonchild rituals are carried out in southern Italy, but the occult organizations are based in Paris and England. At the end of the book, the war breaks out, and the white magicians support the Allies, while the black magicians support the Central Powers.” - Moonchild (novel) - Wikipedia
For the MM audience who have a brain and can put two and two together here, read between the lines of what I am trying to tell you; Spencer also claimed the Alien Interview was a work of “fiction”. Comparing the two works brings a whole new level of meaning and contemplation to just what the fuck it was these secret societies were getting up to at the turning of the 20th century.
Getting back to the Wikipedia entry on Crowley, one of the more “absurd” claims is that he was in fact working for the British Government’s MI6 department helping them spy on the Germans, who apparently got him to spy on the British Government, which was supposedly suspected by American Intelligence….or something. This particular claim, even just stopping at a connection to the British government, is hard to substantiate as there appears to be only one verifiable source for its origin; a professor of History from the university of Idaho:
“Dr. Richard B. Spence is a Professor of History at the University of Idaho where he has taught since 1986. His specialties include Russian, military, espionage and occult history. One of his most popular courses at UI deals with the role of conspiracies and secret societies in history.”
Doesn’t matter though, the guy is a professor, and going by skeptic logic this means he must be telling the truth…..Ok yeah, I am not that facetious. But hey since we are talking about the ol innernet and mainstream sources of information that we should trust (like NASA), here is a link to a Guardian newspaper report suggesting Ian Fleming based the Blofeld character in his James Bond series off Crowley:
In case you didn’t bother reading it, that article suggests rather matter of factl-y that Crowley was Fleming’s go to guy when it came to interrogating Occultist Nazi Rudolph Hess. It even mentions – albeit very vaguely – the NASA connection Crowley had through Jack Parsons:
“Yet the hysterical press accounts of sex, drugs and sacrifice at his Abbey of Thelema, in Sicily in the early 1920s, remain the core of the myth of Crowley as evil incarnate. It was an image, along with his famously hypnotic stare, that led Bond author Ian Fleming to model Blofeld on Crowley. They met when Fleming worked in British intelligence during the war. That a man so publicly reviled could still penetrate the corridors of power is a prime example of his unlikely reach. Crowley was Fleming's first choice for interrogating Rudolf Hess when the occult-obsessed Nazi was captured in Scotland after a bizarre astrological sting.It was also Crowley who gave Churchill his famous victory sign, a magickal gesture to counteract the Nazi's use of the swastika. Indeed, his hand appears in many unexpected places - there is even a story that he aligned Stamford Bridge and gave Chelsea its team colours - but his hidden influence was not restricted to the British war effort or the Premiere League. In the 1940s, one of his closest followers was a young Californian adept, Jack Parsons, one of the founding fathers of the American space programme. His work at the fledgling Jet Propulsion Laboratories lay the groundwork for the Apollo moon missions.”
Funny, Jack Parson is mentioned back in the Aleister Crowley Wikipedia link, in the same sentence as another well known figure, this time with a little more confidence of fact:
Crowley’s entry also suggests he had an affinity for Nazism:
“Pasi described Crowley's affinity to the extreme ideologies of Nazism and Marxism–Leninism, which aimed to violently overturn society: "What Crowley liked about Nazism and communism, or at least what made him curious about them, was the anti-Christian position and the revolutionary and socially subversive implications of these two movements. In their subversive powers, he saw the possibility of an annihilation of old religious traditions, and the creation of a void that Thelema, subsequently, would be able to fill. Crowley described democracy as an "imbecile and nauseating cult of weakness",[267] and commented that The Book of the Law proclaimed that "there is the master and there is the slave; the noble and the serf; the 'lone wolf' and the herd””
I guess one could take that last sentence either way. Regardless, we are starting to head into some very concerning territory in regards to the Nazi’s and Crowley/ Occultism. Let’s strengthen that connection:
“Crowley was now living largely off contributions supplied by the O.T.O.'s Agape Lodge in California, led by rocket scientist John Whiteside "Jack" Parsons.[194] Crowley was intrigued by the rise of Nazism in Germany, and influenced by his friend Martha Küntzel believed that Adolf Hitler might convert to Thelema; when the Nazis abolished the German O.T.O. and imprisoned Germer, who fled to the US, Crowley then lambasted Hitler as a black magician.”
Or should I say a pin up boy for the OTO:
Smith wrote to Crowley saying that Parsons was "a really excellent man ... He has an excellent mind and much better intellect than myself ... JP is going to be very valuable".[64] Wolfe wrote to German O.T.O. representative Karl Germer that Parsons was "an A1 man ... Crowleyesque in attainment as a matter of fact", and mooted Parsons as a potential successor to Crowley as Outer Head of the Order.[65] Crowley concurred with such assessments, informing Smith that Parsons "is the most valued member of the whole Order, with no exception!"[62]” - Jack Parsons (rocket engineer) - Wikipedia
And its not as if Thelema was just a passing hobby for Jack either; Wikipedia suggests he was devoting his entire pay checks into the organisation, and was wholeheartedly committed to its concepts. Not only that, Parsons was at one point palsy with the founder of Scientology who was also a Fellow Thelemite:
“Science fiction writer and U.S. Navy officer L. Ron Hubbard soon moved into the Parsonage; he and Parsons became close friends. Parsons wrote to Crowley that although Hubbard had "no formal training in Magick he has an extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field. From some of his experiences I deduce he is direct touch with some higher intelligence, possibly his Guardian Angel. ... He is the most Thelemic person I have ever met and is in complete accord with our own principles.”
And in case you weren’t aware of what Hubbard’s Dianetics/Scientology religion was about, allow me to fill that gap in knowledge. Bear in mind this was from a guy whose own son said his father believed himself to be the embodiment of “Satan”;
“Scientology followers believe that a human is an immortal, spiritual being (Thetan) that is resident in a physical body. The Thetan has had innumerable past lives and it is observed in advanced (and – within the movement – secret) Scientology texts that lives preceding the Thetan's arrival on Earth were lived in extraterrestrial cultures. Scientology doctrine states that any Scientologist undergoing "auditing" will eventually come across and recount a common series of events.[26] Part of these events include reference to an extraterrestrial life-form called Xenu. The secret Scientology texts say this was a ruler of a confederation of planets 70 million years ago, who brought billions of alien beings to Earth and then killed them with thermonuclear weapons. Despite being kept secret from most followers, this forms the central mythological framework of Scientology's ostensible soteriology – attainment of a status referred to by Scientologists as "clear". These aspects have become the subject of popular ridicule.
I bet they have.
And while we are on the subject of Parson’s friends, MM would be interested to know the following:
Now to understand this Parson’s/ Hubbard connection properly, we need to go back to Crowley and his Thelemic Order. What in the actual fuck is Thelema anyway? Well, we mentioned that Crowley, whilst in Cairo with his wife Rose, went out into the desert and received a message from a non physical entity. Rose apparently wasn’t into occultism, and couldn’t give two shits about Crowley’s undertakings…..that was until she went into a trance and this non physical being, who Crowley called Aiwass, began speaking through her, laying down the {book of the} law. Crowley transcribed it and it became his Holy Books of Thelema that basically dictated what the whole order was about. For those who have not read the books, you are not missing out on much. A lot of it seems to be a mix of incoherent babble that Crowley himself even suggests he doesn’t know what the fuck it means. In amongst this collection of seemingly random gibberish is the infamous RPSTOVAL code, that Crowley suggests will be “expounded upon by someone in the distant future”, and who his followers like to try and decipher using Gematria:
Now, to get to the UFO/ Thelema connection, we need to delve a bit deeper into some things that are not mentioned on Wikipedia, and are just as hard to confirm as Spence’s suggestion Crowley was an MI6 spy.
Fourteen years after his contact with Aiwass, Crowley supposedly was contacted by another entity during what is known as the Amalantrah working with his executor and somewhat heir to his magical prowess, Kenneth Grant. What actually took place must be left to speculation given that the surviving records of the working are fragmented at best, but what seems clear is that Crowley drew a picture which had something to do with this working, which he titled LAM. I briefly touched on this entity in my article https://metallicman.com/daegonmagus-part-18-a-look-at-non-physical-contact-through-participants-external-to-metallicman/ when I told you the Tool drummer had his own clothing line featuring the image.
While some, like this guy from LAM I AM | Aleister Crowley 2012 (ac2012.com), suggest it is an obscure self portrait of Crowley, others have suggested, quite assuredly that Crowley and Grant were trying to open a portal in space between two stars. The myth is that they were successful which led to Lam – an interdimensional entity – popping through to say hello. Apparently many occultists have had weird experiences with UFOs and similar contact after trying to recreate the ritual:
What can be agreed on, is that Lam appears on the front page of Voice of the Silence by Theosophical Society founder, Madam Helena Blavatsky. If you haven’t already read my article first mentioning Lam, I suggest you do so, as it alludes to the idea that Blavatsky was given a hybridisation schedule by the non physical entities she was in contact with (which seems to have very likely made its way into the hands of the Nazi’s, but more on that later.)
Getting back to Lam, The {modern day} OTO have even gone so far as to have their members document any experiences resulting from their workings with the Amalantrah ritual, so it seems to have some substance:
“Crowley gave the drawing to Kenneth Grant in May 1945, following an astral working in which they were both involved. Since then it has become apparent that Lam is in fact a trans-mundane or extra-terrestrial entity, with whom several groups of magicians have established contact, most notably Michael Bertiaux in the 1960s, and agroup of OTO initiates in the 1970s. Much remains unclear, however, hence the need for further investigation of this entity” – Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis — Kenneth Grant — LAM (parareligion.ch)
Remember how I told you my friend Severin, who was contacted by an elusive figure and given information on the merge of the astral and physical planes? To my knowledge, Severin never bothered with the Amalantrah ritual, but the coincidence is a bit hard to ignore, given he was in the OTO.
So for the skeptics, at the very least you have to admit this sounds fucking insane right? No matter what way you look at it. Who in their right mind would believe such a load of fucking tripe?
“Parsons and Sara were in an open relationship encouraged by the O.T.O.'s polyandrous sexual ethics, and she became enamored with Hubbard; Parsons, despite attempting to repress his passions, became intensely jealous.[109] Motivated to find a new partner through occult means, Parsons began to devote his energies to conducting black magic, causing concern among fellow O.T.O. members who believed that it was invoking troublesome spirits into the Parsonage; Jane Wolfe wrote to Crowley that "our own Jack is enamored with Witchcraft, the houmfort, voodoo. From the start he always wanted to evoke something—no matter what, I am inclined to think, as long as he got a result." He told the residents that he was imbuing statues in the house with a magical energy in order to sell them to fellow occultists.[110] Parsons reported paranormal events in the house resulting from the rituals; including poltergeist activity, sightings of orbs and ghostly apparitions, alchemical (sylphic) effect on the weather, and disembodied voices. Pendle suggested that Parsons was particularly susceptible to these interpretations and attributed the voices to a prank by Hubbard and Sara.[110] One ritual allegedly brought screaming banshees to the windows of the Parsonage, an incident that disturbed Forman for the rest of his life.[111] In December 1945 Parsons began a series of rituals based on Enochian magicduring which he masturbated onto magical tablets, accompanied by Sergei Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto. Describing this magical operation as the Babalon Working, he hoped to bring about the incarnation of Thelemite goddess Babalon onto Earth. He allowed Hubbard to take part as his "scribe", believing that he was particularly sensitive to detecting magical phenomena.[112] As described by Richard Metzger, "Parsons jerked off in the name of spiritual advancement" while Hubbard "scanned the astral plane for signs and visions."[113]
Their final ritual took place in the Mojave Desert in late February 1946, during which Parsons abruptly decided that his undertaking was complete. On returning to the Parsonage he discovered that Marjorie Cameron—an unemployed illustrator and former Navy WAVE—had come to visit. Believing her to be the "elemental" woman and manifestation of Babalon that he had invoked, in early March Parsons began performing sex magic rituals with Cameron, who acted as his "Scarlet Woman", while Hubbard continued to participate as the amanuensis. Unlike the rest of the household, Cameron knew nothing at first of Parsons' magical intentions: "I didn't know anything about the O.T.O., I didn't know that they had invoked me, I didn't know anything, but the whole house knew it. Everybody was watching to see what was going on."[114] Despite this ignorance and her skepticism about Parsons' magic, Cameron reported her sighting of a UFO to Parsons, who secretly recorded the sighting as a materialization of Babalon.
And some more on the Babalon working, and contact by non physical entities in general:Inspired by Crowley's novel Moonchild (1917), Parsons and Hubbard aimed to magically fertilize a "magical child" through immaculate conception, which when born to a woman somewhere on Earth nine months following the working's completion would become the Thelemic messiah embodying Babalon.[116][117] To quote Metzger, the purpose of the Babalon Working was "a daring attempt to shatter the boundaries of space and time" facilitating, according to Parsons, the emergence of Thelema's Æon of Horus.[113] When Cameron departed for a trip to New York, Parsons retreated to the desert, where he believed that a preternatural entity psychographically provided him with Liber 49, which represented a fourth part of Crowley's The Book of the Law, the primary sacred text of Thelema, as well as part of a new sacred text he called the Book of Babalon.[118]Crowley was bewildered and concerned by the endeavor, complaining to Germer of being "fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts!" Believing the Babalon Working was accomplished, Parsons sold the Parsonage to developers for $25,000 under the condition that he and Cameron could continue to live in the coach house, and he appointed Roy Leffingwell to head the Agape Lodge, which would now have to meet elsewhere for its rituals”Unable to pursue his scientific career, without his wife and devoid of friendship, Parsons decided to return to occultism and embarked on sexually based magical operations with prostitutes. He was intent, informally following the ritualistic practice of Thelemite organization the A∴A∴, on performing "the Crossing of the Abyss", attaining union with the universal consciousness, or "All" as understood in the context of the Great Work, and becoming the "Master of the Temple".[133] Following his apparent success in doing so, Parsons recounted having an out-of-body experience invoked by Babalon, who astrally transported him to the biblical City of Chorazin, an experience he referred to as a "Black Pilgrimage". Accompanying Parsons' "Oath of the Abyss" was his own "Oath of the AntiChrist", which was witnessed by Wilfred Talbot Smith. In this oath, Parsons professed to embody an entity named Belarion Armillus Al Dajjal, the Antichrist "who am come to fulfill the law of the Beast 666 [Aleister Crowley]".[133] Viewing these oaths as the completion of the Babalon Working, Parsons wrote an illeist autobiography titled Analysis by a Master of the Temple and an occult text titled The Book of AntiChrist. In the latter work, Parsons (writing as Belarion) prophesied that within nine years Babalon would manifest on Earth and supersede the dominance of the Abrahamic religions.[134]
I thought self proclaimed embodiment of Satan Hubbard was bad. I might be “crazy”, but I sure as fuck aren’t “trying to summon the whore of Babylon into a newborn child crazy”. This guy was a fucking nutjob (if you go by common society’s standards), yet still displayed more intelligence than those reddit skeptics and my own god damned brother in law. You know, he’s kinda got a lot of rocket research behind him to back that theory up. Did anyone make him undergo a psychological evaluation while he worked at NASA, I wonder?
I mean Jack wasn’t exactly stupid was he, nutjob or not? He was, after all the American version of Werner Von Braun, and it could be argued it was because of him we got to the moon (he was actually involved in developing rocket systems for that very purpose). His discoveries in rocket propulsion were the foundation by which the whole of NASA was built upon. So why the fuck was he messing around with a book written by Crowley if it was just a piece of fiction and incorporating its content into his rituals? You have to admit, it seems a little shady to trust in an organisation whose founder was engaging in such ludicrous practices with his bestie, Mr Hubbard. Let’s face the fact, NASA has got dodgy fucking cult written all over it. You can’t call me a nutcase for saying I was contacted by non physical entities, and then turn around and tell me Jack wasn’t one either. But hey, let’s not stop the logical thought train there. Let’s dig a bit deeper into this.
I mentioned Werner von Braun, and in case you didn’t get the memo, here was another rocket scientist that had some things to say when it came to aliens. And who Jack Parsons at one point spoke to on the phone for many hours. At least this guy didn’t seem to be running around California blowing shit up and having sex with anything that walked in an effort to create a demon child. But to really understand what the hell is going on here, you need to understand the suggestion that the Nazi’s were heavily invested in occult concepts:
In his book, Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies, John Michael Greer, a self proclaimed druid and Freemason (and not to be confused with Ufologist Dr Steven Greer) suggests that the Nazi party was born out of a secret society of occultists that believed in the racist ideologies of Ariosophy (an offshoot of Theosophy, surprise surprise); the Thule society. This society was named after Thule; a mythical island that first appeared in classical Greek and Roman writings somewhere North of Britain, which eventually became to be believed as the homeland of the Aryan master race in the proto-Nazi occult movement. In fact, Greer has some very interesting things to say on the transformation of Thule, and how its occult ideologies played an integral role in the formation of the Nazi party:
“THULE
Originally ultima Thule, “furthest Thule” in Latin, Thule first appeared in classical Greek and Roman writings as a name for a distant island somewhere north of Britain. The Greek voyager Pytheas of Massalia claimed that he sailed there, and his description of the northern seas has enough accurate details to make the claim plausible; it is likely Pytheas sailed as far as the Orkneys, or possibly even Iceland. In the nineteenth century the name Thule was recycled for a hypothetical lost continent somewhere in the far north. In this form it found its way into proto-Nazi occult movements in central Europe as the lost Arctic homeland of the Aryans, identical to Arktogäa and Hyperborea. See lost continents.
THULE SOCIETY
The National Socialist movement in early twentieth-century Germany emerged out of a complex underground of secret societies, occult traditions, and racist ideologies that historians have just begun to uncover. One crucial piece of the puzzle was an organization known as the Thule-Gesellschaft or Thule Society. Named after the legendary lost continent of Thule, believed by German racists of the time to be the original homeland of the Aryan peoples, the Thule Society posed as a private organization for the study of Germanic folklore. In reality, it was the Munich lodge of an occult secret society, the Germanenorden, whose distinctive blend of racist occultism and right-wing politics defined the central commitments of the Nazi party. See Germanenorden.
The Thule Society was the creation of Rudolf von Sebottendorf, a German-Turkish adventurer who joined the Germanenorden in 1917 and immediately set to work organizing a Munich lodge for the order. His efforts paid off handsomely, increasing membership in Bavaria from 200 to more than 1500 by the autumn of 1918. He rented rooms for the society in the posh Hotel des Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich, and succeeded in attracting members of the Bavarian aristocracy into the organization. He also encouraged two Thule members, Karl Harrer and Anton Drexler, to organize a political circlep for the Munich working class, in the hope of drawing them away from communism.
When the German imperial government collapsed in 1918, a socialist coalition seized power in Bavaria, but was then supplanted by a hardline communist faction headed by Russian exiles. Munich descended into open war, and pitched gun battles, assassinations, and summary executions by firing squad became frequent events. The Thule Society hurled itself into the struggle, networking with other conservative groups and raising a sizeable private army, the Kampfbund Thule, for the final struggle that ended the Bavarian Socialist Republic in May 1919. By that time the political circle headed by Drexler and Harrer had already transformed itself into a political party, the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers Party, DAP). Small and poorly organized, the DAP floundered for most of 1919 as most Thule members turned their attention elsewhere. In September of that year, however, the DAP gained a new recruit, an Austrian war veteran named Adolf Hitler. Not long after joining, Hitler convinced the other party members to change the organization’s name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP) – a name newspapers and the German public quickly shortened to “Nazi.” See Hitler, Adolf; National Socialism.
As the fledgling party grew explosively, driven by Hitler’s powerful oratory and impressive political skills, Thule Society members gave it vital support and direction. Thule initiate Ernst Röhm, a tough army veteran with a taste for brawling, brought many members of the Kampfbund Thule into the
Sturm-Abteilung (Storm Troop, SA) or Brownshirts, the Nazi party’s private army of street thugs. Another Thule member, Rudolf Hess, used his connections throughout the occult community in France and Germany to win support for Hitler, becoming the future Führer’s right-hand man in the process. Other members introduced Hitler to wealthy conservatives in Bavaria and elsewhere in Germany, and brought him into contact with the writer and occultist Dietrich Eckart, who became Hitler’s mentor. By 1925 or a little later, the Thule Society had been completely absorbed into the growing Nazi party, and nearly all its membership, activities, and plans became part of the Nazi system. The occult aspects it had inherited from the Germanenorden ended up becoming part of the SS onceHeinrich Himmler took over that organization in 1929. See SS (Schutzstaffel).
Further reading: Goodrick-Clarke 1992” - The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies The Ultimate A-Z - John Michael Greer.pdf | DocDroid
But let’s not stop there. Delving even deeper still into the Nazi’s and their occult connection in Greer’s book we find that Crowley wasn’t the only occultist who believed the “lunatic” prospect that he was the reincarnation of someone:
“Perhaps the most serious of Nazi occultists, Himmler believed himself to be the reincarnation of the medieval German king Heinrich I. Under his leadership the SS became an occult secret society with immense influence throughout German society, and the SS headquarters at the medieval castle of Wewelsburg became the center of the Third Reich’s occult dimension as Himmler implemented many of the old ONT programs on a colossal scale. See SS (Schutzstaffel).“
Interesting. Here’s some excerpts I picked up from Israel Regardie’s (Crowley’s Secretary) book, The Golden Dawn, which deals with the whole curriculum of that order. It certainly seems to strengthen the Nazi connection to the occult. From here The Complete Golden Dawn System Of Magic – Israel Regardie.pdf | DocDroid:
The fylfot cross shows us the swastika as being an astrological symbol that combines the forces of 12 months of the zodiac with the four elements, the sun at its centre. It is part of the third lecture of Golden Dawn Curriculum, the first two being preparations for the candidate for their Alchemical undertakings. In other words, this association of the swastika with the zodiac and elements was embedded into the curriculum and would have been taught to every single initiate of the Golden Dawn when Crowley was head of it, and likely the OTO and the Argentum Astrum, considering Crowley’s involvement with those organisations. Interesting when you consider a Greek Neo Nazi political party just pops up out of nowhere some 100ish years later calling themselves the Golden Dawn: Golden Dawn (Greece) – Wikipedia
From that same book, on page 460, in a chapter to do with Clairvoyance:
“The guide having made his appearance, he is to be tested by every means at the Seer's disposal. First of all, it is well to assume the Sign of the Grade to which that element is referred. In this instance, the Sign of the Zelator should be made, by physically as well as astrally raising the right arm to an angle of forty-five degrees. The guide should answer this with the same Sign or another which is unrnistakeable proof that he belongs to the element and has been sent to act as guide. If there is deception, these signs will cause him distress, or at once the vision will break up, or the false guide will disappear. He should also be asked clearly and deliberately whether he comes to act as guide in the name of the appropriate Deity Name. If all this strikes the Seer as satisfactory, and his doubts settled, let him follow the guide to wherever he is being led, carefully noting whither he goes, and asking questions about the element or whatever he sees”
I found a photo where a few of these elements seem to combine:
So yeah I guess it’s just more coincidences in a string of bizarre coincidences right? At least they made good rocket propulsion systems, like that other occultist we have been talking about. Which brings me back to Nazi rocket scientist Werner Von Braun. Von Braun was one of the pioneers who worked on the V2 rocket system and was brought to America to work for NASA along with many other Nazi Scientists under Operation Paperclip:
“Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977) was a German-American aerospace engineer[3] and space architect. He was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany and a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States.[4]While in his twenties and early thirties, von Braun worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program. He helped design and co-developed the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde during World War II. Following the war, he was secretly moved to the United States, along with about 1,600 other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of Operation Paperclip.[5] He worked for the United States Army on an intermediate-range ballistic missile program, and he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1 in 1958.In 1960, his group was assimilated into NASA, where he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn Vsuper heavy-lift l,aunch vehicle that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.[6][7] In 1967, von Braun was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, and in 1975, he received the National Medal of Science. He advocated a human mission to Mars.” - Wernher von Braun - WikipediaAtleast we get the idea the Von Braun was quite a respectable man that only joined the Nazi’s so he could continue his life’s work in regards to rocket research. No mention of Carol Rosin of Fairchild Industries or Lt Colonel Philip J Corso though. Of course, those elements connect Von Braun to ETs, and we can’t have that to tarnish NASA’s image now can we? Allow me to elaborate:
Philip J Corso was a Lieutenant Colonel who worked for General Arthur Trudeau during Eisenhower’s presidency, and had an office at the Pentagon dealing with technological advancements that could be put to military use. In WW2 Corso fought Rommel in Africa, and was charged with rounding up the remnants of the Gestapo in Italy after the war ended. So you could say his resume was quite impressive, and he was quite respectable in regards to his military achievements. Certainly not someone who would feel the need to jump on the UFO bandwagon and bullshit us all with stories of ETs right? Uh, well that’s exactly what Corso did, if you consider his biography bullshit, which most arm chair researchers seem to do.
In his book The Day After Roswell Corso details how he was put in charge of distributing technology recovered FROM THE 1947 ROSWELL CRASH into already established R&D programs in an effort to conceal it and keep it out of the hands of those pesky Russians that had infiltrated the CIA. Things like night vision goggles, fibre optics, kevlar, lasers and integrated circuits, Corso claimed all came from the spacecraft that crashed in the New Mexico desert. He even mentions he saw one of the bodies of the crew. A few months after the books release, Corso died of a heart attack.
Corso suggests he went around to military contractors Fairchild (among others), where he dropped this retrieved tech into the hands of their supervisors with an intent to back engineer it. One of the men who he was in constant contact with to try and gain an understanding of how said tech would work was, you guessed it, Werner von Braun. Von Braun actually became the Vice President of that very same company Corso suggested he dropped some ET tech into the hands of:
But Corso is just bullshitting right? He was just a senile old man who was struggling to find purpose after his impressive military career, and so decided to spin us a story of fiction about aliens crashing into the desert. It isn’t like there is any other proof that backs up Corso’s claim or anything.
Well, the Wikipedia entry on the date surrounding the Bi Polar Junction Transistor seems to very much align with what Corso told us:
For those who do not understand the history of technology, it took somewhere between 100 and 150 years to go from the discovery of electricity, to the amplification of analog signals using Thermionic valves. This was at the hands of a myriad of different scientists experimenting with the valve, some of which were Thomas Edison and Tesla. One could say quite a lot of development went into perfecting the valve, and it went through an evolution of change as more and more grids were added to suppress the inherent electrical noise. It found its use in everything from industrial control systems to guitar amplifiers. Then all of a sudden, in December 1947 up pops the transistor, seemingly because someone decided doping germanium with silicone would achieve the same result as what was effectively a light bulb with a few bits of metal inside of it. And this team of a handful of scientists just happened to pull it off a mere months after the Roswell Crash? Yeah uh ok, I guess this make sense……if you are apt at just ignoring anything that presents as an inconvenience to an argument you have no expertise in, like my brother in law does. Skeptics, find me the fucking article that tells me what prompted these guys to try doping germanium with silicone when the whole premise of the thermionic valve had been based on controlling grid electrons in a vacuum through a completely conductive element.
Now, Corso doesn’t actually mention he dropped a BJT into the hands of Fairchild. What he does mention is that he came into the possession of the alien tech something like a decade after the crash, after it was presented to him by Trudeau. It had been sitting in a cabinet in this office, which Corso took over when he moved into the Pentagon, for practically that whole time, simply because Trudeau didn’t know what to do with it. What is more, it didn’t originate with Trudeau. There was a hazy period of a few years immediately proceeding the crash where it is unknown what became of this technology, when it was in the hands of General Twinning (suggested as being an original MJ12 members). What Corso says is that he dropped an integrated circuit into Fairchild’s lap, and, as anyone with a little background in electronics knows, you can’t make an IC without a BJT. Well, at least you couldn’t back in the early 60s when IC’s were invented and supplied globally by that very same Fairchild company (the first to do so). Funny how no one ever thought to try and wire a few million thermionic valves together to achieve the same thing before the concept arrived at Fairchild.
According to Corso, it was Von Braun (very much aware it was ET tech) who suggested he take the IC to the guys over at Bell Labs who had been playing around with the concept of doping silicone with the BJT, suggesting that in that hazy period before the tech fell into his hands, someone had already undertaken an effort to reverse engineer part of it. Given our history of electronics development, it makes no sense that it would take us 100+ years to develop the thermionic valve, to have the concept of doping germanium with silicone pop up overnight and render that whole component almost completely useless. It certainly makes no sense, that in just over a decade later we figured out how to wire millions of these components together to create what would go onto to become the backbone of the computer, without any prior concept of mass manipulation of said valves. The only logical conclusion, in my opinion, is that which is presented to us by Corso. You know people are still allowed those things right? Opinions. Unlike my brother in law, mine is based on knowledge I spent 4 years sitting an apprenticeship for in my efforts to attain a trade level qualification in electronics. At least show me some evidence of a similar background if you want to bother arguing with me on this issue.
Corso also tells us that the who Strategic Defence Initiative was established under the pretence there was an extra terrestrial threat that America needed protection from, and that NASA even knew about ET interactions, which the organisation had actively engaged in covering up. Another reason why I don’t trust them.
So anyway, getting back to Von Braun and Fairchild; Carol Rosin was the first woman to become CEO of Fairchild Industries. Fairchild industries was an offshoot of the military contracted Fairchild Aircraft, and came about after Shockley, the supervisor who worked on the BJT, quit Bell Labs and tried opening his own company to continue to develop it. After some trouble with money, Sherman Fairchild picked it up and gave it a fresh make over, absorbing all the research on the BJT in the process. Now, Rosin ended up becoming a spokesperson for Von Braun after she became CEO. Here’s a little bit of background on her:
“Carol Rosin (born March 29, 1944) is the Founder of the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, and also works as a speaker, author, educator, child psychologist[dubious– discuss], futurist, and military strategist.[1] She was also the first female executive of an aerospace company, working as a corporate manager of Fairchild Industries. She is executive director of the Peace and Emergency Action Coalition for Earth, P.E.A.C.E. Inc. and the I.D.E.A Foundation, as well as a world peace ambassador for the International Association of Educators for World Peace.[2]Biography[edit]Born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1944 and a graduate of the University of Delaware, Rosin was the first woman to work as an Aerospace executive at Fairchild Industries and is a leader and the original political architect in the movement to stop Anti-satellite weapons and the Strategic Defense Initiative.[3] In her time at Fairchild, Rosin served as the spokesperson for Dr. Wernher Von Braun, with whom she created the film and educational program "It's Your Turn" to expand the diversity of people working in science fields.[4] The program won many awards, including the Aviation Writers Award and the Science Teachers Gold Medal.[5] Rosin helped create medical and educational training programs with ATS-6 satellites in the United States, including the first two-way audio and visual national and international satellite educational programs in over 20 countries.[6]Published works and media[edit]
Start of the Sirius Disclosure Project in 2001 at the National press Club, as witness.
Movies That Shook the World (Documentary) Herself, 2005[7]
UFO: The Greatest Story Ever Denied II - Moon Rising (Video Documentary) Herself, 2009
Sirius (Documentary) Herself, 2013
For the Children (Book, I.D.E.A Foundation for the Benefit of Humanity) Co-Author, 2014 ISBN9781530161393
The Carol Rosin Show (American Freedom Radio) Host, 2016-[8]
Unacknowledged (Documentary) Herself, 2017
20th Anniversary of the Disclosure Project as herself, 2021”
In case you can’t watch youtube, here is a run down:
Von Braun suggested NASA was planning to weaponise space by using the idea of certain threats against the people to gain approval for such weaponization.
Von Braun believed communists would be the first threat identified by the United States, followed by terrorists, followed by third world radicals, followed by asteroids (maybe my brother in law was right to be concerned, lol) which would eventually culminate in a hoaxed alien invasion. Bear in mind this was in the 70s.
Rosin suggested Von Braun gave her the task of de-weaponising space to which she started her own organisation, the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, which was in direct opposition to that very same initiative Corso mentioned was setup to “stop the malevolent ETs from invading earth”, and suggested NASA was covering up. Rosin came to the ultimate conclusion her mission was futile. In a separate video she suggests she walked in on a NASA meeting in the 70s that appeared to be the setup to the invasion of Iraq schpeel, in which people like Sudam Hussein had already been identified as the new enemy. When she asked what the fuck it was all about, the room went silent.
Here’s another article on her talking about what Von Braun told her.
Consider where we are some 50 years later, and Von Braun’s predictions seem strikingly on point. We have the commie card with the cold war, the terrorist card with ….well fuck, just about anyone who seems to have a stash of oil America feels like it can profit off. We have a space force (team America fuck yeah song springs to mind)…
And, from the actual official Space Force Strategic Overview:
“Although U.S. space systems have historically been technologically superior, China and Russia have embarked on major efforts to develop counter-space capabilities in order to destroy or disrupt U.S. and allied space capabilities in a crisis or conflict. They are also rapidly developing advanced space capabilities to enhance the lethality of their military operations, increasing the likelihood that U.S. and coalition forces will need to defeat the space capabilities of adversary forces in order to prevail in a potential conflict, to protect lives, and to secure the interests of the United States and its allies and partners. In short, space has become a warfighting domain.” - UNITED-STATES-SPACE-FORCE-STRATEGIC-OVERVIEW.PDF (defense.gov)And since we are talking about Trump and his space force here to save us from doom from above can someone please explain this video to me?
The video is about a conman named Trump who convinces a small town that they are under threat from meteors about to fall on their heads. Trump’s suggestion is to build a wall around the town and purchase his magical umbrellas as the only means to keep them safe from the meteors. When one of the townspeople tries telling his community he is fraud, Trump decides to add a tax to his umbrellas which gets higher with every word that man speaks. He even puts on a little barrel explosion show, to make it look one of the meteors hit the ground right next to them. Note the white robes with the very basic astrological symbols. I’d be curious to know if his little ritual was taken straight out of a Golden Dawn or OTO book. From a series called Trackdown FROM FUCKING 1958. Yeah, yeah I know, just coincidence right?
How about Von Braun predicting “an Elon would take us to Mars” even further back in 1953? Didn’t you hear? It’s been the talk of the space community for the past week.
“Pioneering aerospace engineer and science-fiction writer Wernher von Braun may have predicted Elon Musk’s plan to colonize other worlds nearly 70 years ago when he described a man named “Elon” ruling over Mars.Von Braun created the character “Elon” in his 1952 science fiction novel “Project Mars” — a space fantasy about a mission to Mars, according to a report.The book’s predictions came to light a few years ago, but began trending on social media last weekVon Braun, one of the most important scientists in the development of rocket technology, describes a Martian government led by ten men, who worked under a leader “elected by universal suffrage for five years under the name or title of Elon.” - German engineer predicted 'Elon' would conquer Mars in 1952 novel (nypost.com)
Seems Von Braun was well respected enough for NASA to post a bio of him on their webpage:
…..even though people in the aerospace game nicknamed the JPL the “Jack Parsons Labratory” after his seemingly sketchy death (sketchy as in some believe it was assassination, and other friends of Parson’s an attempt to create a homunculous – WTF).
“The same month JPL held an open access event to mark the 32nd anniversary of its foundation—which featured a "nativity scene" of mannequins reconstructing the November 1936 photograph of the GALCIT Group—and erected a monument commemorating their first rocket test on Halloween 1936.[25] Among the aerospace industry, JPL was nicknamed as standing for "Jack Parsons' Laboratory" or "Jack Parsons Lives".” - Jack Parsons (rocket engineer) - Wikipedia
But I suppose that is understandable when rumour has it one of your organisation’s founders was fucking about with astral projection and trying to summon the soul of an etherical being into an unborn fetus. It’s not like astral projection was considered a usable asset to the US government or anything. Oh wait a minute:
It’s almost like with all this rhetoric on Russia and China the US govt is going all out with the Commie bastard narrative once again huh? What is the bet the aliens will show up on the White House lawn in the next decade? My money is on the Nordics, which the Starseed agenda has seemingly been set up to be super accepting of.
Never mind that they are blonde haired and blue eyed; the same fucking eye and hair colours the Nazi’s were trying to make the dominant breed in their obsession with creating the Aryan Master race.
Do any of the followers of these channelers actually know where the Ashtar Command come from? I’ll give you a hint, all roads seem to lead back to the Theosophical society. The same society whose concepts on the Aryan race would go on to influence the Ariosophists that would in turn influence Hitler and the SS. Am I the only one concerned by this? Here’s an idea, what if the gameplan changed from Von Braun’s alien invasion, to strategic assimilation of the Nordics into general population. An already set up UFO religion would make a good pawn by which to carry out such assimilation, would it not?
But let’s do what skeptics like my brother in law do best and just ignore that for the time being as it doesn’t concern us right now. Don’t worry, I will definitely get to it in another article though.
Back to Parson’s and the idea he was trying to create a moonchild. Depending on what account of the story you read you might come across the one that suggests Crowley wasn’t particularly impressed with his and Hubbard’s efforts. {Allegedly} Crowley chastised them for opening the portal but lacking the magical skillset required to close it, which led to a tear in the fabric of space just sitting there waiting to let into our dimension whatever felt the need to come here….
….Like a black hole like anomaly perhaps?
“I was also told that I had been part of a “hive consciousness” that had tracked this amnesia to a black hole anomaly.
This black hole anomaly existed at the edge of this physical universe and was where the device causing the amnesia was being hidden.”
Except mine was at least 40 thousand years old.
So now you have myself, SD and Severin, playing around with occult concepts such as astral projection and lucid dreaming and we wound up claiming contact with non physical entities just like Parsons claimed. Lol, we are EXACTLY the type of people that NASA would employ to develop their rocket systems, as backed by history…….LOL
Connect……the……dots!!!
All evidence is suggestive Secret Societies such as The Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, the OTO etc were in possession of some very powerful secrets, and were conducting experiments specifically trying to contact non physical entities, which may have been met with some success. I have mentioned my suspicions that Blavatsky was given the Hybridisation schedule of the Aryans, which Hitler (whose salute seemed to be a check to make sure non physical entities were in fact friends) seemingly became the one to try and bring to fruition. Was rocket propulsion tech a gift from some of these non physical entities? If so, then what was exchanged for it. The opportunity to create a conduit by which to grant access to a physical body perhaps?
From Alien Interview:
“The recently despoiled German totalitarian state on Earth was similar to the "Old Empire", but not nearly as brutal, and about ten thousand times less powerful. Many of the ISBEs on Earth are here because they are violently opposed to totalitarian government, or because they were so psychotically vicious that they could not be controlled by "Old Empire" government.”
From the Commander:
There are numerous organizations that you refer to as "robed elders".
Each one has a niche role in this Prison Environment.
…
[4] Some were established by physical occult organizations from within the Prison population and has taken on a life of their own. These kinds of organizations are many. Some were created by accident. And some were created on purpose. One of the most famous (and prolific) occult leaders in your modern era was a man named Aleister Crowley and he was very active in creating some of these organizations in the non-physical worlds. Some spawned others, and some fractured and grew.
- Answers from The Domain from questions generated 24SEP21 (metallicman.com)
Oh, and you know that Krishnamurti guy the Theosophists thought were their Matraya, and who we found out in one of my recent articles was brought in to interview Airl during the Roswell Crash (assuming it was Jiddu and not Uppaluri)? Turns out Parsons went along to some of his lectures:
“Parsons had also attended lectures on Theosophy by philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti with his first wife Helen, but disliked the belief system's sentiment of "the good and the true".[178] During rocket tests, Parsons often recited Crowley's poem "Hymn to Pan" as a good luck charm.[168] He took to addressing Crowley as his "Most Beloved Father" and signed off to him as "thy son, John" - Jack Parsons (rocket engineer) - Wikipedia
Taking what we now know through alien interview and MM, I would also suggest that there was more weight to Parson’s attempt at creating a moonchild than one would first think. Crowley alludes to the idea that a magical war was being fought between black and white magicians; was this really a prediction of WW2? At the very least, Hubbard seemed to know something; his concept of Thetan’s are too heavily coincidental with Airl’s concept of an IS-BE. One could argue that if Spencer was a Scientologist then he could have just been rehashing some of Hubbard’s concepts, but then this doesn’t explain why my experiences paralleled the Alien Interview so closely. I always thought Scientology was a load of bullshit to make money of rich celebrities. Maybe that wasn’t it’s original intention.
Could it be that another entity made its way into the moonchild, than what was actually intended by Parson’s or Hubbard? Like an Old Empire agent, and this agent propagated its agenda through the occult community until they eventually reached Hitler? What if Crowley and Blavatsky got it all wrong; what if the ones they were contacted by were not as benevolent as they made themselves out to be?
SD’s experiences suggest that she has past life memories of the Nazi’s carrying out similar operations to deliberately incarnate the Aryan’s/ Nordics into newly developing fetuses. I guess that is just another coincidence right?
So we know Parsons was at one point well regarded by the OTO. But who exactly were they? Well, they were an Order established by a suspected German police agent and Freemason Theodore Ruess, Freemasonry student Carl Kellner, and associate of Blavatsky’s and Chairman of the Theosophical Society Adya board of control Franz Hartmann (considered one of the most important Theosophical writers of his time). Does this really surprise you?
“Originally {the OTO }was intended to be modeled after and associated with European Freemasonry,[2] such as Masonic Templar organizations, but under the leadership of Aleister Crowley, O.T.O. was reorganized around Crowley's Thelema as its central religious principle. One of the major features and core teachings of the organization is its practice of sex magic.[1]” - Ordo Templi Orientis - Wikipedia
So you could say, in a some ways Freemason’s were sympathetic to all the shit Jack was getting up to whilst in the OTO and a follower of Crowley’s. I mean, they might not have approved of him trying to put the soul of an etheric being in a child, or even believed it, but they would have at least shared belief in the same alchemical aspects of the Kabbalah. This is, after all the main driving concept behind both groups. And if you think the Masons weren’t messing around with trying to summon spirits, think again:
“The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain. Their seals therefore represent methods of stimulating or regulating those particular spots (though the eye)." (Aleister Crowley, The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic in the Goetia.)
If we as masons want to look at this in a philosophical sense we are all seeking to be the wise King Solomon. We must unlock the brass vessel of our own unconscious mind releasing all the aspects of ourselves we care not to let out. Each demon can be seen as an aspect of our personality that we keep hidden from the world. It is the goal of the magician with the aid of angels and magickal weapons to face the dark aspects of him and symbolically slay and expel those forces from our own spiritual nature, thus purifying him. This medieval system of what some would consider “black magick” is simply a way to reflect upon the aspects of our own psyche. If we as individuals wish to gain the wisdom of the archetypal king, we should face the shadow of ourselves and the demons that well in the void of our own nightmares.
Before one sincerely attempts to evoke these demons, one should first spend some time invoking the 72 counterpart angels of the Almadel. The Almadel is a very enlightening experience and puts the magician in touch with the aspects of virtue within the psyche of the individual. This should be required for two reasons, one: one should be in touch with their inner strength before they face the demons, and two: the angels of the Almadel have direct control over the demons of the brass vessel. The Almadel is a system of scrying into a crystal ball over a altar made of wax upon which are engraved the Holy names of God. Remember that invocation is to call down a power within your spirit and mind, so you invoke angels to bring them closer. The Magician will evoke demons, to to bring from within ones self into manifestation. “
Oh you mean like Jung’s Analytical Psychology?
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. - Carl Jung”
Masonic tradition was literally based onsummoning the “demons” of Solomon, which were argued to really only be about unlocking hidden aspects of the mind. This presents an awkward conversation when you consider just how many astronauts, trained under NASA, are Freemasons: Masonic Astronauts | Freemason Information
So now we know not only was NASA’s JPL founded by a guy who thought it possible and necessary to try and cram the soul of an etheric being into an unborn fetus, but that a large portion of NASA personnel are part of an organisation that studies summoning angels and demons as part of their craft. Not only that, they believe the Jewish system of “(Qabalah) . . . formed an important part of the Masonic traditions, and undoubtedly contains the nearest approach to a direct revelation of the ancient canonical secrets of the old world;’ (1) – Masonry and the Cabala (masoncode.com)
You sure these guys would tell you if they found something? Majority of them won’t even tell you half the shit I just laid down.
This connection to Solomon must be taken note of; not only did I have the Greater and Lesser Keys (the real versions) in my possession when I had my experiences, which also happened when I was intensively studying the Kabbalah, but my research is indicative that those who are being contacted within the occult community – people like Severin and SD etc–, and being told about the reincarnation traps have a better-than-average understanding of these texts. Consider them as the oldest methods of Steven Greer’s CE5. They are not just interpretations of some philosophical theories. My research suggests they are legitimate documents that detail the process by which to prepare a physical body for the inhabitation of an interdimensional consciousness, and this is backed by abductees I have spoken to.Let’s just say I am spilling a bit of a secret here. According to my own research, what is being revealed appears to be the genuine account of Earth’s history, just like is suggested by the Freemasons. You cannot tell me that is not worth investigation.
So there it is, the complete and unabridged version of why I think NASA are not worth taking seriously when it comes to, well, pretty much anything. If they really truly wanted to understand things about the cosmos, then it would have done them well to listen to the concepts of Parsons and how he thought quantum physics could describe Thelemic magic…..who is to say they didn’t?
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The key actors in this genuine reality show have communicated both orally and in writing, and their nations have physically acted; yet, so few seem to be watching, listening or seeing.
Very little from Xi or Putin is kept secret aside from the usual military and trade secrets, although there is the language barrier.
The obfuscation from the West is very clear to see.
It appears they think that by staying silent their dominant position that only exists in their minds can be kept in place, which is doubly true for the Outlaw US Empire.
Chronic prevaricators do have a problem when they try to dismiss yesterday's lies to replace them with today's as honest actors will hold them to their word.
And that's precisely the aim of Russia's security proposals--Russia is calling out the West's longstanding series of lies and deliberate misinterpretations.
China for its part is doing something similar, although its context differs.
Xi announced China's intentions before Biden became POTUS--to force the Outlaw US Empire to become a law-abiding, "normal," nation--and bonded with Russia and other like-minded nations into an organization that more than signaled their intent--at least to those of us watching.
As noted by numerous observers from both sides, direct warfare between the Outlaw US Empire and either or both Russia and China is highly unlikely for the Empire will suffer greatly, a truth known by at least some of those running the Empire into the ground.Unfortunately, there's an impression that the 189 other nations on the planet aren't watching.
Well, we know that most of the NATO/EU/OSCE nations are watching and directly involved, but so too are the world's remaining nations.
And the vast majority back Russia and China because they're voicing their desires for a Law-based International Order centered on the UN, its Charter and other aspects of International Law.
Too bad a poll isn't taken of those nations to see how many agree with the Joint Statement and its Manifesto; but based on related UNGA votes, the vast majority would say Yes, we agree.Although the context is wrong, the Outlaw US Empire is acting very much like Icarus and will succumb to its hubris as did Icarus.
That the Neoliberal Parasites actually in charge of the Outlaw US Empire seek to keep their place and power doesn't mean that they will.
But for the Empire to become a normal nation for the first time in its history will require their overthrow and replacement by a far more humane, human, democratic, and enlightened polity than what currently exists.
That may seem like a tall order, but many millions within the Empire crave such a change, and they have most of the world willing to aid that transformation.-karlof1 | Feb 9 2022 0:54 utc
Our world is changing
It is on all levels, and while I mostly chat about Geo-Political issues and MAJestic, we have to realize that decay and collapse of America, or the rise of China, or the advances in Africa all consist of other shattering changes.
Consider this article from the Burning Platform…
The Terror
Guest Post by NickelthroweR
I was taking a break from cutting firewood and I sat down at my computer to see if anyone had responded to my post over at r/antiwork. I’m not a popular guy over at r/antiwork and my comments usually get downvoted into the negative. But, this was my first ever post over at the site and I was curious as to what the 4 or 5 commenters would have to say about what I had written but it wasn’t 4 or 5 commenters. I looked at the numbers in disbelief and then I looked again and that was when I felt the first twinge of terror.
For those of you that do not know, r/antiwork is a forum populated by fierce/brave Communists that wish to destroy Capitalism so that they can all receive UBI so that they can focus on being Influencers, Podcasters and YouTubers. After all, they did figure out that work is difficult, and they most certainly want to share that philosophy with everyone so as to justify their lifetime free ride of goods and services that are OWED to them.
A popular topic over at r/antiwork is the job interview process. I understand the frustration of interviewing in a bureaucratic hyper-regulated system can cause a lot of anger but the corporation has boxes that it must check in the hiring process or be sued into oblivion. You’ve got to interview every single minority group, the alphabet people, radical feminists, etc, even if you’ve already decided on promoting someone in-house. That doesn’t matter, HR still has to pretend as the bureauracy demands that it go through the motions. The Maoists over at r/antiwork do not understand that it is their own woke idealogy causing these problems but to them, it just looks like malice from an evil corporation.
By the way, if you were to take the advice given by these philosophers over at r/antiwork then you’d most certainly go to your next interview in your pajamas, make fantastical wage demands, dictate the terms of your employment to HR, and end the interview by dropping your pants and crapping all over the nearest desk. That, more or less, sums up the advice you receive from the geniuses over at that forum.
As for myself, I’m really just a lurker over at that forum as I sit there gobsmacked by what these people that didn’t get a chair when the music stopped have to say and whom they blame for their misfortunes. When I do chime in, it is to remind everyone that the solution to their problem is to open their own business. After all, genius-philosopher-influencers should have no problem opening their own businesses, right? I mean, if you don’t like that people receive low pay then open your own business and pay your employees more while still remaining competitive. Should be easy, right? If you don’t like government regulations then open your own business and ignore those regulations. Should be easy, right?
Those comments of mine are universally downvoted because opening your own business would make you a Capitalist and you’d have to take on a whole bunch of responsibility. Genius-philosopher-influencers don’t have time for any of that, dontcha know? The Revolution is Today! Get on board!
The other area where I like to chime in has to do with censorship. For some strange reason, these guys are 100% on board with censorship. It is funny to hear them repeat the talking points of corporate media that a private business “can do what it wants” with regards to censorship and if a bank, GFM, VISA, wants to cancel a customer because of their politics then that is fine too. They are also 100% on board with masks and having the corporation dictate medical procedures for its workers because a private business can do what it wants.
When I remind these guys that cheerleading that a business can do whatever it wants also means that the business can pay you whatever it wants and treat you however they please. You can’t have it both ways. Naturally, those comments get down-voted too. See, a corporation powerful enough to cancel the president must shut up and immediately allow its workforce to unionize while providing everyone a starting pay of $25/hr plus endless benefits! Is this an amazing fantasy world or what?
I find all of this fascinating because my daughter is a manager at a progressive woke grocery store. She has 4 unique generations working at her store and it is interesting to see how the different generations (and classes) function in a modern work environment. Her store was able to retain its staff during the lockdowns and isn’t having any problems filling the occasional open position. How progressive woke grocery store did this is very insightful and was the subject of my post over at r/antiwork.
According to my daughter, the ideal person to hire in 2022 is an attractive 17-year-old girl that lives at home with her wealthy parents. That is the person you want to hire. I asked her why and I’ve got to say that I was surprised by the corporate insight.
Young wealthy people are on their parents insurance. You can work them more than 29 hours a week without having to provide them with those expensive benefits.
Young wealthy people drive newer better-maintained cars than poor people. Poor people call off work when their cars break down.
People with lots of student loan debt seem to be sick all of the time. Stress is the #1 killer and people with lots of debt are depressed and call off sick more than people without those debts.
Attractive people are seen as smarter and more competent than their less attractive counterparts. Customers are less likely to “freak out” on an attractive person. (Halo effect)
Attractive people like to be seen and are more likely to view work as a social event.
Wealthy attractive 17-year-old girls tend to not be single mothers. Consequently, they are easier to schedule and do not call off of work when the child is ill.
In the same way that a bank will only loan you money if you do not need it, progressive woke grocery store will only hire you if you do not need the money. They simply do not want the drama that someone that needs a job brings to the table. I would have thought it would be the complete opposite. I was wrong.
Think of the advantage this gives to the teenager? They can live at home without rent, car payment, insurance payment, and just sock away the majority of their earnings. In a few short years, they can pay for their own schooling, travel the world, or open their own business. It puts them light years ahead of the 27-year-old guy that is a few pounds overweight and has $60,000 in student loan debt for a useless degree. That guy or gal is locked in a cage that they themselves built and may never exit.
I decided to share all of this with the r/antiwork crowd because they erroneously believe that they have Corporate America on the ropes and if just a few more of them would quit their jobs then Corporate America will give in to their demands and strip the CEO’s of all of their wealth so as to give it all to the genius-philosopher-influencers over at r/antiwork. Utopia achieved!
So, I wrote about the conversation I had with my daughter and offered some advice to those on the site that actually need jobs. I advised them to rent or borrow a new/newer car for their interviews. I advised them to look as youthful as possible. I suggested to them that if they had debts then to not broadcast that fact. “Don’t look desperate” was the point I was trying to get across. Then I went outside to chop some firewood.
When I next returned to have a look at what was going on, I noticed that 1300 other people were currently reading what I had written. On top of that, 322,000 people had read it in the last two hours, and the post had been shared 476 times. The post itself had almost 1000 comments, an 89% upvote rate and there were 306 private messages in my inbox. Like it or not, this was going to go viral.
“89% of the people approve of what I have to say so let’s read those comments”, I said to myself. Well, that was a mistake. The comment section was 90% negative with people telling me that I was a horrible person that raised a horrible daughter. Other threads within the comment section were of people working out who I was and who my daughter was so that a campaign could be put together to get her fired and me canceled. But the comment section was tame compared to what I received in the private messages.
The private messages were nearly all threats to my life. Threats to have me “swatted”. Threats to have me poisoned. Threats to reveal my identity and location. Pretty much any threat you can imagine was leveled at me for having dared explain how a corporation thinks. I read all of this for about 15 minutes and decided that I had kicked a hornets’ nest. These people could go after me, my business partner, my daughter, and my associates.
It was at this point that I felt The Terror.
I’m not weak at the knees and I certainly enjoy a good debate. Furthermore, I can defend myself against the occasional belligerent individual but how do you defend yourself from hundreds, perhaps soon to be thousands of hysterical Maoists? Like it or not, I was going to have to ride this wave to its conclusion.
Having decided that fretting about the post was not going to make it better, I got busy preparing my home for any unwelcome guests to include news outlets. After all, r/antiwork had just been featured on Fox News where one of its moderators made a complete fool of himself. Perhaps there were more fools to put on the air?
I waited a full 4 hours before I returned to the post and just as I returned to the webpage, my DM’s began going off with people wanting to know why I had deleted my post just that moment. I scrolled past 700 or so death threats to see a message from a moderator telling me that my post was removed because I used “derogatory language”. Of course, I hadn’t used any derogatory language but I was actually relieved that the post was censored. I must admit that I am curious as to what the final read tally was but that is a question that I’ll never have answered and I’m okay with it.
I am forever banned from posting or responding to posts over at r/antiwork. Pointing out to the Communists that the hostage situation they believe exists isn’t real didn’t win me any friends. Explaining how to navigate that world only made them angrier. These guys are disgusted by the inhumanity of being a cog in the machine but see no other solution than UBI. They will happily give up all of their freedoms so long as they never have to work past that of sharing their genius philosophy to the rest of us.
…
Yes. Our world is changing…
The article is part of a series of articles that will try to address the changes that the Earth is going though. It’s not just Geo-political issues, but it’s the entire nature of the various societies that exist on the earth. They all must change, as that is the ONLY way to break up many of the control mechanisms of the “Old Empire” on this Prison Planet of a fiasco.
Don’t understand?
Well, it’s about fifty principles that have to be explained in detail before you can understand it. Relax. I covered them elsewhere. And don’t get too caught up in the details. Just go with the flow and try to catch up. You can back-fill knowledge later on.
Fundamentally, there is a new changing of power structures going on (upon the globe) right NOW.
It’s easy to be afraid. That’s how the tired and old power structures manipulate. They generate fear and force you to obey, using herding techniques to achieve their goals.
Don’t be afraid.
Here we are going to discuss how change is normal and nothing to be fearful of. Not at all. In fact, change is desirable, or do you still want to be the ungainly awkward kid you were when you were pre-adolescent?
Consider the 1940’s
Women were women. Men were men. Dogs were dogs, and cats were cats. Additionally, there were several other classifications such as babies, and old men. The fashions were different, but that only added to the charm of that time.
Here’s some “bathing beauties” wearing colorful swimming attire, and showing off their fine legs. You will note that the women all curled their hair as was the fashion back then, and hid their belly buttons. Unlike Europe, America women were afraid to show off their chests and kept them covered.
Bathing beauties in vivid Kodachrome, 1944.
Was it a good time? Was it a bad time?
Well, I would argue that it depended on who you were and where you lived. Most certainly, those in Europe, Russia and in China had a rough row. But most people who lived inside the United States, Switzerland, and Canada really had a nice time of it there.
Certainly, if you were a man living in the United States during the war period, you had an easier time picking and choosing between women to date. The war tended to thin out the available male population, and it became a “target rich” environment for meeting and spending time with pretty and attractive women.
Or perhaps Algeria in the 1890s
Still, without cell-phones, cars, television, people seemed to get along just fine. People met, ate, talked, and had friends. Women were colorful and attractive, as these three women can well attest to. People gathered together and shared in delightful conversation. Sometimes over tea. Sometimes over coffee. But in all cases, the point was a sense of community and belonging.
Women in Algeria, 1899
I suppose we could continue to go backwards in time. Maybe to the Roman Empire, or to the Ancient Incas, or earlier. In each selected year, we would find that many things were different, but we would also find that many things stayed the same.
The difference in novelty is charming. It is nothing to fear.
Consider the 1970s
Below is a mechanical contraption that my grandmother had. It is a simple index machine that would allow you to place all the phone numbers of all your friends, family and business contacts in one place. You would simply write their phone numbers down so that you wouldn’t need to memorize them.
One of these right next to your phone.
Obviously, you don’t need this here today. Your phone and chat applications all provide this service automatically. In China, it’s for free, but in the United States it’s rolled into the “phone service plan” that you must purchase to use the phone.
Again, technology is different, but is it something to be fearful of? No. Of course not. It’s just different, and we all adjust to doing things differently. That’s all.
Attractive Flower Seller, 1960s
Back in the 1960s, and even up into the late 1980s, flower companies would hire young attractive girls to sell flowers on the street corners. It was common, and I’m sure that they were able to make a few sales every day.
You don’t see that today, but is that bad? Or is it good?
It’s neither. It’s just different. Personally, I like the idea of an attractive girl making some extra money selling things. But that’s just me. Though, if I were this girl, I would be wearing sandals and sitting near a big shady umbrella, with a bottle of water nearby.
Pretty girl selling flowers on the roadside, Oklahoma, 1973.
I like her cropped shirt, short jean shorts, and wide leather belt. She was a child of the 1960s, and I’m sure that she ended up living a fine and interesting life though the 1970s.
Throughout society, at every instance in time, you will see groups of people. All individuals. That seemingly coexisted with each other.
Businessmen drove their big black Lincoln’s by her, and families with their children screaming in their Pontiac sedan drove by and honked (perhaps). Was it good or bad? Neither. It was just fine and dandy for the time.
Consider Europe in the 1970s
In the picture below, we see an attractive woman in a Bistro or Brasserie. She’s braless, and wearing a nice transparent top. She’s holding a small purse with one hand while her companion, and the people behind her, all smoke their cigarettes.
It’s a scene that you will not see at all in modern contemporaneous Europe, but is that bad? Is it good?
Europe in the 1970s.
Some might argue that it is better now, while others argue the opposite. But what does it really matter? Is it something to fear, to get worried about, or to hate? No. Don’t be silly.
It was a different time, and a different place.
And there is nothing at all to be afraid about. Were you all to get into a time machine and travel back in time, I’m very confident that all of you reading this would be very comfortable and would adapt quite comfortably to the environment that presents itself.
America 1961
Let’s go back to America.
Did you realize that for many years after the 1960s, convertible top automobiles nearly disappeared from the American roads? The story as to why is certainly an interesting subject, but we will not delve into them right now, instead we will consider the idea of enjoying life in a convertible with a swivel seat.
Now, it is something to be fearful of?
No. Not at all. It’s something to be concerned about, maybe to be upset or joyful over (depending on your point of view), but it’s not something to be afraid of.
A woman experiences heaven in the 1961 Buick “Flamingo” equipped with a rotating front seat.
In the following pictures, we will take a moment to observe snapshots of life at different time periods in history. At every instance, you will take note that while they might be novel and different from what you (the reader) are experiencing now, they are not anything to be fearful of.
And with that thought realize that CHANGE is nothing to be afraid of, but rather something to embrace.
It is something to look forward to. It’s like always eating McDonald’s cheeseburgers for dinner and then switching to fresh, tasty steaks. It’s a change, and a good one.
Snapshots of life
In the 1970s we used to cruse up and down the roads. Young couples would cuddle in the front seat, and often hold each other while listening to music.
I wonder what those two are up to?
An individual is defined by his/her habits – habitual way of seeing the world, habitual way of making decisions and habitual way of doing things. Habits make it easy to function because they are default ways of operating.
We are programmed by our habits.
This is why it is difficult to change a habit. Habits tend to be replaced by other habits and not eliminated in a vacuum. The aim of positive change is to replace an unproductive or destructive habit with a good one.
And isn’t that what is going on now?
We are hopeful for the future, but fearful that things could go terribly wrong.
But if you are a child, you don’t now enough about life to be afraid of anything. So you are more accepting of things as they manifest.
Kids would be kids. Some would be fashionable. Others would be jokers. Still others would be beautiful. In all cases, they duplicated the behaviors of those whom they respected. Which was, more often than not, their parents.
Young boys strike a pose for the camera, Jamaica.
Change doesn’t just happen. Humans (habits) and organisations (cultures) by nature resist change because it is uncomfortable.
Therefore, the need to change has to be triggered for it to happen.
Something has to inspire or provoke the motivation to change. A trigger can be new information or pain/setback/loss or a pleasurable incentive/gain etc.
Consider what it was like when you were in your teenage years.
The lit up restaurants acted as lighthouses and beacons for a youth that had nowhere to go. There, they would socialize, eat cheap food, and smoke all free from the view and influences of their parents, or authorities.
A burger plate for under a dollar sounds good to me.
Let’s face it: adapting to change is hard work. For this reason, it’s not surprising that most people remain stuck in a state of fear for weeks, months, years, and sometimes their entire lives.
The danger of this is something known as the contemplation stage.
This is where a person thinks about the fact that things are changing all around them, but fails to act on their thoughts and intentions.
They acknowledge there’s somethings worth changing, but they’re unsure if it’s going to be worth all the effort and perceived costs. And this is clouded by the natural revision to change; the build up of fear.
In other words, there’s a part of them that wants to accept the changes, but there’s another part of them that doesn’t.
Simply put, Contemplation is when a person is ambivalent about change.
But I have to tell youse all, change is coming whether you accept it or not. It’s a natural part of life.
In the Mediterranean, people would sun themselves and get a fine dose of much-needed vitamin D. Unlike America, going top-less was quite common and not a big deal at all. As still is the case in many places of the world.
Girls getting some warm sun on the beach in Southern France in the 1970’s.
Don’t ignore change and wait for things to return to “normal:” When change happens, it’s natural to hope initially that things will return to the way they were. But if the world really has changed, the longer you entertain that false hope, the more difficult it will be for you to move forward again. This is not how to handle change.
Fashion changes, hairstyles change. Chairs, tables and “blackboards” change. However, who we are and how we inherit our biological interests and other features extrated from society are not. A playful boy in 1970 would often resemble a playful boy from Ancient Rome.
Change should never be feared.
School was different back in the ’70s. Students focussed on the basics.. reading, writing, and mathematics. They also learned how to write longhand, and some of them took great pride in their “penmanship”.
Don’t try to bring back the past: Sometimes people react to change by working harder in the hope they can stem the tide of change. But that approach is futile. What used to work may no longer work in the new situation.
Whether you cruse the “drag” in a camper smoking (illegal) marijuana cigarettes, or drink whiskey and smoke in a refurbished and re-engined classic car is immaterial. You enjoy the culture that you are part of and embrace it for all the lustful sensory expressions that you can acquire.
It’s nothing to be fearful about.
Cruising the strip.
Don’t complain about the unfairness of it all: When change impacts you, it’s easy to get hung up on the “unfairness” of having your work or home life disrupted. But if you get stuck on that thought, you’ll end up hurting yourself. Fair or unfair, the change has happened. Now you have to learn how to handle change.
Young co-ed eating in the school caferteria. She’s very fashionable with the plad skirt, a big collared top and a long bright orange sweater vest. She’s such a child of the 1970s. She might appear odd and strange to us today, as she seems so thin, and without “booty”, but it was a different time, and in those days no one was injecting food with growth hormones, or eating GMO food.
Back in the ’70s, the personal computer was still very much in the realm of science fiction.. hand held calculators became available in the mid ’70s, but they were expensive, and few kids had them. For the most part, students learned through listening to the teacher.. by doing their homework in notebooks, reading “real” books..
Don’t refuse to adapt: Resisting inevitable change might feel satisfying for a brief period, but staying static in the face of change could eventually lead to extinction.
Attractive men. Part of the college tug-of-war team. While they sought to work out college differeces in sports thir President and Senators preferred hot wars. And that is what happened. Often, we are manipulated by others through fear, and it could be fatal and dangerous to us. Fear is a primitive base reaction mechanism. Domn’t allow others to generate the fear within you. It’s unhealthy.
The Bowdoin College Tug of War Team, 1891.
Be prepared for change: Pay attention to signs of change in your environment, whether it’s layoffs at your workplace, new aches and pains, or strains in your home life. Consider how potential changes could affect you and develop a plan for how to handle change — for instance, by learning new skills.
A mere few decades ago, drinking wine and smoking cigarettes was as normal as eating ice cream. But others, in their quest to make the world a better place by forcing others to obey their idea of a utopia changed all that. Fear, and manipulation to achieve goals and objectives is commonplace in most Western govnerments today.
Princess Yvonne and Prince Alexander party like rockstars, Germany, 1955.
Let go of the past: When things change, move forward quickly. The longer you wait, the more resistance you build to moving, and the harder it’ll be to adapt later and learn how to handle change.
Typing class in High School. When I took the class, I did so for fun. I had no idea that eventually I would end up using that skill in using a computer keyboard. In any event the class looked a lot like this. I was eventually able to pass a typing speed of 60 WPM.
Typing class.
Adapt—Be open-minded to new things: There are always experiences and opportunities available beyond those you are currently familiar with. You might like them even more than what you used to have.
This is the kind of kitchen table that was popular throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. My parents had one, as did my uncles and aunties. Eventually it was displaced and replaced. (My grandparents all had real hardwood tables with hardwood chairs.) These vinyl cushioned, metal pieces of magnificence, tended to last forever, and you can still find them in great condition in remote tucked away used furniture stores.
1950’s kitchen table.
Imagine success: Envisioning what success looks like, and imagining yourself succeeding, can improve your attitude. When you think about what you will gain, rather than what you are losing, you realize change can be for the better. This is an important step in how to handle change.
Everyone had an afgan. I had a red, white and blue one crocheted by my paternal grandmother. It was a gaudy color and pattern, but as a child of the 1970’s I accepted it as a very cool and groovy item for my bed.
1970’s quilt.
Handle your fears: Fear can have one of two effects: 1) It can paralyze you, if you imagine all that can go wrong if you leave your familiar ground, or 2) it can spur you into action if you fear that things will get worse if you don’t do something. The second fear is productive and healthy.
Saturday Night Live was intensely popular during the 1970s. And all of us enjoyed the humor and antics of the crew there. To this day, many of the skits and humor still resonate in this topsy-turvy world that we live in.
The Saturday Night Live original cast, 1975.
Learn to enjoy change: New experiences, discoveries, and achievements are rewarding, usually more so than continuing to do the same things. This is a key perspective in learning how to handle change.
This was the most commonly used item in my parents bathroom. As I grew up, they would let me play and play and play. All alone and unsupervised, and of course I would fall, get skinned knees, cuts and bruses. And of course, they would apply this red stain of mercurochrome to it. Honestly I don’t know how we could live without it.
During the 1960’s every home had this.
Be prepared for continuous change: Change is a natural part of life. Change should only be a surprise if you aren’t paying attention, or if you’re operating on erroneous assumptions — for instance, that you’re entitled to having things a certain way.
In those days, the girls would wear comfiortable halters, and show their navels. It was no big deal, but it horrified our parents. The gals would spend hours curling their hair with these rollers or a curling iron, and then go about applying their makeup. Guys, on the other hand, just picked up the cleanest shirt off the floor and went out the door.
A nice couple.
Change is like waiting for a shot at the doctor’s office.
Frustratingly, we sit with anticipatory anxiety about what is next.
Anticipatory anxiety is like brain-freeze without the pleasure of eating heaping spoonfuls of Haagen Dazs or downing an icy margarita first.
We can’t think, all we can do is sit and wait for the gripping feeling to pass. Under that icy cap of our minds, we imagine that life after (insert your specific change here) will be wholly different, wholly unfamiliar, and that we will be wholly unprepared for those unknown challenges.
Why do we sit with anticipatory anxiety about what’s next?
Well, since we have no actual data on how the change will be— given that it hasn’t happened yet— we do what we can to bide the time.
Is there a better way than to be the deer in the headlights in suspended animation as we close the page on one chapter on our lives and haven’t yet penned the new one?
In the 1960s, the girls almost uniformly wore colorful dresses, often showing off their nice legs, while guys (if they were truly fashionable) wore plad slacks and a gold chain. Here’s a scene from some kind of school event.
Very fashionable.
Why don’t you feel good yet, even if it’s a good change?
Because you haven’t located yourself yet in your new context. You are literally in transition.
Think of transition as a place in and of itself.
You’re not totally lost and disoriented, you’re merely between contexts.
The change you’ve experienced— whether it is the higher price for a cup of coffee, a new relationship, or a change in the Geo-political alignments is abrupt— our adjustment, on the other hand, takes longer.
Regardless of the specifics, transitions have roughly three predictable stages: know which one you’re in: that in and of itself will curtail the feeling of disorientation.
Stage One: Resisting/Reacting: Characterized by doubt and discomfort as you are actively objecting and negatively comparing your new situation to your old. You’re not looking, you’re judging and it doesn’t look good.
Stage Two: Adjusting/Exploring: Characterized by doing more than feeling: You’re gathering information on how to make this work, making choices, making connections, asking questions, digging in.
Stage Three: Living Well in the New Old or the Old New: This is the stage you don’t notice because, it doesn’t feel like a stage. You’ve arrived at your new destination. You’re accepting and incorporating the new so much, you wouldn’t have it any other way: the new is the (new) old.
Would it be more efficient to just skip to that final conclusion?
Sure, but we just don’t work that way.
But by understanding how change works, you won’t mistakenly, when you are in the early stages, take your discomfort as a sign of trouble or a wrong move, you’ll simply say— “Oh right, this is just how change is supposed to feel right now.”
Oh sure, the houses might have changed and the traffic might be quite different down town, but people are still people. We love, we hate, we work, we have families and we eat. Whether one nation rules, or anotherone does, those things nver change. And you can get all upset about “democracy” or “communism”, or whatever, but honestly, whay are you so worked up about it?
Is it because you are being manipulated to be upset?
A spectacular photo from the past.
How quickly will we move through these stages? Individual results may vary, but perhaps the wisdom of the charming, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel will help us hang in beyond our many, “are we there yet?” concerns: “Everything will be alright in the end.
So, if it is not alright, it is not yet the end.”
It all comes back to the swimming pool analogy: when you first get into a pool, it doesn’t feel good. It feels cold.
You question briefly should I get out, or why did I get in, but then, anticipating what’s ahead—the refreshing feeling of floating weightlessly in water—you hang in and are greatly rewarded.
It feels good!
Why?
Did someone change the water, warm it up?
No, we adjusted.
So with change, we must be willing to feel that initial discomfort, ride it out and trust that we’ll adjust.
This is not a painting. It is a photograph. I can almost smell the spices, the grilled chicken and the hot dusty sun on my skin.
Inspiration for Orientalism in art no doubt.
Don’t Expect to Feel Fantastic at First: Expect the Opposite
You didn’t want to start kindergarten, then you didn’t want to leave elementary school, or middle school, you don’t want to start college—then it was the best time of your life and so on. So it is for adults. If you only think ahead on the unknown, you forget that you are a master at transitions. But even masters have to pay the piper. The way to be gracious (and cut down on your anguish) is not to expect that you’ll have a seamless process, but actually expect the opposite. If you expect discomfort, like slowing down slightly before a familiar bump in the road, it won’t send you flying when you hit it.
This was a staple in the 1970s. There wasn’t a person alive who didn’t know how to fill the coffee pot, and set it percolating. This is almost an identical replica of what I grew up with and what was abandoned at a yard sale when my mother’s estate was sold off. It was marked for five sents, and still no one bought it.
The tool to make coffee at home.
Fast Forward to the End and Put a Time Frame on the Adjustment
How do you think things will really turn out? Counter your anxious predictions with the facts. And while you’re at it, estimate how long you think it will take to settle into the new routine—a week? a month? a few? Even if your estimate is off, just being able to foresee the end of the adjustment curve suggests that this is possible (and likely).
This was from a time when there were only so many piers available. That was truly long ago. But, you know, with one subtraction of what we are used to living with, comes other advantages that we never consider.
Disembarking passengers.
Don’t Forget to Add Yourself to the Equation
You may feel powerless against change, but you’re in the picture too. How did all those previous changes get worked through?
You can be sure that in change in your own life, that you had something (a lot) to do with that. All the tools and experience that you bring to the situation are there for you.
Sometimes, and periodically, the social norms are turned on their head and the children rebel. Maybe they become “Beatnicks”, or “Groovy Love Children”, or perhaps somthing else. It’s easy to fear the change. But it’s only temporary and sooner or later the things that are painful, hurtful or dangerous are discarded and a new reality manifests.
A gang of young and vivacious girls, 1930.
What Changes, What Doesn’t?
We may think when we start anything new; a new job, relationship, or school year that everything is new and that we not only have to reinvent the wheel, but the whole shebang.
This will especially be true with massive Geo-political changes on the horizon.
Focus on the things that are really changing and enjoy or take stock of what is already in good working order in your life. Appreciating what doesn’t need your attention may give you more energy to face head-on what does.
Whether it is a school caferteria serving a balanced meal int he 1960s with meats, potatoes, gravy, breads and salads or a Michelle Obama meal of chicken nuggets and ketchup, it really doesn’t matter. You deal with the circumstances as they are presented to you. You confront them as they are, and not as you want them to be. You should never be afraid of change.
American cafeteria in the 1970’s.
Don’t Think, Do, and “Do Small”
How do you feel about the transition? Chances are that if you wait for the motivation to feel better—“I’ll start doing x, once y is over”— y doesn’t come.
Motivation follows behavior.
As we see ourselves doing things; acting within change, or adapting to it, we feel more confident that we can.
So don’t just sit there, do something, but do something small.
Take the big goal: what ever it takes and then just take it one call, one cup of coffee, one hello at a time. Build up from there.
Here’s two very fashionable couples in a major American city. maybe New York, but it could easily have been Pittsburgh or Portland. Those gals really had full heads of hair didn’t they? Wow! Stunning, and the guys, they are sporting wide brimmed hats. Really very awesome.
Two foxxy couples in Harlem, New York, 1970s.
[1] Humor
Change is an unavoidable constant in our work lives. Sometimes it’s within our control, but most often it’s not. Our jobs or roles change — and not always for the better. Our organizations undergo reorgs and revamp their strategies, and we need to adjust.
Fortunately, there are ways to adapt to change, and even to take advantage of it.
Find the humor in the situation. Trying to find a funny moment during an otherwise unfunny situation can be a fantastic way to create the levity needed to see a vexing problem from a new perspective. It can help others feel better as well.
This is called “hanging out”. Directionless, with no activities to occupy their time, and no social venues to participate in, the children of America roamed the streets looking for love, and adventure. But often enough just simply got into embarrassing situations and trouble instead.
In the day.
Pioneering humor researcher Rod A. Martin, who has studied the effects of different styles of humor, has found that witty banter, or “affiliative humor,” can lighten the mood and improve social interaction. Just make sure it’s inclusive and respectful.
A good rule of thumb is that other people’s strife is no laughing matter, but your own struggles can be a source of comedic gold.
[2] Be careful about vocalizations
Don’t do it. Don’t say bad or negative things. They act as affirmations.
And that is something you do not want to manifest.
One of the most common myths of coping with unwanted changes is the idea that we can “work through” our anger, fears, and frustrations by talking about them a lot. This isn’t always the case. In fact, research shows that actively and repeatedly broadcasting negative emotions hinders our natural adaptation processes.
That’s not to say you should just “suck it up” or ignore your troubles. Instead, call out your anxiety or your anger at the outset of a disorienting change so that you are aware of how it might distort your thinking or disrupt your relationships. Then look for practical advice about what to do next. By doing so, you’ll zero in on the problems you can solve, instead of lamenting the ones you can’t.
Typical high school in the 1970’s.
[3] Stress
Don’t stress out about stressing out. Our beliefs about stress matter. As Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal argues in The Upside of Stress, your reaction to stress has a greater impact on your health and success than the stress itself.
If you believe stress kills you, it will.
If you believe stress is trying to carry you over a big obstacle or through a challenging situation, you’ll become more resilient and may even live longer.
When you start to feel stressed, ask yourself what your stress is trying to help you accomplish.
Is stress trying to help you excel at an important task, like a sales presentation or a big interview? Is it trying to help you endure a period of tough market conditions or a temporary shift in your organizational structure? Is it trying to help you empathize with a colleague or a customer?
Or is stress to trying to help you successfully exit a toxic situation?
In AMeric today, and in much of the collective West, the “news” media at all levels are manifesting a toxic fear-generated narrative that is extremely toxic and very stressful
Avoid that firehose of noise.
It’s true, if funneled properly, stress can be a good thing. But only if you choose to see it that way.
Boys of the future, New York, 1970.
[4] Values instead of fears
Focus on your values instead of your fears. Reminding ourselves of what’s important to us — family, friends, religious convictions, scientific achievement, great music, creative expression, and so on — can create a surprisingly powerful buffer against whatever troubles may be ailing us.
In a series of studies spanning more than a decade, researchers led by Geoffrey Cohen and David Sherman have shown how people of all ages in a range of circumstances, from new schools and new relationships to new jobs, can strengthen their minds with a simple exercise: spending 10 minutes writing about a time when a particular value you hold has positively affected you.
The technique works because reflecting on a personal value helps us rise above the immediate threat, and makes us realize that our personal identity can’t be compromised by one challenging situation.
How did they manage to keep their hair so perfect?
[5] Accepting of the situation
Accept the past, but fight for the future. Even though we are never free from change, we are always free to decide how we respond to it.
Viktor Frankl championed this idea after returning home from three horrific years in Nazi death camps. He discovered that his mother, brother, wife, and unborn child were all dead. Everything in his life had changed.
All that he loved was lost.
But as fall became winter and winter gave way to spring, Frankl began to discover that even though he could never go back to the life he once had, he was still free to meet new friends, find new love, become a father again, work with new patients, enjoy music, and read books.
Frankl called his hope in the face of despair “tragic optimism.”
Frankl’s story is an extreme example, of course, but that’s all the more reason why we should find inspiration from it. If we fixate on the limitations of a specific change, we inevitably succumb to worry, bitterness, and despair.
Instead, we should choose to accept the fact that change happens, and employ our freedom to decide what to do next.
Two sets of keys for one single car:
[6] Stability
Don’t expect stability. In the late 1970s a researcher at the University of Chicago named Salvatore Maddi began studying employees at Illinois Bell. Soon after, the phone industry was deregulated, and the company had to undergo a lot of changes.
Some managers had trouble coping. Others thrived.
What separated the two groups?
The adaptive leaders chose to view all changes, whether wanted or unwanted, as an expected part of the human experience, rather than as a tragic anomaly that victimizes unlucky people. Instead of feeling personally attacked by ignorant leaders, evil lawmakers, or an unfair universe, they remained engaged in their work and spotted opportunities to fix long-standing problems with customer service and to tweak antiquated pricing structures.
In contrast, Maddi found that the struggling leaders were consumed by thoughts of “the good old days.”
They spent their energy trying to figure out why their luck had suddenly turned sour.
They tried to bounce back to a time and a place that no longer existed.
Although all and each of these six techniques requires different skills to pull off — and you’ll probably gravitate toward some more than others — there’s one thing that you must do if you want to be more successful at dealing with change: accept it.
Sept. 15, 1970 – Ca Mau Peninsula
Any life is a life of change. We experience transitions in work and relationships, changes in our physical and mental health, and new events in our local communities and our world. Sometimes we know a change will occur, while other times it comes suddenly and unexpectedly. Maybe it’s a disappointment, or maybe it’s a wonderful surprise.
Many people spend a great deal of time and energy trying to avoid change, but it will inevitably catch up to them. If you can learn to cope with change, you’ll lower your risk for anxiety and depression. Your relationships will flourish, and your body will feel healthier. But if you can’t cope with change, only a minor amount of stress can make you feel overwhelmed by life. You might also struggle to set and meet the goals you have for yourself.
Being able to cope with change is sometimes called resilience. Though your environment and genes might influence your level of resilience, the amount isn’t set in stone. Practicing different ways of thinking and being in the world can boost your ability to deal with change and help you create a life that is adaptive to new places and unexpected events. Let’s take a look at a few healthy practices for increasing your level of resilience and coping with change.
A couple dancing in a 1950s “Be Bop” theater as everyone looks on.
Evaluate Your Level of Control
Sometimes it’s all too easy to become fixated on events over which we have no power, or people who might never change their actions or attitude. But rather than focus on blaming others or moving the unmovable, resilient people set their sights on what they can control. To evaluate your level of control over a situation, you can ask yourself, “What can I take responsibility for in this situation?” When you look for opportunities to empower yourself and work towards change that is possible, you’re less likely to feel stuck in difficult situations.
Practice Self-Care After a Loss
Often life’s transitions involve losses, such as a death, a big move, the loss of a job, or a relationship ending. Even positive transitions, like a graduation or a job change, can make you feel a little sad. During these times of transitions, don’t push away any grief you might feel. Acknowledge the loss, and pay attention to what you’ve learned from the experience. Seek support and camaraderie among friends and family, and consider speaking with a counselor or other mental health professional if you feel you need extra support during the transition.
A group of handsome Southside Boys, Chicago, 1941.
Check Your Thought Patterns
In times of change, it’s easy for your mind to cut corners. You might see everything in black or white, or you assume the worst will occur. But if you take the time to examine your thought patterns and assess how rational they are, you might find some space to nudge your thinking towards resilience. If you’re not sure how to slow down your mind, practicing relaxation techniques, such as mindfulness or deep breathing, can help you feel more in control of your brain and how you evaluate a major change.
You can also generate more positive thoughts if you take the time to remind yourself about transitions and challenges you successfully navigated in the past. Make a list of ways you’ve been resilient in your life, and consider what traits and actions might be able to see you through the current challenge. By focusing on your strengths instead of your weaknesses, you will feel more empowered to meet what lies ahead.
Be in the Present
While it’s important to look to the past to find your strengths, sometimes you can feel too pulled into the future in times of change. When you worry about what the future will bring or what mistakes you might make, you forget to be in the present and observe what’s happening around you. To bring yourself back to the present, get in tune with your body. Pay attention to how it responds to stress, and set aside time every day to relax, take some deep breaths, and bring your focus back to the present.
Find Your Priorities
The most resilient people see change as an opportunity rather than a monster to fear. Transitions in life allow you to consider where your priorities lie. How do you really want to spend your time on earth?
What’s really important to you?
Where do you see yourself wasting your time and energy? With a clear sense of your goals and values, you will find your mind and body can be much more resilient when it comes to the stressors of change.
Above all, prioritizing your health in life’s transitions means not being afraid to ask for help when you need it. Humans are social creatures by nature, so you weren’t built to withstand every sudden event in life without the support of others.
Talk to family and friends who are experiencing similar changes, or consider finding a support group in your community.
Ask your doctor about how to prioritize your health during change, and don’t be afraid to talk to a counselor or other mental health professional about building resilience.
You can’t avoid change, but you live a life of resilience. You can embrace transition and see challenges as opportunities to thrive.
Conclusion
The best things in life come out of change, often times even the changes that are unwanted. We don’t have to embrace change by diving in to those cold choppy waters headfirst, but if we can start by just dipping our toes in, one foot at a time, before we know it, we’ll be well on our way to arriving at our new destination.
What ever it might be.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my “Growth as a Person” Index here…
I come from a generation that had phones that were stuck on walls, and the idea of a cell phone was a science fiction adventure on Star Trek. In fact, our house had a rotary dial phone that was stuck on the wall in the kitchen.
It was yellow.
It fit in the orange decour with the olive colored refrigerator, and stove, and the red countertops.
Back in those days, I didn’t use the phone often. My sister was the one hogging up the phone all the time.
Oh, did she have a gift for chatting away. It got to be so bad that my father bought an extra one for her to use so that “she would get out of our hair” in the kitchen all the time.
She treated the telephone as her own private kingdom. Outside our local township, the phone rates were extremely enormous (this was before the breakup of “Ma Bell”) and to call a girlfriend in Pittsburgh (around a 2-hour drive away) would cost me more than what I could make a week in the mines and the grocery store combined.
So it was special.
Indeed, the two most important items in the household were the telephone and the television.
We got five channels on the television!
We were fortunate.
In Pittsburgh, my grandparents were lucky to get two. Or course, as a growing boy, the refrigerator and microwave fought for those top spots.
I must have eaten my weight in food many times a week. I was always scrounging in the ‘fridge for some leftover pot roast to make up a sandwich with cheese and microwave it in the “microwave oven” as we called it then.
A growing boy.
Then later, when I was around 16 years old or so, I discovered girls, FM music, cars and alcohol.
Not all at once, mind you, but all within months of each other. (Truth be told, I had an interest in the old throwaway Playboy magazines that I scrounged in the garbage cans since I was five years old, but it wasn’t until when I hit 16 did everything “come together”.)
My life has never been the same since.
You know, or should rightfully assume, I was a pretty groovy guy.
I had bell bottom pants, a choker necklace, a MIA braclet, and a big belt buckle with my astrological sign on the front. I had longish hair, and rockstar shoes.
I was the guy in the purple shirt. LOL.
Anyways, if we wanted to place a telephone call from outside our home, we would use these tiny little rooms called “phone booths”.
And they would frequently have this big yellow book inside. Where you could find the telephone numbers of everyone in the city that you were calling from.
A phone booth.
And if you were attending college, or were in a Navy barracks, you would use the line-up of phones at the end of the hallway.
Privacy was obtained by these little foot-sized dividers to provide the illusion of privacy.
They didn’t do anything more than that and often had graffiti on them colored by bored college students.
Rack of phones in a college dorm.
Times came and went. I began my teens with “muscle cars” and boy oh boy do I miss my GTO, but things merged in the haze of the 1970s.
We still drove those cars around, but we were starting to complain about the high cost of gas, and we were all afraid that it would break the $1 gallon ceiling.
1970 Dodge Charger.
Ah… When cars were cars!
When you went into a turn in these babies, boy oh boy could you feel it.
It was a time when people would take off all their clothes and go a “streaking” in public areas. It was a time whenpeople asked if President Jimmy Carter dropped acid, and if the cost of coffee would go back to being five cents a cup.
As time moved on, my GTO was replaced by an AMC Pacer (due to finances) and then that too was replaced with a 1974 Dodge tradesman minivan. I was so hip and so cool.
Dodge van.
My van was carpeted in lime green shag carpeting, and had a couple of sky roofs. I was proud of my pumped up shocks on it, and the state-of-the-art cassette player with FM radio!
No phone though.
I had a CB.
CB Radios
Mention ‘CB Radio’ to most people and they will instantly mime holding a mic and spew phrases like ‘breaker-breaker-9’, ‘big 10-4 rubber duck’ in a bad US accent or even start singing the theme tune to ‘Convoy’. Interestingly for a craze that burned out over 30 years ago, the social and linguistic paraphernalia of the CB world continues to live on strongly even today.
The CB radio was invented in 1945 by Al Gross, the inventor of the walkie-talkie and owner of the Citizens Radio Corporation.
The radio became popular with small businesses and blue collar workers like carpenters, plumbers, and electricians who used the radio as a tool to communicate with coworkers.
By 1960, the costs to produce the 23 channel radio were low enough that everyday Joes could afford to buy one.
By 1973, coinciding with the onset of the oil crisis, the CB Radio craze erupted.
FCC opens up CB radio channels to the public
When Al Gross invented the CB radio in 1945, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) quickly opened up radio services for personal users of the radio.
Most countries have similar radio services. In the United States, Citizen’s Band Radios operate on the 27-Mhz band whereas in Canada it is known as General Radio Services and operates on the 26 Mhz and 28 Mhz bands.
CB Radio.
Unlike amateur radio, CB radio does not require a license (although at one time, they did require a license to operate). CB radio channels are shared by many users at the same time and other stations must listen and wait for the shared channel to be available.
By the 1960’s, the CB radio was popular with businesses and radio hobbyists. By the late 1960’s, advancements in solid state electronics allowed the size of the radio to be greatly reduced as well as the cost.
Suddenly, the general public had access to a communications medium that previously had only been available to specialists. CB radio clubs were formed and hobbyists developed their own unique CB slang language along with 10-codes similar to the codes used by emergency services.
The CB Radio Craze
By 1973, the oil crisis caused the cost of gasoline to skyrocket and shortages quickly developed. In response, the United States government issued a 55 MPH nationwide speed limit.
This caused an angry fury in the ‘States. “How dare the government tell us how to drive!”.
Smokey and the Bandit.
Drivers quickly learned that CB radios could be used to communicate with other drivers to inform them of gas stations that had gas and to notify speeders where police (smokeys) had speed traps set up.
The CB radio became so popular, by 1977 additional channels were opened up and 40 channel radios were introduced to the market.
Newsworthy events related to CB radios further added to the excitement. Truck drivers used the radios to organize convoys ( huge lines of trucks that travelled down the nation’s highways).
In several instances, blockades were organized using CB Radios where trucks would fill all available highway lanes in protest of the high gas prices and new trucking regulations.
CB Radios began to play prominent roles in movies such as Smokey and the Bandit and Movin’ On. Novelty songs about the new electronic toy, such as CW McCall’s Convoy and Cletus Maggard’s White Knight (see lyrics below), were played regularly on the radio.
Smokey and the Bandit
During the CB radio craze, citizens of Great Britain began illegally using American made CBs.
We deserve to live like Americans they demanded! The British government told its citizens that the CB radio would never be legalized on the 27 Mhz wavelength and instead, proposed a different technology on the 860 Mhz “open channel” instead.
The citizens of the United Kingdom took to the streets in high profile public demonstrations and UK government officials bent to the will of the people. Al Gross made the first British ceremonial CB radio call from Trafalgar Square in London.
Later the United Kingdom added more than 40 channels giving UK citizens 80 CB radio channels to work with.
Handles
Years prior, CB radios required a licensed to operate. The license cost about $20 in the early 1970’s and was reduced to $4 in the late 1970’s.
In addition, there were many rules and regulations concerning antenna height, distance restrictions, allowable transmitter power, and call sign rules. People ignored the laws and to hide their identity, developed “handles” or fake names to identify themselves on the radio.
After the FCC started receiving over 1,000,000 license applications a month, the license requirement was dropped entirely but as the culture had already developed, people continued using handles such as “Big Mama” or “Timberwolf” to identify themselves while on the air. Some famous celebrity handles include:
Betty Ford, a former First Lady of the United States, whose CB handle was “First Mama”.
Voice actor Mel Blanc , an active CB Radio operator, often used the CB handles Bugs or Daffy and talked over the air in the Los Angeles area using his many voices.
Channels
Channels evolved to fill specific purposes. For instance, channel 9 was kept open for emergency use and channel 19 was used for highway communication west of the Mississippi River.
Eventually channel 19 became the “trucker’s channel” and was used for highway communication all over the United States.
In the early days of the CB radio craze, channel 11 was used solely for the purpose of initiating communications (after which the two radio callers switched to a mutually agreed upon channel).
Towns that were close together often adopted a specific channel as their “home” channel so that they could communicate with each other.
Talking the Talk
CD etiquette developed and evolved during the craze. CB radios were intended to be used to warn other drivers of Smokeys up the road or to report roadside emergencies.
Chit chatting with other CB radio users is ok but it is not considered courteous to hold up a channel for more than a few minutes. Cursing is also frowned upon. It is common for CB radio operators to use hidden code or unique slang to communicate.
For instance, when giving a warning that a police officer is running a hidden speedtrap, they might say “smokey in the bush” or to warn truckers to watch out for a broken down school bus they might say “watch out for the kiddy car at mile marker 200″.
Many of the CB slang from the 1970’s hung around and became slang that continued to be used outside the realm of CB radio communications. Below is a large list of CB radio slang used during the 1970’s CB radio craze.
CD Radio slang from a to z
ACE – an important or well known CB radio operator
Apple – a person who is addicted to the CB radio
AF -Audio Frequency
Afterburner – Linear amplifier
ALERT – Affiliated League of Emergency Radio Teams
All the good numbers – good luck and best wishes to all
Alligator – shredded tread from the tires of an 18 wheeler truck
Amigo – friend or good buddy
ANL – Automatic noise limiter
Ankle biter- a little kid
Antenna Farm- a CB radio ase station with many antennas strung up in the air
Antler Alley – an area known for deer crossings
Appliance Operator – degrading term for a non-technical person who barely knows how to turn on their radio
AM -Amplitude Modulation
Ancient Mariner – someone who uses AM radio
Baby Bear – a rookie police officer
Backdoor – vehicle behind the one who is ahead of it.
Backdoor closed – the rear of a convey with trucks stacked across the lanes to keep the Smokeys out
Back em up – slow down or reduce speed
Back off the hammer – slow down or reduce speed
Backslide – return trip from a trucker’s run
Bad scene – a crowded CB radio channel
Ballet Dancer – a CB radio antenna that sways and bends in the wind
Base Station – a CB radio installed at a fixed location such as a house
Beast -a very good CB radio rig
Beam – Directional Antenna
Bean House Bull – trucker conversation carried on at a truck stop
Bear Bait – a speeding car
Bear Cage- police station or jail cell
Bear Cave – police station
Bearmobile – police car
Bear Trap – stationary police car running a radar trap
Bear in the air- police in their helicopter
Bear – police officer
Beat the bushes – driving ahead of the other truckers in an effort to draw the police out of hiding
Beaver – good looking female
Beaver Bear – female police officer
Beaver Fever – missing the wife or girlfriend
Beaver Palace – a club or bar known for loose female patrons
Beaver Patrol – looking for a good looking woman to spend time with
Big Charlie or Big Daddy – the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Big Mack – Mack truck
Big Slab – freeway or highway
Big 10-4- hearty agreement.
Bit on the seat of the britches – pulled over and issued a speeding ticket
Black and White – police car
Black Ice – patch of iced over blacktop road
Bleeding/Bleedover – strong signals from a base station on another channel that interferes with another channel’s reception
Blew my doors off – car passed by at high speed
Blue Slip- speeding ticket
Boast Toastie – CB expert
Boat Anchor – an old, broken radio that can no longer be repaired
Bodacious- Awesome
Boy Scouts – State Police
Box -Tractor Trailer
Break (or breaker, break for) – request to use the channel
Breaking Up – CB radio reception is poor
Breaking the “˜ol needle – very strong CB radio signal
Bring it back – answer the question that was posed
Brown paper bag – unmarked Police car
Bubble gum machine- police car with flashing lights
Bucket Mouth – obnoxious radio operator or someone who cusses a lot on the air
Bug Out – signing off or leaving the radio channel
Bumper Lane – the left most passing lane
Button Pusher – another CB radio operator who is trying to breakup your communication with another station by keying the microphone
Camera -police radar
Candy Man – Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Casa – house
Cash Register – toll booth
Catch you on the flip-flop – will talk to you on my return trip
Channel 25 – the telephone
Charlie – Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Chew and choke – Restaurant or truck stop eatery
Checking My Eyelinds For Pin Holes – I am tired or sleepy
Check the seatcovers – look at that passengers in the passing car
Chicken Coup – weigh station
Chicken Coup is Clean – weigh station is closed.
Chicken Inspector – weigh station inspector
Chopped Top- a very short antenna
Christmas Card – speeding ticket
Chrome Dome – a mobile radio with a dome antenna on top of the car
Clean Cat – a unmodified CB radio
Clean Shot – the road ahead is free of obstructions, construction, and police
Cleaner channel – CB radio channel with less traffic on it
Clear – Final transmission “This is 505 and I’m clear”
Clear after you – you are ending transmission after the other person finishes signing off
Coffee Bean – Waiter or waitress
Cold Rig – 18-wheeler pulling a refrigerated trailer
Collect Call – call for a specific CB radio operator
Colorado Kool Aid – beer
Come again – repeat your last transmission
Come Back – answer my call
Comic Book -truckers log book
Coming in Loud ‘n Proud – loud and clear signal
Concrete Blonde – prostitute
Convoy – 2 or more vehicles traveling the same route in a row
Cooking – driving
Cooking Good – reached desired speed.
Copy – receiving a message
Copying the mail – listening to the communications on the channel
County Mountie – county police or sheriff
Covered Up – transmission was blocked by interference
Crack ’em Up – traffic accident
Cradle Baby – radio operator who is afraid to ask someone to stand by
Cup of Mud – cup of coffee
Cut Out – leaving the channel
Cut Some Z’s – get some sleep
Cut The Coax – turn off the radio
Daddy-O – Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Dead Pedal – slow moving car or truck
Dead Key – keying the mike without talking
Decoy – empty or unmanned police car
Diesel Digit – cchannel 19
Diesel Juice – truck fuel
Dime Channel – channel 10
Dirty Side – Eastern Seaboard
Dixie Cup- female operator with southern accent
Doing the Five-Five- traveling at 55mph
Doin’ it to it – Full speed
Doing our thing in the left-hand lane – full speed in the passing or left-hand lane
Do it to me – answer back
Do you copy? – Do you understand?
Don’t Tense – calm down
Don’t Feed The Bears – don’t get a ticket
Double key – two radio operators talking at the same time
Double L – telephone call
Double Nickel – 55mph (the speed limit during the 1970’s CB radio craze)
Down “˜n Out or Down and gone – signing off
Down and on the side – through talking but will continue listening
Drag Your Feet – wait a few seconds before transmitting to see if someone else wants to break in
Dream Weaver – sleepy driver who is weaving across the lanes
Dress For Sale – prostitute or dressed like a prostitute
Drop Out – fading signal
Drop Stop Destination – where freight will be dropped off
Drop the Hammer – drive fast
Dropped it off the shoulder – ran off the shoulder of the road
Dusted your britches – keyed up at the same time
Dusted my britches – passed me very fast
Dusted Your Ears- transmission interrupted
DX – Long Distance
Eager beaver – anxious young woman
Ears ON – CB radio turned ON
Eights or Eighty-eights – love and kisses
Eights and other good numbers – love and kisses, and best wishes
Eighty-eight’s around the house – good luck and best wishes to you and yours
Eyeball- Personal meeting
Everybody must be walking the dog – all channels are busy
Evil Knievel – motorcycle policeman
Fake brake – driver riding with his foot on the brake
Fat load – overweight or big truck load
Feed The Bears – paying a speeding fine
Fender bender – traffic accident
Fifty Dollar Lane – passing lane
First Sargent – wife
Flag waver – highway repair crew
Flaps down – slow down
Flappers -ears
Flip flop – return trip
Flip-Flopping Bears – police reversing direction or turning around
Flop it – turn around
Flop box – motel or room in truck stop
FM – Frequency Modulation
Follow the stripes home – have a safe trip
Footwarmer – Linear amplifier
Forty weight – coffee
Four Wheeler – cCar
Four lane parking lot – highway with traffic backed up
Four legged go-go dancers – ugly women
Fox – pretty female
Fox Charile Charlie – FCC
Fox hunt – FCC hunting for illegal operators
Fox jaws – Ffemale with nice voice, but not necessarily a body to match
Free Ride – prostitute
Freight Box – trailer for the truck
Friendly Candy Company – FCC
Front Door – the lead in a convoy
Full of vitamins – running all out
Full Bore – driving fast as you can
Full Throttle – driving fast as the truck will let you
Funny Candy Company – FCC
Funny channels – channels that are outside the legal band
Gallon – 1000 watts of power
Garbage – too much small talk on a channel
Gas Jockey – gas station attendant
Gear – overnight bag or supplies
Get horizontal – go to sleep
Get Trucking – start driving
Girlie Bear – female police officer
Give me a shout – call me on the radio
Glory Card – Class D License
Go Breaker – OK to go ahead and break into the channel
Go Ahead – your turn to talk or reply
Go Juice – truck fuel
Go to channel 41 – a joke to get someone off the radio (there is no channel 41)
Going Horizontal – going to sleep
Gone – leaving the channel
Gone 10-7 – permanently dead
Good Buddy – friend (modern day means homosexual)
Goon Squad – persons who do not share the channel
Got my shoes on – Switched the linear ON
Got your ears on? – are you listening on this channel
Got my eyeballs peeled – looking hard
Got my foot in it – speeding up
Go to 100 – go to the bathroom
Green Stamps – cash money
Green Stamp Collector – police with radar
Green Stamp lane – passing lane
Green Stamp Road – toll road.
Grease monkey – mechanic
Greasy Spoon – restaurant with bad food
Ground Clouds – fFog
Gypsy – trucker who drives for an independent company
Hack – taxi cab
Hag Feast – group of female CB radio operators on the channel
Haircut palace – bridge or overpass with low clearance
Hairpin – sharp curve
Hamburger helper – Linear Amp
Hammer – gas pedal
Hammer Off – slow down
Hammer Down – speed up
Hang it in your ear – that was a stupid comment
Handle – CB radio code name
Hay Shaker – truck transporting a mobile home
Heading for a hole – about to head into a low spot where radio transmission may not be possible
Heater – Linear amplifier
Hell bent for leather – driving fast
Hiding in the grass – police parked on a median strip
Hiding in the bushes, sitting under the leaves – hidden police car
Highball – drive non-stop to the destination
High Rise – large bridge or overpass
Hippie Chippie – female hitchhiker
Hip Pocket – glove box
Hit the cobblestones – hit the road
Hog – Harley Davidson
Home Twenty – location of your home
How tall are you? – How tall is your truck?
Hundred mile coffee – very strong coffee
Ice Box – Refrigerated trailer.
Idiot Box – TV set
In a short – soon
In a short-short – very soon
In the mud – noise on the channel
In the Pokey with Smokey – arrested
Jack – good friend
Jack Rabbit – police officers
Jam – deliberately interfere with another station.
Japanese toy – CB
Jargon – CB lingo
Jaw Jacking – talking, talking needlessly
Jewelry – lights on a rig
Jingle – call on the telephone
Johnny Law – police officer
Juke Joint – small or out-of-the-way place to eat
Jump Down – switch to a lower channel
Jump Up – switch to a higher channel
Keep “˜em Between the Ditches – have a safe trip
Keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down – drive safely
Keep the wheels spinning – drive safely
Keep your noise between the ditches and smokey out of your britches – drive carefully, lookout for police
Keying the mike – activating the microphone without speaking
Kicker – Linear amplifier
Kiddie car – school bus
Knock the stack out – speed up
Knuckle Buster – fight
Kojak – police officer
Kojak with a Kodak – policeman with a radar
Lady Bear – female police officer
Lady Breaker – Ffemale CB operator asking for a break.
Lame – broken down vehicle
Land Line – telephone
Land Yacht – mobile home or camper
Lane Flipper – car or truck that keeps changing lanes
Lane Lover – driver who will not get out of the lane
Latrine Lips – radio operator who cusses
Let the channel roll – it’s ok to break in and request use of the channel
Legal Beagle – person who always follows the rules
Lettuce – money
Lights green, bring on the machine – road is clear of police and other slowdowns
Linear – RF amplifier
Little Bear – local police officer
Little Beaver – daughter
Little Bit – prostitute
Little Brother – friend
Local Bear – local police officer
Local Yokel – small town police officer
Log some Z’s – get some sleep
Loot Limo – armored car
M20 – place to meet
Magic Mile – the end of a trip
Mama – girlfriend or wife
Mama Bear – female police officer
Man in White – doctor
Mashing the mike – keying the mike (usually without talking)
Meatwagon – ambulance.
Modulate – talk
Modulating – talking
Money Bus – armored truck
Motion Lotion – fuel
Motorcycle Mama – woman riding on a motorcycle
Muck Truck – cement truck
Nap Trap – hotel or other place to sleep
Negative – no
Negative Copy – did not hear
Neon, Freon, Ion Jockey – truck driver with many lights on his rig
Nightcrawlers – many police in the area
Niner – channel 9
Ninety Weight – alcohol
Oil burner – diesel truck
On the by or on the standby – listening but not talking.
One foot on the floor, one hanging out the door, and she just won’t do no more – driving as fast as I can
Other Half – girlfriend or wife
Out – through transmitting
Over – your turn to transmit
Over modulation – talking so loud that audio is distorted
Pack it in – ending transmission
Pair of sevens – no contact or answer
Papa Bear – state trooper with CB radio
Paper hanger – police giving ticket
Parking Lot – traffic jam
Pavement Princess – prostitute
Peanut butter in his ears – is not listening
Pedal to the metal – drive fast
Peeling Off – getting of the freeway
Plain Wrapper – unmarked police car
Play Dead – stand by
Picture taking machine – radar
Pit Stop – stop for a bathroom break
Popcorn – hal
Porcupine – cr with a lot of antennas on it
Pounding the pavement – waking
Press some sheets – slep
Pull the hammer back – slow down
Pull the plug – signoff and turn the radio off
Put an eyeball on him – saw or see
Put it on the floor and looking for some more – trying to drive as fast as possible
QSL Card – Personalized postcard sent to confirm a conversation
QSK – break
QRM – nise or interference
Q-R-Mary – nose or interference
QSY – changing channels/frequency.
QRT – signing off
QRX – wait
QSB – nise
QSO – conversation
QTH – location
Quasar – female
Radio Runt – child breaking in on a channel.
Rain Locker – shower
Rake the leaves – last vehicle in a convoy
Ratchet-Jaw – non-stop talker
REACT – Radio Emergency Associated Citizens Teams
Rebound – return trip
Red Lighted – pulled over by police
REST – Radio Emergency Safety Teams
RF – Radio Frequency
Road Jockey – truck driver
Road Ranger – police officer
Rock – slang for crystal
Rockin’ chair – car in the middle of a convoy
Roger – O.K.
Roller Skate – car
Rolling – driving
Rolling Bears – police officers driving
Rugrats – children
Rubberneckers – onlookers
Running Barefoot – using a radio at the legal output
Running on rags – driving a vehicle with little to no tread on the tires.
Running Shotgun – driving partner
San Quentin Jailbait – under age female hitch hiker
Seatcover – good looking female
Shaking the windows – loud and clear reception
Shim – illegally amplified transmitter
Shoot the breeze – casual conversation
Shovelling coal – speeding up
Show-off lane – passing lane
Skip – atmospheric conditions that cause signals to travel much farther than they normally would
Skippers – radio operators talking long distance
Sidedoor – oassing lane
Sitting in the saddle – middle truck in a convoy
“S” Meter – meter on your radio which which indicates the signal strength
Smokey – State Police
Smokey Bear – State Police
Smokey report – police location report
Smokey Dozing – police sitting in a parked car
Smokey’s thick – police are everywhere
Smokey with a camera – police with radar
Smokey with ears – policeman with CB radio in their car
Somebody stepped on you – someone transmitted while you were talking
Splatter – bleedover from another channel
Squelch – control on radio which silences the speaker until a signal of a certain strength breaks through it
Three’s and eights – signing off, best wishes
Thin – very weak signal
Twelves – I have company present
Twenty – Location
Two Stool beaver – very fat woman
Uncle Charlie – FCC
Walking on you – someone talking over you
Wall-to-wall and treetop tall – strong, clear signal
Wall-to-wall and ten feet tall – strong clear signal
Warden – girlfriend or wife
Watch the pavement – drive safely
Water hole – truck stop
Wear your bumper out – following too close
Wearing socks – has linear amplifier
What am I putting on you? – how strong is my signal
What’s your twenty? – what is your location
Whip – long cb antenna
Who do you pull for? – who do you work for?
Wooly Bear – female
Z’s – Sleep
In addition to CB radio slang, CB radio operators used a series of “10 codes” similar to the codes used by emergency radio operators.
The Complete CB 10 codes
10-1 Receiving Poorly
10-2 Receiving Well
10-3 Stop Transmitting
10-4 Ok, Message Received
10-5 Relay Message
10-6 Busy, Stand By
10-7 Out of Service, Leaving Air
10-8 In Service, subject to call
10-9 Repeat Message
10-10 Transmission Completed, Standing By
10-11 Talking too Rapidly
10-12 Visitors Present
10-13 Advise weather/road conditions
10-16 Make Pickup at…
10-17 Urgent Business
10-18 Anything for us?
10-19 Nothing for you, return to base
10-20 My Location is ……… or What’s your Location?
10-21 Call by Telephone
10-22 Report in Person too ……
10-23 Stand by
10-24 Completed last assignment
10-25 Can you Contact …….
10-26 Disregard Last Information/Cancel Last Message/Ignore
10-27 I am moving to Channel ……
10-28 Identify your station
10-29 Time is up for contact
10-30 Does not conform to FCC Rules
10-32 I will give you a radio check
10-33 Emergency Traffic at this station
10-34 Trouble at this station, help needed
10-35 Confidential Information
10-36 Correct Time is ………
10-38 Ambulance needed at ………
10-39 Your message delivered
10-41 Please tune to channel ……..
10-42 Traffic Accident at ……….
10-43 Traffic tie-up at ………
10-44 I have a message for you
10-45 All units within range please report
10-50 Break Channel
10-62 Unable to copy, use phone
10-62sl unable to copy on AM, use Sideband – Lower (not an official code)
10-62su unable to copy on AM, use Sideband – Upper (not an official code)
10-65 Awaiting your next message/assignment
10-67 All units comply
10-70 Fire at …….
10-73 Speed Trap at …………
10-75 You are causing interference
10-77 Negative Contact
10-84 My telephone number is ………
10-85 My address is ………..
10-91 Talk closer to the mike
10-92 Your transmitter is out of adjustment
10-93 Check my frequency on this channel
10-94 Please give me a long count
10-95 Transmit dead carrier for 5 sec.
10-99 Mission completed, all units secure
10-100 Need to take a break
10-200 Police needed at ……….
How to operate a CB radio
There it an etiquette that CB radio operators follow in order to be “polite” and courteous to the other CB radio users. The following rules should always be followed.
When two or more people are talking on a channel they are said to “own the channel”. FCC regulations require they give other users an opportunity to use the channel so they should not hold the channel hostage for more than several minutes.
CB radio users should not “step on” other units. “Step on” means to transmit at the same time another radio operator is transmitting. They should also never key over someone else.
If you hear one unit break for another unit, give some time for the unit to respond before you say anything yourself. It may take a radio user time to grab the mic or get from the kitchen to the living room radio unit.
After your break has been acknowledged, keep the next transmission short. For example, a break might go something like this: “Break one-nine for Super Trooper. Super Trooper, do you have your ears on?”. if Super Trooper does not answer after a minute or so, it is nice to acknowledge that you are finished by saying something like “thanks for the break”.
If you are carrying on a conversation and someone “walks over” you, you have one of two options. You can ask the person you were speaking to to repeat. For example, “10-9, you were stepped on. Please repeat”. Alternatively, you can hand the channel over to the breaker.
If your break is not acknowledged, wait several minutes before attempting to contact them again.
Enough of the CB craze in the 1970s in the USA…
Of course, today is quite different. There are all sorts of systems competing for our telecommunication needs. They vary from Skype to zoom, and everything in between.
Dilbert.
But I live in China, and EVERYONE uses WeChat.
Man oh man!
WeChat is far more than I ever realized it was, and I have to tell you all that I am just blown away by some of the many features and functions that it has. And you all must realize that I have been using it for many, many years.
Over a decade.
So whether you have the APP, or are considering the APP, check out this “discovery tour” of WeChat.
First off, it’s a handy communication platform.
Duh! In fact, I will tell you that it is an all-in-one phone, instant messaging, video conference, and teleconference package.
All for free.
No costs to use.
You see, in China, the government has decreed that communication is a basic right and need. It should not be part of a for-profit model.
Sure, in the “old days” you used to have to pay for landlines, and maintenance, but now, since the infrastructure is in place, the costs to use this (and other applications) this APP is free to communicate with.
While my cell-phone certainly has telephony (telephone access), I find that it is often far easier to just communicate back and forth with people using WeChat.
You just select your contact… and you can call, text, video immediately with zero charges anywhere in the world…
Connect with your friends.
But it’s more than that. You see you can have family, business, or friends groupings.
And while I am sure that it is available on other APP platforms, it’s just so deliciously easy to use on WeChat. You set up a group call, a group chat, a group message board, or a group video. Oh, and did I say that it’s all free?
The WeChat group chat, text, phone, or video are all so very easy to set up and use. It’s almost instinctive.
Now, these two aspects of the entire WeChat platform are reason enough to have it on your phone. If that’s all that you ever use your phone for, then it is most certainly worth it.
But there’s so much more.
You see, there’s all kinds of things that you can do when you are chatting on the phone using WeChat. It’s more than just chatting away.
You can text while chatting, video while chatting, translate things while chatting, read a text in Icelandic and have it instantly translated into English.
You can point your phone at a strange road sign in Afghanistan and have it instantly translated, and if you are unable to see the translation, it will read the translation out to you in English for you.
Translate Text
Sometimes you will get messages in Chinese and, unless you can read Chinese characters fluently, this can be a problem.
So, WeChat has added this feature that will translate messages for you. Press and hold on the message you want to translate and then select the right arrow and then press ‘Translate’ and it will automatically translate the message.
So there’s a message.
You click on it, and select translate.
Translate.
And low and behold, it will translate to your assigned default language on your phone. Pretty cool. I will tell you that living inside of China, I use this feature extensively. But also when I travel to Thailand, Japan, Korea, or Saudi Arabia it most certainly comes in handy.
Scan
One of the most used applications inside of China is the scan function. You scan for everything. You scan to enter buildings.
You scan to pay.
You scan to get information.
You scan to visit internet and government websites. All you need to is go to the top of the APP and click on Scan QR Code…
.
And then scan the code. It’s just like this…
Scan the QR code.
Now…
Here’s a power tip.
Scan and Translate
Can’t read the instructions or menus in China?
China’s most popular social platform offers AR-based real-time translation.
This feature can be accessed from the scan feature in the upright corner, which is regularly used to scan QR codes.
To use the real-time translator, simply capture an image of anything with either Chinese or English text in it, operating on a point and translate model.
First, go to the + sign > Scan > Translate, Then take a photo to translate or select a photo from your gallery. Finally, wait for the text to be translated and understand the text in English.
The default is on the lower left. It will scan the QR code. However, if you click on “Translate”, something else happens… [1] You are prompted to take a photo.
Take a photo.
[2] It is translated for you.
Currently, WeChat Translate only supports Chinese and English, it works similarly to the Waygo App, which was designed to help non-Chinese speakers translate food menus and signs. An indication that WeChat wants to appeal to foreign users and tourists living in China.
WeChat’s trend of taking successful features from apps and integrating the technology into their platform shows their ambition to grow and compete with US tech giants: Google, Snapchat and Instagram.
However, WeChat still has a long way to go to reach the levels of Google Translate augmented reality feature, which now supports 30 languages.
Translate Image Text
“Translate Image Text” is another cool hidden feature that you will want to know. Instead of scanning and translating, you can now choose any image that you have in either your phone gallery or chat and long-press until the menu appears with the option of translate image to text. [1] Pull up the image. [2] Long press until the menu comes up. [3] Translate. Now, all this is really cool, but that all isn’t the really great stuff. Let’s get to some of the really cool things…
Voice messages to text
I use this all the time. It’s a dictation feature on the text messaging section of WeChat. You just click on the button and dictate. What you speak is automatically converted from voice to text, and you can send the message so easily. It sure beats the singular thumb method of typing on a little screen.
This voice input function allows users to speak into WeChat and immediately convert their words into text. All you have to do is to long-press the voice message button, say what you want to be translated to text and just before letting go, swipe up and right and let go when you reach the bubble on the right side.
WeChat voice to text feature.
Shazam
Want to find the name for that TV show you’re watching? Under the Shake feature you can also select ‘TV show’ and, when you shake, WeChat will act like Shazam and tell you the name of the TV show you’re watching.
What’s that show, or that song?
It is also useful for Douxing videos, music and many other things. This is a great way to identify music you like on a video. Because when the answer comes up, a link is provided to the QQ application that allows you to put that particular song in your play list.
More, more and MORE!
There is so much more that you can do. From sharing videos to creating facebook like environments, to group collaborating to dressing up and editing presentations.
It’s an all inclusive complete platform. But I am really not up to go through all the nuiances of it. Others have, and they have been doing a better job than I.
Let me just say that time has changes, and the advances in technology are truly wonderful.
Let’s appreciate what they are and use them to the fullest, so that we can benefit from their use.
Becuase sooner or later they will go away and be replaced with something different. And you will long for the days that you have RIGHT NOW.
Enjoy what you have and eat it all up!
It’s a new world
As some of these meme’s attest to… Great cat, by the way. Some of these are just funny… I suppose there are many more… As I said. Some are really spot on…
Well all this talk about communicaiton makes me hungry…
Maybe something simple delicious and easy to make. Maybe something a little bit like this…
An easy to make, healthy and delicious meal.
It’s better than fast food, I’ll tell you what. However, if you really are in the mood, why not make a home made pizza? It’s not all that hard, and it’s cheap. If you make the dough from scratch a entire pizza is only a few dollars tops. Maybe something like this…
Homemade pizza.
Of course, while you are a smunching, you can go forth and invite some friends over to your porch and “shoot the breeze”… you know, talk a bit. It doesn’t matter what you talk about. Just chat. Everyone has things to say. Just listen. Maybe you can impress them with your local knowledge. Maybe something like this… .
Maybe if they are some neighborhood kids, you can teach them how to whittle, or something similiar.
Most kids these days need some real uncle-like behaviors in their neighborhoods.
Don’t wait for others to take action.
You go ahead and do it yourself. Whittle.
Whittling.
Just take the time and make friends.
Whittling.
.
And you know, it doesn’t hurt to smoke a cigarette, drink a beer, or share a pizza with some neighborhood friends.
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Apparently, the United States, and the rest of the Western bloc, was so positive that they could goad Russia into a war in the Ukraine that they produced tons of videos of an invasion. Of course, these were to be broadcast to the American sheeple and the European sheeple as proof of Russian aggression and the brave Ukraine fighters. It’s all part of the “grand scheme”. Nothing happened. Russia didn’t fall for the bait, or allow the tricks to manifest, and now all these videos are unused. Nevertheless, many are now leaked and available on the internet. Here we discuss these videos.
The United States NEEDS a war. It does.
Not the people, of course. The oligarchy does, and the military-industrial complex does. And they are pushing and pushing and pushing for one.
This time, they are pushing against a very dangerous, capable and talented people that are bigger, stronger, tougher, and nastier than anything America has ever experienced before.
Yet, it’s the same old script.
Goad a nation into a military response. Push and push, and push and push, until they snap back. The United States has been hitting two tender areas. One against China against it’s Taiwan break-away province, and one against Russia by the placement of nuclear weapons on the Russian border there in the Ukraine.
If the nation doesn’t fight back, then the “false flag” playbook comes out.
False Flag
A “false flag” scenario occurs when a group deliberately misrepresents affiliation and hides its true identity.
It is used widely during war and covert operations.
It is a deceptive move undertaken by a country or an organization to set up an attack.
Pirate ships often used “false flags” of nations to deceive merchant ships while undertaking an attack under a “false flag“.
There are numerous examples throughout history of military troops stealing uniforms from their enemy to take part in covert operations in order to carry out a clandestine military campaign.
The “false flag” tactic is often used to start a war.
False Flag operations CIA had reportedly carried a false flag operation in 1953 against Iran’s former PM Mohammad Mosaddeq in order to successfully launch operation TPAJAX as it conducted bombing campaigns which were blamed on communist sympathisers. A declassified report claimed Britain’s MI6 and the CIA jointly undertook the operations.
The Ukraine Events
Numerous “False Flag” events were planned and thwarted in the Ukraine.
It appears that Russia were expecting numerous false flag events, and had sympathizers and agents on the ground in the Ukraine that stopped the events. As far as I can determine, these were two separate attempts at trying to release a chemical warfare event to be blamed on Russia.
They are on the Internet, I won’t dwell too much about them here.
Russian President Vladimir Putin today told his military officers that Moscow will deliver a technical-military response to NATO. President Putin made remarks to the Collegium of the Ministry of Defense. Russia’s Defense Ministry is managed by a council chaired by the Defense Minister, deputy defense ministers, the heads of the Main Defense Ministry and General Staff Directorates, the commanders of the Joint Strategic Commands, and the three services of the armed forces.Defense Minister Segei Shogu also spoke to the defense council.
Gen. Shogiu accused the United States of sending private military contractors to Ukraine to plot a false flag event involving chemical weapons that could be blamed on Russia.
Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 12/21/21
Once they were prevented, and the CIA / Mi6 / 5eye assets were interrogated and killed. In a panic, the collective West flooded the internet with garbage about Putin planning false flag attacks. So it’s now very difficult to find any information at all about what really happened; The United States false-flag attacks. All you see is the flooded propigana about Russia planning false-flag attacks. Not the actual CIA false-flag events.
The real truth is now all buried and hidden under a thick layer of nonsense.
Why the Hell would Russia want to attack the Ukraine?
Seriously. All this war talk, and no one is discussing the big “why?”.
The Ukraine is laughingly called the “404 nation”. It is a completely collapsed, poverty-stricken wasteland. The Western section is hard-core fascist and has a LGBQ American-backed government of boot-licking egotistical psychopathic personalities.
Yes, the Eastern section speak Russian and are more democratic and wealthier, however any movies to embrace and take over even a portion of the country would become a serious burden on Russia itself. The GDP might take a hit of a good 25% of it’s GDP and stifle any growth that Russia is experiencing for decades.
Simply put, any military adventures into the Ukraine by Russia would hurt and damage Russia.
That is why the idea that Russia is going to invade the Ukraine is just silly, stupid and insane. Only a couch-potato chip munching fat slob American sheeple would believe such a ridiculous narrative.
Now, about those pesky movies…
Everything is set up. Everything is funded. The Mainstream media are out there a howling away. They are screeching and yelling and stamping their feet about war! War! War! The American sheeple are getting tired of the constantly blaring of noise, and the Europeans are no longer amused.
Russia is doing nothing.
So the media has resorted to outright lies. These are becoming more and more numerous on all issues on all fronts.
The latest lie is that China warned Russia not to attack the Ukraine or else.
Of course, this completely infuriated the Chinese who not only denied that anything like this happened, but they told the American news media pushing these lies (Bloomberg, CNN, Yahoo, and others) that if they continue to push such lies they will be banned from China. Not that it would matter much, but the Chinese have a strong belief that actions require consequences.
China is very supportive of Russia. All Russia needs to do is ask, and China will accomidate.
Anyway…
So there’s this major effort to false-flag the Hell out of the Ukraine, and this includes a hard-core hyper media onslaught, manipulation of the EU, and all sorts of pressures and justifications.
Eventually cumulating in the angering of Russia, resulting in a non-ultimatum demaning an answer. It is unique in that it specifically wanted guarantees in written English that America would abide to the documents that it has already signed and agreed to, and stop its provocations aimed at Russia.
The USA gave its response.
The answer was NO.
Bloomberg.
And United States continued to incite, narrate and create a war in the Ukraine. A war that all the participants do not want. But the wealthy oligarchy in New York, and Washington, and Virginia absolutely do.
UPDATE: This article has been finished and ready to be emailed to The Saker, when the news coming from the government of Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics confirmed my observations expressed here.
In my extensive library of e-books, there is a book by Reese Erlich titled Inside Syria: The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect. The book outlines the situation developed in Syria by 2014 that was pushed, sponsored, narrated, and propagated by the United States.
In Chapter 11 of the book, “United States, Russia, and Outside Powers” Reese Erlich writes: “Meanwhile, the Obama administration was pursuing a secret military track. The CIA began overseeing arms shipments to the Free Syrian Army no later than June 2012 when it leaked the story to the New York Times. The CIA began directly arming and training rebels in early 2013 (see chapter 5). Proclaiming support for nonviolent resistance while arming rebels was not seen as a contradiction, according to State Department critic Kathy. She said the State was populated with ‘humanitarian interventionists,’ people who favor one or another form of military intervention by claiming it will, in the end, protect civilians. ‘But we never discuss the legality of such attacks, let alone the morality,’ she told me. Controversial policies are sent to the legal department for review. ‘They’ll always find a way to justify whatever policy is decided.’”
The Biden administration was soaked to the brim by Obama’s people and their “expertise.” Let’s say, they are unparalleled in inflicting “pain” on people of targeted nations.
“State Department officials insisted that Syrians would benefit from US policy in the long run. The spokesperson acknowledged that ordinary Syrians were hurt by American economic sanctions, which had caused a massive drop in their standard of living. But, as if admonishing naughty children, the spokesperson told me Uncle Sam would make it up to them. ‘Once the behavior changes, once we have the Assad regime step down, we will make sure this is an environment where Americans can do business.’ There’s an interesting logic here. He assumed that the solution for economic collapse is American business investment. What’s good for American business, apparently, is good for the Syrian people. Similarly, the State Department saw no contradiction between criticizing Assad’s human-rights record and supporting pro-US regimes elsewhere in the region also committing abuse, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The State Department simply assumed that US allies can and will change while enemies will not. The spokesperson explained that allies may abuse human rights, ‘but we work with them.’”
Recalling the standard disclaimer on investment products. “Past performance does not guarantee future results,” with the political operatives teams only one thing is certain. The results for Ukraine will be very different, but the methods are the same.
In the beginning of December, Russia’s Ministry of Defense issued an unheard of warning about the possibility of the false flag attack in Ukraine with someone impersonating the Russian military.
A couple of days later, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had handed the Biden administration demands for the security guarantees, and in another two days the rest of the document was posted on the ministry website. The demand for the security guarantees for Russia from the US and NATO acted as a giant monkey wrench thrown into the spinning wheel of the Western propaganda of the “invasion of Ukraine.”
Claims of “invasion” have been circulating on and off for the past 8 years, and started sounding louder in April of 2021. In November, Zelensky announced that Russia wants to topple his regime. In December, the Russian government published warnings about upcoming false flag attacks and made the diplomatic moves that somewhat confused and wobbled the “invasion” proponents. They only gained some ground by now, which is the end of January.
On Friday, January 28, the DOD and Biden administration announced the “imminent” invasion of Ukraine during a Biden/Zelensky phone conversation. Zelensky disagreed and, counterintuitively, insisted that there wasn’t much proof that the Russian army was going to “invade Ukraine.” According to CNN, the conversation “did not go well.” Zelensky and Biden disagreed about the immediacy of the threat of a “Russian attack on Ukraine.” The White House and Pentagon has been emphatic that they believe the attack could be “imminent.”
The Zerohedge article collected a hilarious confusion of the warmongering CNN coming with war propaganda and then removing it after a few hours and claiming that they were deceived by their source in the Zelensky administration.
So, the cover fall out and we witnessed a giant mix of fear, greed, hatred, russophobia,incompetence, bloodlust, and pure clinical insanity, which constitute the modern American policy-making. Many right, exact, deep and very funny things have been said and written since, but there was something else that I wouldn’t want to go unnoticed.
During his Friday press briefing, Zelensky said something that holds the golden key to the mystery of an “invasion.”
Tucker Carlson included this important segment into his Friday night monologue.
Tucker: This is a slow motion disaster
Here is a short description.
Zelensky sits in a chair on some podium in front of a room full of journalists. The White House says that the conversation between Biden and Zelensky came down to “Russian invasion is imminent,” “Kiev will be sacked,” and “prepare for impact,” and insists that Zelensky asking Biden to stop fear mongering and to turn down the rhetoric never happened.
Zelensky, however, says it did happen:
“We talked to the president. We talked about the same things, about the media and that there has to be a balanced approach. I’m not saying that he is influencing the American media, they are independent, but media policy has to be more balanced. If they want to know what the situation is here in Ukraine they should come to Kiev. Do we have tanks on the streets? No! The image that the mass media creates is that we have troops on the roads, we have mobilization, people are leaving for places. That’s not the case. We don’t need this panic!”
Prior, Jen Psaki claimed that the Biden administration had 18 scenarios of “Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Sergey Lavrov responded by saying that 17 scenarios were written by 17 intelligence agencies and one by the DOS staff.
The only thing was certain, it would be a false flag attack, because Russia didn’t have any plans to take over Ukraine.
It’s very expensive, since we would have to feed their population, solve its problems, and ensure its general well-being. All this would be an enormous injustice to us, Russians, since it’s only recently that we started to live better. The economy is growing the fastest ever. Good and fair energy prices in Europe and great prices for our other exports like wheat and fertilizers pay higher pensions and paychecks of doctors, teachers, military and law enforcement, and other federal employees.The government just recently undertook gigantic investments into mega infrastructure projects and mega oil and gas processing plants (source).
It’s beyond stupid and evil to think that after trillions rubles in new investments Russian government should decides it wants to occupy and feed the failed state of Ukraine.
So, the whole thing is just a Biden admin manufactured pretext to impose new illegal trade restrictions that would per their design crush our economy and make us all poor, again.
But, going back to the gold key to the mystery that fell out of Zelensky’s mouth. What scenario will the US use to stage a false flag attack to blame it on Russia?
Here is a spoiler alert.
At 2:37 on the Tacker Carlson video, the image allegedly from Ukraine looks like the black-and-white WWII footage.
Fake war footage
Zelensky said during his interview, “Do we have tanks on the streets? No! The image that the mass media creates is that we have troops on the roads, we have mobilization, people are leaving for places. That’s not the case!”
And that’s our Oscar winning scenario of virtual invasion. It was staged and prerecorded and was supposed to be broadcast all over the world.
Last week, some British news channel aired an interview with Ukrainian general Oleksandr Pavliuk who famously said that he has half a million veterans who are ready “to tear Russians apart with their bare hands.” (source)
I couldn’t find this footage again, but if you happen to come across it you will notice a middle aged overweight man in khaki looking like a stuffed sausage or the Michelin Man. He slowly runs across the snowy field,and then appears behind the general, while someone on the background shouting and shooting aimlessly, and a smoke machine in the snow emits dense vapor covering the whole scene with a couple of military trucks and a couple of men hiding behind them. The whole scene is a movie set, and they are filming scenes of a virtual “Russian invasion.”
In Zelensky’s own words: Do we have tanks on the streets? No! The image that the mass media creates is that we have troops on the roads, we have mobilization, people are leaving for places. That’s not the case!
So, when we see news on tanks on the streets in Ukraine, troops on the roads, mass mobilization and people in khaki leaving for places – it’s an image of the “Russian invasion” that western media have created.
Newsweek image of alleged middle-aged “Ukrainian soldiers”.
Borrowed from here:
Ukraine is a very poor country. People there would do anything for money, especially act in a movie.
On Monday, January 31, The head of the People’s Militia Department, Yan Leshchenko, announced that Kiev is preparing staged and filmed stories about the military actions allegedly unleashed by the republics of Donbass and Russia against Ukraine (source)
“Our intelligence obtained reliable information about the development and implementation by Ukrainian special services with the support of Western intelligence agencies of a special information campaign codenamed Crushing Sword. The purpose of this campaign is to mislead the world community and accuse the People’s Republics of Donbass and the Russian Federation of aggression against Ukraine,” Leshchenko quotes the Telegram channel of the People’s Militia of the LPR (source)
Lugansk now has reliable information that Kiev is preparing professionally acted and staged TV stories as part of the campaign. “At the first stage of the information campaign with the beginning of aggression by the Ukrainian Armed Forces the Kiev regime planned to broadcast pre-prepared staged videos on the alleged beginning of military operations against Ukraine by the People’s republics and the Russian Federation,” Leshchenko said.
The Ukrainian authorities organized videos about the residents of Donbass, who allegedly ask “to free them from Russian oppression.” “Kiev is ready to release staged videos on television in which specially trained citizens on behalf of our people will talk about the “horrors of war” and ask “to free them from Russian oppression,” the head of the People’s Militia department informed.
TASS reported that according to Leshchenko, Kiev propagandists want to convince the world community of the legitimacy of the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, allegedly liberating Donbass from terrorists. “Ukrainian propagandists intend to demonstrate the successes of the Ukrainian army in allegedly successfully repelling the imaginary aggression of the people’s republics, as well as conducting an offensive on Donbass. According to the plan, the international community and the population of Ukraine will have to make sure of the legality of the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, allegedly liberating Donbass from terrorists. The death of civilians in the people’s republics will be presented as the destruction of terrorists,” he said in a statement.
Final Thoughts
The United States War Machine is on auto-pilot and running at full-throttle. It is just plowing ahead and is Hell-bent on creating a war with Asia one way or the other.
False-flag events are set up to start a popping up everwhere, and the American Navy and military forces are all moving about all over the globe surrounding Asia trying to instigate a war.
This week at the Olympics, Putin and Xi Peng will hold a joint statement. It will be optomistic and promising. It will be hopeful. But within that statement, whatever how nice and hopeful it will sound, will be a message that will put a bone-chilling terror down the spines of the Colelctive West. I don’t know what it is, but I am sure that we will find out soon enough.
Just realize that the positive news will have a component that will “blow off” the knee-caps of the United States military empire and it’s EU enablers.
I can’t wait to hear what it is.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The following is the 18th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.
-MM
Part 18 – A Look At Non-Physical Contact Through Participants External to Metallicman
In that article I gave a description of SD’s LD experience of a {yet another} consciousness facility, the beliefs of the Wandjina Wunggurr people of North Western Australia, and the idea that at some point in the long distant past the astral and physical planes were merged into one big reality soup.
I suggest reading it first if you haven’t already.
Now, getting to this article; there are some pretty interesting stories out there if you know where to look. More specifically, though, the occult community has some real gems if you are persistent enough and have a knack to filter through all the bullshit that has a tendency to come up.
For the past 10 years, I have been combing these groups searching for anything that could be remotely related to anything the Elder Guardians and the Unseen 5 told me.
More specifically the astral projection, lucid dreaming, demonology, remote viewing and just general spiritual communities were areas I started conducting my research.
When I get a hit, what I like to do is lay out the person’s experience – completely free of judgement – and tease out all the similar themes and, if there are enough of them, add the person and talk to them to get a more in depth understanding of their experience/s.
So when I come across something like the below message, you can betcha bottom dollar it draws my interest, and thus goes in my research basket.
This was something I stumbled upon the other day on a group for astral projection by a guy named Ophiuchus13:
“Hi. I just want to share with you all my Deep Meditation Experience. -January 6, 2022. There is a trap after life.
I encountered a white lizard beings. I saw an many small spaceship & was about to going inside the big mothership.
I see some soul light beings are fall in line & they going inside the mother ship too. When i scan the inside the lizard alien mothership i saw the soul light beings are imprisoned inside the electric prison cage.
Their divine self (consciousness) is inside the big looking glass jar.
That is why they being manipulated to go inside the alien ship.
I fight with the white lizard alien & crash all spaceship using the thunderbolts & lava. -January 2, 2022.
I saw a white spirit, he's/her body was tied while the flame is burning to him/her. she's/he's indeed eternal or immortal and yet he/she was suffering so i save him/her. After a few moments i saw a vision of a dark crystal ball and it was holding by the white ruler in his hand.
his head face is a lion.
i scan the crystal ball thru my inner eye. the dark crystal ball is the physical universe. where in so many spark of light was inside the black crystal ball.
i tried to destroy the ball but it was really hard but i made it to make it crack so while spark of lighmt will gradually get away.
i saw the companion of the lion head rulers most of them are white tnt obo. they tell me that im ranking #4 for being interloper.
their realms are light but i dont feel any divine feelings to them and their realms. -October 30, 2021.
(3 AM+) I entered the White Crystal Portal, which was super long and brilliant. At the end of it. I am outside the universe as in total darkness but there are stars that are very numerous.
I also see a lot of White Box/White Container.
I approached it, I saw so many souls in a White Box, they were standing and lined up.
I felt when I saw that they were in a deep state of hallucination.
The feeling that they thought they were in Heaven but they did not know that they were in a White Box that was crowded.
I decided to broke the box, by releasing some power on my weapon.
After i broke the white box with full of souls or light beings, the souls have been set freed in the white box and they are going in different directions like star dust in the universe.
Later on, an Angel of Light with 9 Wings appeared to me, but I didn't feel any holiness in him.
He said "why am I interfering", I said via telepathically that his/her doing wrong.
Because he gave hallucinations to light beings or souls and confined them in a white box.
He replied to me "Don't let me interfere".
Later I released massive thunder bolts or lightning in many white boxes. I can see that the boxes were broken and the souls were freed, estimated they were in 57K that i helped the souls that have disappeared in box & going different directions floated and flew.in
Then a white Angel with 9 wings got mad at me.
They tied my hands with a white chain but I broke the white chain. They were angry because I'm interfering there works. Until they did nothing to me, they also failed to stop me from freeing the souls trapped in the light portal box.”
Yeah I know, I know; MM is not particular fond of the Reptilian schpeel, but I have a rule when it comes to comparing these sorts of stories with others, and that is to ignore any labels or information identifying race, motivations and anything that could be the result of deliberately implanted distortion into the mind of the experiencer (given the manipulation tactics I have encountered through my experiences, I simply do not trust these images – I cannot rule out that these non physical beings project false images to mask their identities).
What I take note of is the core aspects of the experience, and what I am interested in here is the guy effectively conducted a remote viewing session through meditation and saw parts of the amnesia traps we encounter after death.
So I got to talking with him in a private chat, and he revealed some more information: These beings are cloning his astral bodies using the akashic records as a template to alter the code for the purpose of having him not interfere in their plans.
Remember how I said the amnesia operated as a sort of code that manipulated a person’s higher energetic bodies so that they would blindly enter into the reincarnation/soul burning chamber after death (which I fucking remember as being what took place right before being thrown into this useless meatsuit)? Well this conversation certainly turned interesting. But I guess it’s just a coincidence and it was something our minds just conjured up after watching a few too many matrix movies right? {Insert laughing face skeptics like to use as a measure of the supposed intelligence they possess to talk about such subjects, rather than actually contribute any meaningful dialogue XD XD XD XD}. But let’s not end it there.
This is just one of many other stories I have come across that when taken individually comes across as nothing more than the ravings of a mad man, but when combined with the experiences of others start to point at a higher truth slowly being revealed to us.
The Watchers Covid Message
Take for instance this little nugget that was given to an occultist, Severin Aequus, (now a contact that I engage in respectful banter with about occult subjects) just as the whole COVID thing was gaining traction back at the beginning of 2020 (and yeah I have known about it this whole time but refrained from mentioning it, because I like to get an idea of people’s viewpoints on subjects before something can bias it towards one end or another):
“The Watchers' COVID-19 Message:
Note: This essay is rather long because there is a need for it to be exhaustive and thorough with regard to the conditions and interpretation of the message. But in order to appease those of you without a lot of time to devote to this, I've included the word "Note:" before any paragraph which is not essential to understanding the message itself.I've spent much of my time over the last few weeks puzzling over what caused the dramatic shift in consciousness that most people appear to have experienced within the last couple of months.
A few people, myself included, were unaffected by whatever this influence was. So from our perspective it appears that the world has gone insane. That's not to say that anyone is wrong in terms of their views and/or opinions on how the world should respond to pandemics. It's just that they are inconsistent with the way that we, as a society, have dealt with similar epidemics in the past. If you feel like an outsider watching the world conduct the largest cosplay event ever conceived, then you know which group you're in. On the other hand, if you feel that the world is acting perfectly rationally and consistently, then you are among the majority in the former group. The only thing that seems to differentiate why a person went one way or the other seems to be related to how well-developed their sense of empathy is. Essentially, the capacity for empathy appears to be awakening within everyone. Thus, those who seem unaffected are actually the ones who already had a functioning sense of empathy. Affected?
Affected by what?
I received a message on May 5, 2020 from a set of intelligences I call "The Watchers". They are also known by some as "The Secret Chiefs", "The Masters" and many other names according to spiritual and/or cultural tradition. I have been in contact with them intermittently for the last 20 years.
Over that time, I have received 3 communications from them, including this one. As a matter of convention, all text which comes directly from the message will appear in ALL CAPS. The rest can be assumed to be just my personal commentary, opinion, or conjecture. Note: For those who do not know me, it may be worth pointing out that I am not the type to seek out these sorts of experiences. Quite the contrary. I'm a scientist who has a knack for making "paranormal" things suddenly stop happening just by being in the room. While I have had some success with developing certain types of telepathic and spiritual mediumship abilities, I simply find it to be more practical for daily life to leave those things turned off. So in order for any kind of spiritual intelligence to get my attention, it must be loud and bold.In this particular case, one of the Watchers appeared to my girlfriend while in normal waking consciousness to express his frustration that I could not hear him/them. Hopefully, that provides some helpful background material about the character and practices of your messenger. Note: I cannot provide an exact transcript of the message because they do not speak in language. They are inherently telepathic and can turn on the latent telepathic abilities in humans in order to "hear" them.The first time they "spoke" to me we had to go through a calibration process because they were trying to send information much more quickly than I was able to receive it, much less actually process or understand it. Even at the slowed rate, it's still much too fast to make any use of on the spot. So they leave me with it and I spend the next week sorting through it all and actually comprehending what is in there. For this reason, I often refer to it as an information download. Regarding intent and provenance, I can attest that these beings are not malicious at all. However, I wouldn't exactly call them benevolent either. Their perspective is too far removed from our own for us to be able to fairly assess their integrity or motivations. But who else could have brought about such radical and sudden shift in consciousness? No one in human history has even come close to effecting such radical change on a global scale before and there's no reason to assume that one person or a small cabal are capable of it now. THEY ARE CONDUCTING A MAGICAL OPERATION ON A GLOBAL SCALE TO AFFECT A CHANGE IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF HUMANITY. To set the proper context, I have received no knowledge of anything regarding the COVID-19 virus, it's origins, or anything else of a medical nature. That's not what any of this is about. I will say that I feel it's most likely that The Watchers took advantage of a convenient opportunity to piggy-back their operation onto a suitably scary event as opposed to them actually manifesting the virus. But I can't say for sure and the answer is probably irrelevant anyway. The point is that the virus is a means to an end. THIS EMOTIONAL EVENT IS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO TRIGGER THE INTENDED SHIFT IN CONSCIOUSNESS. A shift in consciousness is evidenced by the outpouring of compassion that people are demonstrating for those most susceptible to dying as a result of being infected with COVID-19. When over 80,000 people died from the 2018 flu, it was barely a footnote in most news broadcasts. So, on one hand, our behavior is radically inconsistent. But on the other, we're demonstrating compassion and empathy on a level never before seen. It may even be that some of us have begun to conceive of humanity as one… a monad. While the worst-case scenario for the virus, in terms of lethality, seems to have been avoided, humanity's reaction to it is unprecedented. In the short term - speaking from an American perspective - we are likely to see several social changes in the form of new government programs. Universal (aka. Single Payer) Healthcare and Basic Minimum Income seem like obvious pieces of legislation to pass in the very near future. The fact that I can write such a sentence is shocking considering that it was unfathomable to most Americans before this crisis. That further goes to show that this is having precisely the kind of impact that The Watchers intended for us. While the implementation of various social welfare programs is a great thing, that is just incidental progress along the way to something much bigger. THE ACTUAL STATED GOAL OF THE OPERATION IS TO MERGE THE PHYSICAL AND ASTRAL PLANES OF EXISTENCE. In other words, the 'creatures' and other characters that can presently only be seen through normal waking eyes by the most gifted and practiced seers or mediums will eventually become plainly visible to everyone. As I have begun to slowly promulgate this message, I have received messages from dozens of people from all over the world reporting that their ability to perceive "the other side" has become dramatically stronger in recent months. In an attempt to confirm the validity of the message I received, I contacted a couple of friends of mine who are particularly gifted seers to inquire about anything special going on that day or if they had received any messages. What they revealed confirmed my suspicions that what I received was a genuine communication intended for broadcast.However, to be certain I waited a week before writing the first draft of this post in order to observe whether the message remained as crisp in my memory as it did the day of, as would be expected of a genuine communication. It has. Note: I don't have their permission to reveal their names… or necessarily their support to reveal this message at all. So I'll have to make annoyingly frequent use of pronouns to keep this accounting of events anonymous. Before I get into the details of their experiences, it's worth noting that the appearance of such messages differs from one person to the next because we each perceive reality through the lenses of our knowledge and experience. So it stands to reason that no two people will perceive the same thing in exactly the same way. This holds true for physical objects as well (e.g. "Isn't this painting beautiful?"). Their version of the message came across within the context of their own symbols and cosmology, which happens to be Wiccan. They described it as a "tearing down of the veil between this world and the next". One of them said that they used to have a little old black and white TV with poor reception in their head that they could watch and sometimes glean information from. Starting about a month ago, their TV is now in 4K Theater Surround Mode! They've been having trouble getting overwhelmed with all of the information they're now receiving. They both mentioned that "soon everyone will have the second sight". Note: I don't know what "soon" exactly means, however. I find it highly unlikely that any such shift in awareness in anything we might consider a "soon" time span would cause anything short of massive panic and destructive behavior. The only way that a change that dramatic can be accomplished without sending the word spiraling into madness must be very slow and methodical. So from The Watchers' perspective, this shift may be coming "soon". But on our time scale, think in terms of 2-3 generations (40-60 years) at least. If you've been wondering WHEN THIS VIRUS STUFF WILL PASS AND THINGS RETURN TO "NORMAL", THE ANSWER IS NEVER. Sure, the virus will pass. But IT WAS JUST A CATALYST FOR A FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT IN HUMAN AWARENESS. Even without some bigger goal in mind, just the psychological effect of us having to justify our behavior will result in long-term consequences for the rest of our natural lives. Fortunately for you, this message provides all you need to justify your sudden change in attitude and behavior, so that's one less thing to wrestle with later in life.This leaves us with one big lingering question: Why? To put it quite simply, they expressed that THEY ARE TIRED OF WATCHING US GO THROUGH EXTINCTION EVENTS. THERE'S SIMPLY NOTHING LEFT FOR THE WATCHERS TO LEARN FROM THOSE EVENTS. Hold up… The clear implication of that statement is that without intervention, we were headed toward an imminent self-imposed mass extinction event and this shift in the collective consciousness was necessary to avoid that fate. They didn't specify the nature of this event. But we could certainly devise a short list of likely candidates. But does it matter if it's been averted? Maybe. They weren't completely clear as to whether the event was conclusively diverted or if it was merely postponed or if they just suspect that this change will be enough to avert the crisis when it comes. Of course, this also begs the question of what these previous extinction events were. It's conceivable that this Earth has seen multiple humanoid experiments in its 4.5 billion-year history, especially since we've only been here for 100,00 or so. The only thing we can say about that is that they must not have reached our level of technological "advancement" because we aren't going around picking up pieces of ancient styrofoam everywhere. ( For more information, see this article from Popular Mechanics: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a32743456/rapid-mass-extinction/).
Another possibility is that they are referring to micro-extinctions on the level of civilizations, such as the Mayans. Other more "out there" possibilities include the idea that there could be many humanoid experiments being conducted right now on different planets. Or they could be referring to an abstract idea of timelines intersecting across n-dimensional space-time. But they didn't specify, so you're free to take your pick or add your own idea. This brings us to a close. Please note that the message is what it is. I can provide very little other than what has been included here. Thus, each person must decide for themselves whether it is something they are willing and able to accept or not. Also, if you have received any related messages or have anything to add to this narrative, please share your experience in the comments”
Wow! I have to admit, I am impressed with Severin’s writing, and even more so with his ability to keep an objective perspective when dealing with his own {seemingly crazy, going by society’s standards} experiences.
Like me, Severin has his own experiments going when it comes to astral projection (he’s even got a you tube channel up at that talks about that subject a bit more in depth if anyone is interested: Scientific Illuminism Institute – YouTube) Seems to be a rarity in this day and age when dealing with messages communicated in the non physical domain.
Again, when we start peeling back some of the core aspects of Severin’s experience, we find some similarities with the “secret chiefs” and my Elder Guardians, the idea that both groups don’t want to see us go extinct on account of being a bunch of dumb apes (for the umpteenth time, according to Severin’s Watcher), and that there is room for improvement when it comes to our cognitive processing abilities.
Then there is the idea that these Watchers are slowly expanding people’s consciousness to effectively be able to see what astral projectors see when they are off galavanting around the astral planes…. Which reminds me (taken from my part 3):
“{The Unseen 5 Leader} mentioned that the organization’s numbers used to be quite significantly higher; the recent (past 1000 years) decline in its numbers meant that the 5 of them were under a substantial logistics workload, even when operating from this higher state of consciousness. {The Unseen 5 Leader} was the only full time operator, after all. Thus an additional task of mine included making their presence known to those with astral projection/ lucid dreaming abilities.{The Unseen 5 Leader} was concerned people with these skills didn’t take them as seriously as I did. He made a point of telling me the astral planes weren’t there just for people to go buzzing around on a holiday away from physical reality. They were the frontlines of a very real non physical war where the weapon of choice was being targeted directly at human consciousness.”
Severin told me that since posting this on the on that particular astral projection group that he has had it confirmed by more than a dozen other people who have had similar contact experiences, and suggests “there’s definitely some meat on those bones”. He also suggested there is a definite ET element to this, but suggests “people don’t realise they are travelling astrally, not physically”.
So the “Watchers” (take note of this terminology; I have found it a common terminology used by other abductees who understand the ET/ Astral relationship, along with “the Others”) are planning on merging the non physical and physical planes eh?
And yeah, I could see how if you’d never astral projected before that this might come across as total bullshit and insanity. But if more than one person are saying the same thing, then it’s a good bet that argument goes out the window. In case you missed my last article, my wife, SD, was also given similar information.
That article also points to some more consistency in this narrative from the perspective of two ancient cultures. Here’s a piece I didn’t add that gives a bit of back story to her experiences.
“Again I was walking the dog behind the oval at the mud pits, and there was a man just standing at the top of this small ridgeline with a German shepherd. The most off putting thing was that wherever they looked, it was at the same time like both of them were synchronized robots or something; when the man would turn his head the dog would turn it as well like they were one entity. Charlie was going about his business and then when we got to that bit where they were – you had to go up and over this little cliff and down into a gully – he just stopped, his heckles went up and he walked backwards out of the gulley when he saw them. I turned around and followed Charlie (the dog) because it was just strange and creepy.
That was the first time I physically saw that guy, and that is when the weird dreams started; they were of that person or dude, or whatever he was telling me weird things about different times and places; that was how I formerly met him.
He had a scar down one side of his face that he apparently got in some war. I ended up calling him Vince after a TV show with a similar looking guy. The things he would talk about seemed like they were in reference to astral worlds.
Vince would tell me things to do with a flood and the Fae race. He reminded me that my soul was not a typical person soul – this had been revealed to me by the creatures around my bed. He explained there are four different types of human so to speak. Ones that have souls from the beings from before (when the astral and physical planes were one thing); some are the typical ape descendant, one is a hybrid race that comes from what I assumed at the time he meant as being dinosaurs, and the other one is similar to what I now know to be the Nordic type.
He said they were the four types of human that live on the planet currently, and there will come a time in my life where people will find out about it, and that it is important to remember which one I am, because there will be a lot of bullshit and people will try to tell me that I am something that I am not, and to remember that having a Witch’s power is very significant. It was because of him I found out about the astral war; he told me all about it.
What he told me was that the astral war has been going on for quite some time; pretty much there is the equivalent of what biblical orientated people would assume are angels and demons but they aren’t. They are the same race split in two, one half is fighting for the merge of the astral and physical worlds to come back,one is fighting against it to keep it separated. My people/ race were originally very powerful because of their magical abilities but then another race came into it and decided that because of their science they were superior. The human races are new because the science race is one of the ones who do all the manipulative things to everyone through technology. They have also used their tech to create certain types of people. The problem is those types of beings don’t have the ability to create soul energy from nothing, whereas the people who were my people were able to create soul energy.
The gist I got, was that there are some beings who have souls and who can have children who have souls and then there are some who cannot: the ones who don’t have souls, want one because when their life ends they are gone. So they are trying to pretty much steal and take the magic part of the DNA that creates souls; there is apparently a section of DNA – a tiny piece – that dictates whether or not someone has a soul complex or not.
So that is what the war is literally over, the ones who don’t have the souls enslaved the people who do, and forced them into camps raped them , did experiments on them and tortured them for thousands of years.
The factions in the astral that are now trying to fix the problem are trying to wake up the whole physical realm to this other thing that is going on, because at the moment they are the only realm that knows that there is more than just themselves; they are trying to wake up people in the physical plane to the fact that there is another 12 planes of existence (13 altogether). Half of the issue is that these four races on earth are all from different factions and the DNA from some of them has the ability to open the veils and join the astral with the physical – they are the keys.
The problem is that the ones that have been pretty much making dummy people to try and figure out how to make a soul have very conveniently built into their people this weird obsession with energy so they can be manipulated by it; so they can and will hinder, hurt and kill those who are the keys trying to access that.
Apparently the keys are given a guard so when they unlock the key part of themselves they are therefore guarded continuously from then on, because they become more vulnerable physically when they are spiritually awoken. Vince allegedly was my first guard before the physical one came (DM).
Rather than rehash the whole transcription that I did include in that article, lets just take some key paragraphs:
“Firstly the Fae (faery) beings were on earth. At the same time there were various types of humans (Neanderthal included) and at that time, the physical and astral realms were tethered to each other and you could walk through each easily like walking over a bridge or through a door; there was no need to fall asleep to detach the consciousness from the physical body because on earth they could manipulate the matter body to become light body and astral body at will. We will never get out if the merge doesn't happen. The amnesia will never go away if it doesn't happen. We will be stuck in an infinite reincarnation loop if it doesn’t happen.But the ones who separated the matter from the astral and their allies are doing everything to try and not let that happen. Some human officials know about this and are trying to stop the re-opening. Abrahamic religion is the enemy of all who want to be free of this trap.”
Do I really need to spell out the very obvious connections for you? This is quickly turning into some sort of weird love triangle between seemingly random folk (consider SD and me as one person) except replace word “love” with “occult information downloads”.
These three people alone seem to have a better idea of what’s going when it comes to the ET agenda than do the entire fucking community that has been established to “investigate” UFOs over the past 3 quarters of a century.
Yet they won’t be taken seriously because of a wall of ignorance when it comes to what occultism actually is.
But yeah I know ….laughing smiley faces and all that from the skeptic community.
Oh yeah speaking of skeptics, SD and I have a friend who, until very recently was a skeptic to anything ET or UFO related. Thinking it was all a load of complete bullshit her whole life kind of skeptic.
That was, of course until she started committing herself to daily meditation practices and then started seeing random light beings hanging around her yard – literally standing in the back yard just casually going about their business.
Now she believes she is in communication with her real mother and her dead friend, seemingly overnight, a real double whammy. Sounds like she got a dose of that astral sight Severin Mentioned.
There are various other stories with striking similarities I have come across over the years that I either don’t have permission to reproduce here or was too short sighted to bother copying down.
Point is, they are there if your initiative extends beyond lifting a finger and clicking on a laughing face emoticon. What we can distill from these stories is that higher order information in regards to earth’s history is being given to these people who have a background in either astral projection, lucid dreaming, or transcendental meditation, in pretty much the exact same way myself and SD having being accessing similar information, or by similar non physical entities. The occult theme is a very strong connector of these stories.
We know from the Domain commander and my Grand Elder Guardian that lucid dreamers are considered extremely valuable assets because they can act as conduits for these non physicals to contact the physical world, as well as detach consciousness and move about through the greater universe:
“A person with the ability to conduct “lucid dreaming” has a special and unique skill set that enables them to be a mission critical asset. However, this kind of asset should not be meaninglessly squandered, but rather should be briefed on a specific target and then act in coordination with other unified forces to achieve a very specific outcome” Answers from The Domain from questions generated 18SEP21 (metallicman.com)
“Apparently, according to these Elders, anyone who demonstrated these abilities were held in high regard by them, as it allowed them the opportunity to communicate with those back on the physical plane without it being compromised by external forces.”
[daegonmagus] - Part 1 - Exploration of the Non-Physical Reality (metallicman.com)
Tool
And then there’s these lyrics from the band Tool, who just so happen to be a bunch of Occultists (the drummer’s dad was a Freemason) and Lucid dreamers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zRLakTHcX0) who me and SD have both met in numerous LDs (The singer Maynard, was actually getting annoyed at her for “not yet becoming lucid enough to talk to him in one of them”).
They are mentioned in a past brief article on MM. And let me just state I have also used LD to create a simulation of a Tool concert one night after going to a, you guessed it, Tool concert; it was fucking incredible I watched the whole thing from about a 25m above the crowd on top of a skyscraper. Anyways this song came out in the middle of 2019, several months before COVID was even a splinter in the minds of us all and is titled “Fear Innoculum”. It is off the album of the same name (not mentioned in that MM article):
Immunity, long Overdue. Contagion, I exhale you
Naïve, I opened up to you, venom and mania.
Now Contagion, I exhale you.
The Deceiver says, “You belong to me. You don’t wanna breathe the light of the others.
Fear the light. Fear the breath. Fear the othersfor eternity.”
But I hear them now. Inhale the clarity. I hear the venom in what you say.
Inoculated.
Bless this immunity.
Exhale. Expel. Recast my tale. Weave my allegorical elegy.
Enumerate all that I’m to do. Calculating steps away from you.
My own mitosis, growing through division from mania.
Exhale. Expel. Recast my tale. Weave my allegorical elegy.
Forfeit all control, you Poison, you Spectacle.
Exorcise the Spectacle. Exorcise the malady.
Exorcize the disparate poison for eternity.
Purge me and Evacuate the Venom & the Fear that binds me.
Your veil now, lift away.
I see you running.
Deceiver, chased away. A Long time coming.
It almost seems as though Tool {might have} been given some information about COVID prior to it happening through lucid dreaming and downloading some of that higher order information. Then there are their songs on that same album about a “Tempest” coming to fuck with the establishment, how we are spiritual “Pneuma”/ soul based entities bound to flesh that need to “wake up”, being too old to fight and laying down arms, stirring us from our slumber to call us to “arms and order”, culling the voices in our head that whisper us into psychopathy and having psychopathic tendencies against one another…..read the lyrics and tell me it’s not all one big fucking metaphor for this entire Metallicman site. The Tool Page: Fear Inoculum Lyrics (down.net)
But of course, Maynard (the singer/ lyricist) suggests he was just “very well informed” and not really predicting anything. And yeah I mean I get it. The last thing you want to do when you are a big rock star is go around admitting you believe in interdimensional entities contacting people through lucid dreaming, just in case people start thinking your fucking nuts and your fan base starts diminishing. Like the guy I talked to on a Tool fan group who couldn’t grasp the concept of the lyric “I sold my soul to make a record, dipshit” and the sigil of the Goetic spirit Astaroth that appears on that very disc (remember this it; will become relevant in a future articles).
It is not actually a proper song, but a remix of a call to Coast to Coast radio station back in 1997 from an apparent ex Area 51 employee who began telling Art Bell that ETs were “extra dimensional entities” that had infiltrated various levels of the US government, military and space (NASA) sectors.
This government and this military apparently knew about “coming chaotic events” and could have been moving people to safer locations but were choosing not to in order to allow better control over the survivors.
The call apparently got cut off half way through, and the station went down, if I recall correctly.
The are those who suggest it was real, and those who suggested it was a hoax that touched on some shit the US government {at the time} didn’t want people knowing about, hence the reason for the apparent media blackout that happened half way through it.
Is it just another coincidence that Tool tacked this on to the end of an album about alchemy and spiritual evolution through concepts established by Carl Jung, who was also an apparent lucid dreamer?
Then there is their song Rosetta Stoned off their 10 000 days album which seems to be a piss take of a seemingly normal guy’s interaction with “almond shaped eyed ETs” that told him a bunch of important stuff he forgot to write down; it actually sounds a lot like what my experiences would have become, if you replace the almond eyes with long beards and took my dream journal away from next to my bed. It’s not like Myself and MM deal with our experiences through well placed humour or anything….
And Danny Carey, the drummer launching his Crowley inspired “Lam ET” clothing line. If you don’t know who or what the fuck a Lam is, don’t worry, we will get into it a bit further down. It’s a bit of a “grey” area, wink wink.
Faaip De Oad is apparently an Enochian word – remember that Angelic language I told you about that was transcribed by Edward Kelly as his associate John Dee sat in trance and allegedly communicated with the angel Enoch?
Occult societies such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn also dedicated much time and meditation to this language – Israel Regardie, Aleister Crowley’s secretary, includes a whole section about the Enochian calls and the “watchtowers” in his book, The Golden Dawn (let’s not get this confused with the Greek Neo Nazi Political party, which came long after) that Crowley and the order were using at the beginning of the 20thcentury.
And this isn’t just a passing reference; this was part of the actual curriculum Golden Dawn initiates were expected to study once they reached the higher ranks of the order on their quest to become Magisters Templi (Masters of the Temple) which was only achievable upon death. There are {allegedly} entire planes one can access through astral projection by using these calls, in which one experiences a rush of energy and possible contact with other wordly beings.
Crowley allegedly got so good at using them that he was able to access almost all of these planes pretty much at will. I, personally, have never bothered with them. I have been doing similar since I was 8 years old; why over complicate something I already knew?
After the Golden Dawn disbanded, Crowley would then go on to run the Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of the Oriental Temple/ OTO), where again much of these occult philosophies would take root.
While a whole article can be written about Crowley and his antics and the secret societies he was part of (and yeah, it’s coming) the important thing to note here is that Severin is a former member of the OTO.
This strengthens what the leader of the Unseen 5 told me back in November 2016; that those with astral projection and lucid dreaming capabilities are being prepared for 1stcontact by these non physical organisations.
It seems to me that the astral based Unseen 5 organisation I was initiated into are the ones in control of this whole operation, and are {possibly} responsible for seeding the curriculums of these Hermetic Societies into the minds of their members back as far as they can be traced (Ancient Egypt and Thoth/ Hermes).
Damn, we are covering a lot of ground here.
Let’s cover some more:
Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society again strengthens this occult/ non physical based contact connection. Unbeknownst to me at the time, it was Blavatsky who actually suggested the idea of the Ascended Masters/ Great White Brotherhood that I was studying around the time I was contacted by the Elder Guardians. Blavatsky literally wrote the book on “secret initiatory knowledge” – The Secret Doctrine – and claimed these traditions were passed along to her by a group of highly enlightened yogi’s, which she called the Mahatmas, that were living in Tibet. This concept of Secret Masters (or chiefs as Severin calls them) was further expanded upon by CW Leadbeater, who continued on the society after Blavatsky’s death. If you have ever read up on Saint Germain or Jesus being an Ascended Master/ part of the GWB then you can take comfort in the fact that Blavatsky, an Occultist whose notoriety rivalled that of Crowley, was touting these ideas the same time Jack the Ripper was running around London killing prostitutes.
That article raises some very good points, though I would have suggested Crowley was the killer based on some similarities I found with his hand writing and the letters left by old Jack, even if he was only a teenager at the time (I am actually writing a fictional book about this if I ever find the time to finish it).
Regardless of whether Crowley was correct in his assumptions or not, Blavatsky had something to say when it came to the 7 root races of earth that she obtained through “astral clairvoyance”. I find it interesting what she said about the 1st and 6th Root Race:
‘The first root race (Polarian)
The first root race was “ethereal”, i.e. they were composed of etheric matter. They reproduced by dividing like an amoeba. Earth was still cooling at that time. The first mountain to arise out of the stormy primeval ocean was Mount Meru.”– Root race – Wikipedia
Kind of like what the Wandjina Wunggurr peoples of North Western Australia said about the Wandjina spirits eh, before painting pictures of them all over the fucking desert, that looked a just little bit like the Greys. Similar to this non physical entity that apparently contacted Crowley, after he conducted a ritual to “create a portal between the stars to let it in”, I suppose. Crowley thought Lam to be the spirit of a dead Tibetan Monk:
It gets interesting when you read Blavatsky’s {somewhat racially bias} entry on the 5th root race:
The fifth root race (Aryan)
Early beginnings of the Aryan root race
Blavatsky asserted humanity is now in the fifth or Aryan root race, which Theosophists believe to have emerged from the previous fourth root race (Atlantean root race) beginning about 100,000 years ago in Atlantis. (According to Powell, when Madame Blavatsky stated the Aryan root race was 1,000,000 years old, she meant that the souls of the people that later physically incarnated as the first Aryans about 100,000 years ago began to incarnate in the bodies of Atlanteans 1,000,000 years ago.[13] However, another way of interpreting this is that Nature began to create the Aryan race before the final cataclysms.) Theosophists believe the Aryan root race was physically progenerated by the Vaivasvatu Manu, one of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom. The present-day ethnic group most closely related to the new race is the Kabyle. The small band of only 9,000 people constituting the then small Aryan root race migrated out of Atlantis in 79,797 BC. The bards of the new white root-race poetically referred to the new race as being moon-colored.[19] A small group of these Aryan migrants from Atlantis split from the main body of migrants and went south to the shore of an inland sea in what was then a verdant and lush Sahara where they founded the “City of the Sun”. The main body of migrants continued onwards to an island called the “white island” in the middle of what was then an inland sea in what is now the Gobi desert, where they established the “City of the Bridge”.[20] (The “City of the Bridge” was constructed directly below the etheric city called Shamballa where Theosophists believe the governing deity of Earth, Sanat Kumara, dwells; thus, the ongoing evolution of the Aryan root race has been divinely guided by the being Theosophists call “The Lord of the World”.)
The esoteric name of the whole of the present land surface of Earth, i.e. the World Island, the Americas, the Australian continent and Antarctica taken as a whole is Krauncha.[8]
Blavatsky connects physical race with spiritual attributes constantly throughout her works:
The intellectual difference between the Aryan and other civilized nations and such savages as the South Sea Islanders, is inexplicable on any other grounds. No amount of culture, nor generations of training amid civilization, could raise such human specimens as the Bushmen, the Veddhas of Ceylon, and some African tribes, to the same intellectual level as the Aryans, the Semites, and the Turanians so called. The ‘sacred spark’ is missing in them and it is they who are the only inferior races on the globe, now happily – owing to the wise adjustment of nature which ever works in that direction – fast dying out. Verily mankind is ‘of one blood,’ but not of the same essence. We are the hot-house, artificially quickened plants in nature, having in us a spark, which in them is latent.”[21] … Esoteric history teaches that idols and their worship died out with the Fourth Race, until the survivors of the hybrid races of the latter (Chinamen, African Negroes, &c.) gradually brought the worship back. The Vedas countenance no idols; all the modern Hindu writings do.[22]
Generally speaking, a large percentage of the people who live in the time of the period of the fifth root race are part of the fifth root race. However Blavatsky also opines that some Semitic peopleshave become “degenerate in spirituality”. She asserted that some peoples descended from the Lemurians are “semi-animal creatures”. These latter include “the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians.” There are also “considerable numbers of the mixed Lemuro-Atlantean peoples produced by various crossings with such semi-human stocks — e.g., the wild men of Borneo, the Veddhasof Ceylon, most of the remaining Australians, Bushmen, Negritos, Andaman Islanders, etc.”[23]All these aforementioned groups mentioned by Blavatsky, except the Borneians, are part of what in the late 19th and most of the 20th century was called the Australoid race(except for the Bushmen, part of the Capoid race), both of which races, as noted above, were believed by traditional Theosophists to have been descended from the Lemurians
In case you didn’t get it, those underlined parts are very synonymous with what Airl said and which I highlighted in the article about the Wandjina spirits:
“These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta [ii] (Footnote) and Lemuria [iii] (Footnote). Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary “polar shift”, [iv] (Footnote) many thousands of years before the current “prison” population started to arrive. Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia (it’s ok I rarely bother with footnotes either).” – Alien Interview
Bet you didn’t realise the Theosophical society were also indirectly involved in Airl’s interrogation at Roswell, long after Blavatsky turned to bones and dust, huh?
“Over the next several days a psychic research scientist from back East was flown to the base to interview the alien. Her name was Gertrude something or other. I don’t recall the last name. On another occasion an Indian clairvoyant named Krishnamurti came to the base to try to communicate with the alien. Neither one was successful at getting the alien to communicate anything. I was personally not able to communicate telepathically with either of these people either, although I did think that Krishnamurti was a very kind and intelligent gentleman. ” – Alien Interview
Krishnamurti went on to become a Jesus like figure known as Matraya to the Theosophical society, which is even included in Spencer’s foot notes (#33) in Alien Interview. Krishnamurti ended up rejecting the Theosophist claim he was the “world teacher” much to their dissatisfaction, to which Leadbeater basically said the “Messiah came and it was a total fucking failure”:
What Spencer didn’t include in that footnote was that there was another Krishnamurti (unrelated) of Indian descent who was also associated with the Theosophical society during the same period and who fits the criteria of a clairvoyant much more than Jiddu.
This particular Krishnamurti even had experience training with yogi’s in Tibet over seven summers.
Seriously, read about his philosophy on thought and tell me it doesn’t sound similar to my meditation of the stillness of the mind found in my 1stlucid dreaming lesson. He seems like a more likely candidate to try and get the ET to talk than someone who was a “dim-witted child with a cool aura”:
“I have no teaching. There is nothing to preserve. Teaching implies something that can be used to bring about change. Sorry, there is no teaching here, just disjointed, disconnected sentences. What is there is only your interpretation, nothing else. For this reason there is not now nor will there ever be any kind of copyright for whatever I am saying. I have no claims.[23]I am forced by the nature of your listening to always negate the first statement with another statement. Then the second statement is negated by a third and so on. My aim is not some comfy dialectical thesis but the total negation of everything that can be expressed.”- U. G. Krishnamurti - Wikipedia
And…
”Once you start catching these thoughts, try experimenting with neutralising them with their polar opposites.When there is a “gnawing feeling” that you should react a certain way, take a breath and just observe it passively.The human mind has a myriad of triggers that professionals have learnt how to push and prod. Unfortunately for you, they don’t stop being pushed just when an advertisement has run its course through your head.This is how you learn how to deactivate them. By doing so you will be teaching yourself to be less prone to manipulation whilst in the void space.
You will strengthen your psychological disposition towards dealing with whatever the dream state throws at you. This is a big part of what occult philosophy is about.”
-[daegonmagus] - Part 8 - Lucid Dreaming Lesson 1: The Lucid Void Space and The Three Meditations (metallicman.com)
If you think this rabbit hole is getting weird, then allow me to point you in the direction of the Aetherius society, headed by self proclaimed yoga master George King.
The Aetherius society was an offshoot based primarily on the Theosophical societies beliefs, established in the mid 1950s by King.
Whilst the Theosophical society didn’t come right out and say the non physical entities they were involved with were ETs, (until much later, any way) the Aetherius Society did.
In fact, the whole fucking premise behind it was that King came into contact with non physical extra terrestrial intelligences that he called the Cosmic Masters during his marathon yoga sessions.
It is, for all intents and purposes these days considered a UFO religion. I came across them after trying to figure out who the Unseen 5 were. Essentially King and another 4 Adepts were responsible for entering into the astral planes and evicting an alien presence that dwelt there that was fucking with humanity without their knowledge, what they equated to as being “Satan” (I wondered if the Aetherius Society and the Unseen 5 were the one and the same given they had a very similar modus operandi and a very similar headcount).
Now I have to admit, if it wasn’t for my own interactions with the Unseen 5, this story would have seemed somewhat ridiculous.
Where it gets even weirder is that there is a declassified FBI document about Nikola Tesla being originally from Venus, where King is featured. For some reason, the FBI never slapped a big red BOGUS sticker all over it like they did with every page of the Majestic 12 documents.
While the document seems to be the very real investigation into plans for Tesla’s death ray being stolen by his nephew after his death and dropped into the hands of the Soviets, it also briefly mentions George King in several paragraphs, who seems to have predicted with pin point accuracy where and when UFOs were going to land all over America.
This was included as a part of a magazine issue of the “Cosmic Voice”, which seemingly was important to the Tesla investigation because of reports A woman named Margaret Storme (lol), was using a radio type machine invented by Tesla in 1938 for “Interplanetery communication purposes”.
Also because the Magazine suggested King was told by the non physical intelligences he was in contact with that Tesla was from Venus.
I can’t find any subsequent information on any sightings happening on those dates King suggested America would be visited by UFOs, though the bit on Tesla reminds me of what Airl said:
“A few officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force have taken it upon themselves to provide technology to Earth during their off duty time. These officers leave their “doll” at the space station and, as an IS-BE, assume or take over a biological body on Earth. In some cases an officer can remain on duty while they inhabit and control other bodies at the same time.
This is a very dangerous and adventurous undertaking.
It requires a very able IS-BE to accomplish such a mission, and return to base successfully. One officer who did this recently, while continuing to attend to his official duties, was known on Earth as the electronics inventor, Nicola Tesla. “
and…
Here’s another paragraph of King suggesting the aliens had protocols in place to make sure we pay off our debts through diseases and epidemics. Can’t imagine that any of that is applicable in this day and age:
In fact George King seems to pop up quite a bit in this document. I specifically remember two agents mentioning him and the “good fight almost being won”. Whether or not it is bullshit and he was a fraud I’ll leave to the reader to judge.
Blavatsky at least has other people who have validated much of her information. Like Alice Bailey, Benjamin Crème and Rudolph Steiner to mention a few.
Speaking of Steiner this is a quote of something he said almost a hundred years ago. :
“ In the future, we will eliminate the soul with medicine. Under the pretext of a ‘healthy point of view’, there will be a vaccine by which the human body will be treated as soon as possible directly at birth, so that the human being cannot develop the thought of the existence of soul and Spirit.
To materialistic doctors, will be entrusted with the task of removing the soul of humanity. As today, people are vaccine against this disease or disease, so in the future, children will be vaccinated with a substance that can be produced precisely in such a way that people, thanks to this vaccination, will be immune to being subjected to the “madness” of spiritual life. He would be extremely smart, but he would not develop a conscience, and that is the true goal of some materialistic circles.
With such a vaccine, you can easily make the etheric body loose in the physical body. Once the etheric body is detached, the relationship between the universe and the etheric body would become extremely unstable, and man would become an automaton, for the physical body of man must be polished on this Earth by spiritual will. So, the vaccine becomes a kind of arymanique force; man can no longer get rid of a given materialistic feeling. He becomes materialistic of constitution and can no longer rise to the spiritual “.Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925);”
Oh and by the way, in case you were wondering, that George Van Tassel guy in that Cosmic Voice paragraph of the FBI document is where that mysterious Ashtar Command group that has been {supposedly} contacting starseeds and pirating British radio stations originated from:
The point I am trying to make here is that there is heavy evidence to suggest occultists practicing the arts of astral projection and/ or lucid dreaming have potentially been contacted by non physical entities and given information on an alternate history of our earth for at least the past 140ish years. Actually I can go one better than that.
To summarise:
My assumption is that any ancient culture that incorporated dreaming into its belief structure would have at some point made contact with non physical entities such as I did, assuming they likely developed advanced lucid dreaming practices.
I would suggest that the dreaming cultures are no longer the prime targets for the non physical entities, due to the invasions of white man into their territories and the assimilation of their beliefs into those of the invading parties (this has also happened with Theosophy in recent years –). Occultists with a background in astral projection and lucid dreaming seem like the next obvious choice for contact, due to them being “natural shamans.” And according to the Unseen 5, they are.
It seems logical that if an alternate history is being presented to modern day occultists, then a more complex version of that history was, in all probability, given to these cultures. It also seems logical that any secret societies that had astral projection/ lucid dreaming practices embedded into their curriculum, were likely contact hotspots. The question then becomes what is the agenda of the contacting entities?
The common underlying themes being presented to modern day occultists that is comparable with these ancient cultures is the idea of the astral and non physical worlds being “merged” together, and the idea of the matrix soul prison.
Blavatsky’s knowledge seems to present this history in the form of an agenda to create specific races of people and the expected schedule of evolution, ie one of these non physical race’s hybridisation/ breeding programs. When looked at in this context, SD’s and my experiences of the same programs, and the idea that astral bodies are being modified to either suppress or support this outcome becomes apparent.
There is also evidence to suggest knowledge of viruses being used by these non physicals to deliberately “steer” humanity one way or the other being handed down “for karmic neutralising purposes” in the words of King, or to “better enslave us” in the words of Steiner (my experiences suggest Steiner is more on point with this).
Much of this is corroborated by Airl, the Commander, and the operations of MAJestic.
The Unseen 5 seem to be the ones in control of this whole occultist contact operation, going by what was told to me by their leader, and the responsibilities given to me by “him”. Theosophy hints at who exactly this organisation could be, which I will start digging int in a later article.
From my conversation with the leader of the Unseen 5, my understanding is that there are certain consciousnesses being primed for reincarnation whose astral bodies have been manipulated specifically to allow them greater access to their past life memories that will begin to pop up in great numbers in the general population.
These people will be a collection of Nikola Tesla like consciousnesses that will be able to connect with and bring forth higher information more easily. I would package this in with what Severin termed as “astral sight”.
I predict there will be those, like mine and SD’s friend who will begin seeing into the astral realms on a regular basis, and there will be those that will establish new technologies on account of connecting with their Higher Selves/ beings that exist therein; the Tesla’s of the new world.
Even Crowley seemed to be aware of a similar operation in what he deemed as the New Aeon, or the “Coming of the Age of Aquarius”.
Severin and I have similar also timeframes for the effects of this project to start becoming noticeable within human population – 2 to 3 generations from now.
As I was never initiated into any of these physical based organisations – and achieved contact with my non physical handlers solely through my own private studies – I am not bound by any oaths of secrecy or allegiance to them, hence I can talk about my understanding of them and this agenda freely.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I am correct in my assumptions here either; making the Unseen 5 and their agenda known to “magicians”, and acting in a recruiting capacity for them was what I was ultimately tasked with – it didn’t actually involve anything to do these secret societies, such as the Theosophical Society or the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn even though the curriculum of said societies is what I was studying.
This is all research I have conducted after trying to understand who they are – I welcome any feedback from people who have a greater understanding of these subjects.
I am covering a lot of ground here so for now I think this will do.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please enjoy this video to get the feeling of what it is like in China right now. It is the New Years Eve. It’s a special time; a magical time. This video captures it exactly. Please enjoy.
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The following is the 17th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.
-MM
Part 16 –SD’s Experience With More Consciousness Facilities Courtesy of A Shamanistic Recipe For Lucid Dreaming
Ok, it is late and I am tired, and this article was only supposed to be a brief couple of thousands words. Then all of a sudden I found it blowing out to much more than that, taking me several days, most of which I seemed possessed by this frustrative force that was itching to speak through me. So yeah, uh, apologies for the title.
So here’s basically what happened a few days ago. I was sitting there minding my own business, probably drinking a coffee or eating whatever left over remnants in the fridge could have remotely constituted food, when SD walks in putting on her best authoritative voice.
“I am making you something that you are going to drink that will help you talk to your ancestors through astral projection”.
Uh…um, ok.
Turns out she’d been reading this new book she bought herself for Christmas “The Poison Path Herbal” which she tells me is quite good read. It’s apparently got everything from healing poisons (because I guess all medicines are poisons in the right dosages) to poisons for initiating shamanic like visions.
And these aren’t recipes using everyday ingredients you can find around the house either; some of them call for using things like nightshades, and hembane etc as the active “hallucinogenic” ingredient. If you don’t know what these are I suggest steering right the way clear of them (and no I am not talking about tomatoes or fucking blueberries here either).
Handy hint; apparently foxglove can be used as a heart suppressant at 0.2mg. At 0.3mg, however it’ll caused your heart to stop working altogether. So yeah, small margin of error. Best not to fuck about with any of it.
Now back to me.
An opportunity to ingest some unknown poison to hopefully hallucinate myself into an LD; where do I sign up?
Ok no it wasn’t really like that; SD has a very good understanding and respect of trees and plants, to the point that she talks to them. So when she decides to use them for Shamanic purposes, it is a safe bet she has done her research thoroughly before getting me involved with her antics.
Turns out it was only some mild ingredients she had in mind; a tincture of wormwood and mugwort steeped in water for a good few hours – nothing as toxic as hembane or datura, or fox glove thank fuck.
The idea was to drink it half an hour before bed, go to sleep, in which it would hopefully do its mind expansion job and induce an out of body experience.
Woohay. Or in the words of Professor Frink from the Simpsons: you put the wormwood in the tea, mix it with the mugwort, carry the 2, and the DWIVEN.
I guess I must have built up a tolerance to wormwood in my absinthe drinking days, because – aside from the green fairy’s serenading me to sleep (I joke) – nothing really happened. I had some vague dream about passing an old friend, in my home town but that was about it.
Nothing spectacular.
SD on the other hand, after having only a small sip of the tincture (I sculled the whole lot) told me the next morning it very much seemed to have worked for her.
She had a vivid dream in which she eventually became lucid in that seemed to involve more of the consciousness brainwashing facilities. It was, essentially another dream where higher order information {eventually} came through.
SD and I have this thing going on that whenever one of us has one of these experiences with higher order information, we share it with the other as soon as we get a chance.
So when she comes and says, “I had some interesting shit going on last night” the first thing I do is grab my computer and transcribe her word for word as she goes through what happened.
Usually I can type at lightning speed when I need to, but alas sometimes I miss the tangents she goes off on as she remembers things during the recall.
As a result, some things get missed out, some things get repeated, but generally speaking I am able to capture the body of her experience word for word.
Here’s a transcript of her “shamanic” experience. There is some interesting things in it.
The transcript
“It started off as a normal dream, not lucid, because I was under the influence of some drug.
To begin with, at the very very beginning of the dream, it was just like we were in this town. I was with some other women, (you weren’t there DM) .
And they (our captors), were women, the equivalent of nuns.
They told us the place we were at was a school, but it wasn’t.
The area was equivalent to a couple of fields with dry grass and trees, nothing beyond that – it was really obvious it was a “black void” – yet they told us there was more beyond it.
Some of the others couldn’t see there was nothing beyond, if they were told there was something there they would see it.
It is like everyone was travelling, but in reality it wasn’t more than a field’s worth of travel, the nuns just told everyone we’d been travelling for days and everyone went with it.
Something happened to one of the people, so that the women had to do something; we had to then go to “the airport terminal”.
And one of the others said she was homesick too. I am not sure if it was a man or woman; it was like it was either or and didn’t matter in that place.
I remember not being the same as them but they were trying to make me into one of them. So anyway we went through a portal that was in one of the houses at that field place.
A mirror.
And we ended up at the airport.
And it was exactly the same as an airport here – like the layout and everything – but instead of walking onto an aeroplane you walked into a portal in which you could see what was on the otherside.
The portals were just screens, like the movie theatre.
It was the same shit but an airport. The ones we were using were not being used to brain wash people, though there were screens playing stuff to brainwash like the theatre in different areas.
It all depended on the area you were in and who the person was, where they came from etc. There were different portals for different regions of the world, Australia, America etc.
All of the American ones you had to watch a little movie before you went through the screen and that was the brain washing thing.
While they were watching others would come in and give them a bunch of medicine to make them forget….that was the amnesia shit; the amnesia engine was not a machine but a collective of people who go around dosing people with an amnesiac like drug.
All of the checkpoints up until the Australia one you had to see this TV screen and have this medicine.
So, basically just getting to the Australian one you had to be dosed several times. But at the actual portals in the Australian region you didn’t have to be sat down and dosed; you just went in.
The whole Aussie section was pretty quiet and didn’t have guards.
It was like the race of beings that were controlling that section were afraid of the {non physical} beings that lived in the Australian area. They were the same ones dosing everyone and had blue eyes and pale blonde hair, not tall and tanned – not sure if they were Nordics.
I was walking to a portal and began speaking Noongar (Australian Aboriginal Language local to a region of WA) to another guy who was also captured.
I don’t remember who he was, but he also had blonde hair and blue eyes. I don’t think he was a bad one.
All the other captors did not know how to translate this language at all.
One of the guards was trying to explain that this was a language that cannot be translated, as it is too ancient.
When we got to the Australian section it was pretty much empty, no people busy doing shit like in a normal airport. It was pretty quiet, with only a couple of guards standing next to a couple of portals; no drugs or movie theatre things, barely any people.
The guards were taller than regular people, and all wore hooded masks and kit like from my (previous) covid premonition.
When I got to a portal that looked like a mirror that was looking into a mirror like at a local café, I said” oh yeah I gotta go in this one”.
The guy I was with was the only other person with me, because the others seemed to not follow into the Aussie section; they just wouldn’t come in.
One of the nuns said ”no no, there’s things in there we can’t go near it”.
And I remember one of the nuns saying “you are brave going back there” like they really desperately wanted me to stay with them.
So I got to the portal and the dude I was with who was talking Noongar, he said, “oh I am not going in that one, I am going in a different one”.
Where’s that take you, I said “Mundaring”, (local town) and he replied he didn’t know it.
He went in his which I am pretty sure was in the Pilbara (North Western Australia).
The gist I got was that Australian Aboriginals are an ancient race that have been here before anything else and cannot be manipulated by any of the races who came here afterwards.
We were captives, so it was unlikely any of the captives were Aboriginals, as they needed to manipulate us in order to capture us.
Then I remember turning back to say something to the other people…it’s like the guards and I knew each other and the guard kind of said they are gone you are safe to go through right one.
To begin with I went into area I was knowing led to a portal, but I didn’t specifically go to the right one while they were watching; I was intentionally keeping it a secret.
And because WA is huge there are plenty of portals for it.
There was another thing with WA, they had wings/ terminals for each state, and there was much less traffic in WA and a lot less other beings willing to go there.
So not only is it isolated globally but also non physically.
I got the gist of the spirit beings that live here, created the Aboriginals which is why it is such a big deal they are beyond the knowledge of the captors.
So basically I jumped in the mirror and woke up, it was probably of a couple of seconds of random dream.
I was aware that that is what happens when you jump through the portals.
I was lucid from the moment I stepped through into the Western Australian section where they could not follow me anymore.
In the WA section there wasn’t any of those brain washing screens.
The second the drugs wear off you get this trickle of information that comes through and if someone says even the slightest thing to jolt your memory the trickles becomes a large flow of memories.
The amnesia thing is not here, it is there where they are keeping everyone; here (physical reality/earth) is the place that people have either chosen to come or been put in by others in an attempt to remember something or regain a part of themselves.
And then this little addendum based on many of her other LD experiences;
Addendum
This [Australian ] realm has things in it that fucks them (our captors) up. There are ISBE things but not all of them have souls.
Only those that have souls can go into earth bodies, the rest have to make their physical bodies in a lab like a robot.
Only the earth body things, can come here into the physical earth realm.
Non souls are trying to wipe out those with souls; they are drugging all the ones with souls and info and ancient knowledge and real truth etc of what actually happened in the beginning with all of the dream time stuff (Aboriginal Creation Myth), when the physical and non physical planes were merged.
All of the ones with souls are captives because of the ones who don’t have souls that want the greater access to everything.
There (airport terminal) is the simulation, here (physical earth) is real, is seen as extremely volatile and dangerous as the general toxic air part that can degrade parts of a persons consciousness.
But it is also the safest place for us captives to go to get away from the captors as they won’t come here.”
A further elaboration…
Well this just got interesting.
Maybe it is the reason SD and I are able to lucid dream and astral project more successfully than people in other parts of the world.
Because we are protected by a bunch of non physical spirits that created our Native people.
This reminds me of something Airl said in the Alien Interview:
“IS-BEs have been dumped on Earth from all over the galaxy, adjoining galaxies, and from planetary systems all over the "Old Empire", like Sirius, Aldebaron, the Pleiades, Orion, Draconis, and countless others.
There are ISBEs on Earth from unnamed races, civilizations, cultural backgrounds, and planetary environments.
Each of the various IS-BE populations have their own languages, belief systems, moral values, religious beliefs, training and unknown and untold histories.
These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta and Lemuria.
Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary "polar shift", many thousands of years before the current "prison" population started to arrive.
Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia.”
Then there was this article I stumbled across: (which I subsequently couldn’t access due to it “not being available in my area” for the first couple of tries):
“New research has revealed fascinating details about Aboriginal Australians and Pacific Islanders, who according to experts, carry the genetic material of an unknown human species.
The new research suggests people from Papua New Guinea and northeast Australia have traces of DNA belonging to an unidentified, extinct human species.
Apparently, there is still much that geneticists and scientists do not understand about this crucial moment in human history, and it seems that research on the subject is raising more questions than answers.
In 2016, researchers at Harvard Medical School published the findings of a comprehensive study of the human genome of all areas of the world and discovered something astounding about the Australian aboriginal population.
They appear to have genetic markers that indicate they are descendants of a yet unidentified human species.
“We’re missing a population, or we’re misunderstanding something about the relationships,” Ryan Bohlender, a statistical geneticist at the University of Texas, told Tina Hesman Saey at Science News.
Bohlender and his colleagues have been researching the amount of extinct hominid DNA that modern humans still carry today. To the surprise of many, they say they’ve found discrepancies in previous studies that suggest our mingling with Neanderthals and Denisovans isn’t the entire evolutionary story.
“Who this unknown group is we don’t know.”
It’s believed that between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, our ancestors migrated out of Africa, making contact with other hominid species inhabiting the Eurasian landmass. Experts believe that this contact left a mark on our species that is still present today.
“Our main goal is to understand how our race got to the point where it is, but in order to do that, we must first study the DNA of the ancient tribes,” explained Mallick Swapan, leading scientist of the study, and an expert who has been studying the origins of the human genome for most of his career.
He explained that the new study gathered the genetic data of 142 different human populations scattered around the world that was underrepresented in large-scale studies so far.
According to Swapan, the most incredible revelation of this new study is that the genetic code of the Australian Aborigines shows that they carry the DNA markers that indicate the ancient crossbred with an unknown “human” species.
Although it was initially suspected that unusual DNA markers might indicate that Aboriginal ancestors interbred with the elusive ancient species known as Denisovans, this hypothesis turned out to be incorrect.
After the analysis, scientists discovered that DNA markers were distinct from Denisovan markers, leading them to the conclusion that they had found traces of an entirely new form of ancient human species.
It is known that the native peoples of Australia are descendants of the first people who came to the continent from Africa about 50,000 years ago.
It has been assumed that aborigines were isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years and therefore scientists thought that their genetic code would be relatively homogeneous.
Surprisingly, this turned out not to be the case.
“The genetic signatures of an Australian Aboriginal from eastern Australia and Western Australia are as different as those of a person from Europe and an Asian person,” Swapan said.
The incredible diversity in the genetic code of the native peoples of Australia, in addition to the peculiar genetic marker that indicates that they interbred with an unknown human species in the past, indicates that there is still much more to discover about the ancient history of humanity.” - Australian Aboriginal people carry the DNA of an unknown human relative - Ancient Code (ancient-code.com)
Interesting. Let’s dig into this a little bit deeper.
Now, I am in no ways an expert when it comes to Aboriginal culture, but what I do know is that their ideologies are based around what they call the “Dreamtime”.
From the little I have read, according to Aboriginal Creation Myth, the Dreamtime was a period before physical reality came into existence.
It was a sort of vacuous nothingness containing the past present and future all at once that never ended.
The Aboriginals believed that the [non physical] spirits that existed in the Dream Time were the ones that created practically everything in this physical plane; the Aboriginal peoples themselves, the lands, rivers, rocks, plants, and animals were all said to have been a product of these spirits.
I seem to remember Airl taking about the Domain in a very similar context; Airl explained that IS-BEs have been around since before the beginning of the universe.
The reason they are called "immortal", is because a "spirit" is not born and cannot die, but exists in a personally postulated perception of "is - will be".
She was careful to explain that every spirit is not the same.
Each is completely unique in identity, power, awareness and ability.
The difference between an IS-BE like Airl and most of the IS-BEs inhabiting bodies on Earth, is that Airl can enter and depart from her "doll" at will.
She can perceive at selective depths through matter. Airl and other officers of The Domain can communicate telepathically. Since an IS-BE is not a physical universe entity it has no location in space or time. An IS-BE is literally, "immaterial".
They can span great distances of space instantly.
They can experience sensations, more intensely than a biological body, without the use of physical sensory mechanisms.
An IS-BE can exclude pain from their perception. Airl can also remember her "identity", so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!Time is a difficult factor to measure as it depends on the subjective memory of IS-BEs and there has been no uniform record of events throughout the physical universe since it began.
As on Earth, there are many different time measurement systems, defined by various cultures, which use cycles of motion, and points of origin to establish age and duration.
The physical universe itself is formed from the convergence and amalgamation of many other individual universes, each one of which were created by an IS-BE or group of IS-BEs.
The collision of these illusory universes commingled and coalesced and were solidified to form a mutually created universe.
Because it is agreed that energy and forms can be created, but not destroyed, this creative process has continued to form an ever-expanding universe of nearly infinite physical proportions. Before the formation of the physical universe there was a vast period during which universes were not solid, but wholly illusionary.
You might say that the universe was a universe of magical illusions which were made to appear and vanish at the will of the magician. In every case, the "magician" was one or more IS-BEs.
Many IS-BEs on Earth can still recall vague images from that period. Tales of magic, sorcery and enchantment, fairy tales and mythology speak of such things, although in very crude terms.”
- Alien Interview
Furthermore, it was said that these spirits, or ancestors, played a big part in the selection of sacred sites and how the people were to behave to one another, how food was to be distributed and the rites and rituals of the various tribes etc.
It was also said that during the Dreamtime, certain spirits were able to shapeshift into different animals.
These particular stories seem to change from tribe to tribe, but a common reference can be found in the Myth of the Great Rainbow Serpent, which was said to be one of the Dreamtime Spirits that came from within the earth to create the rivers and gorges as it weaved its way through the featureless landscape.
One of my kid’s favourite bed time books is the version of the Rainbow Serpent named Goorialla, as narrated by Dick Roughsey.
While most stories dealing with the Rainbow Serpent have an element attributing it to water – (rainbows formed from water fall sprays and rituals around water where rainbow like shells and stones are used).
Some researchers have suggested that these myths allude to a possible comet or meteor that fell to the ground, the “rainbow serpent” part being the comets tail.
Interestingly, the tribe from the Great Sandy Desert region of North Western Australia suggests a similar thing with their story of the Rainbow Serpent; that a star fell to earth and created the Wolfe Creek Crater, which the Serpent then took up residence in.
Sometimes this particular rendition includes a story about a hunter who chased a dingo into the crater only to get lost in a tunnel created by the serpent never to be found again, though the remains of the dingo were eventually found “spat out” after being eaten by the Rainbow Serpent.
For the tribe local to our region – the Noongar people – it is suggested the Rainbow Serpent pushed rocks and boulders around to create the trails of Mount Matilda, and was responsible for carving out the channel of the Avon River.
As a side note, the Avon River runs through a beautiful stretch of land called the Avon Valley.
There is an annual competition that is held along this river usually at the end of winter called the Avon Descent, which sees various boating competitors – people in kayaks, canoes and different speed boats etc – race down the river over a period of 2 or 3 days.
Given the rolling green hills in the middle of farmland pastures, the Avon Valley has become a haven for hot air ballooning and sky diving.
It is quite a “dreamy” place to go for a leisurely Saturday drive.
Speaking of dreamy, and getting back to the point of the article, the Aboriginal’s description of the dreamtime sounds a lot like what one can experience whilst lucid dreaming; a timeless void of nothingness where non physical “spirits” seem to hang out.
What is more, when we look at the importance of the Dream Time within Aboriginal culture, and compare it with other tribal cultures such as those of the Native Americans, we can start to see a theme emerging in regards to how important dreaming still is within these cultures.
Both groups would have their appointed Elders and Shamans who would employ the use of various plants and substances to help aid in their dream visions in a similar manner to what SD did prior to hers.
The Wandjina Paintings of North Western Australia
Now, while we are on the subject of the dreamtime and ideas about interactions with the [non physical] progenitors to the Australian Aboriginals, let’s take a look at some art by the Wanjina Wunggurr tribe of the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Unfortunately, I haven’t yet explored this place myself, as it is a 32 hr drive (and that’s straight, with no rest stops) North East of where I currently am, and most of that is bland, boring desert that is usually hotter than Hell in the summer, or too busy being blasted by hurricanes and floods in the other seasons.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t on my to do list though, assuming the local Aboriginals would even allow me into such a sacred site in the first place.
Apparently the Gibb River Road is really a Gem to behold when doing the “Big Lap”.
The paintings themselves are located in the mountainous region of the Kimberley, scattered throughout various caves, in quite hard to reach country.
They were first discovered by white man in 1883, when a man named George Grey stumbled across them after searching for inland water at the behest of the British Crown.
After losing a flock of sheep and a few dogs, Grey and company took refuge in one of the caves, presumably to escape the harsh elements, where they found some very curious images that had been painted high up – some almost 6 metres – on the walls of one of the many caves in the area.
According to Wikipedia, these paintings are between 3800 to 4000 years old, based on the broad stroke way they have been painted.
The paintings themselves depict a group of white, seemingly bald, mouthless, and earless beings with what appeared to be semi circular halos arranged on their heads. Oh, did I mention they had big black eyes:
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Firstly, I should point out that these paintings are scattered about an area expanding through 200,000 square kilometres of the Kimberley.
As a result, there are three tribes that have an intimate connection with them and the myths surrounding them; the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, and Wunumbal tribes.
These three tribes make up a cultural bloc referred to as the Wanjina Wunggurr, in which a fourth tribe – the Ngardi – are sometimes included.
According to the descendants of these tribes, the Wandjina were supernatural spirits that existed in the Dreamtime and created the physical world in a similar manner to the Rainbow Serpent.
In fact, some of the paintings include the Rainbow Serpent alongside the Wandjina spirits.
The depiction of the Wandjina without mouths is suggested to be either because the Wanjina were so powerful they didn’t need mouths to communicate, or because, due to their ability to make it rain, had they had mouths, the rains would never stop.
“The shared culture is based on the dreamtime mythology and law whose creators are the Wan[d]jina and Wunggurr “spirits”; the ancestors of these peoples.
The Wandjina paintings have common colours of black, red and yellow on a white background. The spirits are depicted alone or in groups, vertically or horizontally depending on the dimensions of the rock, and are sometimes depicted with figures and objects like the Rainbow Serpent or yams. Common composition is with large upper bodies and heads that may show eyes and nose, but typically no mouth. Two explanations have been given for this: they are so powerful they do not require speech and if they had mouths, the rain would never cease. Around the heads of Wandjina are lines or blocks of color, depicting lighting coming out of transparent helmets.[2]Today, the paintings are still believed to possess these powers and therefore are to be approached and treated respectfully. Each site and painting has a name. Indigenous people of the Mowanjum community repaint the images to ensure the continuity of the Wandjina's presence.[8] Annual repainting in December or January also ensures the arrival of the monsoon rains, according to Mowanjum belief.” - WikipediaSome of these paintings have been repainted so many times they are 40 layers deep. That’s atleast 400 years worth of tradition being kept up by the descendants of those who hold the original Wandjina story.
Well this is getting interesting now isn’t it?
An author named Erik Von Daniken certainly seemed to think so when he made the connection that the Wanjina spirits kinda looked a little bit those Greys everyone in the UFO community liked to talk about, and offered it as proof of the Ancient astronaut theory. I guess it didn’t help that the Wanjina Wunggurr people also suggested these beings as coming from the sky, causing the rains and floods, painting the pictures themselves before leaving via the same avenue. Or that the white guy that discovered them was also named Grey.
But of course, people with a degree in archaeology or anthropology, that took them only four years to get, know more than the descendants of the oldest known lineage on earth who have managed to pass down stories of their culture unchanged over thousands of years.
Take for example these guys from the University of Michigan’s Pesuodarchaeology class, fakearchaeology.com.
According to their site the project’s mission is to “explore how and why these [pseudo-archaeological] ideas emerged and took root in popular culture, public consciousness, and on the fringe of rational scholarly inquiry.
More importantly, the Fake Archaeology Wiki explores the impact they have on our rational and scientific understanding of the past and human culture.”
You can go on the Wikipedia styled page and read all their debunking of various things, one of which is the idea the Wandjina were anything other than a metaphor for weather, as depicted by a bunch of primitive savages that couldn’t tell the difference between some rain and a supernatural being:
“Deconstructing the Pseudoarchaeological NarrativeThe Weather and the WandjinaThe pseudoarchaeological narrative of the origin of the Wandjina Petroglyphs revolves around one major theme: the scientific ignorance of early human civilizations.
The proposition that the Wandjina were actually aliens visiting from a far away galaxy can be deconstructed by looking at documented archaeological evidence and cultural context.
Supporters of the ancient alien belief have established that the mythical powers of the Wandjina, which included abilities such as calling forth torrential rains, flooding, lightning and cyclones, were actually extremely advanced scientific weapons possessed by the travelers.
Research into the topic has revealed that the connection between Wandjina and the weather, specifically rain, developed after a period of intense drought that affected the region nearly 4,000 years ago. [8]
Evidence from a study done by researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia indicates that the mega-drought spanned at least 1200 years.
“Records shows the Kimberley region of northwest Australia underwent rapid environmental change in the mid-Holocene starting around 6300 yrs. B.P. when it transitioned from a tropical humid climate with intense summer monsoon to a much drier climate.
This new climate regime was associated with increased anticyclonic circulation over central and northern Australia allowing a significant increase in dust transport from central Australia to the Kimberley” [8]
The study also indicates that this period of intense dryness was “enhanced through positive feedbacks triggered by change in land surface condition and increased aerosol loading of the atmosphere leading to a weakening or failure of monsoon rains”. [8]
The end of the mega-drought was between 3,800 and 4,000 B.P. which also lines up with the emergence of the Wandjina style of petroglyphs.
The Aboriginal peoples’ reverence for the divine power of rain is an understandable progression in belief after a period of such extreme weather.
The concept that the elements were controlled by mythical beings is a common theme that can be seen in different belief systems across the globe (Norse, Greek, Mayan, etc.).
Given the native people of Kimberley’s understanding of the natural phenomenon and the limited information available, it would make sense for a group of individuals, who had struggled to survive in such hard conditions, to see the increase in rainfall as a divine gift and in turn begin to worship or revere these spiritual beings as saviors.
This logical leap is understandable given the human understanding of weather and climate at the time and does not indicate any intervention by extraterrestrial visitors.”
You know its funny though, I couldn’t find any entries on Noah or the flood, Moses parting the Red Sea, shroud of Turin, Ark of the Covenant, Jesus Christ, God, Angels, or anything else the bible (and its associated thumpers) like to tell us with unrelenting certainty was supposed to have taken place in the last few thousand years.
I guess we should just blindly trust the wisdom of a 2 thousand year old book written by various authors spanning over several periods of time, over the word of a {atleast} 50 000 year old tribe of people claiming they had a direct connection to creators of the physical plane through the dreamtime huh?
I am sorry, but if you are going to use your unfettered wisdom to “look into the things shape the beliefs of certain cultures”, then …
…I expect you to be looking into the religious beliefs that shape a society to the point our governments give their proponents big tax breaks to build temples of worship, for said beliefs, at the expense of people who don’t even believe in them.
But then again, I guess I can forgive the University of a state whose population is made up of 70% people who are orientated to believing in Christian Ideologies, majority of them being Roman Catholic.
This isn’t to suggest I don’t like people of these religions, moreso that there is an obvious perceptual bias when it comes to reading shit from debunking sites such as fakearchaelogy.com directed at ancient cultures and their belief systems.
It’s not like I am going to lose much sleep over a bunch of people who live on a different fucking continent to the people it apparently has an expert knowledge of. At least they got the name right, I suppose.
And while we are on the subject, I guess these “expert” anthropolgists didn’t see any value in extending their research into to what spurred these Christian Missionaries into contacting the “oldest continuing tribe on earth” and preaching to them that their traditional beliefs were “evil and akin to devil worship”:God is a Wandjina - Compass - ABC Religion & Ethics (seriously watch the video and try not to throw up at how carelessly “well meaners” tried to eradicate the Wandjina beliefs, simply because “they knew better”)
Guess it had to do with that “age” thing huh? So now we have the oldest continuing tribe on earth – which according to Airl, extends back 400 000 years who had something to say about the creators, and even drew some fucking pictures of them all over the Kimberley now tainted by the seemingly infant (in comparison) ideologies of a few missionaries that only dates back a little over a two thousand years.
And no one has thought to bring the mentality and psychological disposition of these missionaries into question during their anthropological studies, though they are quite happy investing in researchers to debunk those traditional, work of the devil beliefs?
I’d certainly be interested in a study into the “human” behaviour of those missionaries. Anyone else?
I call bullshit. #fakeanthropologyAfter all, it’s not like white people have a history of stepping on Aboriginal culture for the sake of their own greed or anything……oh wait a minute: Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal caves - BBC News.
Because I am sure Rio Tinto just “accidentally” walked into that site and “accidentally” packed it with a few tons of explosives before “accidentally” going through all Health and Safety checks, before “accidentally” pressing the detonator trigger right 😉?
Fourty five thousand years of Aboriginal history gone quicker than you can say “cultural purging”.
The whole mentality that the Aboriginals were a bunch of dumb savages in need of some good old fashioned European cultur-ization (as is the narrative we are taught in school) in the form of raping, pillaging and plundering as evidenced by the Stolen Generation (watch The Rabbit Proof Fence) has since been challenged and smashed to pieces by Bruce Pascoe in his book Dark Emu. In it Pascoe quotes the journal entries of many Australian Settlers that alludes to a thriving civilisation that was in some ways even more advanced than them.
Stories of intricate fish trapping networks, irrigation systems, the careful cultivation of yam crops, an intimate understanding of the land and its geological structure and the deliberate “engineering” of the soil over many generations to achieve an optimal fertility (which was subsequently destroyed by us dumb arse white men within the span of a few years due to the sheep and plant diseases we brought with us).
These are just a few examples mentioned by Pascoe that show the Australian Aboriginals were a lot more advanced than white man gave them credit for, and suggests an obvious bias put in place to justify the invasion; the “savages” needed a lesson in what constitutes society.
Such bigotry shows through in the writings of these settlers who, rather than dish out credit for one of the intricate fish traps which had the ability to throw a fish in the air when caught, suggests the tribes so mentioned were in need of useless artefacts that they had no need for (which the settlers had become dependant on and could not envision life without).
And what did Pascoe get for his efforts? Our Minister for Home Affairs investigating him for fraud, and “scientists” debunking his claims of course:
You know it is a load of bullshit when the Sky News Murdoch media puppet Andrew Bolt is on board with the smear campaign. If you look close enough, you can almost see Murdoch’s arm protruding out the back of him.
Unfortunately for bolt and his {Gestapo} media and political connections, Pascoe didn’t take the bait and seek compensation. Instead he stood up in front of a bunch of people and offered Bolt this roasting:
I get it though. Kind of hard to expand your pedophile cult’s foothold with Dark Emu’s shadow looming over you, and threatening to call bullshit on your whole parade:
Not that the Australian Federal Police ever bothered to give that cult a “forensic critique“.
But I digress.
Now getting back to the Wandjina Wunggurr, we are missing one important thing when it comes to aliens, and that is hidden in its terminology.
If we dig a bit deeper into this Wandjina thing, we can find the idea that Grey (the white explorer who stumbled upon the paintings in 1838) sparked a bit of controversy by implying the paintings were perhaps depictions of alien peoples not coming from the stars, but from the lands abound over the ocean.
It is suggested that this may have been a result of Grey copying them and instilling his own bias through his European art style.
Take a look at this article by the ABC and tell me it is not a cleverly constructed piece of double speak targeting anyone making the Wandjina/ Alien connection.
“Aboriginal art depicting Wandjina figure that sparked aliens theory to be reclaimed by traditional owners
Posted Mon 5 Dec 2016 at 6:09amMonday 5 Dec 2016 at 6:09am, updated Mon 5 Dec 2016 at 6:17amMonday 5 Dec 2016 at 6:17am
George Grey’s 1838 drawings of the Wandjina cave caused speculation about the paintings’ origins.(Supplied)
Aboriginal families in Western Australia’s north are finding ways to reclaim a sacred image that sparked rumours of Arab voyages and aliens during the early days of British exploration.
The large, looming Wandjina are spirit figures drawn on thousands of cliffs and cave walls in the Western Kimberley, and came to national prominence when they featured in the Sydney Olympic opening ceremony.
Worrora woman Leah Umbagai said they were considered sacred by three tribes in the area.
“The Wandjina is a supreme being that created the country, gave us the laws of the land, and we have to obey and follow it,” she said.
“The Wandjina is not just a big picture on the wall, it’s the trees, it’s the rocks, it’s the water, it’s the seasons, it’s everything … it lets us Wandjina people know who we are, and how to live our life.”
But the history of white contact with the Wandjina is marred by misunderstanding and wild theories that remain deeply hurtful to the Worrora, Ngarinyin and Wununbul tribes to this day.
British explorer seeking ‘inland sea’ stumbles upon artwork
In 1837, explorer George Grey embarked on a bold but misguided mission to penetrate north-western Australia.
It was thought a large, inland sea might exist in central Australia, and the British government and the Royal Geographical Society sponsored Grey and his team to explore what is now the Kimberley region.
Author Mike Donaldson has written extensively on Kimberley rock art and its discovery by settlers.
“Grey and his men came straight from England and South Africa to the Kimberley, and to cut a long story short, they struggled to get inland, they had a mob of sheep that all died, their dogs died, and they were attacked by Aboriginal people at one point,” he said.
“But then somewhere along the line they just came across these Wandjina pictures on a cave.”
Grey sketched several of the Wandjina in his journal, complete with big rounds heads, halo-like head-pieces, large eyes, slim nose and no mouth.
The images caused quite a stir when they were published back in Great Britain.
“They were totally unlike anything that people had reported from Aboriginal rock art in Australia before,” Donaldson said.
“They thought they could not have been done by Aboriginal people.
“They thought they must have been done by shipwrecked sailors, or some other culture of people that visited here.”
He said one of the figures appeared to be wearing a full gown, and what Grey interpreted as writing on the headband, which people thought could be Arabic or Chinese.
“But it wasn’t anything of the sort, it was an older painting showing through, where the painting was wearing away a bit,” he said.
Pictures fuel Australian ‘alien’ landing theory
The misunderstanding fuelled theories Asiatic or Middle Eastern people at one time occupied the Australian continent, and set the scene for an even more offensive proposition — that the Wandjina were drawings of aliens that visited prior to white settlement.
The theory emerged in the 1968 book Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past, which was written by Swiss author Erich von Daniken, and detailed examples of ancient civilisations that could be evidence of alien life form.
Donaldson said the theory never gained much traction.
“It was just ignorance on von Daniken’s part, the kind of ignorance that goes back to the people who initially, 100 years ago, thought that Aboriginal people were not so sophisticated enough to do those paintings,” he said.
“Of course we soon learnt that they were very sophisticated, and could paint all these wonderful things … so that’s just one guy’s crazy story, that thought they were space men or something.”
Traditional owners hope to educate public
It is a source of ongoing frustration for traditional owners like Ms Umbagai, who until recently managed the Mowanjum Art Centre.
“A lot of the people that come into the art centre, they ask so many questions, and yes I suppose there have been UFO sightings in America and all of that, but it just really saddens me that they say things about it,” she said.
“It’s like people are making fun, or think we’re making things up, and it’s hurtful for us.”
Efforts are underway to reclaim the image, including high-tech 3D imaging used to create a life-size Wandjina cave at the Mowanjum Art centre, so local Aboriginal children and tourists can learn about the importance of the rain-making spirit figure.
Families are finding ways to revisit the remote bush caves where the Wandjina live, to care for the sites and touch up the paintings.
It takes several days’ driving or an expensive helicopter charter to reach many of them, but native title agreements, marine parks and remote ranger programs are making the trips more possible.
Ms Umbagai has been able to visit the caves that featured in Grey’s journal more than 175 years ago.
“When I’m out there, I’m just so at home. Because I’m at artist, I love sketching everything I come across, so I’ll just sit there are draw them myself,” she said.
“But just looking at the paintings and knowing that our old people used to walk this area and sit here, and knowing this is what they left for us … it’s very special.”
…
Wow. If that constitutes journalism, then I am in the wrong business. It’s one thing to peel through page after page and present it as information in an effort to actually inform people of the point you are trying to make.
It’s another thing completely to omit that very point and twist all scrutiny in a different direction in an effort of deflection.
Let me ask a few questions and see if you can answer them: what was the narrative Ms Umbagai was upset with again?
Was it the suggestion that the paintings of the Wandjina were depictions of some white European settlers who came before those in recorded history, or was it more so at the idea that Danikan suggested the Wandjina were ancient astronauts?
One minute they are talking about Arabic and Asian visitors, the next they are talking about space aliens, wrapping it up with a vague explanation of some UFO visitors from America making fun of the paintings without providing any context to understand which it is Ms Umbagai is even talking about.
It’s even worse when you try to get an actual Aboriginal account of the myth from the internet; everything about the Wandjina seems to be written from the vicarious perspective of a {presumably} white person.
This is understandable, given many Aboriginal tribes exhibit a somewhat distrust for sharing such stories with those outside their clan.
In fact, SD has a friend who is an honorary member of a local clan.
It took her four years at university learning about their culture and several years worth of contact building, interacting with the tribe she is an honorary member of before she could even be considered.
As a result of her hard work, she is allowed to attend meetings held by the Elders.
Yet, even she is met with exclusion when it comes to the more “important” secrets of the clan. But yeah, I suppose those anthropologists over at fakearchaeology don’t give a shit about her opinion.
So when it comes to knowing the real story behind the Wandjina, it is likely it has remained as a true secret shared only among the Wanjina Wunggurr.
However, what we can take from Ms Umbagai’s brief statement is this: “It’s like people are making fun, or think we’re making things up, and it’s hurtful for us”.
This suggests to me that the story of the Wandjina, at least to the Wandjina Wunggurr descendants, is taken to be meant in a very literal sense, and if one distorts it from its literal meaning it becomes offensive to the tribe continuing on the story. In other words, it suggests that they firmly believe the Dreamtime was a real, non physical place that existed before the physical plane, and that their people “witnessed” when this physical plane was created. Of course, those with Wanjina Wunggurr blood are welcome to tell me if I am wrong in this assumption.
If I am not totally of the mark with the above statement, this suggests that the Wandjina Wunggurr people were at some point non physical based, for that is the only way they would be able to witness the physical world coming into existence.
I guess being someone who has astral projected and lucid dreamed many, many times, it is alot easier for me to conceptualising existence from a pure consciousness state sans a body, than most.
So what if it wasn’t space where the Wandjina originally came from, but from the astral/ dreaming realms; the same realms that I was told were important communication conduits for non physical entities to interact with physical ones by the Elder Guardians?
The same realms I understand as being important for the evolution of human consciousness.
The same realms that can be accessed for higher order information about the cosmos and our origins through the mastery of Lucid Dreaming?
Again I find it funny fakearchaelogy.com never bothered to debunk the Ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh while they were at it, given it seems to point to a very similar – albeit brief – creation narrative as that of the Wandjina, except with some names thrown in.
“The main source of information about the Sumerian creation myth is the prologue to the epic poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld (ETCSL1.8.1.4),[53] which briefly describes the process of creation: originally, there was only Nammu, the primeval sea.[54]
Then, Nammu gave birth to An, the sky, and Ki, the earth.[54]
An and Ki mated with each other, causing Ki to give birth to Enlil.[54]
Enlil separated An from Ki and carried off the earth as his domain, while An carried off the sky.[55]
Enlil marries his mother, Ki, and from this union all the plant and animal life on earth is produced.
In the Sumerian version of the flood story (ETCSL 1.7.4), the causes of the flood are unclear because the portion of the tablet recording the beginning of the story has been destroyed.[66] Somehow, a mortal known as Ziusudra manages to survive the flood, likely through the help of the god Enki.[67] The tablet begins in the middle of the description of the flood.[67] The flood lasts for seven days and seven nights before it subsides.[68]Then, Utu, the god of the Sun, emerges.[68] Ziusudra opens a window in the side of the boat and falls down prostrate before the god.[68] Next, he sacrifices an ox and a sheep in honor of Utu.[68] At this point, the text breaks off again.[68] When it picks back up, Enlil and An are in the midst of declaring Ziusudra immortal as an honor for having managed to survive the flood. The remaining portion of the tablet after this point is destroyed.[68]In the later Akkadian version of the flood story, recorded in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enlil actually causes the flood,[69] seeking to annihilate every living thing on earth because the humans, who are vastly overpopulated, make too much noise and prevent him from sleeping.[70] In this version of the story, the hero is Utnapishtim,[71] who is warned ahead of time by Ea, the Babylonian equivalent of Enki, that the flood is coming.[72]The flood lasts for seven days; when it ends, Ishtar, who had mourned the destruction of humanity,[73] promises Utnapishtim that Enlil will never cause a flood again.[74]When Enlil sees that Utnapishtim and his family have survived, he is outraged,[75] but his son Ninurta speaks up in favor of humanity, arguing that, instead of causing floods, Enlil should simply ensure that humans never become overpopulated by reducing their numbers using wild animals and famines.[76]Enlil goes into the boat; Utnapishtim and his wife bow before him.[76] Enlil, now appeased, grants Utnapishtim immortality as a reward for his loyalty to the gods.” -Wikipedia. Epic Of Gilgamesh
SD’s experiences in connecting with her higher intelligence seems to tie both the Epic of Gilgamesh in with the Wandjina legend perfectly, and explain that whole flood thing most information of which was apparently lost.
This is a summary of information she gleaned from a lucid dream in which she was able to connect with her Higher Intelligence, which was included in my autobiography:
“Firstly the Fae (faery) beings were on earth. At the same time there were various types of humans (Neanderthal included) and at that time, the physical and astral realms were tethered to each other and you could walk through each easily like walking over a bridge or through a door; there was no need to fall asleep to detach the consciousness from the physical body because on earth they could manipulate the matter body to become light body and astral body at will.
Many alien races negotiated permission with the intelligent and powerful humanoid Fae beings, to be on earth to experiment with types of “human”.
Each alien race was appointed an ancient human to manipulate their DNA and try to create a being that could change from astral to light being and back to matter body without the need for technology or sleep, as was the norm for many beings on earth at the time.
An ascended race (the angel beings) covertly came to earth and experimented with all creatures including the other alien’s experiments.
They didn’t gain permission to be in the realm let alone do these experiments. What they did was basically like grabbing the united universal treaties and tearing them to pieces.
They are an ascended race so it was considered even more of even more a no no; they were supposed to remain as a neutral party to oversee these experiments, not partake in them.
So when they were done, they flooded the world to get rid of the evidence.
Some of the ascended race found out what these rebel factions did and went in to try and fix what they could.
They saved as many creatures and humans and Fae that were trapped and aliens as they could and put them on their ships until the flooding ceased.
While there were no active Fae on the matter plane to hold the magic at the sacred places, the gates/portals/bridges between realms collapsed.
The beings put the creatures and aliens back on earth but all were trapped as there was not a clear way back out to the other planes and worlds any more.
Some star seeds are incarnated “fallen angels” that fell to save Earth from the rebel faction and are now stuck incarnating in matter bodies until enough magic knowledge is accumulated through the build-up of DNA of the practically wiped out intelligent humanoid Fae race – the original people of this planet earth.
That knowledge and magic is needed to reopen the sacred points.
The witches are the Fae beings in question; the original witches are not just a religion but the original inhabitants of earth – but the world has been misused and misguided for centuries to hide and confuse the truth so that everyone believes they are evil and even culling witches has occurred through history to try to keep the numbers low to keep the re merge from occurring.
This is because the rebel faction are high ranking beings and the leaders know what they did and possibly condoned it. The information is being hushed so that particular race won’t suffer the consequence of them meddling in the experiments.
It will mean a much more severe war, as the mediators to all universal courts and rulings are the same race of rebels that messed around and flooded the place to try cover their tracks.
Can you imagine what will happen if all the races find out that the high court leaders and mediators are actually covertly stealing scientific research and trying to manipulate experiments to benefit them?!
Absolute chaos.
So now on earth, we are stuck in reincarnation cycling round and round and the “amnesia” is a result of the sudden severing of the two “world’s” matter and astral, on this base level/plane.
All of this has a butterfly effect consequence on the other base world’s causing chaos and war through the universe.
That’s the current astral war; everyone is blaming everyone else and trying to gain access to the next level/ plane too have the magic that’s been harvested from earth herself in an attempt to get things going again.
But it’s the witches that need to do it through their personal gate keeping magic.
If there’s not enough of them living how they need to live – not like society dictates but how they legit need to exist, properly connected to the earth – then it won’t happen.
Not to mention all that know what actually happened are trying to cover it up and poison as much of the population as possible in case the DNA of the old Fae – the witches …
… pops up in an incarnation of say – one of the fallen angel types-…
…thus allowing for the knowledge to be “read” and brought forward …
…- as these beings (fallen angel) were of the ascended race so they have the ability to keep a fair bit of knowledge.
Knowledge that the human mind is usually unequipped to handle (often resulting in the human body or mind becoming weak or confused or ill.. etc.. as too much over stimulation becomes a burden to the human vessel over time).
Hold up didn’t Airl mention the Domain were the Annunaki?…
“On land, The Domain Search Party members were referred to as "Annunaki" by the Sumerians, and "Nephilim", in the Bible. Of course, their true mission and activities were never disclosed to homo sapiens. Their activities have been purposefully disguised. Therefore, the human stories and legends about the Annunaki, and the other members of The Domain Search Party have not been understood and were badly misinterpreted.”
- Alien Interview
….and the Annunaki are the very gods mentioned in the Ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, right?
So, could it be the Wandjina came into contact with the Domain or a civilization utilising similar doll bodies through lucid dreaming and were given similar information to Matilda McElroy when she interviewed Airl after the 1947 Roswell Crash?
Or could it be they just simply tapped into higher order information about the same flood that caused the separation of the astral and physical planes that both SD and the Ancient Sumerians seemed to be talking about. Who knows, maybe the three are all just coincidences right?
Let’s look a few points I have been trying to get across since the beginning of my articles, and I quote myself from said articles:
“The “Grand Elder” – as I called him – told me there was a sort of spiritual amnesia affecting mankind.”
“He said that the human brain had been deliberately engineered to cut them off from this state of [higher] awareness that I was now experiencing.”
“The reason, he said, that I had been summoned before them, was because of my abilities at lucid dreaming. Apparently what I had learned through years of experimentation was considered so advanced by them, that very few people on earth possessed these same abilities; the amount of others who apparently possessed these abilities could be counted on one hand.
Apparently, according to these Elders, anyone who demonstrated these abilities were held in high regard by them, as it allowed them the opportunity to communicate with those back on the physical plane without it being compromised by external forces.”
- Part 1: Contact with the Elder Guardians
“I cannot stress how important Lucid dreaming really is for the evolution of human consciousness.”
Part 15 – LD Lesson 4: Advanced LD Practices and Potentialities
And then there was this in regards to a Native American like tribe on a different planet (in case you didn’t get the subtleties, I was implying that they may have been the progenitors to the Native American culture):
“I had somehow found myself on another planet watching a tribal Elder of a humanoid race of people talking to his tribe. I was completely lucid, in that I could remember my body being asleep back in my bed on earth. These people, although completely alien to any human species on earth, had a very Native American vibe to them. All of a sudden the Elder realized I was there, observing them.” – Part 1: Contact with the Elder Guardians
And finally, we have a few clues as to who SD is directly from the Domain Commander himself:
“[SD] was / is an IS-BE of extraordinary (with a great emphasis on the word – MM) ability. Were she to be in our society, she would easily fit within powerful leadership roles.
[SD] was / is a past regarding trans-stable dimensional elder / tribal leader of a community of other trans-dimensional trans-universe IS-BE's that occupy communities that lie outside of the Domain, and the Master Universe.
- Metallicman, EBP Q&A with the Commander from The Domain a November 2021 episode
Phew. I apologise for laying down so many quotes all at once, but I felt it necessary to highlight the obvious, consistent themes, so we can get a better idea of just what the fuck SD’s experiences mean.
From what I can determine, SD seems to be gaining, through lucid dreaming, information about a history of the earth that predates what even the Domain have on record. Like, a real ancient fucking history. Close to the creation of the physical world type ancient. And these experiences are directly related to stories interwoven in Aboriginal culture as well as being seemingly related to the myths of the Annunaki. Not only that, she is giving us a base line of what needs to happen to get out of the reincarnation cycle. The physical and non physical planes must be re merged, through the use of certain *keys* who have had their astral bodies tampered with.
Given my own experiences with LD, I posit that any ancient culture that invested time in dreaming to the point it became part of their main belief system, was likely in contact with non physical entities and had access to similar information. It seems logical to me that without the distractions of convenience that plague a modern society, a culture cultivating such an understanding of the dream world, would be far ahead in regards to cosmological knowledge and knowledge of our origins. Especially if left to their own devises and that understanding was allowed to thrive within their community unimpeded.
Given this deduction, I would similarly suggest that both the Native Australian and Native American tribes, amongst others would have been sought for contact by similar entities that sought me out due to my LD abilities. After all I was only playing around with consciousness via LD over a mere decade. Imagine the sort of intelligence that could have been revealed to a people that practically worshipped dreams for thousands of years before white man came and told them it was nothing but devil worship.
Now, whether or not the Wandjina were interdimensional entities that visited the Wanjina Wunggurr people can only really be left to speculation, but I find it curious their story is a mirror reflection of things Airl told us. And that their paintings depict a similar image to the doll bodies the Domain use (Skinny Bob). Regardless, I will take the word of an Elder, or even descendant of these tribes over that of a bunch of fake archaeology students any day. If the Wanjina Wunggurr people come and tell me I am wrong in my assumptions, then I will graciously accept it.
What I find interesting, and what should be taken away from all this is that SD’s experience allude to a similar sort of spirit presiding over the non physical planes in this same region that provides a degree of protection from other {non physical} entities that have a much more malevolent agenda. Note that her experiences suggest there are various dream portals littered about, that each continent is regulated, and that a tribe in close geographical proximity to the Wandjina are from such an ancient lineage and as a result that no meddling non physical entities are able to understand their original language. The idea that the astral and the physical planes must merge, is something that I find very interesting, because, as you will see in the next article, SD is not the only one I know of who has said this.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the 16th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.
-MM
Part 16 –Adventures in the Occult: Some Thoughts on The Hellfire Club
Ever thought about joining the Hellfire Club? Don’t have any clue about what the “hell” – pun intended – it actually is?
Allow me to explain:
The Hell Fire Club was the name of several clubs that were operating out of England in the 18th century, exclusively for high society “debauchees” or persons of apparent “quality” who wished to take part in socially perceived immoral acts. In other words, it was a club for politicians and other well connected “gentlemen” that wanted to waste their {usually inherited} money on gambling, drinking and having sex. Other things said to be engaged in in the club were poetry, philosophy, and the ridicule of religion, as it was of a time when blasphemy of the church was catching on.
The clubs were rumoured to have distant ties to an elite society known only as The Order of the Second Circle. Don’t ask me who those guys were, because I honestly have no fucking clue. The actual activities and membership, though, have long been lost to time. The first official club was established by the Duke of Wharton in London in 1718, though the most notorious of the clubs was one established by a man named Sir Francis Dashwood who met irregularly from 1749 to 1766 in England. Originally, Dashwood’s club wasn’t actually known as a Hell Fire Club – this name came later on. His club seemed to have gone through change of name every time there was a change of location of the Club’s get togethers; Brotherhood of St. Francis of Wycombe, Order of Knights of West Wycombe, The Order of the Friars of St Francis of Wycombe, Monks or Friars of Medmenham, or, `more recently, The Priory of The Knights of St Francis were a few of the names the club as known as.
Dashwood’s club was aimed at partaking in Pagan rituals in salutation of Greek and Roman gods, particularly those of wine (Bacchus and Dionysus etc). In fact, Dashwood apparently had many statues of similar Greek and Roman gods adorning his gardens of Medmenham Abbey. In addition to the Pagan rituals, Dashwood’s club was said to hold mock rituals, distribute items of pornographic nature amongst its members and engage in much “drinking” and “wenching”.
Whereas Wharton’s club was apparently more of a satirical joke meant to shock the outside world, with claims that the president of the club was the Devil himself, though the worship of such deities was not undertaken with the club. The members, did however call themselves “devils” in allusion to their often frowned upon behaviour. An interesting fact of Wharton’s club was that both men and women were admitted as equals, which was practically unheard of for other clubs of the time. Dashwood allowed female members into his clubs which were called nuns. Of course, his club seems to be the one that attracted legends of Black mass and demon and Satan worship, though whether any of that took place is speculation at best. Here’s a fun fact, Aleister Crowley got his infamous “do what thou wilt” line for his Thelemic order from an inscription above one of Dashwood’s doors at Medmenham Abbey.
Also worthy of note is that Dashwood eventually moved his club out of Medmenham into some chalk caves in West Wycombe when the owners of the estate sought to have renovations carried out. These caves ended up being where the meetings were held until the club’s eventual demise, which basically came about due to one of the members becoming involved in a political scandal. This was never something I was told upon becoming involved with the club, but is all readily available on Wikipedia for the curious reader.
What you won’t come across, however is a written record of the rise and rapid fall of the Hell Fire Club as it pertains to the modern era. The bit that I had a {semi} active involvement in breaking out of England and into the international domain. I feel it is necessary to write about as a lot of members and non members alike got right royally screwed over, and still are being screwed. This is some recognition of their efforts out of my own well of respect.
So, consider this an offer of some unfettered wisdom from someone who was actively involved in expanding its chapters internationally, because there was and still is a very active effort on the founder’s part to bury the work us international Stewards put into that expansion.
The Hell Fire Club I am a Steward of is an evolution of Dashwood’s Club. Though when I joined it was very far from being a Club for getting together and having orgies. I was around 19 or 20 when I stumbled across it.
Let’s back up a bit to my high school years. We all know I was into some very “fringe” concepts with my lucid dreaming and astral projection practices while I was at school. I studied the occult in the library when I was supposed to be doing research for science which, to be honest, I found quite boring. I wasn’t that I wasn’t good at it, it is just that I absorbed information at quite rapid pace from only a few glances through the work, so the concept of doing homework or extended study was quite lost on me. I’d prefer to use the time to learn in other areas that I knew a public schooling system was never going to bother teaching me. So yeah, conspiracies regarding the illuminati, the deep state, the freemasons, and reptilian shapeshifters etc were all things I had racked up hours of study on even at the age of fifteen. Though I didn’t necessarily believe in most of them, I was however somewhat of a walking encyclopedia when it came to the occult, astral projection, lucid dreaming, psychic happenings and other metaphysical subjects. To me all this was far more interesting to talk about than how to work out the speed of an apple falling from a tree or whatever they taught in general physics classes. Yawn.
And this presented a bit of a problem, because I was one of the only people in the entire school that had such an understanding of the metaphysical. It’s all well and good for those that have no first hand experience in these arts, but when you have been spending a good chunk of your youth flying around in the astral planes or fighting demons in lucidity, it’s hard not to find every day life quite bland. I yearned for others to talk to about this “crazy” world I knew too much about, and sometimes even indulged my straight edged friends a little too liberally to be met with nothing but blank stares. There was one other guy I use to practice healing and psychic shielding with – a guy named Blake – but he ended up running off to join some cult almost as soon as school had finished in an effort to “stay spiritual”. He was even kind enough to {rather forcefully} invite me in to it and try to get me to stay {by not letting me fucking leave}. So there went my Hogwarts connection.
Regardless, my studies continued well past school. I started collecting the oldest manuscripts of any given occult subject I could find, figuring information would be more “pure” if it came directly from the source before its true meaning could be lost in translation and transliteration. If a book was a few hundred years old and had something to do with “magic” I simply had to have it, regardless of the cost. And it wasn’t that I wanted to specifically practice said magic either; I simply wanted to broaden my knowledge in those areas. Because, as any wise person should know, knowledge is power.
So I was looking for books. Old books, antique books, and books with evident occult connections, and this was how I stumbled upon the Hellfire Club. You see, the club’s Steward was a Master Book binder, and he somehow managed to secure rights to republish out of print occult works; some really fucking nice and old {and powerful} manuscripts. Things like photocopies of diaries from 15th century alchemists, original workings of the Golden Dawn, some stuff on Freemasonry, other stuff on Crowley, Copies of Solomonic manuscripts dating back to the 1500s etc. These editions were bound “exclusively for the Hell Fire Club”, though that didn’t mean you had to be a member to purchase them. What can I say, I was instantly hooked. Some of these editions came bound in a standard cloth form, and others – the more exotic and rare – came leather bound with hand tooled emblems and insignia pressed and then gilded into the fronts. The collection would have made any practicing occultist weep, mainly due to the price tags. It wasn’t uncommon to find these books valued at over $500 a pop, some even in the thousands.
I admit, a few titles really caught my attention, and my curiosity was piqued as the web site stated they were taking on new members. Although no history was given as to the association with the Hell Fire Clubs of the past, a brief summary of the club and its values were given, which aligned with my studies into alchemy. Essentially, the whole point of the club was to better its members through applying alchemical concepts to one’s meditations as a basis to initiate a spiritual shift in consciousness. This is how it was pitched anyway, or something along those lines. One may recall I was never big on joining any occult organisation that had a ranking system in place, and this is where the HFC tickled my fancy over other organisations such as the Freemasons, the Ordo Templi Orientis and Crowley’s Argentum Astrum etc. Upon initiation into the HFC, all members were considered equal as everyone else. The Stewards, who were there solely to keep the various Chapter on course would be rotated on a yearly basis so as to keep up with this equality. Plus, because of the way the Club was structured, self initiation was not only possible but highly encouraged (I think this was really to help expand internationally more than anything).
So I sent the English Steward, Eamonn, an email stating I was interested in joining. We got to talking and he evidently became impressed with my thirst for occult knowledge, to compliment what little I already knew. He asked me if I wanted to help bring the Club to Australia and create my own Chapter, to which I was quite apprehensive at first, though he assured me he would give me any help I needed and that he could provide (it ended up being quite a dismal amount of help indeed). After some back and forth, he eventually convinced me to start my own Chapter in Western Australia, and with that I established my Chapter of Dragon Flame (an intentional anagram of “A Pagan force meld forth”), under his direct instruction, then he put me in contact with the Stewards of the other States.
Remember, this was before Facebook really took off, so to begin with the plan was to coordinate everything through a Yahoo group, but nothing ever eventuated from it. It wasn’t until the other Stewards finally joined facebook that I was able to communicate with them much more freely, and found solace I hadn’t found since my conversations with Blake (not including those discussions I had had with SD). These were occultists – real occultists – that had been involved in Hermetic societies for most of their life, some even being high ranking Mason’s. Others had even created their own Hermetic Orders that borrowed heavily from Godlen Dawn literature. Needless to say, I got along very well with them, and became rather respected given my understanding of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and how it pertained to alchemy, and my occult knowledge in general. If you ever wanted a lesson in occult matters – astral projection, magic, lucid dreaming etc then this was the group to be in. Some of them were even contacted by non physical “Masters” just as I was about to be. It was repository of information that you would never find in any school or public library.
Thus I was very much in the Hell Fire Club’s “inner circle”, and this was a direct evolution of Francis Dashwood’s Club; Eamon was in possession of some of the original paperwork used by Dashwood and his associates, and even went so far as to conduct the Clubs meetings in the same chalk caves of West Wycombe, which became known as the “Hellfire Caves”. Whatever the club once was in regards to its debauch behaviour, it had become reworked into something which legitimately focused on inner reflection and the development of the spiritual self, thanks to the work and vision Eamonn put into it. This was evident in the other members I have since become quite good friends with (one of the Stewards even sent me a bottle of pure Myrr oil when he heard my hand had been cut open – quite an expensive and sacred oil to gift out to someone you’ve never met).
I even had a few astral projection and lucid dreaming experiences that were directly related to the Club, and a somewhat mystical experience that hinted at the “overthrowing of the armour king to make way for the king of fire” (which I took to mean the rule of the military industrial complex to make way for the rule of the spirit). Though, I never had the opportunity to partake in any orgies. How unfortunate.
SD, being Pagan and into much of the same ideologies and concepts as me joined as a founding member of my own Chapter, though for a time we floundered as there was absolutely no interest by anyone in our State. We initiated another member only to find he was more interested in serving his own carnal pleasures than he was for spiritual development (turned out the guy was a fucking serial rapist and had deep connections within the OTO, Freemasons and was a part of pretty much every Pagan meetup group in our area, so there went the idea of expansion), and that put us off to the point that our Chapter became a somewhat private affair for our own spiritual development. We conducted a few rituals based off of the ideologies of the Club, but I found it more beneficial to rework these into my own concepts on Alchemy that I was now fully invested in, and contemplate them in silent meditation. I believe these concepts and meditations were what led to my eventual contact with the Elder Guardians in 2012 when coupled with my LD practices.
In regards to the activities of Eamon and the other members, they continued with their regular meetups, but for me and SD, it was a several year period of stagnation. Of course, I still remained in close contact with the other Stewards and Eamonn, and engaged in regular chats with them all both privately and publicly on the Club’s Facebook pages. By this stage I had invested a few thousand dollars in some of Eamonn’s books which constituted my “occult library” (there was some good, rare books in this library). Eamonn had also commissioned me to help on some of his upcoming works, knowing that I was rather handy when it came to using photoshop for touching up “noisy” images. It seemed his work on gaining an international foothold was paying off as he now had established connections (and thus Chapters) within the USA and throughout Europe as well as in almost every State of Australia. SD and I were added to the “Hellfire Star Chamber” along with the other Stewards to discuss drafting of the proper charters for each Chapter and other such necessities that would move it full steam ahead. I guess Eamonn envisioned it growing as big as Freemasonry or something.
With things seemingly moving along nicely, I was inspired to revisit my Chapter of Dragon Flame and begin structuring it into something more usable and in line with the Hell Fire Club’s Goals. I began drafting my own charter with an idea to properly promote it amongst the limited occult societies in my area. I wrote poems and verse that I posted amongst the Stewards in the Starfire Chamber that even Eamonn himself suggested were good enough to be used for all of the Chapter both, original and international. Whether those poems and verse arse still in use is a mystery to me, though if they are then technically they are being used out of copyright, not that I really give a shit.
The Charter
Here is a {somewhat incomplete} charter I wrote for my Chapter of Dragon Flame. As you can see, there is nothing inherently sinister within it, and it was based heavily on the chapter papers Eamonn wrote, bound and distributed to the Hell Fire Club’s Members: The whole purpose of my club was utilise HFC rituals as a form of unlocking the higher self within the candidate. I wanted people to experience that “god mode” form of consciousness that I had experienced during my times with Elder Guardians.
THE CLUB’S INTENTION: To bring one into a new perception of oneself by symbolic means.
Elements needed to effectively be in chapter:
Membership cards/coins must be made for the initiation of guests, and any spares used to decorate the decanter/bottle on the occasion of guest initiation plus an extra gold coin.
A blue and red coloured robe
A beaked mask (one per member)
A Bishop’s/ Wizard’s hat/ mitre reserved for the appointed Abbot’s duties
A floor/ table cloth printed/embroidered with a zodiac or stars. If none is available then the Major Arcana of a Tarot set arranged in three rings (12-7-3) or a set of 12v zodiacal cards from Uranias Mirror can be used.
Six Candlesticks (representing the four niches/ doves and two paths in the caves) to signify the Towers of the Abbey of Theleme in (Rabelais Book 2), named after the winds in the classical world: Arctice, Calaer, Anatole, Mesembrine, Hesperia, Cryere.
A lamp/ globe/ bowl suspended from the ceiling above the floor cloth, preferably one that may contain a lighted taper/ candle.
A bottle/ decanter of wine/ mead in which the coin is to be cast during the guests initiation ceremony as well as a chalice or goblet for drinking of said wine.
Pentagram and Hexagram Sketches as well as the Stewards Jewel and a set of Platonic Solid Models to signify the two keys. The letters T.R.I.N.C. must be available, preferably so that they can be rearranged as is done in the ceremony of the second key.
Any available object that can act as a tribute to Francis Dashwood, whether it be a portrait of him, an object from the club or an empty chair reserved for the presence of the founder.
A scroll bearing the poem called ‘The 108 Steps” to be laid at the bottom of the floor cloth
Membership Cards: Exist to aid all persons involved in the club and available only through properly appointed Stewards of each Chapter. To be completed and issued to successful applicants on an individual basis only. In early days coins or token were used in place of the cards, engraved or marked by/ for the individual. The coin/token/ card should be regarded as the sole guarantee that the lessons of the Chapter have been relayed by a Steward in an appropriate manner, and that the persons connection is a true one.
A record should be kept by the Stewards of the names of those in which a card is issued, and allow other chapters to request information regarding membership status in order that visiting members from other areas are properly received, though it should be noted that the right to a membership card does not necessarily guarantee admittance to another chapter. Politeness holds sway and all members wishing to visit another chapter should either wait to be invited or contact an appropriate Steward to arrange asocial meeting in advance.
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS:
The floor cloth is to be aligned so that the doves point to the principle points of the compass; the main door of this room should open towards the first path of the inner temple.
The lamp is to be hung in the centre of the room above the floor cloth. The only light in the room should emanate from this lamp alone.
Around the internal space is to be a representation of a celestial zodiac, depicted through the Major Arcana (Trumps) of the Tarot deck, which are placed in exact alignment of the zodiac at the solstices in a series of 3 – 7 – 12.
At the extremities around the cloth behind the doves are placed four candlesticks to represent the four niches.
In the centre of the floor cloth is to be placed the bottle/decanter with the members coins strewn about next to it.
At the bottom of the floor cloth should be laid the poem ‘The 108 Steps” with a gold coin placed atop it.
On the opposite side of the scroll, where the rings of the Major Arcana align, is to be placed a pentagram with the Letters T.R.I.N.C. enclosed in its outer spaces along with a platonic solid at one edge and the Stewards Jewel at the other edge.
The four Doves or degrees: The object of the members of the Hell Fire Club is to better oneself spiritually by meditating and applying one’s mind to the occult symbology of alchemy guided on by an appointed Steward. Although there are no formal degrees in the sense of rank, one must first progress through a series of four non-linear states along the journey to their inner self.
Guests are invited to attend Chapter meetings by a member of the HFC whereby they can partake in the first of many rituals of casting a coin at the decanter and taking a drink of its contents. Once this first rite of passage has been completed the Guest may then apply for membership whereby they become a member if accepted by the club. Guests and preparations of what they may see or experience are the sole responsibilities of the inviting member. Watch Words for guests are Friendliness and Discretion.
Members are guests that have completed the first rite of passage and on applying for membership, have been approved by an appointed Steward. A successful applicant may then apply to the Steward of their Chapter for advice on the deeper interpretation of the symbols associated with the club. The privilege of inviting Guests to the chapter meetings is restricted to members alone, and for practical reasons is kept to one Guest per member per meeting. Watch words for members are Sincerity and Application.
A Steward is essentially any person whose membership has passed from the level of the inner desire for experience to the outward manifestation of that in literature, mathematics, public speaking, art, business or any other engagement. They guide the Club as one would a ship, relating from memory the legends, traditions and symbols and assist others in taking their first steps on the road to inner discovery. There is usually only one Steward in Chapter at once, the position being revoted upon by members every year. Watch words are Hospitality and Self Sacrifice.
A Prior/ Prioress is someone who has walked the inner road of themselves and has effectively returned to the beginning. It is the prior’s/ prioress’s duty to continue the seed of the club, and only they are able to begin a new chapter of their own. Watch Words for priors are Work and Silence.
The office of the abbot: The Abbot’s role lies outside of the four degrees and is not a level attained in the club by application of oneself. Instead it is an annually elected role, enabling all members of the club to exert an influence upon its development. The Abbot, whilst appearing to be of merriment and even disorder, is vital to the Harmony and well being of the club. It is in fact an evolutionary force.
The hell fire club greeting: The Steward welcomes all of those who have made it to Chapter using the LAQS motto and gives a brief explanation of any themes they have thought relevant for after ritual.
Layout of the 12 rituals of the hfc:
The Ritual Of Fire – to be completed in the sign of Gemini (ideally in the last 10 degrees of the sign, ie 11th – 20th of June )
Ritual Of Air – to be completed in the sign of Cancer during midwinter (ideally at the very start of the sign on the 21st of June.
Ritual II
Possible Set Up:
A permanent pentagram (circle) set up with four “pillars” representing the niches of TARO (north, south, east and west), and another two representing the “gate” or “entrance” to the circle, with rocks filling the spaces to symbolise the cave.
An empty chair for the presence of Dashwood.
The candles representing the Guest to be lit from the candle of the T niche.
Ritual of Fire:
Aim:
To make the Guest subconsciously aware of the fact that they are element of fire, which is associated with the tetrahedron
To be facilitated by the building and lighting of a fire by the Guest
To subconsciously open the path of Cancer for the Guest
To be facilitated by the alignment of Cancer (Chariot) with the element of Fire (Judgement) on the floor cloth and the recitation of the passage explaining as such.
To connect the Guest with the archetypal energies of Francis Dashwood and the original Hell Fire Club both consciously and sub consciously
To be facilitated by the empty chair, and recitation of a brief speech acknowledging Francis Dashwood
To connect the Guest with the archetypal energies of the Abbey Of Theleme
To be facilitated by explaining the four niches of T.A.R.O. and the square that they comprise
To make the Guest subconsciously aware that by throwing the coin they are taking the first step in the transmutation of fire into air.
To be facilitated by the recitation of the poem of the guest.
To symbolically cast aside the material constraints society has placed upon the Guest
To be facilitated by the casting of a coin at the decanter
To make the Guest aware of the essential relationship of themselves
To be facilitated by the drinking of the wine.
Papers to be given:
Introductory papers on the club, what it’s about, it’s goal etc.
An explanation of Archetypal energies
An introduction on Alchemy
An introduction The Kabalistic Tree of Life
An explanation of the Abbey of Theleme
Items needed for next meeting:
The symbology behind the ritual of the guest is to be the quintessential starting point of the HFC: CODF. I feel it important that this ritual be designed so that the initiate, after freeing themself of their materialistic constraints by throwing the coin at the decanter, be able to connect with the archetypes of Francis Dashwood himself and the rest of his members. I am still unsure how the latter can be acted out in ritual, perhaps more thorough research into his character will prove useful. It may also be worth looking making a rite that mimics certain aspects of the positioning of the original caves when laying out the elements of the club.
The location of this ritual should be carried out in a location bearing similar attributes to that of the river of Styx in the caves of West Wycombe, or another underground place used, perhaps a sacred well, burial ground or even a consecrated space in a room dedicated to the purpose. I propose to use the clearing behind our house in MH for the job as there is a nearby creek which resembles the aforementioned river, and a secret spot which may act as the inner temple “hidden” by undergrowth.
Originally I proposed to have the Guest build and light a fire, so that they are physically and mentally becoming the element of the tetrahedron, but Storme has suggested this may be in efficient as not everyone is competent at building fires, so we made the decision that a candle should be lit instead, for each Guests, which can then be blown out at the next Chapter meting during the ritual of Air (obviously the candle will have to be re lit, as it cannot burn between Chapters)
The ritual is started by other members taking up position around the floor cloth, and the HFC greeting cited. The member who invited the Guest shall then give a brief introduction of them and what attributes led them to give an invitation, to which an appointed Steward will quote the poem:
Recitation of the Gate of Cancer:
Behold thee
In the position of Gemini you dwell
Study its composition
For its passing is nigh
But with it comes the opening of Cancer’s gate,
And thus the Chariot you shall ride across Zodiac of yourself.
So mote it be
Poem of the Guest
O guest whoso dares to seek our secret keys,
For the benefit of no other
And no other shall thee seek to please
In order that you will discover
That you and you alone are the sun
Rising in Cancer
To traverse the ocean of the one
So that you may find the answer
That lies deep within our inner temple
Capricorn will show you the way
If only thought of our secret be made ample
When the Devil is yours to slay
And the Corinthian book be melted down
So that the seven alchemical metals are found
But first we ask that you seek our jewel
Lest thee should yourself become the fool
Casting aside want of wealth
Be received by us in benevolence and health
Throw now your coin at the bottle of TRINC
And in the name of Dashwood drink
Study the lines in this poem you ought
As you dare O Guest to set Wealth at naught.
A coin is thrown at the bottle/ decanter in the centre of the floor cloth by the Guest/s, as they envision their shackles being released, to signify their willingness to sacrifice the materialistic profanities which pose a hindrance to their own spiritual progression. Mention is given by the Steward to the ‘TRINC’ sound made as the coin hits the bottle and its’ similarity to the word ‘trokken’ meaning to drink. The Guest/s then drinks of the wine within the decanter, which is passed around to each member to signify the equality of the members of the club. Once the Guest/s has sipped upon the wine, the Steward tells them they have freed themselves of the limitations of materialism, and that for a new perspective to take place within the individuals mind, one must in time first come to the realisation of death as the next passage to wisdom. The ritual is finished by the Steward quoting:
“We have shown you whence the path to the inner self lies, it is now your decision whether or not to walk it. If you do, then may this club and its members, being both of flesh and of spirit, provide the necessary guidance, acting as a vessel for your journey across the ocean of the zodiac.”
Afterwards a relevant theme designed to expand the mind and open the psyche may be discussed between all in chapter including any Guests.
At the end of Chapter the Guest/s is asked to meditate upon everything revealed to them in chapter in their own time, and keep a record of any changes that may occur in their consciousness whether it be manifested physically around them or astrally in their dreams, and that when they feel ready they may apply for full membership. They are to be given a paper which highlights the goal of the club as well as explains what an archetype is and how it applies to the symbology behind the HFC.
Ritual Of AIR:
Aim:
To receive the Guest as a new Member of the HFC
To be facilitated by the giving of a membership card and a gold coin (as opposed to the silver one thrown at the decanter.)
To make the new Member subconsciously aware that they have transmuted the first of the elements into the second
To be facilitated by the extinguishing of the flame first created by the Guest with air from their breath and the alignment of the element Air (Fool) on the floor cloth to the planetary and zodiacal rings (120 degrees), and the recitation of the first transmutation.
To subconsciously establish the floor cloth as the universe
To be facilitated by the movement of the outer ring of the 12 zodiacal cards by 30 degrees (one zodiacal card) anti-clockwise and the movement of the inner ring of 7 planetary cards by 51.42 degrees (one planetary card) anti-clockwise
To subconsciously establish that the 3 rings of the 22 cards Major Arcana as being the outward projections of the inner temple lamp.
To be facilitated by the moving of the decanter from the top of the floor cloth (between the Pentagram and Stewards Jewel) to its centre (in the middle of the inner ring of the elemental cards) and the recitation of the lamps description from “The Oracle Of The Bottle”
To subconsciously establish the square of opposition
To be facilitated by the recitation of the meaning of T.A.R.O. and how it represents the four niches of the Abbey of Theleme
To subconsciously establish the Steward’s Jewel as being an anchor in the ocean of universe
To be facilitated by the action of rowing the new member around the floor cloth by the Steward whereby they stop at Cancer
To consciously establish the Tree of Life as being a map of the Tarot and a
To be facilitated by reciting the symbolism of the double suns of the Stewards’ Jewel, and how they relate to the twin paths of Cancer and Capricorn, and how it is a hexagram.
The Temple Lamp – Oracle of the Bottle:
Behold the most admirable lamp of our Oracle
That dispenses so large a light over our temple
Though we lay underground
We can still see as clearly as day
It dangles from a ring of massy gold,
as thick as any clenched fist
Three chains most curiously wrought
Hung below it
And in a triangle supported a round plate of fine gold
Four holes, each of which an empty ball was fastened
Hollow within
And open at the top
One amethyst
Another carbuncle
The third opal
The last anthracites
All full of burning water
Five times distilled in a serpentine lymbeck
Inconsumptible nonetheless
In each was a flaming wick
The First Transmutation
We have received your pledge to enter our temple and discover the mysteries that lie therein. Extinguish, now the flame of the tetrahedron with the breath of your being, and take up your new place amongst the airs of the octahedron….
I now beseech unto you the honour of a being a full member of the Hell Fire Club [to which the coin and card are given], and reveal unto you the secret of the pillars of the Abbey of Theleme, signified by the four doves placed upon our floor cloth. T A R O, together these pillars signify the four cardinal directions, the 4 dimensions of the cube of space, as well as the four elements of our club, and together with secrets yet to be revealed unto thee, they shall serve as the basis of your self transformation.
Join us, now as we navigate the vessel of ourselves through the ocean of the zodiac, seeking to take up anchor at the secret pathway hidden behind the devil.
[The Steward rows around the room, stopping at the alignment of Cancer ]
To aid you in your voyage we give unto thee, willingly, the gift of our jewel. Do not tarry long in its mysteries, for like the pillars they are many. For now may it serve solely as your own anchor, which you will cast upon the Gate of Cancer.
[The Steward gives the jewel to the new member who throws it at the Chariot card.]
Rejoice, for I now declare the path of Cancer open, and inform ye that you are indeed on the right course.
A coin and membership card is to be presented to any new members.
Papers to be given:
The Stewards Jewel
The Hebrew Alphabet & Gematria
Ritual III: the four doves.
After membership has been granted to a guest they are then allowed to partake in the first ritual which is designed to explain the significance the four doves bear to the four elements, and the colour of each element described. Members should be made aware that these four doves comprise what is called the square of opposition.
The ritual must encompass each element being made known, lighting a candle for fire, incense for air etc. A common circle casting may suffice, whereby meditation is focused upon the physical appearance of the Caves at West Wycombe, followed by the meditation of the newly opened pathway of cancer. Perhaps a ritual encompassing the sailing or entering of a boat to signify the opening of the pathway.
FURTHER STUDY: The writings of Francois Rabelais (Gargantua & Pantagruel), designs and positions of the various caves, grottoes, monuments and the great Mausoleum atop the hill at West Wycombe – England, Kabalistic Tree of Life, Platonic Solids, Corinthian Brass, Egyptian Mythology, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Strife Of Love In A Dream) by Francesco Colonna, Cube of Space, Egyptian scheme of the Zodiac with decans, Square of opposition, Charles Johnstone’s “Crysal” aka “Adventures Of A Guinea”, Ars Combinatoria by Ramon Llull
…
And then the shit hit the proverbial fan. No sooner had the Starfire Chamber been assembled, than it was being torn apart by the very man who had spent over a decade bringing its international standing to fruition; Eamonn.
What started as a warning towards one of the members of his English chapter, for inappropriate behaviour towards other members, soon turned into a clash between his Chapter and the international ones. Regardless of whatever behaviour this individual displayed (which she has since shown remorse for), Eamonn used it as a pawn to get everyone involved and start taking sides. It was real petty schoolyard politics bullshit on his end, and quite frankly I was stunned he’d stooped so low.
I guess it was because this individual had made quite good friends with some of the international Stewards, so when they refused to depose her from the Club, Eamonn got annoyed. He gave everyone an ultimatum: side with him and continue on under his official establishment, or take the side of the person in question and lose any connection we once had with his chapter. Honestly, it was too much drama for my liking, and I preferred not to get involved, though I had noted similar drama in the past when it came to Eamonn.
There was one particular guy who had been affiliated with the club and helped establish it in America who began selling unofficial HFC branded insignia for big money against the wishes of Eamonn. In the same email he had dished out to members, it mentioned that not only was this guy a fraud but he was also a convicted pedophile and that Eamonn and the Club would have nothing else to do with him, which I thought at the time was fair enough. Though after this school yard politics tactic, I began to wonder just how much of that schpeel was actually true. It seemed to me Eamonn had a tendency to over exaggerate someone’s indiscretions if they pissed him off.
I was also aware that Eamon had been pushing the envelope when it came to the publishing rights he was given for some of the books he was making a high margin on; when it was mentioned by the owner of that copyright Eamonn was printing more than the agreed amount of copies, his reply was for them to “eat shit” – of course, I never told him I knew about that particular interview, and had given him the benefit of the doubt about it being a business misunderstanding. I guess I was being naïve.
There was also one other thing that was making me question Eamonn’s integrity, and that was the way I had caught him lying about sending me free copies of his latest work, which had been agreed by both of us as fair payment for my photoshopping work on them.
The son of a bitch fucking pressed me for weeks to give up my lunch breaks managing an electronics factory to get these out by the deadline. And a fair portion of what should have been my R&R time after work. In the end I couldn’t have given a shit about whether or not I received the works, but to be lied to about them and then to have Eamonn cease all communication with me because of it really stung me.
Turns out I wasn’t the only one he scammed; on a facebook group for rare occult works I found a community of disgruntled customers that had been waiting years – yes actual fucking years, like 2 or 3– for books from him they had spent a good deal of money on. After a brief read of their comments the total amount owed was easily over $20k. I like to believe that Eamonn just fell behind in his orders and that these guys eventually got their books, as I never pinned him for one who would intentionally deceive people for money, but regardless, there was talk of getting the police involved after he didn’t bother to reply to their emails. And talk from others who suggested it was common practice for Eamonn to go through stages of seeming professionalism only to finish it off with such fraudulent actions. Oh yeah, and he was on the fucking group.
So it was safe to say Eamonn, who seemed to be embodying the spirit of Aleister Crowley a little too literally, was fast burning the bridges he had established within the occult community, and getting quite a negative name for himself.
In the end the Stewards of the international Chapters decided he was too much of a liability and flipped him the metaphorical bird. We became our own separate entity completely disenfranchised from Eamonn and his chapter and whatever bullshit went with it, and Eamonn started refusing he ever had any involvement with any of us, even though it was his idea to expand internationally in the first place. Even though the whole club had been established on his ideologies. He said his fuck you’s and we said them right back.
How do I know he flat out refuses we had anything to do with his Club? Because a friend within the {American} OTO bought books from him and received a flyer asking him to join the HFC, to which Eamonn dismissed any connection to the international chapters, saying we had nothing whatsoever to do with his club and never had to begin with….Here’s the thing though, I still have the original emails proving otherwise. Whoopsie. In the words of the wise man who runs the site these words are posted on, don’t piss on someone’s leg and tell them it’s raining.
Consider it some recompense for the people still yet to receive their books:
…
…
So there you have it; the true modern day history of the HFC.
For what it is worth, despite all the drama, I’d be lying if I said the club did not have a profound impact on me. Despite Eamonn’s shortcomings, he did lead me down the road of Alchemy I otherwise never would have set foot on and inadvertently gave me some auxiliary tools to unlock my higher self.
If you are interested in such things, then I sincerely recommend seeking out a Steward of the International Chapters, that are no longer affiliated with him. Sure you might get there with his Chapter, but that all depends on whether or not he actually sends you the books you pay for.
Like I said, I hope he just fell behind with his orders and has since completed them, but I honestly stopped bothering reading into anything he was up to a few years ago, so that is research the reader will have to invest their own time in. It was sad to see a community with such potential succumb to such childish bickering.
In regards to Eamonn, I don’t hate him; I always looked up to him for spiritual guidance.
Who knows, maybe life caught up with him and he saw the need to make a quick buck to pay for a debt or two he’d gotten himself into. I just hope for his sake he hasn’t dug himself a hole he is unable to get out of.
I like to believe that spark that made him want to expand his Club internationally for the spiritual betterment of the people is still alive and smouldering somewhere deep inside him.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Well, we don’t know for sure it was a pet. Don’t you know. It obviously wasn’t well domesticated. That’s for certain.
Well, let me tell you. What do you do when your world is turned upside down? What do you do when you learn that the “Easter Bunny”, “Santa Claus” and the “Tooth Faerie” don’t really exist? Yeah, well, most people put up a fuss and then deny the facts. They don’t want to move away from their cherished beliefs.
And thus we have OOPARTs. Things that should not occur if the accepted “mainstream” narratives are correct.
Depending on who you are, and your mental makeup, will determine how you react to an OOPART.
Low Intelligence / Stupid
Not particuliarly moronic or retarded, but fixed in afixed thinking patterns.
You will deny it, and come up with reasons why it is an easily explained everyday object, or situation.
Average Intelligence
Representative of 80% of the human race.
You will ignore it. It is not important to you and thus holds no meaning for you.
High Intelligence
Only a few “get it”.
You will accept it as it is, and observe it and search for clues to see if you can gleen or derive further hints about the secrets of life from it.
Here, in this article, we will look at the discovery of human remains found in Tyrannosaurus Rex dung.
Human bones in dinosaur feces
In 2017 it was announced, and quickly ridiculed, that dinosaur feces containing bone fragments belonging to some of our early human ancestors were found in the fecal matters of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. My guess is that the human didn’t quite agree with the Dino and so with the acid reflux and stomach ache, the dinosaur shit the remains out in an explosion of gluey mess.
I guess, “road kill” isn’t exactly the right words for raw human. Too crunchy and with too much tough grizzle.
Paleoscatologist Karen Chen has discovered human bones in coprolites (fossilized excrement).
I guess that it didn’t help any that she was Chinese. In 2017, Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo and crew were active in demonizing everything to do with China. This included human remains in dinosaur excrement.
Now, what she found was human remains. What is curious about them is that they were found INSIDE of dinosaur shit. These are, 100% human bone fragments found inside the fossilized Tyrannosaurus dung.
Because of the obvious sensationalism of such a discovery, varieties of tests were performed to determine the nature of the bones. In all cases the conclusion was unmistakable. A dinosaur; specifically a Tyrannosaurus Rex, gobbled down a proto-human whole, and then after a suitable period of time, shit him / her out.
Let’s face the realiy.
It is absolutely clear that the analysis of the fragments produced absolutely unexpected results, as the bones turned out to be of human (or proto-human) origin.
“I never expected anything like this. The fragments of bones turned out to be a part of a phalanx bone from the hand of an hominin, and the smaller ones are parts of a jaw bone. They appear to be from a specimen of Homo erectus or humanoid. That’s just unbelievable! ”
-Professor Chin
Scientists are shocked by her discovery, since non-avian dinosaurs are widely believed to have gone extinct more than 60 million years before the appearance of the first hominin.
The dating analysis has dated both the dung and the bones at approximately 1.8 million years, suggesting that some dinosaurs actually survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
“It proves that all non-avian dinosaurs did not disappear 60 million years ago. Our ancestors were actually preyed upon by some surviving dinosaurs!” – Professor Chin.
Many other paleontologists have criticized Professor Chin’s conclusions, claiming that her results were simply impossible. Everyone knows, they argue, that dinosaurs died off long before the first humans walked about and started to raise families.
Everyone knows.
Everyone knows.
However, aside from their scofflaws, not one of the other criticizing “experts” was able to provide answers or solutions to dispute the presence of a humanoid phalanx bone in the dung of a dinosaur.
Ah. Now I fully expect these artifacts, and the discovery to be “misplaced” in some dusty old archive, and lost in some long forgotten tome. They don’t, don’t you know, fit the established narrative that those in power have based their entire careers upon. And careers equate to money. And no one is going to risk their fine revenue stream to go against the all-mighty dollar.
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the most ferocious predators to ever walk the Earth. With a massive body, sharp teeth, and jaws so powerful they could crush a car, this famous carnivore dominated the forested river valleys in western North America during the late Cretaceous period, 68 million years ago.
Although T. rex is a household name, what we know about this tyrannosaur is constantly evolving. Improved technologies, such as biomechanical modeling and x-ray imaging, have allowed scientists to gain a deeper understanding of how this apex predator lived.
Tyrannosaurus rex was also adept at finding its prey thanks to a keen sense of smell. While scientists have known for a while that this dinosaur devoted large portions of its brain to processing smell, studies have recently revealed that T. rex had almost as many genes encoding its olfactory receptors as a house cat does today. This powerful snout also likely helped T. rex find mates and detect other predators.
Weaknesses
Not everything about Tyrannosaurus rex was fierce, however. This dinosaur had unexpectedly puny arms, and the function of these little limbs is a source of debate among scientists. Some believe the animal’s arms were an evolutionary leftover—like the pelvic bones of a snake—or served non-predatory purposes like helping it grip a mate. Others argue that T. rex’s arms may have been adapted for “vicious slashing” at close quarters, given their ability to inflict deep wounds with four-inch claws.
And while they had strong thighs, these dinosaurs were not speedy. They could only walk briskly at up to 12 miles an hour—likely not fast enough to chase a speeding Jeep, as depicted in the movie Jurassic Park. Using biomechanical models, scientists have theorized that if these heavy animals moved any faster, they would have shattered the bones in their feet.
Growth spurts and extinction
Tyrannosaurus rex had a life expectancy of about 28 years. Previous studies have suggested that it went through a growth spurt in its teenage years, but until recently, scientists didn’t know much about how it grew from a hatchling to a powerful predator.
In January 2020, a study of the fossils of Nanotyrannus—a smaller tyrannosaur that was believed to have lived alongside T. rex—revealed that the bones were more likely from a juvenile T. rexthan another species. If so, the study then suggests that Tyrannosaurus rex’s growth rate varied as it aged, and it could slow down its growth when food was scarce, a major evolutionary advantage.
In spite of all its advantages, T. rex was no match for the mass extinction event that claimed three quarters of life on Earth 66 million years ago. This cataclysm occurred when an asteroid or comet the size of a mountain slammed into Earth, (supposedly) wiping out Tyrannosaurus rex along with the rest of the non-avian dinosaurs and bringing a sudden end to the Cretaceous period.
Strengths
Tyrannosaurus rex, whose name means “king of the tyrant lizards,” was built to rule. This dinosaur’s muscular body stretched as long as 40 feet—about the size of a school bus—from its snout to the tip of its powerful tail. Weighing up to eight tons, T. rex stomped headfirst across its territory on two strong legs. These dinosaurs likely preyed on living animals and scavenged carcasses—and sometimes they even ate one another.
The head of a T. rex was the real stuff of nightmares. This fierce carnivore was optimally built for crunching through its meals, with a stiff skull that allowed it to channel all the force of its muscles into one bite—delivering up to six tons of pressure. This dinosaur used its 60 serrated teeth, each about eight inches long, to pierce and grip flesh, throwing prey into the air and swallowing it whole. To keep itself from overheating while crushing prey with its mighty jaws, the giant animal had vents in its head to help its brain stay cool, similar to those found in alligators.
Yikes!
Proto-humans
Now, the big problem that everyone has is that roughly 60 million years are supposed to separate the “age of the dinosaurs” and “the rise of man”. Statists have pronounced that humans evolved to what they are today, and the earliest proto-humans did not come into being until after the primates.
The earliest primates date from 56 million years ago. And thus, according to the “experts” these proto-monkeys came into being millions of years after the dinosaurs became extinct.
So the big problem is this…
Maybe the dinosaurs did not die off 60 million years ago.
Maybe the proto-monkeys, proto-humans or humans are older than we assume.
Maybe dinosaurs and humans or proto-humans did actually coexist.
Maybe a time machine brought the two species together.
Maybe a space vehicle brought humans to dinosaurs together.
Or, perhaps the theory of evolution is incorrect with dinosaurs and humans.
Maybe we all coexisted in some sort of peace…
Evidence of coexistence
Now, if this was all there was… well, maybe we could just shrug our shoulders and forget about it. But there is quite a bit of evidence that is suggestive of dinosaur and human coexistence.
Bishop Bell’s Behemoths
This brass engraving was made over 500 years ago, and decorates Bishop Bell’s tomb in England. Thetwo animals depicted are very unambiguous sauropods, but were probably known to the locals of thetime as dragons. The animal on the left has a tail that ends in a spiked club, just like the sauropodShunosaurus. It’s fascinating to consider that these dinosaurs were probably roaming the hillsidesof Medieval England!
Utah Petroglyph
Utah Petroglyph
In Utah there is a rock formation known as Kachina Bridge. Underneath the arch is a Native AmericanIndian petroglyph that greatly resembles a sauropod dinosaur. Even Phil Senter, author of a widely–circulated study that tried to refute the dinosaur interpretation, admits that it “really does look like a dino“.
It should be noted that his study has been heavily criticizedfor bad science by bothproponents and skeptics of the dinosaur interpretation alike; Vance Nelson has extensively debunked the proposed refutation by highlighting its poor methodology.
Granby Idol
In 1920, an interesting stone was unearthed by a Colorado rancher. It was a foot and a half long and afoot wide, portraying a smiling face, a woolly mammoth and a sauropod dinosaur. After seeing the 66–pound stone firsthand in 1923, archaeologist Jean Allard Jeancon proclaimed:
"If this stone can be proven genuine, it is the biggest find in all anthropological research[...] I havenever seen such remarkable outlines of dinosaurs and mastodons!"
After being displayed on the rancher’s porch for six years as a local novelty, it was sold to a man namedHenry McKnight for the price of $300, or about four grand in today’s dollars afterbeingadjusted forinflation. It was supposedly to be given to the Smithsonian Museum, but it’s never been seen since.
Fortunately, a teacher came forward four decades later and revealed that she possessed photos of the stone taken before it’s mysterious disappearance. These reconstructions of the stone are based on her pictuures.
Dino stone.
Chinese Ceratopsian
Perhaps as far back as 2,000 B.C., a people known as the Hongshan occupied the land now calledChina. This jade sculpture is a relic of this ancient culture. Compared with a modern portrayal ofTriceratops‘ cousin,Montanoceratops, one is compelled to conclude the ancient Chinesesaw living dinosaurs.
Of course, objections are expected regarding its authenticity. It’s been argued that it’s a recent creation,citing the market for Hongshan jade figurines. But even if it were granted that this were a forgerycontrived to meet a high demand, the implication is that it’s still a modern duplicate of agenuineHongshan sculpture.
Thus, the case for dinosaurs roaming ancient China with man would not suffer at all.
As it turns out, though, the artifact is not aforgery. It’s authenticity has been verified by an expertthird–party. The feeble argument that it actually represents a pig is soundly refuted by the existenceof other Hongshan carvings which actually look like pigs.
Crocodile–Leopard
Around 100 B.C. the Nile Mosaic of Palestrina was created. It depicts many familiar animals withGreek labels, including the crocodile, giraffe, hippo, monkey, lizard, and turtle. The identification ofthe animal shown in this close–up is the subject of much controversy because it is difficult to identifywith any extant creature. It has been suggested that the animal may be an otter. This is not plausible, however, since the same mosaic elsewhere depicts a pair of animals explicitly labeled asotters!
Battling a dinosaur.
The Greek label for this animal reads crocodile–leopard. This unfamiliar term may be the key toidentifying the mysterious creature. The ancient Greek word for giraffe was camel–leopard,referencingthe giraffe’s camel–like morphologyand leopard–like color pattern. Why would the animal in the mosaic be called a crocodile–leopard? The leopard part of the name is obviously not due to its color pattern. It can be concluded that the animal shared some mixture of both eptilian and mammaliantraits.
No animal alive today that resembles the crocodile–leopard could be accurately described as a mixtureof both reptile and mammal, but there is an extinct group of organisms which definitely can. They areliterally called mammal–like reptiles! The identification of this animal may finally be solved,notwithstanding the evolutionary assertion that all mammal–like reptiles went extinct millions of yearsbefore the mosaic was created.
The graphic below illustrates this point very convincingly. Note how the animal from the mosaic appears right at home among modern reconstructions of various mammal–like reptiles.
Pompeii Fresco
Around 70 A.D. this fresco was painted on the wall of a Pompeian doctor’s house. It depicts a Nilotic(Nile) scene, with pygmies interacting with some aquatic mammal and a couple of large reptiles.
Here are a couple close–ups of the animals, with modern depictions of extinct creatures for comparison.
Note the mammal in the fresco and the modernmoeritheriumillustration both possessan elongated,fleshy snout. Consistent with modern interpretations ofmoeritheriumremains, the animal in the frescoled a partially aquatic lifestyle.The reptile beneath strongly resembles thesphenacodon, likely arelative ofdimetrodon, but with a smallersail.
Critics of themoeritheriumandsphenacodoninterpretation have argued the fresco actually depicts ahippo and a crocodile. As evidence, they cite several related pieces of art which depict pygmies insimilar scenariosinteracting with hippos and stylized crocodiles. The insinuation is that the‘sphenacodon‘ is a heavily stylized (or poorly drawn) crocodile. One obvious problem with this argument is that crocodiles do not have a sail on their back, and artists don’t just accidentally draw sailson the backs of crocodiles. Even if it were to be argued that the reptile in the fresco doesn’t have a sail,but rows of spines that give the illusion of a sail, the fact remains that the short spines (if they couldeven be called that) on a crocodile’s back increase in length towards the end of the tail, while the exactopposite occurs with the fin–like structure on the creature in the painting.
A similar argument is put forth by skeptics for the animal identified here as amoeretherium; it’sclaimed to be a stylized or incorrectly drawn hippo. However, it’s hard to imagine how the artist, if heindeed were intending to paint a hippo, could have gotten the anatomy so grossly incorrect. This holdstrue even if the artist were depicting a hippo based on word of mouth, and had never seen a real one before. The head of a hippo, along with its nose, are extremely broad and thick, and the same is true of its body. Also, a hippo’s legs are very short. In every aspect where the mammal of the fresco departs from resemblance to a hippo, it matches the moeretherium. The same goes for the reptile.
Chinese Dino 1500 A.D. painting
The Shanghai Museum exhibits this piece of Chinese art. It was painted around 500 years ago duringthe Ming Dynasty by artistDing Yunpeng, and is one of the most realistic depictions of the popularChinese Dragon.Instead of drawing it as lengthy and flexible as the modern parade float, its structureis far more dinosaurian. Also, in contrast to other portrayals where the creature has actual wings,Yunpeng was content to draw it with filamentous tuffs. This is fascinating, becauseceolurasaurfossilsare often described as possessing filamentous lumage. Notice how similar this modern depiction of aceolurasauris to the animal in the 500 year old painting.
Now, one of the more obvious disparities is the pair of horns that adorns the dragon, but this is notreason to dismiss the comparison altogether. Animals often come in both horned and hornless varieties.
. For example, Carnotaurus is likely a horned relative of T. Rex:
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Duck–Billed Dino in France
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Like the previous piece of art, this one was also constructed in the 1500s. This isa close–up of atapestry currently on display in the Royal Chateau de Blois, France. If one attributes the pair of goldenwings to artistic license, the creature appears to be a very unambiguoushadrosaur, a.k.a. a duck–billed dinosaur.
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SpanishNothosaurAltar Cloth
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This altar cloth was created 400 years ago and adorns the Chapel of St. George in Barcelona, Spain. Itdepicts St. George slaying the dragon. A picture is worth a thousand words, so the comparisonpractically speaks for itself.Nothosaurs, supposedly extinct for millions of years, apparently inhabited the rivers of Spain just a few centuries ago.
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Father Crespi
I am going to devote an entire aritcle on Father Crespi and his collection of old artefacts and artwork later on. But this picture below will give one time to pause and reflect.
Born in 1891 in Italy, Father Carlos Crespi Croci was a Salesian Monk that spent his career in Cuenca, Ecuador from 1923 to 1982. At the University of Milan, he studied anthropology before becoming a priest. His many talents included being an educator, anthropologist, botanist, artist, explorer, cinematographer, humanitarian, as well as a musician. The kindness and benevolence he taught his congregation was such that they rewarded him with a number of ancient artifacts.
It is estimated that throughout his lengthy career, Father Crespi was given and/or purchased over 50,000 ancient artifacts. The items in particular that captured the fascination of the world were a number of plates and objects forged from gold with mysterious symbols and hieroglyphs. The villagers told Father Crespi that many of the artifacts were found inside a cave known as the Tayos Cave.
In the early 1970s, Erich Von Daniken published The Gold of the Gods in which he highlighted many of Father Crespi’s artifacts. Von Daniken made the claim that the collection included metal books showing proof that a lost civilization existed in ancient times that extraterrestrials helped to form. Many people fed into the belief that these artifacts were either extraterrestrial or were “out of place” with bizarre unknown scripts similar to Babylonian or Sumerian writing.
With the Vatican’s permission, Father Crespi opened a museum at the Salesian School at Cuenca. In July 1962, a fire broke out and the museum was destroyed. Father Crespi was able to salvage as much as possible and stored them in two long, narrow rooms. Items from Father Crespi’s collection included tablets, plates, doors, decorations, statues, pottery, jewelry, ancient weapons and war adornments. There were even three gold sarcophagus-like coffins. The artifacts were made of stone, wood, ceramic and metal. The metals were pure gold, sheet-gold, pure silver, sheet-silver, bronze, brass, copper, zinc, tin and sheet metal.
When Father Crespi passed away in 1982 what happened next only added to the mystery. His collection was removed. Investigators later discovered that it was purchased by the Central Bank of Ecuador and is currently stored in their museum vaults; however, none of the golden plates were shown to investigators, so it assumed they are lost. Others believe that either the Vatican has them, the local Government, or another rumor is that they were melted down and used for military funds. All that remains is the photographic evidence.
Some people believe that the collection either never existed or was a fake.
The truth is that there is a golden plate within Father Crespi’s collection that has been overlooked but is undeniable proof that the origins of the plate are absolutely regional. The plate was not created or influenced by extraterrestrials or other cultures outside of Mesoamerica. Finally, after all of this time a connection has been made between the Crespi Gold Collection and the Mayan hieroglyphs.
The Mayan Empire was located in what is now Guatemala. Its greatest influence was reached in the Sixth Century A.D. The Maya had advanced knowledge of architecture, agriculture, art, calendar-making, math, pottery, and hieroglyphic writing. For reasons not yet fully understood, most of the Maya deserted their cities by 900 A.D. To this day, historians argue over the reasons for the fall of the Mayan Empire.
Why has it taken so long for this one plate to be recognized for what it is? The main reason perhaps is because the plate is never shown to be in the proper position. In order to be connected back to its native language, the plate needs to be in the position as shown in these images. Also, when the Spanish conquered Mesoamerica one of the goals was to eliminate the history of the indigenous peoples. By taking away their historical identity the Spanish succeeded in convincing the world that the Mesoamerica had no education or cultural value before the Spaniard’s arrival.
In recent times however, archaeologists and anthropologists have gained a great understanding and respect for early Mesoamerican civilizations. We know today that many Mesoamerican cultures that existed in modern times were very advanced and modern researchers still struggle to decipher their architecture, artwork, and writing systems.
Every glyph on this plate can be found in the key provided by Bishop Landa who was a part of later Spanish rule in Mesoamerica. There are mild variants between a couple of the glyphs on the gold plate and Bishop Landa’s key; however, it is widely known that the Maya often used many designs and variations for the same syllable or word.
Is this to say that all of Father Crespi’s artifacts were Mayan in nature? That is doubtful. The plates appear to be a compilation of different scripts that more than likely existed throughout the region. Perhaps the Tayos Cave served as the ancient school for scribes as well as for the art of metallurgy.
It is possible that the Mesoamerica people hid these valuable historical artifacts so that the Spaniards would not be able to confiscate them. It is uncanny how much of Bishop’s Landa’s key appears on the gold plate itself. Perhaps, there were some Spaniards who hid some of the gold away either because they recognized the historical value of the plates, or for greed with the intent to recover them later but never did.
The last plausible explanation for such an accumulation of varied historical metal artifacts is that they were brought there by floodwaters. Central and South America are subject to monsoons so perhaps the caves are the lowest level point in the region in which floodwaters deposit various materials. Gold, being a heavy metal, will sink to the lowest level the first chance it gets. Copper and silver are also heavy metals.
We will never know how they got there or where they went after Father Crespi passed away, but now, at least, there is a solid connection to the Mayan culture.
The pdf here presents all the documented artifacts.
The big lesson here is that we should look at things as they really are, and not as we want them to be.
And when money is involved, it trumps all. It becomes the driving force of all reason, and all truth. Such is the bane of America and the “West” today. But that need not be our collective future. By rejecting the financial motivators, we can see things as they are and accept them. It will be a great advantage for the earth human society and for our own personal advantages.
The evidence is clear that large dinosaur creatures coexisted with humans for centuries. That, perhaps, their demise was due to hunting by humans rather than by extinction via meteor. And while, the meteor did cause a complete extinction of many species, there is evidence that many species survived and were exposed to humans in many ways, and in many places.
I am confident that killing one brontosaurus would be enough food to feed a very hungry villiage. And you know, judging from the curious Sumarian carvings of scaled doglike creatures on leashes, kept as pets as well.
Maybe they were used as beasts of burden; or for mighty weapons platforms such as this…
Battle Dinosaur.
Or as this…
Battle / attack dinosaur.
So, all in all, being eaten up by a hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex doesn’t seem all that unlikely at all. We need to open up our horizons and expand our minds. What we think about the past, the future and the present is more than likely, wrong.
Do we really know what life was like in the past?
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my OOPARTS Index here…
With the December 2021 “Ultimatum” by Russia clear in mind, what will be the consequences if President Biden, and the United States does not take this message seriously? What can we expect to happen? Well this article explores this scenario, as all indications are that they are continuing to play “their games”;
Say one thing, do the complete opposite, and narrate bullshit all over the many, many propaganda outlets that they control.
It might play well in the American heartland, but China and Russia are both DEADLY SERIOUS. This time it’s when “the bullet hits the bone”.
The American Response…
On the surface, we see [1] a signed pledge that the Untied States will not target either Russia or China with it’s nuclear missiles.
Anti-nuclear use agreement.
And, you do know, this is meaningless, though it has got a lot of positive press.
Funny how the “news” fails to acknowledge that the United States has a history of repeatedly breaking contracts, agreements and pledges at will. And also that there’s no verification put into place, or changes in American Geo-political military movements or posturings. Just words. Very well promoted words. But meaningless words with no verification systems, or evidence of any further physical actions.
Then we have [2] a color revolution in Kazakhstan. Which is a big nation wedged and jutting into both Russia and China. On The Saker, Andrei suggests that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions that this is a United States backed color revolution. I disagree.
[2.1] It is the RESPONSIBILITY of the leadership of both Russia and China to assume that it is. Whether this is true or not.
[2.2] Almost ALL of the “color revolutions” in the last 100 years were instigated by the United States. If you can find examples of pure “grass roots” movements, I’d like to how how this is not instigated, but rather a true and real “grass roots” movement.
[2.3] Videos of weapons drop off locations, and the collection of weapons by trained insurgents points to organization at a very high level of involvement.
The 350 pages long report recommended certain steps to be taken by the U.S. to contain Russia. As its summary says:
Recognizing that some level of competition with Russia is inevitable, this report seeks to define areas where the United States can do so to its advantage. We examine a range of nonviolent measures that could exploit Russia’s actual vulnerabilities and anxieties as a way of stressing Russia’s military and economy and the regime’s political standing at home and abroad. The steps we examine would not have either defense or deterrence as their prime purpose, although they might contribute to both. Rather, these steps are conceived of as elements in a campaign designed to unbalance the adversary, leading Russia to compete in domains or regions where the United States has a competitive advantage, and causing Russia to overextend itself militarily or economically or causing the regime to lose domestic and/or international prestige and influence.
RAND lists economical, geopolitical, ideological and informational as well as military measures the U.S. should take to weaken Russia.
Since the report came out the first four of the six ‘geopolitical measures’ listed in chapter 4 of the report have been implemented.
The U.S. delivered lethal weapons to Ukraine, it increased its support for ‘rebels’ in Syria. It attempted a regime change in Belarus and instigated a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The U.S. is now implementing measure 5 which aims to ‘reduce Russia’s influence in Central Asia’.
Kazakhstan, Russia’s southern neighbor, was part of the Soviet Union. It is a mineral rich, landlocked country three times the size of Texas but with less than 20 million inhabitants. A significant part of its people are Russians and the Russian language is in common use. The country is an important link in the strategic Belt and Road Initiative between China and Europe.
Since the demise of the Soviet Union the country has been ruled by oligarchic family clans – foremost the Nazarbayevs. As the CIA Worldfactbook notes:
Executive branch
chief of state: President Kasym-Zhomart TOKAYEV (since 20 March 2019); note - Nursultan NAZARBAYEV, who was president since 24 April 1990 (and in power since 22 June 1989 under the Soviet period), resigned on 20 March 2019; NAZARBAYEV retained the title and powers of "First President"; TOKAYEV completed NAZARBAYEV's term, which was shortened due to the early election of 9 June 2019, and then continued as president following his election victory
Over the last decade there have been several uprisings (2011, 2016 and 2019) in Kazakhstan. These were mostly caused by uneven distribution of income from its minerals including oil and gas. The oligarchs in the capital of Astana / Nur-Sultan live well while the provinces which produce the minerals, like Mangistauskaya in the south-west, have seen few developments.
Recently the price for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), used by many cars in Kazakhstan, went up after the government had liberalized the market. This caused another round of country wide protests:
The string of rallies that has torn through Kazakhstan since January 2 began in the western oil town of Zhanaozen, ostensibly triggered by anger over a sudden spike in the price of car fuel. Similar impromptu gatherings then quickly spread to nearby villages in the Mangystau region and then in multiple other locations in the west, in cities like Aktau, Atyrau and Aktobe. By January 4, people had come out onto the streets in numbers in locations many hundreds of kilometers away, in the southern towns of Taraz, Shymkent and Kyzyl-Orda, in the north, in the cities of Uralsk and Kostanai, as well as in Almaty and Nur-Sultan, the capital, among other places.
Few saw scenes as fiery as those in Almaty, though.
Clashes in Almaty continued throughout the night into January 5. After being dispersed by police from Republic Square, part of the crowd headed around two kilometers downhill, to another historic location in the city, Astana Square, where the seat of government used to be located in Soviet times.
While there is little reliable way to gauge the scale of the demonstrations, a combination of on-the-ground reporting and video footage appears to indicate that these protests may be even larger than those that brought the country to a near-standstill in 2016.
While the grievances that sparked the first rallies in Zhanaozen were to do with fuel prices, the sometimes rowdy demonstrations that have followed appear to be of a more general nature. Chants of “shal ket!” (“old man go!”), usually understood as a reference to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who continues to wield significant sway from behind the scenes, have been heard at many of the demos.
The protests escalated soon with gangs of armed protesters taking control of government buildings and setting them on fire. There were also attempts to take control of radio and TV stations as well as the airport. Police, which generally did little to intervene, were gunned down.
The actions in Almaty, the country’s largest city and former capital, are certainly not spontaneous reactions by a crowd of poor laborers but controlled actions by well trained groups of armed ‘rebels’.
Peter Leonard @Peter__Leonard - 9:18 UTC · 6 Jan 2022
Kazakhstan: Very important and intriguing detail with strong shades of Kyrgyzstan 2020. Peaceful people initiate rallies, but shady and violent individuals turn up to sow trouble, and it is never remotely clear who they are or where they came from /1 https://t.co/qYSlUUrMVx
From one account I heard, a similar dynamic played out in Almaty on Wednesday morning. A relatively small and mild gathering formed on Republic Square, opposite city hall. All of a sudden hundreds of extremely aggressive men turned up, threatening all and sundry #Kazakhstan /2
They threatened and attacked journalists standing nearby, ordering anybody who took photographs to delete the images. It was clearly this cohort that was responsible for much of the destruction. And it is a mystery (to me) who they were /3
We have seen similar formations during the U.S. instigated uprisings in Libya, Syria, Ukraine and Belarus.
NEXTA, the U.S. financed regime change media network in Poland which last year directed the failed color revolution attempt in Belarus, announced the U.S. demands:
NEXTA @nexta_tv - 13:52 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
Demands of the Protesters in #Kazakhstan
1. Immediate release of all political prisoners
2. Full resignation of president and government
3. Political reforms:
Creation of a Provisional Government of reputable and public citizens. Withdrawal from all alliances with #Russia
A more reliable source confirms these:
Maxim A. Suchkov @m_suchkov - 14:43 UST · Jan 5, 2022
The list of demands of protestors in #Kazakhstan that's been circulating is interesting, to put it mildly.
While most demands focus on bolstering social & economic support & countering corruption points #1, 7, 10, 13, 16 expose the roots of protest & who's driving them
#1 demands that #Kazakhstan should leave Eurasian Economic union.
#7 demands legalization of polygamy "for certain groups of the population" & prohibition on marriage with foreigners
#10 demands independence for Mangystau region &^that revenues of oil companies remain in Mangystau
Caveat: this list been circulating a lot on telegram - could be fake or not representative of what protestors want, thou it appears protestors are a diverse group that includes genuinely disgruntled people, political manipulators, "prof revolutionaries" (that were in UKR & BEL), etc
The government of Kazakhstan has since lowered the LPG prices. On January 5 President Tokayev relived the ‘First President’ Nazarbayev of his position as chairman of the Security Council and promised to act tough on armed protesters.
Kazakhstan is part of the Russian led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) as well as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). On the morning of January 5 Tokayev had a phone call with the presidents of Russia and Belarus. He has mobilized airborne units of the armed forces of Kazakhstan. On the evening of January 5 he requested support from the CSTO against the ‘foreign directed terrorists’ which are fighting the security forces.
Russia, Belarus and other CSTO members have dedicated quick reaction forces reserved for such interventions. These will now be mobilized to regain government control in Kazakhstan. Russian CSTO forces are currently on their way to Kazakhstan. Belorussian and Armenian troops will follow soon.
They are in for some tough time:
Cᴀʟɪʙʀᴇ Oʙsᴄᴜʀᴀ ❄ @CalibreObscura - 19:50 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
#Kazakhstan: Captured arms from the National Security Committee (equivalent to Russian FSB) building by protestors in #Almaty: At least 2 PG-7V projectiles, possible boxed Glock pistol & (possibly) more in numerous scattered crates, various kit.
Anti-Armour capability in 48hrs...
During the last decades the U.S. and its allies had been relatively quiet about the dictatorial leadership in Kazakhstan.
Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled - 14:18 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
NATO's cheerleading corner of FSU "experts" already working hard to spin Kazakhstan uprisings as somehow Putin's fault or indictment of Putin—but note how quiet our media-NGO complex has been the past 20 years re: the regime's human rights abuses, corruption & "authoritarianism"
Chevron is the largest oil producer in Kazakhstan and the former British prime minister Tony Blair has previously been giving advice to then President Nursultan Nazarbayev on how to avoid an uproar over dead protesters:
In a letter to Nursultan Nazarbayev, obtained by The Telegraph, Mr Blair told the Kazakh president that the deaths of 14 protesters “tragic though they were, should not obscure the enormous progress” his country had made.
Mr Blair, who is paid millions of pounds a year to give advice to Mr Nazarbayev, goes on to suggest key passages to insert into a speech the president was giving at the University of Cambridge, to defend the action.
Times however are different now as Kazakhstan has continued to strengthen its relations with Russia and China.
The CIA offshoot National Endowment for Democracy is financing some 20 ‘civil society’ regime change programs in Kazakhstan with about $50,000 per annum each. The involved organizations currently seem to be mostly quiet but are a sure sign that the U.S. is playing a role behind the scenes. On December 16 details of upcoming demonstrations were announced by the U.S. embassy in Kazakhstan.
It is likely that this pre-planned Central Asia part of the ‘Extending Russia’ program has been implemented prematurely as a response to Russia’s recent ultimatum with regards to Ukraine and NATO. Its sole purpose is to unbalance the Russian leadership in Moscow by diverting its attention towards the south.
I however believe that Russia has prepared for such eventualities. They will not affect its plans and demands.
What is difficult to discern though is what is really happening behind the scenes in Astana/Nur-Sultan. Has Tokayev, who was previously seen as a mere puppet of Nazarbayev, really replaced him? His control of the security forces is somewhat in doubt:
Liveuamap @Liveuamap - 19:18 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
Tokayev dismissed the head of his security guard Saken Isabekov. Also, the President dismissed the Deputy Head of the State Security Service of the Republic of Kazakhstan from his post
But the outcome of the whole game is quite predictable:
Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled - 14:31 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
The grim likelihood, given all the various "revolutions" in the FSU the past 20 years, is that Kazakhstan's street protests [will be] instrumentalized by a powerful clan to replace the ruling oligarchy with a new oligarchy.
The CSTO troops which are now landing in Almaty will take a few days to end the rebellion. The outcome is not in doubt.
Moscow, not Washington DC, will have a big say in who will come out at the top.
It is quite possible (but not guaranteed) that the results of the whole affair will, like the failed U.S. regime change attempts in Belarus, not weaken but strengthen Russia:
Dmitri Trenin @DmitriTrenin - 7:57 UTC · 6 Jan 2022
#Kazakhstan is another test, after #Belarus, of RUS ability to help stabilize its formal allies w/o alienating their populations. As 1st action by CSTO since founding in 1999, it is major test for bloc. Lots of potential pitfalls around, but can be big boon if Moscow succeeds.
And because of that…
Russian troops formerly on the Ukraine border are now being moved into Kazakhstan.
What great luck for the United States.
What a coincidence!
So there you have it.
There’s a very high probability that the United States continues to play Geo-Poltitical “games”. And it’s a dangerous game that they are playing. On the surface, say the nice things, run the “news” media machine talking about wonderful futures and rainbows, meanwhile the bad stuff continues unabated.
Here’s a couple of articles that discuss this matter…
A Surprise Russian Ultimatum: New Draft Treaties To Roll Back NATO
The release a couple of days ago on the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs website of its draft treaties to totally revise the European security architecture has been picked up by our leading mainstream media. The New York Times lost no time posting an article by its most experienced journalists covering Russia, Andrew Kramer and Steven Erlanger: “Russia Lays Out Demands for a Sweeping New Security Deal With NATO.” For its part, The Financial Times brought together its key experts Max Seddon in Moscow, Henry Foy in Brussels and Aime Williams in Washington to concoct “Russia publishes “red line” security demands for NATO and US.”
Both flagships of the English language print media correctly identified the main new feature of the Russian initiative, encapsulated by the word “demands.” However, they did not explore the “what if” question, how and why these “demands” are being presented de facto if not by name as an “ultimatum, as I consider them to be.
The newspaper articles themselves are weak tea. They summarize the points set out in the Russian draft treaties. But they are incapable of providing an interpretation of what the Russian initiative means for the immediate future of us all.
Normally they would be hand fed such analysis by the U.S. State Department and Pentagon. However, this time Washington has declined to comment, saying it is now studying the Russian treaties and will have its answer in a week or so. In the meantime, America’s reliable lap dog Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, saw no need for reflection and flatly rejected the Russian demands as unacceptable. The “front line” NATO member states in the Baltics also reflexively vetoed any talks with the Russians on these matters.
However, even the FT and NYT understand what Mr. Stoltenberg’s opinion or Estonia’s opinion is worth and held back on giving their own thumbs up or down. They both analyze the draft treaties primarily in connection with the current massing of Russian troops at the border of Ukraine. They assume that if the Russians receive no satisfaction on their demands they will use this to justify an invasion. We are told that in such an eventuality a new Cold War will set in on the Old Continent, as if that will be the end of all the fuss.
In part, the problem with these media is that their journalist and editorial teams are tone deaf as regards things Russian. They are insensitive to nuance and incapable of seeing what is new here in content and still more in the presentation of the Russian texts. In part, the weakness is attributable to the common problem of journalists: their time horizon goes back to what happened last week. They lack perspective.
In what I present below, I will attempt to address these shortcomings. I will not invoke historical time, which would possibly take us back seventy years to the start of the first Cold War or even thirty years to the end of that Cold War, but will restrict my commentary to the time surrounding the last such Russian call for treaties to regulate the security environment on the European continent, 2008 – 2009 under then President Dmitry Medvedev. That is within the time horizon of political science.
I will pay particular attention to the tone of this Russian démarche and will try to explain why the Russians have drawn their “red lines” in the sand precisely now. All of this will lead to a conclusion that it is not only President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev who should be concerned about the condition of local bomb shelters, but also all of us in Brussels, Warsaw, Bucharest, etc. on this side of the Atlantic, and in Washington, D.C., New York and other major centers on the American continent. We are staring down what might be called Cuban Missile Crisis Redux.
We commentators each have our own starting dates for the narratives we offer to the reading public. In my case, I choose to begin with President Putin’s speech to the Munich Security Conference in February 2007. That speech in itself was very unusual, as Putin explained from his first moments at the lectern:
“This conference’s structure allows me to avoid excessive politeness and the need to speak in roundabout, pleasant but empty diplomatic terms. This conference’s format will allow me to say what I really think about international security problems. And if my comments seem unduly polemical, pointed or inexact to our colleagues, then I would ask you not to get angry with me. After all, this is only a conference. And I hope that after the first two or three minutes of my speech [the Conference host] will not turn on the red light over there.”
This led him to deliver the following bold assertion:
“I am convinced that we have reached that decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security. And we must proceed by searching for a reasonable balance between the interests of all participants in the international dialogue.”
In a word, the concerns and the proposed process of solution through renewal of the architecture of security that we see today in Russia’s latest draft treaties go straight back to 2007 when Vladimir Putin came out publicly on the subject in what might be described as the lion’s den of the world security establishment.
With Senator John McCain and other champions of American global hegemony staring at him in disbelief from the front rows, in that speech Vladimir Putin set out in detail Russia’s rejection of the US led unipolar world as a source of international tensions, recourse to military solutions, an arms race and nuclear proliferation.
US hegemony was undemocratic and unworkable, he said.
The speech was also notable for Putin’s mention of the shabby treatment his country had received at American hands following the breakup of the USSR in the 1990s straight through into the new millennium. The key issue was expansion of NATO to the East, taking in former Warsaw Pact countries and, finally, former USSR republics, the Baltic States.
I quote:
“It turns out that NATO has put its frontline forces on our borders, and we continue to strictly fulfill the treaty obligations and do not react to these actions at all. I think it is obvious that NATO expansion does not have any relation with the modernization of the Alliance itself or with ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary, it represents a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have the right to ask: against whom is this expansion intended? And what happened to the assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact? Where are those declarations today? No one even remembers them.”
Putin’s 2007 speech was cast in the manner of complaint. It came from a country that was still only partially recovered from the economic devastation it suffered in the 1990s during a badly managed transition from the Soviet command economy to a market economy.
More to the point, his was a country with greatly diminished military capability compared to the Soviet super power from which it emerged independent. To a certain degree, the disbelief amidst the American and allied contingent in Munich arose from the very audacity of still puny Russia to challenge the powers that be.
In the weeks and months following Putin’s Munich speech, the United States recovered from its shock at his public denunciation and swiftly moved into counterattack, launching an Information War on Russia that is with us today.
From the closing days of the Bush Administration, through the entire Obama Administration save when the New START arms control agreement was being negotiated and signed within the brief period called “the reset,” the United States used every means fair and foul to discredit Russia before the global community in the hope of isolating the country and relegating it to pariah status.
Trade sanctions against Russia were first imposed by the United States in 2012 under the Magnitsky Act. The United States greatly expanded its sanctions policy on Russia following the annexation of the Crimea in March 2014. Thanks to the MH17 air catastrophe of that summer, a “false flag” event of the first magnitude, all of Europe was brought on board. The sanctions policy was renewed yet again by the EU just this past Friday.
Looking back at 2008, when Vladimir Putin passed the presidency to his stand-in, Dmitry Medvedev, we see that revising Europe’s security architecture was one of the key policy objectives of the Medvedev presidency. He spoke about it in a speech he delivered in Berlin in June 2008. Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel was among the first to cold-shoulder the proposal, saying that Europe’s security arrangements had already taken concrete form.
In November 2009 he finally published on his website a draft treaty on European security. At the same time, Foreign Minister Lavrov officially submitted the document to the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) then meeting in Athens.
My book of essays entitled Stepping Out of Line, published in 2013, has a couple of chapters devoted to Medvedev’s initiative, which I concluded was hampered by a poor concept further weakened by poor execution. (“Medvedev’s Draft Treaty on European Security: Dead on Arrival” and “Russia’s Draft Treaty on European Security: Sergei Lavrov to the Rescue”
The draft agreement was first of all a non-aggression pact among and between all interested states in the Atlantic-Eurasian space. It would establish a framework of deliberative meetings in which all Member States would hear cases of threats of use of force or actual use of force against any Member State. However, nonaggression was merely window dressing, describing something which everyone could understand and say “amen” to. The second stated objective was to ensure the collective security of its members under the principle that no state or group of states could promote its security at the expense of other Member States.
What was missing from the draft treaty on European security was precisely the definition of what constituted enhancing one’s security at the expense of another. To Europeans the treaty could only serve the purpose of Russian grandstanding, establishing a major new forum for it to air any grievances it might have over NATO expansion, the missile defense system and other US sponsored measures enhancing Western security at the direct expense of Russian state security.
The emptiness of the draft treaty was a failure of Medvedev and his immediate assistants who drew it up. In February 2010, at the regular Munich Security Conference, Sergei Lavrov made a valiant effort to save the Medvedev initiative by proposing that the existing OSCE be re-engineered as the vehicle for ensuring collective security. Russia was saying that NATO must give up its predominance in Europe and cede place to a reinvigorated OSCE. Very little of Lavrov’s speech was reported in Western media.
The fact that it was quietly buried by all the receiving parties may be attributed to the very weak position of Russia itself at the time. The victorious Russian campaign against Georgia in 2008 was seen by defense professionals in the West very differently from what the general public understood. For professionals, the Russian military showed it had not made much progress from the poorly equipped and led forces that the USSR deployed in Afghanistan or that the Russian Federation deployed in Chechnya in the 1990s. The fact is that Medvedev’s posture was that of a supplicant, dealing from a weak hand. Do note, however, that the Russian concerns were precisely the same as those evoked by the Kremlin today as it promotes its new draft treaties.
Until the past few days, we heard no more of Russian draft treaties to alter the security architecture of Europe. Instead over the intervening years there have been repeated instances of Russian public complaints over US and NATO activities that it considers menacing. One such loud complaint came in January 2016 with release of a documentary film entitled World Order. This was a devastating critique of US global hegemony justified in the name of “democracy promotion” and “human rights” ever since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992.
Following on the points made in Vladimir Putin’s Munich speech of 2007, World Order illustrates through graphic footage and the testimony of independent world authorities the tragic consequences, the spread of chaos and misery, resulting from U.S.-engineered “regime change” and “color revolutions,” of which the violent overthrow of the Yanukovich regime in Ukraine in February 2014 was only the latest example.
The title of the film followed on Putin’s address to the 70th anniversary gathering of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 which had as its central message that world order rests on international law, which in turn has as its foundation the UN Charter. By flouting the Charter and waging war without the sanction of the UN Security Council, starting with the NATO attack on Serbia in 1999 and continuing with the invasion of Iraq in 2003 up to its illegal bombings in Syria today, the United States and its NATO allies had shaken the foundations of international law.
The foreign interviewees in World Order comprised an impressive and diverse selection of leaders in various domains, including American film director Oliver Stone; Thomas Graham, former National Security Council director for Russia under George W. Bush; former IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn; former Pakistan President Perwez Musharraf; former French Foreign Minister Dominique Villepin; former Israeli President Shimon Peres; WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange; and deputy leader of the Die Linke party in the German Bundestag Sahra Wagenknecht.
Strauss-Kahn, Musharraf and others charged that the U.S. plots against and destroys foreign leaders who dare to oppose America’s total control over global flows of money, goods and people. Wagenknecht addressed the question of Germany’s subservience to American Diktats and its de facto circumscribed sovereignty. The statements supported Putin’s long-standing argument, reiterated in the film, that the Western European allies of the US are nothing more than vassals.
The clear message of the film was that US led “democracy promotion” and its spread of “universal values” will not be tolerated and that Russia has set down certain redlines, such as against NATO expansion into Ukraine or Georgia, over which it will fight to the death using all its resources.
However, strong and pointed as this documentary film was in setting out the views of the Kremlin on the global and European security, it was just a complaint, nothing more. I mention it in detail above to demonstrate the continuity of Russian concerns that this week have come to a head with the release of the draft treaties for consideration of NATO and the USA.
What is new today in the Russian démarche over European security? Both content and presentation are new.
In contrast to Dmitry Medvedev’s treaties of 2008-2009, the latest Russian draft texts are all content that is methodically and exhaustively set out. It refers directly to the activities of the United States and NATO over the past several years that Russia considers most threatening to its security and thus most objectionable.
It is clear that the master treaty is with the United States and that the treaty with NATO is a subsidiary treaty. This reflects the insistent view from the Kremlin that the NATO verbiage of its being a consensus driven alliance is rubbish and that the reality is American domination and direction of NATO. This view sweeps aside any objection from any of the NATO Member States, as for example the immediate objections that came from the Baltic States and Poland, that their agreement to the proposed changes is needed, not to mention the need to consult with other interested parties, namely Ukraine. The Kremlin clearly intends to isolate Washington in the negotiating process for these treaties, before pussy footing with the other NATO members.
In the spirit of the Ten Commandments, almost all of the content is in negatives, in prohibitions.
With respect to the proposed treaty with the United States, we find the following:
“[The Parties] shall not implement security measures adopted by each Party individually or in the framework of an international organization, military alliance or coalition that could undermine core security interests of the other Party.
“The Parties shall not use the territories of other Sates with a view to preparing or carrying out an armed attack against the other Party or other actions affecting core security interests of the other Party.
“The United States of America shall undertake to prevent further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and deny accession to the Alliance to the States of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
“The United States of America shall not establish military bases in the territory of the States of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, use their infrastructure for any military activities or develop bilateral military cooperation with them.
“The Parties shall refrain from flying heavy bombers equipped for nuclear or non-nuclear armaments or deploying surface warships of any type, including in the framework of international organizations, military alliances or coalitions, in the areas outside national airspace and national territorial waters respectively, from where they can attack targets in the territory of the other Party.
“The Parties shall undertake not to deploy ground-launched intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles outside their national territories, as well as in the areas of their national territories, from which such weapons can attack targets in the national territory of the other Party.
“The Parties shall refrain from deploying nuclear weapons outside their national territories and return such weapons already deployed outside their national territories at the time of the entry into force of the Treaty to their national territories. The Parties shall eliminate all existing infrastructure for deployment of nuclear weapons outside their national territories.”
As regards the draft treaty with NATO, I call particular attention to the following provisions:
“The Parties shall exercise restraint in military planning and conducting exercises to reduce risks of eventual dangerous situations in accordance with their obligations under international law, including those set out in intergovernmental agreements on the prevention of incidents at sea outside territorial waters and in the airspace above, as well as in intergovernmental agreements on the prevention of dangerous military activities.
“In order to address issues and settle problems, the Parties shall use the mechanisms of urgent bilateral or multilateral consultations, including the NATO-Russia Council.
“The Parties reaffirm that they do not consider each other as adversaries.
“The Parties shall maintain dialogue and interaction on improving mechanisms to prevent incidents on and over the high seas (primarily in the Baltics and the Black Sea region).
“The Russian Federation and all the Parties that were member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as of 27 May 1997, respectively, shall not deploy military forces and weaponry on the territory of any of the other States in Europe in addition to the forces stationed on that territory as of 27 May 1997. ….
“The Parties shall not deploy land-based intermediate and short-range missiles in areas allowing them to reach the territory of the other Parties.
“All member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization commit themselves to refrain from any further enlargement of NATO, including the accession of Ukraine as well as other States.
“The Parties that are member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization shall not conduct any military activity on the territory of Ukraine as well as other States in Eastern Europe, in the South Caucasus and in Central Asia.”
The draft treaties do not create a new security architecture so much as they dismantle existing architecture added since the mid-1990s by the United States and its allies through NATO expansion to the east, military exercises close to Russian borders and air space, “temporary” stationing of personnel and equipment in forward positions approaching Russian borders.
If accepted in their present form, these treaties would represent a total capitulation by the United States over everything four successive administrations have tried to achieve to contain Russia and put it in a small cage at the periphery of Europe.
The demands are so stunning in scope that we must ask why Russia is taking the seemingly enormous risk of advancing them, and doing so publicly. Moreover, why now?
I have two explanations to advance: the first is the unshakable confidence that Vladimir Putin and his colleagues have in their present tactical advantage over the United States in the European theater of operations and strategic advantage over the United States on American home territory if push comes to shove.
Three years ago Putin used his annual State of the Union address to show off the newest weapons systems that Russia had successfully tested and was now putting into serial production, most particularly the hypersonic missiles that can evade all known ABM systems. He said then that for the first time in its modern history Russia had moved ahead of the United States in developing and deploying strategic weapons systems. While the States might develop the same with time, the Russians would move still further ahead.
Moreover, Putin claimed that whereas in its past the United States had considered the oceans to be its natural defense against military conquest from abroad, the latest Russian missiles, small enough to be carried in containers on merchant ships, on frigates or on submarines turned the adjacent oceans into the country’s weak point. The Russians could station their weapons just outside the 200 mile economic zone and still reach key military targets on US territory within several minutes. That is to say that Russia could now do what Khrushchev was denied the right to do in 1962 by stationing Soviet missiles in Cuba.
During his roll-out speech, Putin hoped that the United States and its Western partners would take notice, would do the arithmetic and alter their threatening behavior. Instead, Western media tended to treat the Russian weaponry as a bluff, or as something beyond the Russians’ ability to produce in sufficient quantities and with speed to pose a threat before the USA possessed the same.
One year ago, the Russian president again called attention to the deployment of the new weapons systems and urged the United States to react appropriately. Of course, once again Washington did nothing. Instead the US administration continued to raise the threat level of China and to dismiss Russia as nothing more than spoilers running a country on its way down.
Finally, we may conclude that Vladimir Vladimirovich and his team have decided to act, and to act now on the strength of the strategic superiority they believe they enjoy. Given the very cautious way that Putin has always conducted government affairs over the past twenty years, anyone who thinks the Kremlin is bluffing or miscalculating had better think again.
Now there is also a second, supportive factor to explain the Russians’ decision to publicize what is essentially an ultimatum to the USA. That factor is China. It is not for nothing that Putin and Xi had a widely publicized video conference call this week during which the Chinese President gave his full backing to Russian demands for resolution of the security crisis in Europe and said explicitly that the Chinese–Russian relationship is higher than an alliance.
Now what could be higher than an alliance? Surely this hints at a mutual defense pact, meaning that each side will come to the aid of the other as needed.
We may assume that there is something in writing between the Russians and the Chinese to give Putin the confidence that he has China at his back as he ventures into diplomatic and possibly military confrontation with the United States and its NATO allies.
And yet, what would the value of such a scrap of paper be? Where would you seek redress if the Chinese failed to delivery and NATO marched to Moscow? No, the value of the video conference with XI lies elsewhere. Like their amassing 100,000 troops at the Ukrainian border, the Russians are using the Chinese backing to scare the hell out of Washington, which might well assume that the Chinese will coordinate their own military actions against Taiwan, against the US naval forces in the South China Sea and beyond to present the United States with an unwinnable two-front war while serving their own, Chinese, interests.
Should the political situation in Washington prevent such lucid thinking, I believe that the Russians will fall back on their own quite independent ability to put a pistol to the head of the American establishment, through the stationing of its missile forces just offshore, which has not yet been done.
How this plays out will depend on the nature of the US response to Russia’s next move, which might, in the circumstances of Washington stonewalling, be that invasion of Ukraine that has been so much talked about in the past few weeks. It would be foolhardy at this point to sketch all possible scenarios. But we are surely at the moment when the “the worm turns.”
In conclusion, I call the reader’s attention to one further detail on presentation: who has been the messenger on the Kremlin’s behalf.
For the past several years, people around Vladimir Putin have joked with respect to foreign powers, “if they cannot deal with Lavrov [RF Minister of Foreign Affairs], then they will have to deal with Shoigu [RF Minister of Defense].” Judging by the last two weeks, I would insert another personality into this equation: Sergei Alekseevich Ryabkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Ryabkov has been around for a good long time, but till now we did not hear much from him. He graduated from the prestigious MGIMO, the higher school that traditionally educated fast-track candidates of the Soviet-Russian diplomatic corps. He served several years at the Russian embassy in the Washington and is fluent in English. In the new millennium he has had responsibilities relating to non-proliferation and managing relations with Europe. His present title is Deputy Minister.
As relations with the United States and the EU have heated up in recent weeks over the buildup of Russian forces at the border with Ukraine, Ryabkov has been speaking to the press and has done so in an undiplomatic, in-your-face fashion. When one reporter asked him a week ago about how some of Russia’s “partners in the West” would react to something, he snapped back: “We have no partners in the West, only enemies. I stopped using the word “partner” some time ago.”
The Kremlin’s showcasing of the bulldog Ryabkov is part of the change in tone, the new assertiveness of Putin and his team to which I refer above.
We are making it clear that we are ready to talk about changing from a military or a military-technical scenario to a political process that really will strengthen the military security… of all the countries in the OCSE, Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian space. We’ve told them that if that doesn’t work out, we will create counter-threats; then it will be too late to ask us why we made such decisions and positioned such weapons systems.
Мы как раз даем понять, что мы готовы разговаривать о том, чтобы военный сценарий или военно-технический сценарий перевести в некий политический процесс, который реально укрепит военную безопасность <…> всех государств на пространстве ОБСЕ, Евроатлантики, Евразии. А если этого не получится, то мы уже обозначили им (НАТО – прим. ТАСС), тогда мы тоже перейдем в вот этот режим создания контругроз, но тогда будет поздно нас спрашивать, почему мы приняли такие решения, почему мы разместили такие системы.
— Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko quoted by TASS
Moscow has issued an ultimatum to USA/NATO. It is this: seriously negotiate on the issues laid out here and here. Some of them are non-negotiable.
Ultimatums always have an “Or Else” clause. What is the “or else” in this case? I don’t know but I’ve been thinking and reading other peoples’ thoughts and some ideas/guesses/suppositions follow. They are the order that they occurred to me. Whether Moscow has such a list in front of it or not, it certainly has many “counter-threats” it can use.
Why now? Two possible answers, each of which may be true. US/NATO have been using “salami tactics” against Russia for years; Moscow has decided that a second Ukraine crisis in one year is one thin slice too many. Second: Moscow may judge that, in the USA’s precipitous decline, this will be the last chance that there will be sufficient central authority to form a genuine agreement; an agreement that will avoid a catastrophic war. (The so-called Thucydides Trap).
Of course I don’t know what Putin & Co will do and we do have to factor in the existence of a new international player: Putin, Xi and Partners. Xi has just made it clear that Beijing supports Moscow’s “core interests”. It is likely that any “counter-threats” will be coordinated. The Tabaquis have responded as expected but maybe (let’s hope so) Washington is taking it more seriously.
To my CSIS readers: the world is at a grave inflection point and the West had better concentrate its attention. Moscow and Beijing don’t depend on me for advice and I’m not talking to them: regard this as one of the briefing notes that I used to write.
Moscow is serious and it does have real “counter-threats”.
MILITARY MEASURES
Moscow could publish a list of targets in NATO countries that can and will be hit by nuclear or non-nuclear standoff weapons in the event of hostilities. These would likely include headquarters, airbases, port facilities, logistics facilities, ammunition dumps, military bases, munitions factories and so on.
Moscow could station medium and short-range nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad and Belarus. The latter requires agreement from Minsk but Belarus President Lukashenka has hinted that it will be granted. Moscow could then make it clear that they are aimed at NATO targets.
Moscow could station Iskanders and have lots of aircraft in the air with Kinzhals and let it be known that they are aimed at NATO targets.
Moscow could make a sudden strike by stand-off weapons and special forces that destroys the Azov Battalion in Eastern Ukraine. Moscow would see two advantages: 1) it would remove the principal threat to the LDNR and 2) it would change the correlation of forces in Kiev. It would also be a live demonstration of Russia’s tremendous military power.
Moscow could remind the West of the meaning of Soviet Marshal Ogarkov’s observation that precision weapons have, to a degree, made nuclear weapons obsolete. A prescient remark, somewhat ahead of its time 35 years ago, but realised now by Russia’s arsenal of hypersonic precision missiles.
The Russian Navy operates the quietest submarines in the world; Moscow could could make and publish a movie of the movements of some NATO ship as seen through the periscope.
I believe (suspect/guess) that the Russian Armed Forces have the capability to blind Aegis-equipped ships. Moscow could do so in public in a way that cannot be denied. Without Aegis, the US surface navy is just targets. Objection: this is a war-winning secret and should not be lightly used. Unless, of course, the Russian Armed Forces have something even more effective.
Russia has large and very powerful airborne forces – much stronger than the light infantry of other countries, they are capable of seizing and holding territory against all but heavy armoured attacks. And they’re being increased. Moscow could demonstrate their capability in an exercise showing a sudden seizing of key enemy facilities like a port or major airfield, inviting NATO representatives to watch from the target area.
The Russian Armed Forces could do some obvious targetting of the next NATO element to come close to Russia’s borders; they could aggressively ping ships and aircraft that get too close and publicise it.
Moscow could make a public demonstration of what Poseidons can do and show in a convincing way that they are at sea off the US coast. Ditto with Burevestnik. In short Moscow could directly threaten the US mainland with non-nuclear weapons. Something that no one has been able to do since 1814.
Does the Club-K Container Missile System actually exist? (If so, Moscow could give a public demonstration, if not pretend that it does). Either way, Moscow could publicly state that they will be all over the place and sell them to countries threatened by USA/NATO.
DIPLOMATIC/INTERNATIONAL MEASURES
Moscow could publicly transfer some key military technologies to China with licence to build them there.
Moscow could make a formal military treaty with China with an “Article 5” provision.
Moscow could make a formal military treaty with Belarus including significant stationed strike forces.
Moscow could station forces in Central Asian neighbours.
Russia and Chinese warships accompanied by long-range strike aircraft could do a “freedom of navigation” cruise in the Gulf of Mexico.
Moscow could recall ambassadors, reduce foreign missions, restrict movement of diplomats in Russia.
Moscow could ban all foreign NGOs immediately without going through the present process.
Moscow could recognise LDNR and sign defence treaties.
Moscow could work on Turkey, Hungary and other dissident EU/NATO members.
Moscow could give military aid to or station weapons in Western Hemisphere countries.
Beijing could do something in its part of the world to show its agreement and coordination with Moscow raising the threat of a two front conflict.
ECONOMIC MEASURES
Moscow could close airspace to civil airlines of the countries that sanction Russia.
Moscow could declare that Russian exports must now be paid for in Rubles, gold, Renminbi or Euros (Euros? It depends).
Moscow could announce that Nord Stream 2 will be abandoned if certification if delayed past a certain date. (Personally, I am amused by how many people think that shutting it down would cause more harm to Russia than to Germany: for the first it’s only money and Russia has plenty of that; for the second….)
Moscow could stop all sales of anything to USA (rocket motors and oil especially).
Moscow could announce that no more gas contracts to countries that sanction it will be made after the current ones end. This is a first step. See below.
As a second and more severe step, Moscow could break all contracts with countries that sanction Russia on the grounds that a state of hostility exists. That is, all oil and gas deliveries stop immediately.
Moscow could announce that no more gas will be shipped to or through Ukraine on the grounds that a state of hostility exists.
Russia and China could roll out their counter-SWIFT ASAP.
SUBVERSIVE MEASURES
Moscow could stir up trouble in eastern Ukraine (Novorossiya) supporting secession movements.
Moscow could order special forces to attack key nazi organisations throughout Ukraine.
Moscow could order special forces to attack military facilities throughout Ukraine.
*********************************************
But I’m sure that whatever “counter-threats” Moscow comes up with will be powerful and surprise the West. My recommendation is that USA/NATO take the ultimatums seriously.
After all, the Russian proposals really are mutually beneficial – their theme is that nobody should threaten anybody and if anybody should feel threatened, there should be serious talks to resolve the issue.
Security is mutual:
if all feel secure, then all are secure;
if one feels insecure, then none is secure.
As we now see: when Russia feels threatened by what USA/NATO do, it can threaten back. Better to live in a world in which nobody is threatening anybody and everybody feels secure.
I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else.
…
The Growing Russia-China Relationship
Under the pressure of US sanctions, threats, aggression and an imposed Second Cold War, the Russia-China relationship is growing closer and closer.
Personal Relationship
On December 15, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for a virtual summit. XI welcomed his “old friend,” and Putin greeted his “dear friend.”
Their greetings to each other were neither scripted nor posturing for the West. In June 2018, Putin told an interviewer that “President XI Jinping is probably the only world leader I have celebrated one of my birthdays with.” He added that XI”is a very reliable partner.” For his part, XI has called Putin “my best, most intimate friend.”
But the growing relationship is not just a friendship between the leaders of the people of the two countries. It is also a growing friendship between the people of the two countries. Relations between Russia and China were not always good. In 2016, before the intense US pressure started pushing the two countries together, only 34% of Russians viewed China favorably; in 2019, 84% saw China as “more a partner than a rival.”
International Relationship
Russia and China have also partnered as the leaders of an important new set of international organizations, like the BRICS nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Both of these organizations are intended to balance US hegemony and exceptionalism in international politics. Both of these organizations are huge, each representing nearly half the world, and both are led by Russia and China as the principal partners. Both also include India. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization represents a quarter of the world’s economy and four of its nuclear powers.
In their virtual summit, Putin and XI discussed the possibility of a three way summit with India, a member of both BRICS and the SCO: a message the US must surely be listening to as it forces nations to choose sides in the new Cold War.
Bilateral Relationship
But most important is the increasingly tight bilateral relationship between Russia and China.
The modern Russia-China relationship was first contracted with the he Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, in which the two nations commit not to enter into “any alliance or be party to any bloc . . . which compromises the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the other. . .. ” Dmitri Trenin, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center explains the relationship as one in which, though Russia and China “do not have to follow each other,” they “will never go against each other.”
But Putin said in his June 2018 interview that that treaty “is only the foundation we have built our current relationship on.” He said that, building on that foundation, the structure is “growing taller and stronger.”
It grew much stronger on June 5, 2019, when according to Alexander Lukin of HSE University in Moscow, Russia and China signed a joint statement announcing a “comprehensive and strategic interaction.” Russia is “officially developing,” Lukin says, “a ‘strategic partnership’ with Beijing, making China not only a friend, but practically an ally.”
The wording is important. Russia and China both want a world that transcends blocs, and they are reluctant to enter into formal alliances or blocs. They are more than friends and practically allies. Striving for an ambiguous formulation that doesn’t commit to being a bloc or an alliance while implying something more than a bloc or an alliance, in his June 2018 interview, Putin described Russia’s relationship with China as “a relationship that probably cannot be compared with anything in the world.”
Echoing and strengthening that rhetorical ambiguity, in their virtual summit, Chinese President XI Jinping described a relationship that is growing ever closer when he said “this relationship even exceeds an alliance in its closeness and effectiveness.”
In a personal correspondence, Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who prepared daily intelligence briefs for several presidents and was Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch, told me that the XI’s formulation would have been chosen very carefully. The calculated ambiguity was meant to convey both that it is not an alliance – so that China doesn’t get drawn into Ukraine, and Russia doesn’t get drawn into Taiwan – and that is so close it exceeds an alliance. It is a formulation deliberately broadcast during the summit as a warning to the US if it persists in forcing the world into a second cold war. Unlike the first cold war, this time the US will face two superpowers.
McGovern told me that a key part of what is behind this message is Putin’s earnestness about getting a legally binding assurance that NATO will stop expanding east toward Ukraine and Russia’s borders. But, he said, what is even more important to Putin is NATO’s plan to put anti-ballistic missiles within range of Russia.
On December 2, 2021, Putin clearly demanded “reliable and long-term security guarantees [that] would exclude any further NATO moves eastward and the deployment of weapons systems that threaten us in close vicinity to Russian territory.” On December 15, the day of his summit with XI, Putin sent the US a proposal on mutual security guarantees and a request for immediate negotiations. Putin informed XI of the security guarantee proposal during their virtual summit.
It was in response to that information that, during the summit, XI said “We firmly support each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests” and proposed that Russia and China cooperate to “more effectively safeguard the security interests of both parties.”
McGovern says that XI was very clear in stressing that he appreciates and admires Putin’s emphasis over the years on the need to respect China’s core interests and his strongly resisting US attempts to drive a wedge between China and Russia. XI stressed the close relationship and emphasized that since Putin had admirably and loyally stressed the close and mutually beneficial relationship, he was not going to leave Russia alone in its demand to get security guarantees from the US. The message was clear: they supported us; we will support them. And the issue was clearly NATO.
The choice of words and the public message to Biden were very clear. If you are going to persist in forcing a second cold war, it will be a different cold war. This time it won’t be a cold war with Russia or China: it will be a cold war with Russia and China combined.
Meanwhile…
The American psychopaths are not stopping for shit. They are not taking the message seriously and are still continuing their piss-poor games. They are more than idiots. Shit! They deserve what is coming for them.
Sivkov: DPR border guards disrupted a special operation of German special forces in the Donbass
Today
The expert is sure that such attempts at penetration should not be ignored.
According to military expert Konstantin Sivkov, British and German special forces tried to enter the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). However, the Western saboteurs failed, as their operation was prevented by employees of the DPR border service. The analyst noted that the border guards managed to detain foreign special forces without a fight.
"The Americans are going to make a provocation and disappear. One thing is important: now there is actually another wave of hysteria about the fact that Russia is going to attack Ukraine. We are talking about the fact that they are purposefully going to put the Russian Federation in a position where it will be forced to take military measures.",- said the expert on the air of "Solovyov LIVE".
Sivkov is sure that such attempts at penetration should not be ignored. According to the analyst, such provocations are part of a plan to destabilize the situation in the Donbas. Similar actions are also directed against Russia. Washington wants Moscow to start a war, Sivkov believes.
—
С уважением,
Бойко Ирина Львовна
Other Sources
Escobar and Martyanov have also put up pieces on Kazak situation. Reading the three gives a good picture. Martyanov gives the end result of US shenanigans. A report I read elsewhere said a number of armed protesters were eliminated.. Those suckers who work for US "interests" become pawns who are simply eliminated from the game. I like that term. It is also a bit of a contradiction as those pawns a simply ordinary people who have been suckered in to sacrifice their lives to further US "interests".
There is a fungus that takes control of a flies brain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Jw5ib-s_I US reminds me of that fungus.
Escobar https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/01/06/steppe-on-fire-kazakhstan-color-revolution/
Martyanov https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/01/so-kremlin-confirms.html
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 6 2022 10:57 utc | 8
…Now compare it to what I learned from two different, high-ranking intel sources.
The first source was explicit: the whole Kazakh adventure is being sponsored by MI6 to create a new Maidan right before the Russia/US-NATO talks in Geneva and Brussels next week, to prevent any kind of agreement. Significantly, the “rebels” maintained their national coordination even after the internet was disconnected.
The second source is more nuanced: the usual suspects are trying to force Russia to back down against the collective West by creating a major distraction in their Eastern front, as part of a rolling strategy of chaos all along Russia’s borders. That may be a clever diversionary tactic, but Russian military intel is watching. Closely.
And for the sake of the “usual suspects”, this better may not be interpreted – ominously – was a war provocation.
Summary
So the response from the US to the Russian non-ultimatum ultimatum is to speed up their plans already in place to destabilize Russia? It’s clear that they’re not taking Russia’s red lines seriously and as Putin the other day stated there is nowhere left for Russia to retreat to.
Russia’s back is against the wall and their only option is to either cave in or go to war because the US is not taking no for an answer.
Posted by: Down South | Jan 6 2022 10:17 utc | 4
The Untied States is still playing “it’s games”. The warnings from both Russia and China are not being taken seriously.
When Russia told the United States to “get off my front porch, get out of my front yard, and stay away from my back yard”, the United States simply said “Ok”, and then went on top of the roof and is trying to go down the chimney.
This WILL NOT end up well.
“The trajectory is not optimistic,” Chomsky says. “The worst case is the increasing provocative actions towards China. That’s very dangerous.”
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The internet is a funny place. One button takes you to interesting places, and another takes your down a black hole of lies and manipulation.
For instance, I saw this little guy. Must have had one Hell of a hard life. Rescued, and is now with a family that loves him and who will take care of him and appreciate him. Poor guy. He has seen some shit. I’ll tell you what.
Yeah. This little guy has seen some shit.
On the other hand, I just read a great knee-slapper of a fantasy from the American neocon publication “Foreign Affairs“. It is titled “Washington is preparing for the wrong war with China.” While they correctly warn that it would be a mistake to get involved in defending Taiwan from China, they are wholly incorrect on their reasoning.
Caitlan Johnson, an astute social and political columnist, writes:
” …going to war with Russia or China over who governs Taiwan or Ukraine would only be supported by crazy morons. People often object to this position saying...
‘So you’re saying we should just let China/Russia invade Taiwan/Ukraine??’
And the answer is ...
"Yes. Of course we should. What are you a fucking idiot?'”
There are many such articles. Overall the promoted mainstream media trend seems to be…
The USA getting involved in a war over Taiwan serves no benefit to the USA.
That the war would be a long, drawn out affair.
The war would be similar to the war in Afghanistan where billions of dollars will be spent fighting a war on Chinese soil.
But overall, in the long term the USA would benefit because it is “exceptional”.
Ugh.
True moronic pieces, but judging from the likes and forwards, it must really ring a bell and resonate with Americans.
It would take Beijing decades to overcome the losses incurred from a war to take Taiwan, even if Beijing triumphs.
The United States and our western allies, on the other hand, would remain at full military power, dominate the international business markets, and have the moral high ground to keep China hemmed in like nothing that presently exists.
Xi would be seen as an unquestioned aggressor, even by other Asian regimes, and the fallout against China could knock them back decades.
Our security would be vastly improved from what it is today – and incalculably higher than if we foolishly tried to fight a war with China.
-The Guardian
Like I said. These people are living in a fantasy world.
Here, for shits and giggles, I am going to tear into one of their “articles” and pull out and highlight some terrible inaccuracies.
Buckle up.
Let’s go through this article paragraph by paragraph.
Washington Is Preparing for the Wrong War With China
The United States is getting serious about the threat of war with China. The U.S. Department of Defense has labeled China its primary adversary, civilian leaders have directed the military to develop credible plans to defend Taiwan, and President Joe Biden has strongly implied that the United States would not allow that island democracy to be conquered.
All absolutely true. The United States has taken a strong war stance and is beating the war drums very loudly.
Yet Washington may be preparing for the wrong kind of war. Defense planners appear to believe that they can win a short conflict in the Taiwan Strait merely by blunting a Chinese invasion. Chinese leaders, for their part, seem to envision rapid, paralyzing strikes that break Taiwanese resistance and present the United States with a fait accompli. Both sides would prefer a splendid little war in the western Pacific, but that is not the sort of war they would get.
Both sides anticipate a short war.
The Chinese are planning a military exercise that would be over within hours.
The American and Taiwanese anticipate a short war also, but one that would be drawn out on the order of weeks to pull in American and Allied forces from Japan, Korea and Australia to fight the Chinese on Taiwan soil. they also believe that China would not consider this action as an invasion. And thus it would be a regional battle on Taiwan and on the South China Sea. A Pretty ENORMOUS assumption.
A war over Taiwan is likely to be long rather than short, regional rather than local, and much easier to start than to end. It would expand and escalate, as both countries look for paths to victory in a conflict neither side can afford to lose. It would also present severe dilemmas for peacemaking and high risks of going nuclear. If Washington doesn’t start preparing to wage, and then end, a protracted conflict now, it could face catastrophe once the shooting starts.
Nope. No. No. No.
What would the United States do to China if China started bombing Hawaii, put manpower, missiles, and tanks on Hawaii and took over the cities there?
America would launch missiles at Beijing. That's what America would do.
It would NOT send forces for a "long war" on Hawaii.
And so I am a telling youse guys that any American attacks, landings, or military actions of any kinds, type or manner will result in equal and measured attacks against American CITIES inside of America.
Let’s continue…
IMPENDING SLUGFEST
A U.S.-Chinese war over Taiwan would begin with a bang. China’s military doctrine emphasizes coordinated operations to “paralyze the enemy in one stroke.” In the most worrying scenario, Beijing would launch a surprise missile attack, hammering not only Taiwan’s defenses but also the naval and air forces that the United States has concentrated at a few large bases in the western Pacific. Simultaneous Chinese cyberattacks and antisatellite operations would sow chaos and hinder any effective U.S. or Taiwanese response. And the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would race through the window of opportunity, staging amphibious and airborne assaults that would overwhelm Taiwanese resistance. By the time the United States was ready to fight, the war would effectively be over.
All true.
However, the scale of the takeover would be beyond all this kind of fighting. The Chinese and the Taiwanese are brothers. They speak the same language, and both consider themselves Chinese.
It will be a silent coup.
One day you have Taiwan, the next day, you have China. And everyone will be trying to figure out what happened.
The Pentagon’s planning increasingly revolves around preventing this scenario, by hardening and dispersing the U.S. military presence in Asia, encouraging Taiwan to field asymmetric capabilities that can inflict a severe toll on Chinese attackers, and developing the ability to blunt the PLA’s offensive capabilities and sink an invasion fleet. This planning is predicated on the critical assumption that the early weeks, if not days, of fighting would determine whether a free Taiwan survives.
I agree that this seems to be the American military strategy.
Yet whatever happens at the outset, a conflict almost certainly wouldn’t end quickly. Most great-power wars since the Industrial Revolution have lasted longer than expected, because modern states have the resources to fight on even when they suffer heavy losses. Moreover, in hegemonic wars—clashes for dominance between the world’s strongest states—the stakes are high, and the price of defeat may seem prohibitive. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, wars between leading powers—the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the world wars—were protracted slugfests. A U.S.-Chinese war would likely follow this pattern.
Yes. The American cities of Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, New York, and San Francisco would be glowing for months afterwards.
If Washington doesn’t prepare for conflict now, it could face catastrophe once the shooting starts.
If the United States managed to beat back a Chinese assault against Taiwan, Beijing wouldn’t simply give up. Starting a war over Taiwan would be an existential gamble: admitting defeat would jeopardize the regime’s legitimacy and President Xi Jinping’s hold on power. It would also leave China more vulnerable to its enemies and destroy its dreams of regional primacy. Continuing a hard fight against the United States would be a nasty prospect, but quitting while China was behind would seem even worse.
This is all dreaming nonsense by a writer who has absolutely no clue as to how the Chinese think.
Taiwan is Chinese. Period. They speak the Chinese language, they hold Chinese residency, they own Chinese passports, and they have relatives throughout the mainland China.
Any action regarding it, win, lose or draw will be favorable in the eyes of the Chinese people.
Washington would also be inclined to fight on if the war were not going well. Like Beijing, it would view a war over Taiwan as a fight for regional dominance. The fact that such a war would probably begin with a Pearl Harbor–style missile attack on U.S. bases would make it even harder for an outraged American populace and its leaders to accept defeat. Even if the United States failed to prevent Chinese forces from seizing Taiwan, it couldn’t easily bow out of the war. Quitting without first severely damaging Chinese air and naval power in Asia would badly weaken Washington’s reputation, as well as its ability to defend remaining allies in the region.
Again nonsense.
Once the shooting starts there will be ZERO American presence in the Pacific. It will all be over. All the bases will be radioactive craters.
Both sides would have the capacity to keep fighting, moreover. The United States could summon ships, planes, and submarines from other theaters and use its command of the Pacific beyond the first island chain—which runs from Japan in the north through Taiwan and the Philippines to the south—to conduct sustained attacks on Chinese forces. For its part, China could dispatch its surviving air, naval, and missile forces for a second and third assault on Taiwan and press its maritime militia of coast guard and fishing vessels into service. Both the United States and China would emerge from these initial clashes bloodied but not exhausted, increasing the likelihood of a long, ugly war.
Again, such idiocy!
China and Russia are as one. Both share military equipment, data and operations. Any war against China would be one against Russia as well.
China would take over the Pacific.
Russia would take over the Atlantic.
Iran would take over the Mediterranean.
NATO would be in ruins.
America would be smouldering.
Australia would have enormous craters.
Japan would meekly tremble an back down with it's gaping craters.
Korea would be busy dealing with it's own problems.
Iraq it will NOT be.
BIGGER, LONGER, MESSIER
When great-power wars drag on, they get bigger, messier, and more intractable. Any conflict between the United States and China is likely to force both countries to mobilize their economies for war. After the initial salvos, both sides would hurry to replace munitions, ships, submarines, and aircraft lost in the early days of fighting. This race would strain both countries’ industrial bases, require the reorientation of their economies, and invite nationalist appeals—or government compulsion—to mobilize the populace to support a long fight.
China can do this. It has already mobilized.
America cannot. You can see this with the joke of a COVID response. America is terribly balkanized and has zero ability to do anything. heck! They can't even build a wall on the Mexican border, a walk-bridge in Florida, or repair highway bridges.
America has a make-believe economy based on an artificially inflated dollar. Were a war to break out, the value of the USD would become zero.
Long wars also escalate as the combatants look for new sources of leverage. Belligerents open new fronts and rope additional allies into the fight. They expand their range of targets and worry less about civilian casualties. Sometimes they explicitly target civilians, whether by bombing cities or torpedoing civilian ships. And they use naval blockades, sanctions, and embargoes to starve the enemy into submission. As China and the United States unloaded on each other with nearly every tool at their disposal, a local war could turn into a whole-of-society brawl that spans multiple regions.
Yes. The moment that the United States starts bombing China, all Hell would break lose. No American cities would survive.
Bigger wars demand more grandiose aims. The greater the sacrifices required to win, the better the ultimate peace deal must be to justify those sacrifices. What began as a U.S. campaign to defend Taiwan could easily turn into an effort to render China incapable of new aggression by completely destroying its offensive military power. Conversely, as the United States inflicted more damage on China, Beijing’s war aims could grow from conquering Taiwan to pushing Washington out of the western Pacific altogether.
The intro sentence is correct, the rest is fantasy.
There will be no American air power, no American naval power, and no American leadership. Instead, there will domestic turmoil, destruction, and while the "war" for Taiwan was envisioned as another long-duration war, it would instead be the death-blow to the United States as a nation.
All of this would make forging peace more difficult. The expansion of war aims narrows the diplomatic space for a settlement and produces severe bloodshed that fuels intense hatred and mistrust. Even if U.S. and Chinese leaders grew weary of fighting, they might still struggle to find a mutually acceptable peace.
More nonsense.
China, and Russia, can survive war. America cannot.
America is a mess, or haven’t you all been paying attention? video 2.2MB
GOING NUCLEAR
A war between China and the United States would differ from previous hegemonic wars in one fundamental respect: both sides have nuclear weapons. This would create disincentives to all-out escalation, but it could also, paradoxically, compound the dangers inherent in a long war.
There would be no escalation. It would be nuclear from the onset.
This is Chinese military doctrine.
For starters, both sides might feel free to shoot off their conventional arsenals under the assumption that their nuclear arsenals would shield them from crippling retaliation. Scholars call this the “stability-instability paradox,” whereby blind faith in nuclear deterrence risks unleashing a massive conventional war.
Chinese military writings often suggest that the PLA could wipe out U.S. bases and aircraft carriers in East Asia while China’s nuclear arsenal deterred U.S. attacks on the Chinese mainland.
On the flip side, some American strategists have called for pounding Chinese mainland bases at the outset of a conflict in the belief that U.S. nuclear superiority would deter China from responding in kind. Far from preventing a major war, nuclear weapons could catalyze one.
Unrealistic.
Chinese military doctrine is to release nuclear fury the moment their land is attacked.
They DON'T GIVE A FUCK.
Once that war is underway, it could plausibly go nuclear in three distinct ways. Whichever side is losing might use tactical nuclear weapons—low-yield warheads that could destroy specific military targets without obliterating the other side’s homeland—to turn the tide.
That was how the Pentagon planned to halt a Soviet invasion of central Europe during the Cold War, and it is what North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia have suggested they would do if they were losing a war today.
If China crippled U.S. conventional forces in East Asia, the United States would have to decide whether to save Taiwan by using tactical nuclear weapons against Chinese ports, airfields, or invasion fleets. This is no fantasy: the U.S. military is already developing nuclear-tipped, submarine-launched cruise missiles that could be used for such purposes.
Yes it would go nuclear, but not on the terms determined by the United States.
A local war could turn into a whole-of-society brawl that spans multiple regions.
China might also use nuclear weapons to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The PLA has embarked on an unprecedented expansion of its nuclear arsenal, and PLA officers have written that China could use nuclear weapons if a conventional war threatened the survival of its government or nuclear arsenal—which would almost surely be the case if Beijing was losing a war over Taiwan. Perhaps these unofficial claims are bluffs. Yet it is not difficult to imagine that if China faced the prospect of humiliating defeat, it might fire off a nuclear weapon (perhaps at or near the huge U.S. military base on Guam) to regain a tactical advantage or shock Washington into a cease-fire.
Such ignorance!
I wonder if they actually believe this garbage, or are just fabricating a fantasy for cash dollars.
As the conflict drags on, either side could also use the ultimate weapon to end a grinding war of attrition. During the Korean War, American leaders repeatedly contemplated dropping nuclear bombs on China to force it to accept a cease-fire. Today, both countries would have the option of using limited nuclear strikes to compel a stubborn opponent to concede. The incentives to do so could be strong, given that whichever side pulls the nuclear trigger first might gain a major advantage.
There will be no escalation.
It will be nuclear from the get-go, and Russia and China will control the entire event sequence. America would be trying desperately to catch up.
A final route to nuclear war is inadvertent escalation. Each side, knowing that escalation is a risk, may try to limit the other’s nuclear options. The United States could, for instance, try to sink China’s ballistic missile submarines before they hide in the deep waters beyond the first island chain.
Yet such an attack could put China in a “use it or lose it” situation with regard to its nuclear forces, especially if the United States also struck China’s land-based missiles and communication systems, which intermingle conventional and nuclear forces. In this scenario, China’s leaders might use their nuclear weapons rather than risk losing that option altogether.
There will be no escalation.
It will be nuclear from the get-go, and Russia and China will control the entire event sequence. America would be trying desperately to catch up.
AVOIDING ARMAGEDDON
There is no easy way to prepare for a long war whose course and dynamics are inherently unpredictable. Yet the United States and its allies can do four things to get ready for whatever comes—and, hopefully, prevent the worst from happening.
First, Washington can win the race to reload.
China will be much less likely to go to war if it knows it will be outgunned as the conflict drags on. Washington and Taipei should therefore aggressively stockpile ammunition and supplies.
For the United States, the critical assets are missiles capable of sinking China’s most valuable ships and aircraft from afar. For Taiwan, the key weapons are short-range missiles, mortars, mines, and rocket launchers that can decimate invasion fleets.
Both nations also need to be ready to churn out new weapons in wartime. Taiwanese factories will be obvious targets for Chinese missiles, so the United States should enlist the industrial might of other allies. Japan’s shipbuilding capacity, for example, could be retooled to produce simple missile barges rapidly and on a massive scale.
Crazy fantasy.
So the United States plans on out-manufacturing the manufacturing powerhouse. Uh huh. What a fantasy.
Second, the United States and Taiwan can demonstrate their ability to hang tough. In a long war, China could try to strangle Taiwan with a blockade, bombard it into submission, or take down U.S. and Taiwanese electrical grids and telecommunications networks with cyberattacks. It could use conventionally armed, hypersonic missiles to attack targets in the U.S. homeland and flood the United States with disinformation.
Countering such measures will require defensive preparations, such as securing critical networks; expanding Taiwan’s system of civilian shelters; and enlarging the island’s stockpiles of fuel, food, and medical supplies.
Complete ignorance of reality.
The ignorance of the actual on-the-street realities of Taiwan, and the proud American trans-gender forces is stunning.
China might use nuclear weapons to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Breaking a Chinese campaign of coercion also requires threatening Beijing with painful retaliation.
A third objective, therefore, is to own the escalation ladder. By preparing to blockade Chinese commerce and cut Beijing off from markets and technology in wartime, the United States and its allies can threaten to turn an extended conflict into an economic catastrophe for China.
By preparing to sink Chinese naval vessels anywhere in the western Pacific and destroy Chinese military infrastructure in other regions, Washington can threaten a generation’s worth of Chinese military modernization. And by developing the means to hit Chinese ports, airfields, and armadas with tactical nuclear weapons, the United States can deter China from initiating limited nuclear attacks.
Washington should confront Beijing with a basic proposition: the longer a war lasts, the more devastation China will suffer.
Bye Bye USA.
They FUCKING KNOW THAT.
And the way to prevent that from happening is to destroy the top 40 American cities.
It will be pretty fucking hard without cities, people, and an angry world ready to tear Americans limp to limb.
Because controlling escalation will be essential, the United States also needs options that allow it to dial up the punishment without necessarily dialing up the violence. By subtly demonstrating that it has the cyber-capabilities to cripple China’s critical infrastructure and domestic security system, for example, the United States can threaten to bring the war home to Beijing. Similarly, by improving its ability to suppress Chinese air defenses near Taiwan with cyberattacks, electronic warfare, and directed-energy weapons, the United States can increase its freedom of action while limiting the amount of physical destruction it wreaks on the mainland.
China is not Iraq. Look at a map why don't you.
Any escalatory moves risk ratcheting up the intensity of a conflict. So the final preparation Washington must make is to define victory down. A war between nuclear-armed great powers would not end with regime change or one side occupying the other’s capital. It would end with a negotiated compromise. The simplest settlement would be a return to the status quo: China stops attacking Taiwan in exchange for a pledge that the island will not seek formal independence and that the United States will not endorse it. To sweeten the deal, Washington could offer to keep its forces off Taiwan and out of the Taiwan Strait. Xi would be able to tell the Chinese people that he taught his enemies a lesson. The United States would have saved a strategically positioned democracy. That may not be a satisfying end to a hard-fought conflict. But in a long war between great powers, protecting vital U.S. interests while avoiding Armageddon is good enough.
As I said, this is a fantasy piece.
Any one actually taking this article seriously is a FUCKING IDIOT. And if they are in powerful policy making decisions then they DESERVE the "heat" that will come straight towards them.
Conclusions
I pulled out a laughable “article” that is apparently being taken seriously inside the Washington Beltway. I point out the pretty amazing errors in it, and lay down the law of ready vs. perception.
So here is a quick review of reality.
Chinese citizenry is 1600 million people. Every single one of them learned how to fire guns, operate weapons and perform military operations in first grade and throughout their youth. If you think that they would agree to any kind of assault you are out of your God Damn mind.
The entire population of the USA is only 330 million, of that only 1.3 million are in the Armed Forces. Which are spread out all over the globe.
Here’s a Chinese third grade mortar crew
When did you all learn how to fire mortars, arm and hit targets on military operations? The Chinese learn in third grade. video 6MB
You know, I get many comments that I do not publish. One of the comments that I have since deleted, but I will paraphrase here. It went like this…
"Playing pretend soldiers are nice and cute, but America is a warrior culture, with a long and glorious history. You simply cannot equate the Chinese play soldiers against a real modern and well-trained fighting force like the United States has."
Fifth grade students learning how to disable tanks
When did you learn how to do this? Do you really think that America’s great military can actually take on China? Video 16MB
China’s military are well armed, well trained, and very LETHAL
America couldn’t fight uneducated goat herders with cheap AK-47 clones. What makes everyone think that it can take on a peer-superior China with a peer-superior Russia? Video 6MB
You have to see things as the really are, not what you want to believe.
Here’s America today. How do you think it will be able to handle a war with a unified Russia and China? I do not. And you, if you were really honest with yourself wouldn’t either. Video 2.2MB
Everyone is questioning if America is still functioning.
It’s obvious. And no, a war is not going to make things better. it will make things far, far worse. video 2MB
Meanwhile…
The American psychopaths are not stopping for shit. Here’s on the Russian Front.
Sivkov: DPR border guards disrupted a special operation of German special forces in the Donbass
Today
The expert is sure that such attempts at penetration should not be ignored.
According to military expert Konstantin Sivkov, British and German special forces tried to enter the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). However, the Western saboteurs failed, as their operation was prevented by employees of the DPR border service. The analyst noted that the border guards managed to detain foreign special forces without a fight.
"The Americans are going to make a provocation and disappear. One thing is important: now there is actually another wave of hysteria about the fact that Russia is going to attack Ukraine. We are talking about the fact that they are purposefully going to put the Russian Federation in a position where it will be forced to take military measures.",- said the expert on the air of "Solovyov LIVE".
Sivkov is sure that such attempts at penetration should not be ignored. According to the analyst, such provocations are part of a plan to destabilize the situation in the Donbas. Similar actions are also directed against Russia. Washington wants Moscow to start a war, Sivkov believes.
Final Key Points…
In US war games, any war with Russia escalates to nuclear then to total destruction. Russia seems to be saying accept these demands or we’ll have a crisis the equivalent of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I feel concerned that both sides, esp the US do not understand how rapidly a conflict could go nuclear or how unwinnable and destructive that war would be. Even though Biden and Putin recently acknowledged such a war would be unwinnable, the US actions do not show show they really believe that.
[1] It is important to promote that a USA war with involving Taiwan / China will be a long one. This is because it will guarantee a long-duration revenue stream for the American military-industrial complex.
[2] It is important to promote the idea that the war will be conventional only and not go nuclear kinetic. That way, the war will permit Western allies participation.
But neither is true, and I am telling you all something quite different…
[3] If the USA fires one single weapon at Taiwan or the United States, the war will go HOT and Kinetic against America itself. Not just it’s surrogates.
This is BECAUSE Taiwan is part of China. So anyone attacking Taiwan will be attacking China. And China has a long-standing policy to produce measured responses.
Destroy one VTOL carrier, and watch yours get destroyed.
Launch one Bio-weapon attack against the Chinese people, and watch yours suffer from a substantive Bio-weapon attack.
Attack a Chinese city, watch yours get destroyed.
[4] China WILL use nuclear weapons.
This is because it is it's long-standing Chinese military doctrine.
That is the sole purpose of the hyper-velocity ICBM flights. It is to tell the Jack-asses in the United States that China WILL destroy American cities, and that there are no defenses that America can use. That has never changed.
[5] Russia and China WILL fight together.
This is because it's the SEO doctrine and all members will act together as one. This too has been telegraphed to the Western "leadership". Just because it is not in the mainstream media does not mean that the "leadership" is not aware of it.
Taken together, points [3], plus [4], plus [5] means…
[6] American cities will be blasted into the stone age if the USA starts invading China. To ignore that fact is dangerous. the only question is how many will be destroyed.
[7] It is in the benefit of the United Statesto have a USA-China conflict that is of long-duration and isolated to China and the South China Sea.
[8] It is to the benefit of China and Russiato stop the mad craziness of the United States once and for all. Whether the Ukraine, or Taiwan. All the provocations are to end because the presence of the provocations destabilizes world harmony.
[9] Thus, because of points, [6], [7] and [8] it is HIGHLY LIKELY that United states involvement fighting against China will result in the complete and utter fast and quick destruction of the United States.
This is a dangerous, dangerous “game” those fools in Washington DC are playing.
The Chinese are determined to fight to KILL.
It all starts in first grade.
So you think you can take on 1600 million soldiers? America’s military is 1.4 million troops. Or 1/100 of the size. You dunderheads! Are you fucking out of your God Damn mind? video 5MB
And a final RETORT
From a comment (that I did not publish) but is worthy to include here…
“MM is wrong because…
America is exceptional. It is blessed by God.
America is far stronger economically than China.
China has fallen into the “debt trap” with over 3 trillion dollars worth of debt.
America has a far stronger society than China. China is weak and it’s people are ready to overturn it once the central government crumbles.
The BRI is a sham to overthrow the world.
America has more and better factories than China.
The World loves America and hates China.
China only copies. It does not innovate.
China enslaves the minorities and has enormous prison concentration camps.
America has never lost a war.
America is a military culture.
Therefore, China doesn’t have a chance.”
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The following is the fifteenth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 15 – LD Lesson 4: Advanced LD Practices and Potentialities
I hope you’ve been practicing because now we get into the good stuff. Comparing this article to my past ones will be like comparing aged scotch whiskey. It will be like shelving that 12 year old blended crap and cracking open a 21 year old single malt instead. Except rather than take a few savouring sips, we are going to devour the whole bottle.
Just don’t do what I did and leave it in an oak cask in the middle of 40+ degree Celsius summer only to find it had all evaporated before I’d even had my second sampling. For those who do not know, distillers take this evaporation into account when ageing their scotch and call it the “Angel’s Share”. Well the angels certainly got their fair share of that batch, $250 fucking dollars worth of it.
Speaking of angels, there is a very well known story in occult circles about Dr John Dee and his communication with the “angel” Enoch. As the story goes, Dee, an accomplished scryer, was able to communicate with Enoch through the use of a crystal ball and black mirror. Enoch purportedly relayed an Angelic alphabet to Dee who in turn relayed it to his associate Edward Kelly. Kelly transcribed the complete alphabet along with the proper method of contacting the angels through the use of a complex system of tablets. Israel Regardie (Aleister Crowley’s secretary) has an excellent write up of the correct use of the tablets in his book “Golden Dawn” which deals with the magical systems of that same Order.
Whilst this subject deserves its own separate article, be aware that my LD methodologies can be used to contact similar non physical entities (for the sake of brevity I lump all angels/demons/ghosts/inter-dimensional ETs in the same boat under this title). Though Dee never specifically used LD or AP for his scrying sessions (that I am aware of), these avenues certainly can be used for these purposes. In fact, I am so sure in my assertions that I will even go as far as to say that these avenues will produce results far better and far in excess than what is capable with conventional channeling processes whilst “awake”, going by mine and SDs experiences alone.
Remote viewing, telepathy, communication with non physical entities, projection into other worlds etc are all very real possibilities from this non physical vantage point. Men of common sciences will suggest they are just imbalances in brain chemistry or what have you, but once you experience them you will realise just how wrong these apparent “experts” are. Do yourself a favour and replace words such as “black mirror” and “crystal ball” with words such as “void space” and “sleep paralysis” whenever reading such occult recipes for communication with non physical entities.
So what makes LD so much better for these practices than channeling techniques carried out whilst conscious within the physical body? Trick question, and if you need to ask I suggest re-reading through my prior articles on the subject. LD is the practice of disengaging consciousness from the physical vessel.PERIOD. Non negotiable! Return all arguments to sender!We may call it a form of dreaming, or a type of OBE, but when you strip the technicalities away, this is what it really boils down to. It is the change of ourconscious perception of reality, and for those who feel the need to argue this point, then all I can say is that you aren’t LDing properly. As MM would put it, it is your consciousness going from particle form to wave form. What you witness in LD is, quite bluntly, the other side of the Quantum physics coin. Read that, again.
How can one define reality when one is completely, irrevocably, 100% conscious, yet there is no longer a physical world in front of them? In LD you have a complete understanding on how it is your consciousness can create reality; there is no longer mystery in this regard. And these “expert” “dream scientists” are trying to measure it all with EEGs and other equipment that can only measure the particle domain? It is beyond laughable. As a qualified electronics technician with an advanced licence in radio I can tell you no breakthroughs are ever going to come through such dream research avenues which rely solely on such equipment.
It’s like using a wrench to measure voltage in an electronic circuit; the two are not compatible. But it is rather cute watching how much effort they put into it all. Kinda like watching a baby put a square block into a circular shaped hole. If only they would listen {sigh}. In case any of them are: If LD dream scientists are serious about their research then I suggest looking into experimenting with the concepts I am providing here. You will win a noble peace prize Laureate. Read up on MMs Our Universe material and play around with the range of extremely low frequencies he mentions. It all corroborates my experiences perfectly.
Hell, I’ll even draft your experiments up for you if you ask me nicely enough. Such scientists need to understand that once consciousness reaches the transition point, linear time becomes an irrelevant factor. The entire LD experience could take place within the time it takes the microcontroller in the EEG equipment clock to register a single digital step. That digital step is what draws all those nice little lines of data you guys like to rely on. Time is not the same in LD as it is in physical reality!!! LD/AP are not just fluctuations in brain chemicals/ speeds (though these do play a role); they are a conscious witnessing of quantum reality. Adapt your experiments accordingly, else you look like fucking amateurs to those of us who know what we are talking about.
So, anyways, in answering the above question:
By detaching consciousness and becoming lucid in this manner, you are disengaging from all the sensory inputs that shapes your physical world. Not just the 5 sensors, but all those sensors you don’t even realise you rely upon, such as subconscious “programs”, like breathing and heartbeat, that keep your body running. They are good for keeping your physical body alive, but one has to realise that these sensors, when tuned to the physical body, create a thick layer of M Band noise (what I previously called sub conscious distortion in past articles.) You will not realise just how encumbering this M Band Noise is until you consciously experience a transition into the sleeping state; at this juncture, the compression of consciousness state that you have been trapped in your whole life becomes immediately apparent.
Think of it like if you were born into a box that is much too small for your body in that it has to remain hunched over all the time. As the box is closed, the only reality you know of is that within the box. Hence you never realised you are encumbered. It is not until someone opens the box, and you can finally stretch out into the new reality outside of it that you realise just how limited you were in practically all of your abilities. This is a very crude rendition of a thought experiment called the “cave” by the well known philosopher Plato, I suggest everyone reads (it was what the story line of the Matrix movies was based on – and yeah I am the guy that exited the cave if you haven’t already figured it out). The point is, at the transition point you shed this M Band Noise baggage. It feels like someone just lifted a million tonne weight (or gravity itself) off of you, and you can – for want of a better word – “stretch” yourself in ways that you never could before. This is how you know you’ve reached the Void Space. In a general sense, the M Band noise begins to thin out the deeper one goes into sleep paralysis/ hypnogogia. Remember this, as it can be used to your advantage.
The reduction of this M Band noise layer is why LD is such an effective avenue for non physical entity communication. It is why it is so effective for “connecting” with other consciousness via telepathy. It is why it is so effective for remote viewing. Sure, there is still an inherent layer of M Band noise to cut through, but it is a lot thinner and a lot less troublesome from this vantage point. With enough practice it’s like cutting through butter. You learn to ignore what is irrelevant and focus on what is relevant. You learn to focus on what is new, what is different, what is out of place in this quantum world you are experiencing, and that is where you should be {carefully} probing for higher order information.
You’d be surprised of what is out there willing to “talk” or show you things. A point should be made though, that just because a non physical entity might say something, doesn’t always mean that it is the truth. Discernment is ultimately your own responsibility. And there is no reason you can’t be sending out “pings” for others to locate you. Ok yeah there is reason and we will say that reason is safety, but honestly, it isn’t something I really ever gave a shit about. (The movie “Baby’s Day Out” comes to mind, where this innocent baby wanders off from its parents to explore the fascinating world around it, seemingly ignorant of all the dangers unfolding right behind it and the predators that are trying to capture it to use it as a ransom. That pretty sums up my teenage LD years. )
But in these years I learnt some things; if you truly know yourself and what you are, there is nothing to be afraid of whilst in LD. I always operated on the mentality that no matter what evil presented itself to me to try and scare me, I was bigger and badder and meaner than it could ever be, and this is what I “projected” out with my pings. An unwavering sense of self is the crucial mentality one needs to be operating from in this state of consciousness. Never, ever, take notice of those words that were designed to break you from other, much weaker souls. If you allow them to carry on into the LD/AP domain, they will present as a weakened point of your being that may be exploited by other entities that are more sure of themselves. You simply cannot be weak minded when entering this place; wield your sense of self like a bright illuminating torch that makes others recoil in fear of being burnt and use that light to navigate.
Remember, you don’t actually have to accept that candy from the stranger at the park, just like you don’t have to accept their words as bearing anything on who you are. To put it simply, fuck their opinion. You are a god, you just don’t remember it yet. Hopefully you will soon.
Hidden Knowledge:
There is a wealth of information about who we are and our real histories that has been kept locked away from us in the non physical world; many occultists know this, yet very few are able to access such information. Consider this article the key to unlocking many of the mysteries that have been spoken about in occult circles for the past few centuries, when properly applied to them.
Understand my authority on this subject to make such bold claims does not come from an egotistical opinion generated on this plane of physical manifestation. Rather, it comes from the fact that I earnt my place to talk about them in such a manner as relayed to me by those who watch over this world in the non physical when they spoke to me of the importance of LD as the prime communication channel into the non physical planes. I don’t care if you have 10 million hits on youtube in reference to your LD clasess; if you haven’t clued onto this fact yet or experienced a flow of this information into your mind then either your LD abilities are no where near as good as you claim them to be or you are a disinfo agent paid to redirect knowledge from this profound truth; I will never ask a dime for any of it. I cannot stress how important Lucid dreaming really is for the evolution of human consciousness. This is something that is well overdue for reaching the mainstream. Don’t let the dream scientists wither it away to being nothing more than some fluctuations of dopamine. I have a feeling many Elders from indigenous tribes will agree with me, not that I am affiliated with any. The whole point of these articles is that I write them in the hope someone will pick them up and properly experiment with them further. Honestly, I’d rather be writing fantasy and sci fiction with the time I invest in them (seriously, I’ve got 5 half completed novels five times the size of this article sitting on my computer waiting for some TLC).
If properly applied, there is potential within these words to make the reader become more powerful than a god. Or, to put it simply, to remember yourself as an Immortal consciousness; your IS-BE heritage. Once you experience your consciousness operating from the seat of the Higher Self, you will never again consider the physical world as base line reality; I guarantee that much. What I am giving you here is real occult {hidden} power.
But first, let’s talk a little about potentiality of Lucid Dreaming.
The Higher Self:
I want you to do yourself a favour and take all that new age bullshit you’ve learnt on the Higher Self being some vague inner voice of yours that gives your physical self direction and throw it out the goddamned fucking window. Whilst this might be an auxiliary function, practically all of the shit you read about on this topic on the internet is NOT what I am talking about here. The exception to this rule is that Eastern based philosophy tends to show a greater understanding of this truth than anything Western based. However, if the poster of the article in question is not drilling home the point the Higher Self is both the origin and destination point for us, then relegate it to the trash.
The Higher Self, – the thing I experienced during my contact sessions with the EG and U5 – is quite literally an alien way of processing information. It is the mind that exists at the closest point of your soul’s/spirit’s/ non physical body’s creation, before it was manipulated, severely handicapped and thrown into a boring flesh suit, and told it must appease the profit prophets. No words will ever be sufficient to explain what it really is. It is an unfathomable function of the mind that every single person should be capable of connecting to if only they worshipped it more than they did money. Consider it like entering a god mode cheat for old DOS based computer games that give you “powers of the developers” to bend the rules of the game. The Higher Self is the god mode that allows you to exit this physical reality (Plato’s Cave) and explore everything from the outside. It allows you to view the entire created physical and non physical planes and their “light codes” as if you were the developer that worked on them. Does that sound like a more suitable end point for humanity than an endless cycle of work, die, reincarnate and repeat?
I have written in past articles that if you combined all the super geniuses of the Earth – all the Einsteins, Von Neumans, Schrodingers, Teslas – into a single being, their abilities would be only a very small fraction of what the Higher Self is capable of. I really am not exaggerating this. The reason is that while you are piloting your flesh suit, your mind has been limited in its operating functions (deliberately, if we go by what the EG told me, and what the Domain has told us). I like to think of it like comparing the processors of an old 1990s model computer to the modern equivalent. Your mind whilst locked in the physical body is like an old Pentium model operating in the MHz spectrum, whilst the Higher Self is equivalent to something running 4 or 5 Ghz. Well, actually it is more like something running in the ZettaHertz spectrum and beyond, but since we are a long way off from having that kind of processing power, I am stuck with equating it to only a 1000 times more. Humour me, will you, and just realise I am talking about a magnitude of operation trillions of times more powerful than the processing abilities you are using to read this very text.
I would have the readership remember back to those days when we thought a 500MHz processor was the pinnacle of our {computer} evolution, and that anything better was out of reach. Yeah, well that is the difference between your Earth mind processing capabilities versus something operating close their Higher Self, like, say, a non physical entity. We only think our Earth minds are the be all and end all to evolution because it is the only thing we know. How can I drill the point across more that it really isn’t? Hence the importance of connecting with this Higher Intelligence. Consider me the investor that is trying to build the research base to make those ZettaHertz processors a reality. It will take time, but we need to start somewhere and make gradual progress before we can expect results.
Allow me to explain this whole concept using another, more fitting analogy. In digital communications we have two choices when it comes to communicating data; that of serial or parallel programming practices. In serial data transfer each bit is placed on a single wire and processed one by one through each consecutive clock pulse from the processor. Parallel data transfer differs in that we have much more wires to place more bits on, thus more information can be processed for the same clock pulse.
This is the main functional difference between the higher mind and your limited Earth based one. Think of your Earth mind as having a single wire for information transfer; you must process thoughts in a serial like fashion before you can arrive at a conclusion to whatever it is you are thinking about, which more often than not is a choice that leads to some kind of action being taken, and thus more thoughts that add to the serial processing train.
Now consider the higher mind as being a parallel data bus with 100 more wires (we only need 64 to be ~18.5 quintillion times more powerful, as capability doubles with every bit added).
For every thought you have, you have a plethora of other thoughts that arise from it which must be processed by your brain one by one. For example, you might ask yourself “what should I eat for breakfast”, this would lead to a choice between bacon and eggs or toast with butter. Then you remember the bacon was tasting a bit funky last time you ate it so go with option 2. Only problem is you don’t have any bread left, so you decide to go the shop and buy some. On your way out the door you come across a neighbour and you engage in some friendly banter about your new car, which reminds you you need to fill up the gas tank etc etc, which leads to a million other thought trains about how much money is in your bank account, how you will allocate whatever funds you have to paying certain bills etc.
We don’t even realise it, but in the span of a few minutes we could have a hundred different thoughts that have arisen from other random thoughts in this manner; our mind just processes them automatically one by one without us even really realising it.
This is not at all how the higher mind functions. There are no “thought trains” as to how we have become accustomed to experiencing whilst in a physical body. This is because the moment a thought arises, all conclusions to that thought are simultaneously reached. Thus there is no “problem reaction solution”; whenever a problem is encountered, the solution to that problem is automatically calculated at the same time. So if you are a quantum physicist trying to understand a certain mystery regarding entanglement whilst in the physical body, if you were able to port this problem to a conscious interaction to the Higher Self (via lucid dreaming/ astral projection etc), it would automatically be solved the moment you thought it up. But, the more amazing thing is, is that it does not present as a problem but rather a memory that you already know the answer to. It is more like doing a quick revision of a subject you are already an expert in and saying to yourself “duh, I already knew this”. The only “problem”, is that the amount of information relating to your original thought you wanted solved would have so many variables attached to it that it would simply be impossible for you to retain it all coming back into the limited consciousness state of operation in the physical body. You cannot process these variables whilst confined to the human mind, as the human mind has been carefully engineered to filter them all out. The best you could do would be to remember a very small percentage of what is relayed to you. Believe me, it s incredibly frustrating and saddening to be able to operate from this state of awareness, and come back into the body only to know you will lose it all. You can actually feel the retardation effects of the M Band layer as you pass through it back into the body. Depressing is an understatement.
While I was operating from this higher state of awareness, my mind was on overdrive carrying out calculations that, had I retained the information when waking back up, could have led to the construction of my very own interstellar capable space craft. I am not joking – from this higher state such calculations were as easy as adding 1+1 together. On the other hand, the processing time for a human brain to make these same calculations I remember realising would equate to “billions of years” if it was the only thought it ever utilised. To someone who has never connected to it, the Higher Self is unfathomable.
Alien Psychology
Let’s try thinking of this at a different angle shall we. An alien space craft crashes somewhere on Earth; let’s just say Roswell for shits and giggles. One of the crew is taken out and contained in a room at some random military base. Let’s use a completely random, imagined name and call this base Fort Worth. We will apply further randomness to the name of the alien and call it Airl shall we?
So here is Airl, contained in a cell at Fort Worth, and in come a bunch of military brass to interview this entity about its weapons arsenal, where it is from in the universe etc. The military brass are really more of a “military lead” when it comes to their consciousness processing abilities; they think they are “hard” and structurally useful but in fact they are really quite soft and malleable. They don’t realise that Airl’s consciousness processes information in a completely different way to them. At best they might have an inkling it is superior, but, as they have never been exposed to this paralleling processing of information, they don’t really understand how it works. So they pitch the question “what are your weapons capabilities?”
Immediately Airl (who we will assume is operating from the same state of awareness I was able to connect to) would understand every possible outcome arising from every possible way that question would be answered. Airl would be able to conceive of every fork in the MWI from that moment on, all the way up into infinity and beyond. There is no need for the mind to process the question, observe body language etc as all future variables become instantaneously available. All that would be needed would be for Airl’s ultimate goal (it could 5000 years from that point in time for all we know) to be located within this web of possibility, and the necessary actions to take would automatically be carried out one by one. The entire butterfly effect from start to finish would be calculated before your mind could even formulate the word “what”. Take a moment to think about the implications this would present, because there is a shit tonne of them.
Thus an understanding of the proper functioning state of the physical and non physical universe is possible from this state of higher consciousness. This is what I was able to “see” and experience whilst I was connected to my higher self – I just cannot accurately describe it because my earth mind is too limited in its capabilities. Unfortunately, I lost all the {exceedingly complex} formulas and mathematics the moment I crossed the transition state/ M Band noise layer into the physical plane and waking reality.
What I can tell you is that the physical and non physical planes exist as a sort of mesh or fabric that binds one another together through intersecting junctions that are more non physical based than they are physical. This is hard to conceptualise considering we are accustomed to only seeing in 2 dimensions (despite living in a 3D world we can only see that world as a mixture of 2 dimensional surfaces; we do not actually see in 3 dimensions, for to do so would mean we see all angles of any given object at once, which is entirely possible from the Higher Self). The CIA Project Gateway paper (for the complete version go to Found: Page 25 of the CIA’s Gateway Report on Astral Projection (vice.com) ) description of the “holographic universe” is the closest I have seen any one else come to describing what I experienced, apart from ol’ MM here. It is sort of like looking at an xray of a solid object, except you can see the solidarity of the object as well as its transparency at the same time. It is strange because we can usually only conceptualise things as being physical or non physical, yet you exist in a third state beyond them. You can zoom in and out of this mesh fabric at will like a camera in a video game. It is different to just zooming out of and seeing a galaxy behind you, because you are seeing the actual fabric of how multiple instances of that same galaxy exist in their physical and non physical forms from a timeless state.
You can see that entire “photo reel” of that galaxy as it is drawn through what we know as time, and you can see how it all fits together with every other galaxy in every other plane. You can see the heartbeat of the true universe. Do you really think your tiny earth brain is capable of understanding such magnificence? Understand what I am telling you here; a connection with the higher self allows you to view the entire fucking MWI as if it is a map you can throw on a table. This should give you an idea of what you can look forward to when “assimilating” into a civilisation such as the Domain.
While I was connected I was able to comprehend the totality of the entire past, present and future at once; I was able to understand the consequence of every thought and action and each separate future that would be generated as a result from those thought and actions in every single physical and non physical plane. One thing I did remember was that this level of understanding is a necessary prerequisite for proper unaided consciousness time travel.
I needed to understand these things not because creating a fucking time travelling Delorean was necessary. I needed to access this information in order to rewrite the astral/soul templates of those in attendance. It was far more important than travelling to the edge of the physical universe. This was far more important than becoming the next Doc Brown; that come slater in our evolutionary cycle. The altar in the middle of the Elder Guardians courtyard allowed one to literally “jack in” to this fabric and become one with it.
Understand that this is what I mean when I say “accessing the akashic records”; it implies the actual merging of one’s consciousness with the fabric of all of creation specifically so information can be downloaded directly from source. It is not some vague thing one can just randomly tap into while their consciousness is engaged within the physical vessel to “better” their immediate lives. It can only be accessed from complete and proper disconnection of consciousness from the physical body, and through experience gained from navigating through the non physical planes. You don’t gain access to that altar unless you prove you know what the fuck you are doing when engaged in non physical navigation. You certainly don’t gain access to it if you consider your current incarnation more important than the sum totality of your soul’s entire existence. Only those able to extend their thinking of what matters beyond a single lifetime can access it.
Now I have down played my whole presence at this courtyard somewhat because quite frankly it feels too narcissistic to talk about, but if I am entirely honest, a lot of people were making a lot of fuss about me being there. This merging of the akashic with one’s consciousness was apparently not something everyone could achieve, and only those with accomplished LD skillsets really had the ability to do it effectively. You absolutely MUST have a proper understanding of how to navigate {the MWI} or you can very easily become lost within it – even the EG, who were of a non physical based nature lacked the other {physical understanding} half of the coin. Hence why I was summoned and practically put in charge of this whole operation. I was literally just left to “plug myself” in to the akashic records and left to my own devises by the Grand Elder to try and figure out a way to counter the amnesia mechanism embedded in astral/soul DNA so we don’t have to put up with this unneeded reincarnation schpeel any longer. His role was specifically to reawaken me to this task that I had been involved with the for the past 10 thousand to 40 thousand years.
So when I tell you the underlying function of what astral body/ soul DNA rewriting entails, this isn’t just hazarding a guess at wtf was going on; this is me giving you the actual process of what is involved as the only one out of over 20 000+ others in attendance that could do it. That included the entirety of the Elder Guardians; not even they had the ability to do what I was able to do due to my LD skillset. Not one of them dared going near that altar (aside from the Grand Elder who did only so he could talk to me), yet I was allowed to parade around it like it was my own little toy to play with. I cannot begin to explain how incredibly humbling that felt. I had access to the whole fabric of the “universe” at my fingertips. Hence when I tell you Lucid Dreaming is important for the “evolution” of human consciousness, you’d better be paying some attention. It literally gives you access to the assembly programming language of the fabric of reality and the collective (as well as individual) consciousness.Isaac CARET much?
And yet I am stuck going through the red tape put in place by psychological and scientific “experts” who have absolutely no idea wtf they are talking about when it comes to telling us what dreams actually are, or doing when it comes to experimenting with LD/AP. It is beyond maddening tryingto get this message through that information vacuum. Anyways….
The Process I Used for Astral Body/ Soul Amnesia Recorrection:
Whilst plugged into the altar I was able to make a mini, replica version of the akashic records/ MWI accurate to about 90% of the original. I intentionally left out a few things for reasons described below. When I talk about the “scroll”, one needs to understand that the material this “scroll” was made out of was that very mesh fabric discussed above. If you were to zoom into this “paper”, you wouldn’t find pieces mashed tree pulp; you would find microcosmic representations of entire MWI realities linked via their non physical {quantum} pathways. Remember, I was operating from a vantage point outside of the entire MWI.
Because I had access to raw MWI source code, I then began tracing the akashic signature of everyone in attendance. These signatures equated to their presence as overlayed in the total MWI. In other words, I accessed data pertaining to their soul’s total existence from beginning to end. These signatures were then plugged into the “cloned” MWI by tethering parts of them to it. This meant that what I was effectively doing was creating a hub where I could gather the consciousnesses of those 20 000+ that were in attendance and “virtually” plug them in to the akashic records like I was plugged in – though all navigational control was ultimately at my discretion because of the bits I left out when I cloned it (I cannot overstate how incredibly fucking cool this was to do; mummy, when I grow up I want to be a consciousness programmer). I gave them a virtual MWI and cut off access to the bits that would fuck them up if used improperly.
Once attached, I located each and every part of these consciousness that had become corrupt through the amnesia codes embedded within their higher energetic bodies. I then wrote a sort of software patch and spliced it into the beginning of the amnesia code for each consciousness. What this patch would do would initiate an akashic/MWI reset every time the amnesia code was about to be activated, specifically so a route around the amnesia would eventuate. Essentially I was using the amnesia activators to activate a very specific “recovery of memory” pathway through each consciousness’s MWI instead of a pre-programmed pathway that led through amnesia territory. Does this sound familiar? It should, MM has described similar programming practices by the ETs he was associated with.
I pulled out all data relating to any other consciousness those in attendance had come into contact with (over their soul’s entire lifetime) and embedded similar activation strings within their own MWIs. The idea was to create a sort of anti virus that would actually function like a virus and “infect” as many consciousnesses as possible with the cure to their corrupted higher energetic bodies. Those in attendance would be set for immediate memory recovery within their current incarnation to help with their tasks, whilst their associations were looking at 2 or 3 reincarnation cycles before the effects would begin to kick in. It was estimated that the code I wrote would reach its peak potentiality of memory activation in somewhere between 3 to 5 generations from {then} present day (2012). This is an averaged taking into account the changing MWI variables and various outcomes.
I then instructed the entire assembly of Elder Guardians to protect this “scroll”, to which they obliged. Anyone seeking complete memory recovery would be allowed access to it provided they were of pure (STO) sentience. STS sentiences, or those who would use it to gain power over others would be vehemently denied access. In other words, don’t bother trying if you have a tendency to shit on others to get what you want; you will never be allowed access to this altar by MY personal authority and very bad things will happen to you if you try. Bad things, like you automatically volunteer to be an anomaly guinea pig so I can watch the process of how your consciousness is disassembled after I throw you into it. Go work for a bank or government if that is your mentality; what we are discussing here far transcends the single, physical life these people consider as being important over all else.
Thus, the only way to gain access to this scroll is to hold in very high regard the macrocosmic aspects of all souls/consciousnesses and their entire MWI trajectory as being more important than what any single physical life has to offer (those words in red I had no control over – word decided to do this automatically – maybe its trying to tell me something). Unless you are prepared to spend this life assisting other consciousnesses in being “unlocked” to their higher state, you will unfortunately have to wait another 2 or 3 incarnation cycles before being unlocked yourself. This should give you an idea as to the type of people those 20 000+ consciousnesses in attendance were. They were not simply people coming here to spread some vague bullshit about love and light or apparent channelings from Ashtar command (that is not to say those people don’t have their own thing going on, some of them probably quite legit); they were incredibly advanced consciousnesses that had a very good understanding of the higher (unseen) aspects of reality that deliberately chose to enter the Earth domain at risk of losing such understandings. And they did this in order to extract others who were part of OUR greater {non physical} community. Believe me, don’t believe me, it makes no difference. My writings will find their way to them in due course.
I know of one other that was involved in similar astral body/ soul DNA rewriting and their life story would blow you out of the fucking water. Hopefully they write a book on it, as it brings a new perspective of this entire operation and how truly far reaching it is.
Am I getting my point across yet? If we go by what Steven Greer tells us, put 2 and 2 together when it comes to the Gateway Project and Project Stargate, then the Military Industrial Complex has already cottoned on to this super information highway many, many years ago. And if you want to know the real reason I was initiated into the Unseen 5, it is because they {the U5} were well aware of the sequestering of this knowledge to the Deep Black libraries of the MIC, and wanted to circumvent it altogether. I was directed to make what I know about LD/AP public in an effort to take it off those MIC Deep Black Shelves, so more practitioners of these arts can better prepare themselves for contact. This was the main task I was given by their leader, apart from making their presence known to you and the pre requisites for initiation. Do you think that it is a mere coincidence those in control of MAJ felt the same way about having MM release his disclosure at the same point of time?
So now we have got that necessity of where LD can potentially take you out of the way, let’s go into some advanced techniques achievable via LD based on mine and SDs experiences.
Outward Projection Via the Portals:
In past articles I discussed how one can summon the spherical portals and use them as coordinate vectors into other planes and worlds. I also talked about how consciousness can be expanded outwardly. Combining the two together, the spherical portals can provide two way access into these other worlds. Whereas an inward projection will take you to a more “dense” world, an outward projection will take you a less dense one (further from matter based reality). The further you penetrate into these less denser layers/ worlds, the closer you get to being able to contact those outside the bubble, ie the Elder Guardians (the Unseen 5 are deliberately stationed within the bubble close to its edge in order to properly monitor everything). To achieve this outward projection the process begins the same as an inner projection; you summon the portal to just in front of your vision, but instead of visualising the world you want to go to, you visualise the world you are already in. In other words, you have to condense your surroundings into this ball, then project out of it. Think of it like a giant invisible hand picking you up and carrying you out into space at an incredibly fast speed. All of a sudden the environment you were engaged in has become condensed to the spherical shape of the earth. A similar visualisation can be structured to reach this outcome.
Communication With Non Local, Non Physical Entities via Sleep Paralysis:
Sleep paralysis/ the hypnogogic state can be used to interact with non physical entities. SD and I have found that at times you can hear their “chatter” and at other times you have to ping out an intention to interact with whatever may be hanging around to which they just kind of show up. The best times for doing this seem to be when you are in a sleep paralysis state, but not being consumed by the negative feeling illusions that are at times too overwhelming. When I talked to the clickity clacker ETs it was from the void space after I had just sort of became lucid whilst there (a DILD rather than A WILD). What happened was I became aware of a faint radio-like broadcast whilst floating around in this state that was very noticeably not human.
It was very much like when you have a radio that is just out of tune from a station so you get the broadcast through a wall of white noise. What you have to then do is focus into the {M band} noise, visualise that you are turning a radio dial which changes your own body’s resonance, to tune into the broadcast. I can’t really accurately describe how this was done, only that I did it quite automatically as if I had done it many times before. Once I locked onto the broadcast something weird happened; the clickity clack dialogue became vivid and understandably alien to any dialect we have on earth. It was as if I was just sort of sucked out of the M band layer into a very clear state of consciousness (very typical of what it was like whenever the EG or U5 were contacting me).
I went from floating in this indescribable confusing mess to free floating in a ship filled with a strange liquid I figured was some kind of intergalactic consciousness quarantine zone that doubled as a medical room. I was then telepathically directed over to a cylindrical cubicle via imagery which also showed the non physical “shape” of these beings, and once I stood inside of it, the clickity clack language was automatically translated into something I could understand (English). When I say shape, it was really more of a blob that these things took. Not describable within the confines of human language. You wanna know what we talked about? Human beings having the potential of being incredibly powerful creatures, but their dumb arsery mixing with such power being the primary concern of why creatures such as the clickity clackers steered very well clear of them. And hence why there was a room filled with non physical liquid and several light years worth of space between me and them. The clickity clackers had no problem telepathically implying that the human race were like a bunch of infants with one hand on a box of matches and the other on a stick of dynamite, and were quite happy to treat me with similar caution. Non physical entities being “scared to death of the human race” seems to be a common conversation point for a lot of the entities in these planes.
SD has also had experiences in this same state and from the sleep paralysis/ hypnogogic state where she has pinged out “if anything out there wants to talk, say hello” only to have something reply. The something ended up being a non physical entity that appeared before her twice in the span of a week. The second time, with her agreement, it pulled her astral body out of her physical and gave her a tour of some of the planes in close approximation to the physical world. At the same time she was able to connect to a similar higher consciousness information stream; the beings actually helped in that regard – their presence seems to initiate it. One of these was what appeared to be a sentience/ soul sorting facility which was carried out by a giant machine like device that had the face of a Balinese god.
For those working with angels (and demons ), both forms can be contacted via this same sleep paralysis avenue. A lot of these particular beings hold information on our world and our history that has never and will never make its way to our history books, though many occultists use them for temporary and materialistic gain, which is a real shame. The presence of one of these particular entities is undeniable; there is a massive rush of energy that vibrates through your whole being whenever one of them is around. It is a completely different feeling than when contacted by those who exist outside of the non physical bubble surrounding earth, such as the Elder Guardians and the Unseen 5. It is also hard to gauge what exactly their intentions are. For those who follow the myths surrounding King Solomon and the 72 “fallen angels”, the myths of John Dee and the Angel Enoch, the magic of Metatron etc, this state of sleep paralysis is the avenue by which you make contact with all of them (I suspect King Solomon was an Agent of the Old Empire, for reasons I won’t go into). But I really don’t recommend it if you don’t know what you are doing. They can be quite intimidating on even the best of days, not that I intentionally ever set about to contact them; all my dealings with them were purely by accident. The point I am trying to make with including them here is to suggest just how powerful this telephone line into the non physical planes can be. There is some incredibly powerful shit residing in here, I am just trying to make you aware that some of it can be beneficial to your escape. The question you need to ask is what price you are willing to pay for information seemingly beneficial to your plans.
If you want to ping the Domain, or any other non physical based entity, then I suggest doing it from this state of consciousness. Though I would not know how to tell them apart from other non physical entities that dwell here. Maybe get an official signature off them via MM’s EBP?
Dream Hijacking:
Now, I need to mention here that I was only able to achieve this feat once. It is not exactly something that can be done very easily. The reason for this is because it requires an intense amount of unwavering focus of a target. This not a task for a novice: you need to be exceptionally good at visualisation and focus. Out of all the things one can do whilst in LD, this seems to be the hardest to actually pull off. I suggest that beforehand, I one must plan accordingly as to what dreamscape they should use and any conversation points they wish to bring up whilst engaged in the shared dream, and the process “simulated” over and over again until the LDer is confident they can move from one transition to the next. Even stalling for a millisecond in LD can have drastic consequences on the success of the session. Your thoughts and actions must flow and operate like a well oiled machine.
To begin with, you go to bed or lay yourself down to rest to initiate an LD in standard manner, but from the moment you close your eyes, you visualise the target whose dream you wish to “hijack”. This person must be visualised in as explicit detail as possible. You need to try and picture what they look like, hear what they sound like and smell what they smell like if possible. You must not let any other thought intrude, including the idea of hijacking their dream. This whole point of the visualisation is to provide coordinates for your consciousness to lock onto within the M Band layer of noise. You must carry this visualisation of them through the hypnogogic/ sleep paralysis state and transition on into the void space, and must never allow it to become broken or polluted with other thoughts. Once in the void space you must immediately set about creating the dreamscape by which they will experience. At the same time, you must also hold the visualisation of their being right in front of you as you create the dreamscape around them. Once the dream scape has been created, and remains locked in place, you then focus on talking to them. At this point you should be both engaged in the same dream. I suggest using bland dreamscapes with a degree of familiarity for the both of you to begin with, as I would expect sudden and fantastic dreamscapes may potentially shock them awake.
As one can expect, this method can also be used for remote viewing practices. You Just target an object rather than a person.
Communicating With Dead Entities:
The {apparent} dead entities I was communicating with that led to my Project Edison article were also contacted via the sleep paralysis/ hypnogogic state. I have also used this same state to contact my deceased brother, though that particular experience was too fraught with distortions to accurately tell whether or not it was a proper contact session. With Project Edison, I am 95% sure it was a proper contact session (as opposed to the clickity clackers which were a 100% surety, and the EG/U5 which were a 10000% surety). Basically all I did was callout to any entities that we living considered dead that were hanging around and asked if anyone was interested trying to establish a stable communication line between each other (something that could be used by us physical living entities without having to resort to initiating lucid dreaming or sleep paralysis like I was doing). I was met by of about 4 or 5 of these entities, all who were at one point living on the same planet earth we inhabit, all of which had at least a passive interest in technology. One, possibly two of these entities were some sort of electrical engineer whilst incarnated here, from around the era of Edison and Tesla, though no names were ever given. As nothing really eventuated from this all I can really tell you is there are at least this group of dead entities that seem enthusiastic about creating this communication bridge and who have a fair understanding of how exactly it could be carried out. Tell them I said hi if you end up contacting them.
Predicting Lotto:
I want to start of with a disclaimer that if you win any substantial amount using this method then please donate a fair portion of it to those in need of it. And buy me a house….or maybe just a beer will do fine. Play around with it and see what you can get; at the very least it is a good way to practice your environment simulation skills.
This was essentially an experiment in trying to remote view lotto numbers. Using this method I was only able to ever get 4 out of 6 lotto numbers correctly. The problem I had was trying to remember all 6 numbers after going back through the M band noise layer into the physical world. Lucid dreaming is strange in that you can have perfect clarity of memory whilst engaged in the LD, then lose 90% of it after coming back through threshold into waking reality. Even the simplest of memories become incredibly hard to remember. Now I need to note here that the lotto ticket I was using was a multiple “game” ticket that allowed 18 different combinations of the 6 numbers. Majority of the combinations I used contained the base 4 numbers I could remember plus variants of the two I couldn’t but suspected were the right ones. The rest of the combinations had one or two of the numbers I remembered changed. I was able to win about $15 dollars over three consecutive months each time because of the base four numbers I had remembered; the winning tickets always had these base 4 numbers; if I could have retained memory of those last 2, I would be sitting on something like $30 million right now. I suggest the LDer experiment with these methods and see what they can get. If a group syndicate was able to carry out this same experiment simultaneously then I would imagine those last two numbers would be easier to obtain.
Now, there are two variants of the experiment I utilised, the first seemed to be the more promising.
The first objective was to create the target coordinates for the experiment. Remember, we are dealing with a time and place that needed to be pinpointed to extreme accuracy; we first need to single out the date and time in which the lotto draw is to take place, as well as the country and exact location etc. Prior to the experiment I’d go down to my local newsagent and take note of their advertisement for the next big lotto draw and it’s date and note the location of their newspaper stand, layout of the store, what the Asian guy behind the counter looked like etc. The idea was to commit as much detail of the place to memory.
Then I’d wait for the next chance of LDing to try out the experiment, which was usually a few days later. What I did was enter the void space as per the usual method (either tennis match scenario, or passing through sleep paralysis, likely the latter as it was always done early in the morning). Then at the dream creation stage I would purposefully recreate the environment I planned on buying my lotto ticket from. I’d manifest the entire street the newsagent was on and walk down it. I’d look at the advertisement with the same big lotto win and its date, then I’d make my way over to the newspaper stand out front. I’d make a point of looking down at the page and finding the exact date of its publication (which I made to be the day of the lotto draw); this was all to set up the proper coordinates for my remote viewing target. I’d then go in, weave through the layout of the magazine shelves, and buy a ticket from the Asian guy whose face I would recreate as close as I could to how I remembered it, making sure it was a single game (single combination of numbers). I’d then take a good few minutes just staring at the numbers and committing them to memory as best as I could. I would then exit the session, wake up and immediately write down what I could remember of the numbers.
Over the weeks before the lotto draw I’d play around varying the simulation. Sometimes I would make the dream reflect the newspapers showing it was the day after the lotto draw, and I would check my ticket at the machine only for it to tell me I’d won the jackpot, then look at the numbers on the winning ticket. Again, I’d wake up and record these numbers down. No matter what I did, I could only ever get 4 numbers with over 90% surety. On the day of the draw I’d go down and buy a ticket from the same store and put in all the numbers from the various sessions. Over the years I started varying the entire simulation to reflect the actual draw as to how I would see it on TV; I’d watch the barrel of numbers shoot out each number of the draw. Again, I could only ever get 4 numbers, so I eventually gave up and devoted my LD sessions to things I thought more necessary.
While we are on the subject of lotto prediction in the non physical planes though, I do know a guy whose friend was able to utilise what very much sounded like the void space to win multiple millions 3 separate times. This guy was my old electronics lecturer from my college years who I tracked down about a decade later to talk about where he thought technology was taking us. During our conversation, to my amazement, he brought up the idea of our reality being a simulation and the idea of a linked consciousness he called the human gestile concept that could be communicated with at bed time. Ron would go to bed, and sort of pray to this linked consciousness and ask it certain profound questions in which he swore it would give him answers. He passed this concept onto his friend who used it (it was never mentioned how) to win. Most of those winnings were donated to others that needed it more than him, and it was suggested to Ron that his friend thought had he not been so generous with the distribution of his winnings, he figured he never would have been “allowed” to win them.
I haven’t been able to get back there to verify Ron’s claims since talking to him. But….knowing what I know about the void space being a similar hub that links to other’s consciousnesses together I have a very good idea of how one would go about using it for this purpose. You commit to a conscious transition into its depths so that you are not overwhelmed with the subconscious distortions/ M band noise, then you’d send out the thought for obtaining the numbers for a certain lotto draw you know is coming up. From my conversation with Ron, he implied that you don’t even need to be “asleep” to probe this gestile consciousness “thing” for answers. I was under the impression he was basically doing it during theta state right before sleep paralysis whilst still being awake. Can’t hurt to try right?
Remote Viewing via the Void Space:
Animals make great Remote Viewing targets. Especially ones that roam. They don’t even need to be pets, but pets provide good ways to verify results. Sometimes when I am feeling adventurous, I will try and remote view from a bird, or other random wild animal, like a wolf – I have a thing for wolves. Cats are also good, because they are pretty much the parkour experts of the animal kingdom, and thus fun to view from. Usually these sessions are done whilst still conscious, from Theta state if possible. I will try and picture what the world looks like through eyes of the animal then within a few moments I become that animal and it is like watching a movie playout as I fly/ run across the landscape (which is often in a completely different country). If you have been building your visualisation skills enough, you can port this practice over to the Void Space. When I remote viewed from the off world intelligence back when I was around the age of 14/15, it was from using the void space to conduct one of these RV sessions. I was interested in projecting into various parts of the galaxy to see if I could find anything of relevance. After deliberately accessing the void space, I visualised just a general memory of what all the stars looked like, picked one and focused on it. Before I knew it I was hovering next to a being that seemed very much like it was an progenitor of Native American culture. I’ve explained how that session went in past articles. This is probably the easiest thing to use the Void Space for.
Hive Dreaming:
Vainenmoinen suggested the creation of an LD “pub” where {theoretically} each participant would enter the LD stage and meet up in a predetermined locale. Whilst I have achieved this with SD, I have not done it as a group. I would imagine there would be some difficulties to overcome, most notably the distortions/M Band noise of each participant preventing proper synchronisation occurring. I do know that SDs old music lecturer was doing this very thing with astral projection on a regular basis with a regular group of people. Apparently she stopped doing it when the group {of about 5 or 6} projected into a plane that was off limits and a member was killed by some entity that didn’t approve of them being there.
At that very moment in the physical plane their astral projection coordinator realised this member was in distress and tried to wake them all up, but not before this guy died of what the coroners suggested was a heart attack. Such a danger, however, need not be approached, in my opinion. If the dream environment creation is left to the main “hijacker” then (assuming they know what they are doing) I hypothesise that other participants could then synch into the dreamscape. By providing a 3D model of the dreamscape location before hand, I would imagine this would help with synchronisation efforts.
The key would be for the model and predetermined location to be rather bland in composition so that those not as proficient at visualisation are also able to better synch into it. In saying that though, the main hijacker would have to have a check at hand for the others to “find” within the dreamscape to better prove they were there. Maybe a simple image or something on the table that is the first thing they should look at when arriving at the location. There is also the option of seeking out the Island Beach, as this seems to be a pre-created destination that has been experienced by other lucid dreamers. It could be considered a safe haven, so long as you don’t venture to close to the fence (either stay on the far side of the island or go into the temples via the burrows in the forest.)
Methods of Projecting back and forth through the MWI (Consciousness Time Travel):
When I was about 19, I was having a few regular interactions with what appeared to be a Tibetan Monk of sorts during my LDs who was giving me some pointers on how to effectively use consciousness to go back and forward in time (what we’d call a back and forth MWI slide). This was a really strange period, because (according to SD) I would sit bolt upright in the middle of the night, say random shit like “the Monk says the key is that I must smoke the tree sap” then just go back into an incredibly deep sleep like nothing had happened. These sorts of episodes were a regular occurrence. I’d have them probably once a fortnight.
I remember during one LD the Monk emphasized that there were 12 or 13 “words” that could be chanted via mediation to prepare consciousness in this manner. I only ever remembered one of them – “Djock” with a stressed emphasis on the “ck” sound. I was also given certain symbols during these meditations, which were supposedly further aids. Admittedly I have used these aids during meditation and had LDs following them that are suggestive of some form of time travel. Like one where I was given an alternate history of how my father could have met my mother and the resultant future that would have stemmed from it. This involved being in a time chamber where a portal appeared and showed me this outcome like I was watching a movie. Apparently that outcome would have led to a much better life for me. Oh well, shit happens I guess.
There was also something to do with a book existing in 2 instances of time that had been edited to achieve the world line I am currently living out. I basically saw the before and after of the book. I believe this place was linked to other places I have visited in LD. My training at the time travel towers also started around this same time.
Simulations for Memory Recall:
LD can be used for accurate memory recall. When I was about 17, and fresh out of school, I ended up scoring a job working for a local tree lopping company. As it turned out, one of the guys I was working with regularly was the brother of a girl that I went to school with. I knew this girl by association only; I never really hung around her group of friends, but some of my friends were friends with hers. So when I was at school I had a passing knowledge of her. She was at a few of the same parties I went to, but I never so much as said more than hi to her during my whole time at school.
Anyway this brother of hers, he was talking about her in passive tense, and I realised he had the same last name, so there was enough there for me to make that very faint connection. Only problem was, I couldn’t for the life of me remember her first name. I could picture her face easily enough, but her name just completely evaded me. This annoyed the shit out of me, because it had only been a season since I had been at school, so there was no real reason for this memory blank. Yet it persisted all week. I’d see this guy and then think “what the fuck is his sister’s name?”, and I just couldn’t shake that thought all day.
Of course, I didn’t say anything to him; he’d made it seem like I should have known her, so I didn’t bring it up in fear of the awkwardness of the situation. So I figured I try my hand at using LD to remember it. One night, after becoming lucid half way through a dream, I thought of this girl, and how I didn’t remember her name. I simulated one of the parties we would have been at during school, then I let it play out, hoping I’d trick my sub consciousness into giving it away. And it actually did. The weird thing was though, it did so by attaching a completely random name to her face. So in the LD, I introduced myself to her, and likewise she introduced herself back. “Hi I’m Elise”, she said. I immediately woke up and my mind screamed at me “HER FUCKING NAME IS MEGAN, IDIOT”.
Maybe it needed that incorrect bit of data to compute the real value, I honestly don’t know. The funny thing is, now something like 16 years later, I can recall her name as easily as my own, despite not seeing her since high school. So yeah, the void space can definitely be used for suppressed memory recall. What you do is enter it and create a dream simulation centred around the thing you wish to remember, and use what every snippets of information about the scenario you can rember to create the simulation. You can also “feed in” certain thoughts to make certain lifestyle choices as a sort of sub conscious mind hack. It’s pretty much self hypnotism.
Using the Void Space for Healing:
When I had my fingers cut open (the gruesome details of which can be found in my autobio), I again used lucid dreaming to heal them with a decent measure of success. These weren’t your average wounds either. All four fingers on my left hand, discounting my thumb, were cut at or near the joint where they meet the hand, through to the bone. This included 4 four tendons, an artery, and a few nerves here and there on the palm side. In fact, the cuts were so bad, if it hadn’t been for my bones keeping them attached, my fingers would have come off almost completely. The surgeons even contemplated amputating my ring finger because the damage was so extensive (thankfully they didn’t).
This amount of damage was apparently unheard of for my Occupational Therapists. Usually the people they saw had one or two fingers damaged at most. Not 4 fifths of a whole hand. After my operation, I had stitches zig zagging up my fingers all the way to their tips. I counted about 62 of them of the outside, and the surgeons claimed I had another 10 or so holding my tendons together. They said it was like stitching 2 pieces of spaghetti together. The whole thing was classed as a catastrophic injury with a slim chance of me being able to gain much function back in them by the OTs.
Regardless, I had a voice in the back of my head telling me I needed to try lucid dreaming ASAP. So the night after I got home from hospital I set to work entering the void space and doing some healing visualisations. I’d go into my hand at a cellular level and pictures all the tendons and everything fusing back together, send little electrical bursts around them to make sure the information was going through etc.
The next night, I was lying in bed and I could feel everything – and I mean everything – fusing back together. I could actually feel the tendons and nerves repairing themselves. It was a very strange but comforting feeling. I ended up making a remarkable recovery. Six months after the incident, I walked into the OTs office and she told me I had regained about 98% function in my fingers. I was able to straighten them almost completely. Apart from a few tiny things like not being able to bend the last knuckle of my ring finger, I had a perfect functioning hand. My OT (who had the same name as my wife) couldn’t believe it. I just shrugged and told her I knew the secrets to healing. She laughed and said “oh, you do not” thinking I was joking.
Unfortunately, a few months later my hand took a blow that was too much for it and undid all that hard work. At least now I know if I suffer another bad injury how to aid in the healing process. The main thing is that you need to be quick. Don’t put off the LD healing simulation if you can help it. And don’t expect to just be able to do one session and the rest will work itself out. Keep up with whatever strict regime your OT suggests, and use LD to nudge your body in the right direction.
A Theoretical Process of Using Consciousness to Hijack An ET Space Craft
Again, I haven’t tested this out. But let’s quickly run through some past revelations I have dropped in this article and expand upon them a little shall we? My experience with the clickity clackers and hijacking SD’s dreamscape suggests that one can alter their consciousness operating frequency to “tune” into the consciousness frequency of others. My experiences using remote viewing via the Void Space suggests that some form of navigational control can be obtained whilst in this state. Airl (as well as Colonel Philip Corso in his The Day After Roswell book) suggests that the type of craft they utilise are tuned to the frequency of their pilot’s thought signatures. Airl also suggests that somewhere on earth are the consciousnesses of 3000 Domain personnel. I think it is safe to assume that at least some of those Domain operatives were possible space craft pilots, don’t you? So hypothetically, speaking, if one of these Domain pilots was able to enter the void space through the LD state, and “tune” into their ship like I tuned into the clickity clackers, then operate it using Remote Viewing practices…..You get the point. It might be nothing – the thought of a guy with an overly active imagination – but I sure as hell would prefer to experiment down this avenue rather than develop an ever repeating new Iphone model, wouldn’t you? This is the sort of shit astral projectors lucid dreamers should be focusing their attention on, again in my humble opinion.
The process I would use would be: Focus on the space craft in question upon going to sleep as is done for dream hijacking, carry this visualisation over and into Sleep Paralysis/ hypnogogia state and poll for frequency pings, tune into those pings until locked on, then enter the Void Space, create a simulated “dream environment” for the craft and go from there (I am assuming your piloting skills might be a bit rusty after just waking up from a couple of thousand year slumber). You could even use remote viewing via the Void Space to try and target a ship for hijacking prior to the experiment. Just a suggestion. Now, if I was to bump into such a craft when astral projecting, what does this tell you? The astral planes can be utilised as an inter dimensional space craft highway! So, what if instead of focusing on a physical craft, you focus on a non physical one instead? How do you know half of the lights people see in the sky aren’t just someone incredibly well accomplished at astral projection (ie the Project Stargate operatives that went Deep Black) and are piloting one of these very vehicles? “Excuse me sir, we have a problem…..the pilot of the alien space craft we just shot down is the Dalai Lama”. Perhaps I’ll expand on this and break it out into another one of my psionics projects.
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As a student of history, I am amazed at how story after story repeats itself over and over and over. One of the themes that seems to be prevalent is the idea that one can be safe and secure behind high wall, moats, oceans, or huge enormous military forces. It isn’t true. History has shown time and time again, that what you think is your greatest invincibility, is actually your greatest weakness. Who am I referring to? Why the United States. Of course!
It’s an especially dumb day for anti-China propaganda. The Biden administration has imposed trade restrictions on 34 Chinese institutions on the unsubstantiated allegation that they are developing “brain control weaponry“, a claim the mass media have been all too happy to uncritically pass on to the public. Between that and the ridiculous reporting on Russian Havana Syndrome ray guns it’s like they’re literally trying to get everyone to wear tinfoil hats.
Then there’s the Tucker Carlson guest who just told Carlson’s massive audience that the US military needs to be full of “Type A men who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls.” It’s highly disturbing how much the mass media have been talking about war with China like it’s a foregone conclusion lately, almost as though they’re working to normalize that horrifying idea.
There’s also this new article for The Hill, hilariously titled “‘Allies’ China and Russia are ganging up on America”, about how the poor widdle US empire is being bullied by mean old Xi and Putin’s increasingly tight-knit collaboration. It is authored by Gordon Chang, who has been wrongly predicting the imminent collapse of China for decades, and is plainly absurd because the Moscow-Beijing alignment is in reality nothing other than the natural consequence of two nations realizing the need to work together against the globe-spanning power structure that is trying to bully them into submission.
The US military budget has once again increased despite the US ending a war this year, and despite its facing no real threats from any nation to its easily-defended shores. The increase has been largely justified by the need to “counter China” and includes billions in funding for the ongoing construction of long-range missile systems on the first island chain near the Chinese mainland, explicitly for the purpose of threatening China. One need only imagine what would happen if China began constructing a chain of long-range missile systems off a US coastline to understand who the actual aggressor is between these two powers.
-Caitlin Johnstone
The United States
For the last two centuries, America has been considered invincible. It was surround by the enormous “moats” of the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, a formidable military, and a manufacturing capability that was (by far) better than any other nation in the world. It’s people were robust and willing to fight for their nations, and the nations to the North and South were mere client surrogates. They were willing to do whatever the United States said.
Many inside America still believe this. They still believe that this is still the case.
They are WRONG.
Times have changed.
They believe this myth; That the United States can bomb the Dejesus out of any nation it likes, and will suffer zero consequences of it. Whether it is Syria, Iraq, Liberia, Panama, Grenada, Afghanistan, or even now the Ukraine or Taiwan. And no one will fight back at the American homeland. No one will attack back. At worst, maybe an improvised munition on the road or a burst or two from a cheaply made AK-47.
Nothing to worry about!
And I am here to tell you that the NEXT war will be on American soil. It is engineered that way. And it’s going to hurt. Really, really, bad.
Let me tell you a history story.
Did you know that there was once a great nation the size of America that existed after the fall of Rome. And no, I’m not talking about the British Empire. I am talking about the Abbasid Caliphate.
The Mongol conquest of the Abbasid Caliphate culminated in the horrific sack of Baghdad that effectively ended the Islamic Golden Age.
The Abbasid Caliphate is roughly the same size as the United States today.
The Islamic Golden Age—from the 8th to the mid-13th century—was one of the greatest periods of human flourishment in knowledge and progress, with Baghdad as its focal point.
Just like America.
A truly global repository of human knowledge, this Arab-Muslim imperial capital also welcomed—indeed encouraged—scholars from across the known world.
Just like America.
As its wealth and fame grew, more and more scholars and engineers were drawn to the city from all over civilization.
Just like America.
But in January 1258, a vast Mongol army reached the city’s perimeter and demanded that the caliph—al-Musta’sim, the nominal spiritual authority of the Islamic world—surrender.
History of Baghdad: The Greatest City in the World
If you can imagine the shock waves, were Washington DC razed to the ground tomorrow, you’d be getting close to the horror that was about to accompany the Sack of Baghdad in 1258.
Founded 500 years earlier, Baghdad’s population had reached one million within a century, making it the world’s largest, most prosperous, and celebrated city.
If one thinks of London in 1897—the year when Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee—the English city on the Thames was by then the largest and most important city on earth. In 1897, London was peerless in the world, with nowhere else coming close to matching its power and influence. It was the capital, and the fulcrum, of the British Empire.
If you can imagine the shock waves, were London razed to the ground tomorrow, you would be close to the horror that was about to accompany the Sack of Baghdad in 1258.
This is a transcript from the video series Turning Points in Middle Eastern History. Watch it now, Wondrium.
A Devastating Moment in History for Muslims in the Middle East
For many historians, the arrival of the Mongols into the heart of the Muslim faith and empire is the single most devastating moment in the history of the Muslim Middle East.
It’s easy to see why—and hard to argue otherwise—because the Sack of Baghdad would mark the end of the Islamic Golden Age.
Rather than submit, the Abbasid caliph challenged the Mongols to attempt to storm his city, if they dared.
The nomadic army from Asia—led by Hulagu Khan, one of Genghis Khan’s grandsons—did indeed dare.
Doing what they are most famous for, the Mongols thrashed Baghdad.
In 10 days of unremitting violence and destruction, Baghdad and its inhabitants were completely and utterly vanquished.
Almost without exception, the population was either put to the sword or sold into slavery.
The River Tigris ran red—to cite one of the most over-quoted, and overwrought phrases in history—with the blood of slaughtered men, women, and children.
After this, every building of note in Baghdad—including mosques, palaces, and markets—was utterly destroyed, among them the world-famous House of Wisdom.
Hundreds of thousands of priceless manuscripts and books were tossed into the river, clogging the arterial waterway with so many texts, according to eyewitnesses, that soldiers could ride on horseback from one side to the other.
Of course, the river turned from red to black with ink.
Who Were the Mongols?
The Sack of Baghdad fits, like a hinge, almost exactly in the middle of two defining dates in the history of Islam, from the founding of the faith in the year 622 to the end of the last caliphate in 1924.
Even by the standards of the day, the destruction was shocking, and the results long-lasting, if not permanent.
The Mongols’ name during this period in history was a byword for destruction.
Who were they and where did they come from?
Is there any reason to think that they were any more destructive than other peoples at the time?
The Mongols, an ethnic group, originating in north and central Asia, were typically pastoral peoples, whose nomadic lifestyle inevitably brought them into conflict with more settled populations.
Probably the best example of how settled peoples tried to restrict their otherwise free movement is the Great Wall of China. The wall was essentially built to hold back incursions of their Mongolian neighbors to the north.
This preference for nomadism over a settled existence is central to the view of the Mongols as especially destructive.
As one writer put it, while Muslims built cities—Baghdad and Cairo, for example—Mongols destroyed them. Does this mean that the Mongols were inherently more ruthless or violent than Muslims or crusading Christians? Not necessarily. Rather, it shows that their priority, in terms of conquest, was for land, for grazing—for space even—rather than for cities and confinement.
As one writer put it, while Muslims built cities—Baghdad and Cairo, for example—Mongols destroyed them.
One thing that came out of the Mongols’ lack of interest in seizing cities was their enhanced mobility.
Often living on a diet of mare’s milk—or blood, if the mares were not lactating—Mongol custom meant that they never washed their clothes. This, along with a heavy fat diet—both milk and meat—no doubt accounted for the Mongols’ reputation as a very smelly, as well as scary, foe.
The Fierce Mongol Warriors
Contemporary chroniclers tell us that Mongol warriors were most comfortable in the saddle, literally, it seems.
If they had to move more than a hundred yards, or so, they’d jump on a horse and ride. Also, all warriors owned numerous mounts, allowing them to cover larger distances than more traditional cavalry found in the Near East and Europe. While they rode light into battle, the Mongols used harnessed oxen to pull their heavier and more cumbersome possessions from place to place.
An important facet of the Mongol way of war and conquest was their use of terror as a tactic. The banging of metal pots and the rattling of bells was the usual way of announcing the start of a battle. This created such a din that defenders of a city under siege would find it almost impossible to hear their officers’ commands.
Whenever they entered new territory, the Mongols would offer the local rulers an opportunity to surrender. But in the language of many a salesman, this was a one-time offer.
For those foolish enough not to surrender immediately, conquest and destruction without quarter would be their lot, and the people of Baghdad knew this.
Setting the Scene for Catastrophe Before the Sack of Baghdad
In 1206, just 52 years before the Sack of Baghdad, the Mongol Empire was formed and led by the legendary Genghis Khan.
Khan is originally a Mongolian word that means military leader, or sovereign, a king, in English. Being accepted as the Great Khan effectively elevated Genghis to the status of an emperor. His grandsons now ruled the Mongolian Empire.
In addition to Hulagu Khan, who led the attack against Baghdad, there was Kublai Khan, conqueror of China, and Mongke Khan, who became the Great Khan and sent his brother Hulagu to Baghdad.
Hulagu marched at the head of perhaps the largest Mongolian army ever assembled, consisting of as many as 150,000 troops, with Baghdad one of several goals for this mission. First, Hulagu was told to subdue southern Iran, which he did.
Next, he was to destroy the infamous Assassins.
A breakaway Nizari-Ismaili-Shia sect, founded in the 11th century, the Assassins had achieved infamy for the political assassinations—hence, the term we use today—carried out by certain of their number.
Although it was known that the Assassins were based at the castle of Alamut in northwestern Iran, many of their adversaries thought they were somehow invincible because of the stealth they typically employed.
Hulagu Khan proved this was not the case.
After destroying the Assassins and their castle fortress at Alamut, Baghdad was the next stop on his list.
The majority of Hulagu Khan’s men were Mongolian warriors, but the force also contained Christians, including soldiers led by the king of Armenia, Frankish Crusaders from the Principality of Antioch, and Georgians.
The majority of Hulagu Khan’s men were Mongolian warriors, but the force also contained Christians, including soldiers led by the king of Armenia, Frankish Crusaders from the Principality of Antioch, and Georgians. There were also Muslim soldiers from various Turkic and Persian tribes, and 1,000 Chinese engineers—artillery specialists, who were always in demand when the need arose to reduce walls to rubble.
The Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasids—the third Islamic caliphate to rule the Muslim Middle East since the death of Muhammad—had risen to power in 750, after overthrowing their rivals, the Damascus-based Umayyads.
Taking their name from one of Muhammad’s uncles, Abbas, the Abbasids quickly took control of almost all Umayyad lands, and so found themselves ruling over an enormous empire that covered the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, Syria, Iraq, Persia and beyond to modern Afghanistan.
A new Abbasid caliphate deserved a new capital, which they established in Baghdad, in 762, and immediately built it into an imperial city worthy of their greatness.
A new Abbasid caliphate deserved a new capital, which they established in Baghdad, in 762, and immediately built it into an imperial city worthy of their greatness.
Within a couple of generations, Baghdad had attracted some of the world’s greatest scholars.
Alongside Persian scholarship and cultural traditions—and Arab authority—one saw people from other parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Numerous Jews and Christians also pursued studies there.
Baghdad: A City of Learning
Among innumerable libraries and other centers of learning in ancient Baghdad, the greatest of them all was founded by the early Abbasid caliphs.
Called the Bayt al-Hikma—or House of Wisdom—this was the place that the best scholars and professors aspired to reach—not just Muslims from the Islamic world.
Imagine if you will, all of America’s Ivy League Colleges rolled into one; add to those the science and technological power of Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, and Berkley, then add Oxford and Cambridge to the mix, and the world’s great non-English-speaking universities. It comes close to what the House of Wisdom was like—except it was even more influential.
Imagine if you will all of America’s Ivy League Colleges rolled into one; add to those the science and technological power of Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, and Berkley, then add Oxford and Cambridge to the mix, and the world’s great non-English-speaking universities. It comes close to what the House of Wisdom was like—except it was even more influential.
There were two distinct sides to scholarship in Baghdad. One was translation work, with texts from India, Persia, and Greece gathered in huge numbers.
Texts originally composed in Persian, Sanskrit, Greek, Syriac, and Chinese were all eagerly rendered into Arabic.
Combined with this extensive translation work, however, was a wealth of original scholarship, funded and encouraged by the caliphs.
The arts and sciences alike were covered, so that advances were made in almost every imaginable subject, including mathematics, medicine, astronomy, physics, cartography, zoology, and poetry.
A Weak-Willed Caliph in Thirteenth-Century Baghdad
In the year 1242, al-Musta’sim became the 37th caliph in the Abbasid line. Baghdad’s glory days were behind it.
By this stage, the Abbasid caliphs were largely figureheads, propped up by outside forces.
The Abbasid caliphs were largely figureheads, propped up by outside forces.
If they were important at all, it was as the inheritors of Islamic orthodoxy and as beacons of cultural greatness, but not as a political power to be obeyed nor a military force to be feared.
Indeed, the Abbasids already were in the habit of paying an annual tribute to the Mongols. Despite this, the city was still large and prosperous.
A weak-willed, even dissolute character, al-Musta’sim was happier hanging out with musicians and drinking wine than he was ruling…
Alas for Baghdad, the court of history doesn’t rate the caliph as the greatest of his line.
A weak-willed, even dissolute character, al-Musta’sim was happier hanging out with musicians and drinking wine than he was ruling an already weakened empire.
At this stage the leadership had taken to parties and image creation, not any actual ruling roles.
In 1251, the Abbasids sent a delegation to pay homage on the coronation of Hulagu’s brother, Mongke, when he became the Great Khan, but this was no longer considered enough.
Mongols Demand Submission by Abbasid Caliph al-Mustasim
Mongke insisted that the Abbasid Caliph al-Musta’sim come in person to Karakorum, the 13th century capital of the Mongol Empire, in the north of modern Mongolia, to fully submit to Mongol rule.
The Caliph al-Musta’sim refused to do so.
The final showdown between the Mongols and the Abbasids was set.
The final showdown between the Mongols and the Abbasids was set.
With the Mongol horde marching on Baghdad, a clash was inevitable, although this wouldn’t be the first encounter between the Abbasids and the Mongols.
In the recent past, the Abbasids had managed a couple of small-scale military victories against Mongol forces.
China’s first big-deck amphibious assault ship, a huge vessel that was built in a miraculously short amount of time, caught fire on Saturday, April 11th, 2020. Photos and video showing the ship billowing large clouds of black smoke hit Chinese social media earlier in the day. The warship, which is the first of the new Type 075 class, was resting alongside the pier at its birthplace, Hudong–Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Shanghai, when the blaze broke out.
However, these were soon overturned and weren’t part of any trend of a militarily resurgent Abbasid Empire.
July 24, 2020. Navy officials said the fire aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship undergoing maintenance and upgrades at a port in San Diego, was put out last Thursday. Reaching temperatures up to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit (about 650 degrees Celsius), it melted aluminum and incinerated wiring, plastics and combustibles like drywall, bedding and office supplies, while filling the 850-foot (260-meter) vessel with thick smoke. The ship was gutted, and hauled off to the scrap yard.
Their days of martial glory were long gone.
Adding fuel to the fire, al-Musta’sim is said to have slighted Shia Muslims by various acts and decrees.
He should have known better, as his grand vizier, or senior advisor, was himself a Shia Muslim.
This vizier is said to have sided with the Mongols, encouraging their takeover of the city, perhaps imagining that he’d be given control of Baghdad by a grateful Hulagu.
If this is what he thought, he didn’t know anything about Hulagu.
A Difficult Decision for the Caliph to Surrender to the Mongols
The caliph was faced with a choice between surrendering to the Mongol leader and presumably saving his city, or building up his army, and riding out to meet the invading warriors in combat.
It likely never crossed the caliph’s mind that he should probably surrender rather than send threats to Hulagu.
Al-Musta’sim discovered a third option: Doing nothing.
Baghdad was surrounded, and al-Musta’sim realized too late that the Mongol army was far larger and stronger than he’d been told.
The rest of the Muslim world wasn’t about to rush to his rescue either.
President Joe Biden on Thursday opened the first White House Summit for Democracy by sounding an alarm about a global slide for democratic institutions and called for world leaders to “lock arms” and demonstrate democracies can deliver. Biden called it a critical moment for fellow leaders to redouble their efforts to bolster democracies. In making the case for action, he noted his own battle to win passage of voting rights legislation at home and alluded to challenges to America’s democratic institutions and traditions. “This is an urgent matter,” Biden said in remarks to open the two-day virtual summit. “The data we’re seeing is largely pointing in the wrong direction.”
The siege of Baghdad began on January 29, 1258.
The Mongols quickly built a palisade and ditch and brought siege engines, such as covered battering rams that protected their men from the defenders’ arrows and other missiles, and catapults to attack the city’s walls.
At this stage, al-Musta’sim made a last-ditch attempt to negotiate with Hulagu and was rebuffed.
Al-Musta’sim surrendered Baghdad to Hulagu five days later, on February 10.
Adding to the distress of those inside the city, Hulagu and his horde didn’t make any attempt to enter the city for three days.
The stress must have been awful.
A Glimmer of Compassion for Baghdad Christians
Late in life, Hulagu became a Buddhist.
At this moment, however, the only sign of compassion he showed was towards Baghdad’s Nestorian Christian community.
Nestorianism was a form of Christianity that church authorities had declared heretical in the 5th century.
It stressed that the divine and human aspects of Jesus’s nature were separate.
Many Nestorians had moved to Persia, where they’d lived ever since.
Hulagu, upon entering Baghdad, told the Nestorians to lock themselves in their church and ordered his men not to touch them.
What was the reason for this act of kindness before the bloodbath that was to follow?
Simply that Hulagu’s mother and his favorite wife were both Nestorian Christians.
Mongols Execute Baghdad Notables
About 3,000 of Baghdad’s notables—including officials, members of the Abbasid family, and the caliph himself—pleaded for clemency. But all 3,000 were put to death without compunction…
With the Nestorians secure, Hulagu allowed his army an unfettered week of rape, pillage, and murder to celebrate their victory.
About 3,000 of Baghdad’s notables—including officials, members of the Abbasid family, and the caliph himself—pleaded for clemency.
But all 3,000 were put to death without compunction; all, that is, except for the caliph. He was held prisoner for a little while longer, perhaps in part so that he could see the full extent of what befell his capital.
Estimates of the death toll range from 90,000 at the lowest end to one million at the other. Apart from being a conveniently round number, the population of Baghdad was around a million, and the historical record tells us not everyone was killed.
Whatever the actual number, it included the army that had dared resist Hulagu’s advance, and the civilians, who had no choice either way.
Men, women, and children down to babes in arms were put to the sword or clubbed to death. Little mercy was shown unless it was of a quick rather than a lingering death.
Death of a Caliph
The Caliph al-Musta’sim was forced to watch these murders and the plundering of his treasury and palaces. Hulagu taunted him that, with so much gold and so many jewels, he’d have been better off spending some of these riches on building up a bigger army.
As for how the caliph met his end, one account says he was locked in his treasury, surrounded by his wealth, and left alone to starve to death. As colorful as this account is, it doesn’t sound likely, given the widespread looting that took place, nor is it corroborated by any sources.
A more plausible account, as reported by several chroniclers, goes like this: Hulagu had been warned by his astronomers that royal blood shouldn’t be spilled onto the earth. If it were, the earth would reject it, and earthquakes and natural destruction would follow.
If we consider his record, one might not think Hulagu an especially cautious man. However, in this case, he plotted the safer course.
The caliph was rolled in carpets, which would catch any blood spilled, and then he was trampled to death by his own cavalry. Obviously upset at the foolishness and idiocy of their own leadership.
For the first time since the death of Muhammad, 636 years earlier, Islam had no Caliph whose name could be quoted in Friday prayers.
Destruction of the City of Baghdad
If you’re looking for an example of a city razed to the ground, Baghdad in 1258 would be a good choice.
Apart from the human casualties, there was the destruction of the 500-year old city itself. Fires were set so that the fragrant scent of sandalwood and other aromatics was smelled up to 30 miles away. If you’re looking for an example of a city razed to the ground, Baghdad in 1258 would be a good choice. After a week, Hulagu ordered his camp out of the city, and moved upwind, away from the stench of rotting corpses.
Hulagu left Baghdad a broken and depopulated city.
Even if those left alive had wanted to rebuild, they lacked the numbers, the resources, and the skills to do so. The death and destruction were such that it would be more than a decade before anyone from Baghdad performed the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
In attacking Baghdad, Hulagu also destroyed the network of canals that irrigated the arable land thereabouts. Famine and plague followed the Mongol horde to Baghdad as elsewhere. Their scorched-earth tactics make it easy to see why they’re often tagged with a reputation as the most destructive of all the great empires.
The United States will be sacked and burned to the ground because the American leadership refuses to coexist on equal terms with the rest of the world.
The United States will be broken up into smaller "nations" and each one will possess a new form of governance. No thread of the failed American "democracy" will endure.
Conclusion
Today, the United States is no longer geographically isolated and protected. The huge distances between their “targeted enemies” no longer makes an difference. No longer can leadership in Washington DC order attacks against Asia and believe in absolute confidence that their offices, their homes, and their daily routines will continue as always.
No longer an the United States have staff sitting inside military bases in safety while they direct remote drone strikes by robot. In the future, they will be pulverized into oblivion.
Chinese hyper-velocity missile.
What we are witnessing today is the same exact ignorance and ego of the leadership of the United States what we saw with the Abbasid Caliphate, and I argue that it’s destruction will be just as harsh, and just as long lasting.
While I urge pleas to everyone to stop this madness, and to step out of the “echo chambers” that they inhabit. No one is doing so. Such as this old dinosaur in Washington DC that wants to destroy China because it is using “mind control weapons” to control the American people!
China must be destroyed at all costs to preserve American supremacy!
Pretty fucking piss-poor “mind control” weapons if you ask me. Most of America can’t wait to bomb China into dust.
And you all know, the fear-mongering that is raising the fears of Americans isn’t doing much else. China and Russia are plowing ahead. Just like the Mongols did. They know that they are in a position of superiority. And whether it happens today, or in five years, thefuture of America depends on it’s leadership.
How do you think they are going to handle this historical moment?
The DF-17 has amazed American military analysis. From being completely unknown, to full massive production and operational deployment of DF-17 hyper-velocity nuclear missiles.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The following is the fourteenth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 14 – Domain HQ and Amnesia Mechanism Remote Viewing Session 17th Dec 2021
I have been doing some remote viewing every now and then when I get some spare time.
Today was one of the rarer opportunities I got to give it a go.
The last time I tried was several weeks ago. In that particular session I was trying to find the Domain base of operations stationed in the asteroid belt that Airl mentioned in Alien Interview.
I ended viewing a chunk of rock – an asteroid – with a very specific shape.
When I went to zoom into it I saw the silhouette of two Grey faces appeared as a sort of yellowish hue in front of the rock, and wave.
The hand that waved was very different to ours with four extremely long fingers.
A few days later I stumbled across MMs article regarding the greys he has worked with and the handprint of one of them.
That particular hand print exactly matched the hand that waved to me.
I also viewed some sort of room on what appeared to be a ship.
There was a flight of about 6 or 7 triangular shaped stairs that led to a platform with some sort of machinery on it.
Emanating from the tops of these stairs was a soft blue light.
I got the impression it was some sort of “engine” room or something.
Today’s Session:
I deliberately set about targeting physical locations that had something to do with the amnesia mechanisms.
The thought was inspired by an in5D article I read a few days ago that stated that the force screens can be turned off if someone was able to locate their physical “switch” and just flick it off .
I was immediately taken to a building, possibly in a section of America’s tech zone (Silicone Valley etc).
This building wasn’t anything huge; just a few stories high with the usual glass windows, very square – typical 80s architecture.
In front of the door was a logo; an upturned crescent moon with the name Andrew S. Lipia.
I have no doubt about Andrew and Lipia, the S standed for something like Sipil or Sibil.
It faded as I stopped to have SD write it down.
There was also possibly Dr before it, suggesting the building was made out to be psychologist practice.
The strange thing was, as this building came across my vision, I felt something – a hand – clap me on the back as if to say “well done”.
It was such a hard clap, that it actually jolted me as if I was right there in front of the building and got pushed forward from it.
Something told me this building had “secret” underground access to what I was looking for.
After this I tried locating the same asteroid I viewed in last weeks session.
I managed to get hone into a disc shaped building on the underside of the rock.
This disc had a square shaped cavity inside of it that “attached” to a similar shaped hole that had been bored into the asteroid to make efficient exit and entry to the disc.
The disc itself was a conventional saucer shape with a sharp “seam” where the top and bottom halves met similar to a clam shell.
After this I decided to try viewing the moon.
I Had been spotting it through my telescope the past few nights and had a few craters I wished to check out.
So, using the birds eye viewing landscape I had seen through my scope I was able to visualise going onto the moons surface and viewing it from there.
My attention turned towards the sky.
There was some kind of round object that was moving towards me at a rather fast speed.
It would have been about half the size of what we see the moon as when looking at it from earth.
Whatever it was had a trail of lightning blue streaks coming off from behind it; this is what had caught my attention.
The round shape of this thing was set as a shadow the blocked out the centre part of this blue light.
I then tried viewing this object. I managed to get up close and view it from behind where the blue light trail was emanating from a distance of maybe a kilometre.
The object seemed to be another asteroid that was being propelled forward by a hexagonal array of thrusters.
These thrusters were what was causing the blue light.
MM Comments
Well done. For certain.
There’s a lot here. But there are connections that seem to point at certain directions.
I did ask the Domain Commander about this.
SAT 18DEC21 9:48am
His response…
*null*
We do not discuss operational activities publicly.
*end*
And that, is that.
We can individually report what we ourselves can experience, however in regards to The Domain and their thoughts and comments regarding missions or activities, it is off-limits.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This is part 2 of my orgy of James Bond movies. This time it’s with a classic movie titled “Goldfinger”.
Usually during Christmas I spend extra time to make the holiday a little bit special. One way that I do this is with rituals, and pomp. That means a Christmas tree, some decorations and music. I also like to wear a special Santa hat. Another way is with food. KFC, and hot ham and tomatoes on fresh bread. Mustard with sausages, and lots of cold cuts. And a third way is with movies. Not just Christmas movies, but some older movies just for the fun of it. Today, we will chat a little about a nice fine James Bond movie “Goldfinger” (1964).
So you sit down with your favorite beverage. You gather your friends, family and pets. Or if it is late at night, you gather a bowl of potato chips alone, and sit down to enjoy this movie.
Today I would like to promote the idea of enjoying some delicious chocolate moose, on a nice tray, while you enjoy the movie.
A delicious chocolate moose.
Doesn’t that look tasty…?
And here is our hero;
James Bond fighting the powers of evil during the Cold War. He does look good in suits, and I really do like how he is able to keep his hair all nice and tidy when he gets involved in a tussle.
James Bond in Goldfinger
This movie differs from Dr No in that it is more action / adventure. There is more fighting. More science. More gadgets. and really only one girl that James Bond cavorts with.
Just one. Or maybe two.
Perhaps three.
But that’s it.
Tops.
It’s treated as a top 007 Bond movie because of that, but you know, I think that it fails in that regard as much as it is praised.
Certainly the laser beam that going to cut bond in two is enticing for the six year old boy inside of me, and the idea of scientific geniuses taking over the world has merit, but really, where’s the interesting chit-chat and the fine bed-side manner?
It’s all cavort and plunder. Cavort and plunder.
Hum…
James Bond in Goldfinger
She’s a feisty vixen. Eh?
I’ll bet you that she (removes the snarl and fierce expression) would be a blast to go out with. Maybe go for some nice dessert. And in my mind, a nice dessert is a strawberry shortcake. No question about it at all. hands down.
I know. I know. I know.
Strawberry shortcake is for Springtime dates, and Summer outings. Oh don’t fall for that disinformation. It’s just perfect anytime of the year. Look at just how Christmassy festive it is.
A nice strawberry shortcake.
So imagine that you are out with this chick (girl). Her name is Pussy Galore…
Which in American slang means “always open for copus quantities of indiscriminate sex”. Which is kind of an “inside joke” if you are an American.
And then after a fine delicious strawberry shortcake, a nice walk down the boardwalk (well, I am imagining a seaside stroll after all). Then a stroll to the hotel, or bungalow.
Maybe a passionate embrace and wet sexy kiss once the door is closed.
I wonder what is going to happen in their relationship? Well, knowing what I know about James Bond movies I can extrapolate. Let’s see how accurate I am…
Adventures in bed.
Oh my!
By their expressions it does seem like they are having some fun. I’ll bet that about twenty to forty minutes later, Bond is smoking a cigarette, and she’s just purring while looking at herself in the mirror, and primping a bit.
And I am not complaining. I think that women look their best while they are getting pretty. Not afterwards. Life is a journey. Not a destination. Which is why I wrote my article on why it is critically important for a woman to have her own very special vanity, with a HUGE circular mirror. HERE.
But you know, being a secret agent is difficult business…
James Bond in Goldfinger
You never know when a car passes you by and shreds up your tires! Yikes.
I’m not sure, but I believe that this movie was the one that set the trend for automobile gadgets in the James Bond vehicles. When I was younger I had a Corgi version of the James Bond car. It had a escape passenger seat, a rear shield that would cover the rear window, machine guns in the front, shredding do-hickeys in the wheels, and a jet engine exhaust in the trunk. It was pretty cool, I’ll tell you what.
Toy James Bond Car.
Here we see Jame Bond in a well appointed private jet, and a very attractive Chinese stewardess. You know, I could never figure out why the costume would expose her cute belly, but not show her bellybutton. That belly button is the most erotic part of a woman’s belly, don’t you know.
But that’s life.
Hollywood has distinct rules on what can and cannot be shown on the “big movie screen”. And belly buttons are absolutely verboten! (Sounds of marching, goose-stepping Nazi Germans in the background. No. I’m not insulting Germans. I’m just playing with mental images of World War II movies.)
I see all the classics are on the shelves, as well as a quaintly dated telephone on the desk.
That “wood trim” is obviously cheep vinyl wall-paper. Sheech! You would think that evil scientists would appreciate the natural hues and textures of real wood in their private jet aircraft.
Vinyl is just…
…tacky.
Well, it is.
It’s sort of like giving a starving dog a rubber bone. It looks like the real things, but it isn’t and once you taste the bitterness of vacuum, the nightmare memories of what you thought you were getting ring like a hollow bell in a deep dark cavern.
Anyways, James Bond is a man of many talents.
Here’s James Bond tackling with some kind of a bomb. I’ll bet you that there a count-down going on and that he only has seconds left before every thing goes kablooey! How nice that the bomb has these red and yellow indicator lights and wires that you can rip out to render the bomb inert.
James Bond in Goldfinger
And here we have the “bad guys” trying to use a laser to break into Fort Knox to get all the gold there. Good luck with that! That place has been looted and sitting empty for decades.
Is it me, or does that laser look like a giant syringe?
The uniforms are curious. They are wearing battleship greys, and Chinese 19th century Boxer slipper. Though, I have yet to figure out what the black and yellow thing-a-min-jib around their waists are. Maybe it’s some kind of henchmen life preserver. Eh?
Why does the door to the vault look like a suburban garage door?
James Bond in Goldfinger
This movie has lots and lots of twists and turns. We’ve got James Bond fighting with landing a plane, laser beams, lots and lots of gold, henchmen, pretty girls with some fine charms and incredibly strong vixen capabilities.
The movie starts off with a bomb.
Seriously. There a bomb that has to be dealt with. And you know, it’s a job that only James Bond can handle.
James Bond bomb.
That’s where things start to get interesting.
After a quick tussle, some fighting and the bathtub electrocution, we are introduced to the always calm and confident James Bond. I do love him in the white tux, and I have to admit that the red carnation is a nice touch. Don’t you all think so?
You will note that a white tux is formal, while a deep blue tux is for semi-formal events. Nice lapels, but I think a shawl collar would have been a slightly better touch. Look at those nice shoulders. A nice cut suit for certain.
Too bad he’s in what appears to be a garbage-variety boat garage. I can just smell the rotting fish, the stale dried sea moss, and hear the waves lap up against the bollards.
James Bond in top style.
So many cool things in the movie don’t you know.
There’s all sorts of cool adventures. All done and carried out in a span under five minutes. Bombs, killings, good guys, bad guys. Nice fancy and swanky venues.
Even a few cats.
Somehow Bond finds his way into a room with an attractive nude woman taking a bubble bath in the tub. Of course, this is the 1960’s and since he is wearing a tux, and he is (after all) James Bond, he seduces her which his devilish good looks…
…and well, you can guess the rest.
James Bond getting some “nooky”
After the credits finish rolling, we find James Bond by the pool.
Certainly the fashions have changed, but a beautiful girl is a beautiful girl, and I for one would not throw her into the pool. I’ll tell you what.
I do like her cleavage. I wonder whats down there. Maybe some money, a set of keys, or a venomous poison spider to attack 007 with. Being a secret agent is a risky business, don’t you know.
Nice cleavage.
Boy!
James bond is hairy. Don’t you think?
Ah. But the ladies don’t mind. They think it is sexy.
Of course, my chest hair is all white, and sometimes my wife absentmindedly plucks a chest hair away. Ouch! Come on girls. It’s sensitive!
Oh, and by the way, I do like how all the maids fall into the arms of James Bond. He’s quite the “Ladies Man” don’t you know.
Look at his legs. So very hairy as well. No wonder he is rarely shown rearing shorts.
Ladies man.
He really is, however, quite the ladies man.
Here’s James Bond “copping a feel” with the fine girl that massaged the oil on his back. I note that the evil villain NPC smiles in approval.
Copping a feel.
There’s many half-clad girls in James Bond movies.
Here’s a chick that will feature predominately later on. Shes busy on the VHF, or is it a UHF, or maybe just a CB radio. She’s got a fine backside. Nice and oiled up and toasty from the hot sun. She’s really just eye candy for the audience, though, don’t you know.
She’s a lure to take James Bond on an adventure.
Nice backside.
Of course, we know that shes a spy.
Gasp!
And James Bond is going to use her… well, he thinks anyways. Here she is spying away. And James is very interested in her technique. And she, obviously, is very interested in his manly chin.
Spycraft. Always a tense moment.
The movie has all sorts of interesting adventures and situations.
And some of the most interesting occur in, on, and beside, the beds. But you know, for some reason there’s always telephones near and on the beds. I mean… really. You want to rest on a bed, or you want to have sex on a bed. But the telephone is just a distraction. You really don’t want to be interrupted when you are in a dream, or having sex. I mean, that’s just not fun. How can you concentrate?
Right?
Nothing quite breaks up the mood as a ringing telephone when you are in the middle of something interesting.
Telephones and beds so not match.
Oh, and by the way, she’s a pretend blonde. You can tell by her eyebrows. She’s intentionally dyed her hair a harlot platinum blonde. Not that it’s bad, mind you. I happen to enjoy harlots. It’s a personal favorite activity of mine, don’t you know. But I do like women to be themselves.
I am so turned on by a woman wearing pajamas, in the house, or a tee shit and jeans outside rather than get all dressed up. Of course, I do enjoy when a woman gets dressed up, but on the sexiness scale, a “real” woman being herself just oozes sex. It’s like when they cook food. OMG.
There is few things sexier than a woman cooking.
Well, aside from coming out of the shower.
Anyways…
Anyways, having sex with James bond can be dangerous. As is shown in this scene here…
…Yikes!
Yikes!
For you all who are unawares, this chick didn’t get a chance to read the “Time magazine” on the table, nor flick though those stacks of phone books. Poor girl. She has missed on on so much.
Well…
Life goes on.
Here he is flirting with his bosses secretary…
Flirting for fun and advantage.
Ah, there’s a lot of things happening…
And I don’t want to give away the plot.
But, I can give you a hint of things to come. There’s guns, sex, difficult situations, lasers, plans, evil, and airplanes.
Oh my goodness!
A lot of things happen from here to there.
There’s a guy , Asian no doubt, that has this decapitating hat, and he’s a sight to behold. The evil genus is a pug-like portly fellow.
However, things aren’t always tea and crumpets. Sometimes you can get hit on the head and wake up on a slab with a evil laser ready to cut you into two.
Not that I ever had THAT particular experience, don’t you know.
Things aren’t always tea and crumpets.
And on and on.
Oh! By the way. Do you all put up stockings for Christmas? We do. And we fill it with these little Japanese (actually Chinese, sold under a Japanese brand name) little figurines, and some healthy candy.
You do not have to spend a lot of money on Christmas. All you need to do is make it special for the ones you love.
And that, of course means left over turkey sandwiches…
Left over hot turkey sandwich.
This one looks like it uses English muffins, or grilled crumpets, potato bread with coleslaw, cranberries, stuffing, and turkey to make the delicious dish. I would add hot turkey gravy, myself.
Or, turkey soup..
A nice bowl of hot turkey soup.
And what is soup without some nice crusty bread and butter / cheese. Eh?
Here we see Bond and his latest newly acquired vixen friend trying to land a dangerously out of control airplane.
James Bond in Goldfinger
Of course, everyone is concerned.
You can tell that they are by looking at their expressions in the airport control tower. It’s all a matter of high international importance!
James Bond in Goldfinger
But you know all ends well.
James Bond lands safely using a parachute, and he and his vixen friend decide to celebrate! You know, in ways that are relaxing, strenuous, and enjoyable.
Twenty minutes later, Bond is smoking a cigarette, and the Vixen (whose name is Pussy Galore – wonder if she lives up to the name) is adjusting her hair so the next great adventure.
A happy ending
James Bond in Goldfinger
Now wasn’t that nice?
If I were to host a movie party…
Obviously I don’t. My idea of a movie is a rare thing that I do as a special family time. But in the past I would host a movie “party”. But I used to do it. And if I were to do it again, I would project the movie big on the wall. (I used to do this, but the projector remains stolen. Sigh.)
And I would play some vintage “Let’s go to the movie” cartoons, and about three or four vintage movie trailers. To get the entire scene going. Not to mention popping some popcorn for the proper smells of a movie theater.
If you are going to do something, why not go all out and make it special? Hum?
Usually during Christmas I spend extra time to make the holiday a little bit special. One way that I do this is with rituals, and pomp. That means a Christmas tree, some decorations and music. I also like to wear a special Santa hat. Another way is with food. KFC, and hot ham and tomatoes on fresh bread. Mustard with sausages, and lots of cold cuts. And a third way is with movies. Not just Christmas movies, but some older movies just for the fun of it. Today, we will chat a little about a nice fine James Bond movie “Dr No” (1963).
It’s a classic, and I love it. Guys wearing tuxes, nice suit jackets, cavorting with pretty ladies who are wearing gowns, bikinis, or just a simple towel. And the gambling, alcohol and the cigarettes. Not to mention the occasional fist fight and small arms fire. Classic. It speaks to the man in me.
No CGI here. It’s mostly dialog and chatting.
I can really relate to this scene. Can’t you?
Why do women look so tasty when their hair is disheveled? And my oh my, why aren’t men wearing blazers any more. Look at now nice it fit him.
Simple blazer. Simple black tie. Simple blue-white shirt. All alone in a tropical bungalow. You can almost smell the tropical lushness, hear the ocean waves, and listen to the tropical birds out the window.
Oh, and my she does have nice shoulders. Doesn’t she?
Nice tux. With a nice thin bow tie. He looks good, don’t you think?
When a man wears a tux, all eyes should be on the lady that accompanies him. In this case she is wearing an eye-popping red dress with one shoulder exposed. It’s her best shoulder, I believe. Nice lips. Look at her lips. And by the way, those earrings are nice match for the dress. Lips, fingernails, dress all nicely coordinated.
She’s carrying a gold purse and lots and lots of gambling chips. My goodness!
Here’s a great shot showing all the cool gadgets 007 has. In this scene he is off picnicking and cavorting with a beautiful gal in a nice pattern bikini, while talking on a telephone in his car! Imagine that! A phone in the convertible. WOW!
Love those James Bond gadgets.
The phone plays a big role in this particular James Bond flick. You have phones in cars. Phones in hotel rooms. Phones in the rooms of the beautiful girls. Phones with the bad guys. Phones with the evil doctor. Phones in the 007 office and phones on the bed.
Nothing like making a quick call while you are discussing important matters in bed with the girl you just met.
Pack of cigarettes, and a notepad by the bed. Oh, how charming!
I once read that by wearing a tux, the perceived attractiveness of a man increase three points. (On a scale of zero to ten.) There’s something about a well made, well fitting, tux, with the clean lines and appearance that speaks to me. Too bad I never have any opportunities to wear my tuxes any more. The last time I wore it was at my father funeral.
I think that a tux is better reserved for seduction, personal enjoyments and pleasures. Who doesn’t want to look their best? And besides, any (American) policeman would think twice before pulling over or arresting anyone in a tux.
Doesn’t he look good?
The room decor seems a bit dated. For a while in the 1960’s everyone seemed to have paintings / pictures of clowns, cats with big eyes, and old fashioned cars. Don’t ask me why. It was a “thing” back then.
Like this…
Big eyed kids.
Yeah. I guess that you would need to have lived through that area to appreciate it.
I do love this next picture. He thinks he’s in control, but it’s really the woman who is controlling the entire scene.
This interplay is just great.
Hey! Do you all know what goes great with a nice James Bond classic movie? Aside from beer or wine?
That’s right.
Cheese, crackers, bread and cold cuts. My father used to make up a platter of these kinds of cheeses, sardines, olives, pickles, and crackers when he would watch a movie. It sort of looked a little bit like this…
Cold cut spread.
I suppose everyone is different. I hear that the preferred snack food in the States these days are Doritos, or Lays potato chips. I can understand why, but you all know that you need to have a decent dip with them to fully appreciate and savor the enjoyment of the food.
Now, when I was growing up, one thing that my father liked to do was eat Limburger cheese sandwiches with a big thick slice of tomato. Yeah, I guess it’s sort of a generational thing don’t you know. He also liked liverwurst. I ended up getting a taste for it myself, but only on sandwiches.
Liverwurst sandwich.
Anyways, Christmas is a time of many things. For me I really enjoy the movies, the food, the friends and the general atmosphere. It’s a chance to eat well, and to eat things that you enjoy. You know, most of the time people don’t give pickles a second thought, but at Christmas time, well that’s when all the dill pickles, the baby gherkins, and the Grandma’s butter chip pickles come out. Yum!
This next picture show some lousy bread, but some pickles and good selection of cheese. Personally I think that the ingredients are enough for one or two sandwiches max. Kinda skimpy if you ask me. But it looks good. Oh, yeah. Don’t forget the horseradish, the wasabi, the kielbasa, and the various kinds of relishes that can be bought and found everywhere.
Sometimes you don’t always have the right ingredients on hand, so you make do.
i think that it’s really a great thing to do, don’t you know, to sit down with a glass of wine. Some fine cheeses, and watch an older movie. I really enjoy the older movies. they are not so adrenaline-rush run-run-run action packed CGI affairs. It’s full of personal interactions, gestures, and movements. It’s more intellectually stimulating.
And more so with wine, cheese, and olives.
Did I ever mention that olives go great with wine? I really think so. A fine green or black olive dip is just wonderful. You heat up some olive oil with some thin cut up olives and mushrooms. A little Italian spices, and then spread the olives and mushrooms on the french bread. Oh so tasty.
The you sit down and watch the interesting interplay on the movie.
I do love that phone. It was state of the art back then. See the nice rattan chairs on the balcony on the porch, and the Chinese themed dangling red ornamental lantern. Curious eh? I most especially love the shadow of the phone cord on her soft chest. Sexy but not overt.
Of course, I am an old man, and this lass was my mothers age. So I’m looking back in time. When this movie was made, we had Robert Kennedy in office, and he was talking about getting out of Vietnam and shutting down the military-industrial complex. As it was getting too powerful.
Well, we do know what happened to him, don’t we?
Here’s some lox and bagels. You see the salmon to the left, and a fine cream cheese spread. You put the cream cheese on the bagel. Then lox, then lemon, then tomatoes and onions. Don’t forget the olives. (I note some sliced hard boiled eggs. What an interesting turn of events!) The wine is not shown, but no matter. Maybe a fine glass of orange juice is near by.
A good movie serves as a perfect excuse to eat.
And speaking about Christmas, James Bond, food and movies… I will bet you all that the most festive places to spend Christmas at must be in a pub or a brasserie. I remember one Christmas (When I say Christmas, I actually mean the entire month of December, and into January.) I went to an Irish Pub. Wow! So very festive. Drinking pints. Singing songs. Eating bangers and mash.
Bangers and mash served with a good stout. Yum!
I think that there is something really magical and special about the pub environment. It’s something that never was present in the Untied States. Pretty soon, America will probably ban bars completely. You know follow in the footsteps of NZ in banning everything. You know. “For the children”. Sigh.
I can only imagine what it must be like in Scotland, Ireland or in the UK today. Chilly and damp, but warm inside the pubs. I tell youse guys that you are so fortunate to be where you are. Don’t take what you have for granted. It’s special.
Here’s the interior of a typical British pub. People are hanging out. Talking, chatting. Drinking beer. Not too much in the way of electronic media, eh? Nope. Just companionship, friendship and acceptance. I really love that.
British pub.
I hear that some pubs really get festive and decorate everything up. I have no first hand knowledge about that. What I do know is what I have seen on the internet, and some places do more than just put up a tree. They make it special.
Christmas themed pub.
There are pubs in Hong Kong, and some are very nice. I can imagine that there would be pubs all over the former British territories. I haven’t gone to the pubs in Hong Kong in years, even though I can see Hong Kong from my living room. It’s the Coronavirus thing don’t you know.
British pub in Hong Kong.
Now in Australia, they have these things called a brasserie. They are not found in the USA because one reason or the other. It’s hard to tell why. I happen to like them.
In France, Flanders, and the Francophone world, a brasserie is a type of French restaurant with a relaxed setting, which serves single dishes and other meals. The word brasserie is also French for "brewery" and, by extension, "the brewing business". A brasserie can be expected to have professional service, printed menus, and, traditionally, white linen—unlike a bistro whichmayhave none of these. Typically, a brasserie is open Wednesday to Sunday andservesthe same menu all day. A good example of a brasserie dish is steak frites.
-Wikipedia
The last time that I was in Sydney, Australia it was near Christmas time, and I truly enjoyed the Brasserie’s there. Again, like a pub, it was cheery and festive and warm. It was a very comfortable atmosphere to hang out in and enjoy the time with friends or family.
Sydney Australia, Brasserie.
Anyways, one of the things about Christmas is that you can socialize and spend time at home too relaxing. Good food. Being around those that you care about. Talking. Chatting. Exploring. Listening. Man, I need to do more listening, I’ll tell you what.
And watching good movies that relaxes and stimulates. Like 007 James Bond.
James on the beach being warned by the locals of hidden dangers and adventure.
In Dr. No, James Bond travels to the Caribbean. Being well attired, he meets interesting and colorful people. He embarks on a mission to save the world from evil and their evil influences. All the time enjoying the company of the attractive lasses whom he meets along the way.
Typically, as I would watch this kind of movie, I would set a platter or a plate of food nearby to smunch and nibble with. During Christmas, I’m trying to assign special foods like French breads, chocolate, and peanut-butter. Not to mention the aromas wafting from the kitchen of fresh bead in the bread making machine (fun fact, I helped design bread makers for Sunbeam-Oster) and simmering sauces on the stove with garlic, onions, spices and peppers.
Here’s a lox and bagel platter.
Salmon snack tray.
Or course, my household always has alcohol.
You know, I never drank as much as I do now prior to my “retirement”. After I was retired, I pretty much said “Fuck this”. And stopped worrying about what other people thought. If I wanted to smoke, I smoked. If I wanted to drink, I’d drink. If i wanted to to spend some time in a bedroom with a new friend, I would. You know, the USA has so many restrictions on you, that you have to tear them off and say STOP!
Live life on your terms.
Like James Bond.
Jame Bond talking with his bosses secretary. I do love the tea set on the filing cabinet.
Most men like to imagine ourselves like James Bond. Wearing a tux. Going to interesting places. Eating good food, and drinking. Being the master of our world. Cavorting with pretty women, and making new friends every night.
Alas, most of us is something else. We are actually more like Bruce Willis in “Die Hard”. That movie resonated to me on all sorts of areas and for all sorts of reasons. Of course, one is simply because of my MAJestic role. But another is because I am really just a normal guy; a regular man.
That’s John McClane. (Bruce Willis).
Die Hard
It’s neither good or bad. It’s just that being Bruce Willis in “Die Hard” is far more painful than being James Bond in “Dr No”. It’s something that us men can relate to. It’s about life, and being thrown into situations that aren’t really what you ever intended to happen.
Which is why movies are great. All movies, if they are well done, can become something that you not only enjoy, but something that you can relate to on some level.
The beginning of the super-successful franchise, this remains one of the most satisfying Bond films. Connery, with only a hint of irony, is the suave secret agent, introduced at a gaming table while lighting an expensive fag, enjoying an expense account Caribbean holiday that must have seemed like unparalleled hedonism to British audiences who’d only just got over rationing.
The license to kill gets several endorsements as Bond efficiently and brutally sees off dastardly baddies who are threatening world peace, and – in another fantastical touch – Britain holds the key to the balance of power.
Dr No, a German-Japanese genius with metal hands, is about as credible as Fu Manchu, but Joseph Wiseman mints all the Bond villain clichés, from the gorgeously-designed island lair (courtesy art director Ken Adam) with built-in nuclear power plant (and a then-famously-stolen portrait of the Duke of Wellington hung on the wall) through to purred threats and attempts to convince 007 to sell out and join his evil organization (‘I thought you had some style, Mr Bond, but I see you’re just a stupid policeman’). And, of course, there’s Ursula Andress as prototypical Bond girl Honey Ryder, emerging from the seas in a bikini with a knife strapped to her thigh, with her own reasons for wanting to see Dr No’s scheme for world conquest thwarted.
That twangy guitar theme and the gunsight-iris titles sequence are in place already. Series regulars Bernard Lee (M) and Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny) make their debuts, but Peter Burton plays Q (to be replaced by Desmond Llewellyn) and Jack Lord is CIA agent Felix Leiter (to be replaced by a succession of stooges).
Here’s James Bond deep inside the secret lair…
I do love how the attractive woman gathers near to him. You know, I like her better in this dress than the bikini (with the knife strapped to her thigh). Notice that she has her top button unbuttoned. That’s not how you wear a qupao. But it is erotic.
What do you think of her hair?
In those days all the ladies wore their hair “bee hive” style. I think that she started the trend for flowing lions manes like Raquel Welch in “one million years BC.”
Jame Bond rides the elevator.
You know, as much as I love this movie, you have to admit that the women of the 1960’s were all stunners.
Here’s Raquel Welch. I personally think that she would have made a fine, fine Bond girl. Don’t you?
Raquel Welch
Well, the point here is that Christmas is a time of togetherness. And that means making friends, spending time with the friends and family that you do have, and that you spend the time eating, drinking and talking. Emoting and sharing.
Whether it is in a pub, or at home in a restaurant. It does not matter.
Now, I do have to admit that my little daughter is not so interested in these kinds of “grown up” movies. She is more apt to watch “Peppa Pig”, or some kid-oriented Christmas movie. So you have to take that into account.
Though, she really enjoys “Two Broke Girls”. Who figures?
But she also really likes to sit by me (MM) – her daddy, and taste what I am eating, and be next to me. As a two year old she has a short attention span, so it’s still a trial. But it’s a precious trial. it’s family. It’s togetherness. It’s special.
I believe that a good movie is best shared with friends, family, alcohol and lots of delicious food. Oh, and a cat or two as well.
Oh yes. Did I fail to mention that cats love snack trays as well.
What would your cats do to a snack tray with thin sliced meats, salmon, and sausages? Well, I can tell you that they would jup up, snag a tasty morsel and then scamper away with it. Especially the ham. My goodness!
James Bond eating with Dr. No, and enjoying a fine smoke. Not much on the table though. Fruit and wine.
I love that view of the underwater ocean behind Dr. No. Not only does he have a secret lair built inside a volcano, but it reaches deep down underground and has windows so that the staff can enjoy the ocean view. How thoughtful of him. You see, bad guys aren’t all that terrible!
Here’s another scene. I love the newspaper on the bed, and the rotary dial phone nearby. What’s with her wearing high heels to bed? Are those her house slippers? If so, where the fur lining? Oh, sometimes the 1960’s can be so very confusing to me, don’t you know.
I have always loved the simple white robe on a woman.
You know, eating all the foods while you watch these olde timey movies can put some weight on, and make your belly grow. You don’t want to look nine months pregnant with twins, do you?
The way to control this is to add some nice fruit. Pay the extra money and buy some fruits that you normally don’t buy. Like cherries, or duran, or grapes. Don’t let the cost dissuade you. Let Christmas be the time for “outrageous” purchases.
Notice the generous quantities of cheese and meats.
Of course, with James Bond, you will always have the guns and the violence. But in Dr. No it’s rather tame. Less than 50 people were killed, and the karate chops were all rather quick and simple. No matrix-style events, or Chinese flying warriors walking on tree tops here.
It’s all rather calm and relatable.
Hot gun action!
Nice grey suit. I do like the black tie with the grey suit. It fits him nicely. It’s a nice color combination, and the cut of the suit fits him. It’s well cut, nice thin material, it’s the tropics after all, and his hair is always in place. Must be the Brill-creme hair tonic.
Here’s another view. You know it must be sweltering on the beach, but James Bond is calm and composed. His nice jacket sways in the slight breeze, while the boat captain is sweating in his red tee shirt.
James Bond on the beach.
When you make up a food spread choose your foods carefully.
Don’t go for processed cheese spread. Use real cheese instead. Do not use cheap inexpensive margarine. Use real salted bread instead. Do not use cheap chocolate with fillers. Use real chocolate. Pay the extra money to make the holiday special.
And presentation is everything.
Ok, so you aren’t going to drink wine. You are going to drink coke instead. Well then, crush up the ice and fill a tall glass with crushed ice, then pour the coke into the hyper iced glass. Presentation is everything. Wine uses wine glasses. Whiskey uses thick glass base tumblers, and beer, well… an iced mug is precious.
We should all appreciate cheese.
And when you are enjoying the movie, taking the savory bites, and chatting with friends and loved ones observe. Observe what they are doing, and saying and what is going on in the movie. All sorts of little details will “pop out” at you if you just are mindful…
Evil villain in anti-radiation attire.
And enjoy yourself.
Smile, say only good things. Listen to what others want and GIVE IT TO THEM. No need to argue. SO what? Make their day special. It’s a good feeling. And if someone wants to sing Christmas carols, then sing along. Get the dog a barking, and the cats following with you all as your all parade around the house to “Frosty the Snowman”.
Live life.
Food done right. Live life on your terms.
Live life on your terms.
Live like James Bond.
James Bond.
And be your best.
Smile, be kind, be helpful and do what you can to make the season special for all those around you.
Christmas is not about buying gifts, but you know, if you have gifts to wrap up, go overboard. Like @old-wine has. My goodness!
Making Christmas special .
And if you are not so talented, like MM here, perhaps something simpler like a bunch of aluminum foil wrapped ham and cheese sandwiches that toast comfortably in the oven.
Have a great time with your loved ones.
Show your appreciation, and share a good 007 James Bond movie. You will enjoy it. I promise you.
Ham and cheese sliders.
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my Movie Index here…
I have been asked to “fill in the details” regarding what happened in the space of time from when “Alien Interview” was transcribed, and when I entered MAJestic. It’s a rather simplistic narrative, but I will include it here.
For the record.
1945
World War II ended.
The United States launched two nuclear explosions on Japan. The first was an atomic bomb. The second was a hydrogen bomb.
Hiroshima atomic-bomb
The USA began operation paperclip where research and technology in the ruins of Germany were plundered and shipped to the United States for testing. Most of this equipment went to the South West states for testing and evaluation, as well as many of the Nazi German scientists involved in their development.
The Domain started to investigate the nuclear detonations. That brought their vehicles into the air space around Japan, and South Western United States.
Meanwhile, the testing of the (Operation paperclip) procured German radar systems occurred in New Mexico. Simultaneously these systems uncovered cloaked extraterrestrial vehicles and systems. It caused them to behave erratically and eventually crash.
There was a crash of a Domain vehicle in Roswell New Mexico in 1947. The nurse that interviewed the type-1 grey extraterrestrial transcribed the interrogation.
Majestic 12, also known as MJ-12 was established immediately afterwards.
This organization is the code name of a secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, formed in 1947 by an executive order by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to facilitate recovery and investigation of alien spacecraft. Evidence suggests that all the 12 participants were in Roswell, NM during the interrogation.
The leaked secret government documents surfaced upon the death of the last living member of the initial committee. This occurred in 1984.
1948 through 1953 / 1954
The commander of the downed Domain vehicle stopped moving and “died”.
MAJestic began to use the radar systems to down all extraterrestrial vehicles. This action resulted in downing and capture of numerous extraterrestrial vehicles and species.
At that time, four separate and unique extraterrestrial species were identified. This resulted in a greatly expanded role for MAJestic, and all sort of programs and structures were put in place.
This action continued in earnest, but got the Domain’s attention when yet another Domain vehicle was disabled and crashed.
This forced The Domain to make an appearance to the ranking American leadership. They knew who to contact, when and how as they were “keyed” to these consciousnesses from the interview in 1947. They made an appearance at the individuals bedroom, and startled him completely.
It is not known what was spoken.
What is known is that afterwards, there was a series of formal meetings. The first was established by the Domain. As was the second one.
The third meeting was by mutual arrangement and established the basic relationship between MAJestic and The Domain.
1955
By 1955/6 the agreement between the Domain and MAJestic was in place.
A program and plan was developed jointly by The Domain and MAJestic in which certain “special” individuals would be chosen as “representatives / interfaces / Liaison officers / Ambassadors” between The Domain and MAJestic.
Various programs were set in motion.
My program came into being around 1955 -1957. I was selected by the Domain and agreed to participation in the non-physical realm. Whether this was inside of “Heaven” or outside of it is unknown. My memories were erased as I entered the confusing static field that surrounds the earth physical environment.
I was groomed for my role after that. And was physically born in 1958.
Thoughts and Conclusions
My experiences are suggestive of there being an amnesia field that surround the Prison Complex, especially around the physical earth. However, the idea of me going “into” a tunnel “towards the light” is not something that I recall. Though, this could very well be something that was erased from my memories.
Putting together what I know we can suggest some ideas and concepts worth musing about.
Amnesia Field
There is absolutely a static filled, cloudy, foggy field that surround the earth. I well remember this field and how my memories gradually disappeared as I entered it.
Tunnel of Light
Whether or not there is a “tunnel of light” is unknown to me personally. Everyone talks and discusses the tunnel of light, but to me it just seems to manifest as a “parting of the fog” rather than a clear and direct tunnel. You can peer towards a target, or an objective to head towards, and older consciousness that have gone through many such reincarnations know exactly what to do upon death.
MM Prebirth experience
My knowledge and prior histories suggest a life in and about “Heaven”. To include meeting “elders”, “guardian angels”, and other important beings. I have a distinct memory of a prior reincarnation that I have written about before.
However, my memories of what this life would be is cloudy and sparse.
I know that I had a large meeting of some type, and that this life was all completely mapped out to the point that I was excited to enter into it. If you can believe that! And that I specifically told myself not to forget that this life was going to be an exciting roller coaster adventure. So obviously, I knew what I was getting into, and why as well as what to expect.
Thus, I had to have joined or agreed to work with The Domain long before I was born.
I will tell everyone that while The Domain Commander says that I was Mades Escapleon, I have no memories of that life. What memories that I have acquired through my Past Life Regression hypnosis concerned growth as an assemblage of other life forms contributing to the consciousness that exists today.
This does not in any way suggest a dwarf-like funny little administrator man running a Prison Complex for the “Old Empire”. Nor does it mean that the Domain Commander was lying. It means nothing.
Except…
…that I was not ready for the full scope of my involvement with all which has been going on.
At that time, when I did my Past Life Regression my targets were a search for answers about my relationships with others; my piss-poor luck at working at a stable company, and why I ended up being married to a mentally ill woman. I had no knowledge of anything that would inspire me to ask questions related to MAJestic issues.
At that time I did not recall that I was in MAJestic. Instead, this (past life regression incident) occurred ten years prior to my retirement.
All of which means absolutely nothing.
All that matters is what is going on right now. I can only hope that I am “living up to my end of the bargain”, and making a difference, a positive one, in the world.
What’s Next
Yah. I’m gonna die.
It’s going to happen. We all die.
Usually it comes quickly without warning, though both of my parents realized that their time was drawing near and tried to ready us kids for the shock of their departure. Good thing that. Though it still came as a shock.
When my time comes, my family will grieve. MM followers will wonder about the silence. But it should be obvious.
Death is a natural process.
As I figure it, were I to stay in the United States, in that "lifestyle" I would probably die around 80 years old. Thus giving me some 15 years or so left to keep clunking about on this ball of mud.
.
But I live in China, and my lifestyle is healthier, with far less stress, and better in every way. I figure that I could probably make it to my high 80's maybe even 90. And that gives me another 25 years or so.
.
Of course, world war III, coronavirus, and cigarettes and alcohol might shorten that calculus substantially.
.
I figure that the USA stole 5 years of my life. So I DESERVE 80 years plus the 5 stolen years = 85 years. Minimum.
In any event, let’s hope to have a nice calm peaceful death, and when I die, and when that happens…
… I will summon the Domain Commander and await for retrieval. I will not go through anything or expect anything or follow the defaults. This is my last time on this fucking Prison Shit Hole, and I am NEVER going to return to it. Well, at least, that is what I think, anyways.
How do I know?
Consider the following statement(s)…
..from my past life regression session in the late 1990’s. This was long before I was “woken up” from my MAJestic induced amnesia of my operational segment(s). Thus at that time, I had no idea of my actual life or role. Not until I was “retired ” in the ADC Pine Bluff facility did I recall my role. And in this memory erased role…
I told the hypnotist regression expert that…
This was [1] my absolute last reincarnation on the earth.
My life has been one of [2] wrapping up karma and [3] performing good “works”.
Though at the time, I had no idea what those “good works” were.
That [4] I was moving on to bigger and better things.
That what ever form that I would take on in the future, [5] it would not be human.
And [6] that I was a “trans dimensional” being.
Combined with what I know now, and what I was exposed to then, we can see how puzzle pieces are fitting and falling into place. This expands upon the entire MM adventure saga.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Past Life Regression Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to. To go to the MAIN Index;
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
The following is the thirteenth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 13 – Project Edison
This article is by no means finalized.
On the 29th of November 2017 , whilst under lucidity, I petitioned several unknown inter dimensional entities to establish a means of communication between both the physical world and the world of the dead.
An assembly was held in the astral realm (Sleep Paralysis/ hypnogogia) which consisted of myself, and at least three other entities, one of who was a spirit who had lived in this world before passing on to that one.
The object of this meeting was discuss what could be used as possible interfacing devices between these two worlds that would provide an effective and efficient means of communication.
Several ideas were discussed involving the use of biological material taken from a living host, whose cells could die off and decay possibly providing a link between the worlds if they could be located via the other entities.
Another solution was to find a willing living being whose death was inevitable and prepare them with talismans, so that memory of the talisman could also be taken with them upon their departure of this plane.
During this meeting there were several abrupt interruptions and as such, much of the content was lost to my memory, though I specifically remember telling one of the entities that “if their idea worked, then it would lead to an incineration of the boundaries between realms”.
It was also suggested that different vibrating frequencies be investigated by both parties so that a coinciding frequency can be used to “tap into” each other’s communications.
What I got from this is that these beings seem to be as enthusiastic as I am in making inter dimensional contact possible.
Further discussion has been agreed by all parties involved.
HYPOTHESIS:
It has been suggested that a single frequency could be chosen by which communication exchange from both the physical world and the world of the dead could take place.
The reason a standard frequency must be chosen is due to the fact that the dead entities, are (allegedly) composed of pure frequency, unlike living people whose composition is made from atoms.
The problem with current channelling techniques used to communicate with dead entities is that there is no specific way to measure the frequency by which the medium is tuning into to make this contact.
If a single frequency could be decided by occupants of both worlds as a standard form of communication, then hypothetically that frequency could be tuned into by the living entity using standard radio apparatus whilst at the same time manipulated by the dead entity in such a way that it can be detected via the apparatus.
I suggest future meetings with such enthusiastic non physical entities via lucid dreaming to further discuss how this could be implemented.
MM comment
So many interesting aspects here. I so wish that we all can collaborate together to flush all of this out.
The use of defining frequencies to stop the segmentation of memory partitioning is a hopeful hypothesis, and needs to be “flushed out”. What are all of your thoughts on this?
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Many people want to know about their previous lives. They search for answers and insight into why they are living their current life now, and they believe that their past must contain clues to their present. So they embark on a technique or avenue known as “Past Life Regression”.
This article came into being when I posted a comment on the MM Forum…
I can tell you about my previous life prior to being MM.
I was a rather slow, boorish, lonely man who wore a bowler hat, a thick wool coat and performed maintenance and janitorial work on Coney Island in the 1920's and 1930's. I died in 1933/1934 . I was alone. I lived a single life and I drank and played with dice and did my job. I did not think too much about my social position. There was nothing great about that life.
I had a girlfriend. She died. We were close but never really did anything more than kissing. She was killed when a carriage ran into her. She was my one and only love in that life.
I well remember that funny strange and disgusting face at the gate at the Coney Island entrance. I well remember the big enormous seat cars that were on the Ferris wheel. I also remember the senses and feelings of excitement as the pretty girls in lace and white dresses with their galoshes flapping as they walked charmed about on the boardwalk.
I died while performing maintenance work on a pier, and a rather large wave knocked me off the boat and I fell under the pier. I was banged around a bit and died by impact / drowning.
They recovered my body and buried me quickly. Few people attended the "funeral". I was forgotten and then moved on.
Now you know the rest of the story.
And “Memory Loss” commented…
MM that post of yours really touched me on multiple levels. And that is saying something., because most of your articles really are thought provoking.
Can you please expand somewhat on it. On the fundamental aspects of how, when etc. You made me sense the hope and futility of being a human being. And the importance of being a Rufus. Because nothing else really matters. Because we brutalise ourselves when we are not able to remember. And I thought not being able to remember stuff for a few years was bad lol.
There must be a reason to do this to human and other sentient beings in the prison complexes. Cui Bono?
So here, I am going to discuss a little bit about Past Life Regression and various aspects regarding it.
What is Past Life Regression
Past life regression is a therapeutic technique that uses hypnosis to recover memories of past lives or incarnations.
The technique used during past-life regression involves the subject answering a series of questions while hypnotized. These are used to reveal identity and events of past lives. It is a method similar to that used in recovered memory therapy.
There are those that believe that you can conduct a past life regression session through self-hypnosis, but I disagree with that. The person needs to be walked through the experience and ask intelligent questions to the events as they unfold. You simply cannot do that with self-hypnosis.
Questions and Answers regarding this therapy
Will I remember the regression? Yes, you will remember everything as you undergo the therapy. Most hypnotists use a tape recorder to record the session. Past Life Regression is not like stage hypnosis – you won’t be doing anything you don’t remember. You will be aware throughout and in a deeply relaxed state. You’ll be answering the questions posted by the hypnotist.
Do I need anything special for the session? You will need to ensure that you can be completely undisturbed for the duration of the session (2 to 4 hours typically) and also wear comfortable clothes so you can relax fully.
What will I encounter during the sessions? Generally, most sessions involve visits to multiple past lives. The number and duration of the past lives is up to the person being questioned. Many discover lives that they have shared with people that they have a close bond with in their present life – their soulmate family in a previous life and in a different incarnations. Others are drawn to certain places or countries that they immediately feel comfortable and familiar with. Each life explored is a journey and an adventure. Most clients have ‘Ahha!’ moments for many days afterwards as pieces of their picture begin falling into place.
Will I receive a record of my session? Yes. Some therapists use written notes, while others record the session with a tape recorder.
Am I guaranteed to go back in time? Not everyone is guaranteed to, though it’s fairly rare that someone doesn’t go backward in time. Sometimes when an individual has a firm belief that past lives don’t exist, or try to critique everything that they are seeing from their subconscious, then it can create a block which doesn’t allow their mind to surrender to the experience. You can also go forward in time as well. This is a unique aspect of this process.
Can I choose what past life to remember? No. Your subconscious mind will make that decision for you. You will only remember various past life memories when you are ready to receive that information. I believe we have all had many past lives, but it’s your subconscious mind that will choose which ones to visit during your regression.
Can I be told who I was in a past life? No definitely not. Only you have access to your subconscious.
Will I go to the time I passed away during a regression? Yes, but will only do so with your consent. Most therapists take clients to the time of, and the time immediately after, their passing. They are not harmed or traumatized by this. Instead it opens up a new understanding of self and certain behaviors brought into this lifetime. This tends to also take clients to the time between lives, again only with their consent.
Is the process safe? Yes, you will be safe throughout the process.
The backstory
Here is the “backstory” on how MM ended up knowing about some of his past lives and what they were like.
Conducting a past life regression is not something that you can do yourself. It is a paired effort. You need to be in a state of relaxation, and while in that state, you listed to questions that you yourself ask, and you then answer them yourself.
After the divorce from my first wife, a layoff on Christmas eve, and the death of my beloved cat, I was in emotional shambles. And while reading Dr Newtons books I came up with the idea to see if he had trained anyone to continue his work. And to my great surprise he did. In fact, one lived outside of Boston, and was relatively nearby being only a three hour drive away.
I made an appointment, paid $300 in cash (today it would probably be ten times that amount), and had my Past Life Regression Therapy.
What happened
After some brief chit-chat, and a drink of water, I went into her study / den and got on a “Lazy Boy” recliner chair. She attached a microphone to the collar of my tee shirt. She put a light blanket over me as the body temperature tends to drop during these sessions.
She made sure that it was quiet and that there were no distractions. She closed the blinds, and turned on a single lamp. And played some light relaxing music for me to listen to.
Then we began the calming exercises, much like the self hypnosis techniques that I have discussed elsewhere.
During this entire procedure, she measured how “deep” I was in trance by me telling her to read off a gauge that I visualized in my hand (in my mind).
When the gauge was pretty low (100 was fully awake, and 0 is dead, I guess), it read around 30. And she started the regression.
She regressed me back to my childhood…
First at 22 years old.
Then, at 13 years old.
At 7 years old.
At 4 years old…
Each time, she had me describe in great detail my bedroom at that age during my birthday.
At 2 years old…
Then at birth. I relived my birth.
And then right before I was born.
And then, in that deep trance, she commanded me to go to the point of death of my last life leading up to being born.
*Snap.*
I was on a boat. I could see my ugly black clodhopper boots, and the little dinghy was really moving about pretty crazily. It smelled like a fishy ocean. It was a cool day. Overcast. I felt the wind on my rough hands, and I was doing something on the boardwalk. Scrubbing off barnacles, hammering something, I’m not quite sure, and then…
…splash!
I’m in the greenish brown water and I am getting thrown about wildly. I am banging against the encrusted pier moorings, and hitting the boards. I can see the nails jutting out from the bottom of the walkway about, and then a wave throws me up.
Then down into the green water.
Then up.
Then down.
Then up again and I hit something. Ouch.
Then down again, I’m gasping for air. Up again, and all is black…
I walk through the death sequence and all that.
Apparently I am pretty experienced with all this death and dying stuff, so no one came to get me. I knew exactly what to do and where to go. So I went to a sort of flat space like a terminal of some type and there were all these transport tubes to go here and there, and I picked out a specific one and took it.
I did not enter a tunnel of light. Instead I went though a thick fog and found myself at that flat and level place. Whether I actually went through a light and did not recall it, or whether I bypassed it completely is unknown.
Now before I chat about what happened after that “station”, I would like to talk about this last life. As during this event, the Regressionist intelligently asked me questions about my life and the situation, and I dutifully answered.
About my last incarnation
My name was XXXXX Klingsmith. (I forgot the first name over the last few decades and my audio tape of the session is long gone). I died at 34 years of age.
I wasn’t smart, or that was my impression anyways. Nor was I well educated. I get the impression of a person of very little education, no up bringing, and no family or relatives. I was a thick, lonely, worker of little intelligence, and no ambition.
I was a crude man. I was a hard worker who had a job and didn’t have any ambitions towards anything else. I lived a lonely life.
I once had a girl friend. We were young and in love. But she died in a carriage / bicycle / horse accident (I forgot the details.) She was my love and I had no other interests in any other women afterwards, that I know of. My image of her was of a thin pale girl in light colors with these funny thick heel, black high heels. She had embroidered flowers on her dress. Her hair was blonde or light tan and cut (or made up) short. It was the fashion in those days.
I lived in a flophouse, or singular room. There was a wash basin in my room, and a pan to go to the bathroom in. I think it is called a bed pan, and it was enameled porcelain over steel. It was chunky and you could hurt someone if you hit them over the head with it. One of two small old dusty pictures hung on the wall with the string holding them arching up high above the picture making a triangle shape.But I had pinned up a few other pictures from magazines on the wall. They looked like boxing illustrations, or advertisements / promotions.
I had one window in my room. I had Venetian blinds.
As you walk into the small room, my bed was to the left as was the window. I had a small bed side table. There was no phone, but there was an ashtray on the bedside table with a packet of matches, and a clear plain glass (for water).
Across from the baseboard of the bed was my chest of drawers. It was tall and there was a basin on it to wash my face with and some other things that resembled a big ceramic pitcher.
I hung my heavy wool black coat on a hook. It was getting a bit thread bare and frayed in areas, and it had grease spots on it, dust and some wear and tear. I get the impression that I wore it all the time. I had rough, rough thick workers hands.
I think that I looked a little like the Captain Haddock from Tintin.
Captain Haddock
I drank beer. I get the impression that there was a bar that I would “hang out” at. But I did not visit that place in my session. My impression was that it was a long room where people would stand at the counter, and some small tables on the other side and everyone was a local there.
I played cards.
I “played with dice”, but I really don’t know what that means. I get the impression that I would play with it on the streets and then gamble money with it.
I lived a basic life of reacting, no hope, no dreams, no relationships. And then I died.
Conclusions
This story is a narrative of my Past Life Regression that I had back in the late 1990’s / 2000. During that regression many issues, secrets and events were uncovered in my past lives. Many answers were found as well. All these things that come up during the regression were of a personal nature. However, I will have other posts and articles to cover the various questions that I asked, and the information that I obtained.
I hope that this little narrative helps you all in one way or the other.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Past Life Regression Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to. To go to the MAIN Index;
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
The following is the twelfth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 12 – Miscellaneous Experiences: The Curious case of the Mysterious Chicken Bird
Yeah, yeah I know….I am supposed to be teaching you guys about LD so we can all meet in the non physical planes and kick some Old Empire ass before sitting down to smoke a fat Cuban, or whatever the equivalent is over there. But, I’ve got get this thing off my chest, because, well, it has been weird even for me. Plus it involves my family, so….
A week or so ago I posted on one of the forum threads about a strange little chicken bird that decided to visit my daughter in her room at 2am and scare the living shit out of her and my wife, before seemingly disappearing into “fat” air. And yes, that is a Simpsons reference.
Well, allow me to give you an update, the chicken bird came back, and it has been here before that visit with my daughter…apparently.
I tried talking about this on a site apparently all for paranormal stories and got labelled batshit crazy, an attention seeker yada yada yada. So I figured I’d do an article about it and put it up on here, my safe zone.
Like MM, I’ve got better shit to do than write about my experiences and have douschebags call me crazy.
Like MM, its that incessant voice in the back of my head that tells me it is necessary so people know there most definitely is a connection with lucid dreaming and ETs.
Maybe afterwards I’ll curl up into the fetal position and spoon the computer with MM open whilst eating directly out of a Milo tin with a soup ladle as I try to suppress all the psychological damage those people’s opinions did to me. I haven’t decided yet. That’s sarcasm by the way. But just in case she is reading, fuck you Maria. I can handle being called nuts, I can handle being called a liar, I can handle being called an attention seeker but if you are going to bring my family into it, then, seriously, fuck you. You government approved robotic troll.
The least you can do is read my autobiography before jumping to such conclusions.
For those who don’t know, Milo is a chocolate malt drink we get here in Oz.
As a kid, the common rule is that you fill up a tumbler glass with the chocolatey maltey goodness and pour about an inch worth of milk at the top, then high tail it the fuck out of the kitchen before a parent walks in and catches you in the middle of your diabolical scheme.
The punishment for being caught is usually pretty serious; your mum doesn’t buy Milo next time she gets the groceries.
Don’t even get me started on what happens when you steal dad’s salami that has been sitting in the back of the fridge untouched for 2 weeks.
Anyway back to the weirdness, and I want to back up a bit, because strange things have been happening here since even before this Chicken bird showed up.
For anyone familiar with my story, you may have noted such strange happenings have been following me and my wife, SD, our whole lives. Usually these are seemingly random events dispersed over many months. These last few weeks have been an exception. The year itself has been particularly interesting for me. Scratch that; for us.
You may recall back in Jan I had what appeared to be a doppelganger banging on my door and calling out to my wife and daughter when I was out with my son.
What happened was that my wife went to open the door and let this thing in, then noticed that despite it wearing my exact usual clothing, it was sporting a different haircut to what I went out the door with about 10 minutes prior.
She said “fuck that”, locked the door and then watched it walk behind the curtain and seemingly disappear. We have a dog fence surrounding that side of the house that would have slowed its departure somewhat, but nope, this thing was gone as soon as she pulled the curtain back. This was soon after something had been calling out to my daughter in my voice; my daughter said “dad’s home” and went to go find me before my wife stopped her, thankfully. I suspect this thing, whatever the fuck it was, had a hand – pun intended – in almost getting me killed some 8 years ago.
This caused me to finally pull my finger out of my butt, risk hearing a noise that sounded very much like Maria’s opinion, and write about all the things I experienced in LD before this thing got me killed.
It’s been a rollercoaster ride ever since.
Oh and in case I forgot to mention, our house has weird things happening in it all the time. Like shadow people walking around that you catch out of the corner of your eye, or – like what happened to me last night – random heavy weights weighing more than my 100kg body mass just randomly deciding “jump on me” and wake me up. Waking up after strange LD sessions with helicopters directly over our house.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks before MM’s comms channel opened up with the Domain Commander. My wife had a lucid dream/ astral projection experience she and a bunch of others were working in a lab section of a ship with several tall, extremely muscly blue eye blonde beings who were making some kind of medicine to cure some sort of sickness. Don’t be fooled though, these guys weren’t Nordics – they had short hair. The next day she caught a glimpse of their ship hovering high above our house.
A week later she caught yet another glimpse of something parked in our driveway before a bunch of honeycombed shaped mirrors appeared around it and cloaked it into oblivion. Unlike the shadow people, she assured me this was a proper physical sighting and not just one born from channeling into the non physical.
She saw this thing in our goddamned fucking driveway.
So I decided to set up a hunting camera facing not 2m away from where she said it was. Not that I caught much apart from some random digital noise.
Then, a few days later came Mr chicken bird.
Our 2 year old son was incredibly sick with diarrhoea and power spewing all night. Our 4 year old daughter had been worried about him so we let her sleep in our room. We put her in his cot and had him in our bed, where he usually sleeps anyway.
Our 2 year old woke everyone up at 2am screaming from his sickness.
My daughter, after being woken up started getting silly and wouldn’t go back to sleep, so I took her into her own room and gave her some cuddles while my wife nursed our son. I couldn’t stay too long because our boy was just too sick, so after a couple minutes I went back to our room, whilst my daughter was still wide awake.
Not 2 minutes later, we hear her saying “get out of here you naughty little thing”. She says something similar to our eldest boy when he harasses her when they play, so we thought he had woken up and gone in her room and was annoying her.
My wife gave our sick son to me and went to investigate.
Our daughter’s room is right next to ours to the right as you come out our door. As soon as she reached the door to my daughter’s room, I heard her say “what the fuck”. The next thing I know she is pulling my daughter into our room and trying to get our eldest son (still asleep) out of his bed and into our room in a mad panic.
As she got to the door she noticed our daughter with tears streaming her face, standing on her bed trying to get away from something that was standing next to the bed using it to balance, and walking very slowly towards her – both my wife and daughter saw this.
My wife said it was hard to make out in the dim lighting of the room, but it was very definitely a physical “thing” with wings about 3ft tall. Our daughter said it looked like a black and white chicken bird. She said she saw a “plane” drop it off outside her window before it came in the house. It took us quite awhile to calm her down (she ended up sleeping in our bed).
As if this wasn’t enough the son of a bitch showed up again a few nights ago around the same time of night; my wife got up to go to the toilet and said this same thing just appeared in the doorway walking towards her like it had done to my daughter, using its wings to try and balance.
She stared at it for a good while as she sat on the toilet before getting up and walking straight through it, to which it just dissipated.
She didn’t feel anything as she did so. She said it’s beak reminded her of those medieval plague doctors that used to wear those bird masks back in the renaissance period.
Plague doctor from Renaissance period.
So now, several weeks have passed and our girl won’t sleep back in her room. She is that terrified of the chicken bird, she won’t even go in there to play. What the fuck is this thing?
Note the correlation to medicine on the ship SD was on, and the plague doctor who used to put herbs in the mask to rid themselves of the smell of the dead they worked near.
The medicine SD was working on with the short haired blonde guys was also herbal/ natural based. Are the things visiting my family responsible for the depictions of the Plague doctors?
Then some more weird shit happened.
I set up a portable stretcher in our room so my daughter wouldn’t have to sleep in the cot that is much too small for her. She woke up in the middle of the night, again absolutely terrified and comes and crawls into our bed. The thing that scared her?
She saw a bunch of monster “people” appear before her and start talking to her in a strange language.
The description she gave of these people was exactly the same as a bunch of beings that used to harass my wife when she was about the same age. Bald, red eyes etc etc. This was a repetitive experience. They are apparently extremely loud when they talk.
And again, just last night she told us more about them. There are children ones and a “daddy” one. The daddy one usually isn’t there because he has to go to work “stealing other children”. She has seen these loud beings get dropped off along with the chicken bird and “snake looking people” from the same plane.
It gets even better.
So we are sitting in the loungeroom the other night, and out of no where my eldest son says that he has seen the chicken bird before in his sleep. He says that he saw a plane come into the loungeroom, drop it off and then leave through the back door (same one my doppelganger tried to get in through.).
I remember quite awhile ago he had a dream that some beings had taken him out of bed into a waiting spaceship in the driveway, then took him to the moon where they made him touch something silver that turned him silver (hello again Matrix Movie) and made him extremely cold at the same time.
They turned him into a literal fucking Metallicboy, and this was before I had even made the acquaintance of the Metallicman.
It is hard to tell if his were lucid dreams or standard ones, given that kids can’t properly externalise what the fuck is happening to them whilst in these states, though I assume it was an LD judging from his ability to recall it so vividly. My daughter’s seem like a bunch of Lucid Dreams interwoven with physical contact of the chicken bird, backed up by my wife seeing it.
Somewhere in all this cacophony of weirdness I myself had a lucid dream about standing out in the driveway and watching a ship come in to collect me.
The place I was standing would have been right next to where my wife saw her ship and my daughter said the chicken bird ship landed.
In fact it would have been the corner of a right angle if you dotted them out on a map. It was right in the exact spot my son said they took him to the moon. The entirety of our experiences would have been within a 15m radius of each other. That’s four different people from one family who have seen ships, either physical or non physical, in pretty much the exact same spot.
I can’t help but think about my abduction dream – refer to my Part 5 – from my mother in law’s house a few years back which is literally less than 5km away as the crow flies from us.
I was there the other day and took a video of how I remembered that dream experience unfolding (except I came out the door and not from around the side of the house).
When I point to the sky, just imagine a very angular shaped ship coming out of a cloud to the right and sucking me up into a circular arrangement at the bottom followed by a very confusing and disorientated wake up session.
The thing that gets me is that that experience felt like a future occurrence; it was too vivid to be just a standard dream.
I initially wrote it off because in the dream my car (which I no longer own) was very vividly parked in my mother in law’s spot under the garage.
Then I remembered my mother in law was the one I sold that particular car to. So if I randomly go missing it’s a good bet I woke up back in 2016 lol.
Joking aside, SD is under instruction to inform MM if I do indeed go missing one day whilst at my mother in law’s house; that is just a precaution I feel is necessary to take considering the Domain Commanders recent confirmation on our LD experiences. Maybe it will never happen – I honestly have no clue what to expect.
What I do know is that something weird is going on in our household, and it amplified the moment
MM’s comms channel opened up (this is in no way me laying blame on MM for it). Is it the Domain, is it someone else? I have no fucking idea, but it is definitely related if you want my honest opinion.
I showed this to my daughter who said the eyes and beaked looked fairly similar. My wife said if you take away the hat body, pickaxe etc, it looked similar. My son said the one he saw was different, more like a chicken that made a high pitched squeaking noise.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
You know, all these actions by the United States against China, and Against Russia remind me of this following meme…
Here is a reprint of a translated Russian article regarding the collapse of the United States, and the dragging of it’s client “Western nations” into the black hole with it.
And the USA is actually collapsing.
Actually.
In fact, it has collapsed quite a bit, but it still has a long way to go yet. It will not be over until a new nation rises like a phoenix from the ashes of the former.
It’s a good read, though I had to conduct some serious editing to make it readable for English native readers.
I do hope that you enjoy it.
Despite the running assumption in Washington for some time that democratic backslides are linked to perceived adversaries such as Russia and China, the data actually seems to point back to the United States itself.
Of all places, the news of this democratic decline was recently reported in the New York Times. According to data from V-Dem, the US and its allies (defined as countries with a formal or implied mutual defense commitment) have accounted for only 5% of worldwide increases in democracy in the 2010s while having 36% of the decreases.
In fact, it states, US-allied countries saw their democracies decline by nearly double the rate of non-allies.
This obviously raises the question: why?
Answering this is quite a tall order for even the most astute political scientists, but it’s obviously not as simple as blaming Trump. Let’s look at some of the possible reasons.
First of all, contrary to a long-running assumption, American influence does not actually lead to countries wanting to be like America. A Pew Research Center study from November 1 found that only 17% of people in their survey countries viewed US democracy as worth emulating, against 23% who said it was never a good example. Why is this?
Well, US democracy sucks.
If democracy means that public opinion is supposed to decide policies, then the US is an abject failure.
Public opinion actually means next to nothing, considering the US is a functioning plutocracy – a government of, by, and for the wealthy.
Rostislav Ishchenko develops his theme first posted here: Russian World as a global project into global multipolarity and covers why and how the West ran into a dead end, and where the multipolar situation may lead.
Please note it is a machine translation with some human assistance, and it is not a perfect document. It however makes his points clear enough, for the discussion on this massive global change.
Today we are in a unique situation – for the first time in the history of mankind, a global empire is breaking up.
Humanity is constantly living in an era of decay. At the same time, humanity is constantly living in an era of centralization.
The dialectic of history works simply: the centers of disintegration and centralization are constantly changing places both horizontally (some states are weakening, others are strengthening) and vertically (against the background of a weakening center, power in the shires is always strengthening, and the weakness of the regions leads to the strengthening of the center).
The art of leading a state is to correctly determine its internal and external state.
Accordingly, you need to move the control center of gravity from the regional level to the central level and back.
In the field of foreign policy, in an era of weakness, try not to be too active in order to suffer as few losses as possible (and it is better not to lose anything at all), while at the time of strength, try to carefully acquire additional resources.
Depending on the era, this resource can be nominated in terms of land, people, industrial power, market access, ideological leadership, information superiority, and other resources.
As a rule, several interrelated factors from among the above play an important role.
The Empire of the Collective West
Today we are in a unique situation. This has never happened before in the history of mankind.
For the first time, a global empire is breaking up.
We used to call it the American world, because after the collapse of the USSR, the United States remained the only superpower for twenty or twenty – five years (who thinks so) and became a symbol of Western dominance.
But in reality, it was the empire of the collective West.
The United States did not share the profits made by robbing the rest of humanity with Canada and Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, Japan and the EU out of a love of art or an innate desire for charity. It’s just that without the support of these vassal regimes, Washington was unable to manage the globalized world.
And, as has been known since classical feudalism, the vassal owes the master exactly the same amount as the master owes the vassal.
If a prince or duke does not dress his retinue luxuriously, does not provide it with expensive horses and weapons, does not feed it to the brim and does not drink it to the point of drunkenness, then the retinue has every right to abandon such a leader and look for a new master (the right to leave).
In politics, these relations are expressed in a change of allies.
For example, when the USSR could no longer provide Eastern Europe with an influx of additional resources (at the expense of its own population) The ATS and COMECON instantly disappeared in time and space, and their yesterday’s members lined up in NATO and the EU.
Next in line were the Union republics, which fled the Union in full confidence that they were feeding Russia and would live better on their own.
At the same time, the republics did not really think about any independence either. They took the queue “to the West” for Eastern Europeans, fully confident that they only need to join the EU and NATO and everything will be like in the USSR, only even more satisfying and better.
Some managed to join, some did not, but everyone was disappointed.
And not at all because, as some think, the West did not want to feed freeloaders.
The EU and the US were well aware of their responsibilities to their vassal countries, and they also understood that spending on their “weapons, horses, clothing, food and drink” would pay off by strengthening Western dominance around the world.
The annexation of Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet states (except for Russia and the Asian republics) was supposed to significantly improve the geopolitical position of the West, strengthen its military capabilities and make its political and economic dictates insurmountable.
When the West overestimated its strength
At first, it worked that way.
The costs of maintaining Poland and demonstrating the success of the Baltic Tigers were more than repaid by predatory exploitation of Russia.
(in the 1990s, the West established direct or indirect control over most of Russia’s resources through local oligarchs) and outright piracy in the rest of the world (Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and after it Serbia).
Economically booming, China was unable to stand up to the collective West militarily. Russia seemed completely destroyed and only temporarily preserved the appearance of unity. At this point, the West overestimated its strength.
In any society, there are always different groups that see the purpose and meaning of existence and the direction of development of the corresponding society in different ways. And as long as there is an obvious external danger, these groups reject internal contradictions, rallying against the external enemy. If, for some reason, the authorities lose the ability to reconcile and balance internal contradictions, a catastrophe of the 1917 model occurs.
In the 1990s, the collective West believed in the “end of history”, that the world is forever Westernized, that the roles of governors and governed are assigned to different countries forever.
Being in a state of euphoria, the Western left liberals launched an ideological offensive not only on the external front, but also on the internal one, trying to make their “tolerant new world” mandatory for everyone, not only in the conquered countries, but also among those who, in their opinion, “won the Third world war (cold war).”
As long as the leftists did not dig in, the resistance to their expansion in Western society was provided by certain marginal groups of conservatives, who were branded fascists by the” new left”.
Broad strata of Western society were virtually untouched by the confrontation between these groups until the mid-noughties of the third millennium.
Moreover, the main ideological expansion of the West was aimed at the development of “conquered territories”.
It was there that the most “advanced” “public organizations” were created, spreading the propaganda of equality of norm and perversion to Western grants, even the advantages of perversion over the norm, because it “suffered for a long time”.
There, on the” new lands”, the” Soros funds ” and their many similarities worked. And left-liberal ideas, having fallen into the post-communist ideological void accustomed to the presence of a” leading and guiding ” people, were in the greatest demand. The additional appeal of these ideas was given by the fact that their local adherents, due to the support of Western funds, instantly became super-successful people against the background of the rapidly impoverished (in the 1990s) post-Soviet society.
It is difficult to say how all this would have ended if the West had had the wit and patience to wait, not to immediately cut the post-Soviet “chicken”, but to give the liberals the opportunity to demonstrate at least some success.
Then it was inexpensive.
But, having invested in a thin layer of people temporarily in power, the West decided that all the problems were solved.
The elites will cope with educating the masses.
And it was seriously mistaken.
Split in the Western family
I don’t know if Russia and China would have had a chance to stand up to the united West, which by the end of the 1990s was totally superior to them in all indicators, except for Chinese industrial growth (but it is not enough to grow quickly, you need to have time to grow), if the expansion of Western neolithic ideas would have remained exclusively external.
But the left-wing liberals, sensing that they had significantly strengthened their positions due to external expansion, launched an offensive against conservatives inside the West.
This was the beginning of the end, for” Every kingdom divided against itself will become desolate; and every city or house divided against itself will not stand ” (Matthew 12: 25).
The West faced several divisions at once. First, there were divisions between conservatives and liberals within each individual country. Second, there is a split between conservative Eastern Europe and liberal Western Europe within the EU. Third, a split has emerged between the European bureaucracy and national Governments.
Moreover, since the European bureaucracy came out from radical left-liberal positions, in the fight against it, even liberal national governments were forced to seek the support of conservatives, which weakened the position of liberals in each individual country.
An increasing amount of Western resources began to be directed not to maintain the hegemony of the West, but to the internal struggle of liberals for an ideological monopoly.
The West has lost the ability to control planetary processes, but, being in euphoria, on the wave of success, it did not immediately notice this.
When it noticed, it was too late.
The divided Western society could no longer unite and was increasingly slipping into a state of cold, and then almost hot, civil war.
The struggle between liberals and conservatives, like any struggle of roughly equal forces, began to devour almost all available resources, and the West began to feel resource hunger.
Since the opportunity to pay off the resource shortage at the expense of Russia and/or China was lost (the West thought it was temporary, but in fact it turned out to be forever), cannibalism had to be engaged: the stronger countries of the West began to redirect resources that had previously been used to support weaker and poorer countries in their favor.
Immediately, the internal split deepened.
In Europe, in addition to the division into West and East, there was a problem of “rich North” and “poor South”. These two parts of the EU had different views not only on the prospects of economic and financial policy of the European Union, but also set different foreign policy goals for themselves.
Divisions between the US and the EU, the US and Israel, the US and Turkey, Turkey and Israel, Israel and the EU, and the EU and Turkey have emerged and begun to deepen.
Washington’s position began to weaken even in the traditionally loyal monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula.
Political laws are inexorable
The West is still trying to present a united front.
In particular, the United States is forming an all-Western coalition against China and is trying to bind Russia’s forces in the European direction by forming a single pan-European anti-Russian front.
In the statements of government officials, on the paper of signed agreements and according to the estimates of expert offices funded from Western budgets, it seems to work, but not so much in terms of the self-perception of the population of Western countries, which the press is increasingly forced to reflect with minimal objectivity.
The collective West still retains a sense of civilizational unity, but in the face of growing resource scarcity, this cannot help it in any way.
Still, the strong, in order to survive, is forced to withdraw resources from the weak.
At the same time, even if the weak does not rebel, but allows themselves to be robbed to the end, the weakening of the West will progress at an increasing pace.
On the example of Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, and the former “Baltic tigers”, we see that sooner or later there comes a time when the robbed statehood loses the ability to support itself.
Starting from this period, it is necessary either to pump additional resources into it just for the sake of preserving it, or to accept that it will de facto disappear, first as an economic unit, and then as a political one, which will reduce the amount of available resources, respectively aggravating the problem.
Today, the West is already clearly divided into three clusters: the American one (the main one, torn apart in the United States by the struggle of right-wing conservative Trumpists and left-wing radical Bidenites); the European one (whose economic interests require cooperation with Russia, but the ruling elites of most countries are afraid that they will not be able to retain power if they leave the American umbrella); and the Asia-Pacific one (which has already fallen into the sphere of Chinese economic influence, but does not want to admit it for the same reason that modern Europe does not want to break with America).
Historical experience shows that political laws are inexorable.
If you try to slow down the development of natural processes, then the longer you delay, the more terrible the final catastrophe will be.
In the 1990s, the West could still win, in the noughties conclude a compromise peace, being in a favorable position, in the tenth it was still possible to talk about a compromise, but the main bonuses were already received by Russia and China.
At this stage, the West can only count on a complete and unconditional surrender. Further delay will lead to the fact that there will be no one to capitulate. People, houses and cities will remain, but the western system will disappear.
Yet the United States is trying to continue playing the game of victory, and its allies have no strength to step out of the American shadow.
Further decisions should be made in the next three to five years. Either the United States will risk starting a war against China (then it should be started as early as possible, since it may be too late), or they will have to admit defeat in the global confrontation.
For the collective West, this will be a greater shock than the one that shook the Soviet sphere of influence during the collapse of the USSR.
The wreckage of the collective West in the form of junior partners of the United States will start looking for new patrons even more frantically than the post-socialist countries did in the 1990s.
At this point, the question will arise: where is the new assemblage point, around whom will the new centralization take place?
The square trinomial and its political roots
So far, we believe that such an assemblage point can be the Russian-Chinese Eurasia based on the SCO, the EAEU, the CSTO and other structures created and being created by Russia and China.
However, China, which is trying to protect itself against a sudden (but more than likely) collapse of Western markets, has recently taken several cautious steps to establish its own control over the Trans-Eurasian trade routes under Russian control.
A possible clash of interests is in Africa and Latin America, where both powers are actively increasing their economic expansion.
Finally, while not yet obvious, but in the long run, the most dangerous contradiction is that the fragments of the collective West that fall into the Chinese sphere of influence (the Republic of Korea, Australia, and New Zealand), along with the Southeast Asian states already located there, have interests diametrically opposed to the interests of Europe that potentially falls into the Russian sphere of influence.
Plus, India and Japan are too big a prize for Beijing and Moscow to allow each other’s sole influence there.
These contradictions are objective, and whether they can be overcome depends on the collective will of Russia and China.
Today, we cannot say unequivocally that this will be achieved, if only because we do not know in what geopolitical conditions we will have to move on to building a “beautiful new world”.
One thing is clear: Washington’s belated recognition of multipolarity in the form of a statement that there are three centers of power in today’s world (Russia, the United States, and China), although formally true, cannot satisfy anyone, because the dynamics of global processes are negative for the United States, and they will still try to change it, which means that the three-member structure will not be stable due to American opportunism.
In general, [1] today the crisis is developing, [2] the catastrophe of the collective West seems inevitable, but [3] the subsequent catharsis does not promise peace.
Conclusions
What may come, may come. But don’t lose sleep over it. If you can still enjoy a fine pizza, then do so. If you can still go out and watch a funny movie then go do so. If you can go outside and play with your critters, please do so. And remember… Always be the Rufus. video. 130MB
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I have more posts like this in my New Beginnings 2 index here…
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When I was married to my first wife, she told me a story about what happened when her grandmother died. Once this 90-something woman died, the “children” all went over to her old house “on the hill” and started probate on the belongings. And there they discovered that there was a very large, and very heavy bureau that had been against the one wall for as long as anyone could remember. And when they emptied the bureau, and moved the heavy massive piece away, they discovered a locked door.
When they opened it, they found a child’s bedroom dating from the 1920’s all perfectly preserved.
Apparently, my wife’s oldest uncle told the story that when he was five years old, he and his older brother, who was six went out playing on the frozen river, and the older brother fell into the ice and died. Since he was so young at the time, he had forgotten about the older brother and the event, but the grandmother simply walled up the room. Closed the blinds, shut the drapes and never spoke of the lost son ever again.
Inside was the room just as the boy had left it. With clothing on the floor, an unmade bed. Toys about, and other things of that period such as books, cast metal toys, an an old baseball mitt and bat.
It’s a fascinating story, and one that comes up time and time again over the years.
Time capsules are purposely built to contain interesting and unique items meant to be uncovered at a predetermined date in the future. This can often be a century or more after the capsule is buried.
Unintentional time capsules are something else altogether as they are far rarer and only appear when least expected. These are places and items lost for a time. But when they are revealed, they showcase what life was like in the past.
Here we can look at some other time capsules as we explore this interesting subject.
Lost Purse From 1957 Discovered In 2019
In 1957, a young woman named Patti Rumfola was attending Hoover High School in Ohio when something terrible happened: She lost her purse. That stroke of bad luck for Rumfola turned into an incredible discovery in 2019 when her handbag was finally found by a custodian.
Unfortunately, it was a bit too late for Rumfola as she had passed away in 2013 at age 71. Still, the purse was found, and with some Internet sleuthing, the original owner was identified. The handbag was given to one of her daughters, who had the opportunity to peek into her mother’s life from 62 years in the past.[1]
The purse, which had fallen behind some lockers, ultimately became an unintentional time capsule filled with the kinds of items you might expect to find in a young girl’s handbag in 1957. There were several pristine tickets to her school’s football games, a couple of library cards, a photograph of one of her friends, a wallet, and a small amount of change. Each of her five children kept a penny from the purse to remember their mother.
The Town Of Bodie, California
Shortly before the US Civil War broke out, gold was discovered east of the Sierra Nevada mountains. By the late 1870s, the site had grown to become a boomtown called Bodie with some 10,000 residents. By 1915, the gold was gone, and people had to leave the town for good.
Bodie became an unintentional time capsule because it’s more than 2,500 meters (8,300 ft) above sea level. In the early 20th century, it wasn’t easy to get in and out of the little town. As a result, the residents left most of their possessions there as it was too expensive to have them hauled over miles of mountain trails.
In 1962, California State Parks stepped in to establish the ghost town as Bodie State Historic Park. It is preserved in an arrested state, so nothing is disturbed except for the occasional repair to ensure that a wall or roof remains intact.
The place is exactly what people envision a ghost town to be. But more than that, it’s a glimpse back in time to the Old West without the kitschy tourist traps found in places like Tombstone.[2]
Completely Intact Shoe Store Rediscovered After Half A Century
From the 1940s to the 1960s, the Fashion Shoe Shop stood as a staple mom-and-pop store. But it eventually shut down. Years later, it was bequeathed to a man who went by to see what the property looked like. He found a shoe store that had been shuttered several decades earlier.
The shop was something of a step back in time as the shoe store looked just as it had when the doors were locked years earlier. Instead of cleaning out an abandoned space, the new owner found a treasure in perfectly preserved vintage shoes. As the shoes were still inside their boxes, they were preserved without damage from dust, mold, or anything else.[3]
The time capsule was also filled with fashion from previous eras. In such well-preserved conditions, the items were worth quite a lot of money. In addition, the shop had a Victrola Credenza Talking Machine full of vintage records, a vintage stove, and more incredible finds from 40 years ago when the shop was closed.
Abandoned Home In Ontario Revealed A Link To The Past
Not every abandoned property is a decaying mess that people should avoid. Occasionally, a place will turn up something surprising, which is exactly what happened when a home in Ontario, Canada, was discovered by an urban explorer in 2013.
The home wasn’t in the best shape. But looking past the “usual smell of decay and years of abandonment” revealed a hidden gem showcasing how people lived in the 1960s when the property was abandoned.
Inside the home was a plethora of items from the 1960s and earlier, including several musical instruments, a shaving kit, a shoeshine polish kit, a cache of vinyl albums, cartons of food far beyond their expiration dates, furniture, books, clocks, televisions, a gramophone, a piano, jewelry, and two complete sets of polished silverware, which are worth their weight in . . . well, silver.
It’s unclear why the home was abandoned with everything left inside. But it helps to paint a picture of the people who lived there more than 50 years before the property was rediscovered.[4]
A Shop Boarded Up For 30 Years In Lancashire
Typically, when a shop goes out of business, its contents are sold, the building is vacated, and then it’s taken over by someone else. But something that seldom happens turned up in Accrington, Lancashire, in October 2008.
As builders were working in the area, they uncovered a shop that had been boarded up for at least 30 years. Instead of a decrepit empty space, they found a perfectly preserved corner shop and ice cream parlor. It was filled with items from the shop’s earliest days in the 1920s to products dating to the early 1970s.[5]
These included cigarette advertisements from the 1950s, a magazine that went through the day-by-day happenings of then Princess Elizabeth’s tour of Australia in 1938, old-fashioned sweet jars, and ice cream spoons. The original owners had left the property over 30 years earlier without removing the contents.
Paperwork found within the shop dated back more than 80 years. It indicated that the establishment had belonged to the Boyd family for several generations. The building was renovated, but the items were preserved by the developer.
A Victorian-Era Pharmacy Hidden For 80 Years In Somerset Village
In the early 1800s, John Wellington opened a chemist shop at South Petherton, Somerset. He also sold groceries. After John’s passing in 1845, the shop stayed in his family for more than four decades. Then it was sold to W.C. White in 1887.
White operated the shop’s chemist side until he died in 1909. Then his son and heir, Charles White, continued with the grocery business only. Charles wasn’t qualified to dispense medications, so the store’s chemist side was sealed behind a locked door.
Despite having several other owners, it remained that way until 1987. That year, the shop was sold and the locked door was finally opened. Inside was the chemist shop precisely as it had looked when it was sealed 78 years earlier.
The Victorian-era pharmacy was purchased in its entirety by Flambards Theme Park in Cornwall. The shop was moved and reestablished exactly as it had looked nearly a century before. Some items didn’t make the transition—but not because they were damaged.
Certain chemicals were now considered dangerous and deadly. They were confiscated by the British Home Office. But everything else has been perfectly maintained and preserved.[6]
A Long-Forgotten Closet Revealed A Treasure Trove Of Civil War Artifacts
In 2010, the former Carnegie Library in San Antonio, Texas, was undergoing some renovations when something unexpected turned up. The workers found a closet that had been walled up in the early 1950s. Inside, they discovered a treasure trove of artifacts dating back to the US Civil War.
More than 200 items were found in the closet. Although most were from the Civil War era, the oldest was a priceless copy of the 1615 King James Bible printed in London. Beth Graham, a spokesperson for the library system, described it as “in astoundingly good shape for being nearly 400 years old.”[7]
At least one document was dated 1861. According to Graham, another was “a proclamation by the Governor of New Mexico calling up the militia to repel Confederate raiders coming into the territory from Texas.”
Several magazines were dated 1952, which suggests that the closet was walled up before the building housed the Hertzberg Circus Museum in the late 1960s. The library staff cataloged the items and put them on display at the San Antonio Public Library.
Parisian Apartment Left Untouched For 70 Years Discovered In 2010
In 1942, as the Nazis invaded Paris, playwright Solange Beaugiron, the granddaughter of Madame Marthe de Florian, fled the city. Beaugiron left behind her apartment but continued to pay the rent until her death at age 91, almost 70 years later.
It is believed that Beaugiron didn’t return at all between 1942 and her death in 2010. So the apartment remained closed. Initially Marthe de Florian’s home, it was filled with opulent furniture and paintings. All of them remained untouched.[8]
The apartment was finally opened in 2010. Although it was an amazing unintentional time capsule of 1940s Parisian life, it also contained many valuable artifacts. One such item was a portrait of de Florian by Giovanni Boldini. It sold at auction for €3 million, a record for the artist.
Other paintings by famous artists, ornate furniture, a piano, a phonograph, and much more were uncovered in the apartment. Somehow, the place survived World War II without a scratch as did everything sealed inside.
Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Chemistry Lab Found Hidden Behind Wall
Conservators working at the University of Virginia’s Rotunda have inadvertently uncovered a chemical hearth designed by Thomas Jefferson. The discovery is offering fresh insights into how chemistry was taught over 200 years ago.
The iconic Rotunda, constructed in 1826, is located on The Lawn of the original grounds of the University of Virginia and is currently undergoing renovations. Inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, Thomas Jefferson designed it to symbolize the “authority of nature and power of reason” and the separation of church and education.
Back in 1895, a fire destroyed much of the building’s interior. But during the 1850s, the chemical hearth—part of an early chemistry classroom—was sealed in one of the lower-floor walls of the Rotunda, which protected it from the fire. Recently, while preparing for the current renovations, workers examining the cavities in the walls unexpectedly discovered the lost chemistry hearth.
Back in Jefferson’s day, chemistry was taught on the Rotunda’s bottom floor. His collaborator, professor of natural history John Emmet, taught the classes. UVA Todayexplains how it worked:
The chemical hearth was built as a semi-circular niche in the north end of the Lower East Oval Room. Two fireboxes provided heat (one burning wood for fuel, the other burning coal), underground brick tunnels fed fresh air to fireboxes and workstations, and flues carried away the fumes and smoke. Students worked at five workstations cut into stone countertops.Brian Hogg, senior historic preservation planner in the Office of the Architect for the University, said the chemical hearth may have been for Emmet’s use; the students may have had portable hearths with which they conducted experiments.“Back then, the different experiments would get different levels of heat from different sources,” said Jody Lahendro, a supervisory historic preservation architect for U.Va.’sFacilities Management. “For some, they would put the heat source under a layer of sand to more evenly disperse and temper the heat.”
According to Hogg, this may be the oldest intact example of early chemical education in the United States.
The University of Virginia will put the chemical hearth on display once renovations are complete.
Now some other stuff…
All of this stuff is interesting and a curiosity. There is no question about that. But what about today? What about your life now? What about things, people, places, food, friends, drink, pets and other interests? Well…
…lucky for you all, I have some videos that I am gonna deposit here for your enjoyment. And as you look at them remember that those relics that you read about are from another person’s time; another person’s life. But this time; this life, is yours NOW.
Make it a good one.
Please contribute. Don’t disparage.
Check out this guy who used to ice skate when he was in elementary school, and then life carried him away. Now, for the first time in 50 years, he tries to ice skate again. Not so easy is it? video
Remember!
You are not your age. You are not your color, nationality, your style, your wealth. You are not your job. You are not your career or your education. You are very unique and you are very, very special.
Never forget that.
Here’s a video where a middle-school student discovers what her dad does for a living. It’s a bit of a shock, but you know what…? It doesn’t matter. video.
What the world needs now is more understanding; more humanity; and more kindness. Help others. Be the Rufus. Show understanding, compassion and kindness. Help others. And when someone is in need, help them.
Do not be afraid to volunteer. You can join the volunteer fire department, be an auxiliary in the police. Help in the local community. Volunteer at the food pantry. Go to the local humane society and just volunteer. Be part of the community. Smile. Make friends.
Ah. I do love a good meal. I consider steak, done medium rare to be a fine delicious meal. Don’t you? Oh, and do not forget the dipping sauce or gravy. Don’t you know. It’s all around a taste treat.
A delicious steak. I like mine medium rare.
Especially with some alcohol. Most especially some fine tasty Shiraz. I like shiraz. It’s fruity, sweet, easy to drink and goes great with everything from peanuts to lasagna.
Wine. Nicely decanted. Served with fresh baked Italian or French bread.
You guys know that I have never ate so well as I am doing inside of China. This place is great. But judging from some of the comments when I post on LinkedIN, the rest of the world instead believe the hate-China fantasy.
Such as this guy…
China is short on energy, food supply and raw materials. It's fixed capital need overseas markets to break even. By geography, it is hemmed on all sides. It will suffer incredible loss of wealth and the regime will lose any credibility it may have left.
-London Desa
He’s clueless.
Just absolutely clueless.
One of the things that is going on with myself (MM for you readers) is that my meals have taken a decidedly up-tick swing in food quality.
A few “affirmation campaigns” ago, I had an affirmation that went like this…
I eat healthy, delicious and tasty foods daily.
Well, without my knowledge, my wife has this great idea to take 10,000 RMB and get a VIP account in a local high-class vegetarian restaurant. Her idea was to feed our two year old with a selection of healthy food, prepared with cleanliness, and with an eye of being tasty. This all was the direct result of a rash that broke out on my daughter after we ate some Sichuan food a few weeks ago. (All is well, by the way.)
So now, I am eating healthy, delicious and tasty food daily.
What do you know…
Ah, it’s funny how those affirmation campaigns work. Now, I long to eat some meat. You know, I am a guy. A steak lover. A carnivore. But anyways, I am fine, the kid is finally eating, and I am actually feeling much healthier than before. You would be amazed how you feel once you change your diet.
Ma Po Dou Fu
Like the one follower (Alice) who wanted youthful skin like when she was young, and ended up having zits and acne breakout. Ask her about it some time.
LOL.
Anyways, life is what you make it. If you are thinking one thing… “China is bad, people are starving, child labor”… so on and so forth it will start to manifest in your life. Well, goodness! Don’t allow that.
Think good stuff.
Here’s a cute kitten. She’s napping. Shucch!
Life is hard, then you nap.
Think good stuff.
Here’s a classic car. I always wanted one of these beasts once I watched the 1980’s comedy Adventures in Babysitting. I remember watching it while I was in training at China Lake. Did you know that it snowed that year? Yes. One inch of dusty snow on the evaporate cooler in the middle of the High Desert. Who would figure?
Think good stuff.
1950 Cadillac Series 62.
Think good stuff.
Here’s a craftsman home. It’s one of my favorite designs. I really love the nice interiors. It’s sort of a post-modern art-deco version of a “Hobbit hole”.
Laurelhurst 1912 Craftsman living room
Christmas is coming. Well, after Thanksgiving, that is. Are you ready for it? I am. MM has his tree up and little mm has her presents all wrapped up and hidden awaiting the “big day”. Though Ms. Mm can’t help herself and unwraps one every few days or so. Sigh.
Think good thoughts.
Goldie Hawn & Kurt RussellThe Christmas Chronicles 2.
Think good thoughts.
Oh, maybe I didn’t make myself clear. I really think, and believe that what you think about affects the life that you live. And thus to that end, you all need to…
…think good thoughts.
Bread done right.
This post is all about China, and it is a situation report or “sitrep” for short. Since the entire Western “news” is simply the propaganda outlet for the Washington DC monied interests, we have to perform our own investigations and sleuthing.
Not that it matters though. Our non-compliance with the approved media narratives tend to get our works banned, shadow banned, or completely cut off. But not here in MM land.
The following comes from The Saker, and it was edited for the tender sensibilities of the MM readership. As well as my “superior” editing ability. LOL. All credit to the author, the source, and the venue. I hope you all like it and appreciate it.
Here Comes China: Xi Jinping’s speech, Major geo-political events, Joint naval patrol, Shangri-La was a novel
There has been a slight pause in these sitreps. This writing became overshadowed with current events, fully covered in the Saker Blog by other writers. Because of the length, we will upgrade this one today from sitrep to guest analysis.
A shortlisting of four major events since the Sitrep paused:
The failed visit (yes another failed diplomatic visit) which resulted in this comical and humorous tweet from Escobar
@RealPepeEscobar
US-CHINA IN 30 SECONDS
Jake Sullivan – “We wanna talk about Uyghurs, Hong Kong, Taiwan, human rights.” Yang Jiechi – “No.” Jake Sullivan – “Climate change.” Yang Jiechi – “No.” “Maybe. If you listen.” Jake Sullivan – “So we’re coming after you big time.” Yang Jiechi – “Bring it on.”
Uhm, how did that climate change maybe thing work out?
Well it turns out not so well. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are among several world leaders who will not be attending the big climate summit COP26 scheduled to begin this week in Britain. The two leaders will not even give it a pretense of legitimacy.
Now, that is how to give a perfect diplomatic snub! Or is it only a diplomatic snub?
I think both China and Russia are expressing that any attempt to do productive work with a naked insane emperor is now futile.
We will probably see light speed changes from now on into multipolarity to hopefully gain a world that is now insisting on decent human values and most of all, peaceful resolution of differences.
3
The other big event was the forming of Aukus, obviously in an attempt to create a mini-NATO against first China and Russia.
AUSTRALIAN SUBMARINES are indicative of the way our wonderful country is being governed.
CANBERRA is dysfunctional with the state governments nationally and that is just a start.
Department of Defence (DoD) is clearly not thinking with logic but rather with the influence of the government of the day.
DoD appears to be doing national defence planning with votes in mind and not our national security.
From the very beginning, our submarines are a dud resource.
We were going to spend $220,000,000,000.00--- YES $220 BILLION on 12 submarines that were designed to be nuclear and we insisted they be designed backwards to be diesel. That was bad enough.
Then we discover that of the 4 submarines we have now we only have CREW for 2 in 2021???
If we can only get crew for 2 now, why are we buying 12 and who will crew them in 20 years time when they are built?
NOW We have nuclear subs from the US and UK at an undisclosed price, no plans and no idea when we will see them.
FRANCE needs CHINA a lot more than FRANCE needs AUSTRALIA so I am not surprised by France sidling up to China.
France and China have a number of daily trains from stations in France to Stations in China.
Last year there were 11,000 trains between the EU and China. That is one every 45 minutes.
That daily business is a lot more important to a nation in a pandemic than some subs half-built in Australia and half-built in France in 20 years time.
Back to the DoD in Australia. They need an UPPERCUT for the pathetic way they are showing themselves to the world via CANBERRA.
They "appear" like they could not organise a sausage sizzle at Bunnings
What do you think of this mess?
How could it have been handled better?
Will submarines be relevant in 20 years time especially with NO CREWS?
-Peter Fennel
4
At the height of all of these were and are still the Taiwan issues and we will take a look at Xi Jinping’s speech a little later in this writing.
One soon finds that it becomes almost impossible to approach China from a generalist perspective. But, we have help.
On the economics side, we have Michael Hudson.
On the historical side, we have writers such as Godfree Roberts, Jeff J Browne and many others.
On the anti-China propaganda side, we have me and a number of reliable commentators on the Saker Blog and on the social, community.
On the humanity side, we have a host of excellent bloggers, documentary makers, and distributors of information as if one is walking in the streets and in the countryside with your own feet.
And of course, China is now taking its rightful place in the world as a leader and has improved markedly in information dissemination; they are taking their place on the world stage as wolf warriors, (Uhm, no, I did not mean to write that, of course, I meant to write ..) diplomats.
Sidebar:
China is a massive country and in landmass second only to Russia. But even in this simple measurement, the West tries its quibbling (and belittling) techniques.
This is from Jim Nelson that I found in my LinkedIN feed…
It was really a precious time in China in 1991. I taught English in Bengbu, Anhui for two years before deciding teaching English was not my career. Just the same, I treasure that time.
The picture below is for the first party that the students had. They invited me and my teaching partner. They were freshman who had just finished newly instituted military training.
Coming from America, I had some preconceived notions of what a college party could be like. The event I arrived at was beyond my imagination.
They had pushed desks to the side of the room to make space in the center. There were no decorations at all. They had no alcohol. If you look closely at the picture, we had one bottle of Huang Shan Cola each and a handful of pumpkin seeds. That is the whole story on the food and drink.
Who can remember Huang Shan Cola (translated that would be Yellow Mountain Cola.) It was a local Anhui Cola, and I do not know if it could ever be found outside of Anhui. Within 4 years, this cola could no longer be found as had been bought out by Coca Cola. It was a good soda. I would never have asked for Coca Cola.
The pumpkin seeds. Oh my, I was not even a sun flower seed eater in the US, so had no idea what to do with the pumpkin seeds. I saw the students open them and eat the seed inside. I awkwardly did the same. They were completely forgettable. I have never since tried to eat pumpkin seeds. The planned activity was 3-step ballroom dancing with old style Western classical 3-step dancing music.
The girls were glad to teach me how. Once I got the basic hang of it, one girl I danced with said I danced like a soldier, 1,2,3 1,2,3 by the numbers. She was completely right. It was a sweet and innocent event so different than the US that I can never forget it.
Man. China has really changed since that date.
100 Year Anniversary
In this year, the year of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, we experience an almost complete restatement and refinement of China’s goals in our world.
We see internal nomenclature such as…
“national rejuvenation”,
“a modern socialist country”, and
“continual reformation with comprehensive plans and strategy”,
and a “peaceful and united domestic environment”.
Toward the world, we see phrases such as…
“maintaining a revolutionary spirit”,
“the courage to carry out a great struggle with contemporary features”,
“courage, and skill”,
“safeguard sovereignty”, and
“protect security and development interests”.
We hear that China intends to assume a greater role in and for the world.
Aggression and hegemony are not in the blood of the Chinese people and they will strive for a human community with a shared future. There are specific goals set out.
China will:
endeavor to improve the global governance system
engender peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom
work to strengthen solidarity of people of all other countries
engage in all efforts to oppose hegemony and power politics
What is the difference between Putin’s Optimistic Reasonable Conservatism and Xi’s Human Community with a Shared Future and moderately prosperous society?
I cannot see too big of a difference. As the qualitative values expressed are similar although the civilizational socialization is different.
As Putin expressed his non-acceptance of woke ‘values’ in his Valdai speech, so China in the last few months took real action.
China threw the feminine men out of their television programs.
The feminine men is an inheritance from Japan to a lesser degree and Korea, to a larger degree.
China does not want girly men to become role models for their children.
They pulled the rug out from underneath expensive additional schools, acting as funnels to expensive university programs, and tutoring that basically burdened the Chinese children.
They have strengthened the Chinese schools to offer all additional education necessary, in order to have consistent educational standards.
They simply stopped computer games for younger children and limited this to no more than 3 hours per week.
They increased physical programs and education to get the kids out and about with healthy activities.
And in stark contrast to the western sphere who wants to control the kids, China just put the responsibility by law, properly and correctly in the parents’ hands.
“On Saturday, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted a new law stating that China’s parents are responsible for family education.”
Taiwan
On Taiwan, we see Xi Jinping expressing the following:
“The Taiwan question arose from weakness and chaos and will be resolved with national reunification, the one-China principle, and 1992 resolution”.
Regarding military action; we see even Putin expressing that Xi Jinping does not need to take military action. The verbose threats come from the US and Australia.
There are three aspects that Putin and Xi Jinping express as in one voice.
We are in a time of momentous changes in the world.
Both Russia and China are prepared and can ride the waves of change in a manner that is helpful, peaceful, and supportive in and for the world.
The UN (and it has been said a number of times that it needs to be updated) is still the only venue where world problems can be discussed. From Russia, our Law is the UN Charter and this is expressed by China as well. The rules-based concept does not feature whatsoever.
These concepts are fully supported by Putin’s speech at Valdai, and Xi Jinping’s speech at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of China’s formal joining of the United Nations.
During the years since the cold war, another momentous alliance grew almost from a grassroots level.
This is the Russia / China treaty of Good Neighborliness.
Here, with subtitles is what the Chinese office of foreign affairs thinks of this treaty at its 20th anniversary.
China and Russia are not allies, but far, far closer than allies ever could be:
'China and Russia are not allies but closer than allies' – Spokesperson on Putin's remarks pic.twitter.com/uePzp2epIf
— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) October 22, 2021
50th Anniversary of China’s seat in the UN
In this atmosphere of global chaos, Xi Jinping delivered a speech this morning at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of restoration of People’s Republic of China’s lawful seat in the UN:
(Translation)
Speech by H.E. Xi Jinping
President of the People’s Republic of China
At the Conference Marking the 50th Anniversary of the Restoration Of the Lawful Seat of the People’s Republic of China
In the United Nations
25 October 2021
Your Excellency Secretary-General António Guterres,
Your Excellencies Diplomatic Envoys and Representatives of International Organizations,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
Comrades,
Fifty years ago today, the 26th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted, with an overwhelming majority, Resolution 2758, and the decision was made to restore all rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations and to recognize the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations. It was a victory for the Chinese people and a victory forpeople of the world.
Today, on this special date, we are here to review the past history and look to the future, and that makes our gathering all the more significant.
The restoration of New China’s lawful seat in the United Nations was a momentous event for the world and the United Nations. It came as the result of joint efforts of all peace-loving countries that stood up for justice in the world. It marked the return of the Chinese people, or one-fourth of the world’s population, back to the UN stage. The importance was significant and far-reaching for both China and the wider world.
On this occasion, I wish to express, on behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, heartfelt gratitude to all countries that co-sponsored and supported UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, and to pay high tribute to all countries and people that stand on the side of justice.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
Comrades,
The past five decades since New China restored its lawful seat in the United Nations have witnessed China’s peaceful development and its commitment and dedication to the welfare of all humanity.
— For these 50 years, the Chinese people have demonstrated an untiring spirit and kept to the right direction of China’s developmentamidst changing circumstances, thus writing an epic chapter in the development of China and humanity. Building on achievements in national construction and development since the founding of New China, the Chinese people have started the new historical era of reform and opening-up, and successfully initiatedand developed socialism with Chinese characteristics. We have continued to unleash and develop productivity and raise living standards, and achieved a historic breakthrough of leaping from a country with relatively low productivity to the second largest economy in the world. Through much hard work, the Chinese people have attained the goal of fully building a moderately prosperous society on the vast land of China, and won the battle against poverty, thus securing a historic success in eradicating absolute poverty. We have now embarked on a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country and opened up bright prospects for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
—For these 50 years, the Chinese people have stood in solidarity and cooperation withpeople around the world and upheld international equity and justice,contributing significantly to world peace and development. The Chinese people are peace-loving people and know well the value of peace and stability. We have unswervingly followed an independent foreign policy of peace, stood firm for fairness and justice, and resolutely opposed hegemony and power politics. The Chinese people are a strong supporter of other developing countries in their just struggle to safeguard sovereignty, security and development interests. The Chinese people are committed to achieving common development. From the Tazara Railway to the Belt and Road Initiative, we have done what we could to help other developing countries, and have offered the world new opportunities through ourown development. During the trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has been active in sharing COVID response experience with the world, and has sent large quantities of supplies, vaccines and medicines to other countries, and deeply engaged in science-based cooperation on COVID-19 origins tracing, all in a sincere and proactive effort to contribute to humanity’s final victory over the pandemic.
—For these 50 years, the Chinese people have upheld the authority and sanctity of the United Nations and practiced multilateralism,and China’s cooperation with the United Nations hasdeepened steadily.China has faithfully fulfilled its responsibility and mission as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, stayed true to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and upheld the central role of the United Nations in international affairs. China has stood actively for political settlement of disputes through peaceful means. It has sent over 50,000 peacekeepers to UN peacekeeping operations, and is now the second largest financial contributor to both the United Nations and UN peacekeeping operations. China has been among the first of countries to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals. It has taken the lead in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, accounting for over 70 percent of global poverty reduction. China has acted by the spirit of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and earnestly applied the universality of human rights in the Chinese context. It has blazed a path of human rights development that is consistent with the trend of the times and carries distinct Chinese features, thus making major contribution to human rights progress in China and the international human rights cause.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
Comrades,
The trend of the world,vast and mighty, prospers those who follow itand perishes those who go against it. Over the last 50 years, for all thevicissitudes in the international landscape, the world has remained stable as a whole, thanks to the concerted efforts of people of all countries. The world economy has grown rapidly, and innovation in science and technologyhas kept breaking new ground. A large number of developing countries have grown stronger,over a billion people have walked out of poverty, and a population of several billion are moving toward modernization.
In the world today,changes unseen in a century are accelerating, and the force for peace, development and progress has continued to grow. It falls upon us to follow the prevailing trend of history, and choose cooperation over confrontation,openness over seclusion, and mutual benefit over zero-sum games. We shall be firm in opposing all forms of hegemony and power politics, as well as all forms of unilateralism and protectionism.
— We should vigorously advocate peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are the common values of humanity, and work together to provide the right guiding philosophy for building a better world. Peace and development are our common cause, equity and justice our common aspiration, and democracy and freedom our common pursuit. The world we live in isdiverse and colorful. Diversity makes human civilization what it is, and provides a constant source of vitality and driving force for world development. As a Chinese saying goes, “Without achieving the good of one hundred various schools, the uniqueness of one individual cannot be achieved.” No civilization in the world is superior to others; every civilization is special and unique to its own region. Civilizations can achieve harmony only through communication, and can make progress only through harmonization. Whether a country’s path of development works is judged, first and foremost, by whether it fits the country’s conditions; whether it follows the development trend of the times; whether it brings about economic growth, social advancement, better livelihoods and social stability; whether it has the people’s endorsement and support; andwhether it contributes to the progressive cause of humanity.
— We should jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and work together to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity. The human race is an integral community and Earth is our common homeland. No person or country can thrive in isolation. Humanity should overcome difficulties in solidarity and pursue common development in harmony. We should keep moving toward a community with a shared future for mankind, and jointly create a better future. Tobuilda community with a shared future for mankind is not to replace one system or civilization with another. Instead, it is about countries with different social systems, ideologies, histories, cultures and levels of developmentcoming together for shared interests, shared rights and shared responsibilities in global affairs, and creating the greatest synergy for building a better world.
— We should stay committed to mutual benefit and win-win results, and work together to promote economic and social development for the greater benefit of our people. As ancient Chinese observed, “The essence of governance is livelihood; and the essence of livelihood is adequacy. Development and happy lives are the common aspirations of people in all countries. Development is meaningful only when it is for the people’sinterest, and can sustain only when it is motivated by the people. Countries should put their people front and center, and strive to realize development with a higher level of quality, efficiency, equity, sustainability and security. It is important to resolve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development, and make development more balanced, coordinated and inclusive. It is also important to strengthen the people’s capacity for development, foster a development environment where everyone takes part and has a share, and create a development paradigm where its outcomebenefits every person in every country more directly andfairly. Not long ago, at the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly, I proposed a Global Development Initiative with the hope that countries will work together to overcome impacts of COVID-19on global development, accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and build a global community of development with a shared future.
—We should step up cooperation, and work together to address the various challenges and global issues facing humanity. The international community is confronted by regional disputes as well as global issues such as terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity and biosecurity. Only with more inclusive global governance, more effective multilateral mechanisms and more active regional cooperation, can these issues be addressedeffectively. Climate change is Nature’s alarm bellto humanity. Countries need to take concrete actions to protect Mother Nature. We need to encourage green recovery, green production and green consumption, promote a civilized and healthy lifestyle, foster harmony between man and Nature, and let a sound ecology and environment be the inexhaustible source of sustainable development.
—We should resolutely uphold the authority and standing of the United Nations, and work together to practice true multilateralism. Building a community with a shared future for mankind requires a strong United Nations and reform and development of the global governance system. Countries should uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order underpinned by international law and the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. International rules can only be made by the 193 UN Member States together, and not decided by individual countries or blocs of countries. International rules should be observed by the 193 UN Member States, and there is and should be no exception. Countries should respect the United Nations, take good care of the UN family, refrain from exploiting the Organization, still less abandoning it at one’s will, and make sure that the United Nations plays an even more positive role in advancing humanity’s noble cause of peace and development. China will be happy to work with all countries under the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits to explore new ideas andnew models of cooperation and keep enriching the practice of multilateralism under new circumstances.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
Comrades,
A review of the past can light the way forward. Standing at a new historical starting point, China will stay committed to the path of peaceful development and always be a builder of world peace. China will stay committed to the path of reform and opening-up and always be a contributor to global development. China will stay committed to the path of multilateralism and always be a defender of the international order.
As an ancient Chinese poem reads, “Green hills immerse in the same cloud and rain. The same moon lights up towns however far away.” Let us join hands, stand on the right side of history and the side of human progress, and work tirelessly for the lasting and peaceful development of the world and for building a community with a shared future for mankind!
To my great surprise, Xi Jinping did not say one word about Taiwan, but sketched out the past as a harbinger of the future while cementing the legal status of China, which is not the legal status of Taiwan.
I guess he feels that the contretemps with Taiwan is not important enough.
On the speeches, we may say that those are lofty ideals. But we also see practical and real interaction between China and Russia.
The two countries just completed a first joint naval patrol in waters of the West Pacific, between October 17th to the 23rd, according to the Chinese Ministry of Defense. The patrol was held right after China and Russia wrapped up a joint naval exercise in the Sea of Japan from October 14th to 17th.
5 Chinese vessels and 5 Russian destroyers and frigates accompanied by six carrier-based helicopters made passage through the Tsugaru Strait (which caused Japan to run for the Prozac).
Yet this Strait is not territorial waters, and warships from any country have the right to transit, which means the transit of the Chinese and Russian vessels was in line with international law.
What is also very interesting is that it is said that the sea lane between these two islands is specifically maintained for quick access of US submarines to the Pacific Ocean.
A Chinese expert opined as follows:
Encircling Japan, particularly sailing to the east side of Japan, is of significance because many key military installations are located on that side, including the US Navy base in Yokosuka, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times.
Many US military provocations on China in places like the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea were launched from these bases, the expert said, noting that the joint patrol by Chinese and Russian vessels could be seen as a warning to the US and Japan, which have been rallying up to confront China and Russia, serves the goals of US hegemony, and undermines regional peace and stability.
“The joint maritime patrol is aimed at further developing the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era, elevating the joint action capabilities of both nations and jointly maintaining international and regional strategic stability. It’s a part of the annual cooperation plan between the two nations …”
In bold are the most important words, and this is not a lofty ideal, but a very hard challenge to the western powers and of course Japan.
Also, if one looks at that area with a strategic eye, it breaks up the supposed ‘ring of fire’ to keep China contained.
American war-mongering neocon “wet dream” plan on “containing” China.
In addition, it is also a warning for Japan, which has been dragging its feet to come to an agreement with Russia on islands further North in the island chain.
So, we have to ask, was this a threat?
No, not at all on the surface of it, but it was a stark reminder that the so-called freedom of navigation game that has been constant in the South China Sea and the Straight of Taiwan can be played by more than one player. Not just the United States. It’s a new world and everyone must play by the same rules.
It is also notable that from 2019, air forces from China and Russia have conducted annual joint strategic air patrols over the East China Sea and Sea of Japan.
We are now seeing very visibly one of the aspects of the development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era.
Did you see that coming?
Did you see the evolution of the Russia / China treaty of Good Neighborliness to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership?
As is usual, we look at a few of the China data points and I want to remind that you the Chinese governance is always refining, always testing, and prototyping new methods and systems across the spectrum of modern life, and always this is done on a grassroots level.
"China is in trouble, clapped-out economically, and is going to bring the west down with it."
This is the message that we see with monotonous regularity.
The reality is different.
Chinese GDP expanded a whopping 9.8% in the first three quarters of 2021, and major indicators are within a reasonable range.
Evergrande
Evergrande – caused by poor management and that is all and the Chinese government will both let them burn, and also make them take responsibility to Chinese people first.
There will be no monopolies or other behemoth-type business structures in China that can challenge the state.
(Evergrande has no option but to resume work and they did so today on 10 projects. There is no quick bankruptcy for them, and certainly no bail-out).
China’s Strong Economy
Chinese banks have foreign-currency deposits of $1 trillion for the first time, an opportunity for Beijing to liberalize the country’s capital account.
A resilient economy and strengthening currency have attracted record foreign purchases of bonds and stocks while surging demand for goods meant exporters brought back more dollars.
The pace of the influx has tested the authorities’ tolerance for a strengthening yuan, with the currency now near a five-year high against a basket of its peers.
China’s exports grew 20%!
Exports grew 20% in September, up from 15.7% in August. September’s gain was higher than the median estimate of 13.3% in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Growth in imports slowed to 11% in September from 23.1% in the previous month.
Korean IC Chip Manufacturers building factories in China
China-Korea semiconductor industrial complex starts construction amid Beijing’s push for tech self-reliance. The municipal government of Wuxi and memory chip giant SK Hynix have teamed up to develop the China-Korea Integrated Circuit Industrial Park.
The city is expected to become home to 19 new semiconductor-related projects with a combined investment of US$4.7 billion.
A Herbal solution for Coronavirus
A Chinese herbal formula for coronavirus patients is undergoing clinical trials in the US for possible approval for people with mild-to-moderate symptoms of the disease. Qingfei Paidu, most commonly called QFPD, is a 21-herb formula whose name literally means lung cleansing and detoxification.
Zero-tolerance to COVID remains in place
China, which pioneered controlling Covid-19 with lockdown orders and tight border rules, will “wait and see” about adjusting its zero-tolerance policy.
“We are discussing about the new strategy in China … everything is dynamic. We are ready for any possible reassessment”.
(Please do not consider this comment and the previous as an open sesame to start discussing Covid on the Saker Blog. You all know the blog policy).
Chinese getting taller
Between 1985 – 2019, the average height of a 19-year-old Chinese increased 3.5 inches, or 9 cm, supporting President Xi Jinping’s declaration in July that the country had achieved its goal of establishing a “moderately prosperous society” in time for the Party’s centenary. This is a result of a relentless project to bring the Chinese people out of abject poverty.
Vehicular KTV
An important question in auto showrooms: Can I sing karaoke in this car? The only acceptable answer is yes, as Nio and XPeng know well. Western rivals are scrambling, “We’ve identified this as a challenge,” said BMW’s Christoph Grote, “Chinese consumers are the most demanding when it comes to digital technology in the car.”
Social Credit System
The dreaded Social Credit System which is abhorred in the West by most that do not have an idea what it is about.
China’s social credit system is more of a bureaucratic interface for existing legal and regulatory systems.
It is not the widespread Western perception of a dystopian algorithm that uses “big-data collection and analysis to monitor, shape, and rate individual’s behavior”.
Social credit includes new enforcement mechanisms.
However, it is but an extension of the law rather than an independent rule-making authority, and all data collection and penalties require a legal basis.
USA Universities moving to China
This was mentioned before but as a reminder.
When the Chinese students started being hunted and haunted specifically in the US, all the major universities opened campuses in China (they could not afford to lose the Chinese money).
For Harvard, it did not take too long to become part of the propaganda war on China and they are moving their Chinese language program from Beijing to National Taiwan University, replacing a partnership with Beijing Language and Culture University.
Harvard’s Jennifer Liu said the decision was made because of a perceived lack of friendliness from the host institution, Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU).
Just a taste
This gives a taste of what is happening in China and now we need to give the regular shout-out to Godfree Roberts’ Here Comes China newsletter that supplies these data points. Subscribe here – it is worth it!: https://www.herecomeschina.com/#subscribe
In the next few China Sitreps, I will post a selection of documentaries and information on those aspects of China’s history that remain western talking points, whether correct or not.
This is Tibet, Tiananmen, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and the border skirmishes with India as a shortlist. Today we start with Tibet.
Tibet
Tibet – if you have the romantic western mindset about Tibet, let’s revise that. Your knowledge most certainly comes from a book, movies, and a whole Shangri-La industry spawned in the wake.
.
Tibet was a dramatically brutal theocratic serfdom and never-ending debt peonage. Under the Dalai Lama in Tibet before China’s takeover:
98% of the population were serfs or slaves or kept in debt peonage.
Disobedient serfs endured torture
The 14th Dalai Lama’s family owned 6,000 serfs
95% of the population were illiterate
In 2015: 0.52% were illiterate
And in 2020: extreme poverty was eliminated in Tibet
From this documentary, you will learn that Tibetan Buddhism was not the sweet, and romantic Buddhist religion based on peace and high ideals and spinning colorful prayer wheels and praying in monasteries.
It was based on the Indian Caste System where an extreme minority controlled the vast majority and kept them in abject poverty.
You will also learn why, on the death of a Dalai Lama (meaning God on earth), the successor, the soul boy was always found and appointed from a very poor family, in order to avoid any power struggles between the very few rich families.
The connection with the Roman Catholic Pope will astound you.
And then you will see brutal sights of religious and shamanic powers whipped into inhumane forces.
You will learn that Dalai Lamas regularly fled Tibet, sometimes to flee British Forces.
Tibet was the first lever that was used by at that time British forces, and this lever was seamlessly taken over by the rest of the west, to break up China, even after some territory had to be given to Japan and some even to Korea.
You will learn how the Brits just simply carved out pieces of Chinese land from the Indian side.
This effort to break up China is still in full swing today, by the current hegemon in its frenzied dying attempts to own the whole world using weapons, war, lawfare, internal destabilization, the appointment of external presidents, propaganda, kidnapping of high officials, outright assassinations, drugs, biological substances, and poison.
Of course from the 1950s, CIA involvement around Tibet is well documented even to training ethnic Tibetans in Colorado for a planned Tibetan revolution.
You will also see one of the reasons why China will not let itself be hegemonized today, specifically with its history of never fighting a war of conquest in its 4,000 years of existence.
The population stands firm and resolute.
Never aired footage in the west will have you take part in the joy when religions serfdom and debt peonage was abolished in 1959 and the Tibetan Religious Serfs could burn their debt peonage documents.
If your stance in life is ‘Free Tibet’, which mine was, once upon a time before I did my homework, consider if you were romanticized by the CIA and a novel called Lost Horizon (1933) by English writer James Hilton.
Two movies followed (Frank Capra directing one), a Broadway play, and the world’s first mass-produced paperback, all called Lost Horizon, set in a fictional utopian lamasery called Shangri-La, high in the mountains of Tibet.
‘Free Tibet’ for you may just as wll be based on the fiction of Shangri-La.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
When I first came to China back in the 1980’s, China was a poor land. The roads were dirt, and the cities looked very disorganized, dirty, and poor. it was very primitive. Public restrooms were horrible, the people were rural, even in the cities, and the police looked like some cross between Mad Max and a Mongolian mountain guide. And as I traveled back and forth from the USA to China and back, I saw first hand how it developed, changed and improved. It has been amazing.
Today China is simply amazing. It really is. This is true on oh, so many levels. And today we are going to talk about one of those things that no one ever addresses in a visceral way; the deep blue skies of China.
What? You might ask.
According to all the “experts”, China is a polluted wasteland of child workers, trash, poor unsanitary facilities, and gloom. Well it is not. It’s a merit-driven nation of hard workers, a harmonious culture, and society, and an enormous land with a deep and impressive culture and history.
But that doesn’t stop the Western media from continuing to bash it so relentlessly.
Do a Google search on China pollution, and you get millions of articles (all out of America and the UK) about how terrible and polluted China is. So, judging from the great magnitude of articles, it must be true. Right?
Image search “skies of China”.
CNN takes a picture of a dust storm in Beijing and claims that it’s pollution. FOX takes a picture of China in the early 1990’s and provides the impression that it is contemporaneous. Yahoo “news” bans any comments out of China to their China-hate articles. The BBC takes clips from an expat blog, uses photoshop to colorize it into greys and dark hues to give the illusion of a dirty, oily, filthy place.
And then they make all these graphs, and maps to show pollution quality. Giving the reader the perspective that the air must just be fucking awful.
China air pollution from the American company “Listverse”.
Western “news” is simply manipulated propaganda for the domestic audience. Those of us who know better shouldn’t read it. It provides zero benefit to us.
Today, we are going to compare apples with other apples. We are going to compare orange with other oranges. And we are going to compare pizza with other pizza. These days of deception, half truths and manipulation are OVER.
Well, here we are going to chat about something that had to be pointed out to me. I have grown so accustomed to the blue skies here, that I take them for granted, when I shouldn’t. And with that as an introductory lead in, I will [1] address the fact that Chinese skies tend to be pristine, and then [2] how this all came about.
China has tamed air pollution in all of it’s forms, and China today has absolutely stunning skies.
Background
It all began when I posted this article HEREabout a factory business trip that I took.I went to an industrial area, and visited some hard manufacturing factories.
People couldn’t get over how pristine blue the sky was, as that was not at all the impression that they had of China. They asked “where’s all the pollution”, “where’s the smog”, the “plumes of industrial clouds, and the forever white eye-burning skies? They asked where are the vapor plumes of the airline flights that create a network of white lines in the skies?
And that got me thinking.
As many times that I have mentioned over and over, and over that China has “cracked down” severely on pollution and enforces it with a very special of police known as the “corruption police”, people don’t get it. They don’t understand.
There are results as a consequence of these actions.
China does things, and then there are measurable and visceral results.
So when I take a drive up to visit a factory, I am used to the pristine blue skies, the brilliant and fresh green trees, the clear colors and razor sharp images. But others, who do not live inside of China aren’t.
In the following videos, please check out these embedded videos or their associated links to get the “full” experience. It’s almost as good as sitting in the car with MM getting there. video 46MB
All of rural China looks like this. It’s an entire nation of skyscrapers. This, believe it or not, is just a tiny, tiny village. video. 69 MB.
And this is what it is like. The factory sits on the edge of the tiny village, and so we just pulled in and went up to the front gate. Video. 32MB
But you know, it’s not just a trip to a factory. It’s not confined to the rural sections of China. It’s everywhere.
And I do live in Zhuhai
I know it is nice here. But I am not talking about only my city. I am talking about all of China. Video of Zhuhai. 1MB
But Zhuhai isn’t unusual. We are right outside of Hong Kong. Shenzhen is right across the bay. Combined, over 20 million people live within ten miles of my house. Which is a lot. New York City is only 6 million people! Yet, look at the skies here….
There’s rain, cloudy days, snow, squalls, fog, dust storms and other weather events that will turn the sky different than the pristine blue skies that I seem to encounter most of the time. video 16.7MB
Shanghai, and Hong Kong see a lot of fog. Overcast skies and fog seem to be the norm there. Shenzhen gets a lot of the overcast from the geographical wedging from the fog of Hong Kong and the mountains inland.
Beijing deals with dust storms.
And so on and so forth.
Some examples
Examples of blue skies, free of smog, pollution or aircraft vapor trails are everywhere. Just go onto the Chinese social media and watch the videos. Blue skies are everywhere. Seriously.
It’s like those High Speed Trains. They are common and everyday events. No one notices them.
It’s like those police drones in the sky, they are everywhere and no one notices them.
It’s like those thermal scans at all the entrance ways. No one cares or gives them any notice any longer.
It’s like paying using WeChat. It’s common and no one thinks about it at all.
But you know, we do need to take notice, and pay attention. The rest of the world do not have these kind of skies. Their cities have a dome of haze. Their suburbs are criss-crossed by airplane vapor trails. Their industrial areas have eye stinging smog and glare.
And I, for one, am going to point it out and celebrate it.
Here’s someone else driving in Hunan, China. video. 2MB
Here’s a cute BABY girl in the front of her house. Video 6MB
Here’s a ride taken yesterday from my house. I just filmed the ride as we pulled out of the building complex. video. 53MB
Here’s a nice girl being filmed at dusk video. 3MB
This looks like the mountains near Longgong, North of Shenzhen, China. video 4MB
Here’s a nice video showing the first graders getting their red scarves as part of the Pioneers. Everyone in China gets mandatory military trainings, and it all starts in first grade. video. 5MB
Here’s the Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai bridge. Video. 4MB
This girl is posing all over the city. I love these compilations with a pretty girl showing what China is like. Video. 10MB
Here’s another nice girl. Notice the sky and clarity of the air all around her. video. 4MB
Here’s a movie taken in front of my office. Video 14MB
The Chinese are so patriotic too. All of them trust their government, and the government really has earned their respect. Here’s a Pioneer. You can tell with the red scarve. video. 2MB
Yeah, it’s a non-stop hate fest against China, and while China changes, cleans up and moves forward the lies just keep a running. And the West, already ignorant, is really completely uneducated on the true and real state of things.
The crack down on pollution
China has made enormous strides in cracking down on pollution. Though you would NEVER read about that in the Western “news”. It’s all the continuing non-stop fantasy of China being the world’s polluter. If so, then why are Chinese skies so blue? Eh?
Here’s some articles about the Chinese efforts to stop, contain and eliminate pollution of all types.
Yeah, you probably saw these articles, but didn’t think too much about them. Maybe you should have read them, eh?
Yeah.
Pay some attention to the world around you and note who is doing all the complaining, and who is actually physically doing things; taking corrective measures, and actually making the world a better place. Eh?
When China says that it is going to do something, well you should take note. They actually do things. And when they say they are going to clean up China, and make it a healthy and clean place they do so.
China is very beautiful
YaoYao showing how beautiful Hunan, China is. Video 3MB
Video taken at a busy intersection waiting on our DD. Video. 12MB
Chinese first graders going through their military training exam. Everyone in China MUST take military training through their entire education system. It starts at first grade. Here’ is the first “final exam” where they are rate in their ability to compete an obstacle course. These kids are 6 years old. video. 9MB
Here’s a nice girl walking in one of the many, many parks here in China. She is wearing black. video. 3MB
Airplane vapor trails
AirPollutionControlAirpollution is arguably the most egregious environmental problem plaguing China.Thecentralgovernmenthasplaced improving air quality as a priority on itsagenda for the next several years, withChina’s Premier Xi Peng pledging in March 2017 to “bringback blue skies” and work faster to address air pollution.
But why no vapor trails in the sky above? Well it appears that the Chinese government has placed pollution controls on all the domestic airlines, and this has really caused a great deal of consternation on the international airlines that want to operate inside of China domestically.
It costs too much money, they say, and they can’t earn the kinds of profits that they need to please their shareholders. They argue that they MUST make a profit because they must answer to their owners who demand profits.
Meanwhile, China reports that the role of the government is to provide affordable, food, clothing, shelter transportation and a comfortable standard of living to it’s people. The government should not be a for-profit enterprise.
Because the foreign airlines cannot meet the tough environmental, and pricing requirements that China provides for it’s citizenry, the airlines had a fit. They then worked with the United States to “crowbar” and “strong arm” China to change it’s polices so that foreign companies can profit off the Chinese citizenry inside of China.
This girl is skateboarding near my house. The building in the background is the Zhuhai Opera House. Video. 10MB
You can actually see the Opera House from my living room. Here’s a video that I took not too long ago. Video. 26MB
Here’s one of our photoshoots. This one took place at around 5:00 in one of the parks down the street. Video. 21MB
Conclusions
96 percent of Chinese people owned their own residence. More than 50 percent of the Chinese people grow their own food and produce. They do not need to pay any property tax and any insurance.
They do not need a car in their lives. They do not pay homeowners' association fees, the fire department fees, the police protections and so on and on. Of the fifty percent of the Chinese rural population, they do not use cash that much.
Three of my sisters in China have been laid off workers of state owned enterprises for the last thirty years. Their income is only a couple thousand yuan from the state pensions every. But they all have their own houses, and have savings over one million Chinese yuan.
They eat better than I do in the USA as a professor struggling to pay for my mortgage. I have to pay out of my pocket medical care, dental insurance, home insurance, property taxes, home owners association fees, all of which the Chinese do not have.
My sisters all grow their own vegetables in their own yard. I have to buy everything from the supermarkets.
There are too much loose holes in the calculation of GDP, which is simply meaningless.
When I was growing up during the Mao era, we grew everything we ate organically, and everything was fresh. We did not have much cash income, but we had everything we needed. By comparison, how many people in the world could have organically grown fresh produce everyday in the world free of all kinds pollutants.
The Chinese people's per capita income was very low during the Mao era, about a hundred dolar a year. But Chinese people life expectancy grew from 32 years in 1949 to 69 years in 1976, more than doubled in less than thirty years.
GDP as a measurement of well being is simply a trick created by the capitalist west to cover up their management failure, with a high GDP but many homeless and hungry people.
-Dongpin
After all this, it should be clear that China is really doing things and making things happen. There’s so much bullshit and lies about China, but I will tell you what, if you come to China, you WILL SEE the blues skies. You will see the HIGH TECHNOLOGY. You will see the flower and the trees, and the relaxed pace of life. And you will see that it’s because it is a nation government by merit and people who care.
China treats those who want to change things for “democracy”, and “rule by the wealthy”, and the greedy as evil and dangerous people. They are locked up and kept away from the levers of power.
China is doing things RIGHT.
A billion Chinese have applied for membership in the Communist Party of China since 2001. 907 million of them were rejected, mostly on moral grounds. It seems that most Chinese adults would take the Party oath, to endure the people’s ordeals first and enjoy their fruits last, subject themselves to constant scrutiny, and be held to higher ethical and legal standards than non-members. Adultery is cause for dismissal. Rape is cause for execution. Nonetheless, ninety-four million members are honoring their oath pretty well.
And here’s a great image of a roadside rest area. Check it out.
A highway rest area. This one is in Inner Mongolia, Northern China. 41.5MB Video
Other possible reasons
There are a host of other possible contributors for the blue skies. May I suggest that other things can add to the overall effect experienced within China today…
A decline in domestic air flights because of the enormous network of high speed trains.
A decline in international air flights to and from China.
A severe curtailing of all factories that do not have, or plan to add, air scrubbing pollution control equipment.
A movement of the simple, labor intensive, and crude manufacturing out of China to South East Asia.
Intentional power rationing to selected geographical regions and specific targeted regions.
All in all, while China has indeed set forth impressive air pollution standards, and have implemented such, a number of other effects contributed synergistically to make the air of China noteworthy and pristine.
Oh, and a note to all the people who just stumble on MM and this article and want to shit on it…
Yes. And I do actually mean “to shit” on it.
Keep in mind that this information is going to go against your Western media brainwashing. It’s comfortable to believe the lies that face the TRUTH.
So don’t give me the normal bullshit, I delete those comments. If I wanted to read a regurgitation of FOX “news”, or the BBC, I’d read them directly myself. Though I do keep a few prize examples of stupidity for use in other articles.
Like these two comments (that I deleted from other articles that made China look better than the non-stop hate-China narrative spewing forth from the media megaphones)…
...the lies and propaganda concocted by CCP. For example, the title claims China has democracy at bottom, which is fabricated by CCP to fool people. In fact, CCP uses all of its power to crush any thing associated with democracy as it cruelly did in Hong Kong last year. CCP made it very clear that it will destroy any buds of democracy movement in China mercilessly as it did 32 year ago in Tiananmen massacre in which thousands of pro-democracy students and Beijing residents were killed by machine gun fires and crushed by army's main battle tanks.
And…
This is essentially a person staying up all night, and fantasizing about how China might be if all the consultative channels that China has erected were ACTUALLY HOW CHINA WAS GOVERNED. But they are not. Modest consultative measures might indeed help an authoritarian regime operate better, and that it probably part of China's success. But that doesn't mean, as the author seems to think, that a group of ordinary citizens makes the final decision about China's laws. It's laughable. Don't waste you time on this, and ask yourself why it is being heavily promoted.
I’m telling you what it is like.
You can absorb it in, or you can believe the nonsense being spewed at you by billions of dollars in manipulation and funding. Your choice.
But here, is the REAL deal. It’s what is going on right now. Soak it in.
And finally…
Be the Rufus
Are you making the place a little bit nicer when you leave it? Do you pick up after yourself? Do you make people smile when you are in public? Do free-ranging dogs and cats welcome you?
Are those around you comfortable that you are nearby in case anything goes wrong?
Do not be ashamed of who you are, or what you do. You are NOT your job. You are NOT what others say you are. You are unique and very, very special. Stand up for who you are and serve justice, and help those in your society. It’s your highest calling. video. 2MB
Please, be the Rufus. Not for personal profit. Not for fame, or glory. Just do it because you are a decent person and you want to make your tiny part of the world a better place to live in.
And after the explosion, the Rufus runs back into the flames to rescue others trapped inside. Video. 2MB
The world is not a bad terrible place. Spread the love around. Be a Rufus. Just be nice, give things away for free just to make people feel happy, wanted and included. It won’t cost you that much, and you will really help make the world a much better place. Be the Rufus. Like this guy does… video 5MB
Or this. Use your talents and make the world a better place. Video. 6MB
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my China index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the eleventh part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 11 – Lucid Dreaming Lesson 3 Techniques for Inducing Effective LDs
In this lesson we are going to get into some techniques myself and SD have used numerous times to induce LD with a great measure of success. These techniques are entirely my own; I am yet to see them being used anywhere else.
The methodologies came about entirely by accident and through observations of my environment {both mental and physical} either immediately from waking up from an LD or taking note of certain things before one was initiated that I would remember afterwards.
Some of these techniques are particularly effective at inducing a WILD even from a heavily fatigued state of mind. In fact, they seem to work better from this state.
Before I begin though, a quick word on the “cheats”:
.
Drugs and Alcohol
Many people suggest explicit substances such as drugs and alcohol can have a
negative effect on ones ability to LD. While I was never big on anything harsher than marijuana, I cannot specifically remember ever having an LD experience whilst under the influence of such a substance.
I am generally skeptical when it comes to using drugs to initiate an LD.
This is mainly because I believe they distort the mind too much to make becoming lucid whilst in the dream state feasible. I have had friends who have used LSD and DMT to try and initiate an astral projection.
I sincerely advise against it.
All it seems to have done for these people is given them a fast tracked ticket to the mental health ward of their local hospital. Though, I suspect the LD/AP thing was really more of an excuse to justify their addiction to these substances.
If one has not taken the psychological preparation necessary, then they are leaving themselves open to all sorts of trouble.
This is of course, my own opinion.
Alcohol, is different for me. Whilst I have never had an LD under its immediate influence I have had many LDs during the hangover recovery phase the day after a major bender.
I have actually used alcohol to deliberately try to induce an LD in this manner.
Though it seems to work better when I haven’t had LD as an intention. Be warned though, the level of alcohol needed to put you in a state of such dissociation from the body could be considered lethal by many people’s standards. It is also for this reason, I really don’t recommend it as a feasible avenue to LD.
However, if you are planning on indulging in it quite liberally, I see no reason why you can’t give LD a try when you are lying half comatose in bed with a blanket of regret over you to keep you warm, as you tell yourself “never again”.
You might as well try and get something out of the annihilation of brain cells.
I have noticed it is particularly easy to tune into non physical chatter whilst in bed and still reeling from a particularly bad hangover. I am not trained in psychology, so I will skip going into my opinions on why this would be.
Non Physical Chatter:
Whilst we are on the subject, I feel the need to mention some things I have noticed in regards to non physical chatter.
Whilst not necessarily LD related I believe they are worth experimenting with.
The most noticeable is the way pressure is applied to the head when one is about to fall asleep.
I have found that there is a correlation with me lying in such a position that most pressure from my pillow presses on the top, middle right part of my head, and having strange “visions”.
A common theme is what appears to be a very vivid movie real of an unfamiliar cartoon.
It is in a similar style to the old Felix the cat cartoons. A similar cartoon has been mentioned by members of the occult/LD community, and by SD.
I have also noticed that if I fall asleep lying down with my head on my propped up elbow, then there is potential for audible chatter that is clearly not related to my own thought train.
There seems to be a grey area of conscious awareness where this chatter is at its most extreme.
An effective method to “catching it” is to count up to 5 minutes; when the mind is preoccupied with focusing on the counting, it is incredibly easy to notice when the chatter appears because it completely derails the counting.
“The Emerther are scared to death for many reasons that lead back to the human race”, “Japan has nothing at the edge of their chasm”, “Please be careful” are examples of the things I have heard whilst in this grey area. It seems to correspond to the M Band noise mentioned by Bruce Moen.
Diet and Exercise.
I have been asked if there is a correlation with diet and LD, and honestly I can’t say I have really noticed anything to be that beneficial.
This is not to say there isn’t an eating plan you should try, more so that I just never bothered looking too deep into this aspect.
By all means if you find someone who suggests something an eating regime specifically to induce LD, then give it a try and get back to me on how it went for you.
In saying this though, my most intense period of lucid dreaming was when I was working out on a regular basis with a goal of getting fit enough to join the Defense Force.
At the same time I was also eating quite healthily, so it is hard for me to tell if my heightened level of lucid awareness of the dream state was because of the exercise, the diet, or both.
It could have been a result of the location for all I know.
I can’t give a definite in this regard. What I do know is that my diet and exercise regime is no where near as healthy as it was, and my lucid dreaming ventures have taken a nose dive.
Hopefully I’ll start getting back into it when my youngest is a little bit older. I am curious to see if my forays into lucidity start to come back a bit stronger under a healthier lifestyle.
What I did noticed with two rather potent LD experiences that happened only a few nights apart is that I had some sort of spicy chicken dish followed by a dose of sugar.
There appeared to be no correlation in “healthiness” with these foods; one was a lean Thai curry with a portion of cake for dessert, the other was standard hot and spicy KFC followed by a typical sugary drink from that food chain.
I suspect it has to do with the chemical change from the chili/ sugar content that is registered via the subconscious mind whilst in the dream state. I suggest exploring this avenue further and experimenting with it if you are game enough.
Thought Placement:
Many DILD techniques involve the use of “reality checks” to help stimulate the sub consciousness mind into becoming lucid.
These basically consist of a series of checks you do each day whilst awake which hopefully carry over to the dreaming domain and allow you to come to the realisation you are lucid. “Am I awake, am I asleep?” that sort of thing. Similar to me throwing my bass guitar in the pool.
In the movie Inception, Leornado DiCaprio employs the use of a spinning top as a reality check. He spins the top and if he is awake it eventually slows down and falls over due to the lack of centrifugal force.
The tell that he is still dreaming is that it continues to keep spinning unencumbered by the lack of physics.
I recommend watching this movie.
It not only is a good representation of LD in general, but also highlights the importance of being psychologically ready before undertaking extensive voyages into the Lucid planes.
In the movie, DiCaprio’s wife ends up killing herself because she believes she is still dreaming and needs to wake up, despite DiCaprio insisting she is already awake and back in the physical reality.
Another thing Inception portrays really well is the layering depths of dreams one may delve into and how time becomes distorted in these other “dream worlds”.
When you get good at LD, it is easy to get carried away and start going deeper and deeper into a dream within a dream within a dream.
You must learn and employ your safeguards so you know how to properly get back from such a maze.
This may sound somewhat silly, but believe me, I have been trapped in lucidity for “years” only to wake up to find a single night has passed; it can really fuck you up if you are not prepared for it.
Another thing to be aware of is that it can be quite depressing visiting an LD Utopia only to have to wake back up into this physical plane.
Expect a readjustment period of at least a few days.
Thought Placement for DILDs
Through my observations I have found that there is a correlating timeframe that thoughts can be used to stimulate the sub consciousness in the dream state.
This came about by having dreams with elements that I could pin point back to a very specific time of having that thought element during the day time.
It appears that around 10 to 10 and a half hours, and half an hour before going to sleep (not just going to bed) are prime times for instilling thoughts about doing reality checks and lucid dreaming.
Of course, this means having a strict bed time schedule and understanding how long it actually takes you to get to sleep once in bed.
The Dream Blanket
I have a book written by a guy with Native American blood that talks about the shamanic practice of “shapeshifting”. The Art of Shapeshifting by Ted Andrews.
It is essentially about using dances that mimic certain animals and special talismans for remote viewing and lucid dreaming purposes.
While I never got into the dances, one of the talismans I found curious was a blanket that you drape across you every time you are consciously trying to LD.
The theory by the author is that every time you have a LD you subconsciously imbue this blanket with dream energy, which eventually makes it easier to lucid dream, as you connect with this energy when fall asleep.
The dream blanket is considered so sacred by him that he suggests locking it up within a special chest and not letting it come into contact with other artifacts lest it becomes tainted by their energy.
It must only ever be used for Lucid Dreaming.
I tried using a piece of expensive silk fabric for this purpose but it was not clear if it had any profound effect.
In saying that, I have noticed it takes awhile to build up “LD momentum” if the blankets are changed from ones I have been using during periods with many LDs. Purple and blue colored linen seems to work the best.
The Pillows:
Did you end up buying a triangular {right angle} shaped pillow? If not, don’t worry too much about it.
Some regular pillows that are quite “puffy” with a good puff to density ratio will do just fine.
Try to avoid ones that are so puffy that your head falls right through them though.
The reason triangular pillows are good is that they wrap around the entirety of your neck and give you’re the head the support it is going to need when undertaking the main LD inducing technique, the hanged man pose.
You can get by without it, but I have found one side of my neck quickly gets quite fatigued without this support base from the pillows.
If you are using standard rectangular pillows, their arrangement will be crucial to whether or not the technique works, and it may take quite a few adjustments to get them “right”.
I hope you have been practicing the stillness of the body meditation, because you are going to need it for the next part:
Onto the techniques
The Hanged Man Pose:
Over the many years I was engaging in LD, I started noticing “commonalities” between when I would have an LD and the arrangement of my body when waking up.
The most notable of such commonalities was a particular pose I usually {not always} found myself in immediately upon waking from my LDs.
Curious, I began experimenting with this pose.
I would take a few minutes after awaking into to it to study it in depth without moving, then try to recreate it whenever I’d go to bed to try and initiate an LD.
More often than not it would work for both DILDs and WILDs.
In fact some of the most vivid LDs I have had have been from using this very pose. I explained it to SD and she began using it, and reported that it works quite well for her.
As far as I am concerned, this is the secret to initiating an LD.
The pose itself is quite easy to get into.
The difficulty, however, comes when trying to remain in it without moving. Hence why the practice of the stillness of the body is crucial to mastering it. And hence why pillow arrangement is crucial to its correct use.
Five minutes after getting into this pose I guarantee every ounce of your being will be telling you to move into a more comfortable position; It is an incredibly uncomfortable position to be in.
It is not as if you are going to be doing yoga or anything.
It is more that you will be stretching certain muscles and placing weight on your body in a way that you are not used to.
You need to just suck it up and lie there if you want it to work properly.
Hopefully, after a few weeks you will automatically start taking up this position as you sleep.
So how do we get into the pose?
Well, there is a reason I call it the Hanged Man pose, and this is because it is similar to the Hanged Man in the Tarot deck.
Traditionally, this card depicts a man hanging upside down with his arms at his side and his leg bent at such an angle so that it touches the knee of the opposing leg.
While I have used this exact pose, for LD, I prefer to alter it slightly.
Rather than have the leg bent at a 90 degree angle, simply place the heel of your right foot on top of your left when you are laying down.
If you find this too uncomfortable you can alter it so that your feet are to the side of each other.
The crucial thing, though is that the two must be touching.
The arms can either relax at your side or be placed upon your sternum; that latter seems to work better.
Keeping your back flat to the plane of your mattress, you then need to bend your head to the right so that your right ear is completely covered by your pillow.
Aim to create a “seal” around your whole ear so that no air can escape.
Again, I have found the triangular pillow makes this easier to achieve.
I am not sure why this works so well. I suspect it has something to do with unbalancing the inner ear or something to do with redirecting the flow of energy through the body, which are picked up in dreamtime.
One thing I know for certain though, is that it gets results. Provided you can keep it up.
The Tennis Match Scenario:
This will consciously carry you from an awakened state through the transition into the dream state and on into the Void Space if done correctly, regardless of your fatigue level.
In fact, most of the WILDs I have had have been from utilizing this technique, or a slight variant of it.
Consider it a cheat code to getting into the void space.
To understand why it works you need to understand the way consciousness “collapses” back in towards the pineal gland as you enter the dream state.
This is a complete inversion of the consciousness you use whilst engaging in physical reality whilst awake.
If you are successful with this technique, you will experience this inversion.
It works particularly well when you are fatigued to the point of being in danger of falling asleep within minutes of your head touching the pillow, which is why I like it.
I used it quite a lot when I was working a full time job as an assembler in an electronics factory.
I was getting up at 4:30am and getting home at 6pm, completely exhausted, and yet it still worked.
So if this sounds like your sort of lifestyle, I recommend trying it.
You start by visualising a tennis match between you and an opponent.
It has to be a first person view on your part. You need to visualize this as if you are actually there, playing tennis, with the net in front of you and the racket being held in your hand.
It can’t be from a third person viewpoint.
Pretend it is your opponent’s turn to serve.
I find it easier to visualize slow serves that gradually build in pace, but if you are too fatigued just go right on to the fast serves. You need about 5 seconds worth of unbroken, vivid visualization of your opponent smashing the ball as hard as they possibly can.
Repeat the visualization with the ball flying past your head.
After every 4th or fifth hit, make the ball hit square in the middle of your nose.
Hopefully, in your fatigued state, your mind will automatically keep replaying the scenario, and eventually start believing it is real.
The goal is to have it react with a surge of adrenaline as the ball hits your nose, thinking there is a very real possibility of your nose being broken.
This surge of adrenaline, I have found, is just enough to awaken you back into a conscious understanding that you are almost asleep.
At the same time, your consciousness “locks” onto the ball, and is projected back in towards the pineal gland the same way it collapses into the dream state.
Because the adrenaline has made you lucid, you consciously witness that transition before the adrenaline disappears.
The speed of which consciousness enters into this transition is what I term as “the velocity of consciousness”.
From my experiences, this velocity can be anywhere between the speed of a properly served tennis ball to that of a bullet.
I suggest experimenting with different scenarios that involve different speeds, to see if you can find something that works better for you.
A variant of this technique I found also works well is by imagining a fast orbiting satellite near a planet that you “spin” off its trajectory and have it hit you.
In my case, it was a dodecahedron spinning about a tetrahedron; both are heavily related to occult philosophy. They are platonic solids.
The Velocity of Consciousness and the Void Space.
The speed at which your consciousness inverts and falls back through pineal gland will dictate how deep one falls into the void space.
I mentioned in the previous lesson that distortions will come into play and that these distortions will dictate how successful your lucid dream will be.
With a high velocity of consciousness, one risks penetrating too “deep” into the void space where the distortions are at their most extreme.
The tennis match/ orbiting satellite visualization seems to instill consciousness with a velocity so that It can reach a shallower level of the void space.
Coming from sleep paralysis on the other hand, the distortions can be anywhere from mild to extreme.
These distortions will last only whilst in the void space, but they have the potential of completely destroying the lucid dream.
The reason for this is because it takes an incredible amount of visualization willpower to be able to create a dream; all focus must be put towards this end.
If the mind is busy dealing with using it’s visualization resources trying to neutralize these distortions, then proper dreamscape visualization cannot take place.
Unfortunately I have no remedy for when these distortions are at their maximum.
I have rarely been able to make it past this stage when they are, and the times I have, my dreamscapes have been a random mess of corrupted data.
Even the most basic of dreamscapes become impossible to visualize, and movement within them becomes even harder.
Don’t feel disheartened if these distortions ruin your LD. This happened to me more times than I can count. Perseverance is the only way through
Dream Creation From the Void Space:
Dreams created from the void space are not standard dreams, and neither are they typical LDs.
When done properly, one can exhibit almost total control over what appears in the dreamscape, and can use this for exploration of the non physical worlds.
Many experts will suggest this is astral projection, other experts will claim that LD cannot be used for such traveling or that it is really just a trick of the mind and you are not really “traveling”. My personal experiences suggest differently on both accounts.
To create a dreamscape to this extent you MUST take control of the distortions before the intent to create a dream even comes up whilst you are in the void space.
The reason for this is that to create a proper dreamscape takes an immense amount of will power and conscious focus.
If majority of that focus is spent dealing with the distortions after the dream has been created, your dream will not be stable and will “fall apart,” waking you up in the process.
Strong visualization practices to counter the distortions are the only thing I know that works, hence why you don’t want the distortions to be anything other than weak.
Once confidence of dominations over the distortions has been gained, there is a certain trick to being able to create a stable dreamscape.
Remember, you need to be able to think of all of this on the fly – you won’t have time to try and process and remember it all from scratch, so I suggest running through the process multiple times so it becomes automatic.
Rather than start surrounding yourself with items you wish to be present in the immediate environment, I have found it more beneficial to visualize the extremities of the particular scenario – if your eyes were functioning in this state, it would be equivalent of creating the objects you can see at the horizon.
The next trick is to switch your attention from this horizon onto the area encompassing a few meters around you without letting it collapse.
This is where the level of the void space you are in comes in to play; if you are too deep into it, close to the depths of the basement, you will be met with distortions in your visualisations which will “attack” them and ultimately collapse the environment around you, resulting in you waking up back in the physical world.
It takes great practice to be able to create a dream environment like this, then switch to populating it with whatever objects or people, smells etc, you desire without it collapsing, but it can be done to the point one can experience the same sensations they feel utilizing a physical body, such as smell, touch, taste etc.
This is something I was doing consistently in my youth, almost 3 times a week.
The number one rule is that once created, no conscious thought can be allowed to be given to the structure of this environment, as this will also cause it to collapse; you have to just create it, and “know” it is around you and move straight into and interact from within it; if you find yourself focusing on one particular thing during the creation stage, you need to quickly find something else and use that to anchor your dreamscape, and you keep doing this until it becomes stable.
You can then manifest a dream body if you wish, or continue to operate without one.
Once stable, the dreamscape can be interacted with just like any physical environment (but more profoundly).
This is the art of applying velocity to consciousness; once a dreamscape has been created, consciousness can move about in it simply by picking a point and focusing on it, much like with astral projection.
Time and space become irrelevant factors, as one is immediately “teleported” to the point of imagination, hence why the control of one’s imagination is such an important factor.
Just as the infant must learn to use its legs to walk through its physical environment, so too must one learn to use the points around them to move within their lucid environment.
By having an idea beforehand of what sort of dream environment one wants to build, and an object that can be summoned and moved away from the area closest to you after your horizon has been established, one can smooth out the whole process and evade the distortions before they begin to present themselves.
I have been known to “free fall” in the void for long periods of time – hours in fact – whilst I decided what dream I wanted to create, or simply for relaxation/meditation purposes.
I have also been known to switch dreamscapes as easily as one walks through a door, jumping from world to world as if I was walking into different rooms.
All this can be done via the portals when one becomes skilled at visualization practices.
Summoning the Portals:
Once you are certain your dream is stable – ie you can move about it within it fairly easily without having to think too hard to keep it in place – the portals can summoned to allow for travel to other non physical locations.
I really do not know how I learnt this; it was just something I “knew” how to do quite effortlessly whilst in an LD. A memory of sorts.
The portals themselves are quite small, and spherical shaped, about the size of a tennis ball.
They are, on first summoning of them, a pearlescent white color.
If you consider your vision straight ahead as being a flat plane at 0 degrees, the portals are off set above your vision at about a 6 degree angle from your eyes, and several feet away.
They exist in your close range top peripheral in other words, right on the edge of your focusing range.
The means for using them is this; you summon them in their pearlescent white form, then you “attach” an environment to them so they become a mini “world” display of the environment you wish to travel to.
They act as a means to contain very specific visual coordinates of a non physical location that will not be subject to the distortions in your immediate environment.
Once they have been summoned, and your visual coordinates have appeared on their surface, you then project or “jump” into them by contracting your consciousness (remember I said consciousness in a non physical state can contract and expand?).
You then come out at the location in question.
Though the portals can be used as a means to travel to one’s own self designed dreamscapes, there are other locations that I have accessed multiple times without any need to create them using the same portals; when accessed, it is as if they automatically materialize in one’s own void space without any visualisation input.
The amount of time I have spent in these particular places equates to a great deal more than someone who goes on regular holidays.
Many of them have their own portals in certain places that access other parts of the other “worlds”, so that, ultra dimensionally, they are all, in some way, linked together.
The portals can allow two way access by using the expansion of consciousness method rather than the contraction method, but I will cover this in the next lesson.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
According to all the “experts”, China is a polluted wasteland of child workers, trash, poor unsanitary facilities, and gloom. Well it is not. I had to take a business trip into a heavily industrial zone in the Guangzhou industrial corridor, and here’s my story and pictures. So this is just going to be another quick article on MM life, banging around some factories on a day trip. I think you all might find it interesting.
About the “Nay Sayers”
About two weeks ago, we had a jerk-off place a comment here confirming / stating the nonsense that China is ugly, filthy and corrupt. He provided his “expert” status by prefacing his comment that he taught in medical universities for ten years, twenty years ago.
Ah, that standard boiler plate; “being an “expert” because he was teaching in China for ten years”.
He’s not the first, and won’t be the last. You can make good money having a small “cottage industry” churning out hate-China articles. They pay $1000 per article as of this year. Just follow the template. But you know, I saw through all that.It’s “easy pleasy, lemon squeezy”. So simple a child could do it.
Three reasons…
Six month changes. Anyone who has lived in China KNOWS that it changes every six months. I mean it. It changes so friggin’ fast here it is amazing. If you are gone for ten years, then you are clueless about what it is now today. Heck, ten years ago people still used paper money. There weren’t any drone police, robot scanning didn’t exist, no one knew what a QR access was, and no one conducted thermal scans!!!!!
If we compare China’s 31 provinces with the 214 sovereign states that compose the “international community”, every Chinese region has experienced the fastest economic growth rates in the world. -UNZ
Talking Points. Don’t give me all the hate-China talking points. The comment read like something from the “National Review”. Mix it up some. Don’t regurgitate talking points. After all I am HERE, inside of China reading you trying to convince me of things that I can verify by sticking my head out the window.
Lonely guy. Anyone who has lived in China for ten years and didn’t find a partner and get married is a truly miserable person indeed. It’s not impossible, just highly unlikely. Which says something about your personality, personal body care, hygiene, and social skills. If you cannot build a relationship in China, after one year, you have a problem. At ten years; you just have to be one Hell of a seriously disgusting person. Especially when you are SURROUNDED by attractive marriage age university women.
The trip overview
I had to visit the factory as it is a “new” factory that replaces our normal factory for a New Zealand customer. This factory needed to be instructed on what quality points and checks needed to take place to make the part.A day trip was in order. Drive up, visit the factory and have lunch, drive back. The distance was roughly comparable to driving from Boston to Albany, New York. Not close, but not too far either. The factory was near Shaoguan. You can see it at the top of the map below…
Factory location.
The ride up to the factory
"You must live on the coast, the inland is terribly polluted."
The trip itself was pretty uneventual. We traveled for about four hours. We rode up major highways, crossed massive bridges and went through long tunnels to reach our destination. In all cases, please check out these embedded videos or their associated links to get the “full” experience. It’s almost as good as sitting in the car with MM getting there. video 46MB
Arrival into the tiny village
All of rural China looks like this. It’s an entire nation of skyscrapers. This, believe it or not, is just a tiny, tiny village. video. 69 MB.
Arrival at the factory
And this is what it is like. The factory sits on the edge of the tiny village, and so we just pulled in and went up to the front gate. Video. 32MB
What the factory does
The factory is a casting and machining operation. They cast the part out of stainless steel, then they machine it, and finally check for quality and box and ship. Casting operations are typically dirty everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you are; the United States, China, Afghanistan… a casting factory is hot, dusty, dirty and greasy. Here’s an American casting factory in Cincinnati, Ohio…
American casting factory in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Machining operations are better, but not by much. Usually they include polishing operations and the like that typically result in dust and grime everywhere. These are hard core, basic operations, that made cities like Pittsburgh and Detroit famous. But we are not in America. We are in China. And, you know, things are different here.
Out of the car and into the factory
So we parked outside the gate, and met the factory boss at the gate who did the mandatory Coronavirus QR scans, the GPS positioning history, the temperature checks, and supplied us with fresh face masks and we went inside. video
Frenzied pace at the factory
" China employs slave labor, child labor, and indentured poverty stricken people who are yearning for freedom and democracy to unchain them from their shackles..."
Here’s a video that I took from outside the QC building. Sorry it’s kind of boring, but it illustrates the pace of life here. It shows that people are not upset, worried or working a frenzied pace. They are not afraid of losing their jobs on a layoff on Friday, or having to scramble to make ends meet. The factory, by law, must provide them with three free meals a day, free housing, free wifi and television access, and free transportation to and from town. Do they look like they are all yearning for American “freedom and democracy”? video. 14MB
This and that
While my engineer took care of the details, I hung out in the office, drinking tea and smoking cigarettes. We had a nice lunch, and then continued on our work. We ended up inspecting all of the parts, and then then left satisfied for lunch.
Dimensional fit checks.
Of course, I would check in with him from time to time.
All parts must meet the specifications on the drawing, but not all the customer requirements are listed in the specifications.
Lunch
"...starvation and famine are rampant inside of China. It's just that the evil CCP regime won't allow people to see the truth."
We broke for lunch. As always, the factory hosted us and we ate in a private room (which is normal in China). I had a few beers. They wanted to give me a bottle of red wine or 52° white wine for myself, but I declined. Ugh! Then about half way though the meal, I remembered to take some pictures. Because, after all, I did want to record this visit for MM. So I took pictures of the food mid-meal. We ate well…
Shellfish.Local steamed fish in a nice peanut / ginger sauce. It’s eyes are covered by the garnish.Greens.Pigeon. Tasty little buggers, but hardly any meat.Shrimp and snow peas with sweet cashews and sesame. A real favorite of mine. The white leafy things are lotus, not onion.
Inspections
"Child and slave labor is rampant all over China."
We spent the rest of the day inspecting the product. As you can see the factory workers were inspecting and packaging the product for shipment.
Rework and inspection.Rejected parts.
Final packaging
"China only makes cheap Wal-mart junk. We don't need their bullshit."
The approved parts were recorded, marked and packaged by the ladies int he factory. Everything was 100% inspected to print from the customer. Here’s what that looked like…
Finishing up.Packing the parts.
Conclusions
After all this, we hopped into the car and drove home. I arrived home, and immediately found my home to be in the kind of chaotic shambles that only a two-year old can accomplish. So I helped feed her, clean up, bathe her and put her to bed, then I churned out a post on Affirmation Campaigns. And this was my day. When I woke up, I opened up my normal news feeds to discover that Yahoo! would not longer be accessible inside of China, but used my indexes to see what articles they were pushing. And low and behold it was non-stop hate-China fest. I guess they wanted a piece of that 300 million dollars from the United States federal budget to push that narrative. Whores for money. Sheech! But you know, there are better things in this world. Like this Rufus doggie that saves his master… video 4MB
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my China index here… China .
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
And now for some amusing history. I like to believe that the world is full of interesting tales, histories, people and events. Yet many of these things are hidden from view. It’s treated as just some arcane knowledge that lies hidden in an attic trunk, or the garage of a long dead relative. Just waiting there, so that one day, an inquisitive young ten year old (boy or girl) would venture into that dusty realm and explore and discover treasures worth appreciation.
My curiosity was sparked by this vintage advertisement. Which makes me wonder if future historians will believe that everyone in the 1970’s wore swimming clothes when they operated a computer.
Computing in the 1970’s.
And speaking of the past. Have you ever wondered what modern Russian people think of the KGB and the days of the fading Soviet Union? We, it’s interesting, they think about it a lot. And there are some interesting meme’s floating around. Like this one…
Russian starter pack 1980s
An Anzio 20mm rifle. They’re legal to own in the US
For when you really need to take down an armored vehicle. Legal to own in most States.
An Anzio 20mm rifle. They’re legal to own in the US.
Good Debt vs. Bad Debt
Good debt: you buy a house. You now own the bank $300,000 and after your loan term you end up paying the bank $400,000 after interest. It took 30 years to pay that debt but since houses went up in price your initial $400k spent is now worth $500k.
Bad debt: you see this nice new TV at best buy. It costs $3k, but its top of the line. Now, you don’t have $3k to drop on a TV, so you put it on the credit card. It takes you ~3 years to pay it off @ 20% interest. In the end you will pay about $4k for the TV, and in 3 years time that TV will most likely be worth 1/10 of what was paid.
The idea that you need to avoid all debts is not practical to most people and not really good financial advice. The exception are people who can’t handle the responsibility of credit (which tend to be the people who get this advice, and tend to be younger people) or people who have jobs that are too inconsistent to keep up with regular payments (which tend to be poorer people).
Johnny Depp was in a wedding band back in 1982
Well, we all have to start somewhere.
Johnny Depp
What I really wanted when I was a boy
I didn’t get it though. Sigh.
A totally cool floor
Well, at least I think so. Anyways.
Cool floor
Married with Children
One of my favorite television shows of the 1980’s.
A Stop at Willoughby
The Twilight Zone is known for the weird, the macabe and the dark. However, this episode isn’t so black and white. Well, the show’s physically still in black and white, but in the case of Gart Williams, a tired and overworked advertising executive, life is a nightmare and The Twilight Zone offers relief every evening on his train ride home. Williams pictures an idyllic society, one that he feels at ease in. “A Stop at Willoughby” is about man’s search for paradise. Some call it heaven, Williams calls it Willoughby.
“A Stop at Willoughby”
The OTS-135 12.7mm Revolver: For when you need to blow a hole through Neptune’s rings
A bit over-kill. I would like to see the holster fro this monster.
The Hopping Vampires (jiang shi) are a type of undead creature found in Chinese folklore. Although its Chinese name is often translated as ‘Chinese hopping vampire / zombie / ghost), its literal meaning is ‘stiff corpse’. These creatures may be identified by their attire – the uniform of a Qing Dynasty official. Additionally, the jiang shi is recognizable by its posture and movement. The arms of these creatures are permanently outstretched, apparently due to rigormortis, and they hop, rather than walk.
As a result of the stiffness in their bodies, there are many ways to turn a corpse into a jiang shi, and as many ways to defeat them. These undead creatures appear in quite a number of Chinese films.
What are Jiang Shi?
While most jiang shi share the same type of attire, bodily posture, and mode of movement, variations also exist among these creatures. For example, some of these beings look like normal humans, while others are a little more decomposed as a result of being dead for a longer period of time. Yet others have been depicted with sharp teeth, long nails, and emitting a green phosphorescent glow. In some versions of the story, jiang shi are said to be able to grow stronger, thus allowing them to acquire skills such as flying and transforming into wolves.
How a Jiang Shi is Created
There are apparently many ways for a dead body to turn into a jiang shi. For instance, according to one version of the myth, a jiang shi is created when a person suffers a violent death, for instance, suicide, hanging or drowning. Such deaths cause the soul to be unable to leave the body, thus resulting in a reanimated corpse.
Another belief is that a corpse may become a jiang shi if it is not given a proper burial. For instance, if a burial was postponed after death, a dead body may become restless, and return to haunt the living. Another supposed way of a corpse turning into a jiang shi is that it fails to decompose even after burial. Corpses that have been struck by a bolt of lightning or hopped over by an animal (particularly cats) are also said to turn into this undead creature.
Some Truth to the Story?
Stories about the jiang shi are not entirely without basis in fact. During the Qing Dynasty, efforts were made to return the bodies of Chinese workers who died far away from home back to their place of birth. This was done so that their spirits would not grow homesick.
It seems that there were those who specialized in this trade and handled the transportation of the corpses back to their ancestral homes. These ‘corpse drivers’, as they are called, are said to have transported the dead at night. The coffins were attached to bamboo poles that rested on the shoulders of two men. As they went on their journey, the bamboo poles would flex. Viewed from afar, this would look as is the dead were bouncing on their own accord.
It is from here that rumors about reanimated corpses began. Initially, it was speculated that the ‘corpse drivers’ were necromancers who were able to magically reanimate the corpses of the dead. Under the supervision of the ‘corpse drivers’, the dead would hop back home.
This was done overnight to minimize the decay of the body. Additionally, travelling at night meant that there would be a lower chance of encountering the living, and meeting the dead is considered bad luck. For added measure, a priest with a bell is said to lead the procession, thus warning people of their approach.
How to Defeat a Hopping Vampire
The jiang shi are commonly said to come out at night. To sustain themselves, as well as to grow more powerful, the jiang shi would steal the qi (life force) of living victims. The living, however, are not entirely defenseless against these creatures. There seems to be several ways to defeat a jiang shi, these include:
the blood of a black dog
glutinous rice
showing it a mirror because it fears its reflection
chicken eggs
throwing money on the floor (they’ll stop to count it)
the urine of a virgin boy
holding one’s breath
sticking a Taoist talisman on its forehead
a rooster’s crowing
During the 1980s, the jiang shi was a popular subject in the film industry of Hong Kong. While these undead were often featured as antagonists, they have sometimes been depicted as more human-like, and at times even served as comic relief!
…
Now that was fun huh? Well, we’re on a roll. Let’s keep a rolling.
This is the complete PDF of chapter 9 of the amazing work “The art of electronics”. It is provided free with no encumbrances. No registration. No credit card “to verify if you are human” and other bullshit methods to squeeze money from you. It’s presented here for fellow geeks and mad scientists to enjoy.
PDF of Chapter 9 ; VOLTAGE REGULATION AND POWER CONVERSION. HERE.
It’s being done intentionally in case anyone was wondering.
I see Gold and Silver are trying to break out.
There’s a sign all is not well in Koo Koo land right there.
Inflation is killing us, eating at our buying power.
I saw an article last night that I am too lazy to find at the moment showing that Shadow Stats compared what the official inflation rate is compared to how they used to calculate it back in the 80’s and it would be right about 15%.
Anyone who has recently bought groceries or fuel of any kind has seen that with their own eyes.
I also saw where Homeland Security is still pushing the Domestic Terrorism button.
Standing on it actually.
TPTB would love nothing better for someone to snap and start shooting the place up so they could start with the Purge they already have unwrapped and sitting on the table waiting.
People are quitting and getting fired left and right over the horse shit OSHA enforced Vaxx Mandate that we are all waiting to see some Black Robed Nazgul’s say is perfectly legal when anyone with a lick of sense can see through like cellophane.
It’s either because [1] the Government is incompetent beyond rational understanding, or [2] they are criminally complicit in trying to destroy the lives and families of Americans. Either way, the USA is very toxic right now.
Other comments…
Just seeing a few holes in the grocery shelves, but nothing serious. Gas is just under $4/gal (premium), and ammunition is outrageous when you can find it. Help wanted signs everywhere with some restaurants short-staffed to the point of drive-thru only. If Waffle House can only have one server and one cook, shit is baaad. Same staffing shortages in retail as well. It’s like 10% of the population just left the planet. Just wish our local government retards would vanish. New residential developments left and right. Wondering who is going to pay those high prices for a house. I’m hoping the asshole turning a corn field into a subdivision about 1/2 mile from me loses his ass. Life seems to be normal, but even the wife senses “tension” (her word) when she’s out and about for provisioning. I’m too old to wait too long, so whatever is going to happen I wish it would pop so I can have a little fun with it.
The fight in Donbass is one of the major world’s flash points alongside Syria and Taiwan—where U.S. provocations threaten a major war with China.
If the West forces a military confrontation with Russia in Ukraine, it can be sure it will face one with China over Taiwan simultaneously, neither of which it has any chance of winning.
The Russians and Chinese have forged a partnership against Western, primarily U.S. aggression in the political, economic, and military spheres.
“Idiots in the Pentagon Are Pushing the U.S. into a Military Confrontation with China over Nothing,” Says Former Top Policy Adviser
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley claimed last week that China was close to a “sputnik moment” due to its successful test of a hypersonic missile. However, U.S. space-based early warning systems can detect hypersonic missiles, marking them as no threat at all.
General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned on Wednesday, October 27th, that China’s development of a hypersonic missile system is “very concerning,” calling it “very close” to a “sputnik moment” that triggered the space race during the Cold War.
Sputnik was the first artificial satellite launched into low Earth orbit in 1957 by the Soviet Union, which sparked the space race between the U.S. and USSR.
Theodore Postol, professor emeritus of Science, Technology, and International Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a former top policy adviser to the Chief of Naval Operations, says that the Sputnik analogy advanced by General Milley is off base.
“The launching of Sputnik,” Postol said in an interview with CAM, “signaled at the time that the Soviet Union was able to compete with the U.S. in space and had been a surprise.” However, in the case of China and the testing of a hypersonic missile, U.S. intelligence agencies were “already aware about it and knew that China is very advanced in science and technology.”
The hypersonic missile, furthermore, “does not threaten the U.S. population in any way or provide China any military-technological edge.”
This is because the U.S. has “extraordinary space-based early warning infrared systems with the ability to detect hypersonic vehicles as they descend into the atmosphere and become heated to very high temperatures.”
General Milley’s statement, according to Postol, reflects how “idiots in the Pentagon” and political appointees are trying to “push us [the U.S.] into military confrontation with China over nothing.”
“Pushing us into military confrontation over nothing”
The space-based early warning system can see the hot spots of the hypersonic missile that’s moving when it dips into the boundary between space and the upper atmosphere. The exhaust from the hypersonic vehicle would also be recognizable.
According to Postol, a more real threat to U.S. national security are ballistic missiles—that Russia and China both possess—which are more accurate and launch balloons in space that radar cannot peer through and detect. The balloons are decoys which in frictionless outer space are very hard to distinguish from the actual warhead.
The U.S. military also cannot defend against cruise missiles that the Russians and Chinese have in their arsenals.
Testing the hypersonic missile, according to Postol, may provide “a statement from China that they are a technological competitor to the U.S.,” but it will “have little or no meaning in terms of adding significant nuclear-strike capabilities.”
“Someone gave Milley false information”
Postol says that he “does not think that Milley is a liar, but believes that he was provided false information from someone within the U.S. military or intelligence agencies and didn’t know any better.”
According to Postol, “Milley is both an unsophisticated consumer of intelligence and someone who is easily manipulated.”
“A dysfunctional system” and culture that “hypes threats”
Trained as a nuclear engineer at MIT, Postol said that his experience as a scientific policy adviser to the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jim Watkins, from 1982 to 1984, “left him with a low regard for the accuracy of information provided by high-level government employees.”
This low regard has only intensified with time.
When Colin Powell gave his infamous speech at the UN in February 2003 about Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq, Postol—then a Pentagon adviser—knew right away that every line in the speech was wrong and that Powell himself knew this.
Since that time, Postol has been highly critical of the tearing up of arms control agreements like the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia reducing cruise missiles, and U.S. government investment in ineffective weapons systems that waste taxpayer dollars.
In Postol’s view, the intelligence agencies have some good people working for them, but have developed into “rigid, dysfunctional bureaucracies with weak leaders who are often politicized.”
Those who gain promotion “have their own motivations” and “do not always provide the best information.” They are “part of a culture that hypes threats,” and “provides higher ups with a storyline that is useful to the larger agenda which is to get more money from Congress.”
By amplifying threats, the intelligence agencies want to “scare people” so they will “sanction huge military budgets” and big-ticket “defense projects that often add little to national security.”
Syrian chemical gas hoax
According to Postol, the intelligence agencies deliberately deceived the American public when they claimed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out chemical weapon attacks against his own people—a claim that was adopted as a pretext for military strikes against Syria.
Postol reviewed key evidence about alleged attacks in August 2013 in the Ghouta district of Damascus and in April 2017 in the town of Khan Shaykhun in the Idlib Governate of Syria.
In the case of Ghouta, Postol said that the Obama White House presented a false intelligence report like in the Gulf of Tonkin incident that could have caused the nation to go to war.
According to Postol, what shows that the White House was lying is simple: The rockets that delivered the Sarin gas had a range of about two kilometers, roughly four to five times shorter than what was needed to execute the attack from Syrian-government controlled areas according to the White House map.
In the case of the attack on Khan Shaykhun, Postol said that the Syrian air force bombed a building—a meeting place for extremist leaders—with a supply store in its basement that stored pesticides and other chemicals which released toxic materials when it was struck.
The crater in the building had to have been caused by artillery rockets, and the scene was later staged to make it look like it was the target of a sarin nerve gas attack by Assad.
Come on, ya gotta give out some love if you are ever going to expect to receive any. video
In China, people work together. In China, people take the time to make the world a better place. I like to believe that this aspect of the Chinese people is very much a human aspect that has been bleached out of many people because their societies have become evil, corrupted by the greedy. Start now. Take charge of your life. Start now, clean up your little part of the world. Start now and make the difference.
Stop waiting on others to do things. Instead, you go forth and do them yourself. video.
Please be the Rufus. Help others. Take action when it is needed. Do not fear anything. Go forth and go great things. Video
Show some humanity. Show some understanding. Show some kindness. Be the Rufus. Make a difference in the world around you. VIDEO.
Help others. Be kind. Go out of your way to do nice and helpful things. Do not be afraid about being late for work, or getting sued, or what others will think. Take the initiative and be the Rufus… video
Be the Rufus. Seriously. Be the Rufus. Like this cab driver does… video
The following is the tenth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Below is a briefing document which equates to about 7 years worth of LD espionage into amnesia compounds by both myself and my wife, SD.
While it rehashes a few things I have already talked about, I think it contains some info the Commander will consider as being quite valuable.
I am very interested to hear yours and his opinions of it, particularly the first impression you get from him “absorbing” it.
Be warned, it is about 12k worth of words, so might take you a good amount of time to go through. There will be further documentation in the coming weeks in regards to my opinions on how LD assets can be effectively used to tackle this amnesia problem.
I also have a few questions for the Commander, but as there is already a couple of question in the document I will hold off asking them for your sake.
Part 10 – Combined LD Asset Penetration Into Amnesia Infrastructure
This is a briefing document to be relayed to the Domain Commander via Metallic Man outlining about 7 years worth of recon work into various locations by two very accomplished LD Assets – DM and SD – carried out between the years 2008 to 2015 to aid in the identification of potential abusers of the amnesia prison system infrastructure as well as the possibility of hijacked consciousness templates.
This is not a singular experience; majority of the locations mentioned in this document have been repetitively observed and experienced numerous times during Lucid Dreaming by both DM and SD over this 7 year period as well as other LD assets.
This is a unique opportunity for the Domain and MM readers to gain an understanding of these non physical locations from 2 separate sources that have been able to openly discuss these experiences on a regular basis free from the constraints of societal bias and vilification to verify them.
This document is to function as an addendum to a personal request by the Domain Commander for me, DM, to undertake lucid espionage into such compounds, as relayed to me via ex-MAJestic Agent MM in a personal email.
Given that a fair understanding of my background in LD has been given to the MM readership, I must point out that SD is at a very similar level of experience in LD to me – if not better – and has experimented with it almost as much as me.
Note that SD has been able to view a similar consciousness sorting mechanism as described by MM through utilizing her LD skillset. Also note that while I have agreed to help the Domain in their effort of identifying the amnesia machinery, my loyalty is ultimately to the Elder Guardians and their approved alliances first and foremost.
This is understood. -MM
My willingness to help the Domain comes from the idea that the goals of these two organizations are aligned; to put a stop to the amnesia machinery which will ultimately allow the extraction of members of each organization who have become trapped in the “earth prison”.
Anyone involved in such an effort is to be considered a friend by me for at least the duration of this project.
Just as the Domain are responsible for the 3000 members of their lost battalion, I am responsible for the 20k+ consciousnesses that came here at the direction of the Elder Guardians for a similar retrieval operation.
Therefore the Domain have my permission to alter my non-physical body to whatever extent they deem necessary provided it is to benefit this same goal and provided I am allowed to retain 100% awareness of the process, regardless of how painful or uncomfortable it may prove to be.
However, the Domain must not in any shape or form alter any aspect of my body {physical or non physical} that has already been altered by The Elder Guardians or their alliances without prior consent from that same organization.
This is understood and agreed to. -MM
This is to ensure that I am still able to carry out my lucid obligations to the Elder Guardians and the aforementioned consciousnesses I am responsible for. Ultimately the Elder Guardians have right of authority when it comes to any aspect of my physical/ non physical self.
I am optimistic in my belief that such a disagreement of circumstance will be extremely unlikely, given that our goals are so aligned.
However if I am wrong, in this assumption the Domain are of course welcome to approach me directly should they feel the need to persuade me otherwise.
There is an understanding that shared alliances can be mutually beneficial to all involved as long as we all agree to work within the agreed to frameworks. For instance, I agreed to a life-line involvement in MAJestic, not realizing that I would be working with The Domain. Then, I needed to reaffirm my agreements with them in order to proceed with them. -MM
I am putting in a formal request to the Commander that the Domain keep me updated on any missions carried out into these non-physical locations by either them or their associates, via MM if he so allows it, or personally if that is a more appropriate course of action for them.
This is understood and agreed to. -MM
I am also requesting any aid the Domain may be able to provide to either myself or SD that would prevent both physical and non physical forces impeding us in our operations to further gather intelligence via lucid dreaming and astral projection based avenues.
I believe this a fair compensation for the information contained in this report, though I will let MM have the final decision in whether it is or not. If he disagrees I won’t argue.
From what I understand, they will remain neutral for the most part, but will assist (if they are able to do so) if asked by one of the irregular assets directly (though the means I have provided.) -MM
If, however, the Domain are able to provide such assistance I will be able to more effectively devise an offensive stratagem into these targets.
It is my intention to penetrate deeper into these facilities when opportunity allows for it regardless of the dangers present therein. Understand this is a lifelong goal of mine that I have held since long before even stumbling across MM.
It is not my intention to disrespect the Domain or offend them in any way shape or form. Like MM, I take these assignments seriously and the terms I have laid out are solely to protect aspects of this operation I know to be on track to dismantling the amnesia mechanisms.
In saying that, I am committed to combining resources and using my LD skillset to tackle the amnesia problem whenever possible.
This is understood and agreed to. They will provide "reasonable" assistance provided the request is "reasonable". They will NOT make a judgement on the need or utility. Instead, in this venue "reasonable" refers to their ability to do so, given the specific circumstances involved. If that makes sense.
To put it in my own words, they will help if they are able to, and will not judge if whether or not you need it or not. They have limitations. -MM
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The Experiences:
Reality brainwashing is a very heavy theme present within many of these combined LD experiences, and is suggestive that the amnesia prison system has indeed been taken over or is still in operation and in some parts functional at the very least.
The Amnesia operation is either still in operation, or has been taken over by other interests. -MM
Over the years both myself and SD have been able to gain a detailed understanding of how these non physical locations are linked via a substantial network of egress portals and consciousness mazes, which are seemingly buried in layer upon layer of non physical “realities”, or planes exhibiting a different density to our physical one.
The conclusion we have both come to is that this system is designed to disorientate many consciousnesses during sleep/ death and control them to a very, very high degree through an MK Ultra type arrangement.
We have also gained an understanding of how consciousness doping agents are seemingly being used to keep a consciousness docile, submissive and under control whilst in these non physical facilities.
My experiences with the Elder Guardians suggest this is done en masse to the population of earth whenever they go to sleep, and again highlights this consciousness brainwashing theme that suggests the prison system is still in operation.
Given what we have experienced first hand, it is unlikely any consciousness would be able to resist this domination without some form of assistance, as the doping agents appear to be administered immediately upon entering the non physical environment.
"...it is unlikely any consciousness would be able to resist this domination without some form of assistance..."
Any efforts at “evading the light”, in my opinion, would have to include some kind of therapy to be administered during physical life to help break through that consciousness doping I assume is also undertaken upon death. I will submit a plan to MM later on I have to help rectify this particular problem.
"...Any efforts at “evading the light”, in my opinion, would have to include some kind of therapy to be administered during physical life..."
The volcano island I infiltrated which was recently mentioned in the LD task callout by MM was only one of what appear to be many places where such reality brainwashing/ false memory implantation, breeding programs, consciousness doping, and torture is taking place, according to mine and SD’s many recon assignments.
Many of these facilities take the form of “schools” – and are called this by their administrators – that are heavily guarded by armed soldiers that exhibit a very Nazi SS Officer/ authoritarian like behavior.
They call the act of undergoing brainwashing to “go and study”.
These schools exist within multiple different planes; it is exceedingly difficult trying to pin point them to a specific one.
The general theme is that if you get caught conducting lucid espionage into any of these locations, with complete memory of the physical world, you get targeted for either…
a) ejection from these locations by these guards or
b) capture whereby a specialized form of torture tailored specifically to make you forget them is administered.
This torture involves the use of electrocution and being probed with sharp objects, sometimes the former being administered through the latter.
It is strictly forbidden to talk about any of the other non physical worlds whilst in these reality brainwashing schools, and anyone doing so is immediately reprimanded and hushed by these guards.
This includes those in which past life memories begin to surface.
Those who are not part of the administration are treated like typical prison inmates and segregated into small groups based on gender and age.
Given that myself and SD were able to relate our LD experiences to each other on an almost day to day basis, we have been successful in retrieving memory of such scenarios that otherwise would have been left erased.
One of us will begin with a description of the experience, which will trigger a flood of memories for the other, who will then finish the scenario with an exact description of what took place.
Hence it is unlikely, in my opinion, that we are just implanting false memories within one another. It is my assumption that we are recalling parts of each other’s lucid dreams that we have both been active in.
It has been very evident to the both of us that the administrators of these locations do not want us aware of them or bringing such information back to the physical world.
We have experienced many failsafe mechanisms to make sure this doesn’t happen, including [1] amnesia “street lights” (designed to keep certain sections and blocked from access), [2] swarms of entities that “scrub” particular locations to keep out non authorized “visitors”, as well as [3] being chased through multiple worlds by entities resembling “suits” or “MIB” (specifically to stop one of us helping the other regain our memories).
I have yet another LD Asset {#3} part of my contacts who has also been chased by the MIB during LD.
SD and I have been fortunate in that we were able to evade and escape most of these efforts to some degree due to our LD skillsets.
Unfortunately for the administrators of these locations we also both started building up a tolerance to the consciousness doping agents being used on us, which I believe was in part due to help from our handlers.
We started regaining a level of control of our consciousness whilst doped, which allowed us both to view the processes of what takes place under the “care” of the prison administration.
It should be noted that the assignments undertaken by us and mentioned in these documents were extremely psychologically demanding; these were extremely distressing situations we found ourselves in that tested us to the very limits of our mental resolve, even with an awareness of our physical bodies and a higher awareness of the non physical planes.
At no point should anyone ever try to replicate any of these experiences whilst in LD without proper psychological preparation.
(In our case) We had help!
It should also be noted that SD has undergone the same astral body tampering the night after the Domain Commander first opened up a comms channel with MM (the same night I underwent mine – it was the exact same procedure; it felt like something was being “welded” into our astral bodies).
She also has a history of interaction with other non physical entities whilst in LD, and has been able to operate from a similar state of higher consciousness as I have previously mentioned.
Her forays give a bigger picture of the block put in place to control consciousness at death.
Given the nature of our assignments, it seems that some of these locations are home to non physical refugees trying to escape capture of some sort, presumably by the earth prison administration.
They inhabit worlds that could be considered less than third world by today’s standards.
According to what has been told to SD by some of these refugees, the displacement of them is due to a large scale non physical war that happened many thousands of {earth} years ago.
The premise of this war centers around the idea that those in charge of these facilities are trying to create “astral super soldiers” by taking the best attributes of certain “races” and splicing them into a single being.
This astral splicing is what I refer to as the “breeding programs”, as it corresponds with SDs experiences in the rape camps, again of which there appear to be many of these camps in active operation ruled by guards that exhibit a very similar behavior to that of the Nazi’s.
My own experiences suggest something similar and that there are special assets who can operate outside of temporal tracing apparatus; ie chrononauts that can slip through the non physical planes without being monitored by even the most technological advanced species.
I suspect these are what I call “suits” or MIB and specifically target anyone who exhibits high navigational control of the non physical planes via LD? AP. If they catch you, you instantly wake up back in the physical world.
In the context of MM terminology this would equate to those who can initiate an MWI slide at will without having to worry about sticking to certain pre birth/ master templates; they are ghosts that leave no footprint of their non physical travels behind.
I suspect whoever made them is the same faction who has taken control of the earth prison.
I also suspect these “suits” have something to do with the Psaigreen. Any information the Domain can supply on that particular group (the Psaigreen) would be much appreciated.
It is on the list -MM
The methods of astral body tampering used to create these super soldiers SD and I have witnessed so far are: .
Similar non physical body splicing techniques employed by the Domain but without the intent to escape the prison
Forced sexual interactions between heavily doped male and female captives. Males are injected with a secondary drug that amplifies their primal instincts to the point that they become incredibly violent and aggressive.
The removal and implantation of foetuses within the womb of pregnant and non pregnant women.
The idea in all cases is to create hybridized offspring with DNA containing the best non physical traits so that access to certain non physical areas may be obtained.
It appears astral body DNA acts as a key to certain non physical areas.
The Main Facilities:
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While the locations mentioned in this document are numerous, there are several facilities that stand out to me as being important to keeping up with the consciousness brainwashing agenda that I suggest the Domain pay particular close attention to.
The most notable for me is the facility I was able to gain an understanding of during my last experience with the Elder Guardians.
This was a facility run by a military faction at the ultimate direction of an ET Commander (possible Mantid or Mantid Prime – 10% surety) with human operators, specifically for programming and preparing consciousnesses for the Earth prison experience after they go to sleep in the physical plane.
Facility operated by (possible) Mantid Primes with human operator staff. -MM
According to the information given to me by the Grand Elder and what I experienced:
The physical eyes are used by the operators of the facility to gain real time data of what consciousness is experiencing whilst engaging in the physical “reality.” This data is then used to smooth out any bugs in the program they expect the consciousness to follow.
When a consciousness memory cache approaches full, the programmers issue a command to “send it to sleep” in the physical plane. Eventually the consciousness gives in and goes to sleep.
At the same time it is heavily doped with the doping agent to keep it in a very zombie like state.
Whilst under the influence of this anesthetic, the consciousness will be transported into another non physical body that is kept within, I assume, a holding room in some kind of clear gel like substance, completely naked.
This body will then wake up, still completely under the influence of the anesthetic, and still in a zombie like daze with two guards at the ready.
These two guards escort this body containing the doped consciousness through a thick, sideways opening steel door and lead it down a metallic hallway about 30m in length.
As they are walking, a 3D holographic environment is broadcast around the consciousness. Spatially, the room is no longer two walls separated by a distance of a few meters, but an entire landscape dependent upon what the programmers desire the consciousness to experience. The doped body is then led through several extremely traumatic scenarios designed to keep it from recognizing where it is and to keep it holding onto the idea that the Earth based physical reality is the only one. The trauma part of the simulation is completely erased from memory. I am unsure if this simulation takes place entirely in the mind of the subject, or if the hallway itself aids in this holographic environment. I assume at the very least that the hallway communicates directly with the consciousness in question via wireless means.
The doped body is led back out of the simulation. After it is switched off, the two guards then lead it to an alcove next to the door at the other end of the hallway that acts as a decontamination chamber. The naked body is then showered and scrubbed free of the gel substance before being led through the second door, still naked.
A team of consciousness programmers – between 10 to 20 – analyses the reality dataset of the consciousness in question using a room full of computers. This is a monumental task with several days worth of downtime while new programming is coded to allow for consistent integration back within the physical reality. I suggest watching the series Westworld as it is an extremely accurate portrayal of what I experienced (I had an LD of the first episode a few years before it came out).
8.a) During this downtime period the doped body is kept under the influence of the anesthetic and is very closely monitored by the two guards who become its personal handlers. It is allowed out of the facility to be used for slave labor until the coding for the fresh programming is complete, whereby it is brought back in.
8.b) Special cases where the dataset reveals inconsistencies detrimental to the consciousness containment operation are examined on a case by case basis, by the 2IC Human Commander. In my case I wasn’t allowed out of the facility, but was instead led straight to another room containing a chair with an egress portal into a physical reality that was in its very first stages of design. This physical reality construct was called the “Test Rig” by the Human Commander, and I was brought here because the Commander noticed I had been talking to someone (the Grand Elder) “off record”, ie without it being logged in my dataset.
The doped body is usually then led back through the metal hallway and made to undergo another trauma simulation before being led directly back to the holding cell where it is put to sleep and consciousness is then transported back into the physical plane body in preparation for “waking up”. I was directly told/shown this by the Grand Elder.
Very similar to what I witnessed in the consciousness programming facility. Instead of a map the large screen showed raw consciousness programming code data as well as real time video of what my eyes were seeing, and body vitals etc. All the shit you’d expect to find in a hospital room was somehow implemented into this main screen. Bear in mind I was mainly looking straight on towards the other wall after being decontaminated; everything to the left of me was sighted in my peripheral, so the angles may not have been so sharp. I have a vague recollection of the screen being curved.
Original image provided by DM was unable to be extracted, so I substituted this image instead. They are both very similar. I do not know why I was having such a difficult time extracting the original image. -MM
Notes:
The programmers of this facility hold information on how non physical bodies can be programmed to interact with multiple physical reality constructs. I suspect the human Commander also has access to other similar facilities.
There are about 10 computer terminals in this facility that are used specifically for these programming purposes. These computers are able to directly interface with consciousness and hold extremely valuable data.
The ET Commander is kept insulated by the human operators by a viewing window that separates the main programming room from the ET’s own personal space.
I do not know if other ET’s were present in this room as it was a very quick glimpse gained in my peripheral vision whilst under heavy doping.
It could also be a bullshit memory.
I would assume that this ET Commander is in charge of programming the physical realities whereas the humans focus solely on consciousnesses coming in and out of the constructs, but do not quote me on this.
My conscious awareness kicked in after coming through the door that led to what I assume was the body holding room, in the middle of a trauma simulation so my recollection of the hallway is foggy and confusing.
I have no actual recollection of the holding room.
I assume the doors I came through were connected to an elevator, but I cannot be sure.
There is also the question of entrance to the facility; I do not remember seeing any possible access ways in the main control room, which is why I suspect that an elevator system was at the opposite end of the simulation hallway.
If that were the case I would assume up would lead to ground level and down would lead to the holding room.
Otherwise perhaps the entrance to the facility was underneath where I was walking, which explains why I never saw it.
The facility itself was located in a world that seemed to be a direct quote of Airl’s description of an Old Empire establishment with allusions to Ancient Egypt throughout the city:
“Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the "Old Empire" are "untouchable" and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth.”
These are the exact sorts of people who were being subjected to the Earth construct via this facility.
Others included those who were openly opposed to the Totalitarian regime of those politicians who were in power.
Question for the Domain Commander: Are they absolutely sure that the Old Empire has been eradicated in this sector of the physical/ non physical universe? Because intelligence gained from this experience alone suggests they are still very, very active. Going by Airl’s description of the Old Empire and everything the Grand Elder told me as well as what I experienced, I am apt to believe this was the Old Empire and not just a wannabe mimicking faction.
I will inquire. Initial response is that it appears that there is something going on that differs from the initial intent. This needs to be investigated further.
It is easy to jump to conclusions, and assume that it is "Old Empire" operations still under the control of Mantid Prime, or that some (pro Domain) Mantids are working with "free" humans in constructing escape bodies for general population egress. Many questions remain unanswered.-MM
A very big effort on the human Commander and his programmer’s part was put into making sure I did not remember any of what took place in this facility.
The only reason I remember any of it was because the Grand Elder kicked me awake when the drugs started taking me.
He was telling me to take notice of the things I have mentioned in this document. You owe this section of this report to his insistence on making me pay attention.
Please tell him thank you from me. -MM
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The Test Rig:
The server containing the Earth based physical reality appears to be contained within the Test Rig which is itself a VR construct within the consciousness programming facility .
This is in the form of a large “brain” that is made of Ethernet like cables.
These cables are able to extract consciousness data through what I equated at the time as being inductive coupling ( I am a qualified electronics tech, trust me on this assertion); they are wound as tight coils that pick up the magnetism coming off conscious thoughts contained within the server and direct this energy back to the military controller’s mainframe in the form of real time {analogue} data.
Think of this like joining an online gaming server; each player must log on to the main server through their various consoles.
The AI brain in this case is responsible for the load out environment the players all synch into; their consciousness require their own consoles in order to “play” and are thus kept off site, somewhere else.
My guess is in the holding rooms or back in the programming facility with the Human and ET Commanders.
This server brain is housed within a building surrounded by large glass windows on its ground floor on the cusp of what appears to be a university campus.
There are freshly manicured lawns and gardens in the center of various multi story brick buildings.
Through awareness of self, I was able to destroy majority of this campus.
The tell tale sign of this building is the logical fallacy of the platform one has to furs reach via the stairs to use the lift, instead of just having it pop out on the ground floor.
The brain itself was large enough to need an entire room and 1st story platform built around it.
Below this building is a compound that holds the bodies in the Test Rig that are still asleep and engaged in the Earth construct; I watched as two of them came out of the lift still in a dazed state, one of which was SD.
Unlike others who have to be plugged back into the construct to get back to their Earth bodies, I came back of my volition by summoning my own portals via LD – this meant I bypassed the programming/ trauma simulation stage altogether and is why I remember it so well.
I can walk the Domain through the whole process from the programming facility, into the Test rig portal, out the front gates of the accommodation section, through the university campus and into the Brain server building easier than I can get up to take a leak in the middle of the night; My memory of it is photographic.
The Test Rig reality construct is where the human Commander plans on migrating all consciousnesses from the physical Earth construct when it is complete.
Although no ETA was given, this was the entire reason for the development of the Test Rig.
I overheard the Commander talking to his programmers about it.
Not only overheard; he was standing right in front of me when he said it, and assumed that I was too doped to remember any of it.
I wasn’t.
I was 100% aware of everything going on around me courtesy of the Grand Elder.
This is probably the most solid intel you will get off me.
Domain Commander take notice; there is another prison construct specifically being prepared for when the Earth prison goes offline which already has some value asset’s consciousnesses uploaded to it.
They are aware that the Earth Prison is part of a much larger Prison Complex that involves multiple solar systems. Though this intel about a backup facility being constructed is new intel. -MM
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SD’s Experiences of the Non Physical body holding facilities:
Although this was not a shared experience with SD, she has awoken to very similar experiences of manipulation whilst doped, and has described similar egress portal setups like the Test Rig.
Her experiences of these facilities are much more persistent than mine.
The main difference is that in her experiences these egress portals are coupled to standard “hospital” like beds, whereas with mine they are coupled to something more akin to an upright dentistry chair.
SD has had many experiences of these facilities of which she is of the belief that there are at least 3 separate ones in operation.
One of these facilities is found within the Medieval Village world which can be accessed via the portal network found in the burrow tombs of the Island World.
SD’s recon assignments suggest that one of the main operating facilities can be accessed via astral projection from a lucid dreaming state, after moving through a substance/ plane that feels like “thick honey”.
On the other side of this thick honey bubble is one of these brainwashing facilities set out similar to a hospital rather than a military war room.
Immediately upon entering this area, guards will hunt down any unauthorized entity and eject them back into in the Earth construct.
I have also been taken to a similar hospital by black ops soldiers in a helicopter during a combined lucid dream with SD.
This particular hospital backs onto an ocean.
About a kilometer up the beach are various café’s and restaurants and an old style town nearby Brainwashing School I retrieved SD from moments prior to my initiation into the Unseen 5 (Combined LD Experience).
The retrieval of Nina Bejowski, as mentioned in my part 3 was also experienced by SD in one of her LDs (she was Nina).
In the experience I had to retrieve her from one of the brain washing schools whilst being hunted by “suits” who exhibited abilities that again suggested world line tampering in an effort to keep our consciousnesses contained.
Whilst I do not remember the layout of that particular facility, SD does.
Note her apparent “father” appears to be in control of at least one of these facilities (the one beyond the honey substance), and was present in this particular school telling her she needed to study.
Portal Theatre:
The most substantial location visited by both myself and SD is the portal theater.
The reason this location stands out is because it appears to be an egress portal hub that connects most of the non physical locations mentioned in this document.
I have personally undertaken many, many infiltration assignments into this complex, as has SD.
There are at least 7 – but potentially more – different egress portals; one in each of the theater rooms that come off the main hall, each leading to a very specific non physical location.
These locations do not change, despite coming here at different times of the year; room number 7 (or 8?) on the right side of the hallway will always take you the “Ancient Marketplace”, for example. I know this because this is the room I always took, and was the place I always came out after traveling through the portal in this theater room.
My assignments never bothered with any of the other rooms, as far as I can remember.
The rooms themselves look like standard movie theaters, though instead of a large projector screen they have spherical portals – about the size of a weather balloon – that float about 6 or so meters from the floor, roughly halfway to the roof.
The portals seemed to be contained in some sort of liquid substance and protected by an invisible “maze like” barrier; you cannot directly access them (well, the one in room 7 any way) without first navigating through this maze.
You “swim” up into the maze until you get to a point where your consciousness is sucked into it, and you come out into an alternate world on the other side, in my case, the Ancient Marketplace.
The band Primus has a live gig DVD called Hallucinogenetics with spherical TV screens on its cover that are very similar to what the spherical portals in the theater room look like.
Please refer to the picture at the top of this article. -MM
SD is confident in her assertions that these portals are used for reality brainwashing; she has witnessed consciousnesses being forced to “watch” things on the portals (which can function like spherical TVs) equating to false memories before being pushed through them, and has memories of it being done to her.
This is essentially the exact same process carried out in the other facilities.
I have broken memories of similar things being undertaken, though they are no where near as vivid as SDs memories of this place.
My most vivid memories are that I come to the Portal Theater from another place, usually the Island, am escorted down the hallway to room 7, in which I project into the portal and come out in the Ancient Marketplace.
I then have to find another portal in the Ancient Marketplace which brings me out into “The Village”, which can also be accessed via the Island Burrow Tombs.
For me, entry into the Ancient Marketplace portal always felt “necessary”; whether this is a result of being forced to think that or whether it was an intention placed there by my handlers using me as an infiltration asset, I am not sure.
Travel into this place always brought me out into the foyer in front of the hallway, in which I have a hazy memory of being led down the hallway.
My memories of utilizing portal room 7 are quite vivid, however. I know a lot of other things went on here which I cannot remember; unfortunately the only recording of these experiences I had was on a laptop that got stolen.
There is no such thing as coincidences. MM
This laptop had crucial information about intelligence I gathered here. If the Domain are serious about dismantling the amnesia/ hypnosis machinery, I would suggest directing a large portion of whatever resources they have allocated for this operation into finding this theater as it will give them not only direct access to many of the other locations, but also a very good idea of the different hypnosis regimes used.
The Island:
This island is similar to the Volcano Island in my last Domain assignment.
I am not sure if it is the same one.
I have no recollection of there ever being a volcano/ slave set up.
I believe it is a different place entirely, going by the memories of it that I have. It seems to be quite neutral ground.
For the most part, whenever I am here it is rather benign and doesn’t seem to hold any negative operations of any sort.
It has not only been confirmed by SD but also by a third LD asset {#3}.
LD egress always brings me out into a dense forest, or at its edge on the shoreline.
This forest has a myriad of pathways that twist and turn through it.
The sky is always purplish maroon, like it is stuck in evening twilight. In the middle of the forest are certain trees reminiscent of Morton Bay Fig trees with huge roots at their base, but more palm tree like at the top.
Morton Bay Fig trees
Underneath these roots are what appear to be animal burrows leading further underground.
They are barely wide enough to fit me in them.
Upon going into these burrows one soon comes out into a tomb lined with precision cut bricks.
This appears to be a sort of small chamber coming off the main room.
As you go out into that main room, to the right is a ramp leading to a much higher level (suggesting temporal displacement from the outside of the island, as it should surely break through its surface, but doesn’t).
To the left is a sunken level by a few feet containing a sarcophagus, and in that sarcophagus is a portal that leads to the Portal Theater or the Medieval Village depending on how it is used.
There is a stairway or ramp to the right of the sarcophagus (when viewed front on ) that I believe leads to another portal.
It is likely this portal is the one that leads to the Village.
I am recalling things from over 10 years ago, so correct memory of it all is hazy.
To one side of the island is a fenced off beach, and on the other side of this fence is a military like naval shipyard.
This shipyard consists of what appears to be a very large shipping container like building.
The shipping container is slightly back from the shoreline and has a concrete path the width of a road next to it that leads out into the water just in front of it, in the form of a jetty.
Back at the shipping container is a crane like device that is used for working on the {aquatic/space} ships here.
Further left there is something hidden in the water next to the concrete jetty; it is either a squid like monster or a similar looking space ship.
This same monster ship/ thing has been corroborated by LD asset #4, who is in “agreement with the consciousness evolution plan“ based on his own experiences in LD.
This is a VERY important ship; New tech that could do some cool {non physical} shit that very few people {both physical and non physical} know about.
SD suggests just back from the shipyard, on the other side of the fence we have a house, and that she has memories of me working in the shipyard at the very point where the ship is docked.
This explains why I remember it with no actual memory of stumbling upon it; it is just something I “know” whenever I come here, like knowing you own a certain type of car.
According to her, there is another section of forest on this side of the island with more burrow portals she has also undertaken.
The fence line itself protrudes from the shoreline close to the shipping container on its right hand side (when facing the ocean) several hundred meters back into sand dunes.
The sand here is quite a deep yellow color, and very coarse.
The fence itself is very high, probably about 10 or even more meters, made of typical chain link.
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Notes:
Given the Island is a somewhat neutral place with seemingly minimum life activity and that it has egress portals that lead directly to some of the consciousness programming facilities, I suggest it be used as a “safe” insertion zone for any offensive efforts targeting these facilities.
Although there may some intermittent activity on the coastline the closer one comes to the shipping container, the forest from the middle towards the other end of the beach can be considered quite safe (at least it could be the last time I was there.)
This place is my second home; I frequented it a lot in my youth; it is probably the most tame place out of everything I experienced.
Gentle request by me to the Domain: PLEASE DO NOT FUCK IT UP.
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Ancient Marketplace:
The main identifier for us is a road the width of the great wall of China, maybe even wider that curves up toward the sky in font of you.
As you move along this road, gravity changes so that you always feel like you are just walking through one axis, not two; it feels like you are walking on a flat surface.
There is always a festival here of some sort; my assignment thus entailed coming out of the portal, then walking the curve to its peak, through the crowd of festival goers whereby something strange would change their mood and see them running out of sheer terror.
This was a constant, repetitive scenario that I experienced for over a year, almost every week directly coming out of some very heavy “work” in the portal theater.
Something very weird was going here; whatever it was has been blocked from my memory.
It involved “timeline resetting”.
Very curious. -MM
Many of my assignments here involved an underground tomb (much smaller and cramped than the one at the island) set back from where one “appears” here a good way, which had yet another portal in it.
There was always some very strange things going on in this particular tomb as well, and I never really liked being here.
It was always very cramped, the passages being only 3 or so feet square.
Whilst lucid, I don’t like being confined to spaces where I cannot turn around easily; this tomb was very much like that.
Going into these confined places, you are just asking to be captured by something.
It feel likes you are a rabbit purposely walking headlong into a trap designed specifically for that creature.
You have to fight every ounce of your being screaming at you to turn around and get out.
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The Village:
The portal in the Ancient Marketplace tombs brings one out into an old medieval type village SD and I have {again} both been to.
"Instead of thinking that this is a "Medieval village", perhaps you should consider it to be a typical community located on one of the planets of the "Old Empire". The descriptions seem to match with what is currently presently found there. The only difference is that most of the current "Old Empire" communities have a far wider variety of creatures that inhabit the area, not just humans." (Note from the Commander.) -MM
It has also been corroborated by LD Asset #5 who has also been here.
There is a cluster of old derelict buildings where people dwell.
This is a place that is constantly undergoing a “timeline reset”.
It is a nice old town which is ruined by the trash these inhabitants leave everywhere.
This cluster is where the “mind mazes” start.
There is a building complex several stories high that has a bituminous road next to it that somehow slants from the bottom to its very roof.
A pink watery like substance covers the ground everywhere that seems to reset ones consciousness if it is touched, in which they then exhibit a high dose of amnesia.
The main townsite is set a level above this water, by several feet.
It feels like a nearby river has flooded the area and has covered everything surrounding the village at this low point with knee high water.
There is a sort of circuit through town one is led to taking upon arriving here.
In my assignments I knew an invisible “something” was resetting the timelines, but I couldn’t catch it.
It wasn’t until I did the circuit in reverse (reversal of time), back through the building that I was able to “see it” and finally put a stop to the resets.
It was not something I can describe with earth language. I believe this thing, whatever it was, was tampering with the MWI in this location as well as the Ancient Marketplace.
Over the watery substance, joining the buildings, are these glass like tunnel walkways.
Littered about are several shipping containers in the pink water that lead to different locations; the only way out of this area is to project consciousness onto the shipping containers and use them in a sort of leap frog manner.
None of the inhabitants here possess such abilities.
SD has recollections of the watery substance and the idea the village in general is linked to the consciousness mazes.
She has met her dead cousin here several times, who has told her that the watery substance disallows the dead to interact with the physical world; the physical world exists somewhere far beyond it, and SD’s cousin has very specifically mentioned the inhabitants of that world “know about us“ who are still alive here in the physical world.
The inhabitants of this world seem to hold a certain level of disgust for anyone who can project here from the physical world; several times they have mentioned such disapproval to SD’s cousin, who simply told them she was “special”.
Think of this like a rich man turning his nose down towards a homeless man: the discarnate consciousnesses of this world fucking hate us LDers like we risk bringing a plague unto them.
Again, the notion that this community is part of the existing "Old Empire" that is desirous of shunning felons from their community. -MM
One of the buildings near the road that slants to the top of the building complex is set out in the form of an old hospital building.
This is where SD has awoken several times under the influence of the consciousness doping agent.
In these cases she has been lucid enough to remember her body back on earth, and to realize that something is not quite right.
Unable to gain control of her lucid body, she is then walked through the complex by several guards who do not realize that the consciousness doping agent hasn’t completely knocked her out.
She has accidentally acted too “coherent” and lucid to which a guard has then poked with a sort of cattle prod to keep her dazed, though she has still been able to retain memory of the event.
There is an elevator they take her to which leads to a higher floor of the building, and upon coming out of this elevator one enters a room with many beds crammed into it.
Attached to each bed is a sort of screen used for reality brainwashing and to instil false memories.
The process is that the hospital patients are lined up, single file, in which they are administered with a heavy dose of more of the consciousness doping agent then “strapped” into these beds to undergo “study”.
SD’s description of the brainwashing process is very similar to what I experienced with the Human Commander.
So this facility is at the "old medieval village"? -MM
In other instances, SD has appeared in the town, met her cousin and walked with her to the hospital building where she has intended to go into it to “retrieve” someone {possibly me}.
In these particular experiences, several other people, including SD’s cousin, have been aghast at the idea of going “back” into this hospital as everyone here knows what it is used for, including her dead cousin.
As a sidenote SD has also met her cousin {the same one} in a waiting place that seemed to function as a sort of astral quarantine for the newly deceased to wait whilst being processed before they are allowed to pass through to such worlds.
SD mentioned this as being a sort of field free floating in the middle of nothingness or space.
SD’s cousin was met by another long deceased family member that acted as a mentor reminding her of participation in past lives (possible mantid).
Again, SD was met with great disgust by the other deceased who were awaiting processing, as they (current earth incarnations) are apparently not supposed to venture into such places.
This makes sense. If the "old medieval village" is a facility on an existing "Old Empire" planet, then The Domain should be able to identify it, find it, and render it inert. I would suggest some questions to ask to the commander about this subject to flush out the details. -MM
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A Glimpse into Death:
SD and I have a combined experience in which we were both killed at gunpoint, along with many of our friends in one location (a house in what appeared to be a European place) and both “awoke” in a completely different reality where we were incarcerated in a sort of prison.
I can remember quite vividly that this was an instantaneous “switching” of realities.
After the bullet entered my head, my consciousness detached from that body, dropped through the earth and entered a portal before coming out quite a distance above the already established (middle aged) body in the prison compound.
My consciousness then “fell” from the sky into this body at great speed in which I gained complete control of it.
I retained complete memory of the world I had just died in and everything that had happened with us all being killed.
SD didn’t undergo this complete transition; as she was shot, she blacked out before awakening in a room full of our friends from the house who no longer seemed to recognize her, with complete memory of the previous world.
One minute she was there in the house, then everything went black as she was shot, before waking up.
This is where the guards became hostile when she tried telling these people they had all just been killed.
She was reprimanded then taken to a separate torture room for being too “rowdy”.
I was in a different part of the compound to SD, but again I was surrounded by friends from the world I’d just come from who no longer recognized me.
When I proceeded to remind them of their deaths, they were quite shocked and terrified as the memories started coming back.
After asking where SD was, they told me she had been reprimanded by the guards for not abiding by their rules.
The part of this compound I was in was an outside area very close to bushland. It reminded me of where I went to high school.
This outside area had been divided into certain sections by invisible walls or barriers that seemed to be arranged in circles and squares.
The entrances to these areas were blocked by guards. One would have to walk up several steps over something that reminded me of a nearby pipeline.
You could, at times, be standing right next to someone and they would be in a completely different section.
When I got here, SD was in one of these other areas that I had to navigate through.
Her experience started in a separate small room similar to one of our old classrooms.
After being reprimanded by the guards, she was then led down a hallway next to a grassy section to another room where she was electrocuted and tortured via sharp apparatus in which she would then black out and wake up back in the physical world.
She has multiple memories of being in this torture room, suggesting she has been here more than once.
We have identified a possible insertion point in SD’s childhood where we believe her consciousness may have been migrated “here” similar to how mine fell into my body, after she woke up with no memory around the age of 4.
She remembers waking up at her grandma’s house with no memory of any of her family.
SD suggested that the only family member she even vaguely recognized in the slightest was her brother.
These memories didn’t return for some time; she had to live with an “unknown” family for almost a year, and pretend she knew them.
To me, this is proof that pre-birth templates are being bypassed in certain cases.
I would suggest these cases relate to the level of lucid control one is able to exhibit whilst in the dream state.
It is my opinion that if you get good at LD, you no longer get a template but are just flicked into another already established body upon death anywhere in the MWI.
Good theory and makes sense. This should also be investigated further. -MM
Question for the Domain Commander: do they know of any correlation between Lucid Dreamer’s an bypassing of the prebirth template arrangement upon death?
I will ask. -MM
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Singular Assignments:
These assignments were only experienced by myself, but are relevant to this document.
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The Consciousness Doping Facility:
The assignment task was to gather intelligence on a consciousness doping agent and what it was being used for.
It was carried out around 2005.
The infiltration team consisted of myself and two other males.
We were all in our late 30s/early 40s.
I am not sure if this was entirely a non physical event or not.
It is a possible memory of a past life lived during 1970s era based on the appearance of the other two team mates and weapons/ technology carried by us.
This was a “special forces” military operation and one of my first lucid assignments when I was still in high school around the age of 15/16.
The consciousness doping facility was located deep in the middle of a harsh desert reminiscent of Southern USA.
It was a military compound that was heavily guarded by armed soldiers.
It very well could have been Nevada, from what I have seen of it on the internet etc.
I remember I could feel the intense heat radiating from the sun.
The only way in was via a supply train track that cut through the desert for many, many miles.
The memory begins several kilometers away from the compound, far enough out to keep a low profile.
We had evidently followed the train track from the opposite direction, now we were stopping to discuss “the plan”.
Intelligence suggested a doping agent was being used here, but that is all we knew.
The plan was that one of us would fake a capture while the other two used the commotion caused by the capture to gain entry covertly.
We knew there was a high probability anyone being captured would be taken into the compound and administered with the drug we were trying to gain information on.
The idea was to get doped and try to keep tabs on what one could expect to experience whilst under the influence of it, as the other two figured out a way to exfiltrate out of the compound.
I volunteered for the doping.
The train came and all three of us were able to board it as it had to slow down for a security check or something; my memory of this part is hazy as very soon after that I was captured and everything went black.
I came to in a small concrete room in the compound, strapped to a chair but yet still almost completely out of it courtesy of the drug.
In front of me was a large standard projector screen and next to me was a trolley full of metallic surgical looking tools; you get the idea. I don’t know if there was anyone in the room with me or not.
I think there was.
The next thing I know my team mates had busted through the locked door. One of them rummaged through all the cupboards and the tray of tools while the other unstrapped me.
They helped me to my feet and I think they must have put me on a gurney and wheeled me out.
Somehow we were able to escape.
My memory is hazy but I think they pretended I was dead and that they were part of the clean up crew.
I have a vague recollection of being debriefed afterwards by my handlers.
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The Super Soldier Program:
The assignment task was to gather intelligence on why an “enemy” faction was altering characteristics of non physical bodies. It was carried out around 2008 – 2009 by myself with my handlers monitoring the entire event using my eyes as “cameras”.
It took the form of a double layered lucid dream. In other words, a lucid dream within a lucid dream.
Luckily, I had thought to email myself a copy of my dream journal since losing my laptop. Note, that this was several months before my encounter with the All Being and the Unseen 5 and hints at my thoughts on all this at the point in time:
15/05/2016This morning had a dream where I appeared to be sleeping (dream within a dream). I awoke (in the dream) to my body under going immense torture as something was electrocuting me. It was as if whoever it was that was doing the torture had stuck metal probes deep into my {pectoral} muscles and were administering the electricity directly into my blood stream. I remember the pain was so bad that it seemed so real, and I thought I had indeed awoken, as SD was lying next to me asleep in bed.
The electricity was coming in bouts of several minutes, and each time they stopped I remember falling back asleep (dream within a dream). When I was in this dream within a dream I remember talking to somebody about these apparent Super Soldiers that had been made, or were currently in development. I was told that what makes these soldiers so important is their ability to travel through time and that they had a very specific activation sequence that required several sequences of events to occur in a precise order {ie a sequence of MWI slides}.
The person telling me this likened these super soldiers to a send and receive email program (I think he was talking about the overall way these soldiers are activated) whereby a packet of information contains within it a sort of code specifically aimed at activating these beings, which they embed their activation status into the reply message. Once the original program receives this reply message, it scans it then activates a global code that sends all these soldiers to certain points in time simultaneously.
The most important part of these soldiers that makes them different to other time travelers/ chrononaughts is that they have been engineered so that when sent through time, no residual energy signature is erased from the timeline, making them untraceable.
I was told this has a lot to do with DNA and DNA memory, but somehow the engineers were able embed an external memory feature which makes the soldiers remember their tasks despite it no longer existing in the timeline (this is a major contradiction to time travel theory as it has been relayed to me, and as such what it means is that technically these super soldiers are not actually time travelers as they are not traveling through time, but more so circumnavigating it altogether.)
The person telling me this referred to these super soldiers as T1000s, Terminator reference. But I got the feeling they were a type of cyborg or trans-human.
I’m not entirely sure if this was “bad side” tech or “good side tech” and neither am I sure of the side the side that was electrocuting me, but I think the good guys were in the dream and the bad were doing the electrocuting, which would seem it’s possible the bad side were trying to pry this info from me.
If this is the case then it is possible such a mission has been compromised, but I don’t think this is the case as the torturing beings seemed to be getting angry that I wasn’t giving them desirable information.
What I think is that part of the activation sequence for these super soldiers is embedded in being tortured by the enemy, so that in order to keep secrecy from their own enemies they do not “know” anything until the faction in control of them triggers them, which is precisely when they are needed to time travel back to the beginning (like in my zombie dream).
It is even possible the good side, or whoever was telling me about the super soldiers, was purposefully electrocuting me because they knew it would activate me.
This dream reminded me of another one I had years ago here I was asleep (dream within a dream) on my parents bed and then had a wire wrapped around my neck which electrocuted me. I can recall having similar dreams over the years but I can’t recall much from them.
Is sleeping nothing more than a means of uploading information to 4th dimensional beings? That would make our fleshy bodies nothing more than a 3d reality monitoring program. If so, what are we monitoring? Sleeping should be a meditation point. Also these super soldier beings seemed to not be some sort of cybernetic hybrid, but the 4th dimensional equivalent. They essentially have parts of the time space fabric written into their DNA, but are a separate entity to it. This means they can always change their creation programming at will. Does this mean they are above the 4th dimensional (5D) or not? Also needs meditating on.
I have also been “given” keys and phrases by my handlers specifically to initiate consciousness time travel whilst in an LD. Note the date, again this was a few months before my All Being/ Unseen 5 interaction:
21/05/2016
This morning I meditated (about 8:30 am) to open my chakras using the usual method of ROYGBIVW for Base, Naval, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye then Crown. After opening them I was given a very strong image of the Rune Othila at 12:30pm. I meditated on this Rune with A asleep next to me so that I would have projecting the Rune into the space that he was occupying. I remember feeling as though this Rune needed to be traced from the bottom left ending in the bottom right corner, and also realized that it is actually a 2D representation of the 3D way code is generated, ascending about 45 degrees at each angle. After keeping a consistent trace of about 2-3Hz I remember several numbers appearing below it that seemed like a code to unlock a safe. I am not sure exactly how many numbers there were, but I can remember the most vivid ones being 609, in red, within a square for each digit.
I started tracing Othila with these numbers at the bottom then the next thing I knew I was remote viewing from a DNA memory of long ago of a tribal woman in the midst of the forest with an orb dangling above and in front of her. She seemed to be somehow channeling power from this orb which appeared as lightning entering her hand, which she was holding up.
The next image I got was a flight of stone steps that appeared to be in the same forest. I remember thinking that the Othila rune must be used to stimulate memory or DNA memory in general, so on realizing this I asked if it could make me remember my time traveling key I was given years ago by a Tibetan monk {during meditation}, but threw out by accident. I was suddenly aware of another being I was talking to who was asking if my wife knew about this, to which I replied she didn’t. Randomly I was given another symbol which seemed to activate some portal/ stargate and then when I was not expecting it I was shown my time traveling key with a brief flash. At that moment SD came in to take photos of Aiden, and we could see a blob of energy on my side of the bed.
Consciousness Mazes:
Both SD and I have experienced the consciousness mazes multiple times, though hers have been from an outside perspective of it whilst mine were from within it.
I surmise they are solely for “entertainment purposes”.
They take the form of strange games or mini worlds one has to progress through to find a portal which takes them to the next level.
They are extremely confusing and often times have “cheat areas” that allow access to the next levels in other levels; you can progress through several levels only to run into a block whereby you have to revert to the lower levels and probe them for the hidden areas which allow access pass blocks at the higher levels.
Access to these hidden areas is gained by going against the commonly laid out “pathway”.
The catch is, every time you change a level, you lose all memory of what you are doing, and the crux of the game seems centered around trying to continuously regain this consciousness awareness that you are in this game and remembering the levels you have progressed through in order to find the hidden areas.
It seems that other “players” are collected as you progress through the levels.
I will start off alone in Level 1 and run into these players throughout the levels, then by level 4 there is a group of about 5-8 of us.
Of this group I know that they are all presently incarnated on earth and we have history in different “worlds” together; we all know each other in the non-physical planes and have been meeting in these games quite frequently.
I suspect these mazes are around 12 to 13 levels deep, but I have only ever made it to level 8.
According to SD there is no end to them.
The first couple of levels up to probably level 3 I have experienced numerous times in the exact same way.
There is an epiphany moment when you realize the correct way of navigating them.
After level 3, memory of the game becomes exceedingly difficult to regain to the point where the only way to progress is to work as a team and extract “clues” of the previous environments from each of the players.
In almost all instances, I am the one who initiates the first memory of prior levels which kick starts off others memories and from this we can develop a plan of how to tackle the current level.
The game itself is psychologically taxing; by level 4 cracks start to develop in the psychological disposition of the other players, and by level 6 people are proclaiming their inability to deal with it any longer and their willingness to just give up and go back to living in physical reality free from the memory of the games (think Cipher in the Matrix).
Another problem is that the players and their decisions affect progression through each level; it is as if a code is written into the way the scenario unfolds and only allowing it to unfold in the correct manner will unlock the portals.
The progression through each level for me is always the same.
I operate from a completely lucid perspective the whole time (upon regaining memory anyway).
The highest level I have reached is Level 8, whereby I have been convinced I am breaking my way out of a coma and that my real body is actually strapped to a chair somewhere in some kind of MK Ultra like torture chamber; I can almost see the room the chair is in – it appears to be the same room where I volunteered to be captured and doped.
Much of the training I underwent at the “Time Travel Towers” was specifically in preparation for these mind mazes; I have memory of completing that training and coming to this exact realization.
It is connected to the Portal Theater and my assignments in the other worlds, I am sure of it, though I cannot remember the specifics of this connection beyond level 1 starting at the Village.
I suspect what I am doing in these games is unraveling the brainwashing put in place at the Portal Theater.
The order of the levels, according to my memory of them, are as follows.
Level 1: Village Walkways
You start at the bottom of the building with the bituminous road next to it that goes to its roof.
There is a time limit.
I get the feeling something is chasing me and I have to be continuously on my toes. One has to try and figure out what is going on whilst constantly remaining vigilant about the environment and how to avoid the many traps and tricks lying about to ensnare them.
From my fragmented memory of the Ancient Marketplace, a similar thing is happening there.
If you get “caught” it is all over and you end up back in physical reality {possibly in a MWI slide}.
The goal of this game is hard to explain; it is like you have to progress through the glass walkways by projecting your consciousness into them, complete a circuit around the circumference of the village using these tunnels, before returning to the bottom start point.
This “opens up” a location that can be seen from one of the glass walkways that projects you into level 2.
Depending on where you move within the level, it completely changes the environment around you. If you consider the peak point of the bituminous road as pointing North, its valley pointing South, one must head off through the walkways heading East, then back around, in which they come back out at the roof of the building.
One must then follow the stairs down through the 3 or so building levels to reach the level above ground.
There is then a platform at the South East section of the building several meters away on a sort of embankment.
The only way to reach this platform is through projecting over it as it is not connected by a walkway.
This projection mechanism is one of the secrets to playing this whole game. It takes much training in learning how to use it properly, otherwise you just fall into the pink water that surrounds the area.
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Level 2: Castle Room Pit
This is one of the smaller environments.
You come out in what appears to be a very grand hallway in a castle of some sort.
There are the typical stone bricks that line the walls and floor and other banners etc suggesting it is indeed a castle.
The room is quite large probably 100x1000m squared, maybe even more.
Behind you is a solid wall and the portal leading back to the Village.
In front of you is a chasm 10 or so meters deep, and filling this chasm is molten lava.
This chasm stretches from side wall to side wall and extends for more than half the room; the only method of crossing it is via consciousness projection.
From memory the key has something to do with the walls; there is a set of invisible platforms you have to project over and use as stepping stones to get to the other side.
On the other side of the pit is a door and through this door is a portal leading to level 3.
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Level 3:
I cannot remember this level.
Level 4: River Embankment with Pods
We come out at a river mouth, at the waters edge.
Behind us the bank rises to a high wall that blocks any access back in that direction.
There is a small mud flap piece of ground that we are able to take shelter on.
The river extends out around us in every direction. On the bank in front of us there are several pod like things that are necessary to get to the other side of the river banks.
These pods must contain two people to operate.
The operational parameters are also linked via a hive mind arrangement; all players must be present in these pods in two man teams or they simply will not move.
By this stage, one of the men in the group is starting to lose it.
After being dragged through 3 levels of these consciousness mazes, being mind wiped and regaining his memory each time he decides it is simply too much for him.
He expresses his wishes to just give up and go back to physical reality.
This presents a problem to everyone else; we need his consciousness in one of the pods for them all to operate properly and get us across the river to the portal on the other side.
Some of the group try and tell him to calm down and help comfort him, telling him we just need to get to the other side of the river then we can think about his decision a little more.
It is evident they are all motivated by the need to cross the river, and that his psychological well being is the last thing they are concerned about.
Reluctantly he agrees and gets in one of the pods with one of the other group members.
The pods become operational and carry us to the other side, then we enter the portal to the Time Chamber.
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Level 5: Time Chamber
This is a strange room.
It is like a metallic platform you stand on that is surrounded by some sort of water, possibly from the river.
It sort of feel likes it is an enclosed room more than an open area like the river embankment though.
Three beings materialize in front of us, several feet in the air and in front hovering above the water.
They are extremely malevolent entities and start engaging us, but we have no where to run.
From memory, the guy who started losing it in the previous level gets hit and wiped out from the game.
Something happens, my memory of which is vague, but I believe it involves us meeting these entities attacks with full force, and a portal opens up right where they had been after they dematerialise.
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Level 6: Metallic Donut Room
This room is a circular hallway that has a single door leading into the middle of the donut, which is an outside area covered in grass probably 5m in diameter.
It is extremely small – if you ran around this hallway it would take you less than a minute to get back to the beginning.
It is cramped and can fit probably two people abreast rather uncomfortably.
There are guards clad fully in some kind of armor that reminds me of star wars storm troopers, but of a different color possibly grey or brown or something.
They have photon guns and they are chasing us around this hallway.
We are all unarmed and somehow have to stop these guards from shooting us.
Given the shape of the room and its size, it is practically impossible to strategize against these guards that outnumber us about 5 to one.
We try weaving in and out of the door into the center of the donut, not really with any plan in mind all to no avail.
One by one these guards shoot us with their photon guns, and one by one each of the group members disappear.
I make it to the donut center before being zapped. A portal appears and I pop out back at level 3
Everyone is mind wiped. I have the vaguest recollection of the various levels.
I begin comparing these broken memories with memories of the levels before.
Suddenly I remember we had just made it to level 8 and everything in between comes flooding back to me.
I relay this to the group and restore their memories, now they are just psychologically cut up as the first guy.
But now we are able to start taking notice of various things we weren’t able to the first time.
We find a cheat area which gains us access to level 4 once again, though I cannot remember anything about it.
Another mind wipe, another remembering process.
Another chance for the guy to start losing his shit and want to go back to the physical world.
The others try to stop him, again motivated by needing to get across the river.
This time I stop.
I show compassion for him.
I listen to his plea and just tell him to do what he needs to do and not to worry about us.
He heads back, feeling better that he doesn’t need to feel shamed about not making it or guilty he let the team down.
This is the second cheat access point – this time a portal opens up on our side of the river and we enter it, no longer needing the pods.
The portal brings us into a hidden room in one of the donut shaped hallway’s walls.
Lying at our feet are what appear to be a bunch of hand grenades and a button.
The button opens a temporal one way fissure in the wall and we can see the armored guards in the center courtyard on the grass through first the fissure and then the opened door, waiting for us to appear.
A portal appears, in the hallway and the past instance of ourselves appear.
Without thinking, I pick up a grenade and lob it at the guards who are now moving into tactical positions to take out our past selves.
As the grenade explodes time freezes all around the donut shaped room, except for the one we are hiding in.
We step through the fissure and are able to move around in the donut shaped room whilst everything remains frozen in place.
We take the guards guns and shoot them all.
This opens up yet another portal in this hidden room which gives us a vantage point into the time chamber of the previous level.
From this vantage point we are able to see the wraiths or entities or whatever they are waiting for us.
We are behind them.
We lob another time grenade through the portal which renders them inert, and makes another portal appear in the middle of the time chamber.
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Level 7: Cavern Scaffolding
This is a very small cave with some sort of walkway that takes you from chamber to chamber via these steel doors.
Whenever you go through the steel doors something happens to disorientate your consciousness.
This is a fairly straight forward level.
You basically just walk the walk way through a few different chambers over some rocks to a waiting portal to level 8.
The problem is though, that heavy amnesia distortions begin hitting you every couple of minutes which detract most of the group from remembering what it is that they are doing.
I am barely coherent when I make it through the portal.
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Level 8: Sex world
I don’t remember any of the group making it here.
The amnesiac drugs are in full effect and it is practically impossible to hang on to any kind sense of lucid awareness.
It’s like being dosed with a heavy general anesthetic after just downing a bottle of vodka.
I am not really with it, very impressionable, and this problem is compounded by the fact none of the group are around me to bounce the memories of the other levels off of.
This is not a pleasant place.
Sex acts are committed openly and on display for the public to see by people of all ages.
It is as normal as going to the shop to buy some milk.
It is practically all anyone does here.
It is incredibly seedy and fills one with a very nauseating feeling.
A post apocalyptic nightmare if ever there was one The portal brings you out on what should be a busy city street, but there is no traffic.
You have to walk down this street and into a building on the left hand side of the road. It reminds me of a derelict sort of broadway.
This building has a stairwell that you take to a high floor.
As you come out on this floor there are “things” going on in the background next to a door involving various people who inhabit this world.
The door is the goal, but as soon as you come off the stairs someone approaches you and propositions you.
I never made it past this point given my doped state.
Whoever it is does whatever they do to me and then I wake back up in physical reality, feeling like a piece of discarded trash – At least they seemed like they were my age.
They take the appearance of a female, but honestly I am not entirely sure that is really what they are.
I don’t even think they classify as being human.
These sorts of doped up run ins are common for me when on assignment. Ergh.
I’d prefer to be tortured any day. If the Domain have the ability to trace my astral seed, undoubtedly it would lead them to some key places.
I am sure that they can, but that might require a EBP and some further work on you. Your value is without a EBP. -MM
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Auxiliary Projects.
In addition to the above I am aware of two separate projects that are tied in with both mine and SDs lucid assignments.
As I only have a vicarious understanding of them I am not at liberty to go into them in depth.
I am leaving this as a footnote as I am aware these auxiliary projects are directly tied to astral body manipulation for escaping the earth prison in case I am given permission to talk about them in the future.
What I will say is that one of the projects is related to Antarctica and the other to 13 gates or “keys”.
Any information the Domain can supply on these projects I will happily pass on to their respective operators.
I will submit another document to MM outlining what I believe to be an effective utilization of LD assets at a later date.
Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 11 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Due to the impossibility of my ability to access MM over the last couple of days, the next few days of postings will be a bit scarce as I try to catch up and refill my MM article larder. I have disabled numerous plugins and functionality to get things working. Please bear with me. -MM
So here’s a short story to set your day straight.
The following is a nice cute story about a Tiger and a fox. It is a cute, short and interesting Chinese folk tale. It comes from the thirty-six strategies of war by Stefan H. Verstappen. I will make the necessary arrangements to post the entire PDF up on MM later, but some of the stories are just so adorable.
Chinese Folk Tale
One day a fox was wandering through the woods preoccupied in thought when he was suddenly surprised by a tiger who seemed intent on eating him. It being too late to run away, the fox had to think quickly.
Nonchalantly he asked, “Tiger why are you here, are you not afraid of me?”
“Why should I be afraid of you?” asked the tiger. “Because I am the king of the jungle,” said the fox. “Ridiculous!” replied the Tiger. “I am king of the jungle.”
“Well if you don’t believe me I’ll prove it. Just follow me as I walk about the jungle and see for yourself if the other animals do not run away at my approach.”
The tiger agreed and so the fox set off with the tiger following closely behind. As the other animals spotted the fox they also saw the tiger and they ran away.
After a while the fox turned to the tiger and said, “See how they scatter when I approach. Do you believe me now?”
“It seems I was wrong,” said the perplexed Tiger, and he sulked away into the jungle.
Summary
It’s a just a cute story that has some meaning to those that are interested in day to day strategies.
The studious kitty.
Do you want more?
I have more articles about cats in my Happiness Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This is an interesting read. I think that many MM readers will enjoy this article. In it, a remote viewer, investigated some of the administrative and entry processing centers for General Population programming and egress. Very intersting.
Honoring Bruce Moen – Afterlife Explorer and Pioneer
Bruce has completed this leg of his journey and has made his transition to the world of spirit on November 14, 2017.
In February 1996 I attended the first of two Exploration 27 programs at The Monroe Institute, a program in which participants explore specific areas of Focus 27 called “Centers”.
The following excerpt is taken from an exploration of a portion of the Reception Center called “the Reentry Station”, the place in Focus 27 human beings pass through on their way to lifetimes in the physical world.
CHAPTER 5: THE ENTRY DIRECTOR
Copyright: Bruce A. Moen, All Rights Reserved
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During our next program tape exercise our task was to explore how human beings move from Focus 27 into physical lifetimes on the earth.
I arrived first at my place in Focus 27, noticing the hanging canvas chairs were occupied as usual by people who were always there waiting.
After talking with them about the insights I’d gained during the previous exercise examining the chair and playing with the clover, it was time to leave and meet up with my group of fellow explorers at the crystal.
Bob and Ed were there waiting again when I arrived, motioning for me come over to where they were standing.
…
“That clover of yours was an interesting creation,” Bob remarked.
“Sure left me with some questions!”
“Good! A little something for that curiosity of yours to play with,” Bob laughed.
“Maybe somewhere along the way you’ll find some answers,” Ed casually remarked.
…
Then it was time to leave for my encounter with the Entry Directory (ED), the guy who supposedly knew about how humans entered lifetimes on the earth.
After taking on a charge of energy from the crystal with the rest of the group, I placed my intent to find the ED.
I shot straight up through the roof and into blackness.
After a brief sense of movement the tower I’d seen earlier, with the two bell shapes, came into view.
Very tall, it looked like a radio antenna tower with two huge bell shaped objects at the top.
The small ends of the bell shapes joined together and appeared to be fastened, horizontally, to the tower at its very top.
Stopping to look more closely, I became aware of someone standing behind me.
…
“Are you the Entry Director I’m supposed to talk to?” I thought out to the presence behind me.
“Well, let’s just say I’m one of many who attend to the operation of the Reentry Station and I can probably answer your questions.”
“I’m a member of a group in a program called Exploration 27 at The Monroe Institute back on earth. We’re all here to learn about the inner workings of Focus 27.”
“Yes, I know. Your buddy, Bob Monroe, told us your group would be coming for a tour of the place. How can I be of assistance?”
“Is this thing I’m looking at, the tower with the bell shapes at the top, is that the Reentry Station?”
“Yep.”
“What does it do and how does it work?”
“Look closely around the big open end of the bell shape at the left and tell me what you see,” the ED suggested.
“I see a flow of something entering the open end of the bell shape,” I described.
“Direct your attention to that flow and tell me what you see there,” the ED continued.
“I see a cylindrical flow of little bits of yellowish-gold light, all moving together into the bell shape.”
“Look closely at the bits of light.”
I moved closer to the flow to get a better look.
“They all have generally the same size and shape, and they’re emitting light. They look a little like cocktail shrimp after they’ve been cooked and peeled, kind of the shape of little cheese curls.
I’ve seen these things before in a place I call the Flying Fuzzy Zone.
These curls look the same, but in the Flying Fuzzy Zone they fly all around like moths buzzing a bright light. What are these things?”
“Focus your attention on them, what do they feel like?”
After gazing at them for several moments I got the precept, “I’ll be a son of a . . . those curls are people! Each one is a separate human being!”
“And?”
“They seem to be in some kind of ‘dormant’ state. Not too much activity going on in them, not much thinking. More like they’re asleep and waiting. Why are they like that, and why are they entering the bell shape of the Reentry Station?”
“Come on, follow me,” the ED replied, “we’ll go inside the station so you can take a look.”
There was a quick feeling of movement and then I was standing at the center the of the area where the small ends of the two bells joined. I could plainly see the flow of curls being compressed as it passed through this area.
“This part of the station is called the constriction,” the ED volunteered.
“This section seems to be putting the curls under pressure. Why?” I asked.
“Preparation for entry into physical world reality. The awareness of each curl is compressed here to help hold it together and stay focused in one place long enough to make the transition.”
“I’m getting the sense that compression also closes down its conscious awareness of nonphysical reality in general, including awareness of nonphysical aspects of itself. Is that a result of compressing a curl’s conscious awareness?”
“Yes. Physical world reality is a pretty crowded place. By compressing the curl’s awareness into one place, it’s more concentrated. It’s better able to focus, concentrate if you like, on its tasks and purposes once its in the physical world. Less apt to be distracted by input overload from the high level, M-band noise pressure.”
“Input overload? High level M-band noise pressure?”
“At the level of physical world reality there are presently over five billion human inhabitants packed onto a very small place called earth. Everyone living there is constantly broadcasting their thoughts and feelings into that close quarters environment. They’re like five billion little radio stations all broadcasting their own, unique talk shows into the airwaves at the same time. Those thoughts and feelings are what we call M-band noise. There are so many people broadcasting at once, all pushing their thoughts and feelings out into the environment, we call it high level, M-band noise pressure.”
“Does closing down a curl’s level of awareness by compression in the constriction section have something to do with limiting the effect of that M-band noise?” I asked, responding to impressions I was getting as I watched the curls pass through.
“It limits the curl’s ability to sense things in the nonphysical environment, doesn’t it.”
“Yes it does. You see, if a curl’s conscious awareness remained fully expanded to its normal size during and after entry into physical world reality it couldn’t function. It’s being constantly bombarded by a great percentage of the M-band noise. Finding its own memories and thoughts amongst that blaring jumble would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. At its normal level the curl’s awareness would be in a constant state of complete and utter chaos, as a result of the input overload. Such overload would make progress on a curl’s purpose for being in physical world reality impossible. The compression step of the reentry process concentrates the curl’s awareness into a very small area, allowing it to be less aware of M-band noise.”
“So compression reduces conscious awareness of nonphysical reality. But doesn’t that also make it so the curl has no memory of what happened to it or decisions about its purpose made before entry into the physical world?”
“Well, yes, sort of. Memory of those decisions and contact with the Greater Self, your Disk or Monroe’s I/There, is also almost completely blocked by the compression. You see, compression works on the level of the curl’s conscious awareness. That doesn’t mean those memories and contacts are removed or totally inaccessible, they’re just compressed into the subconscious. They are fully accessible, but ordinarily only at the curl’s subconscious levels.
“Wouldn’t be better to let curls decide whether they want this to happen or not?”
“They do decide, Bruce. Each curl understands and agrees to this as part of the reentry process. It’s not a rule imposed upon the curl by anyone, it’s part of the preparation necessary for survival in the environment. You could think of it like the old fashion, deep sea diving suits. You know, the ones with the big heavy helmet and air hose hooked to a pump on the surface. To withstand the pressure and survive while exploring the ocean bottom in the old days, divers had to wear the suit. Compression at the Reentry Station is where the curl puts on that suit.”
“I’m getting that M-band noise is somehow similar to the water pressure at the bottom of the ocean in your metaphor,” I said, responding to incoming impressions.
“Very good! M-band noise IS like the water of the ocean. As you go deeper toward the ocean bottom, physical world reality, M-band noise pressure becomes greater. Once a curl reaches physical world reality M-band noise pressure actually helps maintain compression of its conscious awareness within the limits of its physical body.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember, we are talking about conscious awareness of the curl. If the diver, in my metaphor, tries to expand himself at the bottom of the ocean he has to push outward against the surrounding water pressure. If a curl attempts to extend its conscious awareness beyond the confines of its body it encounters the M-band noise of all the other inhabitants.
Just like a diver extending himself beyond his suit and feeling the water, a curl extending its awareness beyond its body becomes aware of the blaring jumble of the M-band noise. The thoughts and feelings of the other inhabitants begin to come into the curl’s awareness.
It’s such a jumble it tends to breakup the concentration and focus required to further extend its awareness. Prolonged contact with the surrounding M-band noise leads to wandering thought trains that jump from one track to another as thoughts and feelings of others flood into the curl’s thus triggering memory associations.
After a while, curls generally stop trying to expand their awareness, since they so easily lose the train of thought necessary to do so. That’s how M-band noise pressure tends to maintain compression of conscious awareness. Some curls continuing trying to expand their awareness into the M-band noise and some of the successful ones are often labeled psychotic.”
“How can curls safely get through the M-band noise to expand their awareness?” I wondered out loud.
“By learning to focus their attention not through the M-band noise, but beyond it. If the curl learns to focus its awareness at a level of consciousness where the M-band noise is attenuated or nonexistent, expansion is much easier. Meditation is an useful, time tested method and the one you’re using seems to work pretty well.”
“The method I’m using?” I asked, puzzled.
“You learned to focus your attention beyond the M-band noise using the sound patterns of hemi-sync. Remember something in the advertising about coherent brain wave states. You learned to maintain your focus and avoid the jumble by shifting your conscious awareness past M-band noise and into states you call Focus levels. Focus 10, Focus 21 and so on are levels of human consciousness with greatly reduced M-band noise.”
“I see what you mean. The hemi-sync the tool I stumbled upon allowed me to remain in a coherent, focused state as I expanded my awareness past the M-band noise and into states beyond it!”
“You sound surprised! Hemi-sync is an adaptation of a long known technique. As for stumbling upon it, later you might want to check for filament of awareness connections between yourself and the guy who introduced that system. For right now let’s get back to the to the purpose of your tour,” the ED said cryptically.
“Okay. I’m getting that compression also causes the curls to lose memory of where they came from. It’s the reason so few have any past life memories or awareness of anything that exists beyond their present physical world.”
“Yes, that’s a byproduct of the compression. Again, compression pushes these memories into the curl’s subconscious, by definition that means the curl is not consciously aware of them. Typically, they are unable to extend their conscious awareness through the M-band noise to access ‘outside’ sources of the information either. These, so called, outside sources of information exist in awareness levels adjacent to the physical. Past life memories, the focus levels you’re aware of, lots of information sources exist in these adjacent levels of awareness. Of course the information is carried inside the curl too, but few learn to focus inward to find it there. Curl’s, compressed as they are have little if any conscious awareness of that information stored within themselves, and the M-band noise tends to cut off access to adjacent sources. Of course there are some exceptions, in fact, here comes one now,” the ED said, as he directed my attention to the incoming flow of curls.
Focusing my attention to where he pointed, I saw what my Tour Guide was referring to. In amongst all the other little curls in the flow was one at least ten times their size. It stood out as the biggest, brightest curl in view.
“Big Fish, we call them,” the Tour Guide said. “What do you get from that one?”
Reaching out to sense the Big Fish, it seemed more awake and active then the other curls. I watched as it moved through the constriction and then exited off to my right.
“Seems to be more aware and active then the others. It knew about the compression process it was going to go through and maintained its awareness while passing through it. I get that it remembered most of what it entered with after passing through the constriction,” I replied, relating my impressions.
“Big Fish have developed the ability to be consciously aware of far greater ‘volumes’ of information. They pass through the constriction losing very little of their multidimensional awareness. They’re exceptionally well suited to bringing awareness of adjacent realities, and of human existence in them, into the physical world. Many live lives in which they share their multidimensional awareness with others living in physical world reality who are lacking it. By doing so they help others become Big Fish,” the ED said, with a wistful pride.
While pondering the implications of little curls and Big Fish, something else in the flow caught my eye. There were four curls, a little above average size, that appeared to be connected together along some kind of lighted filament. They looked like shrimp on a string with two, close together, leading the way, followed by two others spaced close together, further along the string.
“Could be a family of four, or just four curls planning to act on a common purpose,” the ED Tour Guide explained before I could ask the question. When we see them strung together like that, we know they have a prior agreement about something that requires they pop into the physical world in a certain time sequence.”
“So if it was a family of four, the two in the lead are probably the parents and the next two will be their kids?”
“Yeah. And if it’s not an actual family, with parents and children, it could be just that those four have to arrive in a specific time sequence.”
That phrase, specific time sequence triggered a question, “Is that group headed for Focus 15?”
“Of course, every curl goes to 15 after they finish compression. I don’t have time right now to go into all the details of what happens from then on, so don’t ask.
That will all be covered later in your tour,” the ED said, cutting off the whole line of questions I was forming. “Groups like those four are usually tied into a cooperative effort aimed at carrying out individual and group purposes.”
“Like?”
“Like, maybe those first two have to bring a discovery into physical world awareness that the second two will later utilize. In the case of that specific group, the second curl will be traipsing through a jungle when he meets the first one, a native medicine man, a local shaman. Their combined knowledge of drugs and diseases will uncover the healing properties of a certain plant. Years later, the second two curls will meet when they each deliver research papers at the same medical conference. They’ll discover they’ve both been working independently to bring the use of the plant’s properties, discovered by the other two, into practical use. They’ll join forces to carry on their work together as man and wife. That’s when they’ll start working on the most important joint purpose for the entire group’s entry.”
“Most important purpose?”
“With the inflated egos those two have it’s going to be quite a challenge for them to learn to love through each other,” the ED said, with concern in his voice. “At least they’re got their love of humanity bonding them together. Working toward practical use of the that plant’s properties for the good of mankind is a real plus in that department.”
“How do you know all that, or are you just making it up?” I asked inquisitively.
“I’m not making it up, I know because I can read curl, and because my awareness extends beyond what you’re used to.”
“Who decided what their purpose was and what they were going to do to accomplish it? Sounds like predestination, like they have no choice.”
“Those curls made all those choices for themselves. You could call it predestination I suppose, as long as you remember they made all the decisions effecting their destinies and agreed to work as a group before they came to the Reentry Station.”
“So there is predestination!”
“Of course! They decided what they were going to do, and now they’re going to go do it. You can call it predestination if you like, as long as you remember who made the decisions,” the ED stated flatly.
“I want to know more about that string that connects them and what it has to do with when they arrive in the physical world?”
“That string, as you call it, is a filament of awareness that connects them now and will remain in place throughout their lives. You could also call it a section of a time/event line. The string is part of the process of insertion into time frames in the physical world and the Big Clock gets used as part of that process.”
“What are time/event lines and what’s the Big Clock?” I asked excitedly, hoping to learn more about the Focus 15 angle.
“I’d suggest you save those questions for your visit to The Planning Center. They can explain it better in the context of what they do there.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll make a mental note to do that.”
“Don’t worry. If you don’t remember I’m sure your Tour Guide there will have gotten the word to remind you.”
“Thanks.”
“Take a close look a the curls in the flow again. Pick out a group on a string and look real close at the filament of awareness associated with them. Here comes a group of three now, check out the area directly behind the group.”
“I don’t see anything other than that they’re connected together by a fine bright filament. . . Wait a sec . . . There’s an even finer filament trailing them. In fact, now that I can see that one, I see all the other curls in the flow have the finer filament trailing them too. Didn’t notice it before, what is that?”
“Do you remember the story of Curiosity you wrote in your first book? Do you remember Curiosity’s Probes?”
“Yes, why?”
As I waited for the Tour Guide’s answer, it hit me like a forty foot wave crashing into a sea wall and I caught insights in the spray.
“Those are Probes! Those filaments trailing each curl are their connection to their Disks, the things Monroe called I/There! Those filaments are what provide transfers of awareness between the Probe and its Disk! I saw my filament and followed it back to my Disk during a vision in the mid 1970’s. That’s how I became aware of the my Greater Self, my Disk, my I/There!”
“Glad you caught on to that, Bruce, As you continue your tour of Focus 27 during your program, I’d like to suggest you be open to learning more about who and what you really are. There’s more to learn.”
Looking closely at the filaments trailing the curls again I noticed something odd. “That group of three I saw had only one filament trailing it. Some of the other groups I see have more than one filament trailing them. Why is that?”
The ED just stood there looking at me, waiting for me to get the answer on my own. Then it hit me! “Those three curls with the single filament are all from the same Disk, aren’t they!”
“And the ones with more than one trailing filament?” the ED asked.
“Not all the curls on the connecting string are from the same Disk!”, I blurted out.
“What are the implications of that?” I asked.
“Like I said, there’s more to learn, but that’s one you’ll have to explore and discover for yourself.”
For several moments I floated in silence, trying to get more insight into what my Tour Guide seemed to be alluding to. Not getting much I decided to pursue something else.
“I’m puzzled by something.”
“Shoot.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if all curls who reentered physical reality lifetimes carried more of their memories in their conscious awareness? Wouldn’t I have a better shot at carrying out my purpose in life if I knew what it was? Couldn’t the compression process of the Reentry Station be modified to allow that to happen?”
“In some cases, like Big Fish, much of such memory remains intact and easily accessible. And there are things that can be done to help a curl move toward Big Fish awareness levels. Part of that process is the curl learning to feel what’s going on inside its awareness, becoming aware of what’s stored within it’s subconscious. That process also involves becoming aware of what’s available in adjacent levels of awareness. That’s an internal learning process all curls go through as they make progress towards becoming Big Fish. But to do that within the M-band noise of physical reality, one must utilize the emotional charge and emotional impact of events in physical world reality. Emotional impact is part of the earth school training system, part of learning to feel and become a Big Fish.”
“So remembering too much would interfere with learning, Big Fish training if you will?”
“It tends to reduce the emotional impact of events which normally help a curl learn to feel what’s inside itself. Think of it this way, if someone told you all the details of a suspense thriller you were planning to see at the theater, including the climactic ending, what would it do to a movie’s emotional impact on you?”
“If I knew everything ahead of time, including how the movie ended, most of the emotional impact would be gone.”
“And you might experience less or weaker feelings in response to what happened on the screen?”
“I see what you mean, emotional impact helps us learn to feel and so we curls don’t remember our purpose in life because it might spoil our movie?”
“Something like that. There’s also learning to use the filament connection to consider.”
“What’s the filament of awareness connection got to do with becoming a Big Fish,” I asked, not seeing any possibilities.
“Becoming aware of that connection can lead to awareness of your Disk. That in turn can lead to an accelerated opening of awareness by virtue of the information available via that connection to the Greater Self. Surely, you of all people, can see the possibilities in that!” the ED said, like I really ought to have figured it out already.
“Oh . . . you mean my vision of the Disk way back in the middle ’70’s. I see what you mean! Once I had some limited awareness of my Greater Self, and my connection to it, the pace of my growing opening picked up. Gee, you mean I’m in training to become a Big Fish?” I questioned proudly.
“Bruce, all curls are in training to become Big Fish,” he said, taking a little wind out of my sails.
Dar’s voice startled me when it cut into my conversation with the Tour Guide at the Reentry Station, suggesting it was time to return to the crystal at TMI There.
“That’s my signal to go back to physical world reality, I got so involved in our conversation I forgot this is just a tape exercise in a program. Seems like there’s a lot left unanswered.”
“As you continue your tour you’re free to keep asking questions of anyone you meet and of course, let that curiosity of yours have free rein. Feel free to come back and visit me whenever you like.”
“Before I leave, since you read curl and all, can you give me anything on my purpose during my present lifetime?”
“Sure,” he said as he flipped me a thought ball, “but you already know most of it, so nothing in this one should come as any big surprise.”
“Thanks, ED, you put on quite a tour, and thanks for this,” I said, holding up the thought ball.
“Anytime.”
On my way back to the crystal, moving through blackness, I excitedly opened the thought ball, anticipating some great revelation. It said: “You entered this lifetime as a retrieving type to recover many of yourselves and those with other Disks of origin. Most of all, you wanted to learn more about the energy called Love. Beyond telling you that, I wouldn’t want to spoil your movie!” It was signed, “ED, Entry Director.”
Conclusion
This is a fascinating look at a remote viewing session. It opens up all sorts of new terms and ideas that are new to me. I would like to find out more, investigate other books and works and so on and so forth. If any one has some links or suggestions I will incorporate what we can gather in MM so that all of us might learn and benefit.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
This is the full reprint of the book titled “Domain Expeditionary Force Rescue Mission”. There is an interesting story behind this book. It is considered a science fiction story, while the first book “Alien Interview” is not. I do not know what to think. However, it is really easy to discount the idea that there is a follow up book whenever the first book became popular. There is that “for profit motive” don’t you know.
Thus we have this write up;
A Science Fiction story based on the best selling book ALIEN INTERVIEW.
"There are several obvious reasons that The Domain, and other space civilizations do not land on Earth or make their presence known. It takes a very brave IS-BE to come down through the atmosphere and land on Earth, because it is a prison planet, with a very uncontrolled, psychotic population. And, no IS-BE is entirely proof against the risk of entrapment, as with the members of The Domain Expeditionary Force who were captured in the Himalayas 8,200 years ago."
-- excerpt from the book ALIEN INTERVIEW, edited by Lawrence R. Spencer
MM comments
I parsed the book “Alien Interview” and found it valid, real and actual. I then parsed it in great detail, and in so doing, found many answers that “clicked” or aligned with prior events, knowledge, and experiences that I have had. There is no question that the first book “Alien Interview” is valid.
I do not know about the second book.
When I read the opinions of others, I find myself questioning everything. Such as this book review here…
Fiction or Valid Disclosure?
Good book but lacked the authenticity and clarity the author claims it is which the first book “Alien Interview” had.
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The only reason I say this is that although the cover says, “by Lawrence R. Spencer”, the author claims he is not the original author. But in his first book, “Alien Interview” he credits himself as the editor only.
This is true. The first book; "Alien Interview" is the narrative of the transcribing nurse that was involved in the interview of the acquired Commander of a downed extraterrestrial spacecraft. It includes her narrative, and the full transcript of the interview. According tot he first book, she is dead. So, what is the source information for the second book?
-MM
In this book, Spencer puts his name on the cover as “by Lawrence R. Spencer” which leaves it open to suspect. There is an email address inside the book that Mr. Spencer claims the documents have come from. I wrote to this email address in the book on several occasions and received no reply. I did not receive an undelivered email notification so I assume someone got it. I am sure I am not the only person to write to the mysterious email address shown in the book. .
This opens the book up to great controversy and it has been put down by various reviewers on the internet, claiming that the author, Lawrence Spencer, wrote this book and its prequel “Alien Interview” as a kind of religious agenda, or rather, “anti-religious” agenda.
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However, there are many many people out there who have had amazing testimonies of ET contact and their stories are even more outlandish and unbelievable than the written material of these books. So to judge this book as some kind of writing that has a religious or ideological motivation is incorrect.
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I believe many people have had many ET experiences and this book coincides with the many thousands of people who have had their eyes opened to the revelations and perspectives that have changed them forever. This book and “Alien Interview” are not the authors or inventors of such concepts but rather reinforce what has already been revealed by thousands of other abductees, witnesses, and Experiencers. .
Mr. Spencer does indicate the the book is “by” him.
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However, he claims that he is not the original author.
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He claims that it came to him via email from someone claiming to be Matilda MacElroy…
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…or a Being or person that is coordinated with the late Mrs. MacElroy. .
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There is no evidence that Mrs. MacElroy actually died although she stated in “Alien Interview” that she was going to die and be put to rest in a place of her choosing. .
The book is written in the same style as the previous book which was supposed to be by Mrs. MacElroy.
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Since Mrs. MacElroy had a career military background, this book fits hand and glove to the first writings. There are some typographical errors that are claimed to be part of the original way the book was presented to Mr. Spencer.
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This book appears to be strung together as a collection of notes that barely hold together as a manual.
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Since the author cannot claim it was actually written by Matilda as it came to him via email, it has some mystery to it. There are some grammar errors and spelling issues here and there, certainly not the kind of quality of a professional writer. So perhaps these are the foot prints of the real writer. .
Never the less, it is a very good book and I found it very interesting, written with the same matter-o-fact style as the first book.
.
However, instead of the transcription style of the first book, this book comes together as a take-a-long manual for someone in the process of trying to get their pre-earth memory back. .
I was met with some very violent reactions from certain people when I tried to talk about this book and the original book, “Alien Interview”. It appears that the material appears so far fetched that it strikes anything from fear to ridicule in others who do not have any courage to stretch beyond their own belief system and self imposed science or religious paradigms. .
For anyone who wants to stretch their consciousness outside the limited box-thinking paradigm of our present reality, and for anyone who has had some kind of ET experience, whether it be abduction, observation, or for anyone who is wanting to learn something amazing of a possible pre-earth existence, this is a great eye opening book. .
I suggest the “Alien Interview” book be read first in order to keep this book in its rightful context.
The files
A MM contributor took the time to photograph the entire contents of the book and send it for me to read. These photos are below for your enjoyment.
I have read the total book in this format, and here are my impressions…
MM Comments after reading the book
Let me repeat what the book says…
This book is in no way factual. Nor is it intended to represent any factual information. This book is a contrivance of the imagination of the author. This book is a work of fiction only. It is not to be interpreted otherwise by the reader.
MM readership take note. This is a fiction. Nothing more.
.
.
Do you want more?
I have more articles in my Index titled “The Domain” here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
I have these EBP things in my body. In August or September 2021, I discovered that I could open up a comm link using them to their owners; The Domain. I was surprised when they communicated back. After a short while we honed the process and now I have a mechanism where I can ask questions and get answers. This is part of the various Q&A sessions that I have had with them. This one occurred in October 2021.
Here’s some additional questions that I have asked.
Are any members of the Domain’s “Lost Battalion” part of the MM readership?
This might be a curiosity to some, and important to others. It was asked in a question on 18OCT21. Here is the response.
Yes.
And talk about being terse! Jeeze. That’s about as helpful as knowing that there are worms in your backyard grass.
So I asked for elaboration.
It is best if the members of the "Lost Battalion" do not realize who they are at this time.
Those that view / read /respect /search for answers are on the path towards rehabilitation. But many are not ready for the answers and truth yet. Their conditioning has been far too invasive, distressing and thorough.
By their very nature they will fight against anything new or different. They will appear gruff and cantankerous at times for after all, their life on the Prison Planet has not been kind to them. As well as that is part of their very nature.
Enough said.
What do you regard as their highest truth? If there is a master key to the puzzle that we are all missing that will make the universe make sense?
Again, quick. Faster than what I was ready for.
Yes there are truths, and then there are TRUTHS. What we would regard as a "truth" would hold a completely different meaning to an person (inmate) within an artificial reality.
Humans on the earth, as well as many other creatures, are inmates.
Imagine a fish tank full of fish. There are big fish, small fish, crabs, a frog, all types of things. To them, their entire universe is that fish tank, and while they can peer through the glass, the objects in the distance are identifiable to them, but not understood by them. They are recognizable shapes, but they have no understanding of them.
That telephone on the table is just a rectangular shaped object. That light that comes on and off at times is a "natural rhythm". They don't understand them. They don't understand that the telephone is the "Bees Knees". They just don't understand.
Now, let's suppose the lady of the house waltzes in the room. She smiles like she always does, and feeds the fish with the fish food nearby, and then walks away with her gams in rhythmic motion. The fish would assume that she is part of the nature of things. That she is reliable, and dependable and that their existence depends on her. To them, she appears as a swanky goddess. To them, the "truth" is that they are part of her daily routine. It's a natural world.
But the actual TRUTH is something entirely different.
The fishbowl is a construct. The lady, as beautiful and kind as she is, is their keeper. And their very life depends on her. The fishbowl lies within a much larger universe, and there are so many things that they just do not understand about it. In fact, you can say that outside the fishbowl is a much different world. There is no stable bubbling oxygenation of water, no thermoclines, no gravel at the bottom, and no algae on the sides of the tank walls.
And if you told them this, what would it matter?
Are any of the fish going to jump out of the tank, and try to make it to the front door in the living room?
Truth is a relative thing. It depends on the person asking the question.
For the questioner...
... the truth is simple. You are in a prison. The "universe" that you see that lies outside beyond the prison, but what you observe is not what actually exists. It's something else entirely. You are not going to take a rocket ship and travel the "vast gulf of space" to another star like you think you are able. It will not be like Star Trek, or Flash Gordon. It is similar to what you observe (from afar), but decidedly and functionally different. As the universe that you view is not what it actually is. This is not hokum.
Outside the prison walls is a universe that does not at all resemble what you think it does. That's a truth that you must accept.
I have been having these images of what I once was. A Mades Escapleon. Are these perceptions correct?
Again, a personal question.
My images are a comically gnome / dwarfish / kind of lizardly elfin figure with a big belly and a kind of green and white Santa Claus style outfit. Pretty bizarre eh?
Your mind constructs images that you have encountered during this life. The constructs an image of what you would expect yourself to be. That is the case right now.
There are multiple species in co-habitation in the "Old Empire". Many resemble the images of faeries, goblins, dwarves, and so on and so forth. However the images and the presentation of what you have in popular media and literature is not the real and actual depictions of these archetypes nor is it a depiction of the societies that they occupy.
Mades Escapleon was not a human archetype. He became one when he entered General Population in fear to escape The Domain when we took over the local command and control facilities at the administration center. Your depiction of him, however comical, is actually pretty close to his (garbled. interruption. Not clear.). You would not recognize him as storybook fable type of character. But rather as a smallish, ugly businessman with an abrupt manner, and a sneering demeanor.
The administration and command and control operation for the earth planet within this prison planet is inside the moon in a large void that resides adjacent to the offset metallic hot core. We (The Domain) have taken over this facility and now use this region for our own purposes. However there are many members of the "Old Empire" that did not egress into the General Population when we seized the administration complex. they still live there inside the cavity. To you, they might appear as those fairy tale book characters.
Your office was large, and was in the most predominant structures within the void. Keep in mind that Mades Escapleon was just a singular (series of) incarnations that you maintained as a (not clear) role for his majesty (not clear / garbled / not important). You need not get too upset or worry about your past. The incarnations in the general population of the Prison planet system has changed you.
Consider these thoughts just echoes of a former life that no longer has any importance to who you are today.
The Lost Battalion living in human form. Do the Mantids interact with them?
From my previous Q&A…
“Unfortunately most humans are prevented from configuring their “stage upwards / higher form / above non-physical” bodies. This is a Mantid (sic.) directive. This is why inmates are quickly shuttled off to “Heaven”. So they cannot shape change their “migration paths / attunement centers / organ clusters” to fit other forms.”
The Lost Battalion living in human form. Do the Mantids interact with them? Or are they outside of the Mantids’ directives/supervision? I believe the Mantids supervise every human or at least monitor them at death. If so, then that suggests the Mantids know where the members of the Lost Battalion are. This drills down into some inconvenient questions, which I assume both you and the Commander is very much aware of.
The answer came in the form of sliding events, which I really don’t want to describe right now, as I am tired. And I need to get some sleep.
Think of it is a kind of layered deck of cards that you push to the side and draw off the top card, and then another appears and so on and so forth….
Yes. The Mantids (sic.) interact with all inmates in General Population. There are Mantid(s) (sic.) associated with every human (or mammal) form as this is an artificial construct that needs to be maintained while in the Prison Complex.
The forms that the Domain "Lost Battalion" were in when they were captured are not the forms that they are inhabiting now. These forms are not "doll bodies". But rather, they are specially constructed "skin suits" for use within the General Population chambers in the Prison Complex. Some are human, some are in other mammal bodies. Each "skin suit" has an associated Mantid (sic.) to maintain it, operate it, and make sure that it follows the pre-birth world-line template (sic.)
Since the Domain interacts and communicates with the Mantids (sic.) we are able to identify where the elements of the "Lost Battalion" are. We know where they exist within the Prison Complex at any moment, and we work with the Mantids (sic.) as necessary towards our end goals and directives.
The Mantids (sic.) control the "skin suits". They maintain and help follow the progression of life events along the pre-birth world-line template (sic.).
But these Mantids (sic.) are not the same as the creatures (Mantids Prime) that occupy roles within the "Heaven" that was constructed as part of this Prison Complex.
Both the Mantids (sic.) and Mantids Prime (sic.) that occupy heaven are of the same genetic classification, however they are totally different in their operational parameters.
[1] The Mantids Prime (sic.) continue to follow the "Old Empire" directives and operate within "Heaven" as if the Domain does not exist.
[2] While the Mantids within the Prison Complex work with us and are aligned with our end goals.
We of The Domain do not venture within the "Heaven" constructed sub-universe. To do so would require us to go through the electromagnetic washing of our very being and souls. So we have never visited the "Heaven" constructs. Thus we have never communicated with the Mantid Primes (sic.)
Thus, when a member of the "Lost Battalion" dies it is immediately shuttled off to the "Tunnel of Light", enters "Heaven" and is met by Mantid Prime (sic.) caretakers that have a directive to immediately recycle back with a pre-defined (nasty) pre-birth world-line template.
Then upon the General Population in the Prison Complex, "our" Mantids (sic.) take over and work with us to our end goals.
How are cats not part of the inmates!?
From my previous Q&A…
“Felines follow the same general behavior rules as humans do. Except that felines are not inmates in the Prison Planet Complex.”
How are cats not part of the inmates!? Are they visitors from elsewhere? This suggests that they are pretty advanced. In fact by my limited interaction with my feral cats, in some respects they display more human behavior than most humans. I actually learnt kindness and trust in ways which surprised me.
This was an interesting response.
(Pause.) I have to get back to you on this.
So, what will happen is that the Commander will go off and do his / her / it research or communication, and get back with me. Probably at an odd point in time.
Four weeks later. His response…
Felines, not only ordinary house cats, have a quantum makeup that differ substantially from that of the inmate archetypes that were developed when the Prison Complex was first established. You can think of it as oil vs. water, or Windows computer operating system, and the Lunix operating system. Or you can think of it as an electrical heater as opposed to a kerosene heater. It's completely different.
But it is more than that.
The feline archetype did not approve of making any inmate version archetypes. Every time an attempt was made to create a feline prison suit, it was thwarted and blocked. Not only because it was much, much harder to do, but also become the felines themselves did not want that to happen.
You cannot contain or constrain a cat. They are their own free entities, and they value this aspect of their lives in the must fundamental manner. They actually view most other forms of physical manifested life as "below them". They would not permit a "lower" species to create a genetic manipulation of their archetype.
So it did not happen.
When the first efforts were undertaken to do so, there were all sorts of problems and issues. Eventually, the engineers and researchers of the "Old Domain" gave up. They "shelved" the feline project and excluded it from the catalog of inmate skin suits.
Now, initially, they did report these issues to their superiors. Each and every time their superiors demanded that they work harder. Eventually, they decided not to say anything and the Prison Complex was opened up without feline archetype modification.
There were side projects in which archetypes were developed and failed. Eventually, the researchers told their superiors that it was not advisable as the felines would find a way to escape from the Prison Complex. This was an excuse that the upper management accepted, and so all research was filed away and forgotten. And you now have this situation that persists to this day.
Your point about trans species migrations.
Dogs and elephants etc may be equally intelligent as humans, just limited by their containers. So a dog when in a human behavior has all the same emotional and mental intelligence when freed from the limits so imposed. This suggests that emotions and intelligence is similar across specie across the worlds.
If true then many characteristics are cultural or biological. (I’m thinking your Commander can absorb the culture of humans because he has access to ALL of your memories lol. But this rabbit hole I will leave to you. For me it’s more benign than it looks.)
Trans-species migrations happen all the time. It's fairly common outside of the Prison Complex universe. However, there are limitations, and favoritism in the body selection and group quantum clusters that make a favorite type of incarnation more desirable than others.
In the Prison Planet environment, however, it is a completely different situation. The mantids in Heaven (mantid prime) make the decisions and give permissions or not to allow or not this kind of inter-specie transfer experience. Individual IS-BE's have very little say in the outcome of that request.
One of the problems that can arise is when one species, say a predatory insect species, inhabits a modified human skin suit for the General Population in the Prison Complex. Their personality will stay the same, but will adapt to the new skin suit and environment.
These old previous species behaviors, while natural in other environment could end up being toxic in the human environment. Thus it is one of the reasons why we (The Domain) put a stop to other civilizations dumping their undesirables into the Prison Complex for administrative punishment.
Does your ownership of planet Earth come from right of conquest? Some sort of Terra Nullius?
Continuing on the Q&A. This particular question was asked late at night after I finally got my young daughter to sleep. I then sat down and started the process.
We created the master universe that the Prison Complexes and it's pocket universe inhabits. We established the creatures, the plants, the planets, the stars and the entire operation of everything. At that time, The Domain was an earlier incarnation, and we all were learning and establishing fundamentals and boundaries for the universe.
We let general chaos expand, and as a result the master universe became something that we do not like to see. We held a series of meeting in this regard and decided to secure all errant elements and maintain a most basic and fundamental foundational aspect of control.
What is going on with your "Milkyway galaxy" is that we are suppressing the unstable elements in favor of unified control according to our most basic principles.
Rather than a territorial expansion and seizure of this galaxy, we are instead working behind the scenes where possible to stabilize errant civilizations. When we cannot do so, we secure the civilizations by force. This is what we did with the "old empire".
In all cases the civilizations are then scrubbed of the negative attributes and problematic behaviors and permitted to operate within a very broad set of guidelines that will prevent a relapse of dangerous behaviors.
If Earthlings are in the position of native Americans who faced annilation at the hands of the Great White Father, what do we do?
Morning inquiry.
Fear is the problem. Certainly there is reason to be concerned, as earth history is rife with stories of conquest. But the earth is a unique environment peopled with many vicious and malevolent / selfish / profiteering entities. This is NOT (there was a great vibrational rocking with this particular word. Almost like a earthquake) the norm in the "master universe".
This Prison Complex was derived and came from a particularly unique culture of war-like entities that formed a society that we refer to as the "Old Empire". So this war-like, profiteering society took their worst (and their best) citizenry and locked them up inside this prison complex. The lives that you have experienced here, and the histories that you have experienced here are excessive and extreme.
That being said, the "Old Empire" being warlike and aggressive is in itself an extreme manifestation. It's not the normal.
These extreme manifestations of society crop up throughout the universe, and that is what The Domain is active in suppressing. There are approximately two to three really problematic civilizations per galaxy, and the larger galaxies such as yours might hold from seven to twelve (or fourteen) such societies.
Your fears are rational because they are based on your known histories.
This is what you can expect;
[1] The "Old Empire" has been purged of it's "darkest" elements. It is now on the mend and is turning into a calmer, quieter and more peaceful society. Though certain elements of that society had to be forcefully amputated.
[2] By the time the Prison Complex is fully actuated under The Domain control, many trapped IS-BE's will be able to return to their former relationships and lives in the "Old Empire" or elsewhere as the need be.
[3] Prior to this happening, however, there has to occur numerous events prior to the release of the inmates.
[3A] Sentience sorting. We cannot permit those sentience's that are prone to dangerous behaviors to exist outside of a monitored area on their own. Instead they will be granted supervised parole, and observed and watched so that they cannot unduly influence their surroundings negatively.
[3B] Scrubbing of the skin suits. The attire of the entities will all have to be remanufactured to fit their natural archetypes. Obviously STS , DIS, and SFA entities (under parole) would posses "parole" skin suits, while STO entities would possess natural archetype skin suits.
STO = Service to others
STS = Service to Self
SFA = Service for another
DIS = Disjointed
[3C] Memory re-injection. We will attempt (and succeed) in the restoration of all memories.
[3D] Phased release. The members of the lost battalion will be the first major group to be released. Followed by STO individuals. Then a phased system of SFA individual consciousnesses. The last would be the very dangerous STS and DIS consciousnesses.
[3E] The Most dangerous. The most problematic entities and the highest probability of disruption / destructive abilities / and borderline evil entities would be either recycled or banished.
[3E-1] Those banished would be sent to the pocket universe known as "Heaven" which is a pocket universe within the pocket universe of the Prison Complex. There they would be locked in place and stay there until a sufficient method can be arranged to rehabilitate them.
[3E-2] Those recycled would be reduced to basic components through a system resembling the "tunnel of light" until they are rendered inert.
The questioner need not fear any of this. The questioner is slated for a phased release, after memory restoration.
If things are less dark, then how do we work or trade together?
I assume that this concerns what is presently going on earth-side and the question relates to the next few years. As such, I queried it that way. Morning probe at 9am.
The fears abound. But things will return to normal sea lane shipping, and normal levels of commerce. However, there will be a decrease in the volume of the products, the type and mixture of products, as well as the relative utility and life of those products.
This is something that is well documented on our side.
We see and anticipate a "new normal" after a seven year (or so) adjustment period.
Some nations will be impacted the most. Such as the United States, the UK and parts of Europe. Others, many others, will not be. And they will continue their lives as if the disruption was a trivial matter.
Those nations or societies that will be impacted the most will undergo severe and abrupt societal readjustments. Mostly it will be triggered by energy utility, currency or the inflation related to, and inherent and intentional balkanization of the citizenry.
Next group of questions – Some important points
If I cannot understand the question, I cannot communicate to the Commander. Further, I need to be able to understand what he is communicating. Anything that lies outside of my knowledge or experience is impossible to communicate with. We have to have a common frame of reference, and then be able to use that reference to form a basis of understanding.
This next bath of questions took me back.
Heavy in technical jargon.
A large number of multi-part questions.
Coming from a non-influencer who didn’t even bother with a singular donation.
A disregard to the effort all this takes.
As they did not at all follow my request that only one question be asked and that it be put in a clear and easy way for me to communicate to. This was the question…
Here are some late & difficult but revolution-assisting questions:
*Are Clifford Algebras with real-value coefficients a serviceable mathematical format for representation for reality?
*Is there a better type of math to use? If so, what? Otherwise:
*What is the sign aka signature (+ or -) of the squares of the basis vectors of the spatial dimensions?
*Is this a convention or is it physically significant?
*Are there other such dimensions with the same signature, e.g. “proper time”?
*How many such space-like dimensions are there?
*and what is their significance?
*How many dimensions of opposite signature to the spatial ones are there, e.g. relativistic time and other time-like dimensions?
*What can be said about their role – e.g. do they concern nuclear reactions or allow for branching time-lines?
*Are there effectively null-square (zero-square) dimensions formed from the sum and differences of pairs of + and – signature dimensions, e.g. light-cones or “conformal” projective dimensions?
*Are there null-square dimensions independent of the + and – square dimensions?
*Are null-square dimensions your home environment?
*Are there applications of null-square dimensions, e.g. portals between realms or amnesia devices?
*Does thermodynamic entropy create “Akashic records”?
*What principles relate thermodynamic entropy (heat diffusion) and information from physical histories (wave equation); are they analogous to exchanging a + square for a – square dimension, (or relativistic time for proper time, or time (t) for imaginary time (it)),
*...and if so, can this “Wick rotation” be done in both directions so as to allow passing from our physical realm to the “afterlife” and back?
16 fucking technical specialized questions! Are you fucking kidding me?
Now you know, this son of a bitch did not give me a donation, nor did he add anything to MM aside from saying that the posted art was beautiful. So what? It’s beautiful. I know that.
Duh!
Now, for these questions, I had to do some research. Then I had to understand it. Finally, I had to communicate it to the Commander in the “easily digestible form”.
Understand the language.
Understand the physics involved.
Phrase it so that I understood the questions when I read it.
Query question by question to the Commander.
Communicate that query.
Transcribe the answer.
Double check the answers for uniformity.
All in all, I figure months of dedicated study, if not years. Then weeks, to months of asking these questions.
That’s one FUCK of a lot of work.
So, I sent an email to this clown.
I said.
Listen guy, let me make something perfectly clear. If I cannot understand the questions, then it cannot be communicated properly to the Commander. Some of these questions I can ask.
And another thing. I am doing this for free.
Look at the God damn bulk of questions you asked. Do you have any god damn idea what stress I go through in this procedure. Have some fucking compassion, or at least throw a donation my way. Jeeze!
To respond to this query, I need to fully understand the question.
Remember. With information comes responsibility. You are now responsible in the dissemination of this information.
He responded.
Frankly, by all indications it seemed like you were a whole team getting paid by the word by some Chinese intelligence agency, so I gave you some of the best open-source intel I could – that 300-reference COVID origin paper on unz.com and the rexresearch.com technology archive.
I have also tried to suggest ways you might increase your rhetorical effectiveness, though it’s often hard to point such things out without giving offense.
I don’t get paid for anything myself, I’m still recovering from repeated heatstroke from labor in a SE US sweatshop and don’t have funds to spare, unfortunately. I wasn’t aware how your link depends on your understanding or the effort required, my apologies.
That’s an apology? By insulting me? And still he’s not even going to toss me money for a cup of coffee for the seven months it would take to answer his questions?
He continued…
Nevertheless, the topics of my questions could yield very important intelligence, understanding of principles behind advanced technology and even the nature of reality.
I have found them worth spending many years of study, but for the same reason it is not easy to briefly summarize them. Here’s an attempt, still too long:
***
http://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2012/07/28/transrealism-interview-with-leon-marvell/#comment-50789
[Notes on Cabbalistic significance of the whirling double cone in projecting between higher and lower worlds]
“the double-cone’s vortex form can be made by swinging a rod by its center point so that the ends describe circles” [doing so associated with sudden destructive tornado]
“Another instance of a form similar to the double-cone occurs in Bruce Moen’s exploration of what the Monroe Institute calls “Focus 27”, though the cones are more like bells or hyperboloids. He describes a large, antenna-like, horizontal structure of this double-cone form whose function is to compress souls (which he says look like cocktail shrimp or cheese curls) so that they can reincarnate without excess awareness, which would lead to sensory overload.” [expanding the center point of a double-cone into a circle results in a hyperboloid]
“Yeats had a more interesting vision of the importance of the double-cone – he saw helical gyres on the surface of the cones as tracing out the history of every mind… ‘The mind … has a precise movement … this form is the gyre.’ This was the origin of the famous lines: ‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; ….” [The poet W.B. Yeats was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the most influential group in the development of modern occultism.]
***
Geometric Algebra (GA, real-valued Clifford Algebras, a.k.a. hypercomplex numbers) gives the only mostly-comprehensible-to-me account not only of higher spatial / temporal dimensions, but of physics in general. One of the best things about it is that nearly every paper using GA explains it from first principles before going on to use it for physics or computer science. Most physics papers in other fields seem to take a positive joy in obscure math and impenetrable jargon. I’ll try here to give an even less mathematically difficult account of some of GAs implications than most GA papers.
Given a set of n mutually orthogonal basis vectors, one vector for each independent dimension, a space of 2^n quantities results from considering all possible combinations of these basis vectors multiplied together. For instance taking pairs of vectors from a 5D space gives 10 possible planes of rotation, 4D space 6 planes of rotation, while in 3D there are only 3 independent planes of rotation. (The numbers of other combinations for n dimensions go as the n-th row of Pascals triangle or binomial.) For orthogonal vectors such as the basis vectors of a space, the order of multiplication determines the sign of the result, so: d1 d2 = -d2 d1. This can be interpreted as being a rotation in the plane defined by the two vectors, either in one direction (d1 -> d2) or the other, “negative” direction (d2 -> d1).
Sums of all the 2^n elements, each weighted by a different scale factor give “multivectors”, which are generalizations of complex numbers.
Each of the basis vectors will have a positive or negative square. (Vectors’ squares are always scalars, that is, real numbers.) In conventional relativity the basis vectors squares’ signs, also called “signatures” are (+ – – – ) or (+ + + -), with the different sign from the others belonging to time. When plugging into the Pythagorean theorem, the square of time can cancel out the squares of the spatial dimensions, giving a distance of zero when the spatial distance equals the time interval (time multiplied by c to give all units in meters). This happens for anything moving at the speed of light. The zero interval is the amount of perceived or “proper” time for a light wave traveling between any two points. This light-speed type of path is also called a “null geodesic”. For any given point in space and time, there is a “past light cone” of places that could be seen from that point, called a “cone” because it spreads out as one goes back further in time. Likewise, for each point at a given time there is a “future light cone” of places from which an event at that place and time can be seen. The “cone” terminology comes from looking at 2D plus time, each cross section of the cone is then a 2D circle of points. (It’s easier to imagine the future light cone as pond ripples spreading out from a dropped pebble. The past light cone is like reversing the film so the ripples converge to throw the pebble out of the pond. In 3D, it looks sort of like glass onions turning inside-out. Placehoder: Transactional Interpretation of QM, Carver Mead’s Collective Electrodynamics) Mathematiclly the points on the past light cone are defined by the spatial separation, r, and the time-times-lightspeed, ct, so: (ct)^2 = r^2 .
Now it is possible and actually quite useful for computer graphics to add a pair of dimensions with signature (+ -) to the usual spatial ones (+ + +). The sum and difference of the extra dimensions give an alternate basis for these two dimensions, but with the basis vectors squaring to zero (0 0). These “null dimensions” are called “origin” and “infinity”. A projection from this augmented space down to 3D allows many other structures besides points and directions to be represented by vectors in the 5D space. For instance, multiplying 3 points gives a circle passing through those points, 4 points gives a sphere. If one of those points is the point at infinity, then the product is a line or a plane respectively. The other advantages of this way of doing things are too many to list here. This “conformal” scheme is actually quite easy to visualize and learn to use without getting into abstruse math by using the free GAViewer visualization software and its tutorials.
An interesting thing about the ( +++, +- ) signature algebra is that it is the same as one that has been <a href=”http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0601194″> proposed</a> by José B. Almeida as an extension of the usual 3D+t (+++-) “Minkowsi space” of relativity, augmenting the usual external time (-) with a second sort of time having positive square and describing internal or “proper time”, (which in relativity will be measured differently by a moving external observer). But if it is assumed that everything in the universe is about the same age, then they have comparable proper time coordinates, so proper time can be used as a universal coordinate corresponding to the universe’s temporal radius. This gives a sort of preferred reference frame for the universe, which is ordinarily considered impossible. In this 5D scheme, not just light but also massive particles follow null geodesics, and from that single assumption can be deduced relativity, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, and in addition dark matter, the big bang and the spatial expansion of the universe seem to be illusions.
The math is also easier than the usual warped-space general relativity, instead using flat euclidean space and having light, etc. move more slowly near mass, that is, treating gravitational fields as being regions of higher refractive index than regular space.
Quantum mechanics is also much much easier to visualize using GA. For instance, the behavior of the electron can be described fully by treating it as a point charge moving in a tight helix at light speed around its average path (a “jittery motion”, or in German: “zitterbewegung”). The handedness of the helix is the electron spin, the curvature of the helix is the mass, the angle of the particle around the helix is the phase.
Geometric Algebra is useful in all areas of physics and computer modeling of physics. GA has been successfully applied to robot path planning, electromagnetic field simulation, image processing for object recognition and simulation, signal processing, rigid body dynamics, chained rotations in general and many other applications. It gives very clear, terse and generally applicable, practically useful descriptions in diverse areas using a single notation and body of techniques.
Basic Geometric Algebra (GA) visual introduction:
https://slehar.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/clifford-algebra-a-visual-introduction/
Interactive visualization software, includes 5D (3+2D) Conformal Geometric Algebra (CGA)
https://geometricalgebra.org/gaviewer_download.html
Tutorial for CGA using GAviewer software:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265065144_GABLE_A_GAViewer_Tutorial_for_Geometric_Algebra
Thorough math/physics intro:
https://www.av8n.com/physics/clifford-intro.htm
Good old intro from the top GA study group:
http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~clifford/pages/introduction.htm
***
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wick_rotation
replacing inverse temperature, kT (Boltzmann’s constant times temperature) in thermodynamic equations with: -i f hbar (negative imaginary unit (square root of [-1]) times frequency times Planck’s constant divided by 2 pi) (both of which have dimensions of energy), converts the heat diffusion equation to Schrodinger’s wave equation (the fundamental equation of quantum mechanics). Frequency and time are inverses of each other; Wick rotation is more often expressed using imaginary time than imaginary frequency. My research shows that frequency should be regarded as primary and time should be seen as being derived from frequency.
* entropy= heat, and entropy=information: they are the same thing. Therefore since entropy always increases (2nd law of thermodynamics), information always increases and accumulates in the universe, giving a very scrambled record of the history of the universe. This can potentially be unscrambled using a Wick rotation
***
https://www.specularium.org/
Peter Carroll, noted as the originator of “Chaos Magic”, has for some years been working on physics rather than magic, in particular a scheme that uses three dimensions of time. I corresponded with him over a few months last year regarding some of the relations to GA, in particular the possibility that each spatial-temporal dimension pair would form an alternate basis with two null-square dimensions. I can’t say I understand his hypersphere cosmology or 3D time theories, but they certainly do resonate with my intuition.
*
Anyway, I hope that’s more interesting, edifying & enlightening than burdensome — you owe me nothing, of course, but perhaps it may lead to some profit for you down the line.
Just a bunch of cut and paste from the internet. Supposedly, I guess to give the impression that he knows something.
Christ. This information has to be USED. I am not some novelty for your own God Damn personal comfort and queries. I fully expect you to USE this information and make GOOD USE of it, disseminate it, and do good works with it.
I am not a novelty.
I am not some yokel that goes round and round in a hamster cage, just for some novelty questions.
I am NOT doing this easily and for fun.
It’s a labor.
It’s also painful, physically exhausting, and a chore. Thus I get angry when people treat me, and what I am doing trivially. You WILL respect me. You WILL show respect to The Domain, and you WILL behave when you visit MM. Or I will fucking get rid of you, and if you still persist, I will make it a permanent stay in the corn field.
Are Clifford Algebras with real-value coefficients a serviceable mathematical format for representation for reality?
Is there a better type of math to use? If so, what?
And the answer…
This is an insincere request made by a malevolent entity. They do not seek an answer, but rather are desirous in trying to "trip you up", "run snipe hunts" to occupy your time and labor. Any information provided will not even be read. Nor will it be disseminated or used.
Future associations with it will be problematic. It is advisable to sever all communication channels and avoid them.
…
So on Monday 25OCT21 I severed all communication with this person. I sent him a response to his comment and gave him 45 minutes to respond. I was being generous.
I am a contributor to both the UNZ and The Saker. This you should know.
You should also understand who I am and why I am doing this. Obviously you do not.
Long time readers will recognize what an insult it is to say that I work for the Chinese government. That alone is enough to send you to the cornfield.
But I am not going to do that. I think you are trivially intelligent but have the social skills of a goat.
KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH.
Your lack of perception, veiled insults, and general garrulousness is irritating to me. I am too old for this bullshit. Therefore you are banned. Good bye.
Then I went and blocked his entire city from accessing MM. Not just him alone. Then another MM follower Ultan responded…
Mr Man. You are very much loved and respected by those of us out here who have been reading and listening to you for years, and have actually taken the time to read and think about your experiences while comparing / contrasting those experiences with our own. Rather than, say, trying to fit your narrative into our narrative, or what we think we know about reality.
And in the case of this character above, failing very badly. But a classic example of wooden thinking if ever there were. And let’s not even get into the subtle hints about you being a paid liar. Or other contributors for that matter. I mean, for all the errrr, intellectual nitty gritty (for want of a better expression), he doesn’t even know anything about free energy and the plasma-fusion core.
Good call, IMHO.
And please do not let these guys get you down– there’s a lot of messed up people out there looking for answers. You’ve placed the pearls for all who have eyes to see, some of us have scooped them up; let the herd blunder on toward the intellectual abattoir.
My response…
A big thank you for the uplifting response.
You know that I hate banning people, but if I find myself feeling bad by something that someone said, I do not analyze it. I just throw them into the gutter.
MM is not for everyone. It is not for the general population to visit and ohh and ahh at. It is only for a few very special people.
People like you, the guy from Ohio, Florida, Australia, South America, Northern Europe and Israel as well as the guy from Africa. There’s women from France and the Caribbean, and Georgia that mean the world to me. And it’s for you guys that I keep pumping this stuff out day in and day out. You guys are so very, very special to me. So special. You have no idea.
Lately when I see people get on my forum, on my site, and lay down insults about what I say, write or report. They lay down insults about me and why I do what I do, it hurts. And honestly the world would be a much better place if we all see that when we are hurt it’s a real thing. It’s just like that video of the dish breaking.
The dish is gone. You had a dish. Now you don’t. So good bye.
Who them responded back to me with…
All part of the ‘demonisation and dehumanisation of the other’ phenomena that’s accelerated thanks to ‘social media’ over the past few years, Mr Man. And by design, of course.
Folks entrapped emotionally in a circle-jerk by these very advanced algorithms tend to forget that on a cyber-forum you are dealing with another human being– that’s what the word ‘forum’ means! A place to gather and discuss anything and everything; and just like in the real forums of old– insult anybody or try and force your own peculiar views on others in that forum and you’d be laughed out of the atrium, at best, or kicked out on your ear with a dagger in your arse, at worst.
Folks, free men, knew how to behave, back then. And ‘natural selection’, let’s say, did away with the socially retarded. (Check out what woulda happened to you in ancient Sparta if you insulted another person or his views in a disrespectful manner. And that was just the warriors/free-men, alone– men and women.)
But in cyberspace it’s easy to remain anonymous and dismiss opposing views to yours no matter how rationally put or well-intended with the utmost disrespect– or get angry when your views aren’t upheld in a way that you’d like; shills, bots, NPCs, non-humans; trolls; paid disinfo; and much worse….we’ve seen it all before. Such is what passes for ‘discourse’ in cyberspace. Again, all by very clever design.
So keep ’em coming, IMHO– and if one day you decide to pull the plug, I at least have downloaded your classics to keep forever and reread at my leisure.
So thanks again for that.
And I commented…
It’s always a pleasure to hear your kind words and support. FYI, I didn’t just ban this guy. I banned his entire city. Chinese-style. Anyone in his city now gets a notice when they try to visit MM.
It says “Your geographic region has been banned from accessing this site by the site administrator.”
And this was the response.
😂, oh man, blocking the regional I.P. address? F that; why don’t you call up your Domain contact, fire up his or her doomsday device, and plough the furrows in the remains of that dump with salt while you’re at it, Scipio Africanus style.
How’s that for polite debate! Respect the Metallicman and you can live and let live; disrespect him, however, and the Rods of God are a-comin your way.
Duck, you sucker, 😂.
Ah.
Don’t piss me off.
Never the less, I did actually ask the question.
It took me days to present, unpack, translate, transcribe and review. Here it is.
Keep in mind, that I still don’t understand the question. To me it is a question on the tools of a methodology related to utilization of a system that could be used to describe the nature of a universe. And thus I presented it as such.
Here’s the result.
The use of mathematics to describe the universe that the prison complex is part of makes sense from the point of view of the inmates. However, it is a very awkward and feeble methodology. The better methodology is a simpler pictorial representation.
The prison complex operates in a pocket universe that exists inside a general "master" universe. With in this pocket universe are secondary universes known collectively as "Heavens". Each universe possesses different rules, different environments, and different ways of operating.
Here we must assume that the question is in regards to whether Clifford Algebra can help describe the nature of the "physical universe", which is functionally different in operation from the "master" universe that is resides within.
(Now, I hope that I get this transcribed properly. It was parsed out slowly and carefully for me, and I really still do not understand it.)
The problem with using this methodology to describe the prison universe; the "pocket" universe that resides inside the "master" universe is that it relies on the notion that time does exist.
Here, time is the scalar component of a Clifford space. In Clifford Space geometry, "time" results from properties of space itself. This comes about when one properly uses the higher dimensional formalism afforded by Clifford’s geometric algebra.
At that, it can be viewed as an intrinsic geometric property of three-dimensional space without the need for the specific addition of a fourth dimension. (As people tend to do, referring "time" as the fourth dimension.) Thus, it is quite attractive to those seeking mathematical solutions to the geometry of the artificial prison universe.
Clifford algebra is a unification of real and complex numbers, (quaternion and vector algebra) which reflects the intrinsic properties of space-time.
(I wrote down "qu-an-er-non", as I try to phonically assemble words that are new to me, but the closest apparently useful word is quaternion.)
The reason why Clifford algebra is attractive is because it provides a unified, standard, elegant and open language and tool for numerous complex mathematical and physical theories. By using it, engineering principles can be devised to provide solutions within the prison planet universe.
If you base everything / mathematics / physics / engineering on the four basic principles and Clifford algebra, all basic physical equations within the prison planet universe can be derived.
And it stopped there! Talk about being maddening.
I really haven’t a clue as to what he is talking about, or whether or not the question was actually answered. So I “prodded” for “more”. (Don’t force me to explain. It’s a way that I communicate using the EBP.) And the result was more “forceful”, and “stronger”.
The logical relations between equations can all be reconstructed using Clifford Algebra.
Additionally all of the solutions of the more typical equations can be solved.
This system does explain the concepts of space-time and quantum theory.
As such, it is a useful, by some, methodology to help better understand the nature of the prison complex pocket universe.
The queried answer is; Yes.
Clifford Algebra, using real value coefficients CAN (there was a syllabic emphasis in the forth tone) be used AS A serviceable (used as an italicized image) solution to a mathematical representation of the reality as experienced by the inmates within the prison complex pocket universe.
At this point, I really wanted to get some specific details. So after I transcribed the answers, I parsed them out for detail.
Q: You said “The logical relations between equations can all be reconstructed using Clifford Algebra.” Do you mean “most”, or can I use the word “all”?
The proper term is "all". However, there are some mathematical "tricks" that need to be employed on some of the solutions. Not every "trick" or technique is well known. This is an esoteric avenue for the specialists in this field.
This should not be your concern.
Q: You said “…all of the solutions of the more typical equations can be solved. ” Again do you mean “all” or “most”, and why did you use the adjective “typical”?
The more accurate translation is "most of the functional equations can be solved, and those that cannot can be 'bridged' using mathematical 'work-arounds'".
Again, this is not your realm of expertise. Those with the necessary skills and expertise now possess the understanding that they are on the right track and moving in the proper direction. In truth, there are some valid and appreciate work in this field by those of that interest and skill level.
It need not be your concern.
The questioner also put up this part 2 of the question. It is, rather, if the Clifford Algebra cannot explain the nature of the reality universe, what can? And the questions ran like this…
Otherwise:
*What is the sign aka signature (+ or -) of the squares of the basis vectors of the spatial dimensions? Is this a convention or is it physically significant?
Are there other such dimensions with the same signature, e.g. “proper time”?
How many such space-like dimensions are there, and what is their significance?
*How many dimensions of opposite signature to the spatial ones are there, e.g. relativistic time and other time-like dimensions?
What can be said about their role – e.g. do they concern nuclear reactions or allow for branching time-lines?
*Are there effectively null-square (zero-square) dimensions formed from the sum and differences of pairs of + and – signature dimensions, e.g. light-cones or “conformal” projective dimensions?
Are there null-square dimensions independent of the + and – square dimensions?
Are null-square dimensions your home environment? Are there applications of null-square dimensions, e.g. portals between realms or amnesia devices?
*Does thermodynamic entropy create “Akashic records”? What principles relate thermodynamic entropy (heat diffusion) and information from physical histories (wave equation); are they analogous to exchanging a + square for a – square dimension, (or relativistic time for proper time, or time (t) for imaginary time (it)), and if so, can this “Wick rotation” be done in both directions so as to allow passing from our physical realm to the “afterlife” and back?
Because the answer was substantive in the first part of the question, I did not proceed with the second part.
However, I think that the Commander wasn’t clear enough to meet the precise needs of the questioner. So I wanted to get some much better answers and some “meat” that I could provide herein. So I got myself a quiet spot, and a cup full of warm water. And started transcribing. And it does not make sense to me, but here it is…
Q: In Unified Field Theory, how does this Clifford Algebra fit?
And you know, that I am shoot wildly in the dark. I haven’t a clue as to what I am asking or how it would all fit together.
Many are trying to understand the nature of the pocket universe that surrounds the prison complex. The unified field theory is one such mechanism.There is Way-Al scale invariant (?) methodology, Kal-uze-al five dimensional space time, Hamilton Formalism and the gauge unified field theory. Each one has it's pluses and minuses in utility.
Clifford Algebra is a methodology used to help resolve numerous paradoxes. These include the Twins, Effer-Fest, and the ladder paradoxes.
There are other scientists on other prison planets within the entire prison complex that are proceeding on their versions of these theories. Which is why we are very aware of the questions that you ask.
The strongest attribute / characteristic of the Clifford Algebra methodology is the utilization of the Nonlinear Spinor Equation. There is the Nonlinear Dark field, the electromagnetic Interaction field and the interactions with classical mechanics and with the Lorentz Transformation. All of these show usefulness and utility. The key to understanding the use of Clifford Algebra is the use of Spinor property utility.
You need the Inter-grable Conditions of the Eli-Gen Equation, and the Curvilinear Coordinate System solution.
Q: Are these hints or directions for the mathematical solutions using Clifford Algebra geometry for unified theory and space-time resolution?
Yes.
The way to proceed is to develop Inter-grable Conditions for the Dir-Ack, and the Pauli equations.You will then develop a "New Model" for Strong Interactions. Then, with a strong understanding of the Light-Cone Coordinate System, you can then begin the simplification of Einstein Tensor.
From there, you would then work on the Linearization of Einstein Field Equation. (He said it twice as if it was important.) Linearization of Einstein Field Equation. Then work on the dynamics of observed stars and all should be obvious to the researcher.
It looks like a “road map” for flushing out unresolved aspects of the Clifford Algebraic solution.
Honestly guys. I don’t know if he is “pulling my leg”, or just messing with me. This is just a bunch of disjointed statements that I just cannot figure out heads or tails over. I only hope that someone in the MM audience can understand it. In words that are new to me I used phonics to spell them out.
And that’s it. I am spent. I feel like an empty shell casing after completing final exams during my university years.
The next morning I asked this question;
Was I too harsh in perma-banning the questioner?
No.
The questioner is a DIS sentience. He would do nothing with the information. He would fail to disseminate it. He would only nod with a smirk that you fell for his "trap" / ploy / snare / amusement.
By allowing him to continue to visit MM, you would be empowering his sickness / illness / distortion of self.
It would be akin to allowing a family alcoholic member a bottle of whiskey a day just to keep him sedated and out of harms way. When the real solution would be to push him out of the house and lock the doors so that he cannot come in.
Note to the readers that it was my decision to ban him. I was not ordered to do so.
In the late 1940’s one of your vehicles were downed in Roswell New Mexico. From this event we obtained the document “Alien Interview”. Can you please tell us what downed your vehicle?
At that time we believed that it was downed by a disruption of it's operational field by natural energy discharge / lightning discharge. We learned however, that it was more complex than that. The real reason was the radar equipment that was being tested at the Roswell base.
The captured (Nazi) German radars Flakleit G, Freya, Mammut and Wassermann were being used and studied at the American Roswell, NM base at the time of the crash.
We are unsure which particular radar was the actual culprit at this time, but that is immaterial, as all the radars possess interference properties that we have since had to counter.
During the crash, the two (minor) officers lost their doll bodies immediately and they returned to their operational staging locations. The Commander was captured and secured, and you know what happened after that.
Regarding the document titled “Domain Expeditionary Force Rescue Mission.”. Is this document really from Matilda? Does Airl have knowledge of it?
I posted this question. And I was told…
Read the book, and then ask the question again.
Sheech!
What does this mean? Does that mean that they obtain all my impressions, and sensory input, and then use that to base their answers on? Or do they rely on my impressions and then alter my opinions in how I transcribe? It’s all so confusing. I am pretty much convinced that they need my thoughts and impressions, for whatever reason, to come to a conclusive answer. It explains so much, but also opens up some questions as well.
So I need to read the document. So ok. No problem. I’ll respond to this question later on after I read the document.
What happened to me when my EBP was installed? Where did I go, and have I met your expectations?
Well, I want to know.
We do not question your loyalty to the Domain nor your dedication to responsible service. In fact, these characteristics were carefully vetted prior to us presenting the opportunity to you.
We know that you want to entertain the idea that you went to some exotic location. Any of the moons of gas giants would cause biological disruptions due to the radiation belts inherent within their planetary fields.
You went to a medical facility within the moon. There is no need to venture further away to achieve the procedure that we conducted.
You have correctly surmised that it was not a vehicle, and that it was upon a planetary body. What you might not be clear on is that it occurred deep inside the moon, well under the planetary surface.
The idea that it occurred on Mars is a romantic assumption on your part.
If Heather is now occupying the human body of <redacted>, how is this possible as all human bodies are inmate skin suits, and cats transcend those limitations?
It’s a persistent question.
Heather (FYI, Heater was a previous cat from 30 years ago) isn't really occupying a human body, but is rather sharing it. Felines have the ability to co-inhabit bodies of all sorts of creatures. This is especially pronounced in the Prison Complex environment. This is exactly what is going on.
From your point of view <redacted> is a "shadow person" (sic.), but your cat Heather occupies it with you as your "traverse the MWI" (sic.). Thus both of you share the same experiences together. When you die, your cat will leave the co-inhabited body. It's a natural process.
Conclusion
This is just some personal questions that I have asked using my EBP. I’ve had these things in my head for decades, but only recently realized that two-way communication could be achieved with them.
There are numerous MM readers and commenters that had a role in this selection of questions and all in all, it was a big positive. So thank you for all of your nudges, and questions and concerns.
In the future, I will open up the EBP for more questions and you all can ask some more questions. This was just my own personal ones, and I must apologize if my questions were banal or boring.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
The following in one of Ray Bradbury’s short stories. It is titled “The Cement Mixer”. “The Concrete Mixer” is one of his earlier stories. It was first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories in April 1949. In the story, a warlike race of Martians plans their glorious conquest of Earth but one of them, Ettil Vrye, foresaw defeat. He was given his choice of joining the Legion of War —or burning his beloved instead!
The Concrete Mixer
HE LISTENED to the dry-grass rustle of the old witches’ voices beneath his open
window:
‘Ettil, the coward! Ettil, the refuser! Ettil, who will not wage the glorious
war of Mars against Earth!’
‘Speak on, witches!’ he cried.
The voices dropped to a murmur like that of water in the long canals under the
Martian sky.
‘Ettil, the father of a son who must grow up in the shadow of this horrid
knowledge!’ said the old wrinkled women. They knocked their sly-eyed heads
gently together. ‘Shame, shame!’
His wife was crying on the other side of the room. Her tears were as rain,
numerous and cool on the tiles. ‘Oh, Ettil, how can you think this way?’
Ettil laid aside his metal book which, at his beckoning, had been singing him a
story all morning from its thin golden-wired frame.
‘I’ve tried to explain,’ he said. ‘This is a foolish thing, Mars invading Earth.
We’ll be destroyed, utterly.’
…
Outside, a banging, crashing boom, a surge of brass, a drum, a cry, marching
feet, pennants and songs. Through the stone sheets the army, fire weapons to
shoulder, stamped. Children skipped after. Old women waved dirty flags.
‘I shall remain on Mars and read a book,’ said Ettil. A blunt knock on the door.
Tylla answered. Father-in-law stormed in. ‘What’s this I hear about my
son-in-law? A traitor?’
‘Yes, Father.’
‘You’re not fighting in the Martian Army?’
‘No, Father.’
‘Gods!’ The old father turned very red. ‘A plague on your name! You’ll be shot.’
‘Shoot me, then, and have it over.’
‘Who ever heard of a Martian not invading? Who!’
‘Nobody. It is, I admit, quite incredible.’
‘Incredible,’ husked the witch voices under the window.
‘Father, can’t you reason with him?’ demanded Tylla.
‘Reason with a dung heap,’ cried Father, eyes blazing. He came and stood over
Ettil. ‘Bands playing, a fine day, women weeping, children jumping, everything
right, men marching bravely, and you sit here! Oh, shame!’
‘Shame,’ sobbed the faraway voices in the hedge.
‘Get the devil out of my house with your inane chatter,’ said Ettil, exploding.
‘Take your medals and your drums and run!’
…
He shoved Father-in-law past a screaming wife, only to have the door thrown wide at this moment, as a military detail entered.
A voice shouted, ‘Ettil Vrye?’
‘Yes!’
‘You are under arrest!’
…
‘Good-by, my dear wife. I am off to the wars with these fools!’ shouted Ettil,
dragged through the door by the men in bronze mesh.
‘Good-by, good-by,’ said the town witches, fading away. . . .
…
The cell was neat and clean. Without a book, Ettil was nervous. He gripped the
bars and watched the rockets shoot up into the night air. The stars were cold
and numerous; they seemed to scatter when every rocket blasted up among them.
‘Fools,’ whispered Ettil. ‘Fools!’
…
The cell door opened. One man with a kind of vehicle entered, full of books;
books here, there, everywhere in the chambers of the vehicle. Behind him the
Military Assignor loomed.
‘Ettil Vrye, we want to know why you had these illegal Earth books in your
house. These copies of Wonder Stories, Scientific Tales, Fantastic Stories.
Explain.’ The man gripped Ettil’s wrist.
…
Ettil shook him free. ‘If you’re going to shoot me, shoot me. That literature,
from Earth, is the very reason why I won’t try to invade them. It’s the reason
why your invasion will fail.’
‘How so?’ The assignor scowled and turned to the yellowed magazines.
‘Pick any copy,’ said Ettil. ‘Any one at all. Nine out of ten stories in the
years 1929, ’30 to ’50, Earth calendar, have every Martian invasion successfully
invading Earth.’
‘Ah!’ The assignor smiled, nodded.
…
‘And then,’ said Ettil, ‘failing.’
‘That’s treason! Owning such literature!’
‘So be it, if you wish. But let me draw a few conclusions. Invariably, each
invasion is thwarted by a young man, usually lean, usually Irish, usually alone,
named Mick or Rick or Jick or Bannon, who destroys the Martians.’
‘You don’t believe that!’
‘No, I don’t believe Earthmen can actually do that’no. But they have a
background, understand, Assignor, of generations of children reading just such
fiction, absorbing it. They have nothing but a literature of invasions
successfully thwarted. Can you say the same for Martian literature?’
‘Well”’
‘No.’
‘I guess not.’
…
‘You know not. We never wrote stories of such a fantastic nature. Now we rebel,
we attack, and we shall die.’
‘I don’t see your reasoning on that. Where does this tie in with the magazine
stories?’
‘Morale. A big thing. The Earthmen know they can’t fail. It is in them like
blood beating in their veins. They cannot fail. They will repel each invasion,
no matter how well organized. Their youth of reading just such fiction as this
has given them a faith we cannot equal. We Martians? We are uncertain; we know that we might fail. Our morale is low, in spite of the banged drums and tooted horns.’
‘I won’t listen to this treason,’ cried the assignor. ‘This fiction will be burned, as you will be, within the next ten minutes. You have a choice, Ettil Vrye. Join the Legion of War, or burn.’
…
‘It is a choice of deaths. I choose to burn.’
…
‘Men!’
He was hustled out into the courtyard. There he saw his carefully hoarded
reading matter set to the torch. A special pit was prepared, with oil five feet
deep in it. This, with a great thunder, was set afire. Into this, in a minute,
he would be pushed.
On the far side of the courtyard, in shadow, he noticed the solemn figure of his
son standing alone, his great yellow eyes luminous with sorrow and fear. He did
not put out his hand or speak, but only looked at his father like some dying
animal, a wordless animal seeking rescue.
Ettil looked at the flaming pit. He felt the rough hands seize him, strip him,
push him forward to the hot perimeter of death. Only then did Ettil swallow and
cry out, ‘Wait!’
The assignor’s face, bright with the orange fire, pushed forward in the
trembling air. ‘What is it?’
…
‘I will join the Legion of War,’ replied Ettil.
‘Good! Release him!’
The hands fell away.
As he turned he saw his son standing far across the court, waiting. His son was
not smiling, only waiting.
…
In the sky a bronze rocket leaped across the stars, ablaze. . . .
…
‘And now we bid good-by to these stalwart warriors,’ said the assignor. The band
thumped and the wind blew a fine sweet rain of tears gently upon the sweating
army. The children cavorted. In the chaos Ettil saw his wife weeping with pride,
his son solemn and silent at her side.
They marched into the ship, everybody laughing and brave. They buckled
themselves into their spiderwebs. All through the tense ship the spiderwebs were
filled with lounging, lazy men. They chewed on bits of food and waited. A great
lid slammed shut. A valve hissed.
‘Off to Earth and destruction,’ whispered Ettil.
‘What?’ asked someone.
‘Off to glorious victory,’ said Ettil, grimacing.
The rocket jumped.
…
Space, thought Ettil. Here we are banging across black inks and pink lights of
space in a brass kettle. Here we are, a celebratory rocket heaved out to fill
the Earthmen’s eyes with fear flames as they look up to the sky. What is it
like, being far, far away from your home, your wife, your child, here and now?
He tried to analyze his trembling. It was like tying your most secret inward
working organs to Mars and then jumping out a million miles. Your heart was
still on Mars, pumping, glowing. Your brain was still on Mars, thinking,
crenulated, like an abandoned torch. Your stomach was still on Mars, somnolent,
trying to digest the final dinner. Your lungs were still in the cool blue wine
air of Mars, a soft folded bellows screaming for release, one part of you
longing for the rest.
For here you were, a meshless, cogless automaton, a body upon which officials
had performed clinical autopsy and left all of you that counted back upon the
empty seas and strewn over the darkened hills. Here you were, bottle-empty,
fireless, chill, with only your hands to give death to Earthmen. A pair of hands
is all you are now, he thought in cold remoteness.
Here you lie in the tremendous web. Others are about you, but they are
whole’whole hearts and bodies. But all of you that lives is back there walking
the desolate seas in evening winds. This thing here, this cold clay thing, is
already dead.
…
‘Attack stations, attack stations, attack!’
‘Ready, ready, ready!’
‘Up!’
‘Out of the webs, quick!’
…
Ettil moved. Somewhere before him his two cold hands moved.
How swift it has all been, he thought. A year ago one Earth rocket reached Mars.
Our scientists, with their incredible telepathic ability, copied it; our
workers, with their incredible plants, reproduced it a hundredfold. No other
Earth ship has reached Mars since then, and yet we know their language
perfectly, all of us. We know their culture, their logic. And we shall pay the
price of our brilliance.
‘Guns on the ready!’
‘Right!’
‘Sights!’
‘Reading by miles?’
‘Ten thousand!’
‘Attack!’
…
A humming silence. A silence of insects throbbing in the walls of the rocket.
The insect singing of tiny bobbins and levers and whirls of wheels. Silence of
waiting men. Silence of glands emitting the slow steady pulse of sweat under
arm, on brow, under staring pale eyes!
‘Wait! Ready!’
Ettil hung onto his sanity with his fingernails, hung hard and long.
Silence, silence, silence. Waiting.
Teeee-e-ee!
‘What’s that?’
‘Earth radio!’
‘Cut them in!’
‘They’re trying to reach us, call us. Cut them in!’
Eee-e-e!
‘Here they are! Listen!’
…
‘Calling Martian invasion fleet!’
The listening silence, the insect hum pulling back to let the sharp Earth voice
crack in upon the rooms of waiting men.
‘This is Earth calling. This is William Sommers, president of the Association of
United American Producers!’
Ettil held tight to his station, bent forward, eyes shut.
‘Welcome to Earth.’
‘What?’ the men in the rocket roared. ‘What did he say?’
‘Yes, welcome to Earth.’
‘It’s a trick!’
…
Ettil shivered, opened his eyes to stare in bewilderment at the unseen voice
from the ceiling source.
‘Welcome! Welcome to green, industrial Earth!’ declared the friendly voice.
‘With open arms we welcome you, to turn a bloody invasion into a time of
friendships that will last through all of Time.’
‘A trick!’
‘Hush, listen!’
‘Many years ago we of Earth renounced war, destroyed our atom bombs. Now,
unprepared as we are, there is nothing for us but to welcome you. The planet is
yours. We ask only mercy from you good and merciful invaders.’
…
‘It can’t be true!’ a voice whispered.
‘It must be a trick!’
‘Land and be welcomed, all of you,’ said Mr. William Sommers of Earth. ‘Land
anywhere. Earth is yours; we are all brothers!’
Ettil began to laugh. Everyone in the room turned to see him. The other Martians
blinked. ‘He’s gone mad!’
He did not stop laughing until they hit him.
…
The tiny fat man in the center of the hot rocket tarmac at Green Town,
California, jerked out a clean white handkerchief and touched it to his wet
brow. He squinted blindly from the fresh plank platform at the fifty thousand
people restrained behind a fence of policemen, arm to arm. Everybody looked at
the sky.
‘There they are!’
A gasp.
‘No, just sea gulls!’
A disappointed grumble.
‘I’m beginning to think it would have been better to have declared war on them,’
whispered the mayor. ‘Then we could all go home.’
‘Sh-h!’ said his wife.
‘There!’ The crowd roared.
Out of the sun came the Martian rockets.
‘Everybody ready?’ The mayor glanced nervously about.
‘Yes, sir,’ said Miss California 1965.
‘Yes,’ said Miss America 1940, who had come rushing up at the last minute as a
substitute for Miss America 1966, who was ill at home.
‘Yes siree,’ said Mr. Biggest Grapefruit in San Fernando Valley 1956, eagerly.
‘Ready, band?’
The band poised its brass like so many guns.
‘Ready!’
The rockets landed. ‘Go!’
The band played ‘California, Here I Come’ ten times. From noon until one o’clock
the mayor made a speech, shaking his hands in the direction of the silent,
apprehensive rockets.
…
At one-fifteen the seals of the rockets opened
The band played ‘Oh, You Golden State’ three times.
Ettil and fifty other Martians leaped out, guns at the ready.
The mayor ran forward with the key to Earth in his hands.
The band played ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,’ and a full chorus of singers
imported from Long Beach sang different words to it, something about ‘Martians
Are Coming to Town.’
Seeing no weapons about, the Martians relaxed, but kept their guns out.
From one-thirty until two-fifteen the mayor made the same speech over for the
benefit of the Martians.
At two-thirty Miss America of 1940 volunteered to kiss all the Martians if they
lined up.
At two-thirty and ten seconds the band played ‘How Do You Do, Everybody,’ to
cover up the confusion caused by Miss America’s suggestion.
At two thirty-five Mr. Biggest Grapefruit presented the Martians with a two-ton
truck full of grapefruit.
At two thirty-seven the mayor gave them all free passes to the Elite and
Majestic theaters, combining this gesture with another speech which lasted until
after three.
The band played, and the fifty thousand people sang, ‘For They Are Jolly Good
Fellows.’
It was over at four o’clock.
…
Ettil sat down in the shadow of the rocket, two of his fellows with him. ‘So
this is Earth!’
‘I say kill the filthy rats,’ said one Martian. ‘I don’t trust them. They’re
sneaky. What’s their motive for treating us this way?’ He held up a box of
something that rustled. ‘What’s this stuff they gave me? A sample, they said.’
He read the label. BLIX, the new sudsy soap.
The crowd had drifted about, was mingling with the Martians like a carnival
throng. Everywhere was the buzzing murmur of people fingering the rockets,
asking questions.
…
Ettil was cold. He was beginning to tremble even more now. ‘Don’t you feel it?’
he whispered. ‘The tenseness, the evilness of all this. Something’s going to
happen to us. They have some plan. Something subtle and horrible. They’re going
to do something to us’I know.’
‘I say kill every one of them!’
‘How can you kill people who call you ‘pal’ and ‘buddy’?’ asked another Martian.
Ettil shook his head. ‘They’re sincere. And yet I feel as if we were in a big
acid vat melting away, away. I’m frightened.’ He put his mind out to touch among
the crowd. ‘Yes, they’re really friendly, hail-fellows-well-met (one of their
terms). One huge mass of common men, loving dogs and cats and Martians equally.
And yet’ and yet”’
The band played ‘Roll Out the Barrel.’ Free beer was being distributed through
the courtesy of Hagenback Beer, Fresno, California.
…
The sickness came.
The men poured out fountains of slush from their mouths. The sound of sickness
filled the land.
Gagging, Ettil sat beneath a sycamore tree. ‘A plot, a plot’a horrible plot,’ he
groaned, holding his stomach.
‘What did you eat?’ The assignor stood over him.
‘Something that they called popcorn,’ groaned Ettil.
‘And?’
‘And some sort of long meat on a bun, and some yellow liquid in an iced vat, and
some sort of fish and something called pastrami,’ sighed Ettil, eyelids
flickering.
The moans of the Martian invaders sounded all about.
‘Kill the plotting snakes!’ somebody cried weakly.
‘Hold on,’ said the assignor. ‘It’s merely hospitality. They overdid it. Up on
your feet now, men. Into the town. We’ve got to place small garrisons of men
about to make sure all is well. Other ships are landing in other cities. We’ve
our job to do here.’
The men gained their feet and stood blinking stupidly about.
‘Forward, march!’
One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! . . .
…
The white stores of the little town lay dreaming in shimmering heat. Heat
emanated from everything’poles, concrete, metal, awnings, roofs, tar
paper’everything.
The sound of Martian feet sounded on the asphalt.
‘Careful, men!’ whispered the assignor. They walked past a beauty shop.
From inside, a furtive giggle. ‘Look!’
A coppery head bobbed and vanished like a doll in the window. A blue eye glinted
and winked at a keyhole.
‘It’s a plot,’ whispered Ettil. ‘A plot, I tell you!’
The odors of perfume were fanned out on the summer air by the whirling vents of
the grottoes where the women hid like undersea creatures, under electric cones,
their hair curled into wild whorls and peaks, their eyes shrewd and glassy,
animal and sly, their mouths painted a neon red. Fans were whirring, the
perfumed wind issuing upon the stillness, moving among green trees, creeping
among the amazed Martians.
‘For God’s sake!’ screamed Ettil, his nerves suddenly breaking loose. ‘Let’s get
in our rockets’go home! They’ll get us! Those horrid things in there. See them?
Those evil undersea things, those women in their cool little caverns of
artificial rock!’
‘Shut up!’
Look at them in there, he thought, drifting their dresses like cool green gills
over their pillar legs. He shouted.
‘Someone shut his mouth!’
‘They’ll rush out on us, hurling chocolate boxes and copies of Kleig Love and
Holly Pick-ture, shrieking with their red greasy mouths! Inundate us with
banality, destroy our sensibilities! Look at them, being electrocuted by
devices, their voices like hums and chants and murmurs! Do you dare go in
there?’
‘Why not?’ asked the other Martians.
‘They’ll fry you, bleach you, change you! Crack you, flake you away until you’re
nothing but a husband, a working man, the one with the money who pays so they
can come sit in there devouring their evil chocolates! Do you think you could
control them?’
‘Yes, by the gods!’
From a distance a voice drifted, a high and shrill voice, a woman’s voice
saying, ‘Ain’t that middle one there cute?’
‘Martians ain’t so bad after all. Gee, they’re just men,’ said another, fading.
‘Hey, there. Yoo-hoo! Martians! Hey!’
Yelling, Ettil ran. . . .
…
He sat in a park and trembled steadily. He remembered what he had seen. Looking up at the dark night sky, he felt so far from home, so deserted. Even now, as he sat among the still trees, in the distance he could see Martian warriors walking the streets with the Earth women, vanishing into the phantom darknesses of the little emotion palaces to hear the ghastly sounds of white things moving on gray screens, with little frizz-haired women beside them, wads of gelatinous gum working in their jaws, other wads under the seats, hardening with the fossil imprints of the women’s tiny cat teeth forever imbedded therein. The cave of winds’the cinema.
‘Hello.’
He jerked his head in terror.
A woman sat on the bench beside him, chewing gum lazily. ‘Don’t run off; I don’t
bite,’ she said.
‘Oh,’ he said.
‘Like to go to the pictures?’ she said.
‘No.’
‘Aw, come on,’ she said. ‘Everybody else is.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Is that all you do in this world?’
‘All? Ain’t that enough?’ Her blue eyes widened suspiciously. ‘What you want me
to do’sit home, read a book? Ha, ha! That’s rich.’
…
Ettil stared at her a moment before asking a question.
‘Do you do anything else?’ he asked.
‘Ride in cars. You got a car? You oughta get you a big new convertible Podler
Six. Gee, they’re fancy! Any man with a Podler Six can go out with any gal, you
bet!’ she said, blinking at him. ‘I bet you got all kinds of money’you come from
Mars and all. I bet if you really wanted you could get a Podler Six and travel
everywhere.’
‘To the show maybe?’
‘What’s wrong with ‘at?’
‘Nothing’ nothing.’
…
‘You know what you talk like, mister?’ she said. ‘A Communist! Yes, sir, that’s
the kinda talk nobody stands for, by gosh. Nothing wrong with our little old
system. We was good enough to let you Martians invade, and we never raised even our bitty finger, did we?’
‘That’s what I’ve been trying to understand,’ said Ettil. ‘Why did you let us?’
”Cause we’re bighearted, mister; that’s why! Just remember that, bighearted.’
She walked off to look for someone else.
…
Gathering courage to himself, Ettil began to write a letter to his wife, moving
the pen carefully over the paper on his knee.
‘Dear Tylla”’
But again he was interrupted. A small-little-girl-of-an-old-woman, with a pale
round wrinkled little face, shook her tambourine in front of his nose, forcing
him to glance up.
‘Brother,’ she cried, eyes blazing. ‘Have you been saved?’
‘Am I in danger?’ Ettil dropped his pen, jumping.
‘Terrible danger!’ she wailed, clanking her tambourine, gazing at the sky. ‘You
need to be saved, brother, in the worst way!’
‘I’m inclined to agree,’ he said, trembling.
‘We saved lots already today. I saved three myself, of you Mars people. Ain’t
that nice?’ She grinned at him.
‘I guess so.’
She was acutely suspicious. She leaned forward with her secret whisper.
‘Brother,’ she wanted to know, ‘you been baptized?’
‘I don’t know,’ he whispered back.
‘You don’t know?’ she cried, flinging up hand and tambourine.
‘Is it like being shot?’ he asked.
‘Brother,’ she said, ‘you are in a bad and sinful condition. I blame it on your
ignorant bringing up. I bet those schools on Mars are terrible’don’t teach you
no truth at all. Just a pack of made-up lies. Brother, you got to be baptized if
you want to be happy.’
‘Will it make me happy even in this world here?’ he said. ‘Don’t ask for
everything on your platter,’ she said. ‘Be satisfied with a wrinkled pea, for
there’s another world we’re all going to that’s better than this one.’
…
‘I know that world,’ he said.
‘It’s peaceful,’ she said.
‘Yes.’
‘There’s quiet,’ she said.
‘Yes.’
‘There’s milk and honey flowing.’
‘Why, yes,’ he said.
‘And everybody’s laughing.’
‘I can see it now,’ he said.
‘A better world,’ she said.
‘Far better,’ he said. ‘Yes, Mars is a great planet.’
…
‘Mister,’ she said, tightening up and almost flinging the tambourine in his
face, ‘you been joking with me?’
‘Why, no.’ He was embarrassed and bewildered. ‘I thought you were talking
about”’
‘Not about mean old nasty Mars, I tell you, mister! It’s your type that is going
to boil for years, and suffer and break out in black pimples and be tortured”’
‘I must admit Earth isn’t very nice. You’ve described it beautifully.’
‘Mister, you’re funning me again!’ she cried angrily.
‘No, no’please. I plead ignorance.’
‘Well,’ she said, ‘you’re a heathen, and heathens are improper. Here’s a paper.
Come to this address tomorrow night and be baptized and be happy. We shouts and we stomps and we talk in voices, so if you want to hear our all-cornet,
all-brass band, you come, won’t you now?’
‘I’ll try,’ he said hesitantly.
Down the street she went, patting her tambourine, singing at the top of her
voice, ‘Happy Am I, I’m Always Happy.’
…
Dazed, Ettil returned to his letter.
‘Dear Tylla: To think that in my na’vet’ I imagined that the Earthmen would have
to counterattack with guns and bombs. No, no. I was sadly wrong. There is no
Rick or Mick or Jick or Bannon’those lever fellows who save worlds. No.
‘There are blond robots with pink rubber bodies, real, but somehow unreal, alive
but somehow automatic in all responses, living in caves all of their lives.
Their derri’res are incredible in girth. Their eyes are fixed and motionless
from an endless time of staring at picture screens. The only muscles they have
occur in their jaws from their ceaseless chewing of gum.
‘And it is not only these, my dear Tylla, but the entire civilization into which
we have been dropped like a shovelful of seeds into a large concrete mixer.
Nothing of us will survive. We will be killed not by the gun but by the
glad-hand. We will be destroyed not by the rocket but by the automobile . . .’
…
Somebody screamed. A crash, another crash. Silence.
Ettil leaped up from his letter. Outside, on the street two ears had crashed.
One full of Martians, another with Earthmen. Ettil returned to his letter:
‘Dear, dear Tylla, a few statistics if you will allow. Forty-five thousand
people killed every year on this continent of America; made into jelly right in
the can, as it were, in the automobiles. Red blood jelly, with white marrow
bones like sudden thoughts, ridiculous horror thoughts, transfixed in the
immutable jelly. The cars roll up in tight neat sardine rolls’all sauce, all
silence.
‘Blood manure for green buzzing summer flies, all over the highways. Faces made into Halloween masks by sudden stops. Halloween is one of their holidays. I think they worship the automobile on that night’something to do with death,
anyway.
‘You look out your window and see two people lying atop each other in friendly
fashion who, a moment ago, had never met before, dead. I foresee our army
mashed, diseased, trapped in cinemas by witches and gum. Sometime in the next
day I shall try to escape back to Mars before it is too late.
‘Somewhere on Earth tonight, my Tylla, there is a Man with a Lever, which, when
he pulls it, Will Save the World. The man is now unemployed. His switch gathers
dust. He himself plays pinochle.
‘The women of this evil planet are drowning us in a tide of banal
sentimentality, misplaced romance, and one last fling before the makers of
glycerin boil them down for usage. Good night, Tylla. Wish me well, for I shall
probably die trying to escape. My love to our child.’
Weeping silently, he folded the letter and reminded himself to mail it later at
the rocket post.
…
He left the park. What was there to do? Escape? But how? Return to the post late
tonight, steal one of the rockets alone and go back to Mars? Would it be
possible? He shook his head. He was much too confused.
All that he really knew was that if he stayed here he would soon be the property
of a lot of things that buzzed and snorted and hissed, that gave off fumes or
stenches. In six months he would be the owner of a large pink, trained ulcer, a
blood pressure of algebraic dimensions, a myopia this side of blindness, and
nightmares as deep as oceans and infested with improbable lengths of dream
intestines through which he must violently force his way each night. No, no.
He looked at the haunted faces of the Earthmen drifting violently along in their
mechanical death boxes. Soon’yes, very soon’they would invent an auto with six
silver handles on it!
‘Hey, there!’
An auto horn. A large long hearse of a car, black and ominous pulled to the
curb. A man leaned out.
‘You a Martian?’
‘Yes.’
‘Just the man I gotta see. Hop in quick’the chance of a lifetime. Hop in. Take
you to a real nice joint where we can talk. Come on’don’t stand there.’
As if hypnotized, Ettil opened the door of the car, got in.
They drove off.
‘What’ll it be, E.V.? How about a manhattan? Two manhattans, waiter. Okay, E.V.
This is my treat. This is on me and Big Studios! Don’t even touch your wallet.
Pleased to meet you, E.V. My name’s R. R. Van Plank. Maybe you hearda me? No?
Well, shake anyhow.’
Ettil felt his hand massaged and dropped. They were in a dark hole with music
and waiters drifting about. Two drinks were set down. It had all happened so
swiftly. Now Van Plank, hands crossed on his chest, was surveying his Martian
discovery.
‘What I want you for, E.V., is this. It’s the most magnanimous idea I ever got
in my life. I don’t know how it came to me, just in a flash. I was sitting home
tonight and I thought to myself, My God, what a picture it would make! Invasion
of Earth by Mars. So what I got to do? I got to find an adviser for the film. So
I climbed in my car and found you and here we are. Drink up! Here’s to your
health and our future. Skoal!’
‘But”’ said Ettil.
‘Now, I know, you’ll want money. Well, we got plenty of that. Besides, I got a
li’l black book full of peaches I can lend you.’
‘I don’t like most of your Earth fruit and”’
‘You’re a card, mac, really. Well, here’s how I get the picture in my
mind’listen.’ He leaned forward excitedly. ‘We got a flash scene of the Martians
at a big powwow, drummin’ drums, gettin’ stewed on Mars. In the background are
huge silver cities”’
‘But that’s not the way Martian cities are”’
‘We got to have color, kid. Color. Let your pappy fix this. Anyway, there are
all the Martians doing a dance around a fire”’
‘We don’t dance around fires”’
‘In this film you got a fire and you dance,’ declared Van Plank, eyes shut,
proud of his certainty. He nodded, dreaming it over on his tongue. ‘Then we got
a beautiful Martian woman, tall and blond.’
‘Martian women are dark”’
‘Look, I don’t see how we’re going to be happy, E.V. By the way, son, you ought
to change your name. What was it again?’
‘Ettil.’
‘That’s a woman’s name. I’ll give you a better one. Call you Joe. Okay, Joe. As
I was saying, our Martian women are gonna be blond, because, see, just because.
Or else your poppa won’t be happy. You got any suggestions?’
‘I thought that”’
‘And another thing we gotta have is a scene, very tearful, where the Martian
woman saves the whole ship of Martian men from dying when a meteor or something hits the ship. That’ll make a whackeroo of a scene. You know, I’m glad I found you, Joe. You’re going to have a good deal with us, I tell you.’
Ettil reached out and held the man’s wrist tight. ‘Just a minute. There’s
something I want to ask you.’
‘Sure, Joe, shoot.’
‘Why are you being so nice to us? We invade your planet, and you welcome
us’everybody’like long-lost children. Why?’
‘They sure grow ’em green on Mars, don’t they? You’re a na’ve-type guy’I can see
from way over here. Mac, look at it this way. We’re all Little People, ain’t
we?’ He waved a small tan hand garnished with emeralds.
‘We’re all common as dirt, ain’t we? Well, here on Earth, we’re proud of that.
This is the century of the Common Man, Bill, and we’re proud we’re small. Billy,
you’re looking at a planet full of Saroyans. Yes, sir. A great big fat family of
friendly Saroyans’everybody loving everybody. We understand you Martians, Joe,
and we know why you invaded Earth. We know how lonely you were up on that little cold planet Mars, how you envied us our cities”’
‘Our civilization is much older than yours”’
‘Please, Joe, you make me unhappy when you interrupt. Let me finish my theory
and then you talk all you want. As I was saying, you was lonely up there, and
down you came to see our cities and our women and all, and we welcomed you in, because you’re our brothers, Common Men like all of us.
‘And then, as a kind of side incident, Roscoe, there’s a certain little small
profit to be had from this invasion. I mean for instance this picture I plan,
which will net us, neat, a billion dollars, I bet. Next week we start putting
out a special Martian doll at thirty bucks a throw. Think of the millions there.
I also got a contract to make a Martian game to sell for five bucks. There’s all
sorts of angles.’
‘I see,’ said Ettil, drawing back.
‘And then of course there’s that whole nice new market. Think of all the
depilatories and gum and shoeshine we can sell to you Martians.’
‘Wait. Another question.’
‘Shoot.’
‘What’s your first name? What’s the R.R. stand for?’
‘Richard Robert.’
Ettil looked at the ceiling. ‘Do they sometimes, perhaps, on occasion, once in a
while, by accident, call you ‘Rick?’
‘How’d you guess, mac? Rick, sure.’
Ettil sighed and began to laugh and laugh. He put out his hand. ‘So you’re Rick?
Rick! So you’re Rick!’
‘What’s the joke, laughing boy? Let Poppa in!’
‘You wouldn’t understand’a private joke. Ha, ha!’ Tears ran down his cheeks and
into his open mouth. He pounded the table again and again. ‘So you’re Rick. Oh,
how different, how funny. No bulging muscles, no lean jaw, no gun. Only a wallet
full of money and an emerald ring and a big middle!’
‘Hey, watch the language! I may not be no Apollo, but”’
‘Shake hands, Rick. I’ve wanted to meet you. You’re the man who’ll conquer Mars,
with cocktail shakers and foot arches and poker chips and riding crops and
leather boots and checkered caps and rum collinses.’
‘I’m only a humble businessman,’ said Van Plank, eyes slyly down. ‘I do my work
and take my humble little piece of money pie. But, as I was saying, Mort, I been
thinking of the market on Mars for Uncle Wiggily games and Dick Tracy comics;
all new. A big wide field never even heard of cartoons, right? Right! So we just
toss a great big bunch of stuff on the Martians’ heads. They’ll fight for it,
kid, fight! Who wouldn’t, for perfumes and Paris dresses and Oshkosh overalls,
eh? And nice new shoes”’
‘We don’t wear shoes.’
‘What have I got here?’ R.R. asked of the ceiling. ‘A planet full of Okies?
Look, Joe, we’ll take care of that. We’ll shame everyone into wearing shoes.
Then we sell them the polish!’
‘Oh.’
He slapped Ettil’s. arm. ‘Is it a deal? Will you be technical director on my
film? You’ll get two hundred a week to start, a five-hundred top. What you say?’
‘I’m sick,’ said Ettil. He had drunk the manhattan and was now turning blue.
‘Say, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it would do that to you. Let’s get some fresh
air.’
…
In the open air Ettil felt better. He swayed. ‘So that’s why Earth took us in?’
‘Sure, son. Any time an Earthman can turn an honest dollar, watch him steam. The customer is always right. No hard feelings. Here’s my card. Be at the studio in
Hollywood tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. They’ll show you your office. I’ll
arrive at eleven and see you then. Be sure you get there at nine o’clock. It’s a
strict rule.’
‘Why?’
‘Gallagher, you’re a queer oyster, but I love you. Good night. Happy invasion!’
The car drove off.
…
Ettil blinked after it, incredulous. Then, rubbing his brow with the palm of his
hand, he walked slowly along the street toward the rocket port.
‘Well, what are you going to do?’ he asked himself, aloud. The rockets lay
gleaming in the moonlight silent. From the city came the sounds of distant
revelry. In the medical compound an extreme case of nervous breakdown was being tended to: a young Martian who, by his screams, had seen too much, drunk too much, heard too many songs on the little red-and-yellow boxes in the drinking places, and had been chased around innumerable tables by a large elephant-like woman. He kept murmuring:
‘Can’t breathe . . . crushed, trapped.’
The sobbing faded. Ettil came out of the shadows and moved on across a wide
avenue toward the ships. Far over, he could see the guards lying about
drunkenly. He listened. From the vast city came the faint sounds of cars and
music and sirens. And he imagined other sounds too: the insidious whir of malt
machines stirring malts to fatten the warriors and make them lazy and forgetful,
the narcotic voices of the cinema caverns lulling and lulling the Martians fast,
fast into a slumber through which, all of their remaining lives, they would
sleepwalk.
A year from now, how many Martians dead of cirrhosis of the liver, bad kidneys,
high blood pressure, suicide?
He stood in the middle of the empty avenue. Two blocks away a car was rushing
toward him.
He had a choice: stay here, take the studio job, report for work each morning as
adviser on a picture, and, in time, come to agree with the producer that, yes
indeed, there were massacres on Mars; yes, the women were tall and blond; yes,
there were tribal dances and sacrifices; yes, yes, yes. Or he could walk over
and get into a rocket ship and, alone, return to Mars.
‘But what about next year?’ he said.
The Blue Canal Night Club brought to Mars. The Ancient City Gambling Casino,
Built Right Inside. Yes, Right Inside a Real Martian Ancient City! Neons, racing
forms blowing in the old cities, picnic lunches in the ancestral graveyards’all
of it, all of it.
But not quite yet. In a few days he could be home. Tylla would be waiting with
their son, and then for the last few years of gentle life he might sit with his
wife in the blowing weather on the edge of the canal reading his good, gentle
books, sipping a rare and light wine, talking and living out their short time
until the neon bewilderment fell from the sky.
And then perhaps he and Tylla might move into the blue mountains and hide for
another year or two until the tourists came to snap their cameras and say how
quaint things were.
…
He knew just what he would say to Tylla. ‘War is a bad thing, but peace can be a
living horror.’
He stood in the middle of the wide avenue.
Turning, it was with no surprise that he saw a car bearing down upon him, a car
full of screaming children. These boys and girls, none older than sixteen, were
swerving and ricocheting their open-top car down the avenue. He saw them point at him and yell. He heard the motor roar louder. The car sped forward at sixty miles an hour.
He began to run.
Yes, yes, he thought tiredly, with the car upon him, how strange, how sad. It
sounds so much like . . . a concrete mixer.
Emile Friant was an artist who produced a known 75 artworks. He is considered to be a French Naturalist artist. He was born 1863 and died in 1932. He lived a good solid life. And he left behind some wondrous works of art.
It’s examples of paintings like this that convince me that the art medium has a degree of superiority over the digital camera. Accuracy is not always what we look for (unless you have a mental illness). Instead we are looking for a reflection of our feelings when we experience things. I think that this painting captures this moment wonderfully.
Just lovely. I love how the colors in the outfit blend together. As an artist I cannot help but admire her foot, the way her hand rests on her hip, and her nice breast. The artist painted her beauty and her eyes all framed with her wonderful hair. I just love this work.
Man and his cat. What man didn’t want to get warm to a cozy fire, and share his daily catch of fish with his beloved kitty? This picture has charm. It appeals to me.
The creatures of the woods. Often depicted as young girls au naturelle. I love the wood and the glade that it opens up towards. Charming, sensuous, and calming all at the same time.
Romantic discussion over the water. It’s autumn. The man is smoking a cigarette and discussing life and his view with the fine lady beside him. It is something that is both calming and tender. I love it.
Watching over the baby. I do love the color selection, and the over all layout of this work. The historical clothes are a nice touch, but the baby face is just charming.
The boatmen. Just a group of friends having dinner or lunch on a nice day outside. Lovely. This type of activity used to be very common. Not so much any longer. Sadly. There is so much that we have tossed aside in the name of progress and modernization.
Don’t you love those outfits? When I see this work I love the colors and the shadings, as well as the particular attention to details. Like the artists’ hands, and the hair bonnet, and the oily rag, while other aspects of the painting are left blurry or unfinished. It’s true art.
I love the uniqueness of the subject matter. This would be a nice living-room, kitchen or bedroom painting. I think and believe. It’s just curious and well done.
This work really appeals to me. I created a similar work. Alas it was discarded when I was fired on Christmas eve and they didn’t box it up. After the holiday, I came back to retrieve it and discovered that the custodians threw it in the trash. Such is life.
And this idealistic idyllic life is certainly appealing. As we see a fine lass strolling along the path on a wonderful day. One can only hope that there is some wine, cheese and baguettes in that satchel. It would be a nice time to take and enjoy the day.
Conclusion
Art isn’t a singular painting that some wealthy patron buys and hoards inside his house. It is everything. It is the dew on the grass in the morning, to the sleek lines of your clothes iron. It is the smile on your pet’s face when it is napping after a meal, and the warmth of a pile of clothes out of the dryer on a cold, cold Winter day.
I just wanted to share these images with you all. I hope that you enjoyed them.
Have you ever wanted to try your hand at painting? It’s not hard. You watch a few Bob Ross videos and get started. It’s fun, and a great way to relax and pass the time. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
The following is the ninth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
This particular article is not part of the direct set of articles that are autobiographical in scope and content.
Instead, this article concerns a lesson on how to conduct “Lucid Dreaming” (as a prelude to “Astral Travel”).
Part 9 – Lucid Dreaming Lesson 2: Explanation of the Various Stages of Sleep
In the first lesson we learnt about the three meditations necessary in order to prepare one mentally for entering the dreaming domain. These meditations focused on negating thought, stilling the mind, and the categorisation of thought upon the reception of higher order information that may come through during a lucid dreaming session. This next lesson will build upon those meditations and deal with some strange concepts but it is necessary for the student to grasp as solid an understanding as possible of them.
Consider this like reading a map before going on a journey. If you don’t read the map before hand, you are likely to become lost along the way. But just like you can never really comprehend the totality of terrain layout on the map, you can never really comprehend the terrain of the lucid world, despite how much preparation you put into it. You can prepare for your journey all you want, but you will never know when that tyre is suddenly going to catch a flat. Would you rather have had the forethought to include a wrench or find yourself stuck up shit creek without a paddle? It could go smoothly, or it could go badly depending on how much practicing of the three meditations you have undertaken.
So, by now, you should be getting good with your visualisation practices. You should be able to go into your mind and get “lost” in the movie you find yourself playing of the oranges and bananas. You should be able to “daydream” this movie out for a good few seconds and have perfect definition of it in your mind’s eye. And you should be able to have this amount of clarity with whatever scenario you wish. If not, then keep practicing.
Now, consciousness follows a fairly standard pathway as it enters the dreaming state. This pathway, according to my experiences, is generally as follows:
1. The body shuts down and goes into a stasis state
2. Consciousness “inverts” and travels back in towards the pineal gland
3. The frequency of one’s consciousness reduces by about an octave (1 half), as it undergoes
the transition into the sleeping state and completely disengages form the physical body.
4. One now exists as a pure conscious thought form; perception switches from 3D
based physical objects to 4D based energy signatures and images. You literally “see” what is in your sub consciousness.
5. Images stored within the subconsciousness are “attached” to consciousness and a new
holographic 3.5D environment forms around it
6. The dream ends. Physical reality is overlaid on top of the holographic dream at a rate of
around 0.5Hz, until consciousness locks back into the body, in which physical reality
solidifies.
Most Lucid dreaming techniques – well those I have come across, anyway – are geared toward becoming consciously aware during the dream state after sub conscious imagery has already had some say in how the dream will be formed. This is known as Dream Induced Lucid Dreaming (DILD), and is considered the best method for beginners to practice lucid dreaming. With the DILD method, you are unconscious until number 5, where you regain limited control of the dream upon becoming lucid. As the subconscious distortions have been the dominant means for the holographic dream environment to materialise by, this environment will become “anchored” in and quite hard to change through visualisation. You can usually only change certain things within the environment, but never the environment itself.
My goal, however, is to keep you conscious through the whole transition period into the void space so you can “clear” out these sub conscious distortions and replace them with your own visualisations. This is more along the lines of what is known as Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming (WILD). This is recommended for those who are more skilled at LD, as it takes a degree of dedication to be able to carry out a WILD session effectively. Though I have come across many speaking of this method of inducing lucid dreams, I am yet to come across anyone talking on the importance of regaining control of the void space and clearing out the distractions present within it to create a stable dreamscape. Thus one may consider my techniques an extremely advanced version of the WILD technique. There is a degree of mental discipline that must first be reached before one can expect results. We will build upon these concepts in later lessons.
Given this mud map of what we can expect consciousness to do, we can break it further down into the phases it passes through as it makes its way into the dream state. In doing this we can start to gain an idea of what to expect so we can better prepare ourselves as we move through each phase. One should be aware though, that these phases vary quite significantly from one to another, and there will be some adjustment of comfortability as one progresses through each one.
This is where I tell you to hold on to your hats, because the things experienced in this domain are unlike anything you will ever experience in waking reality. Also, it should be born in mind that astral projection can be achieved from more than one of these phases, though the success of the projection will also vary depending on which phase. The phases, in order one can expect to experience them , are:
Relaxation Level 3/ Theta State
Sleep Paralysis/ Hypnagogic Phase
Consciousness Inversion/ Transition Phase
Detachment phase
Void space phase
Dream creation Phase
Non physical travel phase (if desired)
Auric projection (extremely advanced practice, aided by non physical entities when one is ready; this is where your 4D lucid train ride terminates in 5D reality)
When you close your eyes at bed time you have two potential pathways you can take into never never land. You can either succumb to fatigue and go through the phases unconsciously, in which case your best bet would be a DILD, or you can remain conscious and enter into either Theta State, Sleep Paralysis or straight into the Void Space. Astral projection can take place in all three of these phases, though I have found personally that it is best achieved whilst in Theta State.
Theta State and Astral Projection:
Theta state is not always necessary for lucid dreaming. You can actually bypass it all together quite easily and still have a WILD. If astral projection is a goal, however, then entering Theta state is probably the best place to initiate such and OBE. When working with the Monroe Institute’s techniques for inducing Astral Projection, they mention that one must first enter this state of what they call level 3 relaxation.
So what is it? I want you to think of diving into the comfiest bed you have ever been in. You’ve got fluffy pillows all around you, a big brand new duck down doona covering you and best of all it is a King Size bed that you’ve got all to yourself. You can lie here naked completely by yourself and just spread out as much as you want without an annoying spouse taking up half of your chilling room. Or even worse – kids. Imagine just being absorbed into the bed and its linen. That feeling of pure bliss that makes you feel all warm inside just knowing you are going to get a good nights sleep. Well, that is relaxation level 2. To get to relaxation level 3, you need to go deeper than that.
How do you do this if you are completely relaxed? Well, you aren’t really as relaxed as you think you are. All the muscles you are lying on currently hold some amount of tension in them as they hold your body up. When you get comfy you don’t really notice this tension, but it is there, I guarantee you. To get to Theta State, you have to relieve this tension, but at the same time keep yourself awake whilst doing so. The trick is to take slow, deep breaths and “feel” that tension leave you on your long exhales. Personally for me it takes about half an hour to an hour to properly get into this state, sometimes even longer. Sometimes I will enter this state briefly then go straight into sleep paralysis or the void space without even getting a chance to astral project. It all depends on your fatigue levels.
Once you get to this state, your body will begin to feel light. There might be a high pitched tinnitus like sound in your head. For me it sounds like when you open a soda bottle and hold your ear right up to it and can hear all those small bubbles popping and “grinding” together. If you want to properly astral project, you have to focus on this sound and nothing else. You cannot allow your mind to get distracted following the wandering thoughts that will appear; these will carry you into an unconscious sleep state. They will appear as strong thoughts which catch your attention and then quickly diminish into incoherent unconsciousness as the trail of thought becomes harder to remember. Again slow, deep breathing helps. You focus on the sound and try to “listen” to your breaths whenever your mind starts wandering.
Your fingers act like antennas that can pick up subtle energies around you. Try to listen to them if you can. Try and pull these energies from the atmosphere and push them from your head to your toes and back again. There is also the possibility of seeing pulsating waves of energy through your vision, or of feeling a vast space out in front of you. I have had a lot of moments where it feels like gravity is distorting around me, like I am spinning on a giant wheel and the centrifugal force pinning to me to the bed keeps changing directions. Personally I have found it too be quite therapeutic just lying in it and taking it in. These may lead to some excited emotions, but it is important to keep that excitement at bay, or it will ruin the projection.
If all goes well the soda bubble noise should get more and more intense until you feel something happen. This something is hard to describe but it is a very prominent feeling that you are “coming” out of your body. The process can be aided by visualising standing at the end of your bed or rolling out of your body, but personally I have found it easier to just keep focusing on the soda bubble noise. Eventually you should hear a loud pop and your astral body will just float out of the physical.
The experience will be surreal. It will be extraordinary, and exhilarating, and it will feel absolutely definitely 100% real – until you wake up, in which it will feel like it was just a dream. But there will be time to take it all in later. The first thing that one should worry about is putting some distance between their astral body and their physical one. The reason is that the physical body acts like a magnet and will snap the astral body back into it if it stays too close for too long. Aim for a couple of rooms distance, and remember that just thinking of a place will take you to it; to get back to the physical body one just thinks about it and they automatically appear back there. Surprisingly, navigation seems to come quite naturally and easily during astral projection. Well, it did for me anyway.
Now that we have got astral projection out of the way, we can get into effective Lucid Dreaming concepts and practices, where navigation is much, much more difficult to control. In future articles we will go into techniques I use to control the dreamscape, but for now let’s start with your awareness of the physical plane:
Projection of Consciousness During the Transition.
Your consciousness projects out from your eyes in a sort of hemispherical fashion until it hits the horizon. This is the only way you can consciously perceive anything whilst you are awake. Thus this projection is uni directional; it cannot go any other way (not with your eyes open any way). What happens is that you project your consciousness out through the eyes and then the light entering into your eyes from the boundaries of this projection your brain picks up and processes as reality. My experiences suggest that consciousness projection during astral projection follows a similar pathway; out in front of you to an object separated by “astral space”. You perceive the non physical environment around you like you perceive the physical world whilst you are awake.
Conscious perception in the dream state, however, is completely different to conscious perception in both the physical and astral planes. It is omni directional; it has more than one way to go than just out the eyes towards a horizon. It can go both inwardly and outwardly, but for arguments sake we will say it can both contract and expand. When you are awake, and consciously observing something, your consciousness is effectively “locked” into a state of infinite, inward projection/ contraction and is never allowed a chance to expand. It is like squeezing a stress ball then freezing it so the fibres never have a chance to return back to their spherical state. They remain locked to the curvature impression of your fingers. Consciousness is not really going “outward” – sure its going out of the eyes – but more so “inward” to a more dense state. This is a confusing concept and may seem counterintuitive, so I suggest meditating on it to get your head around it. Think of it like the science experiment where you suck all the air out of a soda can and the tin crinkles into a ball. You just don’t realise this because of the block put in place by your physical brain.
When you enter the sleep state, your consciousness expands back “outwardly” to its original, spherical state. It inverts and goes back through the eyes in towards the pineal gland; you can actually feel this during a conscious transition into the sleeping state. You can feel the moment consciousness stops trying to condense and changes direction to expansion. It is a fucking incredible experience and better than any sex or drug that you will ever come across.
Consciousness can therefore be thought of as a sphere that has two extremes of possibility; maximum compression and maximum expansion. If we consider the edges of the universe to be maximum expansion, and an atom to be maximum compression, this becomes our 4th dimensional range of travel potential for our consciousness when disconnected from our body. It is a bit more complicated than that, but for now this concept will do. What happens during the transition into the sleep state is that your consciousness “inverts” right at the transition point. It goes from a locked inward projection to a moving outward projection.
This is important to learn because it becomes the fundamental aspect behind how you travel in and out of different planes of different densities.
From what I have experienced, physical universes are sort of “stacked” inside one another separated by a 4th dimensional distance of consciousness “space”. Picture the atom existing in the middle of an entire universe; the atom is solid, yet it exists in a sphere of empty space. If you expand your consciousness outwardly to the edges of that space, you become yet another atom existing in yet another vast, spherical space and on ad infinitum.
This is what is meant by “as above, as below”, or “micro and macrocosm”. Consciousness is mercurial in the sense that it can slip through this 4th dimensional space between physical and non physical worlds like water through a crack simply by compressing and expanding. No matter which way you go, you eventually arrive back at the same point, just like if you head in one direction on the earth. To properly master lucid dreaming, you have to learn to become “slippery” when the time calls for it, and “solid” when it doesn’t. Astral travel is thus simply just your consciousness slipping back into the plane of your astral body. It is merely a station along the many that can be taken by the train that is lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming is therefore a completely different thing and should not be confused with astral projection. It is an existence of pure consciousness detached from any type of body, but it allows the potential to “jump” into those bodies like you are putting on a suit. It allows the potential of astral projection as well as many other things. Visualisation allows one to choose the suit they wish to put on. The void space is akin to your wardrobe space, and each plane of “reality” is like a suit hanging up within that wardrobe. Most people believe this physical reality is the only suit they can wear. They never get the option of choice.
However if you learn how to control the mercurial state of consciousness whilst in the void space – ie, solidify yourself as you slide through the 4D consciousness space – you can wear whichever suit you damn well please. Well, within reason. It is entirely possible to move out of the physical body, slip into another physical/nonphysical one and live out that experience just like you would in this physical world, before slipping out of it and back into your physical body. I have done this many times before, often times for weeks on end in the span of single earth nights. Some of these other worlds I have visited have also been corroborated by other lucid dreamers. This poses the question of what these bodies are really doing when you are in them utilising an unconscious state of awareness. So where do we draw the line when it comes to reality if you can be aware of all these places but not actively engaged in them?
Therefore, there is a degree of “psychological hardening” one must come into before undertaking these sorts of journeys. You have to be able to adapt to the many different environments you may find yourself in. And boy there are many, with many weird, indescribable things going on. My advice is that you always remember to focus on the ”absolute now” and not try and dwell too much on other places. By all means record them and think of them objectively, but try not to get too hung up on what is going on “over there”. If you think our world is depressing and hard to deal with, there are many that are much worse in the non physical planes. You need to learn to cope with what you experience without dwelling on it, or it’ll drive you insane.
But none of this can be consciously witnessed if one does not first learn to control their void space. And to control the void space one must enter into it through a conscious transition into the dream state – ie a WILD. This can be done in one of two ways; by direct access, or via Sleep Paralysis. Sleep Paralysis seems to be the easiest way to get into the void space. Unfortunately, it is also the most unpleasant.
The Sleep Paralysis Phase:
Let’s pick up where we left off from in the first lesson in regards to lying still where the arms and legs start to become numb. I mentioned this is the stage immediately preceding sleep paralysis. If you continue through this numbness without moving or initiating an OBE, eventually your whole body will become completely paralysed and you will not be able to move. What this feels like is that gravity has been turned up by about a few billion and you just can’t move anything no matter how hard you try. Except for the eyes. You might notice they move too easily about and that it takes some effort to get them to stay in a particular place.
Contrary to most belief, you can actually be completely aware of your surroundings as if you were completely awake when in Sleep Paralysis. I have had many instances where I have woken up, looked around and thought I was good enough to get out of bed, only to accidentally pull my astral body out due to me still being in sleep paralysis. This is the key to astral projection whilst in this state; you have to try and roll or pull yourself out, but the paralysis makes it extremely difficult to do. Awareness of one’s surroundings is, therefore, not a good indicator of whether or not one is in SP. It should also be understood that there is a very fine, and often times blurry, line regarding when one actually enters Sleep Paralysis. Often that blur can cross over from the Theta State; one minute you are relaxed and the next something very strange seems to be going on. Generally, Sleep Paralysis induced in the morning after a night full of sleep will be easier to deal with than one induced upon going to sleep
Now I need to mention here that the sleep paralysis stage is not particularly pleasant. To be brutally honest, it’s probably one of the most terrifying things you will ever experience, and this is coming from someone who was almost executed at knife point. It will feel like your soul is being pulled in every direction at once. Your voice will be choked to a faint cry no matter how hard you try to yell. You will hear the most chthonic noises imaginable – unlike anything you have ever heard before – and get the most unsettling feelings that make the hairs stand on the back of your neck. It is also not uncommon to see strange beings of various sorts ranging from “demons” to “aliens” standing at the bed. Random scenarios will play out in your head suggesting your impending doom, and voices will whisper things to you that will make you think you are crazy. I have had instances where I was absolutely sure someone had broken into the house and was seconds away from killing me and my family in my sleep. I have had another instance where death materialised around me and hit me with its scythe. Aliens, demons, the whole shebang there to come and eat my soul for breakfast. If you are lucky you will hear the most perfect music you have ever heard, but this only ever seems to be after you have become well acquainted with the Sleep Paralysis stage.
All I can tell you is that if you are big on horror movies and haven’t been putting in your visualisation hours, you are going to have a really fucking wild ride. Visualising unicorns farting rainbows is going to do absolutely nothing for you at this point. But despite this, you must always remember IT IS ALL A LOAD OF BULLSHIT. A wall of illusions put in place to make you really not want to go through with detaching your consciousness from your physical body. It’s like seeing one of those horror movies for the first time as a kid – it is important you take a step back and realise none of it is going to hurt you. It isn’t real. You have to learn to just “relax” and let it play the fuck out around you. This is easier said than done, and I get that not everyone will be able to do it. Hell, it even still gets the best of me at times and I have to exit the session, and I have been doing this for 23 years. So don’t feel bad if you can’t bring yourself to go through with it.
The way to exit a session in this manner is that you shake your head from side to side, like you are saying no. It will be hard because of the paralysis, but you only need 2 shakes and you’ll be fully awake. This is your get out of hell card, use it if you need to.
If you do learn to relax, however, you will gain access to the most powerful part of the human mind that is directly connected to all other consciousnesses in existence; the void space. This is where the fun and magic really begins. This is where you really earn your “wings”.
The Transition Into Void Space:
If you are successful in relaxing properly whilst under sleep paralysis, then the illusion should just all of a sudden fall away from around you. All the chaos around, including those terrifying thoughts just completely leave you. It will be then that you will feel your consciousness invert as it makes the transition into the sleep state. It’s like Han Solo hitting that hyperdrive button on the millennium falcon; you go through a tunnel of….well, I can’t really describe it – blurry 4th dimensional “shit”. This will be very brief and over in a couple of seconds, and on the other side of it you will feel your consciousness completely detach from the physical body in a completely different way to when it does via astral projection.
You then enter into the void space. It sort of feels like diving into an ocean of pure “bliss”. If you thought astral projection was exciting, this is the most exhilarating feeling you will ever experience, hands down, period, full stop. It is like this weight that you never knew was there has suddenly been lifted and you can finally “stretch out” in ways you never could have even imagined before. You are uncaged. Godlike. It feels like you are left falling into an infinite hole, which is where I assume one really is when having a classic “falling dream”. Although it can be unsettling at first, when you get good, it can provide an effective means of relaxation. I used to enter here and just “kick back” and wallow in the falling sensation for hours. It is the ultimate sensory deprivation tank.
If you made it this far then congratulations, as you are now existing as a pure conscious thought form where the hassle of mundanities such as money and debt are going to be the furthest from your mind. Physical reality is no where to be seen, though you still have 100% awareness of it down to every minute detail.
After making a conscious transition into the void space, you no longer see 3D objects out to a physical horizon. You see pure archetypal energy forms that combine with whatever is in your subconsciousness from a 4th dimensional perspective. These images take the form of distortions that differ in intensity depending on how “deep” you enter it. Think of it like a bubble. At the edge of this bubble the distortions are at their most extreme, but towards the middle you are insulated by a level of consciousness space.
This consciousness space I have somewhat mapped to being 12 layers deep, based on my difficulty in vanquishing the distortions using my own visualization practices. Though, this should be thought of as an analogue gauge rather than actual physically separated layers. The depth you penetrate into this void space seems to be determined by the velocity of your consciousness at the transition point into the sleeping state. This velocity is a product of fatigue of the mind during this transition. If you are too fatigued, your velocity penetrates too deeply into the bubble and you hit the edge. You become swarmed by these distortions which more often than not, leads to a random dream. This is why most people do not realise they are dreaming, in my opinion.
Without conscious awareness and strong visualisation, these distortions become very hard to vanquish, even when one is aware of them. If you penetrate at a lower velocity, you are more likely to reach the centre of the bubble. This is where the distortions are at their lowest. So you could say level 0 = waking reality, whilst level 12 = complete distortion/ unconscious dream. If you can remain conscious and make it into this part of the void space, you can create your own reality suit through the use of visualisation, which you then just hop into. The reality then just appears around you. It is equivalent to the white room in the matrix where a rack of guns appear out of nowhere before Neo. The void space is thus the “load out” screen your consciousness enters into before you load out this physical reality. It is the very first point one enters into in the dreaming state, but most people are too fatigued to realise, and pass through to it’s distortion maxima – level 12 or what I call the “basement”. Thus they become engulfed in their own subconsciousness hypnotism.
If you do manage to a) consciously enter the void space, and b) vanquish the sub conscious distortions, however, you then have an opportunity to witness this dream creation as it takes place.
Dream Creation Phase:
After accessing the void space, you then have the ability to imagine up your own dream environments. We will go into an effective process for doing so later on, but for now one should understand that this is where the idea of being a “slippery” or “solidified” consciousness comes into play. When in the void space you are formless and slippery – 4th dimensional in nature, or as MM would say in wave form – but after you create a dreamscape and move into it you become more “solidified”, or particle like. You create the 3.5D holographic dream environment and become a 3.5D entity within it. I say 3.5D because it is somewhere where between like our physical 3D reality and the 4D of consciousness space. When the dream has been created via conscious implantation of thought rather than sub conscious implantation, it becomes much easier to control. Travel is undertaken when dream creation has been mastered.
The Waking up Phase:
Provided your lucid dream goes all well, you might be lucky enough to witness the transition back into the physical plane. What seems to happen – well, what I have witnessed anyway – is that the physical reality is sort of overlayed as a very faint image over the holographic dream in a wavy like manner. This wave is about 0.5Hz; very, very slow and noticeable. With each back and forth movement of the wave, the physical reality overlay gets more vivid whilst the dream starts to become faint. After 10 – 20 seconds, physical reality has completely replaced the dream and becomes “locked” into place. Words cannot express how depressed one feels upon the realisation they are once again trapped in such a sate. It should be cautioned here, that lucid dreaming is extremely addictive.
Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 10 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
In early October 2021, I established a task request asking for those versed in LD and other skills to investigate whether or not there were any “backdoors” or other ways in and out of the “Old Empire” “Prison Complex” that we are all (unfortunately) part of. By the second week of October the results began to pour in. The first group of results was posted HERE.
This is a posting of subsequent results.
Volunteers
I asked in this post if any MM readership would be interested in joining The Domain to help rescue their “Lost Battalion”.
The response was overwhelmingly positive.
And then within a few days after the readership started adding affirmations and confirmations that they wish to help The Domain, be a Rufus, and do whatever they can contribute, many many MANY of them started writing to me privately.
They were (for the most part) terrified.
Within hours or days of making a verbal affirmation that they indeed wanted to assist The Domain, all of them, every single one of them, experience sleep paralysis and horrible fears and manifestations. All of which is very similar to “abduction events”.
That they were “hijacked” in their dream state and all sorts of operations and procedures occurred. For them, it was truly frightening.
However, I said then, and I will say now…
In the non-physical reality, thoughts take on tangible form.
Fears are used to control you.
So when you experience any type of help, your fear-defenses (part of the “Old Empire” programming), will try to make you fight and prevent the assistance.
So keep in mind…
To help The Domain, certain retardations and alterations to your inmate human body must be undone.
This requires an operation; a procedure.
The Domain will undo those alterations when you join in the effort. They will conduct an operation and perform a procedure to remove those “chains” and “blocks” that you have shackled to your non-physical body.
Do not fear it. You NEED to have it done, whether you want to help the Domain or not.
It is a medical procedure.
Many people have commented on this event as a “dream”, or a “Join the Domain related dream”.
Janus Mission Briefing
This is from an anonymous MM lurker that communicates with me by secure means. He is an expat like myself. He is prior SAP like myself. He is retired like myself, but unlike myself he fled the ‘States before he could be formally “retired”. You all can leave messages and your thoughts about his experiences on the forum or in the comments. He will read them, but he will not comment on them directly. In this matter, I act as an intermediary. -MM
I have been unwilling to 'Go under' for some time now. To be honest I have been scared. I've previously had some success with Lucid Dreaming, but I have much more control in OBE (Out of Body Experience/astral travel etc.).
The problem was, the minute I 'let go of the rope' I feel like being kidnapped. Not unlike being sucked into the giant vacuum cleaner.
It feels like somebody is waiting for me at the entry point (not a good word, it's more like bopping to 3D from 2D). Like they were ready for me. That has never happened to me before.
OBE has always been a joyous, refreshing and FREE state. Now it's scary and that sucks. I thought they were the Prison Guards but didn't stick around to ask questions.
Then I read the experience of others, and it dawned on me. It was The Domain scrubbing away the prison colors, so I wouldn't be spotted right away!
I have the house to myself the whole day, I will attempt an entry now.
Janus 10-18-2021, 09:30 AM
The “Join The Domain Dream”.
I am only now able to write about it all. I had to do 60min deep meditation to thoroughly rinse my mental palate of disgusting gunk that covered my consciousness.
After I understood that the kidnapping was for my own protection, I didn’t try to evade it. As soon as I released myself from my body, I felt like I had grown an umbilical core and was pulled by it.
I let it happen.
After a period of time that was from nanosecond to a lifetime (I really don’t have any frame of reference for time there), I found myself suspended in a rig. I knew instantly that I have been in this before, many times apparently.
What happened next was without a doubt the most intensely unpleasant experience of my life. I felt like being skinned alive with a butternife.
It wasn’t sharp pain, it was more like a too heavyhanded massage. It lasted as long as it did, again no way of telling the time in any meaningful way.
I was no longer in the rig, it was more like a lounge-chair from the future.
The material felt like a memory-foam but better. I felt weightless and totally supported at the same time. I was unable to move, wasn’t able to even try to move.
Next sensation I felt, was like my head was held in a vice.
You know how to boil a frog? That happened just like it; initially I felt no discomfort, then the grip was so strong I thought my eyes would pop out.
Thia is difficult to verbalize.
My brain was rinsed.
I felt very close to dropping out of the OBE, perhaps I did. I felt my consciousness being totally independent and outside my brain and body, but I could still feel powerwashers drumming my sclera or cortex. I could feel dozens of small needle like thingies getting dislodged from the brain-tissue.
I somehow blacked out, there was a clear cutoff, because I was no longer held or suspended.
Now I was very much THERE.
I felt fit, my vision was disturbingly clear and vivid, like I was using my eyes for the first time. But it wasn’t my eyes I was seeing thru.
I was ‘sensing’ everything.
I knew I was able to sense ultraviolet light as well as infrared, and then some. Do you remember the scene from Matrix, where Neo is able to see the code for the first time?
That was it to the T.
The whole episode felt like getting an oil-change, tires rotated, new spark-plugs and a coat of paint; I didn’t get superpowers, but more like superUSER powers. It felt like I could see thru walls and distinguish between players and NPC’s. To use an American vernacular, I felt like a million bucks!
But I felt totally spent at the same time.
I swam back to the surface.
I opened my eyes and realized that I was sweating like a pig. Only 30 minutes had passed, it felt like a lifetime. I took quick dip in the almost freezing lake and planned my next move. I was in flames to try my enhanced abilities, but on the other hand I was very tired.
Lucid Dream Attempt
I haven’t been very successful in Lucid Dreaming lately, but part of it was the nagging fear of getting kidnapped.
Why not give a go? Worst case, I Could fall asleep.
I went to bed, just over the covers, not between the sheets, and took a keychain in my hand.
…
I was in a shopping mall. The Mission was to look for open entry points or hidden backdoors. I took the escalator to the bottom floor. Doors opened, and I saw the place crawling with NPC/guards. I saw a an old woman trying to go out thru the main doors. There were four revolving doors, she went to the second from right. I looked at her as she stepped into the revolving door.
As on command, all the NPC’s turned to look at her as well, grinning. The door sped up. It looked like a dust-devil. After a few seconds the door slowed down, the woman was gone, but not outside.
Ok, four exits, check.
Viability as possible rally/entrypoints: zero.
I was at the bottom floor, so it seems that only way is up. As I was sneaking back to the elevators, another thought struck me.
> You are standing in front of a door. You see corridor to your right.
> _
When I was a teen I played a lot of these text-based games. One of the game-designers Holy principles is “The unintuitive move is the right move”. If the only rational move is to open the door in front of you, you can bet your ass there’ll be Dragons behind it.
The revolving doors were enter only, manned with killer-bots, and a death-trap if you try to exit.
The elevators go from “E” to “10th floor, women’s lingerie”.
There was bound to be a skylight that opens or a hidden staircase. This took forever to write, but dream-time is non-local, and time there is an irrelevant artifact.
I was descending the hidden stairs before I finished the thought.
I went down and flipped 180 degrees emerging up. Very weird sensation. It was like a move I knew how to do, but have forgot. Like learning to fly by jumping up and forgetting to come down.
I came up and I kept going up until I was so far from the ground that I spotted a familiar looking beach, some mountains over the left. I was looking to east, south-east, the beach was behind me.
I was in West-Africa, somewhere around Senegal or Gambia.
That’s not so bizarre as it sounds, I’ve been there several times. I even ran an NGO in Gambia. I was up north, Mauretania, I think. The place I went through looked like a target. X marks the spot, eh?
Anyway I tried to spot the place in Google Earth just now.
Holy Shit!!
.
Caldera.
I need to drop this off to you now. I haven't even read this through. Sorry about poor penmanship, I just needed to write this down before it goes away.
You can share it with the class, if you wish.
Conclusion
Warning: Please take general caution against getting too excited about any particular place on LD/RW/Astral.
Do you see what happens when we all work together as part of a team? This image resembles a volcanic island, only not in the ocean. Yet, I would hazard a guess that around the time when this entire planet was set up as a Prison Planet that this area was covered in water. This goes together and add a lot of interconnected puzzle pieces to the mix. I cannot wait for others to report on their findings.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
There is a ton-load of disinformation, opinion, mixed messages and all sorts of distractions and bullshit on the internet. Nothing is more rife than that associated with the “Type-1 greys”.
Indeed, there are MM followers, well meaning no doubt, and inadvertently pick up on these other “signals” (whether through reading something, or in a vision or other non-physical method) and repeat it here. I am not saying they are bad, or wrong. But I really want clarity.
I try to provide what I know in simple, clear language, and in a non-confrontation (for the most part) manner. I want this place to be a “safe place”; a “safe space”. I want people who arrive at MM doorstep to be welcomed and accepted, no matter what they believe, no matter what social environment they come from, and no matter what their experiences are. I want this place to be a sanctuary where you are accepted without hesitation.
Never the less, sometimes our experiences, our backgrounds, our understandings contain baggage that seeps into our daily lives, and we bring it here to MM. Like automatically assuming that Mantids are the angels spoken about in the Bible. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t. Maybe they are something else. But does it REALLY matter?
No.
What matters is how YOU view them. And you can communicate your views using the tools at hand. Which might be the Bible… and well understood by Christians, but confusing to Daoists.
Communication is the key. The ability to communicate openly and freely.
And when we are receiving the messages from others we can get a little confused. Try teaching vibrational mechanics to a classroom of college students hung over from last nights drinking to get an idea of what I am talking about. Which is pretty much WHY I try to simplify, simplify, and dumb down everything.
MerLynn has some great information, but he gets so enraptured in the content, that you must really latch onto it or you will get thrown off. It’s like a bucking bronco and you must hold on for dear life. Which is why I have asked him to simplify it, and not be so information dense.
Here’s an example of how understandable it can be once you simplify things…
This entire Universe is made of Light Structures. Everything is the Light said Tesla. Thales and Aristotle agreed that Everything is Water and Life is in Everything. What this means is.... Light, from ALL sources, candle, spark, sun, bulb is a STRUCTURE that is Magnetic. Like a tiny "lego" piece that has a North and South Pole and an 'equatorial' polarity region. These Structures of Light come together to form Tetrahedrons and then these Tetrahedrons form ALL OF CREATION. There are no electrons or protons or neutrons Dracul. So if you want to discuss ALIEN TECHNOLOGY which is TESLA and Leedskalnin TECHNOLOGY, please do so using their terms of Reference and 'electrons' are just not part of any real science. Think in terms of Energy, Frequency and Vibrations with WAVE FORMS.
Brilliant. Really.
It doesn’t mean that he is wrong, or bad, or misunderstanding things from my point of view. It just means that I want his information to be spread out as understood by a much wider scope of MM readership, than just the hard-core. I want more people to read it. More people to understand it. More people to embrace it.
It’s a good thing right?
Information, and the communication of it, is important. We all come from different places, with different backgrounds, different histories, different needs, wants and desires. But we all want to share.
One common way on the internet is to use “themes” and “memes”.
We all know what a meme is. It’s a common phrase or understanding that is well packaged in a mannerism, or scene (from a movie or television show).
“Sure Jan” meme. This is from the 1960’s television comedy show “The Brady Bunch”. Where one sister is talking to the other about something that her older sister well understands, and knows it’s not going to work out of be the way she thinks.
Likewise are “themes”.
There are ton-load of “Themes” in the American internet. Donald Trump was the master of creating themes…
Jail Hillary.
Contain China.
Build a Wall.
Make America great again.
But these “themes” come in all sorts of other venues as well. Even themes that you don’t realize are themes.
Katana swords are great for killing zombies.
Do not by a used car from a dealer wearing a polyester plaid business suit.
Having a tattoo shows your “uniqueness”.
‘Merica!
And in the conventional scene we have…
Madcow illness will turn your into a moron if you eat that hamburger.
Y2K means that you had best be prepared for the apocalypse.
3G radiation will fry your brain.
Cell phones will explode near gasoline pumps.
And when you start talking about extraterrestrials… well then there are a host of themes…
Reptilians shapeshift and control the worlds governments.
Little grey extraterrestrials are a dying race that are time travelers and are trying to cross breed with humans.
Tall Nordics are peaceful who want to teach enlightenment to the earth.
We use these themes to communicate our thoughts and our opinions.
But it does not mean that the themes themselves are accurate. It just means that we are using the themes to describe our thoughts and beliefs. And with that comes a problem…
When we say “Build that wall!” (as an American), what are we saying?
[A] We want a wall to keep everyone out of America except those properly vetted by the government?
[B] We want the entire nation of America to have a wall of isolation for our protection against the fearful external world.
[C] Powerful forces want this wall to be built. It has a dual purpose to keep people out and to keep people in.
[D] Donald Trump is “my man” and I will follow him because I sincerely believe that he has my best interests at heart.
[E] I tire of the endless “news” about people streaming into America taking my money, resources, and using up my tax money. I am strapped as it is and I don’t want further erosion of my buying power while experiencing an increase in taxation.
Now, the person who is using this “theme” might be thinking of situation [A] in his usage of it. However his wide and diverse audience might view the statement in another way, or in another form. For [C], for example. Or for [E] for example. Just because someone nods in agreement with you does not mean that they agree with you. It means that they recognize a part of what you are trying to convey, and that part that THEY recognize is what they are agreeing to.
Because it is so easy to confuse thought intention with the limitations of the English language, I try to simplify things. Because, I know, I am abrasive caustic and sarcastic at times. I really do not want to offend anyone. I just want the information to be disseminated.
When I say I like the AK-47, it does not mean that I like all the millions of people that it killed, or the destruction of societies that it participated in. It simply means that I like the technical innovations that provide a clear, functional robust design. If I were talking to a fellow engineer, this point would be obvious. But if I am talking to the girl behind the ice cream counter, it would easily be misinterpreted.
And then you couple all these issues with communication with the onslaught of intentional disinfo. (Big Sigh.) There are people and organizations that spread intentional disinformation and try (and often successfully) inflame to derail the communication process. So we all have to be wary. We all have to be aware. We all have to be careful.
I do NOT want this MM site to become another clone of the forced disinfo campaigns, whether intentional or not.
Shape-shifting reptilians.
Star-children to impart knowledge.
Time-traveling police to adjust world-lines.
Coronavirus is a hoax, or China manufactured it, or vaccinations are XYZ…
Y2K will cause the upcoming end of civilization as we know it.
2012 will bring in the “new enlightenment”.
And so on and so forth.
Millions of United States federal funding went towards disinfo on extraterrestrials. Millions.
Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to open up a comm line to the Domain Commander via my EBP and ask them questions regarding themselves and their operations here. One on one. Direct.
For me only.
For my purposes only. Because it is a personal issue with me. It is who I am now. I am sorry guys. I have these fucking things in my head. I’m not lying about them. They exist and they can be seen in an MRI, and I fucking deal with them every god-damn day.
So I am committed.
Because after all, if COVID was not a bio-weapon but really some form of mind control over Americans, the idea that extraterrestrials don’t exist because Oprah or Ellen Degeneres didn’t validate it, or that the Greys are actually from Zeta Reticuli then I must really be all full of shit.
And thus, MM has no value.
It’s just another blog on the internet, yet another in a series of millions of blogs. It is of no special value. I’m just a blowhard with a five dollar blog churning out my opinions into the internet hoping to connect with others for my own nefarious reasons.
I should really just chuck it all away.
Say fuck it, and go out whoring and drinking. And let me tell you guys; that’s an option that exists and I’m keen on going that direction. I mean really. Really.
Really keen.
The internet is full of opinions. Just like MM has opinions.
Some are ‘bots. Here’s an example of a ‘bot that trolls my LinkedIN posts…
And others aren’t ‘bots. As there are some real and honest experiences.
I really don’t know why you all are here, but I really hope that MM benefits you.
I sincerely hope.
And for it to provide benefit, I must keep it sanitized. Clean. Simple. Fun. And easy to understand. No bullshit. The things as I see them. Straight, open, honest and real. “Justthefacts, ma’am“.
"Justthefacts, ma'am" is acommon catchphrase often attributed to Friday, orless often, to Stan Freberg'sworksparodying Dragnet. But neither used the exact phrase. WhileFridaytypically used the phrase "All we want are the facts, ma'am" when questioningwomenin the course of police investigations, Freberg'sspoofchanged the line slightly to "I just want to get the facts, ma'am".
-Wikipedia
This Q&A was designed for, and is is for my personal benefit. ONLY. The rest of you all can read or not. The rest of you can believe it or not. It’s purpose is to help me better understand my purpose and utility in this entire MM situation. Thus it is a personal, a deeply personal conversation, and published as is.
It’s a published Q&A; MM to the Domain Commander. No others are involved.
[1] An update on the expansion of The Domain in the Milky Way galaxy
I am curious just as everyone else is. If you try to ask others about what is going on, they look at issues regarding the same tired old meme’s. They don’t realize what kind of real access we have right here.
Real access to information.
As such, I an ask things directly via the EBP than what I could have asked of my Mantid via the ELF constellation of probes. So I am a curious sort. So I figure it wouldn’t hurt to ask some general questions and get some answers that we all can “chew on”.
Especially since I have a keen and direct interest in space, our universe and our galaxy. Not to mention; society.
Question: Can you please kindly provide me with a brief and general overview of The Domain expansion efforts in this galaxy? The last update we obtained was in 1947 with “Alien Interview” that was released only a decade ago.
The Domain's expansion into the Milky Way galaxy is continuing. Much of the "Old Empire" has been conquered. There are pockets of resistance, but most have been subdued.
We have encountered a very large empire that appears to be around 10,000 light years in diameter. (The "Old Empire" was much smaller than that. -MM) They are also advanced technologically. They do not appear to be as brutal as the "Old Empire" however.
They are rather benign and peaceful. However they did engage in wars of conquest to obtain their current size.
[2] What is this empire like?
Well, I am curious. Come on! Aren’t you?
They are space-faring. With physical bodies that are not like anything you have been exposed to. They exist on planets that you would not find attractive, or inhabitable.
(I image a gas shrouded heavy planet. Maybe not a gas giant, something smaller than that. Like a "Hot Super Earth" with a very dense atmosphere.)
Consider the "Old Empire".
The "Old Empire" did not resemble what you image it to be. There were no futuristic skyscrapers that you see in your minds eye.
(He is correct, I have imagined it as some kind of futuristic "Jetsons'" city inhabited with creatures that were very human appearing. Only with a decidedly cyberpunk feel to it.)
Rather it was peopled with gargantuan public constructions, and a society of smaller more diminutive people which were probably the source of your stories about dwarves, elves, faeries, trolls and goblins. They use technology that you would consider to be akin to magic spells, hexes and alchemy / occult practice.
The same is true for this other empire.
Only instead of planets that resembled a more Springlike earth, these planets and systems that they inhabit are very, very different in atmosphere, weather, lifeforms and in just about every criteria. You would have a difficult time recognizing the civilization for what it is because your biases are so profoundly in error.
I pictured (when this information was being conveyed) something on the order of a “hot super-terran” to a sub-sized “Hot mini Neptunian”. That is the impression that I have. I guess that the planets would be from 5Me to 15Me (Mass of Earth where 1 Me = earth size) and all located in the “hot zone” of a parent star. All under a very dense and heavy atmosphere.
Here is a good chart of the characterization of the “recognized” world types that have viewed over the last few decades. The impression that I have is that the kinds of world that my Commander refers to sits in the top row between the “superterrans” and the “neptunians”. Let’s give it an MM name; the “superterran-subneptunians”.
Further, in the interests of clarity, and (my personal joy in classification), lets use this accepted exo-planetary chart to help us…
And from the impression that I have, these planets are in the “Class T” range. Just for your interest and curiosity. Certainly this civilization would not seemingly be of any interest to contemporaneous humans.
[3] What is your procedure for domination?
I mean is it like Genghis Khan, or more like the American Empire? Or is it “hands off” and live and let live? This is a direct question. After all, The Domain is trying to control the “Master Universe”. So why not ask?
Question: When you take over an existing society or empire, what changes do you make, if any? Do you wipe them all out and destroy everything, or do you do something else? What is the procedure in the case of the “Old Empire”?
IS-BEs who enter this "Master Universe" that we created must behave in certain ways that do not [1] harm the planets that they are on, [2] disrupt the ecosystem that we have created, [3] create hardship or distress to other IS-BEs.
Those societies that do so are corrected / adjusted / modified / controlled in whatever manner we deem appropriate.
In the case of the "Old Empire" there had to be a regression of technology, a correcting of society behaviors, and a change in the patterning of the incarnation process. These were done through a process of occupancy of the leadership, and then wholesale readjustments of the structure to approved archetypes for that selection of species and for that particular environments.
We avoid dangerous destruction of societies and cultures, but we do perform cultural amputations, social reconstruction, and personality readjustment. We have entire divisions / battalions / armies devoted to these efforts. Our end goal is to make the conquered empire a more stable place to exist in.
.No harm to the planets that they occupy or control.
.No disruption of the ecosystem of those planets and systems.
.No hardship, torture (for amusement), or distress to other IS-BEs.
[4] Is The Domain a “dying race”?
A number of MM commenters on the site and forum are repeating the idea that the “Greys are a dying race”. These comments come from people who I love and respect. Their thoughts and their opinions matter to me.
I have to listen to them. What they say; everything that they say has weight, meaning and importance.
When a three year old goes up to you and says “You have stinky-poo poo breath” you believe them. Right? You know that they are being honest with you. So when people suggest things to me and are trying to be open and honest with me, I want to “do my homework”.
And I don’t want to be the duped guy who is broke, penniless on a sidewalk while others drink their Starbucks coffee and snicker “I told you so.”
Seriously.
I’ve been fucked over way too many times not to sit up, take notice, and peer a little more “squint eyed” towards those that I seem to be so enraptured with. I mean, why not? A second or third, or fourth look is always good. As I have explained to my staff; “The more eyeballs that look at something, the easier it is to find mistakes.”
And if I am in error, what then?
After all, then what the fuck and I messing around with them then? Am I brainwashed? If The Domain is a dying race, and the Mantids are really the Angels that the Bible says, the possibility exists that maybe I am the one in error. Maybe I am the one who is wrong about everything. That maybe I am the fool for believing everything that I encounter.
So I asked them.
Question: Is The Domain a dying race?
No. Absolutely not.
The Domain is a social structure of IS_BE entities that choose to spend the vast bulk of their time in the timeless state. This is different from the many, many IS-BE's that enjoy the "Master Universe" as physical entities in one degree or the other.
IS-BE's are without physical form, and live outside of time and space. All came into being trillions of years ago, and we will continue to live for trillions of years hence.
None of us "dies".
The Domain structure may or might not change during that period of time. However, the system in place; a merit driven system based upon the desires of the participants work well for the vast numbers of Domain membership. It has for trillions of years, and we clearly intend it to work for trillions of years in the future.
Any and all Domain members may easily obtain physical bodies to experience physical experiences at will. However, we are involved in some rather serious undertakings that involve moving the entire state of ALL-THERE-IS to BEYOND-THAT.
To get to that state we need to "tame" the populated universe down to a state before we "buggered it up" back billions of years ago. this was a mistake that we inadvertently unleashed and created the fracturing and discordant social systems to develop as they have. This is discord, and it is not bettering any IS-BE. Just providing enjoyments and pleasures.
The IS-BE's that comprise The Domain are not dying.
The Domain itself; it's organizational structure and society is not dying either.
Those IS-BE's that desire to leave the Domain are welcome to do so and either set up their own societies, or adapt to other existing ones are welcome to do so. There is a small leakage of membership in this regard, however the egress tends to be small, short lived, and trivial. Once you have purpose, as The Domain clearly has, you will not be easily swayed by physical pleasures and the beauty of the physical environment.
Of course they would say this. But doubts still linger.
I have been duped and tricked so many times in my past. I just don’t think that I could take such a fundamental shock to my system. Remember people; I am fully committed.
You do know the difference between "committed" and being a participant?
In a plate of bacon and eggs, the chicken was a participant, but the pig was committed.
[5] Does The Domain possess physical societies on planets like the Earth or elsewhere?
Along with this idea that the Domain is a dying race is the idea that they have physical cities, physical societies and structures that are collapsing. This narrative can be found all over the internet. Which various sub-plots where they come to earth to cross-breed, or extract “precious bodily fluids” and so on and so forth to keep their species alive?
Let’s cut to the chase then.
Question: Does the Domain possess physical societies on planets like the Earth or elsewhere?
The Domain has structured environments. However they do not really resemble what your would consider to be societies. They lie outside of the physical time and space environment.
However, we do have communities that exist within the "Master Universe". Such as the bases here in "your" solar system. When we interact within these communities we utilize "doll bodies". You would consider these facilities to be barren and spartan.
Never the less, the vast bulk of our time is spent in a non-physical state, with forays in and out of the non-physical worlds, the physical worlds and other universes as we see fit.
No. We do not have a society that resembles anything upon the earth, whether in the physical realm or the non-physical realm. You simply cannot compare what The Domain is to anything you know and understand.
[6] If The Domain is primarily part of the timeless “Master Universe” then why bother conquering any nations of it?
I am sorry guys. But it doesn’t make any sense to me. If The Domain exists outside of the physical portion of the “Master Universe”…
…then why is it so busy in capturing and absorbing the civilizations and societies in this universe? Hum?
Question: Why is a society (The Domain) who only visits the “Master Universe” as needed, so interested in conquering and controlling the societies that inhabit it?
"You got me there." (He actually transmitted this statement. Can you fucking believe it?)
We created the vast bulk of the "Master Universe". Over time we improved upon it, and created planets, lifeforms, societies and the environment that you see within it.
Other universes with other IS-BE's entered and merged with it over time.
These new ideas and thoughts and ways of doing things merged with ours and changed them. The "Master Universe" became a stew of all sorts of exciting changes, interesting possibilities and constructions.
All very good. All very exciting. All very wonderful.
But, along with that came negative behaviors, and negative structures and destructive systems that started to undone the good works that we started.
These new system's, and many of the hybrid systems that developed afterwards started to run amok and started to unleash a torrent and cascade of changes that really damaged the universe. Indeed, entire civilizations were destroyed, hurt, and the IS-BEs deformed and altered into new undesirable forms.
This is not just catastrophic wars with gargantuan and colossal weapons of destruction, but the entire structure; the fabric of the universe started to be altered in really irreparable and dangerous ways. Think of a fine silk dress with a tear. OR maybe some pantyhose, if there is a snag, you must do something about it, or the entire article of clothing will be ruined beyond repair.
The Domain is tasked with preventing these "tears". Then "smoothing out the wrinkles" in the fabric of the universe. Finally with all the most worrisome attributes subdued, we can focus on the NEXT-BIG-THING.
[7] Are the Domain, or their craft from the future?
One of the on-going sub-plots in the entire grey extraterrestrial disinformation campaign is the idea that they are actually not extraterrestrials at all. But rather that they are humans from the future and they have come back to “warn us”, “alter history” or some other related purpose.
So, let’s ask them directly.
Are the Domain, or their craft, or their crews from the future; specifically the earth’s future?
The Domain exists in a timeless, dimensionless condition. It is part of he "Master Universe" but not of it. Because there are great misunderstandings what time actually is, it is nonsensical to claim that the Domain come from the future.
Many humans have trouble with this.
The easiest way to imagine what The Domain is, is to imagine a society of spirits. Each one has no body. Each one lives in a place without time. Each one goes about their own individual business with other spirits. This society created the place; this "Master Universe". And the spirits (IS-BE) visit it from time to time in groups and clusters. Always for a purpose. Always working toward a goal.
If you call these spirits "IS-BE". And, if you fully understand how the "Master Universe" differs from the "Physical Universe" (that is the MWI with world-lines) then you can see that the answer is not what you expect, but is actually clearer than what you would expect.
The Domain can enter the MWI in the "Reality Universe" at any point in "time". And thus we are "time travelers" in that sense. In a similar manner the IS-BE "spirits" can enter the "Master Universe" at any point in time.
Like both universes, this ability to enter and leave at different time periods is "time travel".
However, the popular narrative that you are referring to is incorrect. The Domain are not evolved humans from the far-far future that have come back to the "past" to change things. That is absurd.
[8] Cats, humans and IS-BE’s
I have long wanted to write more information regarding cats, and felines. However I am limited as to until I have been contacting the Domain directly, I had to rely on the Mantids to provide me information.
ELF = MAJestic and Mantid Comm Link.
EBP = The Domain / Type-1 Grey Comm Link.
And the Mantids, well, they have been very unhelpful regarding felines. It’s not that they do not want to help, it’s that they cannot. Felines are not part of their charter and so they know very little about them.
So I have wanted to collect some data on felines from The Domain and see if the Commander can help me.
Question: There are many MM members who are cat lovers and who have close friends that are cats. Can you please provide insight on the IS-BE’s that become felines and their relationships with humans?
You guessed correctly. All living entities (as you call them) consist of shells within the MWI "Reality Universe". Some are (as you refer to them) "shadow people" and some are inhabited with a consciousness.
Felines follow the same general behavior rules as humans do. Except that felines are not inmates in the Prison Planet Complex. They can come and go in and out of the "reality universe" (MWI) and the "Master Universe" at will.
They never suffer amnesia or map out pre-birth world-line templates (sic.) for themselves.
Instead, they prefer to "latch onto" a friend / buddy / pal / companion that is "riding" / following / exploring the MWI "reality universe" and so attached, they experience the same kinds of ups and downs as the host human goes through.
Being a free IS-BE they can come and go at will. They can enter bodies at will. They can enter and leave a body at will. In many, many ways they are far, far freer than any inmate in the Prison Complex.
When a feline is sleeping or resting (they are two different states) the IS-BE consciousness segments and they are off traveling in other places doing other things. For many (felines) it is close to the physical reality, but moving about in the non-physical reality. You might refer to this as "feline lucid dreaming".
Cats can come and go as they please. So if there is a special bond between a human and a cat, all that is needed is for the cat (if it dies, for instance) to find a highest probability body for it to occupy that you will meet. And then your "feelings" or "intuition" or "gut feeling" will be drawn to it. And if you two get to meet, and stay together it is all good. The feline IS-BE will adapt to the physical limitations of the new inhabited body and that will result in some personality changes. But you two will be together.
If you two meet up, but something happens and you are not able to be together, the cat will try again. And again. And again. Each time in different bodies until you two are together again.
If you really want to speed up this process, all you need to do is focus your thoughts (through verbal affirmations) and it will manifest quickly.
In general, felines consider humans to be rather slow, retarded (but lovable) companions that can't hunt for shit. (!) They love being around humans, especially one that they have bonded with, and will try to find (if possible) other bodies to occupy that is of the same shape, color or some other attribute that might trigger the human to recognize that it is a "reincarnation" event.
But that is very difficult to trigger.
Most of the time, they select bodies that are available. And then try to emulate "attraction thoughts" to help cement a new bond between the human and the new cat body.This is why you might bond with a cat that "feels" close to you, but it will look different, act a little different, and behave a little differently than your former (but now dead) friend.
[9] Why won’t the Mantids discuss the feline and human relationship?
I am very curious about this issue. Obviously they know a lot, as human and feline interaction is common and an important part of human society. It also figures predominantly in the pre-birth world-line template generation. Why are the Mantids so reluctant to discuss feline to human interaction with me?
As you have surmised, the Mantids (sic.) are a hybrid-construct based on a local dominant earth-centrist body form. This "Old Empire" DNA and biological alteration was one that focused all their energies towards herding humans within the Prison Complex system. Very little thought was given towards outside or relationships, forms or shapes. The Mantids (sic.) are very human-centrist. (Includes the other dominant inmate forms; pigs, horses, dolphins, elephants, etc.)
Not feline.
The Mantids (sic.) possess a basic understanding of felines. They possess a basic understanding of soul and consciousness construction (sic.). They understand the basics of the human-feline dynamic. And that is the extent of their knowledge in this matter.
In general, the Mantids (sic.) are bred to be very focused on "helping humans" endure strife and then be rewarded afterwards.
They are so focused on this aspect, that event though they have a very strong awareness of their own IS-BE state, they ignore that state in everything else. They are elitist in that way, and when they encounter a human, for example, that is aware they treat that person as a special oddity and follow very special protocols in how to interact with that person.
When they encounter a feline (or any other creature for that matter) that shows or indicates strong IS-BE non-amnesia characteristics they simply ignore it. They cannot understand it. Nor do they try.
In hindsight, I have absolutely zero memories, connections, feelings or associations with Mantids and any of my cats in any way, shape or form. Not even in my dreams!
[10] Trans-species migration of IS-BE’s
I often wonder why an IS-BE would go from one human life, into another and then again into yet another. Why always a human? I know from Dr. Newton that there is trans-species migration, but all of them seem to evolve into similar types of creatures.
My question is this; If an human dies, and is a pure IS-BE, could it not become a feline and then escape the entire Prison Planet system?
Physical bodes are not blobs of flesh. They are complicated mechanisms. Likewise, the non-physical bodies are not blobs of non-physical flesh. They are also complicated mechanisms. And the IS-BE that chooses to enter a specific body, must alter it's form / shape / composition / operation / energy / vibrations to do so.
Alteration of an IS-BE form is easy to do...
...if you are outside of the Prison Planet Complex.
Unfortunately most humans are prevented from configuring their "stage upwards / higher form / above non-physical" bodies. This is a Mantid (sic.) directive. This is why inmates are quickly shuttled off to "Heaven". So they cannot shape change their "migration paths / attunement centers / organ clusters" to fit other forms.
Thus humans, and dogs, and elephants, and dolphins, and horses, and pigs (and a few others) are prevented from migrating out of this Prison Complex environment. This is one of the layers of control.
However, IS-BE's that are not configured in their inmate form (inmate clothing such as humans in this Prison Planet) can naturally shape their "migration paths" to reconfigure to be a human, or a dog, or a feline.
Which is why you have felines entering and leaving the Prison Planet complex at will.
Further, cats (using felines as an example) can decide to enter a unmodified human body [a "shadow person" (sic.)] and inhabit it, free of the Prison Complex restrictions on IS-BE movement. And then leave at will.
In your case, your cat Heather (this is a cat that I owned when I lived in Indiana back in the late 1980's) is now your [redacted for very personal reasons]. This kind of hybrid movement of IS-BE into human bodies is illustrated in the movie "A dog's Purpose" (2017).
On a side note, if you haven’t watched either of these movies you must. The first “A Dog’s Journey” is a tale of reincarnation from a dog’s point of view. And the second “A Dog’s Purpose” talks about trans-species reincarnation. Both are very emotionally moving movies. Have tissue nearby.
[11] Why me?
I have been a little down on myself lately. We all have ups and downs. But sometimes I feel like I am a sucker; a fool to take on this responsibility. I have read some MM comments about those who wish to assist the Domain, but don’t want to have any further association with them. They argue that it is dangerous to trust those that … well, look at what The Domain has admitted to.
Why trust them, and as being so trusting, why was I selected, and why am I running MM instead of cavorting with pretty girls, gorging myself on delicious food, and quaffing down some fine red wine.
Question; Why me?
There is a great deal of angst and frustration in your life right now, but this is what you have agreed to endure in your pre-birth agreement. The [redacted].
I can tell you that things will become clearer over time, and that your work is significant on many levels and that you have changed others for the better. There's [redacted], and they will see their great works in [redacted].
When to start to compare yourself, and that is what you are doing now, it will only serve to cause distress. You can never be the illusions that others present. It is not in your makeup.
You are correct on many, many levels but are surrounded by others that do not posses your insights. You worry too much about [redacted] and part of the reason behind that is [redacted]. Remember what [redacted] therefore, when you start to notice the [redacted] you should [redacted].
[Redacted].
[Redacted].
We made you this way. It had to be this way.
Sorry about that guys. Too much personal stuff to the internet community. Nothing really important concerning you all has been redacted, it’s just that some things I want to keep private. You understand right?
[12] Why did you alter me?
He made some statements about my alterations in all of my bodies (physical and non-physical, etc) and that got me thinking.
We needed to alter you to carry out your mission parameters. This included both your physical and non-physical bodies. When we installed the EBP (sic) we changed things.
You had diseases inside your body that we removed. You know which ones. (Yes, I do, but I only suspected the "hidden time-bombs".) You had trackers in your body that we removed. You had "holes" in your make up that we filled in. You had damage to your structure that needed to be repaired.
Your life is what it is today because of the changes that we made, as well as your ability to direct and focus your thoughts so that your consciousness can engage in directed target assignments.
What I did not include in the above dialog is a very detailed piece on how pre-birth world-line templates can have areas of “DO NOT CHANGE” established in them. GuyFromAfrica knows what I am talking about, and these had to be removed.
Of course, he did not use my terminology. But that is what he was talking about.
[13] What will happen to me after I die?
I am very selfish. I want to know. I really want to know if I will die and then kind of waft around like some kind of disheveled spirit in the wind, while the world changes but I just remain a specter.
You will not be discarded. That is your fear, no?
You have a role, and we are cultivating and rehabilitating your IS-BE body to better adapt to the changes that lie outside of the Prison Planet Environment. We picture a great role for you, and a rewarding and personally significant role for you after your physical death.
Your physical death means nothing as your non-physical being will still be interacting with us long, long after your body decays.
You will continue to help others. You will continue to have an interesting, colorful, and adventuresome life, only that it would involve a greater part of you and you will experience the great satisfaction of helping others. This is just the first beginnings my friend. Do not fear.
He did not promise me any kind of great military post, rank or mission / position. He simply promised me a spot in the society where I will have a meaningful and purposeful life. And that sounds good to me. Thank you.
[14] Am I a former member of The Domain’s “Lost Battalion”?
I don’t think that I am. But, you know, I figure, why not ask?
No. You are not.
[15] The idea that I am Mades Escaplion is repulsive to me. I ask again. It is who I am?
I just want a double confirmation. That’s all.
(Being kind.) It is a role and a personality that you had during a phase in your soul experience track. You will note that this experience has been useful to us in unraveling the entire network of traps and snares that exist in the Prison Complex. You serve a great role and hold great purpose. Do not be discouraged.
In truth, the image that you hold of Mades Escaplion is wrong. He was a functionary. He was a minister. He held an administration role. He was neither cruel nor evil. He was a "cog in the machine".
Your role was part ceremonial, and part functionally administrative. You spent much of your time in meetings (or the equivalent of) and in discussions with the various architects of the on-going array of systems that were implemented one on top of the other.
So you need not fear. You were not repulsive nor evil. You were just an entity doing it's job. You were the perfect little civil servant. You were uninspired, did what you were told, and had no desires to "buck the system".
When we (The Domain) destroyed the remains of the "Old Empire" space fleet in the region you disappeared. We tracked you down by personality signature (sic.) We (at the time we found you) were working with the Mantids (sic.) and made arrangements to set you on this life path that you have now.
It has been beneficial for all.
[16] (Last minute addon) Who are you, and what is my role?
The following is / was a request for clarity on my role in this “thing” with The Domain and who I am “talking to”. I just want to know “pecking order” on a pyramidal organization structure. Funny thing is that I did not need to verbalize it, but I formed the thoughts and boom! the answer materialized.
It makes me wonder if this was an implanted question.
I am "the unit Commander" for all Domain operations in this region of geographical space.
You (referring to myself) are my I/O. You are my direct “hands / fingers /sensory inputs / ears / senses". You have a critical role. Without you, I am unable to perceive the contemporaneous events going on in the earth environment.
There are thousands of implanted individuals (sic.). Only a handful were carefully vetted. You are one of the "special" ones. You have provided the most useful information and sensory experiences for us. You are continuing in other equally important roles right now. Your impressions of the world around you establishes the groundwork / foundation for our implementation of the planetary changes that will / have been / going to be established in the future.
Most of what you do or see are bland in your eyes but are crucial and significant in ours. It is a pleasure to work with you sir!
Conclusion
This is just some personal questions that I have asked using my EBP. I’ve had these things in my head for decades, but only recently realized that two-way communication could be achieved with them.
There are numerous MM readers and commenters that had a role in this selection of questions and all in all, it was a big positive. So thank you for all of your nudges, and questions and concerns.
In the future, I will open up the EBP for more questions and you all can ask some more questions. This was just my own personal ones, and I must apologize if my questions were banal or boring.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
In early October 2021, I established a task request asking for those versed in LD and other skills to investigate whether or not there were any “backdoors” or other ways in and out of the “Old Empire” “Prison Complex” that we are all (unfortunately) part of. By the second week of October the results began to pour in.
This is a posting of the results.
Volunteers
I asked in this post if any MM readership would be interested in joining The Domain to help rescue their “Lost Battalion”.
The response was overwhelmingly positive.
And then within a few days after the readership started adding affirmations and confirmations that they wish to help The Domain, be a Rufus, and do whatever they can contribute, many many MANY of them started writing to me privately.
They were (for the most part) terrified.
Within hours or days of making a verbal affirmation that they indeed wanted to assist The Domain, all of them, every single one of them, experience sleep paralysis and horrible fears and manifestations. All of which is very similar to “abduction events”.
That they were “hijacked” in their dream state and all sorts of operations and procedures occurred. For them, it was truly frightening.
However, I said then, and I will say now…
In the non-physical reality, thoughts take on tangible form.
Fears are used to control you.
So when you experience any type of help, your fear-defenses (part of the “Old Empire” programming), will try to make you fight and prevent the assistance.
So keep in mind…
To help The Domain, certain retardations and alterations to your inmate human body must be undone.
This requires an operation; a procedure.
The Domain will undo those alterations when you join in the effort. They will conduct an operation and perform a procedure to remove those “chains” and “blocks” that you have shackled to your non-physical body.
Do not fear it. You NEED to have it done, whether you want to help the Domain or not.
It is a medical procedure.
Many people have commented on this event as a “dream”, or a “Join the Domain related dream”.
Perhaps one of the best explanations of what goes on is from GuyFromAfrica…
GuyFromAfrica comments
So I got the “Join the Domain Dream”.
I could “see” the Type-1. He was somewhere seated.
Then There was MM. I guess as an intermediary.
They didn’t speak literally but I could hear their voice and understand what they were saying. He said (The Type-1) that I would have to make a decision and because they knew who I was (my attributes, character and more) that I was the only one who could do it and see it to the end.
I also [1]got the paralysis and I literally could not move in the dream. someone had to drag me out. ( In the physical too.) Damn weird man. I just laid on the bed half asleep unable to move.
All this happened after I decided to join the domain but coz am still on my pause I had to wait till at least next month. (I think it was due to my thoughts.) [2]
They have [3] helped in suppressing somethings that were really disturbing that’s what they said and showed me. (Actually true. Never gonna go back.)
I just hope that shit doesn’t go down. NO FEAR. JUST CONCERNED. [4]
MM Comments on GuyFromAfrica
[1] This is what really freaks people out. Don’t be afraid. This is necessary. Your consciousness must be removed from your physical and non-physical bodies for the operation to occur.
[2] You do not have to be in a campaign or out of it to have this happen. The moment you “think” and make up your mind to help The Domain, you telegraph a message to them. They monitor all activity on MM. You all should be well aware of this.
[3] One of the things that they will do, provided that you are not too freaked out and trembling in fear or anger, will show you why they are doing it, and how it will personally benefit you. In the case of GuyFromAfrica, they showed him the impediments from his life that they are removing.
[4] He was able to discuss this clearly simply because he held his fear in check. Everyone, GuyFromAfrica is certainly a leader in this. Learn from him.
Freaking out folk
So many dear MM readers have been completely freaked out with the speed, and the unexpectedness of having themselves paralyzed and filled with their worst fears. Images of harm, terrible things, violence to their children were (are) commonplace. It’s really terrible fears. Your worst fears. Everything thrown at you to freak you our royally.
It’s all part of the “Old Empire” programming.
As an inmate you are not permitted to change your physical and non-physical bodies. You are inmates. These changes will permit you to “go through” the fence. These changes will allow changes to your world-line templates. These changes will seriously and substantially reduce the conflict and turmoil in your life.
Which is why the “Old Empire” put up these “trigger blocks” to force you to go primal, filled with fear, and resist changes to your physical and non-physical bodies.
If you make a commitment to be a Rufus and assist The Domain in what ever capacity that your have (and most people have absolutely no idea of their abilities), the Domain will undo your chains.
They will “change your out of the inmate uniform”. They will give you an “access pass” to “go through the fence”. They will scrub tracking information, and erase pre-life behavior settings that you have lived with.
It’s all so frightening.
But ah, so exciting.
If you haven’t committed, but want to, and you are sincere and serious. it will be done. Just remember not to freak out. The fears are all part of “Old Empire” programming. They need to be culled and removed. That’s your job to keep those fears of yours in check.
The Task at hand
The specific task call out was posted in THIS ARTICLE.
This is what I asked for…
To be brutally honest, this is an OFFICIAL REQUEST for a volunteer. It is direct request via EBP from The Domain.
As I understand it, it is only something that can be done by an inmate with a strong ability to this end. And that this specific type of mission WILL encounter unknowns and if the person encounters any kinds of dangers, they are to retreat and regroup.
It’s just a “fact finding” mission.
And, for what ever it is worth, they have certain people in mind for this action, and consider them to be very important and valuable assets that must be protected at all costs. (I am to repeat and underline this last sentence.) They are very important and must be protected at all costs.
Background – Backdoors
I argued that something must have happened since the “Old Empire” collapsed. Then with the battles and destruction within this solar system, obviously there was a corruption of the (formerly pristine) Prison Complex.
The Prison Administration “bailed out”, and left.
The Prison System has been taken over, and corrupted by very malevolent entities.
It seems to me that there MUST be some kind of “backdoor” that enables these self-serving for-profit entities to corrupt the Prison System for their own purposes.
In cybersecurity, a backdoor is anything that can allow an outside user into your device without your knowledge or permission. Backdoors can be installed in two different parts of your system:
Hardware/firmware. Physical alterations that provide remote access to your device.
Software. Malware files that hide their tracks so your operating system doesn’t know that another user is accessing your device.
A backdoor can be installed by software and hardware developers for remote tech support purposes, but in most cases, backdoors are installed either by cybercriminals or intrusive governments (like the United States) to help them gain access to a device, a network, or a software application.
Any malware that provides hackers access to your device can be considered a backdoor — this includes rootkits, trojans, spyware, cryptojackers, keyloggers, worms, and even ransomware.
If there is a “backdoor”, then we can come to the conclusion that the “backdoor” was put there intentionally by one or more of…
The architects of the “Prison Complex”.
The administration of the “Prison Complex”.
A technologically advanced society (not the “Old Empire”) that exploited the prison system intentionally.
Some kind of dimensional / universe malware.
Background – The advantages of LD talent
Those that have the important ability to LD (Lucid Dream) are in a unique position to reconnoiter towards this end.
It would be a reconnaissance mission.
In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities.
Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmishers, long-range reconnaissance patrol, U.S. Army Rangers, cavalry scouts, or military intelligence specialists), ships or submarines, manned or unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, or by setting up observation posts.
Espionage is usually considered to be different from reconnaissance, as it is performed by non-uniformed personnel operating behind enemy lines.
-Wikipedia
And if you want to be specific, it is purely espionage. As the LD asset is an inmate in general population.
I can tell you that doing so is very important, and would be greatly appreciated by The Domain. Though, I must caution everyone that LD travel is not to be taken lightly. Dangers abound. I also do not know what the LD asset would discover, or what surprises await them. But I am ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that they would like some talented assets to volunteer for this task.
To be brutally honest, this is an OFFICIAL REQUEST for a volunteer. It is direct request via EBP from The Domain.
As I understand it, it is only something that can be done by an inmate with a strong ability to this end. And that this specific type of mission WILL encounter unknowns and if the person encounters any kinds of dangers, they are to retreat and regroup.
It’s just a “fact finding” mission.
And, for what ever it is worth, they have certain people in mind for this action, and consider them to be very important and valuable assets that must be protected at all costs. (I am to repeat and underline this last sentence.) They are very important and must be protected at all costs.
Background – Mission parameters
For starters…
This is a volunteer activity, and there is no dishonor in refusal.
And then,
You absolutely not reveal who you are or what you are doing.
You must not engage any subject entities that you encounter. You observe.
The specific tasks are…
You must identify [1] if there are others, who are not part of the “old empire” prison complex, that are involved in selection of pre-birth world-line template selection and layout.
You must identify [2] if there are others, who are not part of the “old empire” prison complex, that are using the collected memories or records of memories of other humans for anything other than the original stated purposes.
Reporting and dissemination.
No matter what your opinions are, you must report what you experience.
You are to report your findings, no matter how disjointed or confused, and include your associations and thoughts and ideas regarding them. (Some results might be disturbing or distasteful, but you must report everything.)
MM will publish your findings.
Finally,
You must vocalize permissions to allow The Domain to observe your operations. You may place restrictions on how they observe and time limitations or windows if that is your desire.
Please kindly know and realize that possession of a EBP would “blow your cover” and thus it is impossible for you to be implanted at this time for this role. Thus this request follows this procedural venue. Finally, there is no dishonor in refusal. The Domain realizes just how seriously dangerous this mission activity is.
Collection of the data
Everyone is different. We all have different abilities and different strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, our experiences, whether in dreams, LD, or any other format are very personal things.
For instance, when I get messages and comm in my channels in either the ELF or EBP implants the results are very difficult to explain. Most especially how I discern between a message and my own internal thoughts, and external clutter. It’s not easy and takes practice, and when I try to explain it just opens up an entire long train of question after question. The bottom line is you either KNOW that you experienced X, or your BELIEVE you experienced X, or you SUSPECT you experience X.
Each elemental wording has a different degree of validity.
Each elemental wording has a different degree of validity.
As of late, I have been mercifully been granted physical confirmation “pings” to confirm that I am not letting my imagination get the better of me, but this is not always possible with others.
For me, the “pings” are a rush of endorphins, a physical reaction to my body while simultaneously obtaining a brief message confirmation.
Most people have some “keys” of understanding that will allow them to unlock what they experience. And with this in mind, let’s look at this first report. Here, the tasked agent had a very active dream of significance, and it is mighty confusing…
I walked in on an intimate celebrity workshop class led by… you guessed it… Chuck Norris!?
Chuck Norris
Joe Rogan was there too.
Joe Rogan
I understood (in a meta-dream analysis sense) that these actors were not specifically important or accurate. They were stand-ins for people of power gaining insights from older mentors.
There were barrels on the stage and participants had to strip naked, get in the barrel, and pee on each other. The point of the ritual was humiliation.
A ritual involving humiliation.
Utterly bizarre… I didn’t want to watch but I was told, in no uncertain terms, “THAT’S THE POINT.” Now you’ll remember. They were utterly beyond the pale, but that’s the programmable zone.
Humiliation is the point.
Any inputs and suggestions from Chuck (bless his soul) were immediately followed, because the decency line had already been crossed.
Once the person completes the humiliation they are listened to / respected.
They were being programmed with a trauma feedback loop. “We’re doing it, we’ve done it, and now we can do anything.”
The humiliation sequence is a purging experience to create a new kind of person.
Then, a blonde woman joined the scene. She got in a barrel too, and I got the impression that it was completely upsetting the programming. This is when I saw them. Men were standing behind a red curtain off to the side where I hadn’t noticed.
A different kind of entity enters the programming environment and upsets the entire process.
Joe, in his programmable state, was beginning to lose his compliance. The woman was totally upsetting the psychodynamic balance in the room.
Those that had previously accepted the programming now question it.
She said, “My favorite thing in the world is baking pain au chocolat.” The incredibly strange juxtaposition of this statement in a room full of naked men peeing on each other was…. odd.
(I'm so sorry forum readers. Nothing about this was sexual, and couldn't be further from my idea of a fantasy. I'm just presenting my dream as-is. Hope someone has a laugh at least.)
It was a trigger phrase and Joe snapped out of it.
A trigger phrase or event occurred and the participants were released from their programming.
Programmers are pissed. I’m being ejected.
The Programmers are upset and the observer is ejected.
Woke up with incredible back pain. Can’t turn my head all day. I have lasting impressions of similarities to L. Ron Hubbard and Tom Cruise. There’s a significant link between his religion and the programming of celebrities.
I also realized that the men behind the red curtain were like a mix of metaphors from Twin Peaks and Wizard of Oz.
Scene of the “man behind the curtain” in the movie “The Wizard of Oz”.
Takeaways:
Investigate L. Ron Hubbard and what he knew.
Investigate Scientology as it relates to the prison system.
Investigate actors as favored “clients.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger was clear in my mind (Sorry, I personally like the dude).
I’m so sorry – just following orders:
"You are to report your findings, no matter how disjointed or confused, and include your associations and thoughts and ideas regarding them. (Some results might be disturbing or distasteful, but you must report everything.)"
Recon Mission Undertaken at the Request of the Domain Commander: The Volcanic Prison
Notes;
DM authorized involvement with The Domain, and specifically approved of them observing his activities and helping them.
The Domain altered his non-physical body and he experienced all the paralysis that I have written about above.
When he provided this information to me, I was a little taken back that the Domain didn't witness the events themselves, and instead relies on MM here to transcribe and translate for them. It's a mystery to me. But apparently the transcription is very important for them to use the information.
Never the less, the feeling that I get is that these espionage activities are something that must be taken very carefully and that there must be absolutely no association with The Domain in so conducting them.
In the report below, I have taken the time to parse every nugget of information that DM has provided. I only hope that it serves some benefit.
By [Daegonmagus] compiled 10OCT21.
Introduction:
I think I have something for the Domain Commander. I wasn’t lucid but I am fairly certain this was a good intel hit; though it did come after deliberately trying to enter a lucid state. I have been here before, several times, I am certain of it.
Interested in hearing yours and the Commander’s opinion. There is some concerning things in it regards to rape camps, not sure if you want to delete this part before publishing; it is entirely up to you. I am curious to know if the name I got rings any bells.
Summary:
I come to on some volcanic island. I am not lucid, but operating on “autopilot”.
Not a Lucid Dream. But is a "special" dream. Knowing what I know of DM, I would classify this event as "high quality" Intel.
I have been here before.
This location is one that is familiar to him. in either dreams, LD , memories or all of the above.
A prison has been built into the crater. There are hundreds of people being kept here against their will. These are people’s energetic bodies. I recognize some of them from school.
It is a prison. It is in a confined area.
Many people are in the prison against their will; means that they were there either through [1] a corrupted judicial system, [2] got there by bypassing a legal system, or [3] were born into it without any say in the matter.
In prison, there are many people who believe that they goat a bad deal. But there is a world of difference between...
[A] I was committing crimes, but you know the punishment was way, way beyond what I deserved. It's unfair. Its unjust.
And...
[B] I didn't commit any crimes at all. I was "railroaded" by a corrupt system, and now "blackballed" for life.
The impression that I get from DM is that many of the inmates fell under category "B".
I materialize here.
Other people can’t phase in and out of this place like I do.
DM describes that he has a special affinity for this "place", and special abilities to enter and leave at will.
To begin with, I blend in with the crowd and pretend to be a guard. This gives me the ability to tour some parts of this prison system. I have definitely been here many times before…
This is a familiar place to DM, and perhaps had other missions / adventures associated with it. It is not new to him.
… and there is something very strange going on, sort of like a breakout or a riot.
As he enters it, this time, he notices something unusual and strange going on. To him it appears to be a breakout or a riot. Both of these events describe a situation where the inmates override the protection rules and systems. And in both situations, it is the corrections officers tend to be ill prepared and typically follow procedures and retreat while awaiting backup.
The cells are cut into the rim of the crater, all around it.
I believe this might be a reality brainwashing facility.
This is an important comment. DM suggests that the purpose of this particular structural object / place is a "brainwashing" facility. Which would imply that it is where the amnesia (that we all unfortunately live with) takes place.
The prison complex goes inside the crater, like a good deal of rock has been carved out and the network extends into this rock and underground.
There are green trees inside the crater; it actually looks like a decent island paradise apart from the prison.
The physical details can represent things or not. But what I take from this is that this is a singular place. Like a zit on your face, or a wart on your arm, or a volcano in the middle of the ocean, or an island. It is a singular place.
He also says that it appears to be a nice place. Like a calm island, or a well taken cared for campus, or a well up-kept neighborhood.
So I am in this room pretending to be one of the guards and the riot breaks out.
The mind creates the visualization. The information is transferred.
I take the opportunity to go for a bit of tour while the rest of the guards are preoccupied.
DM conducts his espionage activities when he has the opportunity to do so.
I penetrate deep into the network; this thing goes several stories beneath the bottom of the crater.
DM explores deep into the complex. He recognizes that it is an extensive facility and goes very, very deep. It must be enormous.
It would be ideal if he could have somehow explored the administration and see what he might discern. However, this kind of exploration is fraught with danger. So it might not be a good thing to do during this particular event.
He goes into the lowest levels of the facility trying to find the darkest and deepest secrets.
These subterranean rooms are where they do all the bad shit, torture, reality brainwashing, breeding programs etc whatever it is this island is being used for.
DM finds the ugly activities, etc. All of it is not pleasant.
I have memories of being down here in a similar riot.
Curious statement. I get the impression that these "riots" have been an on-going thing over the many years.
Something happens – I don’t know what exactly – but the volcano is now about to erupt.
Referring specifically to this particular event, it appears that the build-up is reaching a critical juncture; an inflection point of substantive change. Like a volcano.
I decide to head back to surface.
I come across several panicked guards – helmets covering their faces, and khaki colored coveralls, fairly short maybe 5ish feet tall, who are shocked to see me.
Everything is chaos; the six or so guards are trying to evacuate.
This is a representative scene. There is a panic in the corrections officer cadre. There is chaos. And the corrections officers are trying to retreat and disengage.
These guards try to apprehend me, drawing these guns that shoot photon beams or something similar but I annihilate them with a flick of my hand – I am not lucid, but this is a left over reaction from my lucidity expeditions. It is a natural reaction that happens without me even thinking of it when I am threatened.
Thoughts are powerful. Whether in LD state or in dreams. If you believe that you can do something, the chances are that you actually can.
The guards disappear, and I make it to the surface.
One of the prisoners asks me for help, so I decide to help them figuring I can get more information on who is in charge of the place.
It's a scene from one of the Mission Impossible movies, where the one agent is trying to escape from a Russian Prison. Never the less, the root breakdown is that DM assisted in the breakout, and was led on how to make it happen by another inmate.
Within minutes everyone is freed from their cells.
I am now leading a group of about 20 to 30 of these people through these metal lined rooms, over scaffolding, and bitumised pathways that wrap up the edge of the crater.
DM is leading a cluster, or a group of inmates, towards freedom. Not all of them. Just a group of the ones associated with the particular individual that he helped.
They are are going upward Z-axis.
Downward Z-axis is the horrible torture pits and structures.
For some reason they think getting to the top will solve their problems; I don’t tell them the only way out is through portals they don’t have access to.
I have a vague recollection of coming here via one.
This is important. Everyone believes that the way out; the exit is the opposite of the depths of the structure. But they are wrong. The exit is not the opposite of the obvious. It is something else.
A few more guards appear here and there, but I extinguish them like the others.
Soon it is just me and the prisoners, everyone else has left.
The volcano is raging; there is a definite time constraint we are working against.
It is a race against time. To leave now is preferable than to wait until the entire system collapses.
Scene from Joe vs. the Volcano.
Regardless, we stop for a breather about half way in a sort of courtyard that has been built upon the scaffolding and under overhanging rock.
There is a woman I know her from school as being Tegan.
One of the guys makes a snide remark about her having sex with someone – possibly him -, basically calling her a slut. I roll my eyes; this is the last shit we need. I feel like punching this guy in the face. It was typical bullshit school children politics.
Tegan is clearly upset and distressed and tries to explain there was a different side of the story and she didn’t want to go into it right then and there, but this guy persists. Tegan eventually ends up replying saying it was not consensual and this guy had raped her. The one calling her a slut goes red, now there is a fucking fight amongst the inmates. Great.
Control mechanisms. "Old Empire" utilizes fear, emotion, anger to side-track inmates and delay them into a maze of other issues instead of focusing on what is directly important. (This must be a characteristic of inhabiting a human body.)
I am angered, but some how keep my composure – was this a trick to turn my attention away from what I was here for?
Yes. It was.
Did Tegan mean this took place at school, or in this prison? I got the impression she meant it was in the prison. I have knowledge of other “rape camps” in these non physical planes, where men are doped with a drug that affects their conscious before being hypnotised to rape women against their will, though that knowledge is not based on my own experiences.
This is a side issue that we might explore in the future.
Until now I have no memory of ever being in one.
It’s an argument I really don’t want to get involved in so I walk off and leave the others fighting.
I remember I am supposed to be finding someone who can tell me who is in charge of this place.
This is the mission and I am glad the DM is keeping focus.
I come back and find an older woman.
Her face is really distinct, very monkey like, old, withered, and dark tanned. If I had to guess, I would say she was from a southern American tribe of some sort.
She had a really long face, her chin was very angled and she had raised cheekbones. She was wearing what appeared to be a very grubby and ripped shirt – you could see one of her breasts poking through it and a definite tribal skirt.
She was the “mother” of the place; you could tell by the way everyone looked up to her and the younger girls that looked after her fragile body; helping her get up and helping her walk etc.
DM is directed to the entity that is in charge of this amnesia facility. Aside from the appearance, it is an old entity that is very knowledgeable and has been involved in this system for many, many years.
It is not clear if she is a revered inmate, or an administrator. My guess is that she is an inmate.
She started telling me a story – I cant quite remember the details of it, maybe it was how she got captured I don’t know – but I remember it finished with her trying to pronounce a name that she couldn’t properly pronounce.
She is from the earliest days of the first group of inmates to the facility. She has been here in the prison facility the longest.
She said the name was like sasquatch but with a “D” sound at the start and “ahuwy” or “ahuty” at the end Dasquachahuwy Dasquachahuty or something.
This name was in relation to the main antagonist in her story.
I got the impression it was the same one in charge of the volcano facility.
The impression is that the name of the administrator fo the amnesia machinery facility goes by the name Dasquachahuty.
Da-squach-ah-uty
I wondered if she meant Thoth, whose other name is Tahuty.
The eruption all of sudden got much worse. The people seemed to remember what was going on, stopped fighting and started panicking, looking to me for help.
I apologized, telling them I had to leave. Shortly thereafter I woke up.
My previous memories of this place:
Some background information.
I have a memory of coming here and having to infiltrate it via the top of the volcano.
There is some kind of rappelling system that takes you to the top of the rock.
Suggestive of others that have tried to manually infiltrate the facility.
It is a mountain of sorts that is very barren and of a black rock that stretches for miles in every direction.
It is very similar to Mordor out of the Lord of the Rings movies.
The trees don’t become apparent until you get to closer to the crater.
It is very, very large.
At the top of the crater, in this particular experience, it is heavily guarded and there is some sort of machinery littered about; it feels very similar to a mine site.
Heavily guarded is indicative of prior incursions being monitored, noted and the area reinforced with guards and corrections officers.
I remember watching a line of people being marched down from the rappelling system into the crater by the guards in a single file. The diameter of the crater is several kilometres across.
It is a big facility, and there is a manual entrance-way. Inmates and others can enter via this methodology rather than just using a portal.
I can’t remember if it was this experience or another one, but I have also explored the same subterranean network before.
There is a lift that takes you most of the way down.
Intel.
You come out in what appears to be a natural lava tube/ cave tunnel. There are concrete steps and a concrete pathway that are built into the ground to make walking around easier.
There are a myriad of steel doors several feet thick that slide open from the middle.
I am fairly certain at the end of this tunnel is a stargate like portal – different to the ones I used to gain access which are spherical and summoned through my own mind.
I believe this is how proper access to this place is gained.
This is serious Intel.
In this past experience I am headed towards this portal, after a similar riot breaks out.
Another recent dream…
I also recently had another dream which I believe is connected to an area close to this place that I think is relevant.
In this dream weird things were going on – I cannot adequately describe it but these weird things are usually a tell for me that I am not having a standard dream.
I was in a train/ mono rail type carriage that would snake around this island, but it would do so by going in and out of different non physical planes.
So in the span of what equated to about 500 meters of train track, you’d go through 5 or 6 different planes.
This suggests ...
[1] A manual "rappelling from the top" access method.
[2] A portal that is special and designed specially. (Perhaps the egress portion of the "tunnel of light".)
[3] This multi-portal dimensional "train". Perhaps this is the "egress portion of the tunnel of light".
As well as...
[5] The portal technique DM has been using now and previously.
I remember talking to someone “important” on this train.
They were talking very specifically about when the “simulation is turned off and what to expect”; everyone on earth would be given a special “document” that would brief them on the next part of the operation.
I could not tell if this was a good or bad thing.
From my particular vantage point I could see the volcano Island in the background separated by a few kilometers of water. There seemed to be some sort of glass like structure erected around it which I believe was used for cloaking purposes. This glass structure consisted of many rectangular panels that had been arranged at oblique angles to each other. It could very well have been an entirely separate building at the edge of the island.
Sort of like the island in the movie "Free Guy" eh?
Scene from “Free Guy”. The area shielded from view.
Conclusions
Breaking down as follows…
We see that DM has observed the “amnesia complex”.
There are four entrances that DM identified.
One of which is probably the egress section from the “Tunnel of Light”.
DM met one of the first people who be imprisoned at the facility.
She game him a “key”; a “name”, or a “clue”.
This “key” is Da-squach-ah-uty.
The fact that there is a torture area in the deepest levels of the facility suggests either…
That there is a “Hell” or “Pugatory” awaiting certain visitors through the egress portal. This is a planned portion of the entire prison reincarnation system.
Or, the deeper levels were “add ons” to the complex at a later time, implying that others have taken the system and modified it for their own personal amusements.
This area is still functioning. However, it is having operational problems.
The operational problems could be catastrophic.
The corrections officers are on station, but the administration functions seem to be “off line” or “elsewhere”.
Once the person completes the humiliation they are listened to / respected.
The humiliation sequence is a purging experience to create a new kind of person.
A different kind of entity enters the programming environment and upsets the entire process.
Those that had previously accepted the programming now question it.
A trigger phrase or event occurred and the participants were released from their programming.
The Programmers are upset and the observer is ejected.
As I read this, it appears that the Prison system has become some kind of “system of change” of the entities. The inmates accept the changes and go along with the changes.
Then a new entity enters the picture. This is unexpected and upsets the previous status quo. They change everything. An event or trigger phrase occurs and the programming is interrupted.
Those that control the programming are angry and eject the observer.
Combined comparisons
Both Intel suggest that there is a long established system. That it is undergoing change due to an interruption. The purpose of this system is established as part of the “Prison Complex” methodology of Punishment/reward.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
One thing that I have learned over the decades was the interpretation of signals from the EBP and ELF constellation. While I am functionally retired from MAJestic, The Domain considers me a forever active asset and I pretty much get a near constant stream of sensory input or data. While there are special events like when I was able to open up dedicated channels to the Commander, most of the signals a “quieter”, not so assaultive on my personal sensibilities.
These “softer” and “quieter” signals are in three “packets” or “groups”.
And I have organized these “groups” into projects, and thus, I have a number of on-going “themes” or projects that I am (supposed) to be working on, I have a regular life and things have to go at my pace. I am a human, not a machine. Anyways, the projects that I am going to launch consist of the following…
An article on possible “back doors” to the ‘Prison Planet” established by the “Old Empire”. (That is this article. As well as the request at the end of it.)
A series of articles that consist of plans to create a “wish machine” that will beam signals to your mind and greatly accelerate the manifestation of affirmation prayer campaigns. (Basic electrical design engineering based upon some existing “mind control” patents.)
A fabrication of the above machine for sale on this MM site. (I’ll design it, I’ll make it. I’ll sell it.) Maybe I will be able to sell three or four units. LOL!
Personally, I am a bit nervous of the creation of a “wish machine”. As it could be dangerous in the “wrong hands” and be used to affect the thinking of others. As long as it is just provided here on this site, and the vast majority of the MM readership are STO sentience, I feel relatively comfortable that it will not be used for ill or selfish intent.
Let’s start with this Article – Profiting from the Prison Planet system
Given the nature of the “Old Empire” as described in “Alien Interview”, it seems obvious that there would be entities / individuals there who would have tried to profit from the “Prison Complex” system. Just like there are many, many people who are profiting from the various prison complexes in the United States today.
For instance, in the American prison system, you have wealthy oligarchs that profit from…
Being the sole supplier for commissary supplies.
Corrections officers stealing supplies, using trucks for personal use etc.
Corrections officers supplying contraband goods to the inmates.
Free labor at work-shops and factories.
Free labor by the Hard Labor Squads.
And so on and so forth.
We know, from “Alien Interview”, that the “Old Empire” was corrupt and practiced cannibalism, and held “gladiator style” sports. It would not be unreasonable to expect that some of these attributes of “pleasures” could somehow be used in part of the massive “Prison Complex”.
Granted that this is a very large kind of prison and it has a completely unique system, I would have to argue that the systems used to profit from this “Prison Complex” would somehow revolve around the torturing and amusement of the inmates, or in the selling of “vacation packages” to wealthy individuals.
Trigger article
This train of thought was inspired by an MM reader who submitted this following article for perusal. Key trigger phrases are in BLUE.
Some of you may be familiar with the interview I conducted with a man I met who experienced a Demiurge during his near death experience.
Here is some very interesting feedback I received from a woman who also had a near death experience. She claims to be able to access the akashic records and verifies what he is saying. This is from the email I received on December 16, 2017:
"Dear Mr. Bush, Good day!Just this morning, whilst seeking an IANDS group which might meet closer to me than Culver City, CA.I happened upon your Interview.I see you have a website: Tricked By The Light. I have not read it as yet.Although I concur! I have been putting up installments of my most unusual phalanx of paranormal and hideous experiences on Wattpad - just to leave some sort of record, in case I wound up "disappeared."Indeed, my hard drive was stolen - and once my friend's son gave me a laptop and downloaded the contents of an external hard drive I had hidden behind my bookcase - (unnoticed by the thieves), said laptop went Kerplooey. So my friend's son worked for weeks to salvage the contents of my original desktop and did so, most admirably.The only other stories I have read which in many ways reflect my own experiences in my home at 1926 Parksley Ave,Baltimore, MD are the books of Reverend Bill Bean ("Dark Force") and Bill Scott ("When Satan Came Calling").While it is easy to attribute the terrifying events of the last 14 years to "ghosts" and "haunting" and "demons" - alas, there were also some ex-Military persons involved - one of whom I met. You may, or may not know MANY Satanists and Occultists routinely interface with Lower Astral Entities (demons) and enslave them, as well. This is ancient knowledge.All that to say - your Guest who saw a Demiurge was telling the truth. I know him by another name.Due to my unexpected and certainly astonishing experiences, I began to research anything and anyone and read all articles, web pages, books et al, which might have helped me. I was disabled, nearly bedridden and out of my mind with fear. My children all lived in other states, trying to work and raise children. No one believed me. So I stopped at nothing to arrive at the truth.I was a plain, old-fashioned Lutheran Grandmother - nada special about me.I knew absolutely nothing about Souls, God Source, Karmic Contracts, "heaven/hell" - Karma, Life Reviews, Earth School, Reincarnation, Life Movies, etc.Zero.Suddenly, in the middle of the horror, my memories of Near Death Experience(s) returned.I prayed for death daily, anyway, so ghastly were my experiences, I certainly did NOT need those memories - and all the "gifts with a razor blade attachment" Aftereffects an NDE can provide.So now - I see Past, Present and Future Lives, Life Before and Between Lives, Souls creating the films for their "Lives," Discussing and rehearsing "roles" (which Soul is going to play which "part") "taste-testing" Karmic Intersections (they can actually jump in and out of their character at important Karmic Intersections (US being the "characters") so they'll remember them, going to the Programming Center for their "Programmed Prompts" (sometimes called Guideposts) and I see these as movies - snapshots, trailers - and indeed, when people asked me where I got the ideas for my stories and paintings, I told them all I had to do was watch the "little movie" and copy it.My art class friend patted me on the shoulder and said, "Guin, no one else sees the little movies."I was aghast! I've seen all that Programmed CRAP all my so-called Human Life!I've read Dr. Newton's books, Dr. Weiss's books and everything else you can imagine. At least I got SOME relief and assistance from PMH Atwater, herself a triple NDEr.They are all partly programmed to spread propaganda.I live EVERY DAY with a transparent-appearing overlay - as I had it explained to me - a side effect of an open Third Eye. This overlay is more of the "Game Plan" and "Life Lessons" and even film clips of WHO'S COMING NEXT in my "life movie.” This is on top of what my normal human eyes see. I became clairvoyant, clairsentient, clairaudient - a MOST reluctant medium. However, unless the person is involved in my life, I won't know anything about them. I try to ignore ANY medium crap. I hate it.My children asked me NOT to tell them what I see about their lives.My life is HELL. Hell. It is hard to function when you can SEE your future! And it plays out as you can see it!You are right on the money, m'friend. We have ALL been deceived. Souls care nothing for us - some Light Beings, eh? They call us "Host Bodies and Host Vehicles” and program and manipulate the woo hoo out of us!Stewart Swerdlow was a Lot of help to me. I am one of MANY school children chosen for Mind Control Experiments back in the 60s. We are usually killed off when the Mind Control begins to fragment or wear off - around age 50.So that is what happened to me- almost.I am still alive and telling my tale. SO glad to find your website.I remember "Class" and "Teacher-Guides" and "Soulmates" and the entire shebang. Don't buy that Lesson crap. We are HUMAN and don’t need but one lesson - we have the Body and Human Brain and we can cancel those "Life Contracts" . . . "Life Plans" whatever.Trust me, what happened at my former home should NEVER happen to ANY being, human or nonhuman.Because I did not die - my phone, cell, computer, snail mail were all hacked. No one ever got my phone calls. Or emails. They were all answered by hired folk who probably had no idea why they were being paid to do so. I've had people I did NOT know walk up to me in a grocery store and talk about the very subjects I'd just discussed with one of my few friends the day before - on the PHONE.Excuses about Karma don't move me. I am a nice person and most people are. Souls don't like us and many don't even know how to operate us. I am disgusted that not one Guide will come down here and console me for what occurred . . . and explain it, or show me love or consideration.Here is how it works: They are told it is a School or Game. The Game on The Limitation Plane. Earth School. One-third of our lives WE are asleep. They are not veiled and that is play time, the creeps.We are NOT Souls. Only part of our consciousness is their consciousness. I found my Soul to be unlike me and set up a rather vengeful retaliation program. Gotta love the Programming part, eh? What a crock! Well, we can also undo a lot of that programming, Stewart Swerdlow tries to help people do that all the time.The Demiurge in fact DOES have to do what he does - I know him all too well. There is a balance which MUST be kept, It IS his Game. It was never meant to be.
He has copies of Akashic Records, which can be taken out JUST LIKE NETFLIX and he sticks poor Souls in various characters and THEY are forced to lead lives of HELL, not to mention he puts some of his "demons" (negative polarity beings) in the roles of people who were supposed to be Helpful, or a Soulmate or a Friend or a Karmic Intersection meant to allow us to teach a lesson, etc.
Just the opposite will occur. Those intersections will be terrible. Mine were obvious! I just deconstructed my entire Life Plan in Baltmore.The Game has been hacked, in other words. Akashic Records are NOT safe and inviolate. The Demiurge's name is "Maratona." Call him that. He HATES it. Maratona's Armada! (Satan's Army)You know what they call us? "Marionette Amore!" "Love Puppets."He can mess with us any which way he pleases. Yes, we can cancel the contracts ALL SOULS MUST MAKE WITH HIM or they cannot Game here. Think Holo-video Game. We already have this coming in the Human World.
Why doubt it exists? The entire world is a Holographic Universe (Universal Games) and "Source" is NOT "All That Is.” Those Hollywood movies are SO obvious, too!Souls trapped in one of those "Games" are in a Life Movie already lived by other Souls. They claim they are using those Lives as Video Instructions. B.S.
They get ENERGY out of OUR SUFFERING. Period!
The poor human "characters" have NO CLUE why "life sucks and then you die," "most men live lives of quiet desperation." Guess why!I pray for DEATH, I tell you. Rod Sterling cannot beat THIS story. Your Soul is your WORST enemy! The Light is only a frequency of vibration which FEELS GOOD to Souls, so they are taught that is “love” and Souls are often Firefly Entities. Why would they care about us?I was one. They are impossible to understand. And I am pretty darn good at communicating with them!We cannot think the way they do. It is not possible. We have short lives!Man has been messed with for ages. Now they have the Internet. Our lives are ALL scripted, filmed, rehearsed, reviewed, previewed, you-name-it.We can break the Game. I keep trying. Everything is MIND. All of it. I HATE "The Light" - because they OWE me an explanation of what happened to me at my legally owned home - so awful and malevolent and sadistic I had to move and auction off all my stuff! If it were not for my daughter I'd be dead now.I was dead. Dead. Dead for good. Not a true NDE. Dead.I went back to a Space Station and watched The Life Review. All Aliens. Stewart thought they might be Andromedans. "I" was infuriated because I did not finish a painting of my daughters. (American Beauties)There was a meeting at an oval table. A bunch of beings were present. Each had a copy of the new Script. Many Beings did NOT want my Soul to return. She argued with them, LOUDLY. She must have won - I see she is sitting with a Military HUMAN man and working on her Lesson Plan. He spent a lot of time with her.She got back into my body - problem! Time had passed. Since I keep detailed diaries, I knew something was not right! I don’t know how much time had passed. There is NO TIME, as we perceive it.Our lives and all Timeline Options and Possible/Probables are filmed. That is the Labyrinth your Guest called by another name. If you marry June instead of Andrea, THIS AND THIS will manifest. And so on.Guess what? I SEE THOSE MOVIES, TOO! All the time, every day. The good side is my ability to do so has saved my life a couple of times!I feel like I have lived this entire life before. I can tell you, the chances are very good that I have, or some other Soul has “played” me. No way to tell.I recognize entire neighborhoods, tell you what I was, used to do, who lived where. When I look up those houses on Zillow, they are in pre-foreclosures or Foreclosure! There is literally NO ONE to ask if I am correct or the time period in question. Definitely another life.Before 2006 I did NOT believe in Reincarnation.I HATE The Light. I HATE their Game. I HATE their “God.” Love and Light? NOT EVEN. NOT FOR MANKIND!I can see Astral Activity, including how Guides let Souls know the next series of “Prompts” for their Game! I have learned to discern just about any Being, and it all is soooooo not who I am!!I always knew what I wanted to do with my life. And winding up a Lab Rat for the Dark Military was NOT on MY human agenda.A human man not only programmed me, I can see he teaches the Dark Energy entities in some sort of Grade School out in the Astral. Light Beings are simply taught on a different frequency domain.How ungodly AWFUL can this get???Maratona is actually a monster - (Satanists describe him very well. He manifests as a 30-ish Blond, Curly-headed Angelic Man, VERY tall, not old and white-haired) - I harass him all the time. I don’t care one whit if they kill me. I am afraid ONLY that the military men involved, who know I am well aware they are hooked into the Astral via an antenna (the military has worked on that for YEARS) and one of them is the Interface for human/alien relations, not to mention a rapist, torturer, Satanist and murderer, will get their mitts on my human bod! Torture is their specialty.Aliens? Craft? I can tell you boodles about them. EVERYWHERE. Mankind can only perceive on a VERY limited “channel” if you will.Yes, DRAMA! Maratona means “Marathon.”
Stewart once suggested it was like SURVIVOR. That is right! And a Reality TV show!A Production Company! That is what those Akashic Records are! Like Netflix!I kid thee not! Souls do not sleep. They live in a place of No Time, No Space. They LOVE computer Games! I mean LOVE them! Some part of Ourselves is up there, jacking us around like Avatars.I have been doing drawings for years. I even drew a chessboard which has some meaning for Souls- and which I never understood. It is disgusting.Souls don’t have to go back to The Light, but they’d better be nimble, better be quick. If you die that Guide is RIGHT THERE.If Maratona wasn’t such a booger I’d stay with him. He does not make you incarnate! Master Guides LOVE to torture Souls in a human body! The human body HURTS. It is how they punish and punish and punish for every little infraction!Man, you name it - it has been done to me. A regular old Grammy with 7 Grandchildren. That’s all there is to me.There are Angels! Incredible Beings! Thank Someone!My understanding is Yahweh is the Principal of the School and Developer of the Game. There are many, many Souls who can design planets, even worlds.Any American School kid can halfway design an Avatar and World, for Goodness’ sake!This is a piece of my ghastly story. My heart went out to your Guest.This is Satan’s Game. Absolutely. I go bother him (in Spirit) all the time. We called him Satan because he was such a BRAT when he was young.Enki nothing! That is Marduk! And the Anunnaki were nothing more than PEOPLE from another Dimension trying to help Mankind. Just people! They had longer lives but they died like everyone else.I can teach you how to view one of Enki’s programs, if you like.I tell everyone my name. I am not hiding behind any Mask! I’ll tell you who the Military men are and the Spiritual Guru (*rolls Eyes*) who actually programs Human Beings to do the will of Souls - they try to over-ride our brains all the time! I’ll just put their names in another email.
The emotion-laden text threw out some very interesting concepts that I highlighted in BLUE. Which suggested that there are those that use the “Prison Complex” as some sort of GAME. Or who also use it like recreational MOVIES.
I do NOT think that this “Prison Complex” was intended to be a GAME or a source of amusement like MOVIES. But I do believe that over the centuries that a kind of illegal “black market” arose and that others have been using the “Prison Complex” to do exactly that.
Systems used to profit from
As best as I can figure, there are those, whether part of the “Old Empire” or from somewhere else that have constructed some kinds of systems inside the “Prison Complex” from which to profit from. And as far as I can see these systems fall into one or two general categories;
A “First Person Shooter” GAME. Where an entity pays for the privilege to live on the Earth as a human and experience all the sensory pleasures or discomfort that goes along with that experience.
A torture MOVIE. Here, the entities have somehow hijacked the pre-birth world-line template creation system. They establish one to fit the desires and fantasies of the entities that pay for a “good show”, and the hapless consciousness is convinced that it must experience the pains and the sorrows laid out for them. The entities that paid for this pre-birth world-line template then sit and watch the events unfold for the sorry human that is convinced that it must endure these disruptions and horrors.
Backdoors
Unless something happened…
The Prison Administration “bailed out”, and left.
The Prison System has been taken over, and corrupted by very malevolent entities.
It seems to me that there MUST be some kind of “backdoor” that enables these self-serving for-profit entities to corrupt the Prison System for their own purposes.
In cybersecurity, a backdoor is anything that can allow an outside user into your device without your knowledge or permission. Backdoors can be installed in two different parts of your system:
Hardware/firmware. Physical alterations that provide remote access to your device.
Software. Malware files that hide their tracks so your operating system doesn’t know that another user is accessing your device.
A backdoor can be installed by software and hardware developers for remote tech support purposes, but in most cases, backdoors are installed either by cybercriminals or intrusive governments (like the United States) to help them gain access to a device, a network, or a software application.
Any malware that provides hackers access to your device can be considered a backdoor — this includes rootkits, trojans, spyware, cryptojackers, keyloggers, worms, and even ransomware.
If there is a “backdoor”, then we can come to the conclusion that the “backdoor” was put there intentionally by one or more of…
The architects of the “Prison Complex”.
The administration of the “Prison Complex”.
A technologically advanced society (not the “Old Empire”) that exploited the prison system intentionally.
Some kind of dimensional / universe malware.
The advantages of LD talent
Those that have the important ability to LD (Lucid Dream) are in a unique position to reconnoiter towards this end.
It would be a reconnaissance mission.
In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities.
Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmishers, long-range reconnaissance patrol, U.S. Army Rangers, cavalry scouts, or military intelligence specialists), ships or submarines, manned or unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, or by setting up observation posts.
Espionage is usually considered to be different from reconnaissance, as it is performed by non-uniformed personnel operating behind enemy lines.
-Wikipedia
And if you want to be specific, it is purely espionage. As the LD asset is an inmate in general population.
I can tell you that doing so is very important, and would be greatly appreciated by The Domain. Though, I must caution everyone that LD travel is not to be taken lightly. Dangers abound. I also do not know what the LD asset would discover, or what surprises await them. But I am ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that they would like some talented assets to volunteer for this task.
To be brutally honest, this is an OFFICIAL REQUEST for a volunteer. It is direct request via EBP from The Domain.
As I understand it, it is only something that can be done by an inmate with a strong ability to this end. And that this specific type of mission WILL encounter unknowns and if the person encounters any kinds of dangers, they are to retreat and regroup.
It’s just a “fact finding” mission.
And, for what ever it is worth, they have certain people in mind for this action, and consider them to be very important and valuable assets that must be protected at all costs. (I am to repeat and underline this last sentence.) They are very important and must be protected at all costs.
Mission parameters
For starters…
This is a volunteer activity, and there is no dishonor in refusal.
And then,
You absolutely not reveal who you are or what you are doing.
You must not engage any subject entities that you encounter. You observe.
The specific tasks are…
You must identify [1] if there are others, who are not part of the “old empire” prison complex, that are involved in selection of pre-birth world-line template selection and layout.
You must identify [2] if there are others, who are not part of the “old empire” prison complex, that are using the collected memories or records of memories of other humans for anything other than the original stated purposes.
Reporting and dissemination.
No matter what your opinions are, you must report what you experience.
You are to report your findings, no matter how disjointed or confused, and include your associations and thoughts and ideas regarding them. (Some results might be disturbing or distasteful, but you must report everything.)
MM will publish your findings.
Finally,
You must vocalize permissions to allow The Domain to observe your operations. You may place restrictions on how they observe and time limitations or windows if that is your desire.
Please kindly know and realize that possession of a EBP would “blow your cover” and thus it is impossible for you to be implanted at this time for this role. Thus this request follows this procedural venue. Finally, there is no dishonor in refusal. The Domain realizes just how seriously dangerous this mission activity is.
Conclusion
It seems that there must be “backdoors” to the “Prison Complex”. Exploiting those backdoors would enable some rapid transformation of this sentience nursery from a Prison Planet to something else and far easier to manage.
The only people who can find out the details of such a system are talented LD assets, and in asking them to do so, they must deal with entities that have access to all of their memories and are not handicapped by amnesia.
I do not think that any of them (those using the backdoors) are anticipating espionage but the request to view this aspect of the Prison Complex is very important and comes direct from the administrator of the operation charged with the clearing of the Prison System field.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
The following is the eighth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
This particular article is not part of the direct set of articles that are autobiographical in scope and content.
Instead, this article concerns a lesson on how to conduct “Lucid Dreaming” (as a prelude to “Astral Travel”).
Part 8 – Lucid Dreaming Lesson 1: The Lucid Void Space and The Three Meditations
This is part of series of articles in lucid dreaming based off my own experiences and experiments in that area.
What I am attempting to externalise here is something that cannot be described accurately with words, as they need to be experienced to properly understand them.
So others involved in lucid dreaming might have different interpretations. These articles will eventually become the curriculum for my Ordo Occultum Astrum.
It is my goal to provide a proper curriculum for not just lucid dreaming, but strengthening the psyche to better deal with everything one may be exposed to in the dream state.
These articles where part of the task given to me by the leader of the Unseen 5 in which I was to provide the framework to allow others to tap into the power that lucid dreaming can offer.
I don’t want anything in return except for them to be studied from an objective perspective and developed further as I believe humanity can greatly benefit from them.
I would be grateful if you document your experiences and tell me about them, but it is in no way an obligation.
So what is lucid dreaming anyway?
If you are part of any lucid dreaming/ astral projection communities, the “experts” may tell you it is simply the ability to become conscious when you are dreaming.
And that’s about it.
They might tell you can do some cool things like fly around, but in a general sense they don’t seem to offer anything that would seem appealing to those who are not into the subject of the metaphysical.
Depending on which groups you are part of you might be lucky enough to get some tips and tricks on how to trick your mind into realising it is sleeping.
These techniques consist of reality checks and other thought disciplines that will apparently embed your sub consciousness with certain things to make it become conscious during a dream.
While I am not saying that these techniques are complete bullshit, I am going to tell you I am yet to come across anyone on any of these groups speaking of lucid dreaming at a level anywhere near what I know about and have been experimenting with for the past 2 decades.
What I know about lucid dreaming should make the whole world sit up straight, turn their heads and PAY SOME FUCKING ATTENTION.
Anyone who has been following this blog so far knows that I have made some pretty far out claims in regards to what can be achieved whilst lucid. You will inevitably stumble across experts with a lot to tell you on the subject for some sort of recompense.
I am not saying these people are wrong in their assertions or fraudsters out to make a quick buck.
After all, everyone needs to earn a living right? Some of them may actually be beneficial aids to supplement what I have to say.
I honestly don’t have the time or resources to go through them all and tell you what is bullshit and what isn’t.
All I can offer is my own two cents, and my two cents is that lucid dreaming is much, much, MUCH more than just realizing you are dreaming.
Sure this is one aspect of it, but I would relegate such a skill down towards the novice end of the spectrum.
Even if you could consistently “wake yourself up” in the dream state into this knowing, if that is all you could do you would still be missing out on A LOT of what lucid dreaming has to offer.
It is my firm belief that lucid dreaming is the very solution to humanity’s existential crisis.
It is my belief that it is our very evolution point, but unfortunately that this evolution will also take a collective effort. So consider this my part in that effort.
It is far more exciting, in my opinion, to remain conscious whilst undergoing the transition into the sleeping state.
This way you have much better control of dream creation and have access to one of the most important aspects of the mind; what Carl Jung (also a lucid dreamer) called the collective unconscious and what I call the “void space”.
I will state this plainly; all lucid dreaming activities should be carried out with the goal to access and control this void space as much as possible. I cannot over emphasize this.
Why?
Well, according to my experiments, experiences and what was told to me by the leader of the Unseen 5 this void space is directly connected to every consciousness in existence {presided over by the “god consciousness” of the divine creator} and it is being hijacked by non physical entities to keep you “dumb”. I am not meaning to be derogative here.
What I mean is that the average person cannot effectively access their void space and control it because the power it would afford them is too great in the eyes of these non physical hijackers.
This power is a reconnection to what is known as the higher self. And no I am not throwing that term out loosely to woo you with new age speak.
Neither am I implying some sort of epiphany one comes to after spending a few hours meditating on a beach somewhere after doing a bit of yoga.
It is an actual state of awareness far, far, FAR above what you use on a regular basis that can be reached through the art of lucid dreaming. It also takes years of discipline to get there.
Just how powerful is this higher state of awareness I hear you ask?
Well, if you could combine the processing power of every single entity on earth and have them focus on one goal, you would be getting close…..to about 0.000000001 percent of what the higher self is capable of.
For the sake of simplicity, consider it the normal mode of operation for the mind of an advanced ET species.
The same type that know how to build intergalactic space craft capable of bending space time type of advanced.
Excited yet? Good, lets get back to the void space.
I mentioned that the void space is an important part of the consciousness makeup. You can use it to not only create your own dreams, but also to hijack others dreams and tune into telepathic thought processes with seemingly no limit to distance, if my experiences are anything to by.
It is the communication highway of all physical and non physical entities that extend into the 5th dimension.
Think of it like a google translator app that can automatically translate the dialect of non Earth language speaking ETs.
This and much, much more.
It is my intention to supply you with everything I know on accessing and controlling this void space to allow for the communication of “higher” information to trickle down into this dense physical plane.
This was what my task within the Unseen 5 ultimately boils down to, and is what I believe will result in a proper “evolution of human consciousness”.
So you can say I am taking these articles quite seriously. And you get it all for the super low price of absolutely free.
My authority in this subject comes from the fact that I was ordained as master of lucid dreaming by the Elder Guardians – who I assume were the Ascended Masters.
Take it or leave it, I really don’t care.
But understand that I am apparently one of less than a dozen others currently alive on earth that hold such a level of understanding of what is really achievable whilst in this void space. I developed my abilities to the point that two separate non physical “factions” were able to communicate to me because of it. And they both want me to tell you about it.
I can tell you I have communicated with other non-physical and “dead” entities using it.
I have also used it to remote view through the eyes of an ET entity in a completely different star system to ours. I have used it to “tune” into a conversation with non physical entities and to heal a catastrophic injury to my hand.
You get the picture yet?
All the things you read on psychics, clairvoyants, remote viewers and scryers and the things they are able to do can be traced back to this void space and its ability to act as an ultra dimensional information receiver.
They just figured out how to “bleed” that information into the physical world, even though most of them probably won’t be able to tell you how. I can describe the whole process to you.
If you will allow me.
Undoubtedly most will call it all bullshit, but how many I wonder will commit themselves to my meditation regime before doing so?
But tapping into all this is further along the spectrum toward the more advanced end. Just like you cannot expect to be able to play a full concerto at your very first piano lesson, one cannot expect to control their void space upon its first access.
Make no doubt about it, this is some very advanced stuff; you need to be intent in the idea it will take you a long time before you get to this level of control. If you think this way, it will actually take a lot less time.
This is something I figured out when learning how to play bass back when I was 13 years old.
A lot of it is trial and error. So I am going to take this in baby steps. I am going to build you up bit by bit so your efforts in lucid dreaming may not be wasted when you finally get there.
I am going to teach you how to master the dream state through the awakened one.
Before we begin I feel we must go through the usual disclaimer. There are obviously dangers inherent in lucid dreaming.
My experiences are suggestive of this, as are the words of the Domain Commander on the subject.
I am not going to tell you it is perfectly safe.
What I am going to say is that I wasn’t in a particular good frame of mind when I met these dangers. This is important because your thoughts and emotions during lucidity have a direct bearing on what you will experience.
You will need to learn to control both if you want penetrate through the dream barrier into other non physical realms.
As you will come to learn, your thoughts and emotions will be the very controller by which you navigate the dream world. If you are too focused on all the shit Hollywood pumps out in the form of “entertainment” you will have a very difficult and likely bad time.
I am not telling you not to watch your favourite movies, just try not to cling on their content too much. Neither am I going to guarantee this will work for everyone. Remember, this is knowledge I gained through years of experiments.
When I first started out, I never had so much as a book to guide me on my ways. I had to fly blind, so to speak, the whole damned way.
If you come across a more efficient way in your own experiments, by all means use it. Just let me know so I can include it in my documentation on this subject. I want this to be an enjoyable experience for everyone , and the easier something is the more enjoyable it is.
The bad shit won’t come until you are able to vanquish it, if you follow everything I lay out before you.
If I do my job properly, it should be like swatting an annoying fly out of your way.
It will be like that startled reaction you get from seeing a poisonous spider, then realising you can just empty a can of Raid on it. No big deal.
Now, for those who are not familiar with either, lucid dreaming crosses the boundary of astral projection.
This boundary is often blurry, so is something I will discuss further along.
Just note that astral projection can be achieved through various states along the lucid dreaming line. In both instances you detach your consciousness from your body and can use it to explore the non-physical planes.
To simplify things, consider lucid dreaming as being a 4th dimensional hub in which astral projection is but a single branch of possibility coming off that hub {I just got a low pitched ringing in my left ear when writing that}.
Other possibilities include auric projections, which are about a million times more fantastic than astral projections and exist in the 5th dimensional domain. Looking at it this way, you can think of lucid dreaming as a sort of 4th dimensional bridge into the 5th dimension.
An Auric projection is one where you break through the barrier put in place by non physical entities that contains you in a “sleeping state”.
Let that sink in for a while; your entire unconscious dream experience is nothing but a cleverly crafted containment zone to disorientate your consciousness so it doesn’t leave a predetermined 4th dimensional boundary.
The haze of a standard dream state is {seemingly} due to a consciousness doping agent put in place to stop you from waking up into a higher order of reality.
This is all to stop you from realising your soul’s true potential; that you existed in your state of higher awareness before you did incarnated in a physical body. According to mine and my wife’s experiences anyway.
The more you learn to control your dreams the more you develop a resistance to the effects of this containment zone.
You may start remembering things that are uncomfortable.
You may start remembering things that are painful.
But I guarantee that on the other side of that barrier you will come into contact with your higher self and proper “soul memory”.
You will remember yourself as an IS-BE all the way back into the dim mists of time.
You will then realise that all those painful and uncomfortable memories are nothing but illusions. It’s like waking up from a dream and realising it has no actual bearing on who you are now in this present moment. Only the dream is this physical reality you are engaged in.
Before we can get here though, we need to start off with some basics, and that is what this article will be about.
It might be boring.
It might be tedious.
It might be something you relegate to being complete bullshit.
You might think it all has nothing to do with lucid dreaming, but all I am asking is that you trust me. It is my goal to build you back into the strong consciousness that you are, so that you are impervious to these non physical manipulations of your void space.
So, first thing is first.
Go out and buy yourself a blank journal, a working pen, and a triangular pillow. The journal will be used for you to start recording your dreams.
Not just lucid dreams either. Everything you experience whilst in the dream state, you are going to write down in as much detail as you can remember.
Those bits that dangle just out of reach of your memory, you are going to try and force yourself to remember. You are going to keep this journal beside your bed, within arms reach.
If a dream experience is so intense it wakes you up in the middle of the night, you are going to reach for your journal and record all it all down right then and there.
You are NOT going to wait for the morning to do it, because much of the information in your dreams will be lost by the time you properly wake up. You can use a digital journal if you want, but I suggest also having a backup physical copy as well just in case.
There is nothing worse than having a detailed write up of your experiences disappear when the computer it is written on gets stolen or breaks.
Believe me.
This act of dream recording will train your subconsciousness to pay attention to your dreams. Hopefully, after a month or so, you will start to come to the sudden realisation you are dreaming.
One example I remember vividly had to do with my bass guitar. This was a beautiful 5 string bass my father bought me for my 14th birthday.
The body had a nice red coloured wood that was separated by a “rainbow” of different laminates for the neck that ran through all the way to the bridge.
It was a neck through rather than the common bolt on variety. This thing was my pride and joy and I used to “slap” {a funk technique} it into oblivion every time I picked it up.
It’s sound was a perfect mix of tininess for slap and low end hum for the more progressive grooves I’d play. One night I was dreaming I was walking past a swimming pool, and this thing was just lying on the ground next to it.
Without thinking I just randomly picked it upand threw it into the middle of the swimming pool. It was just so spontaneous it made me stop and pay attention.
As it sunk to the bottom of the pool, I thought to myself, “Hang on a minute, I would never do this to my bass. This must be a dream”. It was enough to snap me out of the hypnosis that I was dreaming.
I cannot remember exactly what I did after that, but I know it involved creating a much better and more exciting dream of my own choosing. Aim for this same spontaneity to snap you “awake” in the dream state, but control your excitement or it will completely wake you up.
Try experimenting with things that have a sentimental value and spontaneous thoughts that equate to something you would never do to such an artefact.
Throw that wedding ring into Mount Doom, shave your head completely bald. Think of doing something outrageous that will make you stop and think WTF.
Triangular pillows are pillows that form a not quite 90 degree corner. Apparently a lot of old people use them. I scored mine off my grandfather after he passed away from lung cancer when I was 9.
I get that everyone has their own sleeping comforts. Certain mattress preferences. One pillow, two pillow preferences etc. You might not like triangular pillows.
They might be something you consider as being uncomfortable.
I am sorry to tell you that there is a certain degree of uncomfortable you will need to get used to if you want to properly lucid dream. This is one of them. Ok so maybe they are not essential, but I believe they will help significantly.
The reason for this is based on my own observations and positions I would wake up in immediately after a lucid dream.
These positions I would then experiment with to induce lucidity and they actually worked.
The triangular pillow, I have found, allows your head to rest in the exact “right” position which would be a space gap if you tried putting two standard pillows together.
Did I mention it is going to be uncomfortable? It will take some time to build up getting used to this lucid dreaming pose. But more on that later.
Also have a sheet or blanket that you only use for lucid dreaming. Use it every time you are going to consciously try, and put it away when you are not.
This tip comes from a Native American who suggests you will be imbuing such a blanket with specific “dream energy” that will build up and ultimately help induce it.
So now you’ve got your pillow and journal, you are all set to go to sleep and try and wake up in the dream right?
Wrong.
Whilst other self proclaimed experts will tell you to go right ahead, I am going to bore you with some other things first. Remember I have a responsibility to build your skills slowly. This includes preparing you mentally for what you might experience.
Allow me to take a bit of a detour and tell you about what I call my Leverian Theology.
The Leverian Theology is a system of thought I developed back when I was studying both electronics and occult subjects side by side.
I began noticing certain similarities in both curriculums which led me to believe that “no thoughts are entirely belonging to the mind that thought them”.
It was my belief that all thoughts were derivations of higher celestial mechanics that had in parts been “remembered” by the consciousness developing them.
All inventions, I supposed came about by the inventor sub consciously accessing a non physical energy matrix {the void space/ collective unconscious} and tapping into cosmological mechanics that were already there to begin with.
Thus I assumed that by taking current technological models, and following them from finish to start, one could develop a functional model by which to unravel and understand complex cosmological concepts.
While the actual model is not important, what is important is that one has a way to categorise their thoughts, especially when it comes to lucid dreaming and meditation.
The reason is that when you receive higher information, it doesn’t always come in the form you would expect.
It doesn’t tend to come through all at once either. If you wish to master lucid dreaming, you need to have a system by which to sort your thoughts.
You can then figure out the overall function of one piece of information in relation to the rest.
When more information starts coming in, you can bring up this overall function rather than trying to go back and remember the whole other experiences in totality.
In my case, my Leverian Theology acted as a sort of filing system to deal with the information I was receiving. This is the true secret to being able to properly develop advanced lucid dreaming and meditation abilities.
Again I am yet to come across anyone bothering to mention such a significant aspect. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, only that I specifically haven’t found them.
The categorisation of thought is one of the most crucial aspects to meditation and lucid dreaming, in my opinion. Later, we are going to delve into a very well known system of thought categorisation called the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
This will deal with the alchemical aspects of mental preparation on reconnecting with the higher self.
But while we are on the subject of meditation, let’s talk about the meditative practices needed to achieve proper lucid awareness of the dream state.
I am going to give you three meditations I suggest practicing.
You might have your own meditations that work for you. By all means, continue to use them. The three meditations I am going to give, however, are specifically for lucid dreaming purposes.
They are designed to build specific disciplines required to properly induce lucidity, based on my own observations. Essentially what you are going to be doing is learning how to remain “still”, both physically and mentally. This is not a lightweight task.
What you effectively need to be doing is becoming your own psychoanalyst. You need to learn how to “catch” your thoughts as they arise, observe them objectively and trace their origins.
If you are one who meditates regularly, then there is no need to dedicate even more time to these.
Just include them as part of your already established regime. For those who are not big on meditating much, try doing them at night when you are in bed with your eyes closed.
The First Meditation, Visualisation:
The first step to gaining control of your void space is to practice visualisation. When I was a kid I had this weird scenario that would pop up from time to time.
It ended up becoming somewhat of a visualisation practice because it drove me fucking crazy. I’d just randomly have this thought of someone running on a roof and jumping off onto a car bonnet {what you guys in America call the hood}. It wasn’t even a very big height either.
Like a couple of metres at most. The thing was though, my brain would distort the physics of the scenario. Every time this person would land on the bonnet, they would crush it and the car would pivot like they were jumping on a see saw.
It was reminiscent of how the Hulk would crush something by jumping on it from a low height.
The reason it drove me crazy was because I knew it was an impossibility. And it totally fucked with the movie in my head of this guy doing cool parkour tricks.
I don’t know why this thought would appear – maybe it was something I saw on a cartoon or something – but it was consistent enough for me to remember it more than a decade later.
Now, the problem I was having is that I could not visualise this person not crushing the car and following a more proper path as defined by physics.
It took me quite a long time before I was able to counter this silly little scenario that would often pop up as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep. I actually felt a great sense of relief when I could watch that guy run along the roof, jump on the car and continue in his act of parkour.
It is silly I know, but I am sure everyone can relate to similar scenarios that consume their thoughts at the best of times. It also gives us a good idea of what to expect whilst in the dream state. It gives us a very real glimpse into how hard the void space can be to control.
When you are lucid and operating in the void space, you do not see the things the same as you see in physical reality.
There is no physical horizon for you to set your sights upon.
Instead you are swarmed by imagery that lays dormant in your sub consciousness.
If you focus on any of this imagery it has a tendency to become more vivid and solidify in the form of a dream or a disruption.
Hence why if you cannot learn to control this imagery, you will not be able to regain proper control of your void space. Period.
So what I want you to do is to include this visualisation practice in your meditations: picture a single orange resting in a bowl on your kitchen counter. Now imagine you can see the orange in explicit detail.
I want to you mentally zoom up close to it and really see the texture of the skin. Now try moving to the opposite side and picture some sort of blemish.
As you get good at holding a vivid, high definition picture of the orange in your mind, try adding more fruit to the bowl. Start scanning through all of them like you are watching a movie. Once you get good, experiment with different scenarios taking place.
If you are sore, mentally try to zoom in to where your ailment is, going through biological layer after layer and shining white light on a single atom.
Imagine this light reflects off every other atom in a chain reaction until you are bathed in a cloud of light.
This is a healing technique supposedly used by St Germaine by the way – I can tell you it works if your visualisation practices are strong enough.
The idea is to train your mind to be able to conjure up its own images, and not rely on whatever media left an impression on your sub consciousness.
You can’t let that scenario equivalent to mine with the guy doing Hulk parkour with its altered physics win.
The Meditation of Silence of Thought:
The next meditation is designed to “un-hypnotise” you.
What’s that you say?
You aren’t hypnotised? Sorry to tell you but you live in a world full of advertising. Turn on the TV or go for a quick drive and tell me you are not being blasted by an advertisement every 5 seconds.
If you live in a rural community I might believe you.
How long before you make your way past one though? Let’s cut the bullshit and tell it for what it is. All advertising is brainwashing, and all brainwashing is forced hypnotism.
Still don’t believe me?
Do me a favour and next time you get an urge for a Big Mac and cheese or a Bud light ask yourself why you got it.
Don’t just ask yourself, trace the thought and pin point exactly what it was that made you think you wanted one. Not just the easy answer of “I was hungry”.
I want you to trace the whole pathway of your thought and why it was you chose a Big Mac and cheese over a Subway 6 inch. Was choice even involved in the equation?
You’ll probably find that you can’t pin point the exact moment that thought took hold. It was just sort of there in the back of your mind, then when your hunger instinct kicked in the thought took charge of “you”.
Now start doing it with all of your thoughts. I want you to catch every single thought you have, remove yourself to a third person perspective and start analysing them objectively.
I want you to ask yourself why it is you like that certain brand of car over all others.
Why you like that certain football team out of all the rest.
Why you find people that wear body piercings and tattoos distasteful. All those thoughts that are heavily ingrained into you and have the potential to make you choose one thing over another.
All those things that have the potential to make you make serious life choices.
Anything which will lead you to have a heavy emotive reaction to a situation. Everything. You are no longer allowed to just react to situations on autopilot.
Though when you inevitably do, I want you to ask yourself why you reacted that way. Do these thoughts belong to you, or are they a part of a family or social “tradition” that has been handed down to you through cultural biasing. You will be surprised how many thoughts are not actually “yours”.
Once you start catching these thoughts, try experimenting with neutralising them with their polar opposites.
When there is a “gnawing feeling” that you should react a certain way, take a breath and just observe it passively.
The human mind has a myriad of triggers that professionals have learnt how to push and prod. Unfortunately for you, they don’t stop being pushed just when an advertisement has run its course through your head.
This is how you learn how to deactivate them. By doing so you will be teaching yourself to be less prone to manipulation whilst in the void space.
You will strengthen your psychological disposition towards dealing with whatever the dream state throws at you. This is a big part of what occult philosophy is about.
This meditation will then extend into vanquishing the inner monologue in your head. That voice and imagery inside your head at bed time that tends to trail off and lead you down a road of sheer randomness.
Effective lucid dreaming and astral projection comes from finding a way to completely vanquish those thoughts.
When you lie there in bed try focusing on the sound of your breathing and nothing else. It takes some practice but eventually you should be able to notice those distracting thoughts as they arise and refocus on your breathing.
To strengthen this thought vanquishing practice, do yourself a favour and next time you attend a speaking session with someone at a podium in front of a crowd, just sit and observe.
Try to remain in one position and take in your whole surroundings without moving your eyes or your head. Watch how people react to the speaker and try and pin point those reactions that are subconscious ones. Keep your eyes open for as long as possible without blinking.
If done properly this should put you in a trance like state, and your surroundings will become extremely vivid.
Pay attention to your thoughts and take note of any that seem to “scream” at you from seemingly nowhere. What you are doing is tuning into the void space whilst in an awakened state, and preparing yourself for the next meditation.
The Meditation of Stillness of the Body:
This is where things begin to get uncomfortable. And I mean that literally. This meditation builds upon the still position used to induce a trance like state. It is, in my opinion, the most important practice one must master if they want to be able to remain conscious through the transition into the sleeping state. One should try going to bed before they reach a noticeable state of fatigue.
To begin with you are going to take up a comfortable position, and you are going to lie there for as long as possible unmoving. The idea is to build up the length of time you can remain unmoving.
Keep trying for just a little bit longer every time you practice it.
The key is not move even through every annoying itch and twitch your body goes through. Your goal should be to build up to being able to lie unmoving for at least an hour or more.
The annoyingness at the situation should actually benefit you by keeping you awake. If you can keep yourself awake, you will begin to notice that after awhile, everything starts to become “numb”.
For me, my arms are usually the first the go. This is the preliminary stage to sleep paralysis, or what is known as the hypnagogic state in astral projection circles (the line between the two is very blurry).
The numbness is your consciousness preparing to disengage from the body. It is from here you can either induce an astral projection or conscious transition into the void space. but not before going through sleep paralysis.
Alas these are subjects which require a whole article themselves, so for now just keep practicing these meditations as they will prepare you for the next phase where the fun really starts to begin. After a month you should start being better prepared for these next stages of lucid dreaming.
Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 9 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This article consists of my explanation of what our “universe”; the “Reality universe” otherwise known and the MWI, actually is. And while in many ways, it resembles the science fiction movie “The Matrix” it is far more cunning, with far more serious implications. And this article discusses those implications. For here, we will get into the basic overlying general construction of this Prison Complex.
Those of you who are long time readers of MM know what I am talking about about. New comers, well, you’ll probably get lost fairly early on. Sorry about that. this is an advanced subject.
The basic construction of everything
We live inside of an artificial construct.
Being inside of this “thing”; this environment distorts our understanding of reality. It distorts our thinking and our ability to fully comprehend what is actually going on.
We call this place where we live as “our universe”.
And inside of it, we describe the operation of it as “the MWI”. Or multiple world theory.
And that is all we know. We know nothing about what lies outside of our reality. We do not know what lies outside of our universe.
Then it is “The Matrix”?
Well, kind of.
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
Most MM readers will know what “The Matrix” is. It is a science fiction movie that says that all of what we know of, see and believe, is an elaborate computer simulation, and we are “plugged into it”.
An overly LARGE Synopsis for those who never watched the movie (they do exist, you know) …
The Matrix begins with a squad of police officers surrounding a building where they believe a computer hacker by the name of Trinity is currently hiding. A mysterious group of “agents” show up and chastise the police commander for not waiting for them before entering the building, due to the dangerous nature of their suspect.
We then jump inside where Trinity takes down a squad of police officers before going on the run from the “agents”, across the roof tops of the mysterious city. Trinity eventually makes it to a phone booth, seconds before the phone booth is plowed over by a Mack truck driven by one of the “agents”. When the “agents” examine the wreckage, they do not find Trinity’s body and state that she has escaped, but that they have found the one she is looking for.
The film then jump cuts to Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer by day and a computer hacker by night who goes by the name of Neo. Anderson is played by Keanu Reeves in all his Keanu glory. Neo is receiving mysterious computer messages that tell him to “follow the white rabbit”. After encountering someone with a white rabbit tattoo on her body, he follows her to a techno club where he meets a very much alive Trinity.
Trinity tells him that Morpheus, an infamous terrorist hacker, wants to meet Neo, and the young hacker is very interested. However, before that meeting can take place, Neo is arrested at work the next day and interrogated/tortured by agents. Fortunately, the agents release Neo (along with a little electronic bug), and Neo is able to keep his date with Morpheus.
Morpheus tells Neo that he is living in a dream world, and he can choose to leave it, if Neo so wishes it. Choosing to continue to follow the rabbit hole, Neo takes a red pill, and his reality begins to disintegrate. Neo awakens, naked and weak, in a liquid-filled pod, with cables attached all over his body. He sees thousands of similar tubes all around him before a machine comes down and disconnects him from the pod. Neo is then flushed out with the refuse where he is eventually picked up and brought aboard Morpheus’ hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzar.
Once there, Morpheus begins to explain what the Matrix is. Neo is told that in the 21st century, that the humans of the planet fought a war with machines that had become self aware. As part of this war, the humans had blocked the skies, to prevent the machines from using solar energy. As such, the machines had to find alternative means for the power that they needed to survive, so they created the Matrix. The Matrix is a cyber reality that allows the machines to use human beings as an energy source, or a battery as it is explained in the movie.
In the Matrix, humans believe that they are living in the year 1999, and that they are in control of their lives, with no memory of the human/machine world. Morpheus explains that he is responsible for “unplugging” enslaved humans, and returning them to the real world. Morpheus further explains that there is a prophecy that one such freed person will end the war with the machines, and that he believes that Neo is that person.
The film then goes into the education of Neo for his adventures in the Matrix world. Because the Matrix is a computer program, Neo is told that they have the ability to do superhuman feats since they can bend the physical laws. However, if a person is killed in the Matrix, they will die in the real world as well. Neo is also warned that everyone who has ever taken on an agent has been killed.
Ultimately, Neo is taken by Morpheus to see the Oracle, who will, in theory, confirm whether Neo is indeed the Christ figure of this film. The bad news is that the Oracle tells Neo he is not the one. The worse news is that she tells Neo that Morpheus will die to protect Neo because of his beliefs, unless Neo sacrifices his life for Morpheus.
The good news…Neo gets a delicious cookie. As Morpheus’ crew heads back to the extraction point, they are met by policeman and agents, who have been tipped to the crew’s Matrix-world arrival by their own personal Judas, Cypher. Everyone but Morpheus escapes, but Cypher makes it back to the real world hovercraft first. There he begins killing the other members of the crew by unplugging them while their minds are trapped in the Matrix. Before he can kill Trinity or Neo, a computer monitor by the name of Tanks kills Cypher and saves the duo.
Morpheus is taken to the agents’ headquarters, where they plan to torture him and interrogate him in order to get the access codes to the mainframe computer in Zion, the humans’ last stronghold in the real world. Neo decides to go back into the Matrix in order to save Morpheus, and Trinity tags along for the ride. The duo encounter overwhelming numbers, but they manage to free Morpheus and make their escape. Morpheus and Trinity are able to make their escape from the Matrix, but Neo becomes trapped when Agent Smith destroys his exit. Neo thinks about running from the agent, but he begins to believe in the prophecy and finds confidence in his abilities.
Neo and Agent Smith fight. Spectacularly. But ultimately, Neo has to get out of the Matrix, so he goes on the run trying to find another exit while being pursued by three agents. Tank attempts to lead Neo to an exit and safety, but Agent Smith cuts him off and places several bullets into Neo’s chest, killing the hacker.
However, as the agents begin to walk away, Neo resurrects and is now completely aware of his abilities and his power. He stops the bullets from the agents’ guns with a wave of his hand, and destroys Agent Smith by jumping into his “code” and blowing him up. Neo makes his escape from the Matrix, returning to the real world just in time before the hovercraft crew blows up an EMP that would have killed Neo if he had stayed in the Matrix.
The film ends with Neo making a call to the Matrix, stating that he knows that they are afraid now. Neo tells them that he will show their human prisoners “a world where anything is possible” before hanging up the phone. Neo then Superman’s off the screen, essentially creating the first cyber-world super hero.
The idea is valid.
Yes. We exist inside of an elaborate simulation.
The Matrix.
Except that instead of it being a computer simulation, it is far, far more than that. It is a completely separate and unique “universe” of sorts. The entities that built this simulation did so intentionally and used technologies that appear “God Like” to us.
They created a unique “universe” which is a “bubble” within a much larger universe.
Important Note
And important note: this is NOT a universe that lies outside of the “larger universe”. This is a “bubble universe” that lies inside of the “larger universe”.
As this statement clearly explains (from “Alien Interview”)…
"The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe."
How universes come into being
I’ll let “Alien Interview” explain…
"Before you can understand the subject of history, you must first understand the subject of time. Time is simply an arbitrary measurement of the motion of objects through space.
Space is not linear. Space is determined by the point of view of an IS-BE when viewing an object. The distance between an IS-BE and the object being viewed is called "space".
Objects, or energy masses, in space do not necessarily move in a linear fashion. In this universe, objects tend to move randomly or in a curving or cyclical pattern, or as determined by agreed upon rules.
History is not only a linear record of events, as many authors of Earth history books imply, because it is not a string that can be stretched out and marked like a measuring tool. History is a subjective observation of the movement of objects through space, recorded from the point of view of a survivor, rather than of those who succumbed.
Events occur interactively and concurrently, just as the biological body has a heart that pumps blood, while the lungs provide oxygen to the cells, which reproduce, using energy from the sun and chemicals from plants, at the same time as the liver strains toxic wastes from the blood, and eliminates them through the bladder and the bowels.
All of these interactions are concurrent and simultaneous. Although time runs consecutively, events do not happen in an independent, linear stream.
In order to view and understand the history or reality of the past, one must view all events as part of an interactive whole. Time can also be sensed as a vibration which is uniform throughout the entire physical universe.
Airl explained that IS-BEs have been around since before the beginning of the universe. The reason they are called "immortal", is because a "spirit" is not born and cannot die, but exists in a personally postulated perception of "is - will be". She was careful to explain that every spirit is not the same. Each is completely unique in identity, power, awareness and ability.
The difference between an IS-BE like Airl and most of the IS-BEs inhabiting bodies on Earth, is that Airl can enter and depart from her "doll" at will. She can perceive at selective depths through matter. Airl and other officers of The Domain can communicate telepathically. Since an IS-BE is not a physical universe entity it has no location in space or time.
An IS-BE is literally, "immaterial". They can span great distances of space instantly.
They can experience sensations, more intensely than a biological body, without the use of physical sensory mechanisms. An IS-BE can exclude pain from their perception. Airl can also remember her "identity", so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!
She says that the existing collection of suns in this immediate vicinity of the universe have been burning for the last 200 trillion years. The age of the physical universe is nearly infinitely old, but probably at least four quadrillion years since its earliest beginnings.
Time is a difficult factor to measure as it depends on the subjective memory of IS-BEs and there has been no uniform record of events throughout the physical universe since it began. As on Earth, there are many different time measurement systems, defined by various cultures, which use cycles of motion, and points of origin to establish age and duration.
The physical universe itself is formed from the convergence and amalgamation of many other individual universes, each one of which were created by an IS-BE or group of IS-BEs.
The collision of these illusory universes commingled and coalesced and were solidified to form a mutually created universe. Because it is agreed that energy and forms can be created, but not destroyed, this creative process has continued to form an ever-expanding universe of nearly infinite physical proportions.
Before the formation of the physical universe there was a vast period during which universes were not solid, but wholly illusionary. You might say that the universe was a universe of magical illusions which were made to appear and vanish at the will of the magician. In every case, the "magician" was one or more IS-BEs. Many IS-BEs on Earth can still recall vague images from that period. Tales of magic, sorcery and enchantment, fairy tales and mythology speak of such things, although in very crude terms.
Each IS-BE entered into the physical universe when they lost their own, "home" universe. That is, when an IS-BE's "home" universe was overwhelmed by the physical universe, or when the IS-BE joined with other IS-BEs to create or conquer the physical universe.
On Earth, the ability to determine when an IS- BE entered the physical universe is difficult for two reasons:
1) the memory of IS-BEs on Earth have been erased, and
2) IS-BEs arrival or invasion into the physical universe took place at different times, some 60 trillion years ago, and others only 3 trillion.
…
Immortal Spiritual Beings, which I refer to as "IS-BEs", for the sake of convenience, are the source and creators of illusions. Each one, individually and collectively, in their original, unfettered state of being, are an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing entity.
IS-BEs create space by imagining a location. The intervening distance between themselves and the imagined location is what we call space.
An IS-BE can perceive the space and objects created by other IS-BEs.
IS-BEs are not physical universe entities. They are a source of energy and illusion. IS- BEs are not located in space or time, but can create space, place particles in space, create energy, and shape particles into various forms, cause the motion of forms, and animate forms. Any form that is animated by an IS-BE is called life.
An IS-BE can decide to agree that they are located in space or time, and that they, themselves, are an object, or any other manner of illusion created by themselves or another or other IS-BEs.
The disadvantage of creating an illusion is that an illusion must be continually created. If not continually created, it disappears. Continual creation of an illusion requires incessant attention to every detail of the illusion in order to sustain it.
A common denominator of IS-BEs seems to be the desire to avoid boredom.
A spirit only, without interaction with other IS-BEs, and the unpredictable motion, drama, and unanticipated intentions and illusions being created by other IS-BEs, is easily bored.
What if you could imagine anything, perceive everything, and cause anything to happen, at will? What if you couldn't do anything else? What if you always knew the outcome of every game and the answer to every question?
Would you get bored?
The entire back time track of IS-BEs is immeasurable, nearly infinite in terms of physical universe time.
There is no measurable "beginning" or "end" for an IS-BE.
They simply exist in an everlasting now.
Another common denominator of IS-BEs is that admiration of one's own illusions by others is very desirable.
If the desired admiration is not forthcoming, the IS-BE will keep creating the illusion in an attempt to get admiration. One could say that the entire physical universe is made of unadmired illusions.
The origins of this universe began with the creation of individual, illusionary spaces. These were the "home" of the IS-BE.
Sometimes a universe is a collaborative creation of illusions by two or more IS-BEs. A proliferation of IS-BEs, and the universes they create, sometimes collide or become commingled or merge to an extent that many IS-BEs shared in the co-creation of a universe.
IS-BEs diminish their ability in order to have a game to play. IS-BEs think that any game is better than no game.
They will endure pain, suffering, stupidity, privation, and all manner of unnecessary and undesirable conditions, just to play a game. Pretending that one does not know all, see all and cause all, is a way to create the conditions necessary for playing a game: unknowns, freedoms, barriers and/or opponents and goals. Ultimately, playing a game solves the problem of boredom.
In this fashion, all of the space, galaxies, suns, planets, and physical phenomena of this universe, including life forms, places, and events have been created by IS-BEs and sustained by mutual agreement that these things exist.
There are as many universes as there are IS-BEs to imagine, build and perceive them, each existing concurrently within its own continuum. Each universe is created using its own unique set of rules, as imagined, altered, preserved or destroyed by one or more IS-BEs who created it. Time, energy, objects and space, as defined in terms of the physical universe, may or may not exist in other universes. The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe.
One of the rules of the physical universe is that energy can be created, but not destroyed. So, the universe will keep expanding as long as IS-BEs keep adding more new energy into it. It is nearly infinite. It is like an automobile assembly line that never stops running and none of the cars are ever destroyed.
Every IS-BE is basically good.
Therefore, an IS-BE does not enjoy doing things to other IS- BEs which they themselves do not want to experience. For an IS-BE there is no inherent standard for what is good or bad, right or wrong, ugly or beautiful. These ideas are all based on the opinion of each individual IS-BE.
The closest concept that human beings have to describe an IS-BE is as a god: all-knowing, all-powerful, infinite. So, how does a god stop being a god?
They pretend NOT to know. How can you play a game of "hide and seek" if you always know where the other person is hiding?
You pretend NOT to know where the other players are hiding, so you can go off to "seek" them. This is how games are created. You have forgotten that you are just "pretending". In so doing, IS-BEs become entrapped and enslaved inside a maze of their own devising.
How does one create a cage, lock one's own self inside the cage, throw away the key, and forget there is a key or a cage, and forget there is an "inside" or "outside", and even forget there is a self? Create the illusion that there is no illusion: the entire universe is real, and that no other universe exists or can be created.
On Earth, the propaganda taught and agreed upon is that the gods are responsible, and that human beings are not responsible. You are taught that only a god can create universes. So, the responsibility for every action is assigned to another IS-BE or god. Never oneself.
No human being ever assumes personal responsibility for the fact that they, themselves -- individually and collectively -- are gods. This fact alone is the source of entrapment for every IS-BE.
…
And let’s look at this one statement in detail…
[1] There are as many universes as there are IS-BEs to imagine, build and perceive them, each existing concurrently within its own continuum.
[2] Each universe is created using its own unique set of rules, as imagined, altered, preserved or destroyed by one or more IS-BEs who created it. Time, energy, objects and space, as defined in terms of the physical universe, may or may not exist in other universes.
[3] The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe.
[1] IS-BE’s create universes at will.
[2] They are complete separate entities that exist within it’s own set of laws, rules and continuum.
[3] The Domain exists in one such universe, AS WELL as “The Physical Universe”.
Since, the Domain Commander was discussing the situation at Roswell he was making s simplification statement that has been pretty much glossed over by most everyone who reads the “Alien Interview” document.
There is the BIG “parent” universe. This is where The Domain exists. As well as where the “Old Empire” existed.
And there is …
The Physical Universe. This is a smaller “pocket universe” that sits inside the “BIG parent universe”. It is what we see. It is everything that we physically see, and sense. But it is not the totality of everything. Because this “Physical Universe”; the MWI is the “Old Domain” “Prison Complex”.
The creation of a “artificial” universe within a universe
So this “Prison Planet” is more than just a singular planet with a “fence” around it. It is a planet within it’s own “pocket universe”.
And I can tell you, from MAJestic, that Earth is not the only planet within this “pocket universe”. But there are perhaps four to five other solar systems involved. (Five if you include “our” solar system.)
So it is a very special “pocket universe” within a much larger BIG universe.
This is a very unique universe
Furthermore, there is an elaborate structure that makes this “Prison Complex” unique. It is much more than a simple “electric fence”.
There is a system of recycling IS-BE consciousness’s back and forth from “Prison” to “Parole”. We know this system as …
Birth
Living on the earth
Death
Going into the light
Heaven
Reincarnation
The “Punishment” aspect of our incarceration is in BROWN. The “Parole” / rehabilitation aspect of our incarceration is in BLUE.
Thus we have something else.
We have [1] a huge complex that handles the “punishment” aspect of our incarceration. We call this the “physical reality”, or the MWI. And we have have [2] a massive complex for the “parole” / rehabilitation aspect of our incarceration. This goes by the name of “Heaven”.
There are two massive complexes involved in this “Prison Complex”.
Our “Pocket universe” contains multiple universes
For every imprisoned IS-BE consciousness species, there is an equivalent “Heaven”. And there are many. It’s not only humans. There are horses, elephants, dolphins just to name a few. Each “Heaven” is a universe.
So looking from the outside, you can see that this “pocket universe” is segmented into other universes, and the entire complex, or cluster, of universes is one grand “Prison Complex” that is administered by a complete and ruthless system of control.
Why it is like a geode
A geode is a geological secondary formation within sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Geodes are hollow, vaguely spherical rocks, in which masses of mineral matter (which may include crystals) are secluded.
Geode.
The crystals are formed by the filling of vesicles in volcanic and sub-volcanic rocks by minerals deposited from hydrothermal fluids; or by the dissolution of syn-genetic concretions and partial filling by the same, or other, minerals precipitated from water, groundwater or hydrothermal fluids.
In our case, the creation of a universe within a universe was a very special construction. In fact, I might argue that it would have been far easier to create a universe outside of our universe, but apparently the rulers of the “Old Empire” as technologically advanced as they were, wanted to create a system that would permanently imprison FOREVER those that they condemned…
…within their universe, and within their geographic territory.
So they FORCED the artificial construction of a unique static “pocket universe” with very strict MWI world-line behaviors. And were any inmate to escape, at the very worst they would escape to geographic terrain of the “Old Empire”. This would not be something that would be possible with a completely separate universe that would lie outside that of the “parent universe”.
And in so escaping, they would be going from a “reality universe” where the laws and rules are one thing, and to a “parent universe” where they are something else entirely different. With a complete amnesia, it would be extremely difficult for an inmate to successfully escape.
What does this understanding provide to us?
This provides us with a great deal of insight regarding the technology of the “Old Empire” and what they could and could not do.
They could create a “pocket universe”.
They could not create a total self-contained universe to exile others to.
Thus it is not wonder that The Domain was able to vanquish the “Old Empire”. As members of The Domain are fundamentally IS-BE’s with a class structure that prohibits memory amnesia when occupying a physical body. While the “Old Empire” (apparently) was a societal structure where the occupancy of a physical body allowed or forced memory amnesia.
It also tells us why it is difficult for The Domain to reverse engineer this “Prison Complex”. As this is not a separate universe, but rather a “pocket universe” construction that lies within a “parent universe”.
Where do we inmates fit into the picture?
This region, this “Prison Complex” appears to be just like the “Parent Universe”. So much so, that The Domain entered it, set up a base of operations inside of the “reality universe” totally and completely unaware that it was within a spawned “pocket universe”.
I am confident that The Domain has learned many, many things over the decades and centuries. But I do not believe that mastery of this “pocket universe” can be obtained in the next few years. It might take longer than that. Thus the track that The Domain is on is quite reasonable.
Set up a system for sentience sorting and rehabilitation.
Enlist the Mantids towards this goal.
Assist the”conditional release” of inmates as they acquire “exit visas”.
Regain control of the entire “Prison Complex” through mastery of the “Pocket Universe”.
Administer care to the inmates…
With the goals of rescue of the Lost Battalion, and recovery of all memories of all IS-BE’s so incarcerated.
Conclusion
One of the most important fundamentals that an inmate must understand when trying to escape a prison, is the layout of that prison. Well known “prison breaks” all required an understanding of the prison layout, the routines of the guards, and an understanding on what needs to occur; step by step, prior to a successful break-out.
While there are many who are tying to escape one way or the other, I argue that it will be very difficult to do so unless the inmate have a good understanding of the environment where he is incarcerated within.
Given the nature of this “Prison Planet”, it seems reasonable to conclude that a map or an understanding of a path must be laid out for the inmate to extract themselves out of the general population environment. This will not only list the various traps, snares, and tricks that lie along the way, but also the boundaries and mechanisms for the other associated “pocket universes” that lie within this “Prison Complex”. Such as the various heavens, and the very detailed snares.
This article might not seem like much, but it establishes a most fundamental understanding of the limits and the geography of the “Prison Complex”.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
This is a nice story by Ray Bradbury. It takes you to a point in time. It’s about being alone. I do hope that you appreciate this story like I do. It’s a great story that takes place on Mars. This is in PDF format for easy reading.
The long years
Ray Bradbury
Conclusion
It’s a very short story.
I think that this story stands alone on it’s own merits.
Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social pain—a psychological mechanism which motivates individuals to seek social connections. It is often associated with an unwanted lack of connection and intimacy. Loneliness overlaps and yet is distinct from solitude. Solitude is simply the state of being apart from others; not everyone who experiences solitude feels lonely. As a subjective emotion, loneliness can be felt even when surrounded by other people; one who feels lonely, is lonely. The causes of loneliness are varied. They include social, mental, emotional, and environmental factors.
- Wikipedia
Today’s society insists that we communicate via e-mail and social media. But face to face, in depth human to human contact is what we require. Accept that fact and do everything in your power to make sure that you are never, ever alone. Your strength is your community.
The following is a nice cute story about a Samurai and a rat, and how difficult it was to find the perfect mouser to catch the rat. It comes from the thirty-six strategies of war by Stefan H. Verstappen. I will make the necessary arrangements to post the entire PDF up on MM later, but some of the stories are just so adorable.
Japanese Folk Tale
There once lived a samurai who was plagued by a large and clever rat who had the run of the house. This annoyed the samurai to no end so he went to the village to buy a cat.
A street vendor sold him a cat that he said would catch the rat, and indeed the cat looked trim and fit. But the rat was even quicker than the cat and after a week with no success the samurai returned the cat.
This time the vendor pulled out a large and grizzled cat and guaranteed that no rat could escape this master mouser. The rat knew enough to stay clear of this tough alley cat, but when the cat slept, the rat ran about. Half the day the rat would hide, but the other half he again had the run of the place.
The samurai brought the cat back to the vendor who shook his head in despair saying he had given the samurai his best cat and there was nothing more he could do.
Returning home with his money, the samurai happened upon a monk and sought his advice. After hearing the samurai’s story the monk offered him the services of the cat that lived in the temple.
The cat was old and fat and he scarcely seemed to notice when he was carried away by the doubtful samurai.
For two weeks, the cat did little more than sleep all day and night. The samurai wanted to give the cat back to the temple but the monk insisted he keep him a while longer assuring him the rat’s days were close to an end.
The rat became accustomed to the presence of the lazy old cat and was soon up to his old tricks even, on occasion, brazenly dancing around the old cat as he slept.
Then one day, as the rat went about his business without any concern, he passed close by the cat who swiftly struck out his paw and pinned the rat to the floor.
The rat died instantly.
Summary
In battle, the element of surprise is paramount. A wary opponent is unlikely to fall into the usual traps, so he must first be made to relax his vigilance. To do this one must carry on as though nothing untoward was afoot. Once acclimatized to often repeated actions, a person no longer takes notice of them. When the enemy ceases to pay attention to you, the time is right to attack.
The studious kitty.
Do you want more?
I have more articles about cats in my Happiness Index here… Life & Happiness .
Articles & Links
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the seventh part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
This particular article is not part of the direct set of articles that are autobiographical in scope and content.
Instead, this article concerns a project, or an idea that needs to be worked on and “flushed out”. I present it here in it’s rough state for others to consider and ponder.
Part 7 – PROJECT: ALPHA
As explained by daegonmagus…
This is an experimental project I wrote up a few years back which explains telepathy using basic radio engineering principles.
Not sure if you want to put it up as an article, it is somewhat incomplete, but it resonates strongly with what the Domain Commander told you about tech that can be used to unlock the non physical body.
I am certain the void space of lucidity can be used to properly tune the body to pick up these telepathic frequencies. I will go into another article on that when I've got the time.
This article is by no means finalized. This is just a rough draft for MM readership to consider and absorb.
HYPOTHESIS:
There potentially exists an invisible energy field that surrounds the human aura in the region of the head which seems to be susceptible to fluctuations in electromagnetic/ magnetic fields.
It is presumed that if a strong enough field enters this energy’s boundaries at a specific frequency of resonance, then the subject may be able to achieve astral projection and/ or lucid dreaming more easily than if they did not experience this auric distortion.
Such propositions are based on alleged unorthodox happenings from numerous sources such as the Philadelphia Experiment, the Gibb’s device – more commonly known as the Hyper Dimensional Resonator or HDR -, radionics devices and the authors own experience involving a method by which to render people and objects light insofar as their mass weight is concerned, as well as other documentation concerned with the Schuman resonance.
The goal of the project is to use electronic engineering and radio communication methodologies, as well as components, such as the bifilar and caduceus coils, to develop devices that will specifically target a range of frequencies to try and induce such states of mind.
OVERVIEW:
General radio theory dictates that all that is needed for the wireless transmission of electromagnetic energy is for a conductor of a required length to be electrified by an energy source at a frequency dictated by that very length.
Without delving to deeply into the complexities of this science, extensive studies into this phenomena have proven that another frequency can be attached to the frequency by which this conductor’s energy propagates, thus allowing for the transference of analogue or digital information to be sent from one location to another via the space between them, to be received by a similar apparatus.
Two important understandings must be made from this general theory – that all conductors are potential transmitters, and that all conductors are potential receivers.
All that is left for this “communication” to be intelligible is the filtering out of parasitic frequencies, known as noise, and the derivation of circuits that will allow control over which frequencies are to be used in transmission and how they shall be deciphered – which is the art of radio engineering. As a result, oscillators are used as a means to “tune” transmission and reception to a desired frequency, and many different methods have been established to create these components including the use of Resistor/Capacitor or Inductor/ Capacitor networks, and applying electrical signals to various crystal substrates such as quartz which in turn allows for them to resonate.
Keeping these things in mind it is also important to understand the implications this field of science poses to the human body (or any biological body for that matter), for the human body is really nothing more than a complex electrical circuit itself, consisting of a maze of nervous pathways that are constantly pulsating with energy, as well as conductive fluids, mass resistances and salts that together when combined could potentially establish perfect environments for these oscillations to take place thus allowing for the transmission or reception of some uncontrolled energy, especially in a being whose stature mimics that of a Marconi antenna (upright) when awake, and that of a Yagi antenna (parallel to the ground) when they are asleep.
There have been multiple accounts of people reporting they have heard radio broadcasts in their head after dental procedures, a similar set of experiences of which the author can attest to, though they were caused by an unfortunate susceptibility to perforated eardrums as a child and nothing to do with the former.
It is by reason and logic then I theorise that the subjects in these cases were somehow modifying the electrical characteristics of their bodies in such a way as to provide a direct deciphering of certain radio signals at their ears or the nerves close to them.
If unrecognized or unintentional oscillation of the body’s chemical composition is what is really occurring in these cases, then it is not altogether unreasonable to assume that the body could also be emitting a set of frequencies of its own, given its remarkable ability to act as if it has a constant battery feeding it energy. The above scrutinization offers the following possibilities, depending on where the areas of the most prominent oscillations are occurring;
If oscillation is localized to circulatory system pathways, by using electromagnetic wave propagation theory where frequency = 3×108 / wavelength, (assuming the wavelength of a circulatory system to be 60000 miles in length) the potential frequency of oscillations would most likely sit somewhere around 3Hz.
If oscillation is localized to nervous system pathways, by using EM wave propagation theory and assuming the wavelength of a nervous system is 40 miles in length the frequency would be 4.66kHz.
If oscillation localized to grey matter nerve lengths, by using EM wave propagation theory and assuming the wavelength of a myelinated nerve fibre is 150 – 180000km long, the frequency would be between 1.6 and 2Hz.
I note these finding as extremely interesting, as one experience I had involved the stable awakening from a lucid dream whereby the physical world was transposed over the dream one in a wavy like manner at a rate somewhere near these extremely low frequencies (ELFs), which was to provide a basis for further investigation.
Also to be noted is another incidence where I fell into a lucid dream just as a plane went overhead, and witnessed the transition of the frequency of the plane being slowed to less than half of its original value, whereby some sort of up-scaling phasing effect was introduced.
If one were to study methods of astral projection on the other hand, majority of the techniques seem to involve the lowering or raising of the subjects energy frequency to a level that will initiate this projection.
Devices have even reportedly been used whereby they have brought about such projections almost effortlessly, by using insulated electric currents to alter the energy field near the head.
Some documentations of astral projection also point to a type of magnetism that will pull the astral body back into its physical if care is not taken to rid oneself of its effect immediately upon projection.
My own experiences in this area have led me to believe one hears a high pitched frequency shortly before projection, which sounds extremely similar to the immediate fizzing sound of when a bottle of soft drink is opened.
If I were to take a wild guess I would say this noise sits in the kHz range possibly between 4kHz and 10kHz.
All this is suggestive that there are frequencies at work which together create some sort of complex sinusoidal wave form (ie two or more sinusoidal waves multiplied or “mixed” together) that provides a locking mechanism for the astral consciousness within the physical.
The chemical change one’s body undergoes when falling asleep further strengthens my assumptions as to this being the case, as it would bring about a substantial change in systems of oscillation.
I have also noted many dietary coincidences in a lot of my lucid dreams that seem to point to sugar and the nutrients in chilli chicken dishes having a profound effect. It is therefore my intent to try to manipulate these frequencies to see if the astral body, or lucid consciousness can be unlocked from the physical counterpart resulting in a more effortless experience..
Another important consideration is the technique used to make the mass of people and objects much lighter than usual, whereby hands are placed over the head / top by a group of people each positioned so they are not touching. For those who have not experienced this technique first hand, I can attest to the strange feeling that occurs when more and more hands are placed.
It is as if some form of dense energy is being sucked away and you start to become lighter. This suggests to me that the head is best place to start energetic manipulation experiments. I would assume the radiation pattern to be like that of a toroid, the head being the centre of the parabola.
APPARATUS:
Purpose built frequency generators that can be tuned in increments of 10s of Hertz. Given these frequencies are likely to be extremely low, RC oscillators seem like the only choice available, which is unfortunate as these devices are not considered stable. 555 timers provide an easy way to implement this type oscillator and only require a few external components, whose values can be varied to alter the frequency. Where higher frequencies are being controlled, I suggest using a crystal type oscillator and tuning via an inductor/capacitor network.
Bifilar pancake coils seem to be a good candidate for the vertical transmission of energy that will penetrate a few centimetres. It is likely that a more complex circuit will need to be developed in order to transmit energy around the whole head.
The human body is thought to generate around 100 watts of power, and if my suppositions of it being a transmitter are correct, this would mean that a telepathic thought could quite easily be broadcast over the world if the body can be tuned to efficiently propagate it, considering that this can be done using only a few milliwatts with morse code modulation techniques .
My supposition is that the void space entered after one remains conscious through the sleep paralysis stage during the transition into the sleeping state, can be used as the medium by which to “tune” the body to a more efficient propagation frequency.
This basis for my assumption on this is that I was able to use it to tune into the dialect of a non physical species and then communicate with them whilst in this state. I believe they were located very far from Earth.
They spoke in a clickity clack language that was completely alien to anything we have on earth. After going through the tuning process, we were then able to share a commonality of understanding and they spoke directly to me.
AREAS FOR FURTHER STUDY:
Modulating thought frequencies on bodily produced carrier waves (Telepathy)
Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 8 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This is a nice story by Ray Bradbury. It takes you to a point in time. It’s about a life after the insanity of mad kings and corrupt politicians. I do hope that you appreciate this story like I do.
Especially since it takes place in America in the year 2026…
There will come the soft rains
Ray Bradbury
Conclusion
It’s a very short story.
I think that this story stands alone on it’s own merits.
People have forgotten. The American leadership has forgotten what a cold war was, and the threat of any day having your complete life turned upside down by nuclear war. This week, America is going to base it’s nuclear SLBM missile subs in Australia, and Australia agrees to host the systems.
Jesus!
This kind of nuclear-war level posturing is dangerous. On one hand Biden says that “America doesn’t want war”, on the other hand, it was one year after it launched three lethal bio-weapons strains on China. And is placing nuclear weapons in the QUAD that rings the Chinese mainland.
Do they think that the rest of the world is as ignorant as the dumbed-down Americans are?
I guess so.
The United States is a run-away train and it ain’t stopping or slowing down for shit. The final crash is going to be spectacular, and horrific at the same time. This story here describes that aftermath.
RayBradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” tells the story ofahouse that has survived a nuclear blast in the year 2026. Thehouse has automated systems, not unlike a modern-day smarthome. Each day, the house makes the beds, cooks dinner, and throwsoutthe trash—despite the fact that its owners have died.
This article consists of answers from The Domain to questions collected by the MM audience. This is the second of (hopefully) many such events. Though, I must admit that it is really a lot of work to do.
I collected the questions from the last week of September 2021, and tried to contact with the Domain via the EBP in fits and starts over this period. I was successful, and unsuccessful. Some times the connection was strong while at other times it was weak. All having to do with my various situation at the time.
An Important note
I asked a question. A very personal question at the end of this article, and obtained an answer.
It is very disturbing, and I am very upset by it.
I decided to put it in and let you all know what was stated. This goes against my “better judgement”, but we will see what happens.
What this is all about
On 17SEP21 I posted an article that related the fact that The Domain opened up a dedicated channel to me via the EBP. As always, it was one-sided, and detailed. But during the conversation, I had no real mental ability. I was in a receiving and reporting state. I was really unable to think for myself. I just queried what I was told to ask and recorded the answers.
You can read this article HERE, if you are confused with what is going on.
Some Background
Most people are aware that the work titled “Alien Interview” is a transcript of a Commander of The Domain when it’s vehicle crashed in 1947. What most people do not know is that this event spawned an American top secret agency known as MAJestic that fell under the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence).
This waved, unacknowledged special access program handled (and still handles) all extraterrestrial events, technologies and interactions with the United States government. I was a unique part of that organization prior to being retired.
I have numerous devices installed in my body. The seven ELF probes are for MAJestic, with the EBP system is of Domain manufacture and utility.
Terminology
EBP – A hardwired device that connects MM to The Domain.
ELF – A hardwired device that connected MM to MAJestic through a Mantid intermediary. Now deactivated.
The Domain – The name of the species / civilization that the type-1 greys belong to.
“Old Empire” – A term used to describe a vanquished civilization that used to be in control of this section of the galaxy.
Comm channel – A link to the MM “handler” or Commander. Rank and position is unknown except that it is a senior being. This is a channel though the EBP system.
Prison Planet – Earth and the surrounding solar system.
Prison Complex – Our solar system with four to five other solar systems together.
Warden – Chief administrator for the Earth.
Corrections Officers – Police that work for the Warden.
Questions
This is the SECOND collection of Q&A from The Domain.
Here are the questions with the answers. We start off with one of MY questions to get the ol’ ball rolling…
[1] Who is Madesescapalion? Is this just a name out of my imagination, or something that I need pay attention to?
In an odd event, this name suddenly popped into my head, and stayed in my head for hours. Just banging around and around and around, and around. Jeeze!.
It’s really annoying.
Someone is addressing in a formal form like you would a officer, or the head of the FBI or something like that.
So I wrote it down. Then for the next four hours or so it still kept banging around in my skull until I wrote this question down. And then, oh, for Goodness Sakes! This popped out…
Who is Madesescapalion?
Madesescapalion (sic) is the name / a name of / one of the names of the Chief Administrator / High Authority of the Earth-centric portion of this Prison Complex. He is the local de facto head of this facility.He was a (preferential form) human who has injected himself into the prison complex as a means of escaping / avoiding / hiding from The Domain.He conducted this “donning of prison attire” when the Domain defeated the forces of the “Old Empire” sometime between 1135 - 1230 AD during the destruction of the local “Old Domain” space fleet in this region.He has been cycling in and out of “general population” in the Prison Complex ever since.He has systems in place that detect our movements and alert him, and when we get near to him he dies and goes into “Heaven” where we have difficulty following. Once he is safe, he then re-injects himself in the general population again. He is very cunning. He is very skillful. He holds many answers regarding the systems and the control attributes of this Prison Complex.
Scene from the movie Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp.
(I wonder if there is some kind of message in the movie Dark Shadows concerning this administrator.)
I don’t know if this is the right spelling. I just wrote it as it appeared to me.
Ma - des - escapa - li - on
It could also be read as “Ma-des Escapa-Li-on”, as in “Warden Escapa-Li-on”. Tht’s my thinking of this. I don’t know if it is true or not.
Warden Escapalion
Administrator of the “Old Empire”. In charge of this Prison Complex. Went into hiding (inside the prison General Population) when The Domain took over.
Update; Maybe I wrote it wrong.
The pronunciation is not "lion" but rather "leon".
- MM
[2] What is the relationship between the Domain and the Mantids. Why won’t the Domain ask the Mantids for help?
This issue has been bothering people for some time. It’s a valid concern and there are many questions regarding it. For some people, the Mantids represent angels, while the Domain represent demons. Now they see things in a new light and are concerned.
Personally, I was afraid to ask this as there are some MAJestic prohibitions on Mantid disclosures. But, I just didn’t think about it. I just got comfortable and read and waited for a response. There was a pause of a few minutes and then this flowed out.
Domain & Mantid relationship.
The Mantids (sic) are a species that has their own civilization and culture. They have accepted The Domain jurisdiction in this geographical area. They are also neutral in regards to territory, administration, and other encumbrances of physical life.They have transcended those interests.They maintain their roles within the Prison Complex “Heaven” and are satisfied with whatever might or might not happen in the future. Our relations with them are cordial. And if we ask them for support and assistance, they provide it. They have accepted our administration over this area and Prison Complex, and are willing to work with us in whatever way that we deem fit.
Do you have any thoughts about this answer?
[3] There is a group that you are working with that I am unfamiliar with. So I refer to them as <redacted>. Who are they and what do they do?
This is one of my questions that I would like to see answered better than what I would normally call out. You see my interpretation of direct data from the EBP differs substantially from this around-about method of collecting answers. And so I wanted to see what kind of answers that I would get.
This <redacted> is a new group that was first brought up when the Domain had its first direct communication with me. I would like a name and some background on them, please.
Who are the <redacted>?
They are a species that you have never encountered before, and is rare in this section of the universe. Their society / empire / housing cluster are from a very distant galaxy and have been involved in large massive complexes, works and systems not unlike that of the “Prison Complex” here.
They are helping us decode and unlock the systems that we encounter and develop new devices and mechanisms for detection of traps and snares.
They have a name, but it would not serve you to understand something that you could not pronounce let along write. They do not physically resemble humanoids or insects. They resemble something else entirely alien to the earth experience as they are not from the same kind of planet or sun that the Prison Complex has. (The image that I get is a very large maggot or caterpillar about the size of a sofa.)
You may refer to them as “helpers” like the little people in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory, the “oompa loompas”, or the “Minons” from “Despicable Me”.
Note: I will refer to this group as “Technical helpers” from now on. –MM
[4] Are there any catastrophic events due in the next few years?
I was able to get answers to this question but it was full of “stops”, hesitations, pauses, and “drag-ons”. If you all can understand what I am trying to say.
Everyone in the United States are fearful of the future. Indeed it seems like the entire nation is a broken down car skidding all over the place and being run by drunken raging maniacs. The passengers are terrified. What’s ahead is unknown, and everyone wants to know what is after that “bend in the road”.
Catastrophic Events
“The [physical] earth has undeniably gone through catastrophic events… cyclically and continuously. If I recall correctly, the most common recurring event(s) are at about 25,000 year increments or so… pole-shift, crustal displacement – stuff like that. Of course other things cause destruction as well – and I presume some are NOT natural. Anyway, my current best information says that such an event is likely to happen again – SOON – VERY soon (before 2025, but maybe even next calendar year). Can you comment on this?”
There are a number of clusters of time-lines (of large size) that are on a vector route towards a catastrophic purging of life and civilization elements within certain specific societies. What will happen depends on the trajectory of those clusters. The drivers behind their movement are well-established “Old Empire” forces that intentionally manifest results that (the MM readership) you would find distasteful.Thoughts can result in many manifestations. Not only in the movement of large numbers of people towards catastrophic results like lemmings, but also in the turmoil of natural processes. These thoughts can result in natural disasters, fiascos of unexpected intensity, and horrific results that will be unexpected. In many ways it is like an infant playing with a loaded gun. You must not allow horrific consequences whether “natural” or “manmade” to include all sorts of thought-induced reactions to manifest if you can avoid them.In the Prison Planet environment is an MWI configuration that permits world-line changes and alterations. There are various individual IS-BE’s imprisoned within the complex that have the ability to conduct mechanized world-line travel to different locations and different periods. After all, and you must remember, the MWI within the Prison Complex is an artificial construct. And thus, there are people who can create turmoil on certain world-line templates (sic) and then escape to safer havens.This is what is apparently going on. If you were to capture one of these IS-BE inmates and ask them what they are doing they would come up with all kinds of stories and excuses, but none will admit that they are participating in a relative “looting” of certain templates (sic) so that they can enjoy the fruits of their labors in other templates (sic).The good thing is that the “future” is never guaranteed. Being in such an artificial construct as the Prison Complex is, guarantees that those that can control their thoughts, and that understand how the Prison System works can “ride out” any crises or turmoil that might “boil up to the surface” with the confluence of multiple anchored clusters vectoring straight to catastrophic event scenarios.
Do not fear the future. Control your thoughts and you will control your destiny. Worrying about others is a fine passion but will not benefit you as your future will be under the fabric of your creation via your thoughts.If you can control your thoughts, even if your local environment undergoes horrific events, you will be able to endure it relative comfort.
I immediate thought that this was NOT the kind of answer that the questioner wanted.
After all, I myself, have been warning about catastrophic events in the future. I say this as a nod to the Deagal Report.
His questioner wanted a yes or a no answer and some details.
And the following came though…
Yes. There will be difficult times ahead.
It will be on a scale that many people will be unfamiliar and uncomfortable with.
It will not be something that you can point to and say "here it is". It will be a growth, a growing, an amassing of a state. Then it will achieve a critical tipping point. Then, it will be very uncomfortable.
It will not be televised, or reported on. Any information that the average person obtains will be lies, distractions or manipulations. No one will know what is going on. This will continue into the "main heat" of the event cycle.
(A list was provided in laconic fashion like someone reading from a handout.)
Treasuries will be emptied.
Resources will be stolen and carted off.
Secret military engagements will take place with death and destruction.
Back-stabbing, betrayals, and and "under hand" actions will be common.
Agreements will be torn-up or ignored.
New secret agreements will be written between unlikely participants.
(Fourth tone emphasis on the last syllable of the end word in each sentence.)
No one will know any of this. Many people will continue to be *oblivious* to what is going on even after millions of people are dead. So much will not be reported.
Significant event will pass into history unknown and unrecorded.
There are numerous clusters heading towards numerous scenarios. The most worrisome are being mitigated and controlled by the Domain. Yet, the large quantity and diversity of the various participants suggest that some kind of event will happen one way or the other.
However, please note that it will happen without anyone realizing it happening until afterwards.
There is an over reliance on electronic manipulative media. Many people believe that they know everything that is going on simply by the massive scope of the size of the media. That is a dangerous illusion. Nothing truthful will be displayed. Then when cracks and fissures in the news starts to point to some disturbing things, it will be all over and past the point of no-return.
However you can control how those difficult times affect your life. If you control your thoughts, you will control the range / extent of those influences on your life. Do not allow others to control your thoughts.
Keep in mind that the Domain is monitoring this situation very closely, and will not permit substantive destruction of the environment. However the mass concentration of evil and distorted IS-BE inmates have other ideas. And there are numerous scenarios where bad catastrophic events might still be able to occur no matter how hard the Domain tries to prevent them. Such as what happened with your World War I.
Many Americans and Western governments, such as those in Europe, and Asian-Pacific nations that have “hitched a ride with Uncle Sam” are witnessing a collapse of everything that they believed in.
But you see, all nations rise and fall.
I have discussed this over and over before. And they follow a normal progression of birth to death. What this questioner is worried about can be summed up in one simple graph here…
Do you have any thoughts about this answer?
[5] Why are the Mantids so keen on helping humans when they know that our memories will be erased later?
Well, why do they keep doing what they are doing. And what are they doing exactly?
Mantids and Memory Erasure
“There is something also bugging me about the mantids involvement on earth (and when I was talking to my husband about it, the PC started doing it’s own thing…weird!) I’m having a hard time articulating it, but maybe someone else can grab it. So here we go: Why do the mantids stay with us our whole lives and reviewing it in the end, when there comes the amnesia and everything we learned is forgotten? Don’t they know about the amnesia? Are they also kind of trapped on earth and cannot escape? Or do they profit somehow from being our wardens?”
The Mantids are not Wardens. They are corrections officers / archivists / medical practitioners and they are bred for their role. They differ from specific Prison Planet to Prison Planet.
A form (originally native) to the particular Prison Planet (within the Prison Complex) is elevated and provided with a duty and a role, then their success within that role is determined by that duty. The other four or so systems in the Prison Complex each has their own version of these helpers.In the case of the Mantids, this form is found throughout the universe just like humans are, but this form has been on the earth much longer than any humans have. They call it their home and treat the humans as “adopted children” from their nest.
As transdimensional creatures they are particularly suited as the caretakers of individual human consciousnesses.They believe that it is important for them to help and guide the human species from the general population segment of the Prison Planet into “Heaven” and help them grow. They also believe that strife, experiences, and conflict make humans into better beings.
This seemingly conflicting belief is not native to their original archetype.
Like humans within the confines of the prison planet, they too have been modified. Both humans and mantids have been modified to live, work and stay within this prison complex and never leave it.
The Mantids are absolutely convinced of their need to help humans in the prison grow through pain and suffering and then reward them with a rest-period in “Heaven”.This belief was cultivated / manufactured / genetically forced into them by the “Old Empire” when this particular Prison Planet was first established. Thus they, like the inmates that they tend to, are both hybridized archetype forms dedicated to specific roles within this Prison Complex.
They believe that they are involved in great compassionate works by providing great suffering to human inmates and then rewarding them with a “Heaven” afterwards.
Jesus! – MM
[6] Is enlightenment a benefit or a distraction?
A good question from someone who is not taking the answers from the Domain at face value. Worthy of consideration.
Again, the query was calm, easy and the response was immediate.
Enlightenment
“The bit about enlightenment is highly confusing. I’m guessing because it is poorly defined/undefinable. The Domain officer said that those who managed to escape the prison mechanism were able to control their thoughts to a high degree. That’s exactly what I would expect from someone on “the way” to enlightenment (Never a final destination either). Those who point to the way also advocate self-knowledge. Isn’t this in parallel with what the Domain advises? Any clarification here would be appreciated.”
Enlightenment is a tool that is used by religions as part of a control mechanism. The individual components used to achieve an enlightened state, such as meditation, focus, mantras, and all the rest are useful components for the control of one’s thoughts. Control of one’s thoughts is THE (THE – emphasized twice) most important skill set that a IS-BE consciousness can develop.If the intention of using these components (mediation / breathing / focus / etc.) is to achieve a state of nirvana (and consider it as enlightenment) it is a “dead end”.
What you are doing is using the proper tools, but not building anything of worth or value. You are moving forward doing everything correct, and then parking the results in a great nothingness of no practical utility.You must use the exact same skills that you use to achieve enlightenment towards functional outcomes.
“Enlightenment” in of itself is NOT a functional outcome. (The Domain officer is getting rather worked up.)
Religions have taken the skills originally taught to inmates to help them leave this Prison Planet and put them on “snipe hunts” that lead nowhere. Thousands of very well skilled and talented individuals were so very close to escaping the clutches of this inmate population, only to be sidetracked. They died and believed that the tunnel of light was the enlightenment that they seek.
No. It’s just a trap. Avoid that trap. Do not try to become enlightened. Never try to become enlightened. Use the same skills for enlightenment to control your thoughts and focus your abilities.
I had to break from this for a spell. I have never experienced such a strong impassioned response before. (Not that I have many of these kinds of responses, but they all tend to be friendly – neutral. Not so…emotional.)
[7] Enlightenment and being service to self
Is enlightenment considered Service to Self?
Yes. It is a selfish action.
“There’s also the concept of the Bodhisattva who attains a high degree of self-mastery such that they could transcend, but choose not to in order to help others along the way. Such examples might be Christ or the Buddha in various incarnations.”
You do not need to obtain enlightenment, mastery or perfection in order to help others. You simply help them regardless of your current situation.
As it is functionally used, irregardless of what other potential it might possess, enlightenment is a means of tricking IS-BE's of high potential into the "Tunnel of Light" so that their memories can be erased, and they can be sent back to start all over again.
Enlightenment has never freed anyone from the Prison Complex. You must be aware of that reality.
After this response, I “felt the need” to put up this picture…
Robin Williams giving helpful advice to a fast food worker on her situation. A day or two later, he killed himself. You do not need to be enlightened in order to help others.
You do not need to be enlightened to help people.
[8] Why not just break the WHOLE machine?
“A great way to ruin the “harvest” would be to poison the crop, or break the machine. Perhaps the “elites” driving us toward destruction might be altruistic if they are trying to end all life on earth and throw a wrench in the gears. Why not destroy the entire earth system so that life here is not possible? Wouldn’t that free all IS-BEs?”
A fast and stunning response shot back to me most clearly…
This solution would be catastrophic for trillions of IS-BE's. All would have no memories except their current incarnation at the time of destruction.
They wouldn't know what to do.
Eventually a flood of (multiple) armies of the deranged evil IS-BE's could engulf this section of the galaxy with horrific consequences.
The neutral to good inmates would easily fall under their control. It would become a runaway train / domino effect / cascading of catastrophes that would run as a toxic cancer. It would envelope entire civilizations and societies and then run unchecked, one galaxy after the other.
And so I added…
In the movie Ghostbusters, bad or malevolent spirits and ghosts are captured and stored in a “containment grid” which was a device that held all the spirits in place. It was a field of electromagnetic energy that the spirits and ghosts could not break through.
Containment machine.
However there were forces that wanted to shut off the containment machinery. And, when the power was shut off from the containment grid, all of the stored spirits escaped and flew into New York City in mass…
Escaping spirits from Ghost-busters.
As they did so they created all sorts of problems.
The Governor of New York called up the the leadership and the National Guard, calling it a National Emergency of Biblical Proportions.
A National Emergency of Biblical Proportions.
Why not? Is he correct?
[9] Other extraction agents?
“Is there an official title for the robed Elders who have upwards of 20 000 other consciousnesses posted in the prison to act as extraction agents? Can this organization be considered as the same entourage of consciousnesses that are associated with either the IS-BE known as Sanat Kumara or the IS-BE known as Aetherius?”
The answer to this hit me quite fast and was unexpected. I didn’t even read the entire paragraph. I just skimmed over it. In fact, I wasn’t even fully ready to transcribe anything. I had to put my sandwich down and start typing away. I know that no one understands, but that’s what happened here.
There are all kinds of official titles for all the places, locations, people, operations, and positions of everyone. The titles are not in English. And there is no need to generate translations of titles for your use when your own names are already quite sufficient.Remember who you are. You are IS-BE. You define your world, your reality, and how you interact with it. You are GOD. You are the highest most important consciousness in everything.
(Pause. Then a continuation.)
There are numerous organizations that you refer to as "robed elders". Each one has a niche role in this Prison Environment.
(Then he starts listing. When listing, there is a sort of emphasis at the first syllable of the first word, so that I know that it is a new list item. I added numbers to help with the absorption of this information. The numbers were not provided in the transmission, but added by myself later on.)
[1] Some have been around for centuries and were initially established by Domain agents (in their spare time) as a pastime. We put an end to the unauthorized efforts around 1955. There are currently authorized efforts only, and it is a part of our overall grand strategy.[2] While other organizations were established by mischievous outsiders who find it enjoyable to play games with the inmates here. For them, it's like putting a leaf in a cage with a bored kitten. They find pleasure and enjoyment "toying" with the more active non-physical components of inmates. It's an activity of theirs. [3] Some have been established by well-meaning inmates that wanted to set up anti-Prison Operations, as a sort of like a form of warfare. It started out as a way to figure out what was going on and then evolved into something rather serious. Some of these kinds of "elders" have been around for many, many thousands of years. They have purpose. The questioner asked about one such organization.[4] Some were established by physical occult organizations from within the Prison population and has taken on a life of their own. These kinds of organizations are many. Some were created by accident. And some were created on purpose. One of the most famous (and prolific) occult leaders in your modern era was a man named Aleister Crowley and he was very active in creating some of these organizations in the non-physical worlds. Some spawned others, and some fractured and grew.[5] Some are part of the traps and snares that were established by the administration of the Prison Complex.These ones are very devious. They are run by Prison Correction Officers. Often autonomously.
[6] Some are the result of prayer and meditation leading up to quasi religious sponsored organizations that them "took on a life of their own". And operate with the highest intentions, often in ignorance, and suffering from the chains of dogma.
Each one goes by a name or group of names depending on who is dealing with them and why.
Their overall mix of intention is roughly...14% Sincere11% Mischievous24% Impassioned / religious22% Run by the Prison Complex as a snare / trap19% Accidentally spawned or grown on it's own.03% Initially set up by the Domain07% Misc
The numbers are REALLY difficult for me to nail down. So what I did was write them down as transmitted.
Then I discovered that they did not add up so I rounded them downwards to get numbers that made sense. I think that the commander was just pitching vague rough figures for illustrative purposes. The readers should not take these numbers as solid figures but as a guide to get a general feel for the kinds of organizations that are around, and the chances of one encountering one or the other.
We urge caution in dealing with all non-physical organizations.
There are many tricks and side-tracks that are purposely designed to put you in a dangerous situation. Then if you fail, you are then recycled, and your physical body dies in it's sleep. If you pass, then you go on to harder more aggressive "tests" and combat arenas. Eventually ALL IS-BE's return back to the "Tunnel of Light" and are recycled in this manner.This system is one of the most common ones used by the Prison Planet to trap those inmates with advanced skills for travel in the non-physical worlds.All IS-BE's should be very, very careful when dealing in the non-physical realm that lies inside of the Prison Confines. There are very dangerous and very complex traps purposely designed to snare the unprepared.
Then, out of the blue, about two days later this comes in.
The questioner has been involved in multiple groups. This is true even though it might appear to be a singular group authority.
At least one of them was a Corrections Officer sponsored group.
Often the "Old Empire" Corrections Officer groups disguise themselves (it's easy to do) and pretend to be another group.
As such they convince the IS-BE that they are what the IS-BE wishes / desires / wants /expects. Then they set up snare scenarios to trap the inmate. It is easy to trap such an inmate, as they are often singular and working alone.
Every caution must be taken. One should never perform dangerous actions or efforts in isolation. The risks are far too great.
Thoughts?
[10] Non-physical base monitoring traffic in and out of the Prison Complex?
“Is there an official title for the organization who maintain a permanent station in the non physical domain who are tasked with monitoring all inter-dimensional traffic coming into and out of the earth prison?”
Answers came quick. Clean.
There are multiple organizations, all working independently. The Domain, of course is one. The others are set up for their own purposes. You might think of them as regulatory agencies rather than customs officials.
Obviously the Domain has started monitoring the traffic when the fencing and monitoring mechanisms were damaged.
Some of the civilizations that (have been) dropping off their riff-raff to this environment have set up monitoring stations and platforms.
There is also a kind of constellation / data network / records system / archivist operation that monitors everything regarding this Prison Complex.
Additionally, note that even though the fencing surround this entire Prison Complex has been damaged it has not been obliterated. There are self-aware autonomous Prison systems still working, still monitoring, and still in communication with Mantids and Corrections Officers. (There are other creatures that are Corrections Officers as well as Mantids.)
Thoughts?
[11] Domain approved process for reporting targets …
“What is the Domain approved process for lucid dreamers to report targets they suspect with 100% surety as being part of the amnesia machinery when they are unable to provide exact coordinates?”
This one is complicated and I got a headache just trying to sort through all the inrush of data and stuff. I am still trying to sort it out in any kind of meaningful way. A big jumble and mess of data, concepts and information that I haven’t much experience on and cannot speak about clearly. So I will greatly simplify.
The EBP handles tracking and comm with the physical components of an IS-BE when they are attired in inmate "clothing". That is the primary purpose of the EBP. It is to completely monitor the physical person.
The non-physical comm and monitoring is another system completely. It is completely different.
Part of the Domain operations on the non-physical bodies is to release the chains of control by the Prison Administration. (Greatly simplified.) But part is something else as well. Depending on the person, other systems can be added or subtracted from the non-physical body of a given inmate.
One of the more substantive and comprehensive operations is a very complex procedure that permits tracking and recording abilities associated with a given non-physical body. Because of it's in-depth / invasive / critical infrastructure changes /alterations /dangers it is only used on the most important or critical non-physical bodies (A lot of things that I have no idea of. Simplified the response.) that have a need to be observed and monitored.This procedure is given to those that are active in "Lucid Dreaming" activities and related movements in the non-physical world that ALSO wish to participate with the Domain as a volunteer. If this occurs then the individual would experience a very strange "experience" (a bunch of concepts that I am at a loss to explain.) that would not appear to be like their normal "Lucid Dreaming" events. Instead they would be having operations performed on them, and then released. Then for the most part, their normal activities would continue as before, though they might start to get "nudges" or messages or directions. Which would be "coaching" / requests / advisement from the Domain handler to them. Their ability to understand what is going on takes time and there is no set training period for this activity.Afterwards they would not need to report anything. Their experiences would be monitored tracked, observed and noted.This is a unique procedure for unique assets. For most volunteers this is not necessary.
Is this reasonable?
[12] Suggestions or messages for escapees from the Prison Complex
“Are there any messages for those who have escaped the prison through lucid dreaming and retain much of their memories as an immortal consciousness ie as an IS-BE?”
Again this is quick and surprisingly short.
Keep in mind that as long as your physical body is alive, your consciousness will still be connected to it. The only way that you can escape this Prison Complex is to physical die within it.
Yet, when the physical body is dead, your IS-BE consciousness will still be connected to the non-physical body. For many, they will appear to be one and the same.
At that point, there are a small number of IS-BE's that [might] possess the skills to actually leave the Prison Complex. If they have that ability, we suggest that they request assistance from The Domain.
The Domain is the highest authority in this region. By requesting assistance, it is no different from calling the Fire Department, calling for an ambulance, or calling for the police. The IS-BE consciousness should have no fears or qualms about asking for support and assistance ever.
Call for help. That is what you must do, and wait for us to arrive.
What are your thoughts?
[13] Black-hole anomaly reference
“Do the Domain know about a black hole like “anomaly” that permeates through both physical and non physical worlds and has the potential to “decompose” such worlds”? This is hard to describe in Earth based language. From outside the prison it would be appear as a dark void that encompasses many of these non physical and physical worlds simultaneously.”
When I read this I got the impression of the Commander / handler sighing and looking up and thinking. Not that it actually happened, mind you, but that was the impression that I had.
And then this…
Ask this question later.
So then I waited… I waited all afternoon, had dinner and then I asked again. The response was like a tired old kindly grandfather or cherished uncle that only wants the best for you.
There are many things in space and the surrounding area that are unknown to the human inmates. This is in both the physical and the non-physical realms.
Some resemble a black-hole as you consider it. Others are something else entirely different. There are voids, and areas of occluded thought transference. There are many, many areas, and many such objects.
I would advise staying away from any objects or situations that you do not understand. This is for your own safety and to prevent you from being engulfed in a snare of the "old empire".
What are your thoughts?
[14] Any “consciousness” doping facilities?
“Are the Domain aware of “consciousness” doping facilities within the non physical planes where hypnotic commands for reality brainwashing are uploaded to the IS – BE via a type of screen?”
This was an interesting response. It was dismissive. And you all shouldn’t be taken aback by it. It’s just a response.
Yes. The Domain is aware of everything.
I am sure that this isn’t what the questioner wanted to hear. But this is all that I’ve got. Simple. Are you bothered by it?
[15] The “Wet Room”?
“Is the Domain familiar with a device known as “the Wet Room” which has the ability to “spin” a consciousness through multiple non physical worlds simultaneously and is used specifically to torture/ disorientate an IS-BE traveling outside their physical body?”
I had to read some writing on this and then re-read the question. The answer was slow in coming. Maybe too general. It was hesitating and sluggish.
IS-BE's can create anything by thought. It is common to create entire universes. But those that are inmates have forgotten this ability and the Prison Correction Officers use all sorts of devices and systems to control those in the non-physical environment.
This "wet room" is one such system. There are many, many more. Some are truly awful. You do not want to get involved in any of these traps, snare or devices if you can avoid them.
Additionally, evil people use the lack of understanding and knowledge of the IS-BE inmates to throw them into these devices of torture. Then they gleefully enjoy the agony, fear, pain and suffering that they witness.
One of the problems with this kind of third party communication is that the receiver” myself can only communicate ideas, thoughts, images and concepts that I am familiar with.
I had a very strong feeling that the Commander knew what was being asked, but was frustrated in that he couldn’t provide meaningful answers to me personally.
I suppose that were he talking to the principal questioner, he would be able to transmit ideas and answers much more readily. The Wet Room.
[16] Other escapees?
“Are the Domain aware of any IS – BEs, apart from their Officers mentioned in Alien Interview who were caught in one of the electronic traps and were able to escape?”
There was a kind of frustration in the “tone” to this response.
Others have escaped. This is true.
However, today it is very uncommon event.
Each time that there is an escape, the Warden (or his surrogates) creates a new system of preventative measures so that it will not happen again. Many of the escapes occurred early on after the system was built, and over time, with the addition of more snares, traps and systems, they became fewer and fewer.Any escapes are highly unlikely to occur without Domain assistance.
(Intentional pause. Then he continued...)
It is worth noting that when the first escapes began, at the start of the Prison Complex, the "Old Empire" needed to locate a militarized police force to patrol the region around the complex. And it was this arm of their space forces that we first battled when we entered this solar system. (Clear image of other actual military forces coming later.)
When the escapees were captured, they were re-injected into the Prison Complex and treated as "escaping offenders". This gave them "special treatment" by the Mantids. They were earmarked for tougher-than-usual difficulty in mapping out the pre-birth world-line template (sic) and much shorter cycling in reincarnation events. (Shorter lives on the earth, followed by a special "Hell" area located in "Heaven" made just for them and other escapees.)
This is a standard procedure by the (Mantid) Corrections Officers. The closer an inmate gets toward escaping, the more difficult his / her next reincarnated life will be. This is controlled by the Corrections Officers in "Heaven".Today the space surrounding all Prison Complexes, both the physical and the non-physical environments are filled with a minefield of traps and snares. They are multi-layered. We have begun cleaning out large swaths of "space" (sic. I don't know why he wanted me to add this notation.) with systems that we have developed just for this purpose, and it is a tedious and time consuming process.Part of the reason for this is that the traps and snares react only to inmates. Not to normal humans and other species.
What are your thoughts on this?
[17] How can an average Joe communicate with them? (Aside from communicating via MM)
I put this question out, and then sat by waiting for a response with my cup of coffee. As it is the way that I deal with these things. I then wait. While I was on another task (my personal journal) I felt the rising hair on the back of my neck (well, it’s like rising hair on the back of my neck. Not actually the same thing.) and switched over to record it.
I vocalized it again and then typed the response.
There is no need for an "average person" to contact us. We have everything under control and in place.
It might appear to be cold and heartless, it's just our efficiency. If we need to contract you, you will be contacted.
What is important is that everyone who works with us follows the rules and obeys the procedures. The Domain works as a unified whole and a "well oiled" organism. We need people who wish to be part of this unified whole, and not a bunch of college hooligans out for a Saturday lark. (I get the strong image of a box of kittens running all over the carpet.)
(Followed by an equally strong image of a group of college students riding in a distressed model "A" with words written all over the car, and the guys wearing strange white and black shoes, striped long sleeve sweaters with sewn on letters, and the girls wearing skirts and holding triangular pennants. I get the impression that the Domain Officer must have spent some time on the Earth in the "Roaring 20's".)
If and when you are contacted by, need to communicate with, or participate in any kind of interaction with us, it is important that you remain calm.
Do not allow your thoughts to take you to bad places.
These are fears set up by the many many layers of the Prison Planet system of control. You will find that working with us is very efficient and satisfying, and that we will be able to assist you in the recovery of so many things that you have lost.
(I think that he was talking to the questioner directly in this response. Not in generalities though me.)
Interesting.
[18] How can I detect and possibly circumvent the Old Empire aesthetic mechanisms to keep us enslaved to the physical environment?
I felt that this was a good question, and the Domain Commander agreed. The answer came forth readily without hesitation.
The typical consciousness will easily be drawn into the snares and the traps. This is far truer today than say 20 or even 40 years ago. Most inmates have become accustomed to manipulation to such a degree that they cannot recognize what is going on. This is on all levels, from the physical to the non-physical.
The best equipped to avoid the snares are those with the ability to control their thoughts, and who are very cautious and focused on end goals. Those that are not easily distracted, or manipulated by strange new events will be those best able to avoid the traps.
That being said, the traps and snares are very devious and cunning. It is unlikely that anyone can avoid them without help and assistance.
That is why there are numerous non-physical organizations. Such as "elders", "leaders", "Prophets", and the like occupying roles in the non-physical reality. The purpose of these organizations is to assist and muster groups of IS-BE consciousnesses to fundamentally fight, or avoid the traps set up by the "Old Empire" prison administrators.
Unfortunately, many of the organizations are not effective enough. Their efforts have had a very minor impact on the entrapment mechanisms of the Prison Complex.
We ask everyone who works with us to focus on controlling your thoughts. Avoiding areas of danger. And helping others in need. When the time comes for your egress from the prison system, we will be there assisting you. All you need to do is call for us.
Could it be that some of the inventions of the last few decades have become traps and snares themselves? Like social media?
[19] Can they teach us how is to live and work as citizens of the Domain?
I only just glanced at this question and got a definite answer.
Yes. Absolutely.
All imprisoned IS-BE's once they regain their memories will desire to return to people, places and things that they know.
For many of them, not all, but a high percentage of them, this will mean returning to the geographic confines of the (former) "Old Empire".
But they will be quite different (from what they once were, and from their former friends) given their experiences in the Prison Complex.
We will always be willing to accept rehabilitated prison inmates of this harsh environment into The Domain. And to this end we are working on rehabilitation plans and systems just for this express purpose.
Rehabilitation is necessary, first to reacquire an IS-BE identity, and secondary to re-enter the IS-BE community as a whole. All inmates will have been damaged by their relentless tortures in the Hell that is the Prison Complex.
(Message addendum.)
Keep in mind that the (former) "Old Empire" is now the De Facto territory of The Domain. So that makes any released inmates automatically members of The Domain.
However this is not what the questioner asked. They wanted to know if they will be able to have a substantive ROLE as an ACTIVE member of The Domain rather than just a citizen under it's authority. And the question is, of course, yes.
What are your thoughts on this?
[20] How dangerous are the traps that surround the Prison Complex?
I know that they are pretty dangerous. But I figured that I would ask just how dangerous. You know, maybe just thrown back in, or perhaps something very lethal to IS-BE’s right? So I thought that I would ask.
This is the answer.
Check your cell phone.
WTF?
I turned it on, and when my Douxing (Chinese version of TicTok) turned on and opened up. This is the first video that it displayed. An interesting coincidence.
It’s pretty amazing how this coincidence came up.
[21] Anchoring to a time-line?
This was asked while I was very busy with personal issues. So, I plopped it down and then left it be until I could get around to it. When I had a chance I got straight to it. Tuning in was calm, smooth and easy. Though I really didn’t understand the question well-enough, the answers just flowed forth.
“Not sure if you’ll read this as it’s an old post. I got hit by a car, “died”, and got shunted into this almost perfectly similar reality except for a few changes. Mandela effects flip flopped for a while.”
Would The Domain be able to explain what technology/process is involved in anchoring us to a body & timeline?
Mandela effects, anchoring, world-line cross overs, and all other aspects of these strange events are unique to the prison environment that you inhabit. You refer to it as the MWI. It is an artificial construct. It is not the way the true universe works, only the universe that you live in.
The creation of this universe is very detailed and very complex, and it is unique to the understanding of the group of IS-BE's that created it. They obviously spent much time working on it, developing it, and honing it to a degree of perfection.
Usually, IS-BE's are so enraptured with the pleasures of the physical body that they lose contact with their "spiritual" (sic) side in the non-physical and they forget what abilities that they have. Obviously this was not the case during the fabrication, construction and design of this prison facility. Some mighty (major) skill sets were called into being (use).
The Domain is in the process of studying this system. Each day are new surprises. We have been working with the [technical helpers] to discover it's operation and design. From which we would be able to extract any traps, snare, or problems that lie hidden.
Anchoring to a time-line, world-line interactions, and everything associated with it is unique to this prison environment. Certainly we understand the need to anchor groups of consciousnesses. It's like herding cattle. You cannot have them all over the place and clumping up. And this was a technique that we developed over time as we became familiar with this environment. It is not totally well understood.
Anchoring is one of the containment systems used by the administration of this Prison Complex. They use it to herd inmates. Thus they can control them, and move them towards wars and conflicts that will result in the inmates expending all of their energies on wasted endeavors. Thus, and such that they will be unable to concentrate on anything else.
Remember that the entire Prison Complex is designed to have war, after war, after war. It's designed to be a Hell. Where the inmates are tortured over and over. Then forget everything, are re-injected, and then relive the same kinds of events.
The Domain is using this system to avoid wars, conflicts and turmoil. Though, there are many, many strong forces inside the Prison Complex pushing towards this goal aggressively.
MM uses the visualization method of a three-dimensional map. It is extremely helpful, but not wholly accurate.
The actual environment is like a hot cauldron full of all sorts of things. (Food, stew, meat, eggs, tentacles, etc.) Anchoring is similar to turning the knob on the temperature control.
Anchoring to avoid conflict is similar to turning down the heat on the cauldron. All of the items settle. Some sink to the bottom, while others float to the top.
Anchoring to create conflict is similar to turning up the heat on the cauldron. All the items start to toss and turn as the mixture boils. During this period, there is a lot of steam, and smoke and evaporation. And the volume of the cauldron decreases.
If you think of the volume to be the prison population inside of the Prison Complex, then you can see that the anchoring towards wars will decrease the actual prison population inside of the physical realm. Many will die off. And thus got to "Heaven" to be forgiven, forget their memories, and "rewarded" with a break. Then the cycle begins again.
This is why The Domain has had operatives anchor world lines. They acted as a method of controlling the temperature of that cauldron.
(Pause)
Anchoring to a world-line template is of a different scope than group anchoring efforts. Much of what the Domain has been involved in has been group anchoring efforts to control "the temperature" of the "cauldron stew".
What you are asking about is what happens when you are following a normal progression on a world-line template. Then there is an "event" where somehow your IS-BE consciousness "skips" and slides to a totally different template. Then, perhaps, skips and slides to another one, and then again, and maybe again, and again.
This is a big subject...
I needed to take a break and a breather. I had the impression that I was about to get a massive dose of information.
So I said “tone it down please”.
And got up, went downstairs and got my self a coke from the vending machine.
If you use the 3D template map concept that MM promotes then the best way to visualize this as a railroad line going from one world-line to the next. It's currently visualized as a plain and simple line. But if you visualize it as a railroad line it might be easier to understand.
While the topographic surface is the strongest likelihood of movement, it is not all the options available. There's "tracks" going up and above, and "tracks" going down below.
These are equivalent to "nearby slides".
If you can imagine world-line template maps stacked upon each other like a layered cake, and that an event occurs that has you make you slide up or down into a different layer in that cake, that is what is going on.
Sometimes the "event" is so traumatic that you slide to a different world-line template. One near by, of course, but not exactly the same as the one proceeding it.
In effect, you are not just simply moving from world-lien to world-line, but you are actually sliding up or down on the Z-axis as well.
In general, if this happens, the chances are that you momentarily slid to a pre-birth (default) world-line template when the "event" occurred. As you must have somehow altered your existing template in your past and have been riding it for some time on your own autonomously.
Then, when your "components" tried to latch on to the the highest probability relationship items / components /vectors it threw you off, and you ended up on a different template, and again and again, until the "components" resettled with highest-probability fits based on the thoughts associated with you at the moment of the "event".
I have no idea what the last part is about. I have to reread it a couple of times to figure it out. I think that the “components” of our consciousness ties us to the templates that we inhabit.
And thus the selection of the pre-birth world-line template must somehow tie our IS-BE consciousness with a particular world-line.
Thus, when an “event” happens, that connection can be disrupted… until it resettles.
Not every “event” is physical only. Non-physical events happen and scar our non-physical bodies.
[22] Why/how is our awareness prevented from carrying through to the dreamworld?
“I know the body is checking for movement and thoughts and will not enter sleep until the mind has blanked out, it’s an obvious “feature” built in for control.”
This is an intentionally engineered "interrupting" feature of the inmate prison body and how it differs from that of a "normal" human archetype body that lies outside of the Prison Complex.
The physical body is intentionally designed to NOT communicate or travel when sleeping.
However, this is a developing function. It does not appear immediately. It is a feature that "grows" over time. It's an intelligent feature.
This function acquires experiences, and sensory input as the IS-BE is born in the physical reality.
Then over time, this intelligent biological alteration manifests. By the time the entity is five to seven years old, most of the population will be unable to communicate with the "dreamworld" (sic).
However, it is not a perfect system.
Certain IS-BE's of strong character and ability, as well as strong environments that foster the belief of the spirit-world as a familial norm, can avoid this biological and non-physical layer of interruption. The entity as a person can learn to be able to have "Lucid Dreams", and "Astral Projection" as well as many other skills that are denied the vast humanity that is imprisoned.
Since this is a developed "growth" that is acquired over time, it is possible to destroy that "growth", alter it's composition or destroy it entirely. This can occur by directed thought, skilled intention, and practice.
Since the vast majority of inmates do not have this ability, this system of control is effective in the Prison Complex.
What are your thoughts on this?
[23] Why is astral projection hard to achieve while awake?
Strangely this response happened very quickly. I don’t even think I got a chance to take a breath.
It’s really a lot of work doing this you know. I feel very “speedy” (a LSD reference for your children of the 70’s and 80’s). My body and hair are getting exhausted from being so electrified, and my body temperature is running rather hot. I am bathed in sweat.
Sensory overload. Your engineering physical body is unable to partition out multiple consciousnesses like the IS-BE can. Thus, you must rely on a singular consciousness to manifest events.
If you want to conduct astral projection then you will need to be able to separate your physical senses from your non-physical sensing ability.
This is a normal feature of all physical human bodies, and is not an engineered feature of the inmate prison body.
What are your thoughts on this question and answer?
[24] Why do memories from astral/dreams not carry over easily?
He continues. And my keyboard is getting slippery with all the sweat from my fingers.
Memories are stored outside of the physical body. When a physical body accesses the memories they access what can be be described as RAM. It's the everyday use memories.
This varies from person to person. Some have an easier time accessing the day to day memories. Other have a difficult time, and still others with a photographic memory remember everything.
You can remember what you had for breakfast today simply because you are using local memory. Your inmate container allows this random access of everyday memories.
The same is true with your memories of what happened one year ago.
All these memories are stored on (something similar to the computer memory system known as) "RAM".
Normally, all "normal" (unmodifed) human bodies permit access to a central repository of memories. This is equivalent to a "hard drive".
Not inmates however.
The engineered inmate bodies have blocked access to the "hard drive" that contains all of the memories that you as a IS-BE has.
This ability was not only erased by the "brain washing" efforts upon entry to the Prison Planet, but access to it is not physically possible in the physical inmate (engineered) body. The entire access circuitry is ripped out.
When you, as an IS-BE exist as consciousness from the physical reality to the non-physical reality, your memories (and experiences) are being recorded and they go straight to the "hard drive".
But when you are in the physical body, they go into RAM and the "hard drive".
Inmates are never permitted to access the "hard drive" memory circuitry. Only RAM. It's biologically engineered into all inmates.
However, when an inmate "dies" and leaves the physical "general population" and gets rewarded with a "Heaven", he or she can access these "hard drive" memories by permission. A Corrections Officer (usually a Mantid) will accompany you to a "viewing area" where certain memories will be presented to you to observe.
However, that is only for inmates.
All unmodified humans do not have this problem and can access both types of memories in real time with no problem whether they are in a physical body or not.
So, in a way, you can access some of your memories. So it’s not all bad.
[25] Is this related to the memory wipe that our memories are so poor now, or biology/soul interaction?
And this came fast as well…
It is engineered in all inmate bodies.
“With the timeline I’m sure we can shift to a completely alternate reality with a new history but I’m unsure of the process involved. And yeah, thought dump sorry, I just see these bodies are actively designed to stop us leaving in soul form.”
You can only use the skills associated with world-line , time -line travel to MWI events within the prison universe; the Prison Complex. Your thoughts will not take you out of the Prison Complex alone. That is why the entire complex is constructed as it is today.
It is unlikely that you can create a universe (via a alternative reality slide) within a universe that controls the construction of your being.
The science fiction movie “Inception” comes to mind.
(A bunch of "chatter" and a confusing mix about stuff related to "time travel" to a point in time before the construction of the Prison Planet, and other things that I am having a bunch of time understanding. I think that I a just getting tired.)
Guys, I appreciate all this input, but really. Please don’t pull a “Back to school” Rodney Dangerfield on me.
These last five questions by one person just about killed me.
It makes me just want to stop and end MM completely. Have a heart and some compassion here. Please everyone, one or two questions only. These five to eight questions in a single go is not tenable. It is not something that I want to do and it is personally very, very difficult for me to handle. To give you all an idea what it is like, then do this; Grab a screwdriver and stick it in a power outlet. Now, keep putting it in that outlet for six hours.
That’s what it’s like.
When I refer to Rodney Dangerfield, “Back to School”, I am referring to a singular scene. Where the one professor gives him one singular question.
It’s just that it has these massive 64 parts. Poor Rodney answers, “concerning part 63b, subpart d, section R-12, part 14″…
It’s tiring and takes a lot out of me. Christ. I need a drink!
Back to school.
[26] There must be flaws in the system where we can throw that anchor off somehow?
The questions continue…
Yes, there are flaws, but they are very difficult to locate, and even harder to exploit.
Enough! I’m toast. No more questions. This is more than enough for one person.
…
After a break of two days, I sat down and added these questions from someone else…
[27] My question is why the “caste system”.
“Why do the type-1 have different roles, ranks, bodies, and even abilities. Unlike the mantids they use physical bodies and are limited to the limits of time and space. STO all have the same soul structure from my understanding which are different from STS. Why this? Could you please clarify.”
Everyone is an IS-BE. Everyone is thus capable of any position within any society. That includes the Domain.
The members of the Domain have roles within society based upon their abilities, and capabilities. We have a very rigorous method of merit that determines where an IS-BE "fits" within our society.
Certainly anyone can rise to become whatever class they want. It is not a rigid caste structure. It is a hybrid class structure. The only limitations are those of the IS-BE itself.
A goose cannot swim under the water, but with practice it can take longer and longer periods of time under water as needed. By practice, the goose can indeed start to swim somewhat under water. It just takes effort and drive and ambition. However, most geese do not try to swim under the water to their roles are locked in, like a caste, to floating on the water and flying. That is what they prefer.
Now, to achieve the class rating that they want, the IS-BE must get to that position through hard work, determination and merit. In the case of the goose, it must try and try and practice and practice. It must do this over and over again until it is adept at swimming under the water.
With each class are certain "benefits" or "allowances" granted to the IS-BE. Such as the ability to use certain doll bodies and so on and so forth.
(New subject.)
Note that all members of The Domain are inherently neutral in sentience.
However the accumulation of experiences manifests in the desire to serve the society; The Domain, to the best of one's ability.
This is because of the way the society is structured. In societies that grant roles based on effort, then all efforts (in all societies) eventually evolve into Service to Others sentience.
Those societies that are not based on merit, hard work, community, or effort tend to evolve into Service to Self sentience's. The more corruption, graft, crime, corruption, the more selfish the society becomes.
Thus, because of this, the vast majority of IS-BE's in The Domain are Service for Others sentience.
Any thoughts on this answer?
[28] And volunteering to work with the domain?
“Would this mean a harder life (experiences) or what would you really be doing?”
No. In many ways it could be much easier.
The questioner is dealing with many non-physical issues that reflect how his reality manifests. By working with The Domain, many of those non-physical issues can be suppressed or even completely eliminated.
Every action that one takes has tradeoffs.
For many inmates, joining the Domain adds an extra layer of effort that one might not desire. Such as MM here.
However, for those, such as the questioner, the benefits of working with the Domain far outweigh any of the negative issues. It is all about tradeoffs.
Any thoughts on this?
Some final thoughts leading up to question [29]
You know, these answers bring up so many questions for me personally.
You see, I as MM was in MAJestic and in my interactions I fully came to understand the topography of the MWI Prison Complex.
I came to understand how the Prison Planet works in great detail.
However, from these answers, it is clear that this kind of knowledge is not available to The Domain. They are having a great deal of difficulty in figuring out all the layers, the traps the systems and so on and so forth.
The Domain captured this geographic region. However, they do not know how the Prison Planet works.
From the answers (here and before) it appears that it is possible that I know (perhaps, and I am only saying) more than The Domain does about this Prison Planet.
I understand how it works and the many, many layers and how to navigate inside of it, and so much more. Right? Are these things that I just casually picked up in all my slides and adventures? What are these “things” that I somehow understand in great clarity?
Well, whatever they are, these are things that are unique to The Prison Planet.
Not to The Domain.
Not to the universe outside of the Prison Planet. Only inside the Prison Planet.
The Commander and all the workers in The Domain know many, many things. But they DO NOT know the structure and the architecture of this complex. They need to know it in order to turn off the suppression and monitoring equipment. And so they are enlisting me to help them.
Why ME?
Was it just that I had the right education and the right background and the right place and time and coincidentally it all fell into place when I joined the United States Navy? As this is what I have believed all these years. But then again… there is no such thing as coincidences.
Do you see what I am saying?
Perhaps my involvement in MAJestic goes far deeper than what I had been made aware of.
Perhaps I, myself an a reincarnated kind of aide or assistant, or architect or something or the other. Maybe I am somehow tied with some “Old Empire” skills, knowledge.
Maybe, you know…
… it was like what happened in the Ancient China. When an Emperor had his treasure tomb built, he then killed all the workers who built it, and then buried his architects in the tomb with him so that the secrets of the tomb will never see the light of day.
Maybe that is what happened.
I am not saying that I am this person or something like that. Not at all.
But it does seem really odd to me, and as these Q&A responses flush out I find myself asking these questions more and more often. Why do I know so much more about the inner workings of the Prison Planet MWI than The Domain Commander assigned to this area?
From the movie “The Matrix”; The Architect is a highly specialized, humorless program of the Machine world as well as the creator of the Matrix. As the chief administrator of the system, he is possibly a collective manifestation, or at the very least a virtual representation of the entire Machine mainframe.
What is the story?
And so, it’s really one of those moments “of truth”. You know.
What the Hell is going on?
I put it off for a day, but I just couldn’t wait. I had to ask.
…
On Sunday 26SEP21 after I had a bowl or home-made chicken noodle soup, I asked the question.
[29] Who am I? Who is MM?
And the answer came back swift and clear.
Mades Escapalion
…
…
…
Thoughts?
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
The following is the sixth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 6 – Astral Assignment 1 – The Consciousness Prison
Daegonmagus Astral Assignment 1 – The Consciousness Prison.
This article relates to what I call my “astral assignments”. These differ from my mystical experiences with the Elder Guardians and the Unseen 5. Although I was not connected to a higher state of conscious awareness, I was still completely lucid in these assignments. I know that they were simply not just fabrications of my mind whilst in the dream state. Usually I would be “abducted” out of my dreamscapes of my own devising and just wind up carrying out one of these assignments.
This assignment marks the first time I realised my astral body was being utilised as an infiltration agent into “strange bases”. It is the first real memory I have that something incredibly weird was going on in the non physical planes. This was the experience that led me to believe there was some sort of Astral War being carried out in these planes that I was directly involved in. It happened around the time I was able to remote view from an off world intelligence and inhabit its body. I would have been about 14 or 15, so by then I had developed some quite advanced consciousness projection techniques. I believe it was those very techniques which marked my candidacy for this assignment.
I am actually relieved I have a comfortable place to talk about this. Anywhere else and I would surely be labelled as insane. I have been holding on to this memory for the about 15 years, probably a bit more.
Now, if you’ve been a part of any UFO or remote viewing related communities you may have come across people claiming places like area 51 containing “5th dimensional security setups”. These security setups allegedly can stop you from astral projecting or remote viewing these bases. One of the accounts I have read of this happening to someone during a remote viewing session is that they “had to have an intense battle with their mind before they could get back to their physical body”. While I cannot vouch for the particular “areas” in question, I can tell you with 100% surety that these systems DO exist. This is not something I will budge in my beliefs over; I experienced one (technically two- read Part 5) of these things. I have first hand experience of how they operate and how to escape from them. When you read Airl’s statement about the electronic screens that trap consciousness, this is what I am talking about. Airl describes them almost exactly how I experienced them. In fact the one she speaks about being on Mars that her Domain officer found could very well be the same one I speak about in this article. I always thought it was the moon, but then again I never saw the surface.
The intention of this article is not scare anyone, but provide a briefing into this particular facility I was in; what it looks like, the layout, where the consciousness prison is located etc. It is my plan to provide a framework of the techniques I used to escape in case anyone ever finds themselves unfortunate enough to be caught in one in my future articles on lucid dreaming.
The assignment:
I had consciously entered into the dream state and was halfway engaged in a dream construct of my own devising. Whatever the construct was, I cannot remember it. There was a sudden blankness, and all of a sudden my surroundings changed (this is a frequent occurrence with me in and LD – the precluding circumstances to my assignments were always wiped from me).
I was now in the middle of a large, underground cavernous area which I just knew was off world {in relation to earth}. There was this strange sort of bluish hue like some sort of artificial light was illuminating the whole cavern. It wasn’t like how we know illumination works from light sources. This was like there was like a blue wash over everything; if you can imagine looking through a pair of sun glasses with a blue tint to them, this is what it was like. Everything was being filtered through this blue hue. Even though it seemed to be night time, the blue hue made everything visible.
I was smack bang in the middle of this cavern. Underneath my feet the rocks were very jagged and littered everywhere. I was in amongst a crowd of bipedal type humanoids, though they were not human.
This crowd I estimate to be 10 to 20 thousand in number. They were all out tending to the rocks as if they were crops.
I was blending in with them which makes me believe that I had “taken over” one of their bodies. This would explain the blue hue; I suspect it was a sort of natural night vision their eyes had. I specifically remember standing back and observing them with my arms crossed, suggesting I was in fact in a physical body.
At one end of this cavern was a “mouth” the size of an aircraft hangar that led to a darker cave tunnel. To the back was the dwellings of these people which looked like square houses made of rock similar to Middle Eastern design. The whole cavern area was fairly flat, considering, and was a few acres in diameter wall to wall. Towards the tunnel mouth end was a large boulder.
At the other end of the cavern clearing was a cluster of square shaped buildings laid out in a similar manner to a city, but much smaller. They were similar in design to buildings of the Middle East. They were piled on top of each other in a sort of Favela type arrangement. In front of them was a wall of rock that had been left untouched that blocked the city off from the rocky outcrops that lay between them and the cavern tunnel on the far wall. This wall did not reach the roof – the buildings were higher than it – and had a single break in it that led into the maze of buildings.
Even 16 years later I have a vivid image of this cavern base. I can mentally zoom up and above the dwellings as if I am flying a drone with a camera on it. I have a photographic memory of the whole place and the layout of it. My insertion point was to a “raised” sort of area to the right of the front gate (the break in the rock wall) so I could sort of see into the complex. I was there, there is no question in my mind about this; it was no hallucination, or just “a dream”. Neither was it terrestrial. I am sure of this.
Each cluster was separated by a thin road or path, 2 or 3 meters wide that was made out of typical whitish grey concrete, which was intersected at right angles by other roads every 50 or so meters. As you go through the break in the rock wall, there are the dwellings to your immediate left hugging the wall back that way, and to the right it is if the wall just extends backwards. In other words you can turn left(after going past a block of dwellings), but not right. The pathway through the buildings from the break in the wall would thus be straight, left, straight before the intersections come into play. This proceeds in this manner all the way to the wall behind the dwellings.
There were elements that were surprisingly human such as the concrete pathway and roller doors embedded into some of the buildings. There were approximately 5 times the amount of people to dwellings. The consciousness prison was located in what appeared to be a standard sized garage or carport underneath one of the buildings right near the break in the rock wall. If you were to head straight through the rock wall and turn left, the consciousness prison would be on your right, right on the corner.
This cubic dwelling network was about an acre or 2 at most in area, and extended all the way to the back wall of the cavern, as if the dwellings had been “carved” out of existing rock. If you think of magma that has been laser carved to precision into a cube, this is what the dwellings sort of looked like, except yellowish; the rock they had come from had first been melted/liquefied then “precision cut”. Each dwelling had square shaped holes which I took for windows, though no glass was present in them, and were about 5 meters squared in size, on average, maybe a bit bigger, with multiple stories. They were of a very modern design. It was like a mini city.
All of a sudden a being appeared at the mouth of the cavern and stood on the boulder that was in front of it. I am not sure if “he” appeared out of thin air or if “he” came from the tunnel behind , but everyone began flocking to this being curious as to what he had to say. They appeared to know who he was.
I remember realizing I was here on a reconnaissance mission specifically to gain information on this being and what was going on in this place. I approached him, confident that I could camouflage and conceal myself as one of the other “people”.
The “Clone God” (this was my name for him), from memory, at first looked like he had white hair but the closer I got I realized it was actually made of a rice like substance that gave him a short haired appearance, like a number 3 crew cut. He grinned a very disconcerting smile that was extremely fake and just felt plain wrong, like he was suffering from a very bad case of Botox poisoning in his face. I remember it reminded me of a typical celebrity smile, but laced with psychopathic substance unlike anything you could ever imagine. Behind his stare there was a blankness to him that was just wrong; you could feel the lack of empathy emanating from within him.
He was wearing some kind of robes, like he was a cult leader or something. Very Charlie Manson-esc.
I watched as the “people” flocked to him in awe, then he opened his mouth, but instead of talking something happened whereby the townspeople turned into exact replicas of him. There would have been enough people to fill up a Metallica concert. I am pretty sure at one point he took off his robe, and I noticed he had no signs of genitalia, as he was naked, with very pale white skin.
I realized – in one of the few times I felt fear during these assignments – that my cover was blown, and this thing was toying with me. The mass conversion of townspeople to clones was specifically for my “entertainment”. I could sense this as he just stood smiling and looking around with eyes wide open like he was a robot. I think at one point I could feel myself being “cloned”, and may have even possibly undergone a timeline reset to the moment before he cloned me.
The smile remained exactly the same the whole time on not only him, but every one of his clones, it never wavered for a second. If you think of a massive crowd of people with this same smile, all turning their heads in perfect unison , eyes wide open without ever blinking, this is what I was smack bang in the middle of, and why I remember it so intensely. It was one of the weirdest and most uncomfortable positions I have ever been in (Storme relayed a similar account of synchronous head turning with a mysterious being Vince and his dog).
This was very reminiscent of the scene in the Matrix where Agent Smith continually replicated himself, then tried doing it to Neo. I hadn’t watched this movie in quite a number of years and I am quite certain I wasn’t being influenced by it, which makes me question the similarities.
After the reset I ran to the cluster of buildings, down an alley and eventually took refuge in what appeared to be a garage with a roller door. I was planning on aborting the mission and exfiltrating out. I did not realize the part of the concrete floor was a hologram, and I fell straight through it. Usually in lucid dreams when something like this would happen I would just manifest myself an exit, or “fly out”, but I soon realized there was a sort of an invisible force field that wouldn’t let me do it. Both the Domain Commander and Airl describe this force field in the exact way to how I experienced it. It is like an electronic net that you can’t get past no matter how skilled at consciousness projection you are.
It prevented me from summoning the portals (what I used to travel the non physical planes), in which I had to manually try and project inwardly and outwardly. Every time I did it was just bounce me back into the center of the room which was about 3 meters squared in area.
I was also still 100% lucid, and realized that this room was preventing me from getting back into my body back on earth. I couldn’t manifest any of the weaponry I’d usually be able to in practically all of my other LDs, or anything that I could use. My consciousness was completely bound to this room and its altered quantum rules. To make matters worse I had an army of “beings” converging on me to try and “collect my consciousness”. I had to evade them by bouncing around this 3×3 room and at the same time try and think up a way to get out.
I realized this place was a sort of lab or asylum as it had the typical layout of many rooms and hallways (these rooms didn’t have doors) with the same sort of white tiles on the walls.
The alarms went off and then I was captured and thrown into one of these rooms (the room I fell into was sort of like the “pre-containment” area. I could see through the floor hologram as if it only appeared as a floor on one side and on the other was not there). It’s hard to explain but basically these rooms lacked almost any means to navigate correctly.
When you are acting as purely conscious thought form there are certain techniques you use to project your consciousness to a specific place, which pulls you to that point. A very basic outline is that you think of something and then it appears, but this is what was wrong with this asylum; it didn’t allow for such things to happen, at least not very easily.
It disallowed me the ability to recreate my dreamscape at will, something I had become very, very good at. It was a room that interfered with visualization and imagination techniques and was purposefully built to contain a consciousness by distorting them in a similar, but more intense, manner to the sub conscious distortions in the void space I’d learnt how to overcome. I could see how a wandering consciousness untrained in such projection techniques could quite easily get caught here and never be able to return to its body. It was quite horrible and terrifying.
I remember the only thing in the room was a picture or map or something hanging on the wall, and I realized I could somehow use this as a portal to phase in and out of that particular dimension by accessing the energy signature attached to it. The phasing allowed me just enough quantum relocation to progress to another room with a one way window (a wall to the being on the inside and an examination window to the people on the outside).
Again I had to figure out a way to get through it, which involved some sort of bouncing of my consciousness back and forth between rooms. It’s like you scan the room and try and find a quantum entangled particle to relocate through. A fourth dimensional point in the past that you can use to “tunnel” through the force field before it was created. That’s the best way I can describe it. It is extremely hard to do and tested me to the very limits of my lucid abilities.
This maze of rooms went on for some time before I eventually found the exit. I was evading many guards as they chased me through the complex trying to contain me: they did not want me to leave. I had ALOT of beings chasing me around this place. Me getting out of the containment room was evidently a very big deal for them. The alarms are something I can remember quite vividly as well.
I finally made it to what seemed to be a sort of elevator shaft that I was able to exfiltrate out of via consciousness projection techniques I had taught myself.
This whole experience was a test to the very limits of my escape and evade techniques I had been using on various other world entities for a number of years since I first began Lucid Dreaming. It was a test to my ability to be able to keep my conscious at a level needed to survive. Basically, if you get captured and an entity messes with this ability to stay “conscious” in the dream world, it can become very, very difficult to actually wake back up in the physical body. The most important thing is that you cannot allow yourself to freak out. All attention and effort must go to remaining conscious despite the heavy distortions that are trying to knock you out. I knew if I got knocked out, it would be game over.
It’s weird. It’s like when something grabs you, you feel your energy being sucked away by it, and with it your consciousness as well. The dreamscape becomes hazy and you dwindle mentally into an uncomfortable sort of insanity. The more powerful the entity the quicker you become depleted. The further you move away from them, the more you regain consciousness and your sanity. Had I not had even a few years’ worth of lucid dreaming experience behind me I am absolutely certain I would not have been able to get back to my body. Through my experience in advanced visualization practices I was able to break through this haziness just long enough to escape. I suspect this sort of capturing accounts for a lot of deaths with unexplainable causes, after going to sleep and never waking up. This was a real experience. I am damned sure of it.
Conclusion
So I can relate to everything the Commander said in regards to how dangerous these sorts of complexes are. You don’t want to ever find yourself caught in one.
Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 7 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM
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This article deals with one of the most important fundamental aspects of the fence that surround this “Prison Planet” environment. Which is the idea that the inmates reside within specially modified bodies that are designed in such a way that they can never leave the fenced in prison compound.
Basic fundamentals
The earth is a Prison Planet.
The Domain is trying to change that role to that of a rehabilitation area instead. Which I have repeatedly referred to as a “Sentience Nursery“.
This is what DM said about this…
...the Grand Elder told me that people stuck on earth (ie those who were not evil service to self oriented) would be flicked over to a “buffer” rehabilitation “reality” specifically to detox them from all the virtual reality (brainwashing) dependancies they had come to rely on whilst under the control of the Cabal (Old Empire).
All of this information (regarding this) has been detailed elsewhere on MM.
Now, due to it’s excessive size, complexity and length, it’s best that if you do not understand what is going on…
… it might be best for you to leave and go elsewhere. This article is likely to be way, way over your head.
Key principles
Actually, the idea that the earth (along with it’s solar system and four / five other solar systems) are all part of a Prison Complex should not be too difficult to understand.
The earth.
Additionally, the idea that the entire Prison Complex is much like the artificial-reality that is described within the movie The Matrix shouldn’t be that difficult to understand either.
What we think of as “reality” is in fact, an artificial construct that we think is real.
The key idea being that there is the true and actual reality, and at some point in time, a society known as “The Old Empire” created a Prison system for it’s criminals. This prison system is an artificial reality. Just like in the movie The Matrix.
This prison system is an artificial reality.
Where in the movie “The Matrix” the people can move in and out of the artificial reality by a system of electronics (such as a phone call that simulates a change in electronic manipulation)…
Moving in and out of the matrix.
…it is different in this Prison Complex.
The differences…
All and any IS-BE consciousness can enter the electro-magnetic force field at will. They can also leave it at will as well.
After all, there are many vehicles from The Domain and others that come in this Prison Environment all the time and they are able to come and go at will.
All manner of extraterrestrials can come and go in and out of this prison environment at will. Why not the inmates?
But…
…once you are designated as an inmate, your entire “self” is erased, and you are provided with a new body (system) to inhabit.
And this new body has been modified in such a way that it cannot leave the Prison Complex ever. It is sort of like having a product or software with certain features blanked out.
Appliance manufacturers make feature-omitted versions of their products to differentiate for product placement in stores.
Since you have a new body that is unable to act, behave and respond like the old body did, you are not trapped in a feature-reduced or retarded body. As such, the warden and the prison system controls everything that you have.
Everything.
In the movie the Matrix, the character Neo is shown that the system can control his actions and movements at well. This include preventing him from yelling for help or screaming.
This article talks about the differences between the “normal” human body, and the body used by inmates. We also discuss the different types or levels of a body, and what The Domain is doing to them for the irregular volunteers.
Human bodies are all over the universe
The first thing that you all must remember is that there is no such thing as evolution.
The Domain (or whatever preceded it) manufactured every type of creature that we know of.
And humans, as one such creature, is a dominant biological template that lies everywhere all over the universe. (Not THE dominant template, but one of the more common templates for a “Sun Type 12, Class 7 planet”.)
The following are extracts from “Alien Interview parsing of comments deemed trillions of years old” HERE…
"The origins of this universe and life on Earth, as discussed in the textbooks I have read, are very inaccurate. Since you serve your government as a medical personnel, your duties require that you understand biological entities. So, I am sure that you will appreciate the value of the material I will share with you today.
The text of books I have been given on subjects related to the function of life forms contain information that is based on false memories, inaccurate observation, missing data, unproven theories, and superstition.
…
The correct information about the origins of biological entities has been erased from your mind, as well as from the minds of your mentors. In order to help you regain your own memory, I will share with you some factual material concerning the origin of biological entities.
I asked Airl if she was referring to the subject of evolution. Airl said, "No, not exactly".
You will find "evolution" mentioned in the ancient Vedic Hymns. The Vedic texts are like folk tales or common wisdoms and superstitions gathered throughout the systems of The Domain. These were compiled into verses, like a book of rhymes. For every statement of truth, the verses contain as many half-truths, reversals of truth and fanciful imaginings, blended without qualification or distinction.
The theory of evolution assumes that the motivational source of energy that animates every life form does not exist. It assumes that an inanimate object or a chemical concoction can suddenly become "alive" or animate accidentally or spontaneously.
Or, perhaps an electrical discharge into a pool of chemical ooze will magically spawn a self- animated entity.
There is no evidence whatsoever that this is true, simply because it is not true. Dr. Frankenstein did not really resurrect the dead into a marauding monster, except in the imagination of the IS-BE who wrote a fictitious story one dark and stormy night.
No Western scientist ever stopped to consider who, what, where, when or how this animation happens. Complete ignorance, denial or unawareness of the spirit as the source of life force required to animate inanimate objects or cellular tissue is the sole cause of failures in Western medicine.
In addition, evolution does not occur accidentally. It requires a great deal of technology which must be manipulated under the careful supervision of IS-BEs. Very simple examples are seen in the modification of farm animals or in the breeding of dogs. However, the notion that human biological organisms evolved naturally from earlier ape-like forms is incorrect. No physical evidence will ever be uncovered to substantiate the notion that modern humanoid bodies evolved on this planet.
The reason is simple: the idea that human bodies evolved spontaneously from the primordial ooze of chemical interactivity in the dim mists of time is nothing more than a hypnotic lie instilled by the amnesia operation to prevent your recollection of the true origins of Mankind. Factually, humanoid bodies have existed in various forms throughout the universe for trillions of years.
The following are extracts from Alien Interview deemed billions of years old from HERE…
I can relate part of this history from personal experience:
Many billions of years ago I was a member of a very large biological laboratory in a galaxy far from this one. It was called the "Arcadia Regeneration Company". I was a biological engineer working with a large staff of technicians. It was our business to manufacture and supply new life forms to uninhabited planets. There were millions of star systems with millions of inhabitable planets in the region at that time.
There were many other biological laboratory companies at that time also. Each of them specialized in producing different kinds of life forms, depending on the "class" of the planet being populated. Over a long span of time these laboratories developed a vast catalogue of species throughout the galaxies. The majority of basic genetic material is common to all species of life. Therefore, most of their work was concerned with manipulating alterations of the basic genetic pattern to produce variations of life forms that would be suitable inhabitants for various planetary classes.
The "Arcadia Regeneration Company" specialized in mammals for forested areas and birds for tropical regions. Our marketing staff negotiated contracts with various planetary governments and independent buyers from all over the universe. The technicians created animals that were compatible with the variations in climate, atmospheric and terrestrial density and chemical content. In addition we were paid to integrate our specimens with biological organisms engineered by other companies already living on a planet.
In order to do this our staff was in communication with other companies who created life forms. There were industry trade shows, publications and a variety of other information supplied through an association that coordinated related projects.
As you can imagine, our research required a great deal of interstellar travel to conduct planetary surveys. This is when I learned my skills as a pilot. The data gathered was accumulated in huge computer databases and evaluated by biological engineers.
A computer is an electronic device that serves as an artificial "brain" or complex calculating machine. It is capable of storing information, making computations, solving problems and performing mechanical functions. In most of the galactic systems of the universe, very large computers are commonly used to run the routine administration, mechanical services and maintenance activities of an entire planet or planetary system.
Based on the survey data gathered, designs and artistic renderings were made for new creatures. Some designs were sold to the highest bidder. Other life forms were created to meet the customized requests of our clients.
The design and technical specifications were passed along an assembly line through a series of cellular, chemical, and mechanical engineers to solve the various problems. It was their job to integrate all of the component factors into a workable, functional and aesthetic finished product.
Prototypes of these creatures were then produced and tested in artificially created environments. Imperfections were worked out, modifications made and eventually the new life form was "endowed" or "animated" with a life force or spiritual energy before being introduced into the actual planetary environment for final testing.
After a new life form was introduced, we monitored the interaction of these biological organisms with the planetary environment and with other indigenous life-forms. Conflicts resulting from the interaction between incompatible organisms were resolved through negotiation between ourselves and other companies. The negotiations usually resulted in compromises requiring further modification to our creatures or to theirs or both. This is part of a science or art you call "Eugenics".
In some cases changes were made in the planetary environment, but not often, as planet building is much more complex than making changes to an individual life form.
…
What you see now on Earth is the huge variety of life forms left behind. Your scientists believe that the fallacious "theory of evolution" is an explanation for the existence of all the life forms here. The truth is that all life forms on this and any other planet in this universe were created by companies like ours.
How else can you explain the millions of completely divergent and unrelated species of life on the land and in the oceans of this planet? How else can you explain the source of spiritual animation which defines every living creature? To say it is the work of "god", is far too broad. Every IS-BE has many names and faces in many times and places. Every IS-BE is a god. When they inhabit a physical object they are the source of Life.
For example, there are millions of species of insects. About 350,000 of these are species of beetles. There may be as many as 100 million species of life forms on Earth at any given time. In addition, there are many times more extinct species of life on Earth than there are living life forms. Some of these will be rediscovered in the fossil or geological records of Earth.
The current "theory of evolution" of life forms on Earth does not consider the phenomena of biological diversity. Evolution by natural selection is science fiction. One species does not accidentally, or randomly evolve to become another species, as the Earth textbooks indicate, without manipulation of genetic material by an IS-BE.
…
Factually, some organisms on Earth, such as Proteobacteria, are modifications of a Phylum designed primarily for "Star Type 3, Class C" planets. In other words, The Domain designation for a planet with an anaerobic atmosphere nearest a large, intensely hot blue star, such as those in the constellation of Orion's Belt in this galaxy.
Creating life forms is very complex, highly technical work for IS-BEs who specialize in this field. Genetic anomalies are very baffling to Earth biologists who have had their memory erased. Unfortunately, the false memory implantations of the "Old Empire" prevent Earth scientists from observing obvious anomalies.
The greatest technical challenge of biological organisms was the invention of self- regeneration, or sexual reproduction. It was invented as the solution to the problem of having to continually manufacture replacement creatures for those that had been destroyed and eaten by other creatures. Planetary governments did not want to keep buying replacement animals.
The idea was contrived trillions of years ago as a result of a conference held to resolve arguments between the disputing vested interests within the biotechnology industry. The infamous "Council of Yuhmi-Krum" was responsible for coordinating creature production.
A compromise was reached, after certain members of the Council were strategically bribed or murdered, to author an agreement which resulted in the biological phenomenon which we now call the "food chain".
The idea that a creature would need to consume the body of another life form as an energy source was offered as a solution by one of the biggest companies in the biological engineering business. They specialized in creating insects and flowering plants.
The connection between the two is obvious. Nearly every flowering plant requires a symbiotic relationship with an insect in order to propagate. The reason is obvious: both the bugs and the flowers were created by the same company. Unfortunately, this same company also had a division which created parasites and bacteria.
The name of the company roughly translated into English would be "Bugs & Blossoms" . They wanted to justify the fact that the only valid purpose of the parasitic creatures they manufactured was to aid the decomposition of organic material. There was a very limited market for such creatures at that time.
In order to expand their business they hired a big public relations firm and a powerful group of political lobbyists to glorify the idea that life forms should feed from other life forms. They invented a "scientific theory" to use as a promotion gimmick. The theory was that all creatures needed to have "food" as a source of energy. Before that, none of the life forms being manufactured required any external energy. Animals did not eat other animals for food, but consumed sunlight, minerals or vegetable matter only.
Of course, "Bugs & Blossoms" went into the business of designing and manufacturing carnivores. Before long, so many animals were being eaten as food that the problem of replenishing them became very difficult. As a 'solution', "Bugs & Blossoms" proposed, with the help of some strategically placed bribes in high places, that other companies begin using 'sexual reproduction' as the basis for replenishing life-forms. "Bugs & Blossoms" was the first company to develop blueprints for sexual reproduction, of course.
As expected, the patent licenses for the biological engineering process required to implant stimulus-response mating, cellular division and pre-programmed growth patterns for self-regenerating animals were owned by "Bugs & Blossoms" too.
Through the next few million years laws were passed that required that these programs be purchased by the other biological technology companies. These were required to be imprinted into the cellular design of all existing life- forms. It became a very expensive undertaking for other biotechnology companies to make such an awkward, and impractical idea work.
This led to the corruption and downfall of the entire industry. Ultimately, the 'food and sex' idea completely ruined the bio-technology industry, including "Bugs & Blossoms". The entire industry faded away as the market for manufactured life forms disappeared. Consequently, when a species became extinct, there is no way to replace them because the technology of creating new life forms has been lost. Obviously, none of this technology was ever known on Earth, and probably never will be.
There are still computer files on some planets far from here which record the procedures for biological engineering. Possibly the laboratories and computers still exist somewhere. However, there is no one around doing anything with them. Therefore, you can understand why it is so important for The Domain to protect the dwindling number of creatures left on Earth.
The core concept behind 'sexual reproduction' technology was the invention of a chemical/electronic interaction called "cyclical stimulus-response generators". This is an programmed genetic mechanism which causes a seemingly spontaneous, recurring impulse to reproduce. The same technique was later adapted and applied to biological flesh bodies, including Homo Sapiens.
Another important mechanism used in the reproductive process, especially with Homo Sapiens type bodies, is the implantation of a "chemical-electrical trigger" mechanism in the body. The "trigger" which attracts IS-BEs to inhabit a human body, or any kind of "flesh body", is the use of an artificially imprinted electronic wave which uses "aesthetic pain" to attract the IS-BE.
Every trap in the universe, including those used to capture IS-BEs who remain free, is "baited" with an aesthetic electronic wave.
The sensations caused by the aesthetic wavelength are more attractive to an IS-BE than any other sensation. When the electronic waves of pain and beauty are combined together, this causes the IS-BE to get "stuck" in the body.
The "reproductive trigger" used for lesser life forms, such as cattle and other mammals, is triggered by chemicals emitted from the scent glands, combined with reproductive chemical- electrical impulses stimulated by testosterone, or estrogen.
These are also interactive with nutrition levels which cause the life form to reproduce more when deprived of food sources. Starvation promotes reproductive activity as a means of perpetuating survival through future regenerations, when the current organism fails to survive. These fundamental principles have been applied throughout all species of life.
The debilitating impact and addiction to the "sexual aesthetic-pain" electronic wave is the reason that the ruling class of The Domain do not inhabit flesh bodies. This is also why officers of The Domain Forces only use doll bodies. This wave has proven to be the most effective trapping device ever created in the history of the universe, as far as I know.
The civilizations of The Domain and the "Old Empire" both depend on this device to "recruit" and maintain a work force of IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies on planets and installations. These IS-BEs are the "working class" beings who do all of the slavish, manual, undesirable work on planets.
Thus, the human archetype is a creation of The Domain, or a precursor to it. And it is located throughout the universe.You will find people who look like “everyday” humans, big and old, fat and thin, beautiful and ugly, all over the universe.
Various IS-BE’s can control humans by exposing them to the addiction of the “sexual aesthetic-pain” desires of the human form.
Earth Prison Complex Bodies are unique
However, while the “sexual aesthetic-pain” desires can snare and entangle a given IS-BE…
…a different system must be employed to keep them tethered to a specific geographic region.
Much like clipping off the wings of a bird, or foot binding of attractive wives, or a chain around a slaves neck would do. This Prison Complex utilizes a very special kind of fence. One that ONLY reacts to the movement of inmates.
The Prison Planet has a very special fence that surrounds it.
Apparently that is what happened in the creation of this “Prison Complex”.
There were alterations to the human (and other species that also serve as prison vehicles) that prevent them from ever leaving the Prison Complex. I argue that the alterations revolve around all elements of a human body. And this includes the physical body as well as the non-physical bodies.
The make up of a body
If you study any of the oriental religions, you will discover discussions and studies of the “planes of existence” where different elements of yourself reside. On each “plane of existence” you have an associated body.
Thee bodies radiate outward, with the coarsest body being the Physical body. And as you move further away from that body (not necessarily in a Geo-position sense, but rather in an energy sense) your bodies get “finer”, “lighter” and “more energetic with higher energies”.
Or so I have read.
But I am a simple guy, and we really do not need to get involved in all those details. I have the distinct impression that many of the writings on this subject are only confluence of religious dogma rather than any practical application. Or, to put it in a better way…
… “who cares about the name of the 3rd level of the casual plane, if you cannot use that information to improve your life?”
We are going to keep things here on an elementary level. If you wish to study the religious teachings / new age / spiritual teachings there are tons of websites all over the internet that you can refer to. But for now, we are going to keep things really simple.
[1] Your consciousness (IS-BE) resides within a container.
Your IS-BE consciousness is inside a body constructed for you by the Prison Complex.
[2] This container exists within a Prison Complex as a “human-shaped inmate”.
We are surrounded by other inmates that seem much like us.
[3] The “human-shaped inmate” form is derived from the human form that is common all over the universe.
The difference being that it has been modified to exist only within a Prison Complex.
“Normal people” talking to inmates using the video conference software without needing to pass through the gates to get in the prison.
[4] This modification is complete and affects both the physical body, but the non-physical body as well
Female inmates of the ADC.
Simplification
So, because of this we will consider all those various “light bodies” that reside on all those other “planes of existence” as one singular “combined body” that is the non-physical body.
Thus, this simplification for the “human inmate body” is actually…
A physical body.
A non-physical body.
The Physical Body
It is impossible for the physical body to cross the electromagnetic “fence” that surrounds the Prison Complex. The technology of the inmates is not at the level that will permit them to build a spacecraft that will be able to cross the fence. Nor will the system ever permit the prison inmates ever obtain the kind of technology needed to build a space-traveling vehicle that can breech the fence line.
One must remember that the ONLY reason why earth’s technology is so high presently is because the mental suppression technology (or at least one of the mechanisms) was destroyed by The Domain around 1150AD. Prior to that, it was anticipated that most of the inhabitants of the Prison Complex, would at best, be living in a primitive early iron-age culture for hundreds of thousands of years.
Thus, the system of constant wars, destruction, and collapse of civilizations and technology on earth is designed to prevent any kinds of space travel or advanced propulsion techniques that might allow one to escape from the prison complex.
The non-physical body
The non-physical body can move about all over. It is not constrained by technology or manufacturing ability.
It’s the power of thought. An IS-BE who can remember a specific location or memory outside of the Prison Complex can visualize it and propel themself outside of the Prison Complex.
Thus it is imperative that all memories be suppressed. Without any idea of where to go, people to meet, places to visit, the inmate is forced to be tethered to the Prison Complex.
No memories.
However, what if something reminds an inmate of some distant memory. While every action has been taken to prevent the occurrence of memories, the fact remains that one singular memory, no matter how faint or brief can be used by an IS-BE to “latch on to” and “home into” and thus go through the electronic fence that surrounds the Prison Complex.
Thus it is of particular interest that the non-physical body be modified so that it cannot go through the electromagnetic fence line surrounding the Prison Complex.
How the Domain alters the body to avoid the force screens
The “Old Empire” has designed a system where the only way out of the Prison Complex is through use of a “normal” non-physical body. And inmates have a modified body that prevents them from leaving the Prison Complex.
Once in, you are never going to leave.
It is much like the scene in The Matrix Revolutions where Neo is trapped in a subway.
Thefinalinstallment in theMatrix trilogy finds an unconscious Neo trapped in a subway stationina zone between the Matrix and the machine world. Insidethe Matrix, Neo istrapped in a subway station named Mobil Ave (an anagram forlimbo), atransitionzone between the Matrix and the Machine City. He meets a "family" of programs, including a girlnamed Sati. The "father" tells Neo the subway is controlled by the Trainman, a program loyal totheMerovingian.
The modification to the non-physical body snares the escaping inmate so that they cannot cross the fence threshold, and perhaps even alerts the warden and his administration to retrieve the errant IS-BE.
The modifications necessary to do this
I cannot state explicitly enough what the modifications are to the non-physical body, nor can I even begin to comprehend what the non-physical body is like. I once observed my non-physical body being worked on and it was really colorful, chaotic and detailed. And way, way beyond my comprehension.
It’s a medical procedure.
Once you understand that, and calm down all your fears you will see it in fine comforting images that provide answers and insight instead of fearful images of horror and terror.
It is ONLY a medical procedure. You will be surrounded by trained professionals. You need not fear anything.
What I do know is that the non-physical body must go through a number of procedures to be able to suppress or eliminate the mechanisms associated with this Prison Complex. The changes made to YOUR body must be undone. And it must be undone BEFORE you are tricked into going back into the “Tunnel of light”.
The Procedure and consciousness extraction
I will relate a little story that occurred to me.
Around 1984-5, before I was compelled to go to China Lake NWC, I had an (intense) urge to visit the North Carolina seacoast. At that time, my wife and I were living in the hills not so far from Nashville, NC.
And so, out of the blue, my wife and I traveled a eight hour drive to go to this tiny bath-house on the beach.
It was around 8 or 9 at night when we arrived. The area was deserted (aside from one other car) and We both got out of the van and walked towards the bath house.
There, we met to other people. One, a woman took my wife by the elbow and led her back to our van where they chatted up a storm on the road, and the man took me towards the bath-house.
Suddenly I was inside this lounge of sorts, and he led me down to sit. So I sat down on this sofa. A pleasant woman came up to us. She reminded me of an airline stewardess. Everyone was “normal” looking. She smiled and placed a greenish box on the counter of the coffee table in front of me. Then she did something. I’m not quite sure what.
The upshot is that my consciousness went into that box. And I was unable to feel any movement of my body. It felt like I was completely paralyzed all over. It was like "sleep paralysis" except that I wasn't asleep.
A few hours passed.
The next thing I knew, I was waving goodbye to the man and the woman. They stood there near the bath-house on that deserted stretch of road, and we drove home. I never recounted what happened. I never discussed it with anyone. Nor did my wife.
The only thing that my wife said “That was weird”. And we rode home in silence, and didn’t say anything else.
We arrived back in the early morning.
This is kind of how it is done.
When The Domain wants to modify your non-physical body, the take you to an operating room and then place your consciousness in a containment field; or box, or container. It is possible for you to watch what they are doing, were it to be suggested to you.
And that is it.
Warnings about the non-physical reality
The non-physical world is very, very hyper sensitive to thoughts.
So if you are afraid when your consciousness enters the containment field, your fears will conjure up all sorts of nasty images and terrible things that will occupy your surroundings. It’s really awful.
So you must remain calm.
HEREis an article that describes a “Lucid dream” where I was extracted to a Domain medical facility, and my consciousness put into a containment field where I would experience “sleep paralysis”.
Evil people realize they are in a prison and make the best of it
In many prisons you have groups of inmates that form gangs and societies.
They band together and use their strengths to carve out a life for themselves under the harsh prison environment. There is no reason why this isn’t occurring here today.
Scene from the movie Goodfellas. The mafia were very powerful and when they were arrested and sentenced to prison, they used their contacts, wealth and connections to make a good life for themselves inside the prison walls.
When the Mantids tell you to make a future life for yourself, and they help guide you to lay out a pre-birth world-line template, why do you listen to them? They show care, concern and compassion. They are loving and caring.
But the evil self-centered IS-BE’s go their own way and set forth pre-birth world-line templates of power, lust, greed and physical pleasures and ignore the advice of the Mantids.
And when they die, and return back to “Heaven” it’s all forgiven and forgotten.
What a gig!
Many service to self people have constructed their pre-birth world-line template in defiance of the Mantid advice and instead live a life of ease and comfort on the earth Prison Planet.
While all the rest of us have all these prohibitions on how we live our lives and what we can and cannot do, and when we are hurt, we are told to forgive those that hurt us.
And we all go to Heaven together.
And then they (the ones that hurt us) make the next-life arrangements to return to a star-studded life full of sensory pleasures and wealth.
And we, the dumb fools we are, we listen to our loving Mantids who tell us to suffer and experience pain… to make us better.
What a gig!
We live a life chosen for us from help by the Mantids.
Prison administrators escaped by going into “General Population” but are not using a prison-body
I would like to take a moment to underline an aspect that haunts me. I cannot shake it. But apparently, the administrators and operators of this Prison Complex escaped The Domain. And the method of escape was to throw themselves into the Prison itself.
After all, we know that there are agents or “operators” that work inside the Prison Complex itself…
"Old Empire" operatives act as an unseen influence on international bankers. The banks are operated covertly as a non-combatant provocateur to covertly promote and finance weapons and warfare between the nations of Earth.
Warfare is an internal mechanism of control over the inmate population.
These individual IS-BE’s that operate within the prison “walls” must have some sort of key /pass /badge /fob /or knowledge that enables them to control the environment like they do. And thus, it is not unreasonable to expect the administration to have access to this knowledge.
Keep in mind that only thing that is specialty that that they know how the prison system works. So they are in this prison complex; on this earth… walking around near us, nearby. All the time with the knowledge in their heads of how to turn off the many, many systems and avoid the electromagnetic containment fence.
The administrators are hiding inside this Prison Complex somewhere. They have the keys, the knowledge and the skills to shut down or control this environment.
They live within the prison complex living a nice comfortable life of ease. They are somewhere. And some how, if they can be located, and brought to the officers and personnel of the Domain, many of the mysteries of the Prison Complex can be resolved.
Summary
For most humans, the body that you have is prison attire. (Or as we used to say in the ADC; “State Issue”.) This is a special uniform that makes it easy to identify who you are and what your role is. Once you put on the clothing and don the attire you cannot leave the prison grounds. This attire is ONLY for use on prison property.
If a guard sees you wearing this clothing and you enter a sally port or gate, they will draw their weapon and alert the prison for someone to come and take you back inside. It is a fundamental aspect of prison life.
“State Issue” of the Arkansas department of Corrections.
In a similar manner, every human within this Prison Complex wears his “State Issue”. This is similar to that of American prisons. But instead of clothing that a person wears, it’s a physical (and non-physical body) that the consciousness dons when it enters the MWI reality universe (from the Prison “Heaven”).
The body that you have prevents you from crossing the electromagnetic force field fence. And if you ever want to egress from the Prison Complex, you will need to [1]have your body altered so that you can pass through it.
Or…
[2]You can wait. Lifetime after lifetime, until (on day) the force-field fence is turned off and everyone can (line up) leave this Prison Complex together.
Prison Complex.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
The following is the fifth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 5 – Miscellaneous Experiences – Alien Abduction Dreams
Around the time of my Initiation into the Unseen 5 I started having abduction dreams. In some of these I was lucid, in others I wasn’t. Some of them dealt with hybridisation breeding programs, and others dealt with just general abduction scenarios. One{lucid one} in particular dealt with a consciousness prison exactly as Airl had described them in Alien Interview. This wasn’t the first time I had been contained in one of these prisons – I will go into that in another article. In both incidents I had been fairly (90+%) lucid.
Of these dreams, three in particular stood out. I have a very vivid memory of these three “dreams”.
The first was a standard {non lucid} dream. Our bed had just broken so we were temporarily sleeping on just a mattress on the floor. I remember going to sleep just before sunset. It was still light outside.
I dreamt I was walking out the front door of Storme’s mother’s place one evening after dinner to get something out of my car. The car was situated about 50 metres away under a car port that ran perpendicular to the house. To get there you had to walk down the veranda and up a few steps, before going through a gate and stepping over a piece of grass that lay between the gate and fence. I can still remember the vividness of the dream, and how I was preoccupied with the random thoughts I would usually have whenever I would go and get something – usually my phone or thongs (sandals) – from the car.
I got to the fence, opened it, but as I was closing the latch in place a large, unmoving object drew my attention to the sky. There right above and in front of me, half hidden by clouds was a spaceship that I remembered thinking looked a lot like the one out of the Halo games I used to play as a kid.
The ship itself was covered in strange symbols. It was that big and close that I could see them as clear as day. It appeared to have a large hole underneath it that protruded back into the ship.
As I stood and watched, a ring of blue light like the flame of a butane torch illuminated the circular shaped hole. My last thought was “oh shit” as I realized it was about to “pull me in”. I blacked out and woke up in my bed. Storme’s mother’s house was 50km away.
I woke up completely dazed and confused about where the hell I was; I actually woke up screaming “where am I and what the fuck just happened” as it took me a good few minutes to remember that we were in our house.
The last time I woke up like this was when I was 7 and I had to stay at my grandmother’s place as a large bushfire ravaged our town and burnt down our neighbors house. Despite all the shit I had experienced through lucid dreaming, this was just not something I did – ever. Even when remembering the electrocution and soul torture I never woke up in this state of panic and disorientation. It was if I had forgotten a whole years’ worth of time spent at this house.
Something about it felt really off. It felt as though I had just been plucked from one timeline and placed back in the past. It was like that dream was actually a future event that I had been “reset” from. MMs articles on the MWI are the first I have come across that provide an explanation for that feeling.
The second one happened about a year after my initiation into the Unseen 5.
I need to digress here to give an understanding of my mind set during this abduction where I was much more lucid than the first. It is relevant, particularly when talking about manipulating our “souls.”
I had been reading up on the free man movement; the idea that people are sovereign entities that have been tricked into working for a corporation that poses as a government. While I won’t say I completely believed in it, I was curious about testing out some of the theories. And crazy enough to actually go through with it.
To cut a long story short, let’s just say I pissed off the bank who I had a loan out on my car with and a few cops. Although the bank gave me a $250 credit on my account for my efforts, the cops played a little more hard ball. I was fined for not paying my car registration – which was actually because I couldn’t afford it. Rather than pay the fine within the 30 day limit, I decided to take it to court because, well, I wanted to know what the court system process was like.
After the incident with my hand, I witnessed first hand how cops failed in their duties to protect their citizens. I witnessed first hand how the justice system was more interested in upholding its laws than getting justice for victims of crime. So when the opportunity came to sit on the other side of the judge and be made out to be a terrible person simply for being poor, I obliged. It was a lesson worth learning and it ended up costing me about $350 (which I paid off in $10 instalments).
The logic of fining someone even more money for not being able to afford to pay for their car registration in the first place told me everything I needed to know about the moral code of these “judges”. These guys worked for the same slave gods the Grand Elder warned me about, I was sure of it. I mean, nothing spells slavery more than being fined for being too poor. It’s not like anyone ever bothered to check my vehicle to make sure it was still roadworthy after paying the registration. That was, according to the policy on the form, the whole point of the registration. Apparently.
So there I sat there in court, watching the judge dish out punishments for the many people who were called up before me. A lot of them had similar offenses related to poverty. Some were just plain idiots.
Suddenly something dawned on me; I was in what seemed to be a re-enactment of a ceremony I had read about in my books on Ancient Egypt.
The ceremony I am speaking about is the weighing of the heart ceremony. For those who are not familiar with it, this ceremony is said to take place after death, and is undertaken by each soul trying to make passage into the after life. It was considered one of the most important beliefs in Ancient Egyptian culture.
What happens is that the heart of the soul is weighed against the feather of Maat. If the soul is pure, the feather outweighs the heart and Maat grants passage into the after life. If the soul has committed “sins” during its physical life, it becomes weighted down and causes an imbalance in the scales of Maat. The soul of the impure are then said to be cast down into the underworld where they are eaten by the deity Ammit; a cross between a crocodile and human (cue the Reptilian conspiracies). During the ceremony, it is said that Thoth transcribes the whole process, whilst Anubis stands guard at the entrance to the ceremony to stop souls from escaping the trial.
There I sat in court watching as the judge re-enacted the role of Maat and handed out punishment after punishment. I watched as the man next to him re-enacted the role of Thoth as he typed the proceedings of the court out on his computer. And I watched how the Bailiff re enacted the role of Anubis as he stood guard at the door. Though they were not present in the less “important” courts like I was in, I was aware the Supreme Courts liked to show off their scales {of Maat}. And didn’t judges like to write their sentences down using a quill pen {feather of Maat}? It was all so obvious to me what was going on. Were these guys even conscious to the fact they were engaging in an Ancient Egyptian Ritual? Or did they just go along with because that was the way the proceedings were taught to them in law school?
Either I was bat shit crazy or I had stumbled upon a secret which the free man movement had been trying to convey but failed to point out properly; all court systems were re-enactments of the weighing of the heart ceremony and the “guilty” were being tried as “dead entities”. Suddenly the whole “fictitious” title on your birth certificate thing thing made a whole lot more sense. Apparently a “person” is defined in the bible as a “non living entity”, according to those in the free man movement. I found that rather interesting.
The point of whether the concept was real or just a machination of my own delusions is irrelevant. The relevant part is that it got me thinking; how many people in the world actually bother to declare that their soul is not for sale?
How many people in the world actually thought about their soul as much as they thought about something they did on a regular basis like brushing their teeth?
There was, after all, some sort of animating principle behind every person’s existence. Some sort of invisible spark that gave life to them and filled them with enough energy to power their heartbeat for an entire lifetime. How many people recognized this undeniable characteristic about themselves and actually made the mental thought that it wasn’t for sale or was not allowed to be used for any other purpose other than what its divine creator intended?
Conversely, how many people unwillingly gave their energy away through the allowance of unseen parasites. If they were unaware they had an astral body existing in a plane filled with all sorts of traveling entities, then it was only logical to assume they were sitting ducks just waiting for something to come along and “harvest from them”.
Moreover, if an astral parasite was attached to an individual and you signed a contract written by that individual to allow him and his “associates” any sort of power over you, could the parasite not technically be an associate of his, allowing your power to be given in not just the physical plane, but the non-physical as well?
Like I said, my thoughts and operations were not just those bound to this physical domain. As an Electronics Technician I had been trained to look at a complete system, not just one small part of it. This was the same train of thought I applied to the universe and its unseen aspects. You could say I was eager to understand how the non-physical planes affected the physical.
So I created a prayer or a spell or whatever you want to call it, specifically aimed at reclaiming my soul and nullifying any celestial contracts I had unwillingly entered it into through my own ignorance. If I had given away my power unconsciously through contracts, I wanted to consciously regain it. All of it.
I wrote this in the body of a professional like contract email and sent it off to my father. I figured as he was the one who entered me into such a contract whilst being my legal guardian when he signed my birth certificate, he was the best person to send it to. He was very straight edged and one of the biggest sceptics you’ll ever meet, who thinks astral projection/ lucid dreaming is a load of nonsense. He told me later he thought I’d definitely fallen off the sanity boat. Not that I really gave a shit. Our had been pretty rocky any way. I couldn’t say that his opinion on anything I did was something I held in high regard.
I sent the email, ate dinner, had a shower and then went to bed. As I sat there and closed my eyes, something felt different. I felt liberated. I felt some kind of invisible weight had been lifted. I could “perceive a spherical “space” in front of my eyelids whenever I would close them. I hadn’t been able to perceive this space for quite a few years; it was something I used to be able to see when I was deep into my meditation regime. After having kids, it slowly disappeared and was replaced by a boring veil that had no depth to it.
So there I lay, playing around with this space and the feeling of distorted gravity it brought with it. It felt like I was strapped to the bed and was being spun gently through the Z axis. It was something I always enjoyed whenever it would happen. Call me weird, I know. I ended up falling sleep in what was a non conscious transition into the sleeping state.
Interestingly, that very night I “appeared” {in the dream} half lying in the water and shore of a swamp covered in reeds. Some of these reeds had been arranged over the top of me in what appeared to be an effort to conceal me.
To begin with I was in a daze. I was flittering in and out of consciousness like I had been drugged with the same substance that had been used on me many years ago during the experiences in my youth before becoming completely lucid. I realized someone had draped a tarp or something across me as there was something really bad and strange going on up ahead. It was as if they had tried to hide me in amongst the reeds of this swamp as best they could.
There were these lights or something high up in the sky. They were scanning the area exactly like how prison lights scanned for an escaped convict.
Mistakenly, I ripped this tarp off me in my confusion, drawing the attention of whatever was up ahead. Suddenly I was surrounded by a blue or green light and the next thing I knew I was being pulled upwards along with all the water from the swamp and others who had been hiding.
This swamp was the equivalent to a few football fields in size and the whole thing was being sucked upwards towards the sky. I only remember a handful of other people being sucked up. The lights were too bright to make out any kind of ship, but it seemed like a very obvious thing that is what this was. Judging from the size of the lake that was being sucked up, the ship would have been HUGE.
I blacked out and came to in a metallic looking room on a bed where a medical procedure was taking place. Then I found myself being aggressively pushed into another room by the same beings that operated on me – their faces becoming a blur in the haze what was my drugged consciousness.
I remember seeing a smooth metallic door slide open to my right before I was pushed into a room that was totally dark and devoid of any light whatsoever. This is where I started to become lucid. It is then that something strange happened; I began to glitch in and out of the dimension I was in into another one.
This happened repeatedly every couple of hundred milliseconds, and every new dimension was completely different to any of the ones before it. It is hard to describe but if you have a slide show of different environments and quickly flick through it, this is what was happening to my reality around me. I was being “dimension spun” in an effort to torture and disorientate my consciousness.
There was an overlay reality placed in front of me that I could not interact with. It was a reality where my wife – now pregnant with our second child – and my boy were going to get ice cream. It was like that reality was put there to remind me where I’d come from while I got spun through a myriad of different ones. At this point I was pretty much completely lucid.
In the overlay reality my boy asked where I was and when I would be coming home, with a saddened look on his face, to which my wife – assuming I had abandoned them – told him I would not be coming back. It was like I was slightly out of phase with them; I could see them, but they could not see me. I was supposed to be meeting them here at the ice creamery. I tried yelling and screaming at them as loud as I could and reaching out to them, but my hand would just sink right through theirs, even though I was standing right next to them.
It was excruciatingly obvious what this was; this was a direct threat telling me to be “good” or I would be taken away from my family, though at the time I honestly thought that I wouldn’t be seeing them again. A deep depression welled inside of me despite this never once ever happening any other times I had been lucid. Lucidity was my place of happiness and freedom; it had never been used against me in this manner before, except for the prior incident in the consciousness prison and the torture scenarios. This dimension spinning was a new experience (it happened before the cult of Psaigreen experience).
The dimension spinning went on for a very long time, and I was at one point locked in the basement of an old derelict house. There wasn’t anything in here except a few dusty cobwebs and a rotten frame of a bed. The bed didn’t even have a mattress on it.
The spinning eventually stopped, and I tried projecting my consciousness out of the basement using every lucid dreaming and astral projection trick I had in me, but nothing would work. It appeared they had learnt from their mistakes when they tried to contain my consciousness in the off world facility when I was 15 or 16. You may have heard stories of remote viewers trying to view restricted areas and having to “battle with their own mind” to get back into their body. This is an incredibly accurate analogy of what I had to go through. Once you get trapped in them, it is very difficult to get back to your body.
My consciousness would come to be trapped in this new prison for what equated to at least an entire “year” worth of earth time.
There is a scene in the movie “Inception” where an Asian man is trapped in the dream for years. Leornado Di Caprio finds him in the lucid world, wakes him up and it turns out he has only been a sleep for a single night. This is a very accurate portrayal of how things work in the lucid dreaming world. This was the longest my consciousness had ever been in a state of lucidity without coming back to the physical world for a breather. It was beyond fucking maddening. I say that a lot, I know.
From memory I believe I was let out of that basement and flicked over to an alternate world. This world was some sort of recreation of a nearby town (in this physical plane) with a completely different layout. It was below even third world poor; houses were in shit state and there was rubbish absolutely everywhere. This was where I “lived” for a year or so outside the timeline of our current physical reality. I have a whole reel of memories of having to walk past this seedy apartment every day to escape the gangs that were parading around town.
For all I knew, my consciousness had been thrown in here and left to rot, meanwhile my body back in my bed on earth would have been lucky to have been seeing the first rays from the next day’s sun coming through the window. It was just like the Asian man in Inception.
I eventually did something, and was able to peel my consciousness away from this prison world and found myself in the back of what appeared to be a transport truck or train carriage with other people in it. I can’t actually remember how I got out. It may have even been that they put me in that world and mind wiped me, then I eventually remembered my body back here and projected back to it.
I started talking to an old woman who sat next to me, and mentioned the swamp, and the dimension spinning. She told me “they” – being our captors – called it the “Wet Room”, and it was where “they” sent the ones who did not play ball with their agenda. In other words the Wet Room was the experience of ultra-dimensional shifting I had undergone. It was the other world I had been left in for a year. It was a torture device reserved specifically for those who did not agree to have their souls guided by the astral parasites they were in control of.
Apparently if you intentionally declared your soul’s sovereignty and nullified all astral contracts it had unwittingly been tricked into partaking in, then you could expect the Extra Terrestrial Gestapo to pay you a visit in your dreams for your troubles. Apparently the free man movement had metaphysical aspects to it that not even they realized.
Good luck with thinking nothing but happy thoughts during your stay in the Wet Room. Maybe my mind was just too damned good at creating hallucinations through dopamine fluctuations. Whatever it was, it lined up perfectly with why Obama V2.0 had me undergo a test to see whether I would hypnotically give consent away in this matter.
It actually took me a good day or two to get my head around the fact I’d been gone a whole year in the span of a night’s sleep. I had to sort of readjust to the idea I was back “here”.
The third abduction dream happened just before Christmas 2020.
It was more a standard dream than it was a lucid experience, so take it with a grain of salt. In saying that though, it did bring with it a feeling suggestive that it was in fact a memory. It contained elements going back to my first mystical lucid experience where I remembered myself and my class had been involved in some sort of traumatic event that none of us could actually remember the details of:
Myself and my classmates were standing in a in a weird circular room, sort of like a massive warehouse. We were all just standing there a dozen or so of us, not knowing what to do and all looking completely terrified. There was a man with us, and another adult, possibly another man who I believe were our teacher and bus driver as one of the orange buses we used to go on excursions with was parked in the room with us. I would have been about 12; I recognized my classmates.
The walls of the room were metallic, and surrounding us were these guard things that I think were wearing typical human clothing, but somehow their faces were concealed.
There was something in front of us that had our attention so most of us were too focused on that to even notice them. Some sort of smaller craft or something had just landed in the circular room. I remember all of us were hysterical, crying and shaking but not wanting to move too much in case the things attacked us.
We were all sort of looking at each other for some kind of comfort, hoping one of us was going to be brave enough to tell us that everything was going to be ok, but we all knew it wasn’t. There was just something so wrong about the atmosphere and the way we had been dragged here off the bus. It was reminiscent of all the old war videos of Nazi’s rounding up Jewish prisoners I had seen. There was no telepathic communication with us by these beings whatsoever. Everything about it was just so terrifying.
The teacher and the bus driver were as white as ghosts and just stood there to the side of us kids. We were just so cut up that they weren’t even trying to protect us. It was like they were trying to back away and distance themselves from us kids who all been lined up in the middle of this warehouse. They were at the point of fainting.
All the attention was specifically on us kids; lights were focused on us, the guards were surrounding us, as if a group of 11/12 year olds were really a threat to the many of entities in that room or the weapons they carried. The adults were just sort of left at the back and side where the bus was with a single guard. It was obvious they (the adults) were not the centre of attention, and that suited them fine. Neither of them were going to bring such attention to themselves by talking or moving.
Suddenly, I think a door opened on the craft in front of us, and out came these beings wearing the same sort of clothing. It was like a robe but there was no conceivable humanoid body underneath it. It was like it was floating in mid-air, and the robe would float with it, the draft of the air blowing it upwards, like the Dementor’s out of Harry Potter.
All of us stood transfixed at these beings in terror, as they shed their clothing. These were unlike any stereotypical bipedal type alien I have ever seen. They had these smooth tentacle like things on their face where their mouth should have been and large beady eyes; they looked more like cephalopods or like a cuttle fish or octopus or something, but with a mass of tentacles where their body should have been. Like a human nervous system. They reminded me of interpretations I’ve seen on the internet of HP Lovecraft’s Cthulu; but there was no body; just masses of tentacles all bunched and knotted together.
It was like watching a horror movie; as soon as these things shed their robes they came at us with much speed and made a sort of hissing sound. All we could do was recoil as they jumped on us and their face tentacles wrapped around our faces. It was then that I woke up.
My friend, who would have been part of this same class, whose birthday was also the same day I had my first contact with the Elder Guardians, also became incredibly paranoid about reptilians a few years after that {EG} experience. I got the impression he had experienced or remembered something, but he would not tell me what.
Was this just a dream or a memory of an actual event? It certainly felt real. Out of all of them, the Wet Room experience was the one I am most sure about. Because I was lucid through the dimension spinning, I am apt to believe it more than the other two. Being “away” for a year certainly left its impression on me.
Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 5 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM
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This article consists of answers from The Domain to questions collected by the MM audience. This is the first of (hopefully) many such events.
I collected the questions over the third week of September 2021, and tried to contact with the Domain via the EBP in fits and starts over this period. I was successful, and unsuccessful. Some times the connection was strong while at other times it was weak. All having to do with my various situation at the time.
I am trying to provide a description on how it worked out, and the relative issues or feelings involved. Some of it might seem confusing but there just isn’t the vocabulary to describe my experiences.
What this is all about
On 17SEP21 I posted an article that related the fact that The Domain opened up a dedicated channel to me via the EBP. As always, it was one-sided, and detailed. But during the conversation, I had no real mental ability. I was in a receiving and reporting state. I was really unable to think for myself. I just queried what I was told to ask and recorded the answers.
You can read this article HERE, if you are confused with what is going on.
Some Background
Most people are aware that the work titled “Alien Interview” is a transcript of a Commander of The Domain when it’s vehicle crashed in 1947. What most people do not know is that this event spawned an American top secret agency known as MAJestic that fell under the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence).
This waved, unacknowledged special access program handled (and still handles) all extraterrestrial events, technologies and interactions with the United States government. I was a unique part of that organization prior to being retired.
I have numerous devices installed in my body. The seven ELF probes are for MAJestic, with the EBP system is of Domain manufacture and utility.
Terminology
EBP – A hardwired device that connects MM to The Domain.
ELF – A hardwired device that connected MM to MAJestic through a Mantid intermediary. Now deactivated.
The Domain – The name of the species / civilization that the type-1 greys belong to.
“Old Empire” – A term used to describe a vanquished civilization that used to be in control of this section of the galaxy.
Comm channel – A link to the MM “handler” or Commander. Rank and position is unknown except that it is a senior being. This is a channel though the EBP system.
This project / system
I know, and I am absolutely convinced that The Domain wants to do this. They are sort of waiting for me to set the incident(s) in place, and then will direct it as they see fit.
It's kind of like how a microwave keeps flashing after it finishes cooking the food, or how a washing machine has the display beeping after it finished washing a load. This flashing / beeping is still present. (Though... it's something different.)
My initial idea was to collect questions, and then ask them. I did this knowing full well that they may or may not answer them.
In all cases the comm channel is a dedicated channel via my EBP.
I will admit that the type-1 grey commander of The Domain that has been helping answer these questions is not at all comfortable with the system I set up.
Let it be well understood that they prefer to communicate in a very different manner. Which is; “They speak and we respond.”
In this effort, we ask questions and request answers. And, they have a real problem with this format.
They are very uncomfortable with this, and it is not how they communicate.
So in order to facilitate this effort, what I did was post the questions as a subject. Then placed the asked questions as secondary information to each subject. I then read the text out loud, and then repeated the subject.
I then paused for input.
They seem to categorize by subject. Then take the questions as subsequent data, and then discuss the subject relative to the question. I hope this makes sense. It’s much like I described a scenario or event and asked them to comment on the statement event (meaning the entire situation involving the person asking the question and his / her mental process and situation at that time) instead of commenting on the details of the question.
When I did this, the system seemed to work much better.
The Questions and Answers (Group 1)
This is exactly how I began. I read the subject title, then the question, then the subject title. I did so reading without understanding. If that makes any sense. Like reading a dishwasher repair manual out loud. Then when the comm opened up, I wrote what came to me.
Enlightenment & Lost Battalion
Are IS-BEs who attain what is often called “Enlightenment” while in a physical body free from the amnesia machinery in death?
No. Absolute answer.
Are they useful to the Domain’s efforts and should we work to become “Enlightened” as a way of being useful to the Domain?
No. “Enlightenment” has no bearing at all on extraction from this prison mechanism. It is part of the “Old Empire” system of conditioned control and brainwashing. Enlightenment is another path that leads one into the tunnel of light.
*I understand “working” or “doing” anything to become “Enlightened” is technically incorrect but it’s hard to describe such things in duality.
Understood, but we know what you are referring to.
Thank you for this.
My pleasure.
The next group of questions happened about three hours later. At that time I asked the channel (whether or not anyone was listening) to lower the amplitude so that I wasn’t thrown into turmoil for the rest of the day. This occurred and things really mellowed out, but the comm channel was much fainter. So it was a trade off.
So as long as I was able to receive, all was well.
The Questions and Answers (Group 2)
This group of questions got no or null responses. I had to try and retry numerous times. Finally on my fifth or so attempt, I started to get some responses. I actually think that the problem was not the questions but the Commander (or their representative) was on other tasks at the time, and could not respond.
Lucid Dreaming & Lost Battalion Rescue
How can those with astral projection and lucid dreaming abilities be properly coordinated to attack the amnesia traps from the inside?
This is a dangerous request.
When The Domain decides to solve a problem, we research it in great detail, then we come up with possible solutions, each one with both positive and negative scenarios. We then weigh the pros and the cons. In this effort we use concentrated forces with strategic aims and tactical strike against specific traps and snares.
Individual IS-BE's should never attempt to engage in attacks against any "Old Empire" traps. Instead they should be marked for extraction, and the Domain notified of their existence in the exact form that they were encountered in.
A person with the ability to conduct “lucid dreaming” has a special and unique skill set that enables them to be a mission critical asset. However, this kind of asset should not be meaninglessly squandered, but rather should be briefed on a specific target and then act in coordination with other unified forces to achieve a very specific outcome.
Those that have this skill set will be (interviewed / selected) for a specific task and then allow to lie dormant until the moment occurs. Then the asset will perform their function in coordination with other (specifically trained) Domain forces.
Are there any specific locations that are proving difficult for the Domain to dismantle that those who are already in the “prison” may have a better chance at reaching.
Yes.
There are numerous systems that are problematic at this time. None, however, are impossible to dissemble.
The <redacted> (a species and cluster that MM is unaware of) are providing technical assistance in this matter.
While it was not specifically asked in the question, the implied question is would we provide you (the questioner) the information or coordinates of such processes or traps. The answer is no, at this time. Consider it a confidential need to know matter.
Your disappointment (in this matter) is for the greater good.
Are there any specific “Domain approved” frequencies or modulation techniques that infrastructure can be built around to provide a physical communication pathway so that messages may be more readily received by those without EBP. This extends to frequencies that can be tuned into via “lucid and astral based telepathy”.
Yes. There are many, or more properly specified / explained there are groupings or dances of frequencies that act as system keys or codes.
When we negate or suppress a system we utilize these techniques along with various types of electromagnetic cannon in the non-physical realms that are tuned to such intricacies.
Can electronic infrastructure found within the prison be constructed to aid in the “astral body” DNA change, or to break the amnesia as a whole?
Yes, in a way, and only partially.
The entire system has both physical and non-physical components.
The bodies of humans and certain animals have had their DNA and mRNA modified to assist in the imprisonment of IS-BE’s.
By correcting this physical biological component to the universal norm, numerous existent amnesia systems will fail to work.
If so what sort of technologies should be focused on.?
Biological magnetism, electromagnetic frequencies at large voltages, and DNA and mRNA alterations.
The Questions and Answers (Group 3)
This group was quick to answer and very clear. I had no trouble getting or obtaining answers or information. All this makes me wonder if this (Domain) individual is a dedicated handler.
Technology & Prison Planet
Have the Atlan hybrids who were experimented on under Project Prometheus, began their reunion in the astral planes?
There is nothing to say about this. Null.
Is there any technology present within the prison that may be able to aid in healing those who have been targeted by the Old Empire to have debilitating illnesses to put them off carrying out their astral based assignments?
There is technology all over the physical solar system, and the non-physical solar system.
The issue is to recognize what it is, identify how it can be used, and then trained to use it properly.
While the <redacted> are using their expertise in this matter, they have a long way to go in discovering and uncovering what lies within these layers upon layers, upon layers of complex traps.
Needless to say, they are complex and far too dangerous for the casual, but enthusiastic IS-BE, to discharge.
There are many traps and snares, and one of which is a special mechanism that seeks out certain thought patterns, personalities and actions and targets it for illness or debilitating fiascos.
These systems roam the non-physical reality and the Domain destroys them when found.
But many still exist, and many are expertly camouflaged.
Those that travel the non-physical realms need to be extra cautious and understand that superior technologies, honed by billions of years, engulf the non-physical prison environment around the earth and snare, and harm the unprepared.
Luckily, most IS-BE’s that are self-actuated are aware that they are immortal, and cannot be harmed, but if the IS-BE is tethered to the prison environment, they can be damaged and returned to the amnesia process in a very harmful way. Care and caution needs to be observed.
The Questions and Answers (Group 4)
This group was also relatively quick to answer, and the “signal” came in rather strong and clear. It was like a kite on a nice fresh Spring Day. I attribute this to the Domain Officer on the other die of the Comm Channel.
Location and Rescue
Are the 3000 in one physical location and if not are they aware of each other’s presence?
The members of the “Lost Battalion” are scattered all over the world.
They occupy different bodies, and species. Many are human, but not all of them.
They have no recollection of who they are, nor their history.
They are isolated, and the “Old Empire” has created a system that immediately throws these IS-BE consciousness’s back to the earth environment immediately.
They do not even get to “rest” in the established “Heaven” that the “Old Empire” has set up for them.
Many (but not all) are living in a life of extreme poverty, confusion, fear and hopelessness’. And this system is specifically designed to foster this environment upon them.
They are not aware of any others from their Battalion and live very singular, lonely, isolated lives for the most part.
In general, almost all of the Lost Battalion are occupying bodies / situations / forms that are lower to middle to average social stratification. Of that, the weighed average is trending to the lower social strata.
Was the location in the Himalayas the ONLY location the 3000 stayed?
The Himalaya facility was the primary base of operations. Obviously they traveled as need be throughout the local physical environment, and there were “camps” in other locations that they would occupy and visit. However, the base was new, and there wasn't much time to develop other locations before they were attacked.
Were there any defectors and have they been located.
Aside from the few that were mentioned in the “Alien Interview”, there has not been any successful escapees.
The kind of IS-BE needed to escape is very special indeed. Not every IS-BE can reach this level of capability and ability. Those in the “Lost Battalion”, while very capable, were of a caliber that was not as flexible to reality manipulation as some of the leadership was / are.
Most of them were of military / service corps caliber. They were highly skilled and trained, and very aggressive, but they did not have the skills required to escape the Prison Planet configuration. Their strengths have been used against them. Like the "Chinese finger trap".
Are the 3000 still together or in “cells” scattered around the world?
No. They are homogenized throughout the planet, and rarely ever meet another imprisoned member.
None are in holding cells or other facilities. They are in "general population" throughout the globe.
The "holding cells" are used for officers and higher level Domain personnel. The Domain maintains a class system. Each class has it's own advantages, strengths, weaknesses and privileges. Those in the various levels of leadership possess much greater abilities of an exponential nature than the class directly below them.
Blank Slate Technology is a singular part of the many mechanisms used to generate an effective amnesia system. There are many systems involved. This is just another name for the wider-scope term “Brain Washing”. Keep in mind that this is a stratified system of control with many layers.
In the MWI there are multiple histories and multiple futures.
There are futures where this theory is embraced and futures where it is not.
What is important is that the trapped Battalion regain memories and skills for egress from the environment that is fencing them in.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a critical mass of “insight” or “understanding” that will “lift up” Battalion members out of their situation.
They (intentionally) have extra systems and controls that tie them down, isolate them, fill them with fear, and force them to try to act alone if ever.
The Questions and Answers (Group 5)
This set of queries were odd in that there was a noticeable pause of hick-up (if that makes sense) during the process. I was just about ready to get up out of the chair, it was so long, when the responses came back.
Freeing of Lost Battalion
How may we recognize members of the Lost Battalion should we meet them?
You will not be able to recognize them unless we specifically point them out to you.
They have no overt markers, characteristics or any other feature or attribute that sets them apart from the rest of society.
You will not be able to sense them either.
Those with heightened and trained abilities might be able to determine a general (touch / wisp / characteristic) but that is about it.
What actions are recommended should we recognize a member of the Lost Battalion?
Take no action unless specifically directed to.
You are not to get involved in their affairs unless specifically tasked to do so. While we appreciate your sympathies we must allow only overt actions where benefits can be tangibly manifested per our goals and plans.
The Amnesia Machinery
Upon death, when we perceive the “tunnel of light”. Is it recommended that we enter it?
No. We will send someone to retrieve you.
What are the pros and cons (of entering the light)?
If you enter the tunnel of light you will go straight into the reprogramming machinery.
There you will find yourself in “Heaven”, which is a special universe constructed for this Prison Planet realm.
Going through the tunnel adds your earth experiences in the last incarnation to that already collected in prior reincarnations (while in prison). You will have no knowledge of anything that transpired before that. All the trillions of years of events prior to your arrest and incarceration will be denied you.
However, you cannot access these Prison Planet memories directly. You will need a guide (a warden) to assist you. They will then carefully measure out previous memories to give you the illusion of control and remembrances of your past.
You will be permitted to attend “schools” in this Heaven construct, and then you will be provided with a new “mission” from which you will then be (again) injected into the earth Prison Environment. And subsequently lose all memories and start out all over again.
...
If you fail to enter the tunnel of light, then you will be a non-physical consciousness that is still trapped within the electromagnetic containment field, but you would still be permitted to move about at will.
You will need to seek out help and assistance to find your rightful place in the universe.
Unfortunately many IS-BE’s that try to do this find out that they are on their own. And are thus easily tricked by other malevolent non-physical entities that are also trapped within the confines of the Prison Environment. Many, not knowing any better will return to what they know; the loving warmth of the tunnel of light, and the calls of their loved ones.
...
You can think of going “into the light” as entering the main prison building, and Psych ward. Where, not going “into the light” sends you into the prison yard. In both cases, you need to make contact with someone who has the keys to the front gate to help you leave.
If we choose not to enter into the tunnel, is it a simple freewill decision on our part not to enter, enough to escape it?
To enter or not is the decision of the IS-BE.
The IS-BE always has free will, and decisions are based upon logic diagrams.
As long as the facts, and data are correct and extensive, most IS-BE’s will make correct and valid decisions.
However, one of the layers of the prison incarceration system is to distract, and mislead the inmates. This will cause them to make invalid and erroneous decisions.
Should we choose not to enter into the tunnel, what is (a) recommended place that we should next go to?
If any IS-BE decides not to go into the tunnel, they can remain in the non-physical realm associated with their body upon death. They can move about and explore.
Those who work with The Domain will be acquired in short order and taken to a holding facility for processing, debriefing and next steps.
Those that are just “normal” and regular people should start shouting out for help and assistance. The problem with doing this is that it will attract all sorts of entities and they will have all sorts of (desires / interests / plans) which may or may not be in the best interests of the IS-BE.
The best thing to do is to call out for a Domain Officer to come and pick you up. You do this through thought visualization. Much the same way that people call out for Ganesha, or Jesus.
Destruction of other Traps
If the universe is malleable and responds to our Intentions, is it sufficient to use intention to free ourselves from or destroy these traps?
The universe is malleable to a point. And the use of thoughts and intentions is how you are able to control it.
However, the ability to manipulate the universe and realities is a function of skill level, and skills are an acquired mastery.
This is the major problem with the amnesia fence, it is difficult to use the skills that you acquire if you constant forget what they are.
Is the Domain supervised by a higher power? If so please describe this higher power.
The Domain is the highest power. The Domain does not report to or serve under any other power.
The Questions and Answers (Group 6)
This group was a quick call out and a very quick response. At this point, I felt like we were “on a roll.”
The Domain & Service to Others Sentience
How can you be STO sentience and invade other IS-BE etc. Is this like a preemptive strike so protect your freedom? Or is this like, we make contact and see if we can work together, and if not we go to war?
Imagine you have a very healthy body. You exercise it, eat well. You take care of it. But there is a cancer that develops in it.
The healthy body was here first.
The cancer attacks the body with distortions that disrupt the function of the body and will eventually destroy the body completely.
Being a STO sentience, should you live and let live the cancer that is running on a rampage? Or should you protect the weak and helpless healthy cells before the dangerous cancer cells take over.
The Domain was established at the very start of everything. We created universes, worlds, plant and animal lives. We watched as fellow IS-BE's occupy those bodies and started to corrupt the creations that we built. At a certain level, it becomes necessary to prevent the creation of dangerous civilizations, and structures that will disrupt and destroy the whole. Such as with the "Old Empire".
Service to others sentience performs actions for the greater good.
However, often we discover that Service to Self individuals tend to appear when they experience the physical pleasures of beauty in the physical reality.
It is the duty of "service to others" sentience to protect others from the malevolence of "service to self" societies.
The Questions and Answers (Group 7)
The communication for this group f questions were clear, crisp, and laconic.
Freeing of Lost Battalion
Can you provide step by step instructions for helping freeing the Lost Battalion?
No. This task is too large for any one IS-BE no matter how well-intentioned. The entire procedure is an enormous undertaking and requires a coordinated and precise group collaborative effort.
Imprisoned IS-BE's who wish to participate need only vocalize that intention as per the MM Prayer system, and focus on guidance though their observations, emotions and ("intuition" / gut feelings) and dreams.
The use of directed thought from inside the Prison Planet will enable a number of non-physical events to materialize. Then, coupled with specific training or skills that will will provide in the non-physical realms to those IS-BE's (who will notice happening while in their dream state), they will become active and valuable members of this entire effort.
Destruction (Escape) of the Amnesia Machinery
Can you provide clear instructions in order to minimize/ avoid the effects of this Machinery?
Yes we can.
We have had Domain Officers escape from this system and avoid the machinery without mRNA or DNA changes to their physical bodies, and material physical destruction of the systems. However, they were able to gain control of their thoughts to an exacting amount.
The key is the ability to control one's thoughts and alter the machinery of this reality by your thoughts.
What MM is pointing out here is that the entire system of visualization of world-line templates on the MWI is a description of the Prison Planet system. It is a machine; a machinery that controls the inmates.
It is NOT a description of the ultimate reality outside of the prison.
MM has laid out a map and an understanding on how to control and navigate in and out of the prison while mastering the control of this reality machinery.
By controlling your thoughts, not only can you alter your reality, but you can egress out and away from the control of the entire Prison Planet system.
Destruction of other Traps
Are religious systems part of the traps installed here?
Yes. From the earliest records that we know of, the "Old Empire" designated and crated religious systems to control the population. This served to objectives. First to erase the idea that IS-BE's are themselves God, and second to create a fearful environment for non-compliance with the Prison Rules.
If not, do religious practices provide an escape from amnesia? please detail which ones.
Null.
The Questions and Answers (Group 8)
I did not understand the question at all. But I read it out and got a lightening quick response that actually startled me. The “being on a roll” continued.
The evil entities within the Prison system.
How to clean the infected is be that corrupt the world, mostly as members of secret societies, and have dispersed everywhere technologies and 5G and satellites to control and tax everything and beings.
All of the systems that exist in the world today are derivatives of the "Old Empire" and set in place by intentional malevolent beings who have reincarnated intentionally to positions of power. This is a core function of the Heaven universe that is tethered and directly adjacent to the physical worldly realm.
In addition, you have "Old Empire" wardens that intentionally escaped and egressed into the system, fully understanding how it works, placing themselves into positions of power and control, and living a comfortable life of ease and wealth. We suspect, but haven't fully investigated this situation, but they seem to have "rigged the game" in their favor so that they (the wardens and elite members of the "Old Empire") can reincarnate over and over again and still retain memories. It's like they posses special keys and abilities.This is one of the tasks that we need to extract from them.
Unfortunately, they are slippery folk. As soon as they sense we are going to get them, they die and are immediately taken to the Heaven construct though the "tunnel of light" that erases all memories (except theirs), and if we follow them, we too would become trapped into this Prison Planet system.
The very nature of the Prison Planet is to create a Hellish existence where IS-BE's would relive events over and over again, and make it so that each life that they live is one of fear, terror, fright, sadness and disgust.
Technology is not evil. Much of what people experience is fear of technology which is one of the controls that the Prison Planet uses. A true and actuated IS-BE has no fear. In the world today, many evil and corrupt individuals use fear to gain control and achieve emotional satisfaction.
Currently The Domain needs to rescue the Lost Battalion. Then assist in the release of all the service to others sentience's trapped in this earth-centrist Prison Planet.
For the record, these communications are relatively easy for me (personally) to engage in. My problem is receiving the contacts without the background noise. If the “amplitude” of the connection is turned up, the messages are very clear. But I end up shaking like a leaf, am very dehydrated, an emotional ball, and spend the next eight hours or so “bouncing off the walls”. To control this, I asked to tone down the amplitude, and I have begun to listen more closely without the bothersome side effects.
The Questions and Answers (Group 9)
Again, I don’t fully understand the question but posted it anyways. I didn’t get much of anything for a while. Just a bunch of “dead air” if that means anything. Then a few bursts of information. Then silence.
Then the comm link opened on the other side and here’s the responses.
Affirmation Campaigns and The Domain
Will affirmation campaigns geared toward nullifying all contracts unwittingly taken out on our souls/astral bodies help in breaking the through the amnesia?
Yes. They are the most powerful tool for those you are unable to remove their preconditioning, programming and set baseline biases and social constructs. It's a method of thought control. They best and only way for an IS-BE inmate to self-actuate is by thought control.
If we don’t agree any of the hypnosis will this help?
Anything that focuses on control of the mind will help. But the focus must be without fear of consequences, fear of society, or any other fears as these get into the way of processing the thoughts.
The mechanisms in place take those fears and use them to bend the thought waves. As now distorted vectors they end up going in other locations and the helpless inmate is forced to experience life in coils. Over and over and over again. Fear controls it all.
Be cautious of all sources of fear generation. This includes religion media, politics, friends, rumors, society, and every other thing that makes you question your actions (whether taken or not).
The Questions and Answers (Group 10)
Short simple questions. Easy to conceptualize, and transmit. I tried to get answers but nothing happened. Null. Tried again. Null. Then on the third try I received some answers.
I have to tell you that the answers made me sit back and wonder WTF. Because they are not in agreement with my understandings of history and events.
Destruction of the amnesia machinery.
Does any of the machinery still exist in the physical reality on Earth?
We suspect that yes; some self-actuated autonomous systems do still exist on the earth surface in the physical reality.
However we have not been able to locate the machinery. They have been expertly concealed and their "footprints" are difficult to track if you do not know what to look for. Those elements that reside in the non-physical realities are far easier to locate.
The best way to track these mechanisms is to track the comm channels when the physical machinery interacts with the non-physical machinery. All of which required <redacted> support, analysis and disarming.
If so, how can we recognize it should we come across any machinery?
You would not be able to recognize it. Even if you could, it would be far too dangerous for you to disarm or attempt to disarm. The last earth-side (physical event) took place in 1908 in Tunguska. A major mechanism was destroyed completely. It had been hidden under a "force shield".
We believed that this facility was a remaining "Old Empire" logistics and storage facility. (Which seemed to have some control over thought processes. At that time we were unaware of the true extent of the systems.) This is because we were unaware of an electronic fence surrounding the region or the true purpose and nature of the region.
We thought, at that time that that was the last of the systems remaining. But we were wrong. There was an entire fully operational base staffed with "Old Empire" personnel operating and in existence.
Unaware of this, and under the impression that we cleared out the systems, we began an operation to attempt to bring peace and stability to the earth at that time.
It was an operation that enabled a Domain Officer to occupy the body of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. The plan was to suppress a build up towards war by restoring Austro-Russian relations while maintaining an alliance with Germany.
How do we notify the Domain so it can be deactivated and removed safely?
All IS-BE's that wish to work with the Domain, need only vocalize that they volunteer to be part of The Domain. Then, over time, various systems will enable instantaneous monitoring of all experiences of the IS-BE so involved.
The Questions and Answers (Group 11)
This was really strange. I just copied the text from the comment without reading it, and plopped it down in the wordpress, and the channel burst out laughing. Which was really a weird feeling. It’s sort of like having a vibrator in your skull. The answers came smoothly. Like hot syrup.
Why Now?
My first issue is that the original timeline was pushed forward 5000 years. This implies that something really big happened and they need a new plan of action. Did something unexpected happen that caught them by surprise?
Yes. It was unexpected that the inmates in the Prison Planet would be desirous of working with The Domain. Of course, they had ulterior motives. They wanted power, technology, knowledge and skills that they could use to lord over others, and obtain more power.
We established lines of communication and engaged in technology transfer activities (of a minor nature) in exchange for assistance in monitoring the environment, society, trends, and in helping us to start shutting down the prison mechanism apparatus.
Once we applied for and obtained approval from our leadership, resources were allocated and a staff was increased to help mitigate the situation here and help recover and restore the "Lost Battalion". A major colony was set up in the moon, which MM has written about.
Early on we began collecting members of the "Lost Battalion" and implanted EBP (sic) systems to help track and monitor them. They typically are unruly to the extreme in regards to this effort. We have also identified key individual IS-BE's that seem to be close to having the necessary skills (independently) to leave this Prison Planet environment. Finally, there are a handful of MAJestic members, such as MM, which have a special role in this entire project.
There have been remarkable advances since the Roswell event. And since MAJestic was initiated, the assistance from earth-side has been invaluable. Since then, we have independently contacted other governments and entities in the world and have other groups working with us in this effort.
These organizations are diverse and all are secretive. None advertises their work, process or recruitment drives. There are formal organizations in modern day Russia, India, China, Bangladesh, as well as in South America and Africa. Each organization has a certain role.
Certainly the American MAJestic organization has been quite busy, but the other (names redacted intentionally by MM) organizations are invaluable. Most especially at this particular time.
Certainly there are all sorts of seriously bad consciousnesses and IS-BE’s that are in positions of power and control. They seem to be driving the world to the brink of extinction. What is going on? What can we do?”
You are in a Prison Environment. There are many bad people along you.
There is a high percentage of very evil people in this Prison Planet environment and they have created systems over systems over systems that reflect their desires. Eventually the entire system will explode in a major collapse, and then society will need to rebuild up all over again. It is what happens when you have a certain threshold of evil people in positions of power in society.
The good news is that The Domain have agents (now) occupying the bodies of key individuals and they will not "push the red button", or engage in war, no matter what their evil and vile crazed leaders might want them to do.
You need not worry about this. The Domain will not allow a repeat of World War I. However, a smaller, more localized event might still occur even though we are doing everything in our power to prevent it from occurring. Some events like tidal waves and typhoons and hurricanes can be prepared for, but you cannot stop them. They need to run their course.
To make it short, is there anything they should disclose to us humans or the participants? (bearing in mind, we humans can be pretty altruistic. And if things impact humanity, we still need to have some good faith disclosure).
No. There is no need for any disclosure that might generate fear.
Fear distracts from the thoughts, and thoughts affect reality. All one needs to know is that all of the situations involving the earth Prison Planet are monitored and observed and resources have been moved into place to mitigate any catastrophic events from happening.
If we have a possibly limited window to communicate , then we should focus on priorities for humanity and the Dominion.
Yes. This is correct. Thank you for understanding.
My instincts tell me we need to understand why they turn to us. In any deal, we have to know the dynamics.
This event with MM was planned at the start of MAJestic and occurred before the birth of MM. Everything now is following the steps laid down by The Domain. The plan is well thought out and methodical.
MM is not the only operative resource that we put in place. Others are working in other capabilities, and all have varying degrees of success.
The Questions and Answers (Group 12)
This train of thought continues with another batch of questions from another person. And like the preceding batch of questions the results and answers were fluid and easy.
Reasoning behind comm at this time
What was the reasoning for asking for our help at this time? Is there an urgency that we should be aware of?
All is on schedule. We (The Domain) anticipated enlisting General Population participation in the 2021 time-frame.
This is exactly 40 years from the date MM joined MAJestic. -MM
What skills, talents, or perceptions do we as imprisoned IS-BE’s possess that would assist in this mission?
The inmates that wish to assist The Domain possess a Service-to-self others sentience which is different from the Service-to-self sentience of the MAjestic and other government organizations.
We need [1] selfless devotion to a cause, and [2] directed thought that [3] emulates from within the Prison Planet confines.
In case there is any confusion as to what is expected of a Service to others sentience, consider this video that was brought to my attention this morning.
A young Pioneer (a Chinese version of the cub scouts / girl scouts) shows us what a Service to Others life is all about.
Is there anything in the physical world we should be doing, either in regards to the Lost Battalion or the traps and machinery of the “Old Empire”, or will our efforts concentrate on the spiritual realm and Intention campaigns?
The most important aspect of participation is anchoring efforts as part of intention campaigns. This is crucial to this phase in the effort. In addition, we might ask certain individuals with other advanced skills to participate in other ways, and we might ask a few to accept a EBP (sic) modification.
What should we be most wary of, and should we expect to be part of this operation for multiple lifetimes?
Every IS-BE is different. Ideally, this would be the last cycle of reincarnation for the participants with The Domain.
However, fear is a strong driver, and not everyone who wants to be a service-to-others sentience actually is. Thus, there are those that may choose to assist with the Domain and then upon death cycle back into the "Heaven universe" associated with this Prison Planet and begin all over again.
What plans do you have for the rehabilitation of your imprisoned IS-BE’s and the release of other favorable IS-BE’s?
We are currently working on systems to do this, and this requires a number of helpers that are and would be considered to be very strange to your sensibilities. But the rehabilitation systems are being developed right now and are on schedule.
The Questions and Answers (Group 13)
This was an interesting reaction. Odd. Surprisingly quick. Like how a father would speak to a young child who just lost their puppy. It was a very curious feeling.
Existing comm with the Domain.
Some of us are highly aware and actively engaged in our contracts through the Domain, but have become aware of a breech in communication efforts.the interference does not seem like CMEs etc, but rather are terrestrial satellite interference’s. will we be able to reopen our channels soon? or is this too great of a security threat at this time? has anyone else questioned why we feel ” forced into solitary confinement” and silence?
(Long Pause.) There are authorized and unauthorized contacts. There are also frauds and hoaxes. MM and members of his project cell are the only MAJestic-authorized direct contacts.
We once permitted ad hoc communication of Domain officers in the Prison Environment, such as with Nikola Tesla. That ended by directive when we decided to implement efforts to recover this solar system. There are no longer any unauthorized communication efforts.
Yes. There are contacts through some other organizations.
We do not authorize individual communication without a physical EBP installed in the physical body. You will know if you have it. It happens in the physical body. It is not easily dismissed or forgotten.
Communication through the EBP is impervious to all external interference and interruption. It is a direct comm link to (a handler, local to this region in) The Domain.
We do make changes to the non-physical bodies, and the individual IS-BE's so modified will have a disturbing dream, a frozen in place feeling, or a very lucid dream that they cannot control. Most will retain a memory of it. Many misinterpret this as an "Alien Abduction Event". But these changes to the non-physical body do not permit ease of communication. They serve another purpose.
If you are experiencing anything other than direct communication efforts then ... (Intentionally trailed off.)
(I do not know what happened.)
These contacts and communication channels are not trivial things. The channels are for assignments, tasks and collaborate collection in Intel. Nothing else. (The phrase "nothing else", echoed like in a long hallway.)
I am aware of every communication effort with the inmates in this region. If you want to open a dialog, strengthen your... (again, long pause), or understand your relationship with the Domain, you need to focus your thoughts to that end. You need to focus on the needs of The Domain if you wish to communicate with us.
(Then, I could picture a kind smile, like what a vet would give me when my beloved cat was very ill.)
I tried to offer some additional suggested text and hit a blank wall, and nothing. This is a final word.
The Questions and Answers (Group 14)
This next group comes piggy-back, back to back with the one preceding it. I actually have the impression that the Commander was a little snarky in the previous chat. No. Snarky is not the right word, maybe humorously aggressive in a Boston-Friendly sort of way.
Kind. Very kind. But also very fatherly.
And the “feeling” was “switch from A to B”, or go from “color green to bright yellow”. If that makes any sense. I felt a distinct serious and fatherly tone.
Time and world-lines
Am I right in assuming, that the ‘help’ we can offer is limited to this particular timeline, timeline being understood as linear progression of time from this point forward?
Yes. You are correct from your point of view.
(There are a series of in-depth and advanced information garbles that I cannot make heads or tails out of. The Commander is obviously trying to submit information. I just cannot catch it.)
(I have snatches that I understand. Clustering. Anchoring. Progression forward. Soul / consciousness "beam-walking".)
The impression that I get is that there is much that can be said and the Commander wants to transmit valuable information here, but I am not up to the task. I am sorry.
Am I right in assuming that our activities should be limited spatially to this particular instantiation of ‘planet earth’?
No. Earth is one of numerous solar systems caught up in the Prison Planet force field. And the entire MWI slices involved... (Again, much information. Too much to sort out. I am failing and flailing here.)
(Commander backs off.)
Focus on your IS-BE consciousness at your moment of time and work from there. You not worry about all the other aspects of it. You, in particular (directed at the person who asked the question), will see the clarity of the entire situation once you exit the physical reality. Just don't go back into the (that) tunnel.
(Wants to transmit more information.)
(Good will. Right track. Positive glee.)
If one should gain insight into the life/lives of this current Soul/Sentience. -combination, is that information/insight still valid in this timeline?
Yes. Everything is valid. The issue is remembering it all, then recompiling it at the end of the lifetime and reusing that information to build upon and grow.
The Questions and Answers (Group 15)
When I got this group of questions I just shook my head. And “felt a smile”, and a memory flooded my mind clear as day. When I lived in Indiana we would often have lots of cats, and litters of kittens. Often from nearby feral cats that would have a bunch of kittens.
Once I had maybe eight kittens in a tall cardboard box. They were mostly orange and white in different patterns. But one was a cute nearly all black kitten with a white and orange stripe on it’s head. And while the other kittens were all content to romp and play inside the box, this one; this black one, was constantly trying to climb out of the box and run away.
One day he climbed out, ran across the street and was hit by a car and died.
This memory and image came up clear as day when I read this following cluster of questions.
Answers are not specific enough.
Still not specific enough. What facilities do they not know the location of?
(Snark response.) What non-physical entities are you NOT aware of that occupy the 3Km diameter region centered from your bathroom?
What do they suspect the traps are and how do they need assistance in disabling them?
Null response.
(There is an answer to this question above.)
What is the power source for the equipment being used to suppress memories?
(Snark response.)
The standard local power sources that all the traps use. Duh! (Yes, as really strange as it seems he actually went "Duh!" with an overlay of Homer Simpson.)
Will they commit more resources in the short term if assistance is offered?
We have everything we need right now. If there is a need for more resources then we will apply for them, and obtain them. This is not an issue that you need be concerned about.
You’ve said in other posts that the Greys are like the Borg from Star Trek, and that someone in the know likely tipped Paramount productions off about the real aliens as inspiration for that idea. I’m a ‘Love thy enemy like yourself’ sort of person. Help can be offered, still there is risk. Will they promise not to harm humanity if their battalion is freed?
All entities of this geographic and spatial region are under the ownership and control of the Dominion. No harm will come to anyone. You are all under our jurisdiction. Please keep in mind that IS-BE's cannot be destroyed. However there are other awful futures that can be contemplated for the malevolent.
I read the Alien interview closely when you published it. Any more specifics other that what was already mentioned in the alien interview are better than none. Surely if they contact you again they can offer a tidbit more than what we already have or they wouldn’t have contacted you and your audience in this fashion.
This is the purpose of this dialog, human.
The Questions and Answers (Group 16)
I tackled this Q&A with the feeling of “ready, let’s do this”. And the answers flowed forth. It was all very matter-of-fact, on point and direct.
Amnesia Trap
Does the amnesia trap have a physical size or range of effectiveness in physical space?
Yes it does. It is limited to a small geographical area that contains five inhabited solar systems. Not every inhabited system contains planets like the Sun Type 12, Class 7 that the earth is.
This region is ovoid in shape with a oval X axis, and oval, X axis, and an oval Z axis. (3 dimensional football-like shape. -MM)
About 70 million years ago a great war devastated many of the solar systems in this geographic region of the galaxy. This occurred long before the "Old Empire" came into existence. During the recovery period a number of colonies were established on the planets in this region, but not of them grew to be major hubs of trade or commerce.
Around 208,000 years ago the "Old Empire" established dominance, and took over this geographical region. They ascertained that this section of the galaxy was a "junk yard" / rubbish / "of no use" and decided to turn it into a big Prison System. They destroyed what ever colonies or civilizations existed in the systems around 75,000 years ago, and created the Prison Complex that exists today.
It seems that since IS-BEs need to be brought to Earth for imprisonment, there might be a region or volume in which the trap is effective. If it does have a finite size, what would happen to humans who travel beyond it’s edge?
The entity would be free of the Prison environment and all the traps that exist. The IS-BE would be able to explore and travel anywhere.
However, the felon would not have any memories aside from the singular last lifetime on the Prison Planet environment.
All the trillions of years prior to their arrest and incarceration would be missing, as well as the memories associated from the hundreds to thousands of lives that they lived cycling in and out through the Prison "Heaven" would all be gone.
What would happen if a human were to die while beyond the edge?
Humans are IS-BE. IS-BE's never die. There is a fundamental vested interest of the "Old Empire" prison system to prevent you from seeing who you actually are. They fear that you will identify (by using your own memory) the slave masters who keep you imprisoned.
The Questions and Answers (Group 17)
This next question is in regards to communication between MM readership and The Domain. I guess that the intention is on an individual basis. I asked after I ate lunch, and settled down. I had a period of nothing. No responses. Then the comm opened up.
Communication
What can we do to support and improve communications?
The best way to communicate with The Domain is to use the EBP. If you do not possess one, then the second best way is to use someone that has as an intermediary.
Individual inmates that are of service-to-others sentience, and who sincerely wish to provide supporting roles with The Domain can volunteer.
To do this, [1] you modify your affirmation prayer campaigns (sic) to specifying (your) acceptance of volunteering and assisting The Domain in our efforts what ever they may be. (I have script code to add to your prayer affirmations to accomplish this. -MM)
Over time, some quicker than others, an [2] opportunity will arise where you are contacted in the non-physical body. It is very rare to be contacted in the physical body.
[3] The perceptions of this event will differ from person to person. Some "feel" this event. Some witness this event. Some remember this event as a very strange dream. This "contact" will take different forms for different people, and it depends on many things. Some people might feel a vibrational attachment (of some sort), while others might witness a medical procedure. Still others might experience a very lucid but completely strange dream. Some will feel like they are frozen and unable to move, and the fear of that will cause all sorts of terrible manifestations. Some will feel like they are under water, and unable to breathe, and others will feel both big and small and very very disoriented. It will be horrific. But it's all perceptions colored by fear.
How it appears will depend on many things.
It will be strange. It will be unusual. It will be difficult to describe. But it will feel absolutely real.
However, take and make an important note [4], if you believe, or feel, that this event occurred then it actually did occur. (All emphasis is from the Domain Officer, not MM.)
The over all purpose of this communication is to gather up a group of volunteer inmates to assist in efforts of The Domain. If you accept this recruitment effort by MM, then follow the steps outlined above.
Note that every task will be a personal task, and will not really be anything that will make sense to others outside of your operational cell. We would truly love for your participation with us. (Smile.)
On a personal note, I think that I am getting better at this. I think that this comm system is working out.
Additional comments from the officer
The following are follow-up comments from the Domain officer(s)…
19SEP21 15:49
There are numerous individuals that are (now) experiencing things; events, situations and are confused. You need not be. Everything is proceeding to plan. Some of you will be assigned some dangerous tasks, but nothing that you will not survive out of, nor will you operate alone. You will always be supported.
(Garbled / unclear.)
Trust in yourself, and follow MM. Perform your exercises. Be of good heart.
My own personal questions
I mean, I can do this right? So I asked.
A number (more than just a few) of MM followers are reporting “sleep paralysis”. What is going on?
In every case, those that experience this sensation have agreed to support the efforts of The Domain and have volunteered to join our local irregulars.
What they are experiencing is an operation (of sorts) [like a medical procedure] that alters their non-physical body. These alterations serve to sever numerous well known chains /tethers /controls /traps set up by the "Old Empire" and the warden(s) in this environment.
Some will need to experience only one procedure. Some might experience multiple procedures. No one need be fearful, but if you are unaware of what is going on, it will be a natural fear response and your thoughts will conjure up all sorts of terrors. They are not real. Everyone must remain calm and realize what is going on.
These procedures are not the installation of EBP (sic). These are something completely different and varies from IS-BE to IS-BE. It will make it easier for the IS-BE to work with The Domain, and be able to move about the non-physical environs as well as be able to leave this entire region all together.
Everyone will experience the procedure differently. One of the most common effects is feeling like you are in a state of paralysis. What is actually going on is that the consciousness is placed in a holding chamber / facility / stasis state while the non-physical body is being operated on. For many this is a first-time experience, and is entirely new and strange. They naturally panic, and the fears generate nightmares in the thought-sensitive operating chamber.
My message to all is to remain calm. We are not harming anyone. We are altering your body so that you can work alongside The Domain. If things become too terrifying for you, you need only relax. You are in the midst of friends.
Conclusions
Some of the responses were surprising. There was a latent humanity that I was not expecting. Some were aggressive and it was intended for me to transfer that aggressiveness in my report. I hope that you all benefited from this.
I know that some will not be satisfied with the answers; claiming them to be too general. While others will be satisfied. While still others, maybe a little frustrated or angry. As we used to say in corporate America; “Don’t shoot the messenger”.
I do hope that everyone has benefited in some way over this. Have a great day.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
This article is a request for the MM audience to collect questions for me to ask The Domain via my EBP. If you all don’t know what I am talking about, then you can probably skip this article.
On 17SEP21 I posted an article that related the fact that The Domain opened up a dedicated channel to me via the EBP. As always, it was one-sided, and detailed. But during the conversation, I had no real mental ability. I was in a receiving and reporting state. I was really unable to think for myself. I just queried what I was told to ask and recorded the answers.
You can read this article HERE, if you are confused with what is going on.
Some Background
Most people are aware that the work titled “Alien Interview” is a transcript of a Commander of The Domain when it’s vehicle crashed in 1947. What most people do not know is that this event spawned an American top secret agency known as MAJestic that fell under the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence).
This waved, unacknowledged special access program handled (and still handles) all extraterrestrial events, technologies and interactions with the United States government. I was a unique part of that organization prior to being retired.
I do know that MAJestic works intimately with the Domain. And that it has acquired technology, information and understandings from The Domain. Obviously further more exacting information came forth and was accumulated in the 75 or so years since the formation of MAJestic.
This project
I know, and I am absolutely convinced that The Domain wants to do this. They are sort of waiting for me to set the incident(s) in place, and then will direct it as they see fit.
It’s kind of like how a microwave keeps flashing after it finishes cooking the food, or how a washing machine has the display beeping after it finished washing a load. This flashing / beeping is still present. (Though… it’s something different.)
My idea is to collect questions. Know full well that they may or may not answer them. But I will go read the questions and then record the answers if available. If they do not answer, I will respond as such.
People (!) this is your first, maybe ONLY chance, to ask questions to an extraterrestrial.
My impression is that this is an officer or an approved liaison that is associated with my EBP implants. I am also under the impression, most strongly, that this is an approved effort. And that it is somehow associated with my Majestic role. To this end, there is a channel that is open and dedicated to this purpose.
I know it is open. I can fucking feel it.
I do not know how long it will remain open. Hours. Months, Years. I just do not know.
I have the impression that they WANT to do this, and that they WANT actual inmate involvement in their efforts in this region of geographical space. I believe that they NEED and / or require our participation in some way.
What are the interests of The Domain on Earth?
This EBP channel is not for popular trivia.
Nor is it for questions about our worries or fears. It is for queries on how we, as inmate humans, can help and participate with the Type-1 extraterrestrials of The Domain. That’s it.
It’s for Rufus’s to ask questions so that we can learn how to be able to assist the Type-1 greys of The Domain.
I get the distinct impression that they really want for us to participate in their objectives, and they are willing to provide a diversity of answers to help alleviate our fears and concerns. But in all cases keep in mind that they will only answer what they want to answer.
Thus, any questions that you might conceive of, MUST be directed towards [1] The Domain and [2] their role and mission in this earth regional environment.
Their interests are…
Freeing the 3000 members of the “Lost Battalion”.
Control and destruction or control of the amnesia machinery that surrounds the earth.
Destruction of the various traps, systems, and mechanisms that entrap consciousness in this environment.
Preservation of the earth’s environment and prevention of nuclear, biological or climatic destruction.
Patrol and policing of this region from “dropping off” more consciousnesses into this Prison Planet.
Establishment of a rehabilitation plan for the inmates in this environment.
Support of the sentience sorting efforts so that the “good” inmates may be freed from this environment.
Freeing of IS-BE’s that are worthy of leaving this Prison Environment.
Because these are the interests of The Domain at this time, in our region, these are the topic areas that we would be able to obtain answers regarding.
Some notes on how this open channel affects me
It is like electricity.
Normally, with the ELF probes active, and the EBP it was like a normal life, just “very active”. Everything was like a car engine running at full speed.
Then when I was retired, and the ELF probes were shut off, everything went quiet. It was a state of calmness that I hadn’t felt for decades. It was like calm still water, while before it was like being tied to an electric chair with 30,000 volts surging through my body.
But the EBP was still active.
And yet, as a result of this, I would have a channel in the EBP open and get chit-chat from time to time. Always one sided. Always directed. Always functional. Always on a passive station but ready for my responsive actions.
Then when I received the communication from a Commander of The Domain, it’s like “multiple channels”, or a bandwidth increase. Much better data transfer and sensory input.
I’m not used to it.
It’s not bad, it’s not horrible. It’s just that it’s unlike what I have been exposed to and pretty fierce.
It’s like plugging in a fan, as opposed to letting the fan sit in the corner of the room inert and alone.
As a result, I have a very clear comm channel.
When I say that they are open to answering sincere questions, then they will do so. And that when I say that they want us to work with them, believe me. That is the situation.
So be the Rufus, and posit some decent questions.
Question format and queries
What I plan on doing is collecting any and all questions that might result from this article. Then simplifying them, and placing them in a Q&A format. And seeing what happens.
If nothing happens, then so be it.
But if something does, then you might be surprised at the answers. As you can tell, they answer things very clearly and directly with a great deal of detail. It’s very similar to what was found in The Alien Interview.
Please ask questions that fall under these categories, and when you ask a question, please specify what category that it falls under.
Freeing the “Lost Battalion”.
Ask questions on what we can do to free the “Lost Battalion”. Or what problems or issues seem to be stopping their release. Ask what we can do to help, or anything related to freeing inmates.
Destruction of the amnesia machinery.
You should ask questions related to this machinery and how an inmate might be able to assist in the destruction of this equipment. Maybe we, as insiders, have a benefit, or skill or strategic advantage that we can offer. We should ask.
Aside from the amnesia machinery, the destruction of other systems or traps.
It’s not only the amnesia machinery that needs to be destroyed, but the layers and layers of other systems, in all forms. From the various social constructions, religious constructs, and even the environmental constructs, what can we do or how can we help.
Preservation of the earth’s environment.
I know that the type-1 greys are very keen on preserving the earth. This entire region has experienced galactic wide wars of great destruction and the ruins of many a civilization litter this region. This is more than just climate change.
Prevention of nuclear and biological destruction of the biosphere.
Certainly there are all sorts of seriously bad consciousnesses and IS-BE’s that are in positions of power and control. They seem to be driving the world to the brink of extinction. What is going on? What can we do?
Patrol and policing of this region from “dropping off” more consciousnesses into this Prison Planet.
When The Domain destroyed the “Old Empire” units and bases in this region they inadvertently opened up a “Wild West”. For the last few thousand years, all the nearby galactic civilizations have been dropping off their criminal elements here to imprison them. What of it?
Establishment of a rehabilitation plan for the inmates in this environment.
This is a big issue, and we are up close and up front. We can ask questions regarding this plan or systems or programs that are being considered.
Support of the sentience sorting efforts so that the “good” inmates may be freed from this environment.
Release of everyone immediately would be catastrophic for the galaxy. As there are many, many very terrible consciousnesses in our region. The universe doesn’t need a new Khan Running around.
Freeing of IS-BE’s that are worthy of leaving this Prison Environment.
What of the “average joes? The artists, and the creators that somehow found their way here in this environment and imprisoned improperly? We can ask questions about them, and how they can be distinguished between the really bad and nasty folk.
Procedure.
Put your questions in the comments of this article. I will collect them in another article and run a request up-stream. Let’s see what happens.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented a great and wide diverse selection of articles to the MM audience. And I do hope that you all appreciate them, enjoy them, learn from them, and I most certainly hope that they will all better your life in some way. This article is going to be a little different.
This article kicks off a project that I believe is important. It is something that I want to do.
Instead of being an informative article, this article asks all those Rufus’s in the MM audience to help the Type-1 greys of The Domain. They have a “Lost Battalion” that is imprisoned here on the Earth with us. And we should do what ever we can to help rescue them.
MM Role
I have no recollection of ever being in The Domain, or being a Type-1 grey or anything like that. I was in MAJestic and I dedicated my life to helping others and being part of something larger. I want to help them. I do not expect riches, wealth or some kind of trans-species reward or anything like that. I just want to help them.
If there are Rufus’s in the MM audience that are so inclined to join me, then please do so. Let’s give something back. Let’s make the Earth a better place, and lets all work together to bypass the memory suppression technology that surrounds this Earth Environment, and help free the “Lost Battalion” and enable them to recover their memories.
What I am asking the Rufus’s to do…
It is my personal “gut” feeling that the members of the Domain’s “Lost Battalion” 3,000 have some very strong erasure protocols installed in their world-line templates. Stronger than say, the rest of us.
When the Types-1 greys try to conduct medical or other procedures on the soldiers, they fight and resist aggressively.
I’ve been thinking that the best thing for us to do is lay down “suppressive fire” that will alter all of our templates in favor of these imprisoned soldiers.
It will not cause damage to our goals or anything, but we will start to anchor our world-line clusters in favor of the imprisoned Domain members, and make it much easier for them to break out of their confining electro-magnetic prisons and suppressive brain-washing.
The task…
For those Rufus’s that are so inclined, and only if you are so inclined, I suggest adding some special lines of code to your affirmation prayer campaigns.
Lines of code from the movie “The Matrix”.
These lines of code will help anchor your world-lines to that of a group cluster that focuses in rescuing the trapped Domain soldiers in the Earth Prison Planet.
Here are the lines of code…
From a contributor…
I volunteer and support “The Domain” in their mission to rehabilitate the IS-BEs on Earth.
I allow an officer from “The Domain” to enlist me and alter my non-physical body to allow for communication and collaboration.
I am being trained in techniques to assist my assigned role in this mission.
My participation in this mission will not affect me and my family negatively in the physical reality.
And my suggestions…
Any and all members of The Domain’ “Lost Battalion” are no longer imprisoned in this “Old Empire” containment facility.
All of these IS-BE entities are in recovery and rehabilitation.
They are all on the way to recovering their memories and regaining a role within their society.
Just add the lines of code, and the next time that you start your next campaign, just read off these lines with the rest of your affirmations.
You might also want to add this line as well…
I, as an IS-BE have recovered all of my memories, and now have the necessary skills to be freed from the Earth Prison Planet environment.
Rewards…
There are no rewards. So do not do it in the expectation of any kind of benefit.
What is all this about?
Not everyone reading this article will understand what is going on. MM has many “one article stands” where someone stumbles on the site, skim reads and then leaves. But if you stay around and read the articles you will see what is going on.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The key text segments…
"What would you like to say, Airl?", I asked. "I have been a part of the Domain Expeditionary Force in this sector of space for several thousand years. However, I have not personally had intimate contact with beings on Earth since 5,965 BCE. It is not my primary function to interact with inhabitants of planets within The Domain. I am an Officer, Pilot and Engineer, with many duties to perform. Nonetheless, although I am fluent in 347 other languages within The Domain, I have not been exposed to your English language.
The last Earth language with which I was conversant was the Sanskrit language of the Vedic Hymns. At that time I was a member of a mission sent to investigate the loss of a Domain base located in the Himalaya Mountains. An entire battalion of officers, pilots, communications and administrative personnel disappeared and the base destroyed.
…
One of my duties involved interrogation of the human population that inhabited the adjoining area at that time. Many of the people in that region reported sighting "vimanas" or space craft in the area.
Following the logical extension of evidence, testimony, observation, as well as the absence of certain evidence, I led my team to the discovery that there were still "Old Empire" ships and well-hidden "Old Empire" installations in this solar system of which we had been completely unaware.
…
"Airl described the abilities of an IS-BE officer of The Domain to me, and she demonstrated one to me when she contacted -- telepathically -- a communications officer of The Domain who is stationed in the asteroid belt.
The asteroid belt is composed of thousands of broken up pieces of a planet that once existed between Mars and Jupiter. It serves as a good low-gravity jumping off point for incoming space craft traveling toward the center of our galaxy.
She requested that this officer consult information stored in the "files" of The Domain, concerning the history of Earth. She asked the communications officer to "feed" this information to Airl. The communications officer immediately complied with the request. Based on the information stored in the files of The Domain, Airl was able to give me a brief overview or "history lesson". This is what Airl told me that The Domain had observed about the history of Earth:
She told me that The Domain Expeditionary Force first entered into the Milky Way galaxy very recently -- only about 10,000 years ago. Their first action was to conquer the home planets of the "Old Empire" (this is not the official name, but a nick-name given to the conquered civilization by The Domain Forces) that served as the seat of central government for this galaxy, and other adjoining regions of space. These planets are located in the star systems in the tail of the Big Dipper constellation. She did not mention which stars, exactly.
About 1,500 years later The Domain began the installation bases for their own forces along the path of invasion which leads toward the center of this galaxy and beyond. About 8,200 years ago The Domain forces set up a base on Earth in the Himalaya Mountains near the border of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was a base for a battalion of The Domain Expeditionary Force, which included about 3,000 members.
They set up a base under or inside the top of a mountain. The mountain top was drilled into and made hollow to create an area large enough to house the ships and personnel of that force. An electronic illusion of the mountain top was then created to hide the base by projecting a false image from inside the mountain against a "force screen". The ships could then enter and exit through the force screen, yet remain unseen by homo sapiens.
Shortly after they settled there the base was surprised by an attack from a remnant of the military forces of the "Old Empire". Unbeknownst to The Domain, a hidden, underground base on Mars, operated by the "Old Empire", had existed for a very long time. The Domain base was wiped out by a military attack from the Mars base and the IS-BEs of The Domain Expeditionary Force were captured.
You can imagine that The Domain was very upset about losing such a large force of officers and crew, so they sent other crews to Earth to look for them. Those crews were also attacked.
The captured IS-BEs from The Domain Forces were handled in the same fashion as all other IS-BEs who have been sent to Earth. They were each given amnesia, had their memories replaced with false pictures and hypnotic commands and sent to Earth to inhabit biological bodies. They are still a part of the human population today.
After a very persistent and extensive investigation into the loss of their crews, The Domain discovered that "Old Empire" has been operating a very extensive, and very carefully hidden, base of operations in this part of the galaxy for millions of years. No one knows exactly how long. Eventually, the space craft of the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain engaged each other in open combat in the space of the solar system.
According to Airl, there was a running battle between the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain until about 1235 AD, when The Domain forces finally destroyed the last of the space craft of the "Old Empire" force in this area. The Domain Expeditionary Force lost many of its own ships in this area during that time also.
About 1,000 years later the "Old Empire" base was discovered by accident in the spring of 1914 AD. The discovery was made when the body of the Archduke of Austria was "taken over" by an officer of The Domain Expeditionary Force. This officer, who was stationed in the asteroid belt, was sent to Earth on a routine mission to gather reconnaissance.
The purpose of this "take over" was to use the body as a "disguise" through which to infiltrate human society in order to gather information about current events on Earth. he officer, as an IS-BE, having greater power than the being inhabiting the body of the Archduke, simply "pushed" the being out and took over control of the body.
However, this officer did not realize how much the Hapsburgs were hated by feuding factions in the country, so he was caught off guard when the body of the Archduke was assassinated by a Bosnian student. The officer, or IS-BE, was suddenly "knocked out" of the body when it was shot by the assassin. Disoriented, the IS-BE inadvertently penetrated one of the "amnesia force screens" and was captured.
Eventually The Domain discovered that a wide area of space is monitored by an "electronic force field" which controls all of the IS-BEs in this end of the galaxy, including Earth. The electronic force screen is designed to detect IS-BEs and prevent them from leaving the area.
If any IS-BE attempts to penetrate the force screen, it "captures" them in a kind of "electronic net". The result is that the captured IS-BE is subjected to a very severe "brainwashing" treatment which erases the memory of the IS-BE. This process uses a tremendous electrical shock, just like Earth psychiatrists use "electric shock therapy" to erase the memory and personality of a "patient" and to make them more "cooperative".
On Earth this "therapy" uses only a few hundred volts of electricity. However, the electrical voltage used by the "Old Empire" operation against IS-BEs is on the order of magnitude of billions of volts! This tremendous shock completely wipes out all the memory of the IS- BE. The memory erasure is not just for one life or one body. It wipes out all of the accumulated experiences of a nearly infinite past, as well as the identity of the IS-BE!
The shock is intended to make it impossible for the IS-BE to remember who they are, where they came from, their knowledge or skills, their memory of the past, and ability to function as a spiritual entity. They are overwhelmed into becoming a mindless, robotic non-entity.
After the shock a series of post hypnotic suggestions are used to install false memories, and a false time orientation in each IS-BE. This includes the command to "return" to the base after the body dies, so that the same kind of shock and hypnosis can be done again, and again, again -- forever. The hypnotic command also tells the "patient" to forget to remember.
What The Domain learned from the experience of this officer is that the "Old Empire" has been using Earth as a "prison planet" for a very long time -- exactly how long is unknown -- perhaps millions of years.
So, when the body of the IS-BE dies they depart from the body. They are detected by the "force screen", they are captured and "ordered" by hypnotic command to "return to the light". The idea of "heaven" and the "afterlife" are part of the hypnotic suggestion -- a part of the treachery that makes the whole mechanism work.
After the IS-BE has been shocked and hypnotized to erase the memory of the life just lived, the IS-BE is immediately "commanded", hypnotically, to "report" back to Earth, as though they were on a secret mission, to inhabit a new body. Each IS-BE is told that they have a special purpose for being on Earth. But, of course there is no purpose for being in a prison -- at least not for the prisoner.
Any undesirable IS-BEs who are sentenced to Earth were classified as "untouchable" by the "Old Empire". This included anyone that the "Old Empire" judged to be criminals who are too vicious to be reformed or subdued, as well as other criminals such as sexual perverts, or beings unwilling to do any productive work.
An "untouchable" classification of IS-BEs also includes a wide variety of "political prisoners". This includes IS-BEs who are considered to be noncompliant "free thinkers" or "revolutionaries" who make trouble for the governments of the various planets of the "Old Empire". Of course, anyone with a previous military record against the "Old Empire" is also shipped off to Earth.
A list of "untouchables" include artists, painters, singers, musicians, writers, actors, and performers of every kind. For this reason Earth has more artists per capita than any other planet in the "Old Empire".
"Untouchables" also include intellectuals, inventors and geniuses in almost every field. Since everything the "Old Empire" considers valuable has long since been invented or created over the last few trillion years, they have no further use for such beings. This includes skilled managers also, which are not needed in a society of obedient, robotic citizens.
Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the "Old Empire" are "untouchable" and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth.
The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can't remember who they are, where they came from, where they are. They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than where they really are.
The Domain officer who was "assassinated" while in the body of Archduke of Austria was, likewise, captured by the "Old Empire" force. Because this particular officer was a high powered IS-BE, compared to most, he was taken away to a secret "Old Empire" base under the surface of the planet Mars. They put him into a special electronic prison cell and held him there.
Fortunately, this Domain officer was able to escape from the underground base after 27 years in captivity. When he escaped from the "Old Empire" base, he returned immediately to his own base in the asteroid belt. His commanding officer ordered that a battle cruiser be dispatched to the coordinates of the base provided by this officer and to destroy that base completely. This "Old Empire" base was located a few hundred miles north of the equator on Mars in the Cydonia region.
Although the military base of the "Old Empire" was destroyed, unfortunately, much of the vast machinery of the IS-BE force screens, the electroshock / amnesia / hypnosis machinery continues to function in other undiscovered locations right up to the present moment. The main base or control center for this "mind control prison" operation has never been found. So, the influences of this base, or bases, are still in effect.
The Domain has observed that since the "Old Empire" space forces were destroyed there is no one left to actively prevent other planetary systems from bringing their own "untouchable" IS-BEs to Earth from all over this galaxy, and from other galaxies nearby. Therefore, Earth has become a universal dumping ground for this entire region of space.
This, in part, explains the very unusual mix of races, cultures, languages, moral codes, religious and political influences among the IS-BE population on Earth. The number and variety of heterogeneous societies on Earth are extremely unusual on a normal planet. Most "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets are inhabited by only one humanoid body type or race, if any.
In addition, most of the ancient civilizations of Earth, and many of the events of Earth have been heavily influenced by the hidden, hypnotic operation of the "Old Empire" base. So far, no one has figured out exactly where and how this operation is run, or by whom because it is so heavily protected by screens and traps.
Furthermore, there has been no operation undertaken to seek out, discover and destroy the vast and ancient network of electronics machinery that create the IS-BE force screens at this end of the galaxy. Until this has been done, we are not able to prevent or interrupt the electric shock operation, hypnosis and remote thought control of the "Old Empire" prison planet.
Of course all of the crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force now remain aware of this phenomena at all times while operating in this solar system space so as to prevent detection and the capture by "Old Empire" traps."
…
And, the very unusual combination of "inmates" on Earth - criminals, perverts, artists, revolutionaries and geniuses - is the cause of a very restive and tumultuous environment. The purpose of the prison planet is to keep IS-BEs on Earth, forever. Promoting ignorance, superstition, and war between IS-BEs helps to keep the prison population crippled and trapped behind "the wall" of electronic force screens.
IS-BEs have been dumped on Earth from all over the galaxy, adjoining galaxies, and from planetary systems all over the "Old Empire", like Sirius, Aldebaron, the Pleiades, Orion, Draconis, and countless others.
There are IS- BEs on Earth from unnamed races, civilizations, cultural backgrounds, and planetary environments.
Each of the various IS-BE populations have their own languages, belief systems, moral values, religious beliefs, training and unknown and untold histories.
These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta and Lemuria. Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary "polar shift", many thousands of years before the current "prison" population started to arrive. Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia.
On the other hand, the civilizations set up on Earth by the "Old Empire" prison system were very different from the civilization of the "Old Empire" itself, which is an electronic space opera, atomic powered conglomeration of earlier civilizations that were conquered with nuclear weapons and colonized by IS-BEs from another galaxy.
The bureaucracy that controlled the former "Old Empire" was from an ancient space opera society, run by a totalitarian confederation of planetary governments, regulated by a brutal social, economic, and political hierarchy, with a royal monarch as its figurehead.
This type of government emerges with regularity on planets where the citizens abandon personal responsibility for autonomous, self-regulation. They frequently lose their freedom to demented IS-BEs who suffer from an overwhelming paranoia that every other IS-BE is their enemy who must be controlled or destroyed. Their closest friends and allies, whom they espouse to love and cherish, are literally "loved to death" by them.
Because such IS-BEs exist, The Domain has learned that freedom must be won and maintained through eternal vigilance and the ability to use defensive force to maintain it.
As a result, The Domain has already conquered the governing planet of the "Old Empire". The civilization of The Domain, although considerably younger and smaller in size, is already more powerful, better organized, and united by an egalitarian esprit de corps never known in the history of the "Old Empire".
The recently despoiled German totalitarian state on Earth was similar to the "Old Empire", but not nearly as brutal, and about ten thousand times less powerful. Many of the IS- BEs on Earth are here because they are violently opposed to totalitarian government, or because they were so psychotically vicious that they could not be controlled by "Old Empire" government.
Consequently, the population of Earth is disproportionately comprised of a very high percentage of such beings. The conflicting cultural and ethical moral codes of the IS-BEs on Earth is unusual in the extreme.
The Domain conquest of the central "Old Empire" planets was fought with electronic cannon. The citizens of the planets forming the core of government for the "Old Empire" are a filthy, degraded, slave society of mindless, tax-paying workers, who practice cannibalism. Violent automotive race tracks and bloody, Roman circus type entertainments are their only amusements.
Regardless of any reasonable justification we may have had for using atomic weapons to vanquish the planets of the "Old Empire", The Domain is careful not to ruin the resources of those planets by using weapons of crude, radioactive force.
The government of the "Old Empire", before being supplanted by The Domain, was comprised of beings who possessed a very craven intelligence, very much like the Axis powers during your recent world war. Those beings manifested precisely the same behavior as the galactic government that exiled them to eternal imprisonment on Earth. They were a gruesome reminder of the ageless maxim that an IS-BE will often manifest the treatment they have received from others.
Kindness fosters kindness. Cruelty begets cruelty. One must be able and willing to use force, tempered with intelligence, to prevent harm to the innocent. However, extraordinary understanding, self- discipline and courage are required to effectively prevent brutality, without being overwhelmed by the malice that motivated the brutality.
Only a demonic, self-serving government would employ a "logic" or "science" to conceive that an "ultimate solution" to any problem is to murder and permanently erase the memory of every artist, genius, skilled manager, and inventor, and cast them into a planetary prison together with political opponents, killers, thieves, perverts, and disabled beings of an entire galaxy!
Once the IS-BEs expelled from the "Old Empire" arrived on Earth, they were given amnesia, and hypnotically tricked into thinking that something else had happened to them. The next step was to implant the IS-BEs into biological bodies on Earth. The bodies became the human populations of "false civilizations" which were designed and installed in the minds of IS-BEs to look completely unlike the "Old Empire".
All of the IS-BEs of India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe were guided to pattern and build the cultural elements of these societies based on standard patterns developed by the IS-BEs of many earlier, similar civilizations on "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets that have existed for trillions of years throughout the universe.
In the earliest times the IS-BEs sent to prison Earth lived in India.
They gradually spread into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mesoamerica, Achaea, Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, and to the New World. They were hypnotically "commanded" to follow the pattern of a given civilization by the "Old Empire" prison operators.
This is an effective mechanism to disguise the actual time and location from the IS-BEs imprisoned on Earth. The languages, costumes and culture of each false civilization are intended to reinforce amnesia because they do not remind the IS-BEs on Earth of the original "Old Empire" planets from which they were deported.
On the very far back-track of time these types of civilizations tended to repeat themselves over and over because the IS-BEs who created them become familiar with certain patterns and styles, and stayed with them. It is a lot of work to invent an entire civilization, complete with culture, architecture, language, customs, mathematics, moral values, and so forth. It is much easier to replicate a copy based on a familiar and successful pattern.
A "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planet is the designation given to a planet inhabited by carbon-oxygen based life forms. The class of the planet is based on the size and radiation intensity of the star, the distance of the planetary orbit from the star, and the size, density, gravity, and chemical composition of the planet.
Likewise, flora and fauna are designated and identified according to the star type and class of planet they inhabit.
On the average, the percentage of planets in the physical universe with a breathable atmosphere is relatively small. Most planets do not have an atmosphere upon which life-forms "feed", as on Earth, where the chemical composition of the atmosphere provides nutrition to plants, and other organisms, which in turn support other life forms.
When the Domain Force brought the Vedic Hymns to the Himalayas region 8,200 years ago, some human societies already existed. The Aryan people invaded and conquered India , bringing the Vedic Hymns to the area.
The Vedas were learned by them, memorized and carried forward verbally for 7,000 years before being committed to written form. During that span of time one of the officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force was incarnated on Earth as "Vishnu".
He is described many times in the Rig-Veda. He is still considered to be a god by the Hindus. Vishnu fought in the religious wars against the "Old Empire" forces. He is a very able and aggressive IS-BE as well as a highly effective officer, who has since been reassigned to other duties in The Domain.
This entire episode was orchestrated as an attack and revolt against the Egyptian pantheon installed by "Old Empire" administrators. The conflict was intended to help free humankind from implanted elements of the false civilization that focused attention on many "gods" and superstitious ritual worship demanded by the priests who "managed" them. It is all part of the mental manipulation by the "Old Empire" to hide their criminal actions against the IS-BEs on Earth.
A priesthood, or prison guards, were used to help reinforce the idea that an individual is only a biological body and is not an Immortal Spiritual Being. The individual has no identity. The individuals have no past lives.
The individual has no power. Only the gods have power. And, the gods are a contrivance of the priests who intercede between men and the gods they serve. Men are slaves to the dictates of the priests who threaten eternal spiritual punishment if men do not obey them.
What else would one expect on a prison planet where all prisoners have amnesia, and the priests themselves are prisoners?
The intervention of The Domain Force on Earth has not been entirely successful due to the secret mind-control operation of the "Old Empire" that still continues to operate.
A battle was waged between the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain through religious conquest. Between 1500 BCE and about 1200 BCE, The Domain Forces attempted to teach the concept of an individual, Immortal Spiritual Being, to several influential beings on Earth.
One such instance resulted in a very tragic misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misapplication of the concept. The idea was perverted and applied to mean that there is only one IS-BE, instead of the truth that everyone is an IS-BE! Obviously, this was a gross incomprehension and an utter unwillingness to take responsibility for one's own power.
The "Old Empire" priests managed to corrupt the concept of individual immortality into the idea that there is only one, all-powerful IS-BE, and that no one else is or is allowed to be an IS- BE. Obviously, this is the work of the "Old Empire" amnesia operation.
It is easy to teach this altered notion to beings who do not want to be responsible for their own lives. Slaves are such beings. As long as one chooses to assign responsibility for creation, existence and personal accountability for one's own thoughts and actions to others, one is a slave.
As a result, the concept of a single monotheistic "god" resulted and was promoted by many self-proclaimed prophets, such as the Jewish slave leader -- Moses -- who grew up in the household of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, as well as his son Tutankhamen.
The attempt to teach certain beings on Earth the truth that they are, themselves, IS-BEs, was part of a plan to overthrow the fictional, metaphorical, anthropomorphic panoply of gods created by the "Old Empire" mystery cult called "The Brothers of The Serpent" known in Egypt as the Priests of Amun. They were a very ancient, secret society within the "Old Empire".
The Pharaoh Akhenaten was not a very intelligent being, and was heavily influenced by his personal ambition for self- glorification. He altered the concept of the individual spiritual being and embodied the concept in the sun god, Aten.
His pitiful existence was soon ended.
He was assassinated by Maya and Parennefer, two of the Priests of Amun, or "Amen", which the Christians still say, who represented the interests of the "Old Empire" forces.
The idea of "One God" was perpetuated by the Hebrew leader Moses while he was in Egypt. He left Egypt with his adopted people, the Jewish slaves.
While they were crossing the desert, Moses was intercepted by an operative of the "Old Empire" near Mt. Sinai. Moses was tricked into believing that this operative was "the" One God through the use of hypnotic commands, as well as technical and aesthetic tricks which are commonly used by the "Old Empire" to trap IS-BEs.
Thereafter, the Jewish slaves, who trusted the word of Moses implicitly, have worshiped a single god they call "Yaweh".
The name "Yaweh" means "anonymous", as the IS- BE who "worked with" Moses could not use an actual name or anything that would identify himself, or blow the cover of the amnesia / prison operation. The last thing the covert amnesia / hypnosis / prison system wants to do is to reveal themselves openly to the IS-BEs on Earth. They feel that this would restore the inmates memories!
This is the reason that all traces of physical encounters between operatives of space civilizations and humans is very carefully hidden, disguised, covered-up, denied or misdirected.
This "Old Empire" operative contacted Moses on a desert mountain top and delivered the "Ten Hypnotic Commands" to him. These commands are very forcefully worded, and compel an IS-BE into utter subservience to the will of the operator. These hypnotic commands are still in effect and influence the thought patterns of millions of IS-BEs thousands of years later!
Incidentally, we later discovered that the so- called "Yaweh" also wrote, programmed and encoded the text of the Torah, which when it is read literally, or in its decoded, form, will provide a great deal more false information to those who read it.
Ultimately, the Vedic Hymns became the source of nearly all of Eastern the religions and were the philosophical source of the ideas common to Buddha, Laozi, Zoroaster, and other philosophers. The civilizing influences of these philosophies eventually replaced the brutal idolatry of the "Old Empire" religions and were the true genesis of kindness and compassion.
You asked me earlier why The Domain, and other space civilizations do not land on Earth or make their presence known.
Land on Earth?
Do you think we are crazy or want to be crazy?
It takes a very brave IS-BE to come down through the atmosphere and land on Earth, because this is a prison planet, with a very uncontrolled, psychotic population. And, no IS-BE is entirely proof against the risk of entrapment, as with the members of The Domain Expeditionary Force who were captured in the Himalayas 8,200 years ago.
No one knows what IS-BEs on Earth are going to do.
We are not scheduled to invest the resources of The Domain to take total control of all the space surrounding the area at this time.
This will occur in the not-too-distant future -- about 5,000 Earth years -- according to the time schedule of The Domain. At this time we do not prevent transports from other planetary systems or galaxies from continuing to drop IS-BEs into the amnesia force screen area. Eventually, this will change.
In addition, Earth, inherently, is a highly unstable planet. It is not suitable for settlement or permanent habitation for any sustainable civilization. This is part of the reason why it is being used as a prison planet. No one else would seriously consider living here for a variety of simple and compelling reasons:
The continental land masses of Earth are floating on a sea of molten lava beneath the surface which causes the land masses to crack, crumble and drift
Because of the liquid nature of the core, the planet is largely volcanic and subject to earthquakes and volcanic explosion
The magnetic poles of the planet shift radically about once every 20,000 years. This causes a greater or lesser degree of devastation as a result of tidal waves, and climatic
Earth is very distant from the center of the galaxy and from any other significant galactic civilization. This isolation makes it unsuitable for use, except as a "pit stop" or jumping off point along the way between galaxies. The moon and asteroids are far more suitable for this purpose because they do not have any significant gravity.
Earth is a heavy gravity planet, with heavy metallic soil and a dense atmosphere. This makes it treacherous for navigational That fact that I am in this room, as the result of an in flight accident, in spite of the technology of my craft and my extensive expertise as a pilot, are proof of these facts.
There are approximately sixty billion Earth- like (Sun Type 12, Class 7) planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, not to mention the vast expanses of The Domain, and the territories we will claim in the future. It is difficult to stretch our resources to do much more than a periodic reconnaissance of Earth. Especially when there are no immediate advantages to invest resources
On Earth most beings are not aware that they are IS-BEs, or that there are spirits of any kind. Many other beings are aware of this, but nearly everyone has a very limited understanding of themselves as an IS-BE.
One of the reasons for this is that IS-BEs have been waging war against each other since the beginning of time. The purpose of these wars have always been to establish domination by one IS-BE or group of IS-BEs over another. Since an IS-BE cannot be "killed", the objective has been to capture and immobilize IS-BEs.This has been done in an nearly unlimited variety of ways. The most basic method to capture and immobilize an IS-BE is through the use of various kinds of "traps".
IS-BE traps have been made and put in place by many invading societies, such as the one that established the "Old Empire", beginning about sixty-four trillion years ago. Traps are often set up in the "territory" of the IS-BEs being attacked.Usually a trap is set with the electronic wave of "beauty" to attract the interest and attention of the IS-BE. When the IS-BE moves toward the source of the aesthetic wave, such as a beautiful building or beautiful music, the trap is activated by the energy put out by the IS-BE.
One of the most common trap mechanism uses the IS-BE's own thought energy output when the IS- BE tries to attack or fight back against the trap. The trap is activated and energized by the IS-BE's own thought energy. The harder the IS-BE fights against the trap, the more it pulls the IBS toward it and keeps them "stuck" in the trap.
Throughout the entire history of this physical universe, vast areas of space have been taken over and colonized by IS-BE societies who invade and take over new areas of space in this fashion. In the past, these invasions have always shared common elements:
(1) the overwhelming use of force of arms, usually with nuclear or electronic mind control of the IS-BEs in the invaded area through the use of electroshock, drugs, hypnosis, erasure of memory and the implantation of false memory or false information intended to subjugate and enslave the local IS-BE
(2) takeover of natural resources by the invading IS-BEs.
(3) political, economic and social slavery of the local population.
These activities continue in present time. All of the IS-BEs on Earth have been members of one or more of these activities in the past, both as an invader, or as part of the population being invaded. There are no "saints" in this universe. Very few have avoided or been exempted from warfare between IS-BEs.
IS-BEs on Earth are still the victims of this activity at this very moment. The between- lives amnesia administered to IS-BEs is one of the mechanisms of an elaborate system of "Old Empire" IS-BE traps, that prevent an IS-BE from escaping.
This operation is managed by an illicit, renegade secret police force of the "Old Empire", using false provocation operations to disguise their activities in order to prevent detection by their own government, The Domain and by the victims of their activities.
They are mind-control methods developed by government psychiatrists.
Earth is a "ghetto" planet. It is the result of an intergalactic "Holocaust". IS-BEs have been sentenced to Earth either because:
They are too viciously insane or perverse to function as part of any civilization, no matter how degraded or
Or, they are a revolutionary threat to the social, economic and political caste system that has been so carefully built and brutally enforced in the "Old Empire". Biological bodies are specifically designed and designated as the lowest order of entity in the "Old Empire" caste system. When an IS-BE is sent to Earth, and then tricked or coerced into operating in a biological body, they are actually in a prison, inside a...
In an effort to permanently and irreversibly rid the "Old Empire" of such "untouchables", the eternal identity, memory, and abilities of every IS-BE is forcefully erased. This "final solution" was conceived and carried out by the psychopathic criminals who are controlled by the "Old Empire".
The mass extermination of "untouchables" and prison camps created by Germany during World War II were recently revealed. Likewise, the IS-BEs of Earth are the victims of spiritual eradication and eternal slavery inside frail, biological bodies, inspired by the same kind of craven hatred in the "Old Empire".
The kind and creative inmates of Earth are continuously tortured by butchers and lunatics who are controlled by the "Old Empire" prison operators. The so-called "civilizations" of Earth, from the age of useless pyramids to the age of nuclear holocaust, have been a colossal waste of natural resources, a perverted use of intelligence, and an overt oppression of the spiritual essence of every single IS-BE on the planet.
If The Domain sent ships to every corner of the universe in search of "Hell", their quest could end on Earth. What greater brutality can be inflicted on anyone than to erase the spiritual awareness, identity, ability, and memory that is the essence of oneself?
The Domain has, as yet, been unable to rescue the 3,000 IS-BEs of the Expeditionary Force Battalion either.
They are forced to inhabit biological bodies on Earth. We have been able to recognize and track most of them for the past 8,000 years. However, our attempts to communicate with them are usually futile, as they are unable to remember their true identity.
The majority of lost members of The Domain force have followed the general progression of Western civilization from India, into the Middle East, then to Chaldea, and Babylon, into Egypt, through Achaia, Greece, Rome, into Europe, to the Western Hemisphere, and then all around the world.
The members of the lost Battalion and many other IS-BEs on Earth, could be valuable citizens of The Domain, not including those who are vicious criminals or perverts. Unfortunately, there has been no workable method conceived to emancipate the IS-BEs from Earth.
Therefore, as a matter of common logic, as well as the official policy of The Domain, it is safer and more sensible to avoid contact with the IS-BE population of Earth until such time as the proper resources can be allocated to locate and destroy the "Old Empire" force screen and amnesia machinery and develop a therapy to restore the memory of an IS-BE."
Summary and conclusion
We can all use our special abilities to help others in need. It’s fine to read about Alien Interview, or participate in MAJestic, but it is something else entirely to go forth and devote time and thoughts to helping our benefactors. Here I ask and call upon all Rufus’s in the MM sphere to add some rescue code to their prayer affirmation campaigns to help the trapped Domain Battalion. Participation is optional, but it would b nice if others would join me in this effort.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
This is a big special treat for the MM audience. Boy oh boy! Straight from the “horse’s mouth”. Oh baby!
Most people are aware that the work titled “Alien Interview” is a transcript of a Commander of The Domain when it’s vehicle crashed in 1947. What most people do not know is that this event spawned an American top secret agency known as MAJestic that fell under the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence).
This waved, unacknowledged special access program handled (and still handles) all extraterrestrial events, technologies and interactions with the United States government. I was a unique part of that organization prior to being retired.
I do know that MAJestic works intimately with the Domain. And that it has acquired technology, information and understandings from The Domain. Obviously further more exacting information came forth and was accumulated in the 75 or so years since the formation of MAJestic.
This article is my attempt to further flush out some points (in addition to) the Alien Interview. Fill in the blanks, so to say.
Here’s where it gets strange…
You plan on one thing happening, and something entirely different transpires…
Background
Initially I had planned to disgorge what I knew of these matters though my involvement with MAJestic, and then redact everything that was questionable. But, you know, it didn’t work out that way. Not at all.
Something else happened.
As always, I set up a new “post” based on a wordpress format that I established. I cleared the wordpress, and started typing. I wrote the two paragraph introduction, fully planning to discuss what I could piece together based on my four decades of involvement, and just as I was about to start…
…I had to jump up. And then pace in my office. I actually paced. Kind of shuttered a bit to the left and almost walked out of the office to the hallway, but didn’t and went back in.
I kind of bounced around from the corner plant to the sofa, and back to the credenza.
I sat down. Cleared my desk, and took a sip of coffee, and started to type. And well, nothing came out. You know. I started to type, but (you know) I was not able to write anything down at all. I couldn’t do anything.
Blank.
So I leaned back. Perplexed.
I couldn’t even think. Blank.
I took a sip of coffee, and tried again. Still blank.
Blank.
Blank.
And then, I got goosebumps all over my arms. No shit. And right then and there, truly, something unique, and very special happened. Listen closely. Pay attention.
…
An officer of The Domain opened up a channel and talked to me directly.
No Bullshit
And make no mistake I am directed to do this with excitement / urgency (expediency).
It’s a real thing.
I am not blowing smoke up your ass. Not like Jerry Falwell getting a message from Jesus that he needs a million dollars before Tuesday or Satan will take over, or any bullshit like that. This is a real fucking thing, with real physical effects.
Communication through the EBP is always subtle and one way. I listen and then respond.
EBP– Task Directive / question.
MM– Do and confirm.
However, in this case, the system worked like this…
EBP– They prompt for a specific question.
MM– I ask / verbalize the question.
EBP– Get answer.
MM– I record the answer.
EBP– Next query…
I am forced (it’s the only way that I can do this at this time) to lay it out in Question and Answer format. And what I know or conscious of is a direct function of what I am allowed or permitted to disclose. Nothing more.
My questions and the officer’s answers…
The Disclosure
As of today, how close is The Domain able to shut down the amnesia-force-field and associated “Prison Planet” technology?
The Domain has established a task team to work on this problem.
They are working with MAJestic, as well as a number of other earth organizations to accomplish this.
The earth environment is a "battlefield" of all sorts of "traps" and "snares". Many of which are independent, individual, self-autonomous in nature.
The Domain has located and tracked our missing battalion. We work with their non-physical bodies in various efforts to release them.
As of this date, most of the battalion are still imprisoned.
However, serious and strong steps have been taken to root out and shutdown and suppress the machinery and systems that many of the mechanisms that the snares operate under.
These actions have laid down a foundation for further more successful subsequent efforts to take place.
Most of the equipment and systems are in the non-physical realms.
Any efforts towards directed thought will be most helpful.
What is the time-line for the completion of this effort?
From the start it was anticipated that the project can begin in 5,000 years. This date has been advanced, and is in process now.
We do not have a realistic time-table for completion.
This entire effort is a staged, and built-upon, effort. And it takes time. It will take many human life-times.
Sentience sorting is the methodology that will be used to select and release IS-BE's from this environment.
We anticipate the reestablishment of containment control (to stop other species from dumping their riff-raff in), and simultaneously building upon control over thought process suppression. Meanwhile snares, traps and tricks will continue to be rooted out and destroyed.
Once those most basic steps are secure, then the modification of the (physical) human biology can advance with mRNA and DNA alterations making it easier to release the non-physical bodies from the non-physical environment that surrounds this region.
We are active in modifying the non-physical bodies of many imprisoned IS-BE's. But because there are so many, it is a herculean task. Our priority is to save the Domain Battalion, and all MAJestic members that work with us (and other organizations that work with us as well). We physically change their non-physical bodies to assist in suppression of the effects of the field that surrounds this region.
We also work with other special IS-BE's that show a preference to assist us in this task. This includes both imprisoned IS-BE's as well as other IS-BE's from outside this region who volunteer to help.
How do you select or prioritize those IS-BE’s that can leave this Earth Prison Planet region?
We sort by sentience.
We have prioritized The Domain IS-BE members first. They are our most important asset in this entire effort. They hold the "keys" to "unlock" the fences.
We also work with <redacted>. You do not know them. (Referring to MM here.)
Why are you having trouble freeing the “Lost Battalion”?
They are mostly specialized "troops" that you would consider to be of military caliber. Their nature is to fight aggressively.
Additionally, they have had special "chains" or "processes" that make their recovery so much more difficult than your typical inmate.
What about other species?
Humans are not the only enslaved and imprisoned species here. Other species include dolphins, and horses.
We are working to free all IS-BE's in the regions irregardless to what physical form they inhabit and what associated Heaven they are associated with.
What can I do to help?
(Directed at MM) You are just doing great. Follow your intuition.
I think that while it was directed at me personally, I strongly think that this applies to all MM readership as well. I strongly have the "message" that it is specifically directed to some certain MM followers, but no names are being given to tell youse guys who.
What about prayer affirmation campaigns and the other things that are listed here?
(Directed at MM readership) All the tools you need to find are here. Keep in mind that the techniques are conceptual and can be modified by your own mental utility to fit your needs, do not believe in absolute solutions, as it is your thoughts that modify your reality.
Is this “channeling”?
This is "EBP stuff" as you call (refer to) it.
I want to really be a bridge between The Domain and the MM followers here. What can I do to participate in this?
(Directed at me.) Perhaps we can provide more of this in the future. It will depend on the mindset and desires of your audience. It will develop.
Is there anything else that I can ask or that you want to say?
No. Message sent. Do not worry too much (directed at the MM audience). The physical saturation of discomfort is under our (the Domain) control (observation and manipulation as necessary), and the tools that MM provides.
Conclusion
Wow!
You are welcome.
References
This communication occurred between 9:45am and 10:39am on 16SEP21. It is a direct EBP channel direct from the Type-1 greys of The Domain to me personally. It is exactly as sent. And I am personally stunned as it never happened this way before.
Final Comments
There are so many questions that I want to ask, but I was unable to gather my thoughts and ask them. That is not how you deal with these entities. I was only able to ask what they told me to ask. Though, I did have some degree of freedom on how to phrase the questions, and then post-edit some parts of the answers.
This is big stuff for me personally. If you don’t understand you can leave. I am now filled with emotion and actually my physical body is shaking with “goosebumps” all over it. Chills running back and forth.
It took me about 8 hours to cool down.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
The following is the fourth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 4 – The Cult of Psaigreen and the Simulation Revelations
Complete Awareness
In the Auric Projections/ Mystical Experiences I have talked about so far, lucid awareness of my surroundings had been carried on into the dreamscape from waking reality. In other words, I had been completely conscious from the moment I laid my head down on my pillow, through the transition into the sleeping state, through the connection to my higher self and on to the end of each experience, back through the transition into the waking world.
When I mention I was 100% lucid, this is what I mean.
There was simply no confusion as to me being “asleep”. Comparing this to the “normal sleeping person” – or even common lucid dreamer – there was no “break” in my conscious awareness as I fell asleep. I progressed through each stage the same way you progress from and experience one minute to the next. Although given time is not linear in the dream state, it was a little bit different to this.
I had total comprehension of my body back in its bed on earth, and the usual memories of everything I had done that particular day. If you can imagine having the awareness you have of your physical surroundings right now as you sleep, this is what I had of my 4D environment.
Dreaming for me – majority of the time – was this extension of conscious awareness into the non physical “dream world”. It was something I had trained myself to do over a period of many years. It is something I believe that anyone can learn to do if they practice enough.
My Initiation into the “unseen 5”
My initiation into the Unseen 5 was the last mystical experience where this continuity of consciousness was present. In the next two experiences, my awareness of self came after I had been unconsciously engaged in the dream for some time. I had basically fallen asleep without realizing it, then became coherent at some point later on.
This is what most people refer to as lucid dreaming, according to the communities dealing with that subject I am part of. From what I’ve read on those groups, the continuation of consciousness seems to be rarely discussed.
This is important in the context of what had been told to me regarding holographic projections into the dreamscape and how consciousness was being manipulated at this level.
I was always suspect of any information being given to me when I had had this break in consciousness.
While my higher awareness eventually kicked in, I always considered these experiences as being “less accurate” to the ones where I was able to retain 100% lucid awareness through the progression of the experience. I could not completely rule out that I was being manipulated, simply because I had no recollection between falling asleep and becoming conscious in the dream. This was despite that “holy shit” moment you get when you remember deeply repressed memories. Conversely I could not rule out that I wasn’t being manipulated either.
Regardless, I am including these experiences because I did eventually get to a higher state of conscious awareness compared to majority of my other lucid dreams.
Training
Now, I mentioned with past lucid dreams I had undergone what appeared to be some sort of training at the “time travel towers”. We were essentially being taught how to recognise when our timelines had undergone a reset. We were also being taught how to remember certain things from a future timeline after it had been reset; ie remember things from a future that was no longer a possibility. All in all there were about 30 of us divided into 2 teams.
What I did not mention is that this “training” bled over into many other lucid dreams and was a very big part of the astral assignments I was involved in in the years prior to my first contact with the EG.
In many of the worlds I was travelling to, this time line reset theme was a key component. Majority of these assignments involved investigating the cause of these resets.
The recent Loki series was a very accurate – and somewhat eerie – portrayal of my assignments in these worlds whilst being near 100% lucid. I was like the TVA, but instead of chasing murderers I was chasing an unknown entity that was “hiding beyond the resets”.
It was weird. It was confusing. It was something I never bothered talking about with anyone – with the exception of Storme – for obvious reasons.
A training assignment
This drove me fucking crazy for a good few years, because I honestly didn’t know what it was I was looking for. All I knew was that it had taken up residence in the Ancient Market Village and had an affinity for resetting it back to the same point, over and over again.
On a lot of these assignments I’d be accompanied by my colleague Lyra. She had black hair and was incredibly thin. She’d come and collect me from whatever lucid dream I was engaged in, we’d summon our portals, and I’d end up in the Ancient Market Village or some other random world doing some sort of “mission” with her.
I’d wake up not knowing if I was in reality A or reality B.
Imagine trying to tell this all to a psychologist and not come off as a complete fucking nutjob. There wasn’t some hidden meaning to these dreams; I was completely lucid in every damned one of them.
So you could say I had a very good understanding of how consciousness interacts with the MWI even back around 2010, though I didn’t specifically call it this. Even if I didn’t really understand the same way, I understood that consciousness could “travel through time” whilst in lucidity. Whilst detached from the physical body.
Personal Experiments
Some of my experiments began to focus on this concept, whereby I’d induce lucidity specifically to try and pick winning lotto numbers. I’d go through the conscious transition into the dream state, create a “virtual construct” of the newsagency where I planned to buy my lotto ticket from. I’d make sure to visualize a newspaper or other advertisement with the specific date of an upcoming draw.
I’d then concentrate on the numbers that would be printed on the ticket the cashier would hand me, and repeat them over and over in my head before deliberately waking myself up.
Other times I’d focus on the draw itself, and memorize the numbers as they popped out of the lotto barrel. Upon waking I’d record them down immediately. Despite conducting this experiment numerous times, I was never able to pick more than 4 out of the 6 numbers needed.
This was mainly due to me not being able to memorize all of them sufficiently. The barrier between being lucid and being awake always messed with this ability to remember things in the lucid domain.
Then these experiences {with the time line resets} just sort of died down whilst everything with the Elder Guardians was going on. I’d still have them on the odd occasion, but no where near as frequently.
The time reset theme brought up again.
In February 2019, 3 years after my initiation into the Unseen 5 and 5 years after my last contact experience with the Grand Elder, the time reset theme was brought up once again.
I was engaged in a dream. This time non lucid.
I was in a cave. My “team” consisted of myself, another man and a woman. We were tracking some kind of Artificially Intelligent computer system that had the ability to “reset” out of the timeline.
Our team operated from a hive consciousness that connected all of us; you could literally feel the thoughts and emotions of the other members as they had them.
It was a very strange and confusing operating parameter in which one of us would remember snippets {thanks to our training} which the others would use to “kick-start” their own memories; exactly the same way the Grand Elder had opened me up to the higher consciousness, but on a smaller scale.
So here we were, in this cave, about to open the door to what we knew was a server room housing the “brains” of this rogue AI.
But as we did, the timeline was reset and all of a sudden the server infrastructure had completely vanished.
My understanding was that through quantum entanglement, the AI had somehow figured out how to plot out past entangled particles in such a way that it could manipulate the past into redirecting the present. That was my interpretation; I could be entirely wrong.
This thing, data wise, was huge; it was capable of processing data in orders of magnitude higher than any computer system we knew of; it had been developed specifically to monitor consciousness from the higher planes.
The main concern our team had with this AI engine, was that it understood how to create entire physical “worlds” from the ground up.
It could literally program the growing of a seed into a flower and the blowing of wind over water to make waves crash on open shores.
But it was out of control…
It was out of control, creating physical reality after physical reality wherever it chose fit (this is the exact concept behind the Gnostic belief of the Demiurge controlled by the false god Yaldabaoth. Again I did not come into this concept until after this experience.
So after the AI initiated this timeline reset, we found ourselves in the same cavern. But instead of it housing the server, this time there was some sort of a laboratory in front of us with rows of vials containing either some kind of poisonous gas or a virus. Glass like screens lined this lab’s walls, giving a view of a subterranean place I have visited, many, many times during my adventures in lucid dreaming (the Subterranean Cavern).
On a desk next to the vial was this remote controlled alien tech that looked like a dragon fly with a head like the Nemesis guy out of the resident evil movies. It was actually memory of this dragon fly that led me back to Isaac CARET and eventually on to MM.
The woman in our team reached out and picked up one of the dragonfly objects. I was holding one of the vials and observing it. All of a sudden there was a massive explosion and we were all thrown backwards into the wall that I had previously smashed open. The wall was now completely filled in.
I picked up the broken vial lying on the ground next to me, and put my mouth around it. I was trying stop whatever was in it from leaking into the atmosphere; it was a highly toxic substance. Like a poisonous gas, or – say – an extremely contagious virus.
Strangeness
Something really weird was going on; it was like I was now flashing in and out of two separate timelines. I could see the subterranean river system I had visited on numerous occasions through the glass; in one reality flash there were the barracks and other strange buildings built with a metallic like alloy over the water on futuristic styled bridges. In the other flash, these metallic buildings had been replaced with primitive looking mud brick huts that looked like giant termite mounds. People were coming out of the buildings in both versions of reality and were running around in absolute terror; it was chaos.
This flashing in and out of 2 separate realities was something I had experienced about a year after my Unseen 5 initiation in an abduction dream in my “Wet Room” experience. I will go into that in another article.
I watched the woman as she acted in a strange robotic manner whilst she flew these remote controlled dragonfly things around. She would hover them above the people’s heads in which little claws would come down and grab at their hair which resulted in them being “purged” into a similar robot (reminiscent of my reincarnation dream).
I remember thinking the dragonflies were responsible for giving people amnesia.
I stumbled around in a sense of confusion, whilst in one timeline (the one in which the woman was remotely piloting the dragonflies with the metallic buildings) there was some sort of war going on. In the other timeline with the mud brick houses (the timeline that was more on par with what I had experienced in other lucid dreams of the subterranean cavern) there were drills being carried out that were leading up to some kind of similar war.
The flashes between realities got faster and more intense. Then everything and everyone just “disappeared”. I found myself standing on what appeared to be a frozen lake in this same cavern which had a massive crack in it suggesting it had been hit by something heavy.
I was all alone.
The team shows up
That is when the rest of the “team” showed up from a small tunnel behind me and I heard the leader say “see, I told you he was Thor.” Pretty funny considering the whole Thor being Loki’s brother thing. Strangely, I never was a fan of the Marvel franchise dealing with those characters. I never bothered watching it. I had a basic understanding of Norse mythology, but that was about it. The Thor thing was completely left field for me.
This is where I started to regain some sort of control of the dream and start becoming lucid, though there was never the same connection to the higher state of awareness. Only a very faint one.
At this the timeline switching began to even out and I was locked into the one with the barracks made of out the strange metallic substance. I turned, saw the crew standing before me and tried to attack them with whatever weapon was next to me.
I was fucked up. Like really fucked up.
The reality flashing (what I call dimension spinning) had really done a number on me. I remembered my two other team members, but also realized they were now from a timeline that no longer existed. I felt like I’d just been MK Ultra-ed to the extreme.
I have never done LSD, but I imagined this was what the come down of doing it must feel like. The leader said some kind of hypnotic suggestion and I found myself being “deactivated”.
I ended up just dropping my weapon on the floor mid swing and stood there looking at them. It was like shutting down a robot. After a moment I sort of snapped out of the MK Ultra style daze and I was back to my normal self.
Sort of.
I had the sudden realization that the leader – whose name was either Mat or Mac – had been put in the team specifically to provide mentoring and remembrance purposes to the rest of my team who were nowhere to be found. He was the go to guy when we couldn’t remember parts of our mission due to the timeline resets. Sort of like an army psychologist that would make sure consciousnesses wouldn’t go too crazy from all the resetting.
Mentally exhausting
I want to point out here that this whole resetting thing really was very mentally taxing. Even being completely lucid at the training towers, these scenarios we were being put in would test us to our very limits. Having to experience this for the second time in an uncontrolled setting was unbelievably brutal, second only to the soul electrocution torture.
It takes a day or so to readjust from it.
Apparently – according to Mac – the AI had gotten wind of the operation to reawaken divine consciousness and had devised a means to sabotage its efforts by abducting those from the barracks and instilling them with “sleeper cell programming”. This programming could be remotely activated when needed. The cells were then sent back into the ranks of our soldiers and remained dormant until activation.
Each member of my team had at some point been taken, programmed and made to administer the soul shock torture upon others before their reincarnation. What I had just come out the other side of was that sleeper cell programming being activated in all three of us which resulted in us fucking up the timelines and my team mates being permanently erased from “Akashic history”. Again this is my interpretation based on what Mac was telling me, not a direct quote.
A member of the “other side”
I had apparently been a very highly ranking member of this sleeper cell operation for the other side. I had become a double agent through the corruption regime of those in control of the AI, who I assumed were the same Slave Gods.
At some point I defected over to Mac’s side and they used me to gain intelligence on this sleeper cell operation. Much of the torture via electrocution and dimension spinning was what this was about.
I was being bounced back and forth between these two factions like a ping pong ball. Mac’s team would administer electrocution to embed certain codes into me which would then be activated by – you guessed it – even more electrocution from the AI side.
It was really delightful. Not.
Cue the Milabs investigators. I got fun when I’d be 3 layers deep in several dreams simultaneously and be tortured in each one.
Thor, and the names of other gods and deities were supposedly activation words for the sleeper cell programming. Mac told me I had, in more than one life, killed him because of this programming. He just joked about it rather casually like it was no big deal, showing me precisely where I had stabbed him in the back in other past life’s.
Deactivation
After being “deactivated”, I was left to wander around the barracks to try and stimulate my memories of what was going on and who I was in this place. It was a rehabilitation effort to get me back to proper form so I could continue to carry out my obligations under the amnesia correction operation.
I walked around for a little while watching other “soldiers” carry out their astral training. There was a woman I remember talking to, but what she looked like or what it was about, is hazy.
All I can remember is that the conversation turned into a heated argument (this is where Storme’s dream crossed with mine; she was the woman I was having the argument with, though it had been “blanked” from me). There is a whole other section here which features the wonderful Miss Lyra in Storme’s crossover point.
I got up and stormed off, making my way back towards the barracks.
This woman began chasing me in which some more strangeness happened. I found reality flashing between this subterranean cavern barracks and what appeared to be a large empty warehouse with bovine pelvises and thigh bones lining the floor. There were so many of them that you could not see the ground under the meat. I felt the urge to jump from each and snap them into small pieces with my legs and feet. I was conditioned to feel as though I was not allowed to leave this warehouse “reality” until every single one had been broken. There were millions upon millions of them.
I was really starting to hate this goddamned fucking dimension spinning. It was unbelievably brutal and disconcerting. It left me completely astrally and lucidly disorientated. In my last experience with it, I had been left in it a little too long for my own good. More on that at a later date.
I needed assistance
The meat flipping got so bad that I could barely walk. That’s when I decided to hit up Mac to tell me what the hell was going on. I somehow stumbled my way to his quarters through the flickering of the different realities. Mac’s quarters were a cylindrical sort of tower that was smack bang in the middle of the bridge and at the edge of the other shorter mud hut “dwellings”.
Behind his quarters was a sort of pipe like network that went up to another level high in the sky. I had used these pipes in other lucid expeditions to project my consciousness into. They acted as a means to deliver consciousness to a very specific point within the whole barracks. They reminded me of an air pipe you send messages in canisters through.
My urge to “flip meat” was so bad that I felt like I was going insane from it.
I called out to Mac from the bottom of the tower. He came down a flight of metal framed steps to meet me. I asked what the hell was going on with this meat flipping business.
Mac replied by saying “Oh, you mean the military training dreams?” then proceeded to casually tell me about a knife I used to carry with me called the “Psaicut”. I would hold it up to my eye and shout its’ name to “petrify” – paralyse – my enemies.
Real Clockwork Orange sort of shit.
He mentioned this had something to do with Psaigreen – like this was the name of my group – which were the ones responsible for the meat flipping brainwashing programs.
According to him, what was actually going on was that we were being trained the art of snapping peoples’ necks with our legs, but the Psaigreen had brainwashed us into believing it was bovine pelvises so we wouldn’t realize what we were doing. It was like a failsafe to confuse the shit out of us if we ever started remembering any of this.
“HOLY FUCKING SHIT” I said as some very deeply repressed past life memories started flooding back to me. And I mean DEEEEEP. There was just that knowing that these were legitimate memories of something I had long forgotten. At the mention of the Psaigreen, I realised these were all things I knew. This was a memory from a very, very long time ago.
Many, many lifetimes ago.
Yet another controlled awakening
At this same time I went through another controlled awakening. The dream just started slowly washing away like waves on a calm ocean. I was awake in bed feeling sick to my stomach like I was going to throw up (I had never had this feeling before from a dream). The memory of my time in the Psaigreen really kicked the shit out me. Even more so than the dimension spinning.
I remember thinking “I am in a goddamned Dr Who episode”. I was so conflicted by it all I didn’t even want to tell Storme because it was so crazy. Why did I keep having these bizarre experiences? Well, obviously it was because I was doing things inside my own head that most people considered were not possible. The ironic part was that I wouldn’t find out she had the same {part of} dream until a couple of years later.
In Storme’s account she recalls a cavern in identical detail to the one I was in. The large river. The weird mud huts on its banks. The barracks built over the water with a tall tower in the middle. The consciousness pipe maze. The mess hall. Our accounts of this place are literally identical.
Her dream started with her meeting with a Major – ie Mac – in one of the mud houses and being told to wait for me. When I eventually arrived she had to brief me on the fact that the one I called Lyra (again an identical description of my Lyra) was an AI that had been corrupted. As a result they were planning to reboot her, which meant she would lose all her memory of our operations together.
Apparently I wouldn’t listen. I hated AIs – I was apparently very rAIcist (one had just wiped my friends out of existence) – but at the same time had some weird lust for this Lyra woman (who Storme and her crew called Aimee’s). I ended up walking off in anger. Storme decided to follow me and found me acting really bizarre. This would have been exactly when I started having the weird impulses to flip meat.
In her version of the dream, it was her who walked me back to Mac’s quarters in the middle of the barracks. The assumption we both got from it all was that my sleeper programming was activated when she tried telling me Lyra was an AI. They were a common model of AI used on these sorts of assignments, but were human in every way conceivable.
Take what you want of this. It certainly is a really bizarre combined experience to have with somebody.
About a week later – during the super moon – I had my final contact experience with the Elder Guardians. This contact came in the form of either the Grand Elder himself or another from his group that looked very similar.
The “real world”?
I was in the “real world” which was a place similar to The Capital in the hunger games. There were stone, Egyptian like houses with television type screens hovering in the air. In the distance could be seen a great pyramid and a large river in front of it. This river separated the upper and middle class from the lower slaves. The slaves were situated on the opposite side of the river further downstream. The upper and middle class “dwellings” had been built into the river to keep water on that side fresh. Waste water would go into the lower class side upstream. The lower class then had a purifying plant setup right on their side of the river bank.
Crossing the river was a slightly arched cobblestone bridge that terminated in a triangular courtyard on the water. Off this courtyard came a smaller bridge that connected to the other bank.
I was in a spherical shaped building on the upper class side.
It seemed to be a political chamber, and had an a joining library. I was a middle class man; some sort of cleric working for the library administration. Only the upper class were allowed to be politicians. It was all to do with status. You were either a politician, a politician’s pet, or a slave tasked with the upkeep of the city. There was no other job positions.
At the top of the political sphere building there were stone walkways coming out and crossing over to where the upper class dwelt. The middle class men were expected to use the walkways on the ground.
It was as if someone had taken Ancient Egypt and used it as base of inspiration for a city set 1000 or so years in the future; it was both Ancient and futuristic at once. Weirdly, the most far out tech was the hovering screens which seemed to utilise some form of anti gravity.
There was some kind of massive election going on.
The cabal (the malevolent faction responsible for cutting off humanity’s connection with their higher minds) were very clearly the ones who were currently in power. This election was a big deal, as it affected every race in the universe, and only happened very rarely – thousands of years apart. It was evident that the Cabal had manipulated their reign of power so as to gain an unfair advantage in this election. This would see them retain their seat of power over the Earth and its affairs.
It was all about the control of Earth.
“The Governments of Earth were a direct mimicry of Cabal social orders, and were a key component in how they had maintained their control. The whole concept of government {on Earth} had come from the most dominant alien race in the Cabal. Allegedly.”
This is a direct passage from my dream journal entry recorded the day after this experience, 2 years before I even heard of Alien Interview. Note the similarity to Airl’s assertions.
Much of this information I picked up on due to having to send memos back and forth between politicians.
Voting to get and retain power
Everyone in the “The Capital” were very well aware that the Cabal were using deceptive tactics to make people on earth “vote” them back into power, but very few people understood exactly how this was being carried out. The influence of the Cabal was so great that it had spread into the “real world” (that Egyptian like world), where information of this nature was also being suppressed by the people living there. Sound familiar?
It was a very similar situation like our mainstream media, where the Cabal controlled everything we read and watched. However, there were times when information would slip through the cracks and trickle down to the common folk. It was a totalitarian dictatorship taken to the extreme.
What was known amongst us was that there was an active force of Elders from other races that were opposed to the Cabal’s way of dealing with things, and were actively trying to break the hold that they had gained upon everyone on earth and in the real world.
At this point I was not 100% lucid but had flittering moments of lucidity coming through.
A prominent guerrilla (like) group
There was a prominent guerrilla like group that the Elders belonged to, and every so often they were able to broadcast a message on the television screens. This was clearly an effort of tremendous hacking capabilities. Whenever one of these broadcasts appeared, every single person stopped what they were doing to listen to them (the TV’s were set out so that not a single person could escape the constant propaganda being delivered to them on an hourly basis courtesy of the Cabal). The word of the Elders was considered of paramount importance over everything else by the slaves and middle class men and women.
I was in the political chambers when the broadcast came on. It started with the usual address to the people from the Elders.
It stated bluntly that they were actively deconstructing the Cabal network in and around Earth, and that great progress had been made.
As it went on, I made my way out into the triangle courtyard where the nearest TV was.
Some specifics of these operations were mentioned. This was surprising to everyone as it was normal for the Elders to keep such things secret. It was the greatest announcement these people had ever witnessed, because it was the first time they had acknowledgment of being in the Elders’ thoughts. It was a broadcast that confirmed many things that until then had only been rumored to have occurred.
As I watched the broadcast the Elder mentioned that there were people that had been sent to Earth – or the false world – to act as representatives for their group. These people had been tasked with delivering information on the main device the Cabal had in operation that was keeping them in power. They then proceeded to run a very long scrolling list of who those representatives were.
It was evident that they had embedded some sort of code in that list. My eyes scrolled with the names and I began to target out my name and mentally zoom into it. I could read it as clearly as day. This is something that has never been easy in my dreams, even the lucid ones, and I realized it said Daegon Magus.
The thought went through my head that it was my author pseudonym but it was missing my middle nickname; it was very specifically a target to activate me, or – more correctly – deprogram me. I had been thinking of changing it to a different name (in the physical world), but this experience dissuaded me.
The name sort of popped out of the screen and hovered in mid-air, and the letters rearranged themselves. As they did my surroundings dissolved into atoms, then the name along with it. I was now somewhere between the fabric of that reality speaking directly with the Grand Elder. Or a similar Elder. At this point I was once again functioning from the level of my higher mind and was completely lucid and consciously aware of what was going on; this had been the first time the Elder had pulled me out of a “standard dream” to communicate with me, rather than a lucid one.
These guys had some really neat tricks up their sleeves.
The Elder spoke of a word which was like a conjunction of Uranus, Saturn and Mercury or some other planets in our solar system, which when said sounded like 3 people were speaking it at once. Each version, however, would be slightly different. When read, it looked as though some of the letters had been doubled – something like Urraanniiuusatecry or Urraanniiuussaatteeccrryy. I don’t know if this was the name of my people, of the Elder’s people or if it was the name of the Elder himself, but it was a very, very important word that I was made to remember.
I was also shown a very vivid image of another elitist name and how they had embedded some kind of programming formula by rearranging its letters. Exactly the same as what had been done with mine. Essentially these were cyphers, that, if meditating on, rearranging them in the proper sequence could apparently lead to dissolution of the illusion in one’s own consciousness. What you do is pull the letters out and move them to a different place in the name, like you are making an anagram. It has to be a very specific order, and the vowels are the letters that are removed while the consonants remain in place. That is if my memory serves me correctly. The occult magical system of deconstructing “abracadabra” is similar to how these ciphers were meant to work. Again, that is my interpretation.
Half way through this encounter I was disturbed by Storme who I knew had spoken to me back in the Egyptian like “real world”. I was able to shift my consciousness from the atomic plane to the real world plane without effort.
I realised I was now in some kind of study room reading a book.
Storme had come in, and noticed the blank look on my face as I stared at a page without movement. She asked what I was doing in a very confused tone. I snapped out of my daze to tell her “its ok, I am receiving some very important information from an Elder regarding the election”. I then looked back at the page in my book and the letters began rearranging themselves in the same way as the ciphers. Again, everything disintegrated and I was back in the atomic plane where the Elder was waiting for me.
Are Earth Humans in a Consciousness Simulation?
I asked very specifically if we {back on Earth} were in a consciousness simulation.
The Elder confirmed to me that yes, every single person on Earth was trapped in a false reality that had been constructed by the Alien factions present within the Cabal. It had been designed so that consent of these people was unwillingly being given as to mark their votes for the Cabal remaining in office.
All contracts signed within the physical reality apparently equated to a vote for the Cabal to remain in office. The third parties mentioned in such contracts were in reference to non physical entities that were in control of the higher energetic bodies. Contracts were literally binding us to the physical reality, through quantum loopholes according to the Elder.
The Elder explained that when Earth bodies come out of physical reality during their sleep, they are hijacked as they do so. They are then taken to special facilities in the “real world”. They are processed and implemented with fresh programming to keep their physical life story consistent.
After that they are either thrown back into the VR machine or let free in a restricted part of the “real world” where their labor is used for the upkeep of the city. This is under the heavily brainwashed idea that the city would crumble if they didn’t volunteer to help. This keeps them obliged to depend on the Cabal and offer them consent in exchange for security. This was the blueprint upon which the entire VR machine was written.
The Elder told me the guerrilla force openly opposing the Cabal were successfully deconstructing parts of this virtual reality machine and the sleep trapping mechanisms being deployed by the Cabal. He told me they were preparing the people of Earth for a transition to another “buffer” reality which appears similar to this false one, but is not under the control of the Cabal.
They apparently could not come here openly and do this because there were “things preventing them from doing so”. He explained these things as a sort of invisible force field around earth. Again hitting on some strong coincidences with Airl. So basically all operations supporting this agenda had to be carried out in planes external to the physical one.
The way he described it was that it was essentially a rehab for Earthians to detox them from all the VR dependencies they had come to rely on due to the Cabal’s manipulation of their free will.
Once properly detoxed the plan was to switch the VR engine off altogether, in which the Earthians would be allowed to return to the real world. It would no longer be restricted or under the control of the Cabal.
Any factions associated with the Cabal would never again be allowed to sit for the election. A new purpose for Earth would then come into motion where the newly elected council would take office.
I was then taken to a scenario that was apparently used immediately after sleep hijacking takes place and immediately before insertion of a subject back into the VR world. Again this was related to what the Obama V2.0 had told me about the holographic tech. Like in my other experiences, I could still hear the Elder’s voice telepathically in my head, telling me to take notes of certain things.
Mentally, I was completely coherent and lucid by this stage.
Entangled in a false reality
It was explained to me by the Elder that usually the subject is not allowed to view this scenario taking place. It is designed to trigger the sub consciousness in a very specific way to keep them entangled in the false reality and think it was real.
I was in this really seedy city type place walking down a sort of road or a back alley at night time. To begin with a dog in a nearby yard came running up to a fence that bordered the road barking at me quite aggressively. As I walked by it more and more dogs would come out, each a little bit more vicious than the last, and the group getting bigger each time. I was content in the fact that the fence was there protecting me from them. I turned a corner and found that once again more dogs were waiting for me, but this time there was no fence and they were in the middle of the road. They would run up to me, go to bite me then something would happen and I would be missing time. I would be in a completely different part of the city facing an even bigger threat. I got to the end of the scenario which took place in some sort of abandoned abattoirs where something horrible (that I can’t remember but I am sure had to do with dismembering my body) happened.
At this point the scenario froze and the Elder’s voice pierced my thoughts.
It was explained to me that this scenario was designed to gradually build up a subjects fear response by subtly ramping up the threat factor being posed to them. This is then used to condition them toward a certain reaction when they start to become aware of the illusion of the VR world.
I was told this scenario could go on for a long time depending on their personality and how hard it was to kick in their fear instinct. It was shown to me that by kicking in the fight or flight reflex, the subject immediately forgets all ideas of the illusion and commits to locking themselves back in to the virtual reality while they deal with taking care of the threat.
They keep you busy dealing with “scary” illusions so you don’t cotton on to them being exactly that. Illusions. I had grown accustomed to using my mind without its body, so these illusions didn’t phase me quite as much. What were they going to do? Dimension spin me again? I was that annoying dog that kept getting out of whatever fence you kept putting up around it regardless of how many different worlds you made me experience in the span of a whole second.
The Elder made me walk back through the scenario from finish to start, as this was how it was done by the Cabal. I suddenly realized I was watching myself in third person. I came across a group of thugs, and although not feeling scared, I decided to fight them, knowing that I could beat them easily. As I did, the Elder Guardian’s voice in my head said “No. That’s how they want you to react”. So I stopped what I was doing and calmly walked back to the end of the road, then came back around and went straight past, ignoring them.
I eventually got to the groups of rabid dogs. Instead of running from them I just barked and snarled back at them. The results were instantaneous. The dogs went from being massive vicious Rottweilers and Doberman’s to shrinking to very scared little Chihuahua’s that went hightailing it down the road not understanding what was going on. It exposed to me a flaw in the programming design, that if you fight it without physical aggression, and it instead challenge its dominance it does not know how to respond. If you believe you are much scarier than the illusion, the illusion no longer works.
I got back to the start of the scenario and something happened.
I blacked out.
I blacked out and came to in a sort of decontamination chamber belonging to the Cabal’s military. This was a very long hallway which I assumed was where the holographic scenario was being broadcast. I was totally butt naked.
It was creepy how similar this was to the Matrix. Only I wasn’t waking up in a pod like Neo. And the things greeting me weren’t machines. Or aliens. They were real, human people, dressed in military uniforms.
Physically, I could not move my body the way I wanted to. Something else was in control of it and was piloting it remotely. It felt similar to sleep paralysis. I couldn’t talk. All I could do was watch through my eyes as two guards escorted me through the decontamination chamber.
They quickly washed me down, and pressed a button and the door next to the shower section opened. This thing was like what you see in military bunkers; it was almost square shaped, several feet thick and made of solid steel. It slid open from both sides.
I was walked out of the decontamination chamber into a room that looked like a standard operations control room, with people typing things on computers that had been arranged around a big screen.
To my immediate right was a wall, and to my left was a rail the otherside of which dropped down to a sunken level. This is where the computers were set up. 5 meters in front of me were steps that led down to that level. The opposite wall was about 10 or so meters away, which had another massive steel door embedded into the wall to my immediate right. I still have a photographic memory of this place.
They notice an anomaly
One of the programmers collected my data (everything I had perceived in this physical reality) and upon noticing an anomaly with it showed the Commander, asking him if they should refresh my programming and send me back in or not. Sometime during all of this the Grand Elder’s voice kept coming through telling me to take note of certain things and of the Alien beings that were in control of the facility; I caught a glimpse of one of them through a viewing window that had another room on the other side. The viewing window was to my immediate left in the back wall of the sunken level; the same side of the door I’d just come through.
This was the only time I ever saw an alien during my mystical experiences, but I cannot remember what it looked like. If I had to hazard guess, I would say mantid, solely because the only thing I remember about it was that it had some sort of dark armour like skin. An exoskeleton. It’s like the rest of its image has been blocked.
All I can remember of it was that its hand was interacting with some sort of control panel in the other room. That other room appeared to be completely insulated from this one, like they were trying to keep that being and the humans separate. I think the Commander was the only one who was allowed to go near it.
It became apparent that the Commander – who was human – was the one piloting me.
He took one look at the dataset and replied
“No, something is wrong. He has been doing something or talking to someone off record and I want to find out who or what it is”.
He ordered me to walk over to what looked like a rack full of movies and video games to which my arm automatically began pulling out “The Lord of the Rings”.
I had no idea what this meant but, the Commander smiled and said
“Ahh is that what he has been doing? In that case we’ll drop this one into the test rig”.
The Elder’s voice reassured me everything was ok. He told me this was expected and that something had been hidden in the dataset to bring that outcome to fruition. He was speaking directly to me, right in front of these guys and they couldn’t register it. This was despite them monitoring every aspect of my mind. It was like the Elder had the ability to put me into a bubble where mine and his thoughts couldn’t be read by the programmers.
I was whisked into yet another room where some sort of device lay set up, hanging from the roof, with lots of tubes and wires coming out of it. I was made to stand in the middle right underneath this thing on a sort of platform.
A similar spherical portal to the ones I had summoned during lucid dreaming appeared in front of me.
And now another world.
Once again everything went dark, and then I “awoke” in another world that was a very close replica of the real world, but with a sort of village in its center. It was being contained by heavily armed Cabal guards that roamed its borders. I remember looking out of a deck of some sort of apartment or pub at the sky and poles and thinking
“Fucking hell this is so obviously fake. How did I ever think this was real?”
Immediately two things became obvious; the guards were “asleep” and the people they were keeping contained were awake; i.e. the people knew it was a VR world, but the guards didn’t. I remember seeing some old man who looked like a local celebrity – Scotty – and I couldn’t work out why with all these awakened people no one was doing anything.
“I said, you know this is a false reality don’t you?”
Scotty looked at me very hesitantly and said “yeah so?”
I suddenly remembered that everyone was imbued with a power associated with one of the four elements, and that if awakened they could summon that element to aid them. Apparently when combined properly with those of other elements they are quite powerful. This was knowledge the Cabal had successfully suppressed, but I don’t know how I knew it. It was just something my higher mind knew. I only remembered it once I was thrown into the test rig.
I summoned wind – my element – and turned to Scotty…
“So why don’t you help me so we can get out?”
Scotty looked at me with a very worrying look and said “no”, then huddled off.
So escape…
I figured at that point that people here were too oppressed to be of any help, so I started summoning tornadoes and cyclones to tear apart the buildings. This was just the standard sort of things I always did in Lucid Dreams; I’d just summon whatever I needed whenever I needed it.
The exception to this was when I was stuck in a consciousness prison, as they disallowed me this ability. Alarms went off and guards came running. I just casually walked past them, and they stopped in confusion as it seemed they couldn’t see me. This was despite me being right in front of them.
I ended up walking to a place that would have been out of bounds, if it weren’t for my destructive efforts. Somewhere along the lines I got the gist that this VR was a new “model” the military were working on implementing and was in its testing phase. Hopefully I caused them a bit of a headache with my antics. You could sort of see the boundaries of blankness where they hadn’t uploaded any environment data.
I think the making of this place was in direct retaliation to the Elder attacks on their system.
Well… I am at a university….
I ended up at what appeared to be a university building. This was the impression I got anyway. It had nicely manicured gardens and big glass windows that reached the roof which was only a couple of stories high.
Inside the foyer there was what appeared to be a sculpture of a brain made out of Ethernet cables instead of grey matter. Upon looking at the cables I realized they were coiled like old telephone cords and each terminated somewhere on the sculpture in a typical network hub.
There were thousands upon thousands of connections (this thing took up an entire room and was 2 storeys high) which all had blinking yellow and red lights at their ends. Something told me this was the VR server where every ones consciousness is downloaded while they are in the physical reality. I had this understanding that it was through the coiling of the wires that they were able to control consciousness similar to what we know as inductive coupling. The coils read the magnetism carried off via our thoughts.
I was about to destroy the whole thing when I came to the understanding it would be detrimental to those consciousness’s still attached to it. I decided to leave it and walk for the stairs.
As I reached the top a glass door slid open and out stumbled two people, dazed like zombies, one of which I knew to be Storme and the other of who I knew in the “real world”. I asked them “are you awake” – my code phrase for “are you lucidly aware” – and they both shook their heads robotically. I said to myself “looks like I am going back in”. I summoned an inward projection portal and projected into it. At this point I woke up in this physical reality back in bed.
This concluded my mystical experiences, but certainly not the paranormal ones.
Am I crazy?
At this point, I would have checked myself into the nearest mental asylum if it hadn’t been for Elon Musk and the other Silicone Valley giants jumping on board the whole simulation theory idea.
Nick Bostrom’s philosophical paper on that whole concept is something I seriously recommend reading to help expand ones consciousness. It can be found here; The Simulation Argument (simulation-argument.com)
In the video version I watched, it was reported Erin was actually the CEO of a company who were developing brain implant chips similar to Musk’s.
None of this compared to any of the confirmation I would ultimately get.
Then collapse!
My lucid dreaming capabilities ended up taking a nose dive, shortly after the Unseen 5 experience. I chalked this down to having a kid and no longer being in the well rested state of mind that I know is crucial for it. I was actually quite surprised with these last two experiences.
They were the first proper lucid dreams I had had in quite some time.
As you can imagine, the mystical experiences drove me crazy. I ended up trolling around the internet trying to find someone – anyone – with anything even remotely similar to talk to. I was lucky that I at least had Storme to talk to about it all. Who knows where I’d be if I didn’t.
I dropped a compressed version of this story on a few UFO and Starseed groups and others for occult subjects such as astral projection and lucid dreaming.
I was met with either “I call bullshit, astral projection is not relevant to ETs” from the UFO/ occult crowds, or “I am an alien from Pleiades because a psychic told me so” from the Starseed groups.
Although the Starseed groups seemed promising, I noticed a lot of information on there that was downright false that people were lapping up.
Two years later (this year), it all started coming to a head.
I was phoned by a very prominent ET researcher in America who linked my experiences to the Majestic 12. The information she gave me in that interview apparently came directly from her source within the CIA. This source had been told things by an MAJ Agent himself. I will include a report of that interview in another article. I wanted to include her in my autobiography, but she was apprehensive about it and asked me specifically not to mention her. Hence I have omitted her name.
I was contacted by another who was part of a similar consciousness operation and grew up under the ice in Antartica. She only reached out to me because she could relate to my experience where I “wrote the scroll.” This person I have been in constant contact with since making her acquaintance. I was talking to her on almost a daily basis for a good few months about everything she has experienced.
She has some very interesting things to say which parallel a lot of what MM has written in some of his articles. I hope one day she is able to share her experiences as I have done with mine.
In the same week I met this person I was put on to the Alien Interview document by someone else and my jaw hit the floor. The amount of things I experienced that Airl described was insane.
This was before Isaac CARET had even put me on the path of MM. If you find that {Isaac CARET} article of MM’s, I even mentioned the Alien Interview in one of my comments (I incorrectly misnamed Lawrence Spencer as Paul Spencer) before it was on MM’s radar.
So you can say I was pretty damned excited when MM did an 8 part breakdown of it and confirmed it as being what spawned MAJ.
I had been thinking of doing my own breakdown of it in regards to how it ties in with my lucid dreaming experiences since January before MM did his in June. Mine will be up once I have written more articles to provide some back context to it.
And of course there is MM himself. He was honestly the first person I had seen who was explaining things I already knew about in very similar ways to how I knew them. Reading his accounts it was uncanny how similar our thoughts were on many subjects. You may have noticed me subtly implying these parallels throughout my articles.
What MM calls “prayer affirmation campaigns” I had a very similar concept going on which I called “manifestation”.
Occultism was all about the idea one could elicit change in their environment through will power alone, after all; this was something I had an unfaltering belief in since I was a kid. I never once thought it was a load of bullshit. Back in 2019 I was conducting experiments in determining the timespan between intention and manifestation.
I had a success one day in which I was able to pin point the manifestation as being exactly 10 hours after the intention. I can tell you that custom number plates on cars are a good way to manifest “messages” because of the subconscious energy people all put into driving.
When MM says “combined focus of a goal amplifies the affirmation campaign”, you won’t find a better place where everyone’s attention is focused on the same thing than on the road.
In my experiments I was trying to use the information in random custom numberplates to “tell me” when my manifestation worked.
It also works by sending emails to yourself.
What do you think I was doing going nuts trying to find these 20 000 other souls I was supposed to be in charge of? Sending the Elder Guardians messages via my own email address specifically to reconnect with people that were part of it, of course. I didn’t have as clear a focus, but somewhere deep inside me, something just knew it would work. Part of my affirmation/ manifestation campaign was to be put into more specific information in regards to how it all worked. MM was the literal jackpot of my manifestation efforts (thankyou MM).
The Rufus thing I totally dig as well.
I’m the type of guy who doesn’t fling homeless people whatever spare change is in my wallet; I go and buy them a proper meal and sit down and talk with them for as long as they will allow me. I don’t do this for any reason other than because I know how much it sucks to be lonely.
Given my wife was homeless, I also have a vicarious understanding of how much it sucks to have nowhere to go. It’s easy to fling change and pass them by.
Everyone wants to be heard, but not everyone wants to listen. Be the one that wants to.
Always look for an opportunity to help someone. If the opportunity jumps out at you and catches you off guard, take it at once. The ones watching in the outer planes – like the EG and U5 – will notice, even if nobody in the physical does.
Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 5 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This is a nice story by Ray Bradbury. As I reread this story, I couldn’t help but relive the “news” that enters my feeds on a daily basis. It sounds so familiar. It’s just hard to believe that this story was written in the 1950’s. I do hope that you appreciate this story like I do.
THE LUGGAGE STORE
Ray Bradbury
It was a very remote thing, when the luggage-store
proprietor heard the news on the night radio, received all the
way from Earth on a light-sound beam. The proprietor felt how
remote it was.
There was going to be a war on Earth.
…
He went out to peer into the sky.
Yes, there it was. Earth, in the evening heavens,
following the sun into the hills. The words on the radio and
that green star were one and the same.
“I don’t believe it,” said the proprietor.
“It’s because you’re not there,” said Father Peregrine,
who had stopped by to pass the time of evening.
“What do you mean, Father?”
“It’s like when I was a boy,” said Father Peregrine. “We
heard about wars in China. But we never believed them. It was
too far away. And there were too many people dying. It
was impossible. Even when we saw the motion pictures we didn’t
believe it. Well, that’s how it is now. Earth is China. It’s so
far away it’s unbelievable. It’s not here. You can’t touch it.
You can’t even see it. All you see is a green light. Two
billion people living on that light? Unbelievable! War? We
don’t hear the explosions.”
“We will,” said the proprietor. “I keep thinking about
all those people that were going to come to Mars this week.
What was it? A hundred thousand or so coming up in the next
month or so. What about _them_ if the war starts?”
“I imagine they’ll turn back. They’ll be needed on Earth.”
“Well,” said the proprietor, “I’d better get my luggage
dusted off. I got a feeling there’ll be a rush sale here any
time.”
“Do you think everyone now on Mars will go back to Earth
if this _is_ the Big War we’ve all been expecting for years?”
“It’s a funny thing, Father, but yes, I think we’ll _all_
go back. I know, we came up here to get away from
things–politics, the atom bomb, war, pressure groups,
prejudice, laws–I know. But it’s still home there. You wait
and see. When the first bomb drops on America the people up
here’ll start thinking. They haven’t been here long enough.
A couple years is all. If they’d been here forty years, it’d
be different, but they got relatives down there, and their
home towns. Me, I can’t believe in Earth any more; I can’t
imagine it much. But I’m old. I don’t count. I might stay on
here.”
“I doubt it.”
“Yes, I guess you’re right.”
They stood on the porch watching the stars. Finally
Father Peregrine pulled some money from his pocket and handed
it to the proprietor. “Come to think of it, you’d better give
me a new valise. My old one’s in pretty bad condition. . . .”
The End
Conclusion
It’s a very short story.
Do you really think that if you were living off in a far away nation, and war broke out on American soil, that you would leave and return to America?
I don’t.
I’m in China. America is thrashing and snarling. It is going bat-shit-crazy and the LAST thing that I want to do is return to that cesspool of greedy ignorant psychopathic monsters.
Never the less, this story was written at a different time, in a different place, and the values reflected in this story has long since disappeared from the world. It’s all gone like whispers and vapor.
Some thoughts. A bunch of “stuff” flooded my brain this morning, and so I want to spew this stuff on paper and move on with my other projects and activities. So just let me go a spewing. And as I spew forth on this beautiful morning let’s all keep in mind to have a lovely day.
Shall we go a spewing?
Coffee, freshly brewed in the morning, tastes great.
Perhaps we take what we commonly consume for granted. I watched one of those “cop shooting videos” where this guy threatens a police officer to shoot him. He said “go shoot me!”. And the police tell him “lay down your weapon.” And so he lunges out at the officer, and is shot dead. I think he was dead before he hit the ground.
Ugh.
In one year no one will remember his name, what he did for a living, or really care.
And you know what?
That cup of coffee that he had in the morning was his last.
He probably didn’t savor it either. He probably poured himself a cup, gulped it down without a thought and read the “news” about “Presidents says this…”, or “Rich oligarch flies into space because he can. And fuck the rest of youse guys”
Or better yet “Coronavirus is worst ever!”. Or “new strain attacks people left and right!” Or, maybe “new leaked evidence about US funding, and Coronavirus development in China”.
Or perhaps, “Australia alarmed”, or “Japan Alarmed”, or “Refugees pour in from Afghanistan”. Yada. Yada. Yada.
Sheech! Enjoy what you have.
Morning coffee.
Do you smell the coffee when it is brewing? Do you have the opportunity to drink it in the early morning with some “me” time? Do you eat something along with it?
Like eat a bagel.
Or hang out with your little buddies.
NOW.
Engineering of humans for this “Prison Planet” environment.
As I understand it, the “normal” and default biological life-form is fully capable of simultaneous co-habitation in both the physical world and the non-physical world.Most creatures naturally go back and forth between the two realities quite easily.
Yet humans do not have this ability.
For us (Earth bound) humans, we can only see the physical reality, and have no ability to see the non-physical reality, and what’s worse, not even able to remember it.
The reasoning behind this is described in the work “Alien Interview”.
I suggest that this implies that the human species (for this earth environment) was specifically modified (or retarded) to prevent this ability. And this belief is confirmed in the “Alien Interview”.
Alien 3 movie – A prison planet.
If we can determine what the alterations are, we can reverse this aspect of the damage.
I argue that the Type-1 greys are physically modifying the non-physical reality bodies to correct these and other issues, and all that nonsense about abductions are just fears manifested from ignorance. Now, to prevent me from going into stuff that I just cannot state, I will suggest that the “other” humans that sometimes attend these events are not from our “Sentience Nursery Region / Prison Planet”. Instead they are from “outside” of it.
Their bodies are not “retarded” Prison-bodies that we are all so entwined with in this realm that we are in.
The key then is “containerizing” our consciousness outside of the physical body, as it seems to have been devised (or modified) as a physical cage.
Indeed this “Prison Planet” has many, many levels.
Body selection for the truly evil
I think that those souls that developed into truly evil and vile consciousnesses needed to be put into a secure holding facility; a “Prison Planet”. The problem is that as the “Old Empire” got old and corrupt itself, everyone was thrown into this environment. And it is thus and environment that we share together.
Good. Bad. Evil. Disjointed.
Earlier I wrote about CJ, the beauty model that I lived with. She was amazingly beautiful, but inside she was like a horrible demon. At times, when her “real” side came out, I considered her to be an actual evil demon-like entity.
I wonder…
If you were evil and vile and you were in Heaven, and it was time for you to construct your time on earth, what kinds of bodies would you inhabit?
I think that most evil and vile people would inhabit the bodies that would give them…
Large amounts of Power.
Unlimited sex with whomever they wanted.
Control over others, domination.
Wealth in copious and ridiculous amounts.
Thus, is it any wonder that we see such a concentration of evil and vile people in Washington DC, or in the leadership of smaller African, and South American nations today?
And thus we see an outrageously beautiful person who is a real evil vile person inside.
Alien Interview placed many concepts, now accepted as real, decades before scientific acknowledgement of them.
For instance “continental drift”. “Chariots of the Gods”. The “12th Planet”. “Pole Shifts”. The ability to clone and design creatures with DNA. The list goes on and on.
It is so easy for us to read “Alien Interview” with the eyes of a contemporaneous person from 2021 instead of a person from 1947.
We have to keep that in mind.
In 1947, the “new age” movement did not exist. It did not occur until the late 1960’s. Most Americans believed the Bible was the de facto history of the world. And while Darwinism was taught in the universities, most people focused on the principle subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic.
For the “leadership” of America at that time, it all must have come as a great shock. The idea of “not to follow the tunnel of light”, and that there is no “Heaven” or “Hell”, and that memories are not ever supposed to be erased.
All in all, it was obvious from the reading of the narrative in support of “Alien Interview”, that leading scientists and capable people at that time were pulled in for their thoughts and commentaries. And after much deliberation, I am positive that they HAD to conceive of a secret organization to deal with this species and all of what it talked about.
That is how MAJestic came about. And no, it wasn’t JUST because one singular “flying saucer” was captured. It was EVERYTHING associated with it.
Some cat quotes
I found these humorous.
Does McDonald’s i(outside of China) still have those little white plastic stir-sticks? What about those little metal foil ash-trays? Or those cute kitty-sized little milk creamers?
This is so relatable.
Indeed. They seem to be immune to the earth as a “Prison Planet”.
They come and go from non-physical to physical and back again as if it were nothing.
Poor kitty.
And…
Yeah. I hear ya bud.
And…
Fact. Jack.
Japanese press is hyping up a war with China
American influence no doubt. But it’s all nonsense. A lot of words, and posturing. And it ignores the serious, serious open wounds that fester inside of China.
But let me tell you all, and any Chinese in the MM audience can confirm this statement as true.
"If Japan makes ANY military move against China, China will start nuking that fucking little island like there is no tomorrow. Fuck their military. It will be their cities and people who will all die God Damn it!"
For the last 75 years every single person in China has been exposed to the horrific tragedies and rape of China by the Japanese and the hatred is visceral. I, as an American, am shaken to the core when I see the Chinese react to any of this Japanese nonsense. Believe me. They will fucking bludgeon Japan into a bloody pulp.
Believe me.
Japans had best hide from China, and not do anything that the USA wants. Mind My Words. Video…
The Japanese were brutal against the Chinese, and China wants PAYBACK in the worst way.
Things have changed.
This was then. Now look at today. If you want to fuck with China you had best get ready for a real bludgeoning. Video.
If you want to fuck with China you had best get ready for a real bludgeoning.
Greek Breakfast foods
Every now and then I come across a Greek restaurant. I love the food there. And I think that it would be great to try some of their breakfast foods.
Feta, Veggies and Eggs
Whether they’re scrambled or served omelette style, you can’t go wrong with topping eggs with Feta. Try adding chopped onion, a bit of garlic, veggies of choice (zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes are great in this dish). Sprinkle in some coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss in a splash of milk, and whip together in a bowl. Cook the eggs either omelet or scrambled style, adding the Feta, when the eggs are almost finished. Delicious Greek breakfast food!
A fine Greek Breakfast.
Eliopsomo: Greek Olive Bread
You can pick up this wonderful, traditional bread at a Greek bakery or cafe, as well as many specialty grocery stores. While it’s delicious simply toasted and served with your morning cup of coffee, try switching it up a bit by topping the bread with a good Greek cheese.
Eliopsomo.
Spanakopita
Who doesn’t love Spanakopita? But, remember, it’s not just for lunch and dinner. Why not warm a slice and serve it on a plate with your morning cup of coffee? It’s a great alternative to the everyday breakfasts you’re likely tired of eating.
Spanakopita
PLA expels U.S. destroyer from China’s territorial waters off Nansha Islands
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) said Wednesday it had expelled a U.S. guided-missile destroyer that trespassed in China's territorial waters near the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.
PLA Southern Theater Command spokesperson Tian Junli said in a statement that the U.S. military's act had seriously undermined China's sovereignty and security interests.
Calling Washington "a risk maker" to the security of the South China Sea and the "biggest destroyer" of the region's safety and stability, Tian warned that the theater command will "remain on high alert."
"We will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security, as well as peace and stability in the region," he said.
I expect more belligerent actions by the US Navy in the coming months. And expect China to tire of the “cat and mouse games” after a while.
With all the new a talking about Afghanistan, no one is talking about this little tidbit of treasure. The national animal of Afghanistan is Snow Leopard.
The Snow Leopard is a big cat who lives on a high altitude and preys on Argali wild sheeps, Ibex, Pikas and rabbits etc.
A snow leopard.
Snow Leopard are very rare and are only found in 12 countries like China, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Russia, Afghanistan etc. Snow Leopards are so rare that they estimate that there are only 3500 of these creatures left.
China has the 60% of the population of these majestic cats.
These white big patched cats love to live between an altitude of 10,000 meters – 18,000 meters. The gestation period is 3 and half months. An astonishing there here is that their limbs are extremely powerful, even they can hop up to 30 feet which is 6 times their body length, extremely strong limbs huh?.
A snow leopard.
Another specialty of these Snow Leopards is that it have a gray or light green eyes rather than a yellow or gold like the other big cats. The Snow Leopard was thought to be extinct in Afghanistan, however, 100 are still out there somewhere.
There is no specified reason why Snow Leopard is opted as the national animal, but some says as the people Afghanistan are well known for their brave character and this majestic cat, however, reflects the very same ideology. And you know, the Afghanistan people are not as the USA media pictures them. They are something else entirely. I think the Snow Leopard fits their psyche.
Changes in the geography of the basic world-line template that many people use
Changes are happening, and the templates are changing. No, not the anchoring effects, but the general master templates themselves. To do this is very, very, VERY powerful.
I was once asked how powerful the extraterrestrial benefactors were. They asked if they had weapons powerful enough to destroy cities. I responded that they had the ability to move the earth from it’s orbit. Put it inside the Sun for five minutes. Let it bake good and well, and then place it back in orbit. That is how powerful they are.
I see that there are some events that are changing. Future life-track world-lines seem to be adjusting to new templates, and these templates are … peculiar.
Peculiar.
You heard it here first.
Bob Odenkirk back on ‘Better Call Saul’ set after heart attack
I enjoy “Better call Saul”. It’s a great show. But you all gotta follow it for a while to figure out what is going on. I think it’s great. But them I was surprised to discover the actor who plays Saul Goodman had a heart attack. It bummed me out.
Better call Saul.
58 years old. Had a heart attack and blockage. Major bummer. I am glad that he’s back on his feet again. You all must take care with your body. As you get older heart attacks become real threats.
I’ve had two of the fuckers.
The first time was in a high-stress work environment, while dealing with a high-stress mentally ill wife. I was in the machine shop and had a serious heart attack. Good thing that I was young. 36 years old or so. I was able to pick my self up from the floor and get to the doctor. The second time was last year when I was adjusting to new blood pressure medicine.
Eat well. Watch your health. You never know.
What is “freedom”?
I know, I know, I know. I have gone on and on endlessly about this subject. But “freedom” is NOT the ability to vote in a democracy™. It’s something else. It’s entirely something else.
Some things that need to be underlined…
Freedom to be left alone.
Freedom to disappear.
Freedom of complete privacy.
Any nation that does not allow these freedoms is just a prison.
Facebook pays contractors to read your ‘encrypted’ WhatsApp messages, shares info with prosecutors – reports — RT World News
Obviously this is an ideal, but I do have to tell you’se guys that if your nation isn’t allowing it’s citizenry these freedoms then it is not DOING ITS JOB. Nations have a duty to their citizenry.
All nations in the world today violate these aspects of life to one degree or the other. I argue that this also includes China…
…but, China is far better protecting the massive onslaught against the individual by aggressive interests than the United States is. The freedom to be left alone is a major issue, don’t you think?
Some thoughts on democratic voting balancing
I have long given up on the belief that a democracy is the best way (or even a way) of running a nation. But others haven’t. Here’s some thoughts by RM on how the American democracy could be improved to better serve it’s people.
What we are not seeing at the city and county level is this:
USA balancing act.
Rural farming areas and downstaters are screwed when there is a big city in their state.
.
Their vote is continuously cancelled and it does not count toward the results that they want.
.
States are like a giant gerrymandering. I have often thought that states should have a series of county referendums or whatever legal path they could find and redraw their boundaries. For instance here is Greater Idaho, which they are currently working on:
Changing the lines of control.
Then groups of these newly defined states could make coalitions in Congress.
.
Create cooperative zones for building their economies.
Cooperate on state banking and mutual credits for home and industry.
Support common problems of pollution or agriculture development.
Have an Environmental protection that does not stop at state borders.
Combine their national guard forces. (This one is important.)
Maybe make tax free zones and trade concessions.
Well, they should do everything to grab more power from the Feds.
Even change the US tax structure.
I believe that in the US they would have to find a better way to consolidate interests into bigger factions, to wrest governance away from the present power structures. This could be a way, without disruptive protest or armed rebellion.
.
Is it too late? Or is the process just getting started?
Just some kids playing
In America they banned toy guns “for the children”. In China, all kids get to play with toy guns, and they all receive real military training on how to use them in the Pioneers and Scouts. Not to mention the mandatory Middle School mandatory boot camp. Video.
Kids playing.
FOX “news” praises China!
Are pigs flying in the skies above the United States these days? Did Hell freeze over?
The famous China-hater Carlson says China does a few things right:
Houses are for people to live in, not for speculation;
Children are to limit their gaming time to three hours in the weekend;
Celebrities are not to be worshiped; he should add: young men are not to wear make-up to look like women.
The differences in the relative importance of sex to women as opposed to men
Men and women are different.
Men have testosterone flowing through their veins and women have progesterone flowing through their veins. Both hormones greatly affect our social interactions with others, as well as our drive to succeed, make friends, form businesses, and establish long-lasting relationships.
Both levels fluctuate over the life-time. And thus both males and females experience different phases of life.
Testosterone levels for men and women during a life-span.
For Women… the progesterone levels fluctuate on a cycle. This reflects the ability to have children. As the levels fluctuate, moods, emotions, and physical appearances all change. I am sure that all MM readers realize this.
Now, you notice that after a period of time, this cycling stops. And thus we have this graph…
And my point is this…
Both women and men change biologically through their lives. For women, they tend to cycle faster on a more or less monthly basis, while men are fairly constant. Then at around 35 years old everything changes.
And the reason why I bring this up is that physical cosmetic changes in transgender surgery might help a person’s ego and self-esteem, but it will not change their biology. No matter what amount of dosages of hormones that they take.
When a 50 year old man goes into transgender surgery to become a woman, the only changes will be external appearance, and perhaps personal ego. It will not change their internal biology. For the rest of their lives they will be tethered to external hormonal treatments just to maintain their state of mind. The moment that you decide to go transgender, you become addicted to big-pharma, and at the mercy of what ever they demand of you.
If you stop, intentionally or unintentionally (such as a societal collapse, war, or inaccessibly of hormonal treatments) your biological regression could become a living Hell for you.
Do you think that I am being mean or cruel to point this out?
If people want to do something, I say do it! But, please do so with balance. If you are proud to be a transgender person, then tell your story. Firstly for those who need hope, but also for those that don’t understand. However, don’t paint a 100% rosy picture either.
Life is about tradeoffs. You all need to discuss those tradeoffs realistically and openly.
If you are in your late 40’s and wish to be a transgender woman then you must realize that the lifestyle that you are moving towards will have consequences.
American military transgender people speaking out about their decisions.
Some Chinese food
I eat a lot of food in China that you simply cannot get anywhere else. All those “Chinese” restaurants only sell pre-packaged “Chinese fast food” that has been Americanized, or Westernized to some extent. Here’s some short videos. Please check them out…
This is the “real deal”. Not the pale processed meat patty things that you get in fast food restaurants.
XianXi chicken tenders.
The ONE problem that I have with these delicious foods is the glossiness. All that gloss and shine is caused by heavy quantities of MSG. Ugh!
Facing a Harsh Future With the Wisdom of the Past
Ah. It’s a very American-centrist article. Very myopic. However the conclusion is critical. Americans MUST take a good hard look at what America is TODAY, and work on a NEW WAY to govern, deal with a great diverse citizenry, and function properly.
But before we get to the article, lets note what was said about the former Soviet Union. One observer described this as follows.
As the state and economy collapsed, their money worthless, their jobs evaporating, with crime, disorder, and corruption rampant, life expectancy plummeted in post-Soviet Russia. The longstanding Russian curse, alcoholism, became an endemic phenomenon in Russian life. Abortions substantially exceeded births, suicides soared, and the state apparatus and law enforcement collapsed along with the unkept utopian promises of a failed system.
Well…
Can’t you describe the United States this way today?
As the state and economy collapsed, their money worthless, their jobs evaporating, with crime, disorder, and corruption rampant, life expectancy plummeted in the United States.
Alcoholism, and drug abuse (both legal and illegal) became an endemic phenomenon in American life.
Abortions substantially exceeded births, suicides soared, and the state apparatus and law enforcement collapsed along with the unkept utopian promises of a failed system.
By tradition Americans are an optimistic people. As the saying goes, we are imbued with an “indomitable spirit” in times of hardship at home and major crises abroad. These qualities contribute to our sense of national unity. We view ourselves as a country defined by, but not imprisoned in, the past. We eagerly await future opportunities that will make our lives better and more fulfilled. We don’t fear what is to come — we welcome challenges of all sorts.
Throughout our history, we have bonded together when necessary to overcome barriers to our development as a nation. We have tamed an entire continent and fought wars abroad in support of freedom. We have survived economic failures, massive political unrest, and other threats to our sovereignty.
However, in light of recent events and civil disruptions, the cohesiveness of times past — “our indomitable spirit” — is no longer as firmly embedded in our national consciousness as before. Other countries are challenging our scientific dominance in many areas.
Our role as a leading world power is being questioned if not discredited.
China and Russia are expanding their influence throughout the globe with impunity. Obsessed with domestic unrest, the COVID pandemic, and immigration, we have not yet fashioned a coherent policy to deal with their aggressive strategies.
In spite of this shift in priorities, we tend to fall back on old ways of viewing our national goals and international commitments. Rapidly shifting conditions have created the need for a reevaluation of our relationship with allies and adversaries.
Once again, we have reverted to what I call the basic fallacies in the way we negotiate issues of national and international importance. Our optimism and pioneer spirit, as mentioned above, have a decided effect on the following observations:
The first fallacy is minimizing the impact of radical change: believing that successful measures should stay the same.
Our nation was founded on the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Many political scientists and judges are classified as “constructionists”: they believe that these two documents are “sacred” in nature and cannot be changed as written; others, on the other hand, are “organic life” specialists who conceive of these same documents as broad-stroked guides to political governance.
As a result, they should be interpreted according to the exigencies or dynamics of the times. Conservatives, in this debate, wish to preserve the integrity of past legislation and its precedents; liberals seek a flexible, malleable Constitution that can be interpreted as conditions warrant.
Conservative and liberal scholars both admit that adjusting to societal needs is the purpose of Constitutional amendments (27 overall to date); however, from a conservative perspective, why should legislators modify its basic framework at the same time?
We cannot project current trends with any accuracy into the future. For more than 234 years our republic has been well served by the wisdom of the founding fathers.
Resistance to change is normal but the refusal to change or alter our strategies can be very costly in the political arena. In general, cautious flexibility in judgment should always prevail to avoid the fallacy of expecting similar results over time.
The second fallacy is that good-hearted people, guided by compassion, will always determine political outcomes.
Laws, as well as wars, are rarely decided by well-intentioned government agencies. War is ended through defeat or surrender, in most instances without conditions.
Compassion has nothing to do with how the enemy is treated during the occupation of their land. Expediency and collaboration serve as principles of conduct for most Western powers. Countries in the Far East have long ruled their conquests by sheer force, terror, and indoctrination.
Western laws are legislated with mutual interests in mind, not compassion.
They are the end product of hard-nosed compromises in republican governments. Under dictatorial rule, laws are enacted by representatives who are subject only to the will of a tyrant. As Louis XIV of France famously said” “L”Etat c’est moi!” (“I am the State”)
The third fallacy is that democratic or republican government will always be preferred to autocracies that suppress individualism and freedom.
The United States has tried repeatedly to impose democratic rule on countries they have conquered. Without a foreign military presence and forcible adoption of republican-like governments, these nations would most likely have reverted to an autocratic form of leadership that meets the needs and expectations of native or tribal leaders (e.g. Afghanistan and Iraq). Autocracy–if administered with a full understanding of the people and culture–can be very effective: to wit, the despotism of Saddam Hussein in Iraq that held warring tribes together (the Sunni vs. Shia).
Countries in the Middle East have been governed by monarchies, emirates, and dictatorships for many years. Democracy and its emphasis on individual rights are for the most part incompatible with these cultures.
Lacking the oversight of American military forces, Afghanistan will quickly return to tribal governance; extremists (i.e., the Taliban) will enforce Islamic laws that are detrimental to women and young girls. More than twenty years of warfare have forced us to admit that the Islamic world has hierarchical gender customs that are unacceptable to Western sensibilities.
The fourth fallacy is that, in times of crisis, America will always protect the rights of the individual as dictated by law.
LOL. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
This fallacy is a product of Western thinking and political expectations. In the Far East, with the exception of South Korea and Japan (“conquered” nations with an active American military presence decades after the end of hostilities), in times of crisis the individual will always be sacrificed to the welfare of the group or nation.
In the United States, there would be a hue and cry of protest if individual rights were not protected, even during the worst of times.
Dictatorial or autocratic governments see little benefit in making an entire nation suffer to improve the life of an individual or a small group of citizens. This attitude reflects the culture’s view on human life and its relative value to society as a whole.
The fallacy of assuming that all cultures will accept our interpretation of human rights is the basis for multiple conflicts abroad, especially in the Middle East and China.
The subcontinent of India, with its rapidly increasing population, seems to be the exception to autocratic or monarchical Far Eastern regimes. Its republican government comes from the Raj or British colonial rule. Within a relatively short period of time, demographers project that India’s population will surpass that of China, thus making it the most populous country in the world. With multiple ethnic groups, religions, and languages, one wonders just how long India’s national unity will endure under the stress of these social and sectarian divisions.
In spite of many attempts to do so, we cannot impose our political style of governance on conquered nations (“nation-building”).
The American concept of local or state sovereignty, allied with the federal government on issues of national importance, is unknown in many nations around the globe.
Our system of government is successful because most citizens accept its efficacy.
Once that cooperative spirit and support are disparaged, our belief in the necessity of collective action will eventually disappear. If this should occur, our democracy, in its current form, could not survive.
Given the widespread diversity that now characterizes the American population, how can we preserve the willingness to accept electoral results? When voting procedures are litigated and broadly challenged, the seeds of discord are planted.
The outcomes of future elections will be viewed with suspicion.
Voter acceptance will be weakened and outcomes subjected to excessive scrutiny. We are quickly moving toward a more tribalistic form of governance as identity politics and interest groups take priority over concerns of national stability. The progressive movement to rewrite history in favor of “disadvantaged” minorities will undermine our sense of national unity. The wokeism of modern politics will have disastrous consequences in the years to come.
Our recent celebration of the Fourth of July (2021) with fireworks and the traditional appeals to unity rang a little hollow.
Many liberal extremists now view the American flag as a symbol of white domination, not national unity. Radicalized athletes “take a knee” in protest against racial injustices of the past. In a few decades, if this anti-American trend continues in our schools and social media, what will the cohesive theme of the Independence Day celebrations be? Will we continue to show the same enthusiasm about our country and its uniqueness?
This divisive mood was evident in the singing of the “Black national anthem” together with the “The Star Spangled Banner.”
If Blacks can impose their will on authorities at this event that celebrates national unity, we should expect Hispanic or Vietnamese music at next year’s festivities to emphasize their growing national influence. An hour-long special on the evils and repercussions of slavery would also be appropriate. This would encourage Whites to reflect on their “privilege” and need for atonement, not on the common traits that join our diverse ethnic groups into a functioning whole.
Do not expect, however, an in-depth documentary on the “root causes” of Black-on-Black crime in the bloodbath of Chicago’s ghettos. Blacks who shoot other Blacks are considered collateral damage (if not commonplace) and not worthy of media attention since they do not conform to the “progressive narrative.” Blacks are important only if they are perceived as victims of white neglect or violence. More than anything, a White police officer who shoots an “unarmed” Black merits national media coverage of a prolonged nature.
A statue of George Floyd (“I can’t breathe”) — a five-time convicted felon, counterfeiter, drug dealer and addict — is emblematic of this racial disparity. In a sense, his monument places a minor-league Black criminal on an equal footing with the statue of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Washington D. C. which is a focal point for racial justice and peaceful compromise.
In summary, we tend to reason in ways that reflect our personal experiences and biases . The fallacies we have discussed pertain to national habits and attitudes which offer reassurance that most problems, no matter how difficult, can be solved by good-will diplomacy and relentless hard work. In a word, it is the “American way.”
In another context, this fallacious approach to domestic issues will have a negative impact on our national security and future solidarity. The questions that we should address in discussing our current political crises are many. The following are only a few examples among the most critical:
The Left’s recent promotion of “systemic White racism” as an intrinsic quality of being White; race is deemed a form of social destiny if not a “disease” that must be eradicated. The celebration of Project 1619, now being taught in many schools and Juneteenth (the arrival in America of the first shipment of slaves and its adoption as a national holiday); the introduction of “critical race theory” into the classroom (our country was founded on slavery and the continuous oppression of Blacks up to the present day; history must reflect this reality as an innate and permanent evil of white leadership.); social progressivism and its narrative: the Marxist ambition to remake America into a socialist state. To wit, laws enacted by white legislators have no relevance in the wokist community and are consequently illegitimate in their eyes. Rioting in the name of woke political causes is effective and morally justified, no matter what the results may be. As the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin once stated, to make an omelet you must first break some eggs. Unrestricted immigration is not so much a demographic issue for Americans but a means of achieving the long-term dominance of the Democratic Party.
We must also remember that to remain silent in the face of this dystopian turmoil is a sign of assent. The Biden-Harris regime is using the full power of the federal government to enforce its agenda. The COVID pandemic and its variants will be the stalking horse for the implementation of draconian measures related to gun control, “white supremacists” and their insurrection, climate issues, and the radical socialization of American politics. President Biden is now touting “human infrastructure” in his efforts to promote child care and parental subsidies that have nothing to do with the rebuilding of bridges and roadways. COVID vaccinations will become mandatory in spite of legitimate objections to their application on a national scale. Ideology is promoting vast changes in the way we relate to others.
The America First of the Trump era is becoming a radicalized new country in its political aspirations toward equity and inclusion of minorities in all facets of government, regardless of true merit.
If we remain as we are now — diverse, quasi-socialist, egalitarian, and democratic — we have no reason to expect that this trajectory will change.
That means, that for the first time, we must reconsider our assumptions about what America is, and look instead to what it must be in order to survive our bad decisions as a democracy up to the present date.
And one of the reasons why you won’t find anything positive about China in the USA media or literary sections…
Sad, but true. I guess that a 98% satisfaction rate with their Chinese government isn’t good enough.
And in the WTF department…
Can someone please explain…
Messed up.
China’s August exports defy reality and surprise many
When 150 million wealthy Chinese tourists travel and spend domestically:
.
150 million people = 33 times the size of New York City
The western sanctions and aggressiveness against Chinese businesses (The “Hybrid war on China”) resulted in a reciprocal response from China. This response allowed Chinese businesses to take back their native markets from the barbarian big brands….
.
… all working together as one.
Along with the completion of many infrastructure projects. Both domestically and internationally via the BRI (the belts and roads strategy). The Chinese economy is now completely independent from the Western “crusader” markets.
.
The outcome is:
.
China’s exports grew by 25.6 % in August compared with a year earlier, up from 19.3 per cent growth in July
China’s imports grew by 33.1 % last month, year on year, up from 28.1 per cent growth in the previous month
Welcome to the new world order without the (Anchorage, Alaska April 2021) style bullying by the Western nations.
The situation in the USA is madness
Well it is. You simply cannot deny it. Video HERE.
What is the true situation in Russia today?
From “Amorphous Anonymous” .
We talk a lot about the Soviet Union, but how does this relate to modern Russia? I don’t know the answer, consider this as a question. (Socialism I suppose?)
A) The transformation of the city of Ivanovo and seven others.
Video blogger, Студия Позитивчик, named “Studio Positive”, has made 8 before/after videos comparing the last 9 years of development within 8 Russian cities. The video links are on his home page:
Gelendzhik, NE coast Black Sea 150 km up from Sochi
Veliky Novgorad, 125 km south of St Petersburg on road to Moscow (about 450 km from Moscow)
Ryazan, 200 km SE Moscow
Saratov, On the Volga, about 850 km SE Moscow
Tyumen, East of Ural mountains, about 8-900 km east Moscow
Naberezhnye Chelny, in Tatarstan, about 600 km east of Moscow
What do you see when you scan through these video records? Well, you see modern Russian architecture, which is very interesting just for that. Eight cities are developing, growing, being renewed. I ask “How is this being done”? You can identify several different kinds of projects.
Renewed streets and landscaped parks and waterfronts. This is all local government financed obviously.
Commercial activity, strip malls, restaurants, shopping malls. I am thinking this is all private investment, it must be capitalism, for the wide variety of it.
Some large residential complexes? I don’t know, is there social ownership in living spaces? Or is it capitalism again?
Many old residential complexes (ragged looking in the 2011 before photos), are renewed with white walls and brightly colored balconies and the accent of architectural touches. Would a private owner put money into building aesthetics? Would they get any more rent out of it? Has it changed hands and the new owner is upgrading? Maybe it is old communal residences with community financing doing the work?
Also there are some stadiums and other large structures. What is the ownership status of these complexes and who are the investors?
These are questions that I don’t have the answers to. Who are the city planners, and how much do they have a say about city development?
B) An understanding of Russia’s Future
We try to get a better understanding of Russia’s future by going to some websites that are purported to have expertise on Russia, and run by Russian speakers. These are like the Saker, Dmitry Orlov, Andrei Martyanov, Charles Bausman, John Helmer,Vsevolod Pulya,Patrick Armstrong, Alexander Mercouris, Marko Marjanović, I think that there are others that I have left out.
What do they say?
Lots are concerned with geo-politics and military science. Then we are led to believe that
"Putin’s successes are anchored in a powerful energy sector, along with a vigorous science-technical and arms sector, which are also under direct state control".
Russia must be doing pretty good, right? Or are we getting a correct picture from these new “Hypersonic missiles”, gas pipelines, super weapons, and atomic Ice-breakers?
Plus now lately, we are told that Russia will build 5 new cities from scratch in Siberia, and the order is signed and the money is available. (Let them start with one.)
Will this happen? Is this a full and correct picture of modern day Russia? The 8 videos above show developmental progress in some important cities. If this is the general picture it should show up in all phases of Russian technical, scientific, educational, and commercial activity.
But lets’ try to take an honest look with a 2017 survey of Russia’s achievements.
B.1) Russia is number 12.
In a listing of published scientific articles by country, Russia is number 12, with only 10% by numbers, of the articles published in the USA. I won’t discuss the quality of the articles, which some do. the 2021 figures are here:
You can also divide the papers up by what Russia is good at, like mathematics and astronomy, but still the standing is very poor.
B.2) Russian foreign studies
Russia has a very poor standing in studies of foreign countries. For example China has at least an order of magnitude more people studying about Russia than Russia has studying in the universities about China. That being said, it is the global norm. The amount of American studies of other nations is practically zero.
Russian salaries in 2012,
$500/month for a Research Fellow,
$900/month for a senior researcher at the Institute of the Far East RAS.
$1,000/month for an Assistant Professor,
$1,500/month for a full Professor at Moscow State University’s (MSU) Institute of Asian and African Country Studies. (2012)
The $ exchange rate has more than doubled since then, so do scholars survive on those same old ruble rates, or have they gotten a raise? (Admittedly their expenses are in rubles, not in dollars.) But if it was too low they may leave the country.
B.3) Salaries for R&D
Salaries for R&D are some of the lowest in the top 50 countries. I could put up a chart, but Russia is at the bottom.
B.4) Technical equipment is gutted and sold off
R&D equipment is missing, in 2017 Russia had 3 supercomputers, China had 202, US 143. Russia is 18th in the list.
B.5) DNA
It is hard to come up with the number of Russian “high throughput DNA sequencers” for biotechnology research. But I think it is minuscule compared to the rest of the world. Some (older) sources said only 8, but let’s give it 25. 2013-14. Back then there were 250 in China and over 900 in the USA. Europe is loaded too.
B.6) Patent Applications
Russia is 6th in patent application in 2017, 30,000 compared to 1 million in China, 300,000 in US and 250,000 in Japan.
B.7) Venture Capital
In 2016 Venture Capital funding in Russia was 300,000 Euros, about the level of (less than) Ireland, or Finland, and more than in Italy. All of Europe $14 billion, US $72 billion, China $49 billion, India $8 billion. Russia is 6% of China, Russia 4% of US.
B.8) Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence startups in 2017, Europe 409, US more than 1000, Russia only 12. Equal to Sweden, Finland or Switzerland each with 10% of Russia’s population.
B.9) Industrial Robots
Russia had an operational stock of around 1,771 multipurpose industrial robots as of 2012. America 200,000, China 100,000, Japan 300,000, ROC Korea 138,000, Germany 162,000. Poland 4,500.
The absurdly low levels of robotization in industry raise serious questions about Russia’s political economy and its economic future. Low wages preclude automation, and low automation preclude greater productivity and higher wages?
B.10) Tooling and machining
2014-2015 Russia is 17th in machine tool companies, 485 companies producing machine tools in Russia (Canada just ahead, Thailand just behind).
China 22,000 companies,
Japan 13,000,
German 12,000.
Italy 5000,
Korea ROC 4,600,
USA 4,500.
The problems holding Russia back are severe, and possibly intractable. There are strong financial and ultimately institutional barriers to unlocking Russia’s scientific potential.
(Russia does consume around 2.7% of the world’s machine tools – it is, after all, the world’s eighth (or so) manufacturing power.)
A solid start would be to look at these statistics and acknowledge that a very big problem exists, which if unresolved, will continue to degrade Russia’s economic, industrial, and eventually military competitiveness. Where is the money and where is the resolve to tackle these problems? That is what I am asking, to anybody that might know.
Who are the true friends of Russia? Those that sound this alarm, or he who says “don’t say things that our western sworn enemies are always saying”? To me the answer is obvious.
Of course I have sources for all of this data. It comes from Karlin on Unz. He’s got all the charts and 5000 words of commentary. 2017. You can check them yourself. https://www.unz.com/akarlin/russias-technological-backwardness/ If there is a newer study, of course I would love to see it.
…
You don’t hear much about Russia these days, and thus Americans and most of Europe are kept intentionally ignorant about both China and Russia. As I see it, the rest of the world is growing and sorting itself out the tangled monstrosity that the United States has become. And unless the USA starts taking time to improve its piss-poor domestic state, it will be doomed to become a modern day Portugal.
The United States ranks last in media trust — at 29% — among 92,000 news consumers surveyed in 46 countries, a report released Wednesday found. That’s worse than Poland, worse than the Philippines, worse than Peru. (Finland leads at 65%.)
One reason is that U.S. media are either not reporting important events, are misreporting them, or are very late in covering twisted plots that even a lowly blogger can get right just as they happen.
It’s 4:30 PM in China. A very mellow time.
It is a mellow time. It’s peaceful and calm. China (outside of the big cities) has a much slower pace of life, and lifestyle than what the hyper West has. And it is refreshing as “get out”. Check out the video below.
Note that even though China is very safe and isolates any virus outbreaks immediately, everyone still wears masks, and is a heightened level of security and safety.
Also note that all my life, walking and enjoying life at 4:30p, was denied to me. I was usually at my desk or in a meeting in a sterile workplace technical corporate environment. Being outside that bullshit is refreshing to me. Video.
4:30pm mellowness.
Actually this is a big issue, and I need to devote a few articles to this subject. Do you all “get” what I am trying to say in this matter?
In pondering Washington’s new toy, a cold war against China, one sees a pattern. China’s approach to influence and prosperity is commercial and longsighted. This does not mean that the Chinese are warm and fuzzy, only intelligent. They advance their interests while turning a profit, which wars don’t. China invests heavily in the infrastructure, both physical and educational, that makes for current and future competitiveness. They are fast, agile, innovative, and imperfectly scrupulous. They seek trade agreements: The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with Europe, The RCEP, Regional comprehensive Economic Partnership, the CPEC, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the huge Iran deal, the development with Russia of the NSR, the Northern Sea Route. They seem good at it, China now being the largest trading partner of something like 165 countries.
Washington’s approach is military, coercive, shortsighted, and commercially dimwitted. It forms military alliances: the Quad in the Indian Ocean, with Japan against China, puts missiles in South Korea, pushes Europe to buy more American weaponry, sends naval forces to the Indian Ocean, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea, Black Sea, and Persian Gulf to intimidate, without much success, China, Russia, and Iran. It wants to get the Ukraine and Georgia into NATO to threaten Russia. It makes as much sense as lug nuts on a birthday cake.
China’s major capital expenditures, as gleaned as best I can from pubs covering these: highways, dams, bridges, very-high-voltage power lines, airports, rail, new high-tech 360 mph rail, five-g implementation, reactors, and semiconductor catchup.
America’s major capital expenditures: the B-21, F-35, Virginia-class subs, , Ford-class aircraft carriers, SSN (x) attack submarine. Biden says he will build infrastructure but, if history is a guide, he will pander to the woke, fight systemic racism, promote LBGQXYZ, become mired in congressional infighting, and the whole thing will devolve into pork. Want to bet?
What are these weapons for? The B-21 is an intercontinental nuclear bomber. What does one do with intercontinental nuclear bombers? Engage in intercontinental nuclear war. Are we sure this is a good idea? There will be no such war unless America starts it. China isn’t going to since (a) its approach to power and influence is commercial, which is working well, and (b) America has so many, many nuclear weapons of all sorts that China would be obliterated. If the US launched a first strike, the bombers would get there hours after the war was over. What would be the point?
The point is to funnel vast amounts of money into a bloated, running-on-autopilot military business so large that it can’t be reduced or controlled. All of this send-money PR assumes that China thinks it needs a nuclear holocaust. Who can doubt it?
It is impossible even to leave the military budget as it is, much less reduce it.
Military industry is so pervasive, providing so many jobs in so many states with so many lobbyists, that the President and his party cannot control it
China-Africa trade hits record high of $139.1 billion from January to July: MOFCOM
America sends troops (Africom, Africa Command) and builds drone bases. China builds rail lines and buys up resources. Did we say something about a pattern?
What is a Ford-class carrier good for? The Fords are versatile ships, having a three-fold purpose: Funneling lots of money into military industry, killing defenseless peasants, and sticking the Pentagon’s tongue out at China. Killing peasants and soldiers in third-rate armies of bedraggled third-world countries is what the American military does. Think Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Somalia. Getting into big wars with real countries is no longer practical despite the opportunities for profits because big countries depend on each other too much commercially. Even killing peasants begins to lose cache, as witness the comic opera defeat in Afghanistan..
A list of examples from Ohio. When military industry wants to produce a new weapon, it makes sure that components are produced in as many states as possible. But some things should be obvious. A big-ticket carrier creates a huge number of jobs for years at Newport News as well as jobs all over America for parts. When the carrier is completed and sails off to kill its peasants, the town goes into depression and stockholders lose dividends. The Pentagon then discovers an urgent need for another carrier. Congress shares this sense of urgency. Surprise, surprise.
What do I mean in saying that America is “short-sighted”? Try this:
Oregon Governor Kate Brown quietly signed a bill last month that removed the requirement for graduating high school children in the state to be proficient in reading, writing, and math, in an effort to aid “students of color.”
Wowee, that must terrify them over in China’s engineering departments, where students are years ahead of American in mathematics. This sort of thing goes on across America.
Number of Chinese overseas military bases: 1 (Djibouti) American: Hundreds. Number of Chinese military conflicts: One, a minor border clash with India. American: You know the list as well as I do, with Iran perhaps being groomed for the next war. Which country spends more on the foregoing? What has America gained?
This is long and kind of techy but makes the point that China is leaving the US far behind in five-g. While many think of Five-G as being for use in smart phones, this is actually of negligible importance. Where it counts is in industry, robotics, smart cities, mining with nobody underground, on and on. The United States, unable to compete with Huawei, consigned itself to primitivism by excluding the Chinese. Then it failed in its attempt to prevent China from rolling out five-g within its own borders. So much for bringing manufacturing back to America.
Here is a point worth noting. The Chinese have the engineers, the numbers and the focus to do pretty much anything. They do not always have the machinery. AI takes more brains than machinery.
CATL goes all in on next-gen sodium-ion EV batteries
CATL Goes All in on Sodium Ion Batteries
Not a game-changer, and other countries look at the same thing but, as so often, China is right up there with the other big boys.
“Last month, during high-level talks in Honolulu, the US Indo-Pacific Command and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) agreed to build a new base in the island nation.” To contain China.
Military, military, military, military. The assumption in the Five Sided Wind Box seems to be that China is about to come roaring into the Pacific like the Japanese Imperial Naby in full flood, to conquer it. China is more likely to buy it.
Associated Press: “The politically sensitive goods deficit with China rose to $27.8 billion in June, up 5.8% from the May level. So far this year, the goods deficit with China, the largest that the United States runs with any country, totals $158.5 billion, an increase of 19.2% compared to the same period in 2020.”
Some economists predict America’s first overall trade deficit of a trillion dollars.
“China’s state-owned Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) grabbed the Haifa port contract in 2015 which allows it to operate the commercial shipping facility for 25 years.”
Commercial, commercial, commercial, commercial.
Moscow Bothered by ‘Uncontrolled, Unrestricted Expansion’ of US Military Biolab Network Near Russia
And here in Mexico, where I live, people swear they see Chinese electric scooters and mini-electric which, they also swear, can be bought online from Alibaba and such. Meanwhile the narcos get assault rifles from the US.
I’ve seen this look before
This expression is one that I have seen time and time again. A foreigner visits China for the very first time, and he /she has been her for maybe a week… and this is the expression that they get on their faces. It’s precious.
This is the start of a series of short thoughts and articles that I just want to clump into a new category of article. What do you guys think? Do you think it’s fine, or would you like me to continue to write long in-depth articles on singular topics? Any preferences?
Do you want more?
You can find more such articles in my “Rambling Thoughts” Index which is currently in my massive Happiness Index…
We all have experiences, and once we step outside the realm of what is "normal", or experiences take on a surreal aspect. Others, sometimes well-meaning, don't understand what you are trying to relate. And thus, you learn. You keep quiet and you don't share your experiences with anyone. But that really isn't healthy.
The following is a personal narrative regarding PissedLizard's (Lovingly referred to as PL here on MM) personal experiences.
In this article he describes his experiences with the Mantids. I will tell you that his experiences are quite different from mine. It does not mean that I am right and he is wrong, it is just different. Read and take what you desire from this smorgasbord and cornucopia of information.
-MM
I would like to explain the “light/void” concept as I experienced it and can communicate it.
I just want to say this and be as honest as I possibly can – and discerning it all – it’s hard to wrap my head around. I was never “selected” to join anything, nor was I ever at the top of my classes. I am as a regular guy as you can get. In fact my life looks more like a walking disaster story than anything else.
I am no stranger to hallucinogenics. At all. The closest this experience I can get to was a 5 day ayahuasca purge. Not a straight DMT run but the same kind of peaks and valleys as ayahuasca.
I have no substances in me nor did I take any before or after. No alcohol, cannabis, nothing.
I was medically stable and am around psychiatrists almost daily (they are my peers) – and they know my views and how adamant I am about letting me know and taking appropriate action should they see psychosis. I was with 1 of them the day of this all transpiring.
I don’t want to go into the where’s and how’s of me getting there. You already know that.
When that switch “flipped” I was taken by my Mantid to my life. We went through it all, as you and others have described elsewhere. It was very similar – but as a person would describe a movie versus being in the theatre, so much is lost.
We went through my life – from my first conscious decision all the way up to the day all this went down.
We had come to that day in my life when this incident or flight happened.
I was brought back to the middle of that day. There were others there – I could not see them as they were behind me – but there were 3 or 4 humans behind me.
I was given to another Mantid. A different one. I could tell it was angry, but not at me.
We went to its area of the multiverse and to a facility where the following happened. I do not know if it was a ship, planet, asteroid or what, but it was a physical place. Again, being no stranger to hallucinogenic trips – I touched the walls and stuff. I could feel the heat on the substance it was made of – like a metallic glass but not really. Everything had this unearthly appearance.
As we were traveling we used ley lines to move. We used the earths ley lines at first – it was like a was being shown how they move around the multiverses – the ley lines are for movement from point A to B. The device it showed me was how to “fine tune” OFF of the ley lines set out through out the multiverse.
We went all the way to the 4th of 7 “rings” of the multiverse. That is the “ring” or domain of Mantids and Insectoids as well as other non-humanoid races.
For context, “souls” or “soul connections” on earth do not go further than that ring. Some do – people whose “frequency” has been raised high enough, but most never go past the 4th “ring”.
Satan, the “Devil”, that CONCEPT – is FIRST ring. Those souls that fear Satan never leave the first ring, this is by design as outlined in Alien Interview.
I was told that all species go through a phase of the “Judeo-Christian tale” to keep souls on earth. Eventually souls end up figuring it out and they leave their planets.
When we left the earths “ring” I actually saw the manifestation of all human evil as what they believe to be “Satan”. We passed it and went back. The Mantid said – CLEARLY – you no longer ever have to worry about that. Look ahead – and we hauled – and I mean MOVED – to its home. It was like a roller coaster ride being flung around.
When we got to its area (planet or ship) he told me to relax and not to be scared. I was. I was scared shitless. I am not going to lie. I was.
He explained that the Mantids interest in earth really has nothing to do with humans per se. He said that their interest was more in the plant life of earth, not so much humans. He said we were basically just genetic “jars” that are being grown for different traits. He said that about every 150-175 HUMAN years (ADJUSTED for the way they count our years and the way they wanted me and those that know how to use the thing I sent you-is by the moon. 13 lunar months) they have mass extinction events to “cull the herd” so to speak. It’s more to get rid of these skin suits than anything else.
Their interest began with plant life here. They intentionally made some plants that can communicate with them as “beacons” to give planetary health reports.
Some of these plants we have discovered and use to communicate with them or “the spirit world”. This has always been intentional. Souls that are “young” on this planet do not have the communication skills that older souls do. This is why some people have very different experiences with cannabis or mushrooms or even alcohol.
Taking a step back – the frequencies of plants were explained this way.
A carrot doesn’t have a set frequency.
A GROUP of carrots – and this is important – a GROUP of carrots connected by our fungi mycelium do. What does THIS mean?
It means that all plantlife is literally connected to each other under ground by millions of connections of fungi.
Again, this is by design – and has nothing to do with humans.
If you were to picture a meadow – each individual grass plant has a fungal connection to its neighbors and so on and so on.
This fungal “mat” is what is the generator of that particular biomes frequency.
When plant life that they are interested in starts to send out distress signals – the Mantids come.
They began getting involved with the human species long ago, I do not know why at this point, but their MAIN concern is not us – but certain plantlife on earth.
This plant life acts to draw or repel craft or entities to or from a planet.
Planet earth is one of billions with plant life. On each interstellar ley line you can always find a planet with plants and fungi. As you can find planets that are barren. All are mapped and are used in interstellar navigation.
I was shown actual strains of a particular plant – each strain had different qualities about it – exactly the same way people today breed cannabis plants for certain qualities – same exact thing. This plant had a lot of qualities I didn’t even think of as I look at it as a weed in my garden.
As well there are insects here in earth that are under “the care of” Mantids. Those who are being woken up will know what they are.
I was then brought to a Mantid that was wearing all orange with a grey stripe going down where the forearms are.
This one seemed important. The last thing the Mantid I was with communicated was “be on your best behavior while you are with him”. And make no mistake-I was.
This Mantid stood directly in front of me face to face about 2 arms lengths away. It had the cube in its hand – and I immediately knew what it was – but not really. It’s like it was a familiar face. You know the name but just can’t place it…
He then showed me the start up sequence and it came to life. We went through a passageway and was in what looked exactly like my property and house – but it was the negative image of it if that makes sense. Like old school camera negative.
The then took his helmet off – it looked exactly like his head – but when he took it off his head was still there! He said I was going to be shown how to use the device as an individual to manipulate world lines. When it’s used on a craft it’s different.
He put his helmet on me and I could see how “time and space” fit.
It looks like you are inside of a kalidescope, except instead of us wing your hands to manipulate a tube – you move your head.
One of the things it was able to do was slow time down so I could see a bullet coming out of a gun and what should have been my head during a death sequence.
We then went through training with 4 other Mantids to be certain that I could use it the way they wanted me to. I had this knowledge but it was long “forgotten”.
It was as mind blowing as the first time you ever kissed the love of your life. THAT kind of feeling.
When they were satisfied I could bring time/distance down to its lowest workable component – I was brought back to the first Mantid that brought me there.
He said I was going to have my DNA reconfigured. A large stretch of one strand was being removed and replaced with some other DNA.
And let me just digress.
Those who are unfamiliar with me, I am quite aware of how we are “taught” genetics everywhere on earth, and like everywhere on earth we are still in the egg, not even the infancy of discovery.
How humans think DNA works and how it REALLY works are 2 different things. Newtonian DNA is not QUANTUM DNA.
When I was given to the other Mantid, the Orange suit one stayed with – but always behind and to my left.
He then went through a whole school of information about its war philosophies as well as its peace philosophies. It was what I envision a military academy would be. Lots of book fighting instructions. That stuff. There are a lot of entities on Earth we all need to be aware of and how to neutralize them.
Everyone who needs to learn this stuff WILL learn it. Not through me or ANYONE SELLING ANYTHING.
That is the big reason the Mantids are now here.
Think of it this way: humans are another experiment in the same lab that the Mantids are working in. They are not the Mantids experiment – but now HUMANS have come to a point where they are DISRUPTING their experiment.
They do not want us destroying what they created.
When the planets population skyrocketed after WW2, things got dicey. We were destroying what they created at a records pace and the beings that are supposed to keep the planet “balanced”, aren’t.
So here they came.
They put “global warming” ideas in people’s heads to slow things down.
THEN the same species that was supposed to be keeping an eye on us got distracted by gold and precious metals, as THEY NEED those metals to live. Along with other crazy elements and compounds.
That species basically taught a bunch of humans to PROFIT off of the whole “global warming/climate change” project – a project that was only intended to slow down the destruction of earth.
This INCENSED a lot of species in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rings along with 7 “gatekeepers” who are female.
The reason they are so angry is that because humans are “saving the climate” in exchange for gold – they are not doing what they are SUPPOSED to be doing – which is ACTUALLY MAKING CHANGES.
The Mantids donor care what the changes are – only that changes happen.
The fact that people are PROFITING off of it has gotten them angry beyond belief right now.
PROFITING and the hunt for gold and other precious metals is for those in the first ring only.
And that’s where we come to religion and Heaven and the light.
The more souls mining for it or ANY other metal on earth is the REASON for religion. To keep us enslaved. And that’s fine if they are happy. Some souls NEED to be in this cycle. Others are ready to move on. We know if we should go or stay – and that is why going to the light is so popular. Not everyone is READY for the void and what comes with it. At all.
I was then turned to the Orange suit Mantid and he then brought me to the “Seven Sisters”. That was a trip in and of itself. I’ll write about THAT another time.
Orange Mantid gave me a final test with the cube and I had to “wrestle” him for the cube – but it was clearly like an old man letting a child win. He then gave me an image to think of and a method to call them back should the need arise – but ONLY in war time and ONLY when needed. I was given a cloth with several scents including theirs, so combined with their new knowledge on how to think and communicate – I was still – the human side – was and is still a bit freaked out.
They don’t play games. Period. End of story.
He handed me to the Mantid that brought me there and this one made me “navigate” back.
I then went to the room where you, MM were with 2 others. Humans.
This is where I felt the soul anchoring do a hairpin turn.
There WAS a major anchoring event and I have a feeling it has to do with the 150 year mass extinction event – whatever and whenever it happens.
I saw the lines – then 4 or 5 anchor “points” and the hairpin turn.
I was then given back to MY Mantid and we went from there.
There were a LOT of conversations and I was shown A LOT of POSSIBLE outcomes of the future. Some good, some not. All I can get into now is what I wrote.
One of the things about training – at one point I was told I had to count every blade of grass on a 25 acre meadow. I was shown how to use the device to slow time and stretch space that although it felt like it took 10 “human years”, it was actually 0.00000000000000000001 second. (18 places past the decimal point-whatever individual square would be on the device)
All of what I have written I know to be true.
Conclusion
Phew! As I have said, these other contributors have a world of experiences so unlike mine, but in some ways so vary familiar. I think that we can all take what is important to us and learn from PL experiences. Don’t you?
More on the way.
-MM
Do you want more?
The master Index of PissedLizard articles can be found here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the third part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 3 – Conversation with the All Being and Initiation Into the Unseen 5
In Part 2 I explained how I had yet another contact experience with the Grand Elder where I remembered my reincarnation. This was in a house that seemed to have a lot of paranormal activity going on. I also mentioned I had a rather traumatic experience where I was left crippled in my left hand, though I intentionally left out specific details.
As I was in hospital that very night, I heard some chaotic chatter in my head. My wife heard the same chatter about 50 kilometres away. These voices were telling her that “this was not supposed to happen”. I don’t know if this meant I was supposed to die that night, or not be put in that situation altogether. As you will see, it had a repercussive effect on the path my life was going to take.
We remained in this house a few more months after my hand was cut open, whilst we looked for somewhere else to rent. The neighbours had moved out and skipped town – according to the police. The thought of them knowing where we were was not exactly something we were enthusiastic about.
About a month before we moved, I was going to bed one night when I saw a random portal open up in front of my eyes. I was in bed with my eyes closed. Ever since I was little, I would see golden energy pulses whenever I’d close them. These energy pulses were particularly strong this night after a meditation I had done a few hours previous. They were so strong that I couldn’t sleep.
All of a sudden my eyes automatically opened. They were drawn to a point on the roof, which I couldn’t even make out due to the darkness of the room. Out of no where the portal appeared as a purple double lined spiral. It slowly started spinning. It lasted for a few seconds before disappearing. I had seen an image of the exact same spiral a few years prior on the news. It was identical to the one that appeared over Trøndelag, Norway in 2009, except it had no blue light coming off it to the side.
Just another paranormal experience in the string of them that made up my life.
Somehow I thought the Australian Defense Force would have a hard time telling me this was just a failed missile launch. This was the official narrative the military in Norway gave for their spiral. This is the only time I have ever “seen” something whilst being completely present in this physical reality. My wife was building up a much better catalogue.
We ended up moving out just before New Years Eve 2014 . We scored a house on the other side of the hills not far from where my wife’s mother lived. Her (my mother in law’s ) friend was moving to Melbourne, so we got the house, along with her cat to look after. It was only supposed to be a temporary affair until she could fly the cat over on it’s separate plane. It ended up living with us the entire 6 months we lived here, and somehow got along with our male cat the whole time.
The owner – Nickie – was heavily into conspiracies about Reptilians. She turned lesbian after seeing her boyfriend shapeshift into one, one night. I am not sure who sounded more crazy; her and her conspiracies, or me talking about my experiences with the Elder Guardians and everything they told me.
Regardless, life at this house was good for awhile. We were able to get even more involved in astral projection and lucid dreaming. I had one astral projection experience where I was flying around a dark void. I crashed into something else that was buzzing around. I ended up exiting the session thinking I’d pissed off whatever it was. This place was devoid of all light, so I couldn’t see what exactly it was. It certainly felt heavy and bounced me back with enough force to make me feel like I’d hit a tree in my car.
When it came to astral projection, I wasn’t very good at it. Whereas with lucid dreaming I had much experience behind me, with astral projection I’d only managed to do it a handful of times. So when I found myself in this void, the idea that I’d have to adhere to a set of flying rules was lost on me. I thought I was alone traveling through it to a destination several light years away. Call it a lesson in astral travel etiquette.
After I exited the session, I managed to re-project into it shortly after. This time I had a very strong feeling that something – or several somethings – was watching me. It seemed I had caused a ruckus by crashing into whatever it was and failing to leave my insurance details (I joke). So rather than proceed, again I exited the session.
It was around this time I decided I needed to join the air force. No, like, I really needed to.
Reading MMs account of how he was drawn back to China Lake, this was exactly what it was like. I just all of a sudden got this random urge to join the military. An itch I couldn’t scratch. I had made a promise to myself in the past that if my life went to shit then I would try and join the defense force but this was different. This was like, I was ready to just up and leave Storme (my wife) – the only family I really had – for a family that didn’t even exist yet.
I was delusional. I told myself she would be ok with all the trauma behind her, while I went off and did 6 weeks training in Kapooka, NSW. I actually tried convincing myself I could juggle a military career and life as a full time carer at the same time.
I saw a friend from high school one day when I was at a doctor’s appointment. He had just finished a tour of Afghanistan and gave me the low down on the fitness levels required to get into the ADF. I was setting my sights on this idea, and I wouldn’t take my eyes off the prize. Not to mention I now had a severe medical handicap in my left hand. I told myself I could some how fake the medical examination; I was just that keen on getting in. It was sheer madness on my end.
I got into shape, and booked myself in for the performance fitness assessment. A few months passed, I got a job managing an electronics factory, then the big day came of the PFA.
Being only 24, I was still one of the oldest guys there by a good few years. Most of the recruits looked like they were fresh out of senior year of high school. One guy hadn’t even finished with his war on acne before he decided to fight one against a foreign enemy. He sat waiting for the interview that would see him become a junior officer in the army, shaking uncontrollably from nerves like he had a bad case of Parkinson’s. I just wanted to tell him to lighten up and relax.
Whilst everyone sat chatting with each as if it was some kind of friendly get together, I sat in silence, with my back straight observing the whole place. From the moment I walked in the door, I knew we were being monitored and judged on our character – I don’t even know how I knew this.
I did the PFA on the allocated computer – it reminded me of the IQ tests I had taken at school – then went and sat back in the foyer and waited to be called in. I had opted for roles that were either to do with electronics warfare or signals intelligence gathering. I already had a qualification in electrotechnology and computer systems so something in that domain seemed like an obvious choice. I just simply wasn’t interested in entering as a standard foot soldier – what we call grunts.
I wanted to do something exciting. Maybe it was all those James Bond and other spy movies I watched as a kid. Maybe it was all that shit on Majestic I’d read about in my brief moments away from watching Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan fight those pesky Russians. All whilst working for the same government department that Aleister Crowley apparently worked for. Whatever, there was something about a top secret badge that really did it for me. Not that I ever expected to get in on the ET agenda loop.
Speaking of, which, a woman called me in wearing naval camos with the words “ Spec Ops” and “Top Secret” written above the breast pockets. She handed me a print out of all the roles I would be suited for based on my results. She congratulated me, telling me I had aced the PFA and done the best anyone could do. As a result, I could take a pick out of pretty much any role I wanted. I looked at the list and noticed it not only had the four signals intelligence and electronics warfare operator positions I had ticked but a plethora of other positions as well.
My eyes rolled over the word “Commando” and widened. She must have noticed and told me I would be well suited to that role. She told me her husband was Special Forces and that he thought it was a good role.
I had found a standard exercise regime of the SASR on the internet and figured I’d probably die if I had to do that amount of exercise so I passed up the offer.
Entering straight into a Sergeant role in Signals Intelligence in the Airforce was more than enough for me.
Still, I found it somewhat comical that a guy who claimed he was a 40 000 year old space elf helping fight some astral boogey men with the help of the Ascended Masters was considered mentally fit enough to be a Commando. I found it even funnier I had done so well on the PFA; maybe I wasn’t as batshit crazy as I first thought (sorry Nickie.)
She bid me farewell, I went and sat the medical and then was told I would receive a letter in the mail telling me if I made the cut or not. Somewhere in the three week period of waiting for this letter to arrive, my interest in joining the military just sort of fizzled out. I think the reality hit that my hand was just too badly damaged to get in. Sure enough, this is exactly what the letter mentioned. Good thing “this wasn’t supposed to happen” I suppose. I was a lover, not a fighter. I didn’t really want to go and kill people. The world had enough of those types as it was without the militaries.
I was upset – all for about 5 minutes – then I just got over it and got on with managing my boss’s factory. I chalked it down to needing to know I had at least some form of intellect still bouncing around upstairs.
Again, my wife was having her own experiences in the metaphysical domain at Nickie’s house. When it came to astral projection, she was getting really good at it. She started being able to remote view on a daily basis, and lucid dream almost as much as me.
There was one instance where a 17 year old boy came to her in a dream. When she asked who it was, the boy said “I am your son”. When she replied “I don’t have a son” he said “you will.” Apparently I taught him how to {consciousness} time travel, and he used that ability to come and say hi to her. That same week I had a dream I was cuddling a non existent son on the couch. A month or so later we found out she was pregnant, and lo and behold, it ended up being a boy. More of that crazy paranormal stuff.
The next year ended up being an opportunity for the universe to kick us in the metaphorical balls every chance it got. This was a really difficult time for both of us. The things we were being faced with on a regular basis were psychologically demanding to the extreme. It was one big test of both mine and Storme’s character and sense of self worth. Even up until then we had been through ALOT.
We got burgled – for the second time – one day whilst we were out. The thieves took off with our TV, a few clothes, my gaming console, and an old laptop that had a few years worth of music production on it, as well as a half written novel. This laptop I was using as a dream journal and had many of my experiences in lucidity recorded on it. There went all the detailed information I’d written down about my mystical experiences.
As a result I have been forced to remember most of this off the top of my head. Readers may notice some slight inconsistencies as a result, and for this I apologize.
Somehow, these thieves missed a room containing a few thousand dollars worth of musical equipment and opted for things that would have netted them a few hundred dollars at most. And this was the lesser of the evils that was following us everywhere we went. I remember thinking that particular day – just before we got home to find our house ransacked – about forgiving the guys who cut my hand open. The PTSD from that incident wasn’t doing me any favors, so I told myself just to let it all go. This was my reward for thinking such things.
It seemed the universe was tempting me into embracing a hatred mentality for all these people that were messing with us. It wanted me to retaliate. It wanted me to seek revenge, but I wasn’t like that. I understood that it was all part of this amnesia thing. I understood these people were being driven by a dark occult force that was in control of their souls. This is how I saw it anyway. Sure I may have used social media to warn others about all these people – I may have even cursed them and sent my fair share of “fuck you’s” off in the direction – but I never sought them out to get them back for everything they put us through; I only wanted my laptop back. Hell, I would have even paid them for it. The documentation on my mystical experiences was worth more than gold to me. The other people messing with us were a lot harder to forgive. Still I never retaliated, despite finding out where they lived. This was a real lesson in “letting it all go”.
Added to all this was the court case with the assailants that crippled me. It was going nowhere. I found out the hard way the justice system is one big joke. I found out the hard way it cared more about people breaking its laws than it did about getting justice for its victims. This added an immense amount of stress that wasn’t needed.
Storme was starting to suffer from a myriad of health conditions that meant she needed help with our new born son.
I was getting royally screwed at work doing the roles of several people and barely getting paid for one. So in the end I just threw in the towel and stayed home full time to look after the both of them. The big joke was that I got paid just as much on social security payments as I did managing an entire electronics factory and the staff that worked in it. I got kind and sick of my boss coming back from his bimonthly trip to America, and going on about his expensive “toys”, whilst I barely made enough to cover rent.
We had long since left Nickie’s and were onto something like our 8th {rental} house in 6 years. Did I mention Storme had Polish Gypsy blood in her veins? Stalkers, anonymous people leaving us strange phone calls, people trying to kill me, people trying to assault Storme; these were all reasons we uprooted our lives every 6 months. It was unbelievably brutal, and it followed us no matter how much we just wanted to live normal lives and escape the negativity.
Somewhere in all this I came across the Starseed agenda. This was a community of people who believed they were aliens inhabiting human bodies and were here to help with the evolution of human consciousness. They were essentially new age Indigo children. I found this interesting; up until then I hadn’t associated any of my mystical experiences as being related to aliens. Even my experience remote viewing from an off world intelligence I’d sort of conveniently “forgotten” for the sake of trying to be “normal”.
Although most of the things I was reading of this Starseed thing were completely inaccurate as to what I had been told by the Grand Elder, I won’t deny it made me question whether it was all related. Cutting people’s consciousness off from a higher state of awareness and trapping them in a body sure did sound a lot like a tactic from an alien race’s war book, I supposed. Not that I was well versed in alien warfare strategies or anything.
So I started meditating on what I knew and came up with hypothetical thought experiments about this whole thing being related to aliens. Admittedly, I had tried burying everything with the Elder Guardians, but there was always this gnawing feeling deep down that it seemed important. Something about being responsible for 20 000 souls was an enormous weight. As much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t take it lightly.
After my brief period of work, this gnawing feeling got the better of me. I started really thinking about it all on a regular basis. I started researching a bit more into it. It drove me fucking crazy.
So yeah, by the time I had my next experience, I was pretty damn sure this had something to do with aliens. I had done a complete 180 on things I had told myself were a complete load of bullshit back in my youth when I was flicking through conspiracy theories to compliment my occult studies. I can’t remember my exact thoughts, but the amnesia thing was a big part of it.
I need to emphasize this point; my mystical experiences completely changed my life. And not necessarily for the better. Every ounce of my being wanted to remain skeptical and to evaluate them objectively. Spiritual amnesia affecting mankind? Surely this was some kind of MK Ultra mind control thing to make me think I’d experienced something holy? Something divine? I was in a catch 22; I could either believe it was all real or begin chasing a trail of ever the more conspiracies to try and convince myself it wasn’t. It was easier to just give in and go with the first. I was fast becoming that crazy UFO guy you steer well away from at the supermarket. Not that I ever bothered voicing these experiences to anyone but Storme.
Then it got even more real.
The night of November 16, 2016, I was once again engaged in a lucid dream. Once again I was abducted out of it, and once again I was operating from a higher state of awareness. But this time, the Grand Elder wasn’t there. This particular night I had three separate experiences one after the other; I’d wake up from one, then straight away fall back into another one.
I mentioned in Part 2 that Storme and myself had many instances of synchronised dreams and experiences. The first two were synchronised in the manner.
I was inside what appeared to be a pyramid chamber. This pyramid was made of a yellow stone – like that of the celestial courtyard where I met the EG – and was quite large. It was between 50 to 100m to the opposite wall. The wall to my left had a part of it missing, and I seem to remember thinking this connected to some sort of rail system from one of the other worlds I had frequently visited whilst lucid.
The top part of the pyramid was closed off, like there was a capstone in the way; you could not see the apex as the walls stopped at this square section of roof. I believe it was from the higher information coming in, that I knew that this capstone was an office. I knew that there was “someone” or “something” in this office waiting for me. I proceeded to project my consciousness in such a way as to try and reach it. The problem was, that this pyramid, because of its slanted angles, would reflect my consciousness back towards its base.
I cannot really explain this adequately enough to someone who is not familiar with operating as a pure conscious thoughtform whilst lucid. There are certain tricks you learn to move about whilst in this state. It is not the same as moving a physical body through vacant physical space; it is a whole other ball game. You are moving through a plane dictated by 4 dimensions, instead of only 3. “Climbing” the pyramid from the inside was just extremely hard to do because of this slanting/ rebounding effect.
I eventually managed to reach the top. There was a platform that led from one side of the pyramid right into its center into the capstone office where a door stood. I went along this platform and as I got to the door, it opened and I found myself engulfed by a brilliant white/ yellow light. It was so bright that it was almost even too intense for the higher state of awareness I was operating from.
I realized the light was coming from a being, who stood with its back turned to me. I slowly made my way through the door towards this entity. It turned around smiling at me and I realized I was standing in the presence of the divine creator. I understood immediately that this being was the start of creation of all life and consciousness in the entire cosmos. I could feel this connection as I approached it; it was like I became one with everything in existence the closer I got to it. It was fucking incredible.
Although I am not religious, the being that was standing in front of me was what could be considered “God”. As I feel that word has become too polluted with ill intent over the years by the charlatans that use it for profit. It is not a name I would ever call this omnipotent being simply out of respect for it; I referred to it as the All Being.
As I approached it, my higher mind was going off the charts. So much information was coming through it was almost completely overwhelming me, as the direct telepathic connection to this being strengthened. The benevolence it radiated was beyond anything imaginable on earth.
The reader must be aware that I was 100% lucid and again able to recollect all of my earth memories as well as many of those of celestial heritage. I was constantly pondering thoughts of ET involvement and the idea the Hermetic and Ascended Masters were all part of the same thing, which revolved around this spiritual amnesia. The astral war was the thing I wanted to know more about above anything else.
So you could say my intention upon coming into the office of the All Being was to flatten out as much of the information I had been given on the spiritual amnesia as possible; that is the sole reason I was here. I simply wasn’t interested in asking God to gift me a house (as much as I needed one) or a pony or the usual other things kids are taught to bother a divine being with. There was simply no thoughts pertaining to the mundanity of the physical plane like we as humans find ourselves caught up in on a regular basis. It was all about my celestial operations; ie my role within the cosmos and who I – or rather my soul – really was.
The All being welcomed me and said that it was glad I had finally arrived. It said it had been expecting me for quite some time. My arrival had been delayed by forces outside of my control.
I asked who I was, and the All Being told me. Then I asked specifically to be given more information on the astral war. The All Being replied by telling me that I would have the answers to that question soon enough, but that there was more important things to deal with first.
I was then teleported to a chamber below the pyramid. I remember realizing it was a direct mirror copy of the inside of the pyramid; It was an inverted pyramid and I was at it’s bottom. The All Being took on a “lesser form”; I can’t really explain this. It was like a younger, less intense and more material form. A higher version of Storme was there and she was teaching me this guttural roar. It was sort of like a word spoken from the very depths of your throat rather than rolled off the tongue. Every time I mispronounced this word, my throat burned with an intense pain.
Usually whilst lucid I would be impervious to such pain unless I was being tortured, but this pain was very real. With each mispronunciation the pain amplified by an order of magnitude in the millions. I mispronounced the word 3 times before it became too excruciating and I woke up from it. This whole scene was the crossover point of my wife’s experience; she remembers teaching “someone” this word in a similar pyramid with the inverted chamber whilst under a similar higher state of awareness. The lesser All Being was apparently her “father”.
After waking up, I immediately went back into lucidity and was met with the same potency of higher awareness. This had never happened before. Usually when I’d wake up, this would be the end of the experience.
I was now reliving a memory of a past life with Storme. In this particular dream her name was Nina Bejowski, or Bejewski – something of either Polish or Russian heritage. She had no recollection of being anyone but this particular version of herself. We were in what appeared to be some sort of European type place, with cobblestone roads and small apartment buildings. It reminded me of Italy.
Nina was in what appeared to be a school classroom.
I tried reminding her of past lives we’d experienced together, but she wouldn’t believe me and kept telling me to go away. What made it all the more frustrating was that I was being chased by these suits – what I figured were the Men In Black. It was always a game of me reaching Nina before they did. They would catch me just as I’d reach her, then all of a sudden I’d find I’d be reset back to an earlier point in time. I’d remember the reset (which I wasn’t supposed to) and just keep coming back like some sort of annoying puppy.
This happened over and over again so many times that I lost count. It was weird; it was like in my mission, it was imperative I got to Nina and extracted her from the school, and in the MIB’s mission it was imperative that they stopped me.
I finally got her to see reason. She agreed to follow me on the basis that the place she was in wasn’t doing her any favors, but she was still incredibly weary of me.
The last memory I have of the school was walking down a hallway with Nina/ Storme trying to keep a low profile so the MIB didn’t see us. This whole event was yet another synchronized lucid dream of Storme’s. From her perspective, the school she was in was being used for consciousness brainwashing. We have had many synchronized experiences that are very similar to this one.
I woke up, said my “holy shit’s”, at the revelation of this memory, then went straight back into lucidity where this higher state of consciousness once again washed over me.
Nina and I were now on either a train or a bus heading over a bridge that went to a small Island. There was about 20-30 people on this bus. Somehow I just knew that they were all people who had something to do with extra terrestrials; there were military generals with stars lining their green coats. Lab scientists and physicists etc. Ordinary people that most people would think were batshit crazy such as abductees. They all had either first hand knowledge working with ETs/ ET tech or had first hand experience with ETs through things like abduction/ visitation.
This was evidently a collection of all the “top brass” people in the world that were considered authorities on the subject of ET involvement. We were heading to a conference on ETs specifically to try and piece together everyone’s experiences to get to the bottom of the ET agenda unfolding on Earth. No one person in this group had a complete understanding of the bigger picture, hence the reason for the conference. It was as if this was a realized point, even by the higher up military generals. This was just all things I knew thanks to my higher self.
The bus arrived at the island and we all got off. We were lined up (by more military men and women) against a brick wall to our right. I am 90% sure that this was the base of the Statue of Liberty. From the photos and movies I have seen, this wall looked exactly like the base part of the Statue, though I never saw anymore of it, as I was too busy looking at the {already established} military presence to look up. I was too busy taking mental notes of what was going on to admire the scenery. Note the metaphorical reference to freedom.
These military officials that were already on the island started handing out documents for all of us to sign. These were apparently a list of all the past indiscretions we had engaged in whilst on Earth. Mine seemed to be the biggest of the bunch and took on a form of an A4 stack of paper several inches thick. The emphasis was on making us feel guilty for all the things we had done.
I watched as the military generals and scientists signed it all without question, many of them didn’t even bother to check it was all legitimate. They just signed off their papers like a bunch of robots who were used to such bureaucratic procedures without giving it any thought.
I took one look at the apparent misnomer’s I was guilty of; majority of them revolved around illegally downloading music- not exactly something I thought aliens really gave two shits about. I threw it back at the one who tried to hand it to me. She told me the only way to make it into the conference was to take responsibility for these indiscretions and sign the papers.
I understood that this was an attempt to coerce me into signing a contract for something whilst in this higher state of awareness. It was an attempt to get me to agree to something in a state of coherency far above that used by my mammalian brain. Compare it to someone trying to get you to sign something when you are drunk vs when you are sober; it is far more likely to be taken as a binding contract if you were consciously coherent when signing than if you were drunk. I stood firm in my unwillingness to sign, despite whatever excuses where thrown my way. The military generals and scientists just looked at me like I was a complete fool.
Suddenly, my surroundings dissolved and I was standing in what appeared to be the White House. I was being greeted by someone who appeared to be {then} President Obama. I need to point out here that I had an instant understanding that this was not Obama himself. It was a form this being was taking to show me his rank within this “place”. He wanted me to know that rank was President. He was the top dog in charge; there was no doubt about it. This was something that was being telepathically transmitted to me in the form of a knowing thought. At the same time I also knew this “entity” was of extra terrestrial/ inter dimensional origin; like the Grand Elder, it didn’t originate on earth. I am sure of that.
Obama v2.0 congratulated me and told me I had come to the “complete and total understanding of the alien agenda unfolding on Earth”. I appreciate how narcissistic this sounds, but these were his exact words and are the very reason I kept a lot of this to myself for almost a decade; it just sounds so goddamned crazy even despite everything I’ve already spoken about.
Obama told me the scenario back at the Statue of Liberty was a test, and I had just passed it with flying colors. Just like I thought, it was to see if I was willing enough to sign away my consent whilst operating from a higher state of awareness closer to the originating point of my “soul”. My refusal to do so is what ultimately granted me access to this office of his.
What followed was a discussion with Obama V2.0 that I think is, in some ways, even more important than what the Grand Elder told me regarding the amnesia. He told me that this office of his was tasked with monitoring the interdimensional traffic coming into and out of Earth and it’s surrounding non physical planes. Well, this was getting interesting.
According to him, this organization monitored every single thing that passing through the Earth domain – which extended out into space either to the moon or beyond it, and into several non physical planes that were “stacked” on top of it. Whether it could be considered an angel, demon, alien, or ghost, this organization monitored every aspect of it, including where it came from, where it was going and what it was doing whilst it was here.
He told me this organization of his existed solely within the astral planes; there was simply no physical counterpart to it. You cannot access it from the physical plane. Access was restricted to those who could navigate these non physical planes. It was a truly secret organization.
The alien agenda unfolding on earth, was apparently very concerning and posed a real threat to “human kind’s existence”. This organization was keeping that presence in check. These were things that were very specifically told to me. It operated above and away from any governmental agency back on Earth.
I was also told that every single person – or rather consciousness – is monitored whilst traveling in the non physical planes – this included lucid dreaming as well – and are vetted for potential recruitment into this organization. They apparently had their eye on me for quite some time because of the responsibilities given to me by the Elder Guardians and because of everything I had been doing in lucidity since I was 8. My whole life had been a recruitment test for entering into their ranks. All the shit I went through – and boy was there a lot – and my unwillingness to retaliate for it, earnt me this {apparently} prestigious position. All the times I told the apparent higher celestial authorities “fuck you” and reclaimed my soul’s sovereignty had set me up for entry. You simply don’t get here by shitting all over your fellow brother and sisters. Compassion, empathy and a true understanding of who you are and unfaltering loyalty to that were some of the very admission criteria (take note of what MM has been telling you in regards to this).
I was told that the Statue of Liberty scenario was a holographic projection that they induce into the dreamscapes of these potential candidates whilst they sleep; if the candidate passes the test, they end up there, in that office (which I suspect may have actually been a form of ship which in itself was taking on yet another holographic projection). However, if the candidate fails, they wake up and think they just had a bizarre, albeit very vivid dream. The subtleness is so in genius that no one never even realizes how close they were to entering into this organization. Obama V2.0 only presents himself to those who pass. Needless to say, I felt rather honored to have made it in and to be speaking to him.
This holographic projection technology apparently operated on the exact same principles as my experiment in hijacking my wife’s consciousness; I had inadvertently taught myself these exact principles through experimentation, 7 years prior, by the time I had reached 19 years of age, even though I had only successfully carried it out once. This had been the other half of my ticket into this organization; they didn’t have to explain these concepts to me, because I already understood them first hand.
This was all being explained to me in the context of the amnesia; Obama V2.0 knew I knew all about it and had meditated quite a lot on what it meant. I was being briefed directly in relation to how it all pertained to this amnesia. Take a moment to let that sink in. Things that had been revealed to me in completely separate experiences I had over 4 years prior were the main aspect behind this briefing. It was extremely important.
Obama V2.0 then told me he was going to introduce me to the rest of the organization and led me down a hall way which terminated at a large double wooden door. This was going to be everyone on earth that knew what was going on in regards to the ET agenda. Not just people who had a passing knowledge of some of their tech, or those who had been abducted and relayed a little bit of info; this was going to be all those that were currently incarnated on earth that were in the proper “know”.
As I was led down the hallway, I started to get excited. I started fantasizing about knocking heads with people like the Majestic 12 and all those with Cosmic clearances; all those sorts of people you read about who apparently “know things”. I made a mental note to grab as much info off these people as possible and bring it back here to the physical plane when I woke up.
I was expecting to walk into a room full of people engaged in banter about everything ET related free from patriotic obligations. I was expecting it to be quite chaotic.
We got to the door, and Obama V2.0 pushed one of the sides open, beckoning for me to go first. I obliged. I was now in what appeared to be a very large conference room. Again it reminded me of the rooms they used to depict the White House in shows about that building. It was just so completely different to any of the architecture I’ve come across here in Australia. I’ve never been to America, but it definitely felt American, or like it was a really old building (our buildings here are relatively modern compared to those of America and most other countries).
As I walked through the door, my jaw dropped wide open. There in front of me were the entire administration staff of this organization; 4 other people standing, staring at me with neutral looks on their faces, not saying a word.
Are you fucking kidding me? The people who all understood the ET agenda in its entirety and were stopping it from wiping out humanity could be counted on one hand. What was rather comical was that not one of them were wearing a military uniform. Not one of them was wearing a scientist lab coat either. The four people that comprised this entire astral organization were dressed as everyday average Joes. .
So when MM speaks of being the Rufus, and helping out your fellow brother and sisters, just know I can relate to this 100%. You never what beans they have to spill. You never know what they are really part of.
I was told, by Obama all 4 of these people were currently incarnated on earth. Of these four, 3 were women, 2 of whom I recognized from many prior lifetimes and from the Elder Gathering in 2012, and one was a male that I did not recognize.
A quick digression. Now before you ask, I am aware that being in a state of pure consciousness as I was, physical things like clothing are not able to be taken here. So how do I know that is what these guys actually looked like? It is hard to explain but when lucid like this, you are operating from a 4th dimensional perspective rather than a 3D one.
You don’t see objects like you do in the physical plane, you sense energy signatures. You pick up on these energy signatures, and you can sort of trace them to a commonly used “image” that their consciousness associates with as being “them”. It takes a great deal of practice in learning how to perceive in this fashion. Think of it like teaching a child language through the use of basic symbols like a tree. Now replace the word “TREE” with a photo of a tree, and the basic image of the tree with an energy signature. If I wanted to “read” one of these energy signatures I’d interact with it and the image of a tree would be conjured up in my higher memory.
People unknowingly carry with them a wealth of subconsciousness information that can be accessed in this fashion; this is what the consciousness manipulation strategies I was being briefed on was all about and is something I became very proficient at “reading” during my youth. It is also how I “knew” the Elder Guardians and Obama V2.0 were not of terrestrial origin.
When one is operating from this higher state of awareness, one is able to read this “raw” form of energy signature. Nothing can pretend to be something else, because the entire information, including its intent to change form is accessed by the higher mind all at once. Hence why the meeting with the All Being was so intense; these same energy signatures were emanating from it like it was strong smelling perfume. Rather than have one image attached to them, they were images of everything – and I really do mean everything – in existence. These are important concepts to consider when I tell you who I think Obama V2.0 really was. But that is for a whole other article.
I was allowed a very brief opportunity to get to know these people – literally like a minute. I shook hands with the guy, and the woman I hadn’t yet met, and hugged the other two who I recognized. They seemed pretty happy I’d finally made it here. I called this collective the Unseen 5.
Then Obama V2.0 called me back over.
We spoke of my role within the organization. Given I had such a good understanding of how dreamscapes can be hijacked in this manner, I was to provide detailed instruction to Earth time incarnates on how it is carried out. I was effectively tasked with documenting everything I know about lucid dreaming and dispersing it free of charge to anyone who wanted to read it. The idea would be to strengthen the communication conduit it allowed between physical and non physical entities such as Obama V2.0 and the Elder Guardians.
What was more, Obama V2.0 mentioned that the organizations numbers used to be quite significantly higher; the recent (past 1000 years) decline in its numbers meant that the 5 of them were under a substantial logistics workload, even when operating from this higher state of consciousness. Obama V2.0 was the only full time operator, after all. Thus an additional task of mine included making their presence known to those with astral projection/ lucid dreaming abilities.
Obama V2.0 was concerned people with these skills didn’t take them as seriously as I did. He made a point of telling me the astral planes weren’t there just for people to go buzzing around on a holiday away from physical reality. They were the frontlines of a very real non physical war where the weapon of choice was being targeted directly at human consciousness.
I was to act as a sort of recruiter for them.
Sigh. This was getting to be a monumental responsibility. As if my obligations to the Elder Guardians weren’t enough. All because I thought it was a good idea to experiment with lucid dreaming.
After this Obama V2.0 once again beckoned for me to follow him into another room coming off the side of the chamber we were in. This room was quite a measure smaller, and had what looked like a ring of bricks in the middle of it. It looked sort of like an outdoor fire pit.
We walked over to these bricks and stood in front of them. Once again he briefed me on what was about to happen; this was a holographic projector and I was about to be shown something with it. I was about to be shown what {apparently} really happened at “the Fall of Man from the Garden of Eden” spoken about in biblical circles.
If I was being entirely honest, this was not something I was expecting, nor really cared about. I just wasn’t interested in biblical stories. They were things I’d thrown in that basket where I threw all the other things I thought were bullshit and utter nonsense. Like I said, I wasn’t religious.
I read the new testament once when I was a kid (13) after it being forced upon me by my school and that was about it. I ended up throwing it in the fire after having weird {non lucid} dreams about it. That would be the beginning of my rebellion against organized religion. I was about as far from being a soldier of God as one could possibly be, and yet I’d just had a conversation with what I liken to being the “Divine Creator”. I was the type of guy who shaved off my long hair when a boss at work said I looked like Jesus. I was a real enigma, that was for sure.
That is not to say I couldn’t respect people who believed in it all. I am definitely all for people believing in whatever they want to believe in. I just wasn’t big on people trying to “convert” me.
It seemed important that I experienced this projection though, so I listened to my briefing without complaint.
Obama V2.0 told me it was – again – very heavily linked with the spiritual amnesia, and told me to take notes of certain things that were going on in it. It was, according to him, where the amnesia first started. Those who are devoutly devoted to believing in the story of Adam and Eve may wish to skip the next part; this deviates from that tale quite considerably.
Obama V.20 got me to stand in the middle of this ring of bricks. They came about halfway up my shins.
What followed was the same dissolving of my surroundings like when I first entered the office of the Unseen 5. I was now standing completely in the middle of a flat landing on top of a mountain in a plane that was a mixture of physical and non physical substance. In front of me there were these bipedal ape like humans. They stood up like humans, and walked and acted like humans, but they were covered in fur from head to toe. Protruding from their teeth were very large fangs. They were the same things I had seen manning the light canons in my last experience with the Grand Elder.
Similar to the Indian god Hanuman.
I wasn’t just watching this thing play out; I was 100% completely there. I was experiencing the fall as if I was actually there living it. I could move around and interact with the environment, yet these beings could not see me. It was like how I’d manifested my own dreams in lucidity but much more surreal and vivid. This was a device that could create holographic virtual reality constructs like the one Obama V2.0 used for my test, only that the vividness contrast setting had been set on high. It was evidently a demonstration in the sort of tech these guys had at there disposal. If it hadn’t been for my awareness of my sleeping body back on earth, I could have very easily mistaken this for being “reality”.
I could hear Obama V2.0’s voice telepathically coming through into my head. He was explaining that these entities were symbolic of an entire race of beings; where I was seeing only 3 beings, this was really a representation of 3 entire separate races. Again, the complexity was deliberately being reduced so I could bring the information of it back here into the physical plane. Like the light canon circuit track, I was supposed to share it. If it wasn’t reduced in this manner, I wouldn’t be able to interpret it with my extremely limited earth mind once I “came back”. Obama V2.0 wanted this known on Earth.
These beings were standing around an altar in the middle of the landing. The landing itself was surrounded by a circular wall of rock. Behind me there was an opening in this wall at the edge of the mountain. This opening led to a staircase that wrapped back down behind the wall into green pasture fields below. It was an incredibly beautiful sight and reminded me of a photo I’d seen of a mountain village in Switzerland, except without the village. It truly was a utopian “garden paradise”. It was strange in that it was like these mountain ranges and the valley below them had just been cut away from the planet and left to free float in space.
Far below this vantage point, down in the fields below were even more of these similar beast races going about their business.
I got the impression – either from my higher self or from Obama V2.0 – that these races were responsible for the creation of what we know as the physical universe. Or at the very least, the part of it where Earth is located. They coexisted in complete harmony and peace.
My attention turned back towards the 3 races in front of me. One of them was extremely excited and hopping around. It pulled a cloth bag seemingly out of no where. Then it beckoned for the others to join it. It tipped the bag upside down over the altar. Out fell3 perfectly cut rectangular pieces of emerald about the size of dominos. These emerald stones each had strange glyphs carved within them. I did not recognize the glyphs as belonging to any civilization on Earth.
The excited race had one of the others pick up the stones. As soon as its hand touched it, a sudden blank look came across its face. It lost all cognitive ability and was just staring blankly straight ahead.
The excited race started laughing. The whole affair reminded me of school children playing a practical joke on their friend. After a moment, the one who brought the stones said some sort of incantation, and the feeble minded race snapped out of its daze. It shook its head in confusion and sort of looked around wondering what hell had just happened.
The third race looked on with curiosity. The presenter of the stones suggested they gather up the rest of the races in the valley below. It wanted to play a trick on them. The two others agreed.
The holographic scene changed. I was now looking at these races as they lined up on the steps behind the wall. One of the three trickster races stood at the gap in the wall that would allow them entry into the landing space of the altar. It was as if it was the door man guarding the entry into a nightclub. It was done in such a way so that no one behind the wall could see what was going on at the altar. They had been told there was something exciting they should see, but not told what it was.
The line was enormous. It wrapped down the steps of the mountain all the way into the valley below. This was how many races there were in this place; many thousands of them.
One by one, a race was called from the front of the line into the clearing. One by one they were led to the altar and told to pick up the stones. I watched as every single one of these races was turned into a feeble minded creature that could do no more than stare into the distance and drool incessantly. The angels/ demons/ beasts – whatever you wanted to call them – responsible for “building” our “domain” had just all been turned into what was essentially infants. What I was watching was the erasure of their higher consciousness. They just sort of bumbled around with no purpose, bumping into each other. They were completely oblivious towards anything, including the rock wall they were walking into. They had been turned into total idiots.
After all the races – with the exception of the three tricksters – had lost their higher memories and the tricksters had had their laugh, the one who presented the stones decided it was enough of the game. It said its incantation to try and wake them all up, but nothing happened. This trickster race panicked and ended up tripping over a rock near the altar. Its hand landed on the emerald stones, rendering it feeble minded as well.
I was watching the race who had watched on in curiosity; the only one who hadn’t been subjected to the amnesia stones. You could see its eyes light up as it realized the power that lie in front of it. It grabbed the hand of the last the race – the one the presenter had first demonstrated on – and forced its hand upon the stones. What remained was a single dominant race with its higher, celestial memories in tact. It could command the others like puppets and they wouldn’t even noticed. They wouldn’t even realize they were higher beings.
What happened next was incredibly strange.
As I stood staring at this last race, it suddenly started sniffing the air around it. I could see its nostrils flare as it did so. Even though this was a holographic scenario, it could smell me. I am absolutely certain of it. It turned around and stared directly into my eyes. It was the most evil look I have ever witnessed. It seemed possessed by something. Unlike the other races that still retained there divine spark, this thing didn’t have one. It was soulless.
Shortly thereafter, I began what I call a “controlled wake up”. These wake ups are not like when you are just asleep and then are suddenly awake. It is as if the physical reality becomes super imposed over the dreamscape. The physical reality slowly starts getting more “solid” as the dreamscape “thins” out. After about 20 seconds physical reality completely consumes the field of vision and the dreamscape is completely gone. I have had these sorts of controlled awakenings many times after coming out of a lucid dream. There is always this sort of waviness to the whole thing. It feels like you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
As I went through this controlled awakening, the voice of the All Being came through telepathically to me. It said that as I wake up, the downfall of humanity would begin. I took this to mean the futile practices of humanity which would allow for consciousness to wake up from the amnesia en masse.
As if this all wasn’t enough, the abduction dreams would begin to happen, before my final contact with the Grand elder.
Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 4 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM
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This article discusses why the Earth (and a number of other solar systems in our region of physical space) is known as a “prison planet” and why it is now morphing into what I refer to as a “Sentience Nursery”. It’s a rather detailed, and strange look (I guess) at the world we all share in light of the events of MAJestic and the “Alien Interview” disclosure.
Now, let it be well understood that throughout my entire time in MAJestic, I was told that the earth was a “sentience nursery” for the evolution and sorting of the consciousnesses here. But when I encountered the disclosure “Alien Interview”, which I am wholly and positively convinced that it is authentic, they referred to the earth (and nearby solar systems) as “Prison Planets”.
This did NOT change the fact that the earth and it’s environs are “Sentience nurseries”, instead, if provided a background that helped me (personally) flush out the events leading up to what is going on today.
Alien Interview – 1947
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. It was released in 2007. There is a lot of good stuff there, and now I am convinced that everything is in agreement with what was presented to me in MAJestic.
A quick reminder
In graphic form. A picture tells more than two encyclopedias.
Key events of The Domain occupation plotted against Humankind technical advancement.
Here’s the pertinent section…
The Domain enters the Milky Way galaxy
She told me that The Domain Expeditionary Force first entered into the Milky Way galaxy very recently — only about 10,000 years ago.
The Domain conquers the Old Empire
Their first action was to conquer the home planets of the “Old Empire” (this is not the official name, but a nick-name given to the conquered civilization by The Domain Forces) that served as the seat of central government for this galaxy, and other adjoining regions of space. These planets are located in the star systems in the tail of the Big Dipper constellation. She did not mention which stars, exactly.
The Domain installs bases inside the Milkyway Galaxy
About 1,500 years later The Domain began the installation bases for their own forces along the path of invasion which leads toward the center of this galaxy and beyond.
The Domain sets up a base on Earth
About 8,200 years ago The Domain forces set up a base on Earth in the Himalaya Mountains near the border of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was a base for a battalion of The Domain Expeditionary Force, which included about 3,000 members.
They set up a base under or inside the top of a mountain. The mountain top was drilled into and made hollow to create an area large enough to house the ships and personnel of that force.
An electronic illusion of the mountain top was then created to hide the base by projecting a false image from inside the mountain against a “force screen”. The ships could then enter and exit through the force screen, yet remain unseen by homo sapiens.
The Old Empire attacks the Domain base on Earth
Shortly after they settled there the base was surprised by an attack from a remnant of the military forces of the “Old Empire”.
Unbeknownst to The Domain, a hidden, underground base on Mars, operated by the “Old Empire”, had existed for a very long time. The Domain base was wiped out by a military attack from the Mars base and the IS-BEs of The Domain Expeditionary Force were captured.
You can imagine that The Domain was very upset about losing such a large force of officers and crew, so they sent other crews to Earth to look for them. Those crews were also attacked.
The unusual handling of the capture Domain forces
The captured IS-BEs from The Domain Forces were handled in the same fashion as all other IS-BEs who have been sent to Earth. They were each given amnesia, had their memories replaced with false pictures and hypnotic commands and sent to Earth to inhabit biological bodies. They are still a part of the human population today.
After a very persistent and extensive investigation into the loss of their crews, The Domain discovered that “Old Empire” has been operating a very extensive, and very carefully hidden, base of operations in this part of the galaxy for millions of years.
No one knows exactly how long.
Final destruction of the Old Empire in this region
Eventually, the space craft of the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain engaged each other in open combat in the space of the solar system. According to Airl, there was a running battle between the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain until about 1235 AD, when The Domain forces finally destroyed the last of the space craft of the “Old Empire” force in this area. The Domain Expeditionary Force lost many of its own ships in this area during that time also.
A hidden Old Empire base in our area
About 1,000 years later the “Old Empire” base was discovered by accident in the spring of 1914 AD.
The discovery was made when the body of the Archduke of Austria was “taken over” by an officer of The Domain Expeditionary Force. This officer, who was stationed in the asteroid belt, was sent to Earth on a routine mission to gather reconnaissance.
A “electric fence” surrounds this area
Eventually The Domain discovered that a wide area of space is monitored by an “electronic force field” which controls all of the IS-BEs in this end of the galaxy, including Earth.
The electronic force screen is designed to detect IS-BEs and prevent them from leaving the area.
Snare, capture and make compliant
If any IS-BE attempts to penetrate the force screen, it “captures” them in a kind of “electronic net”.
The result is that the captured IS-BE is subjected to a very severe “brainwashing” treatment which erases the memory of the IS-BE.
This process uses a tremendous electrical shock, just like Earth psychiatrists use “electric shock therapy” to erase the memory and personality of a “patient” and to make them more “cooperative”.
On Earth this “therapy” uses only a few hundred volts of electricity. However, the electrical voltage used by the “Old Empire” operation against IS-BEs is on the order of magnitude of billions of volts! This tremendous shock completely wipes out all the memory of the IS-BE. The memory erasure is not just for one life or one body. It wipes out all of the accumulated experiences of a nearly infinite past, as well as the identity of the IS-BE!
The shock is intended to make it impossible for the IS-BE to remember who they are, where they came from, their knowledge or skills, their memory of the past, and ability to function as a spiritual entity.
They are overwhelmed into becoming a mindless, robotic non-entity.
Reprogramming and return back to prison
After the shock a series of post hypnotic suggestions are used to install false memories, and a false time orientation in each IS-BE.
This includes [1] the command to “return” to the base after the body dies, so that the same kind of shock and hypnosis can be done again, and again, again — forever.
The hypnotic command also tells [2] the “patient” to forget to remember.
The Old Empire was using Earth as a Prison Planet
What The Domain learned from the experience of this officer (in the body of the Archduke of Austria) is that the “Old Empire” has been using Earth as a “prison planet” for a very long time — exactly how long is unknown — perhaps millions of years.
So, when the body of the IS-BE dies they depart from the body.
They are detected by the “force screen”, they are captured and “ordered” by hypnotic command to “return to the light”.
The idea of “heaven” and the “afterlife” are part of the hypnotic suggestion — a part of the treachery that makes the whole mechanism work.
After the IS-BE has been shocked and hypnotized to erase the memory of the life just lived, the IS-BE is immediately “commanded”, hypnotically, to “report” back to Earth, as though they were on a secret mission, to inhabit a new body.
Each IS-BE is told that they have a special purpose for being on Earth. But, of course there is no purpose for being in a prison — at least not for the prisoner.
Who are the inmates in prison?
Any undesirable IS-BEs who are sentenced to Earth were classified as “untouchable” by the “Old Empire”.
The worst of the worst were sent to the Earth Prison Planet.
This included anyone that the “Old Empire” judged to be criminals who are too vicious to be reformed or subdued, as well as other criminals such as sexual perverts, or beings unwilling to do any productive work.
An “untouchable” classification of IS-BEs also includes a wide variety of “political prisoners”.
This includes IS-BEs who are considered to be non-compliant “free thinkers” or “revolutionaries” who make trouble for the governments of the various planets of the “Old Empire”.
Of course, anyone with a previous military record against the “Old Empire” is also shipped off to Earth.
A list of “untouchables” include artists, painters, singers, musicians, writers, actors, and performers of every kind. For this reason Earth has more artists per capita than any other planet in the “Old Empire”. “Untouchables” also include intellectuals, inventors and geniuses in almost every field.
Since everything the “Old Empire” considers valuable has long since been invented or created over the last few trillion years, they have no further use for such beings. This includes skilled managers also, which are not needed in a society of obedient, robotic citizens. Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the “Old Empire” are “untouchable” and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth. The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can’t remember who they are, where they came from, where they are.
They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than where they really are.
The Domain Officer unravels this entire scheme
The Domain officer who was “assassinated” while in the body of Archduke of Austria was, likewise, captured by the “Old Empire” force.
Because this particular officer was a high powered IS-BE, compared to most, he was taken away to a secret “Old Empire” base under the surface of the planet Mars. They put him into a special electronic prison cell and held him there.
Fortunately, this Domain officer was able to escape from the underground base after 27 years in captivity.
When he escaped from the “Old Empire” base, he returned immediately to his own base in the asteroid belt. His commanding officer ordered that a battle cruiser be dispatched to the coordinates of the base provided by this officer and to destroy that base completely. This “Old Empire” base was located a few hundred miles north of the equator on Mars in the Cydonia region.
The “fence” and snare and return continued to function in 1947
Although the military base of the “Old Empire” was destroyed, unfortunately, much of the vast machinery of [1] the IS-BE force screens, [2] the electroshock / amnesia / hypnosis machinery continues to function in other undiscovered locations right up to the present moment.
The main base or control center for this “mind control prison” operation has never been found.
So, the influences of this base, or bases, are still in effect.
Earth has become a “dumping ground” of misfits
The Domain has observed that since the “Old Empire” space forces were destroyed there is no one left to actively prevent other planetary systems from bringing their own “untouchable” IS-BEs to Earth from all over this galaxy, and from other galaxies nearby.
Therefore, Earth has become a universal dumping ground for this entire region of space.
This, in part, explains the very unusual mix of races, cultures, languages, moral codes, religious and political influences among the IS-BE population on Earth.
The number and variety of heterogeneous societies on Earth are extremely unusual on a normal planet. Most “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planets are inhabited by
only one humanoid body type or race, if any.
In addition, most of the ancient civilizations of Earth, and many of the events of Earth have been heavily influenced by the hidden, hypnotic operation of the “Old Empire” base.
So far, no one has figured out exactly where and how this operation is run, or by whom because it is so heavily protected by screens and traps.
Furthermore, there has been no operation undertaken to seek out, discover and destroy the vast and ancientnetwork of electronics machinery that create the IS–BEforce screensat this end of the galaxy. Until this has been done, we are not able to prevent or interrupt the electric shock operation, hypnosis and remote thought controlof the “Old Empire” prisonplanet. Of course all of the crew members of The DomainExpeditionary Force now remain aware of this phenomena at all times while operating in this solar system space so as to prevent detection and the capture by “Old Empire” traps.”
MAJestic – 1947
The “Majestic–12″ committee, was organized by President Harry Truman shortly after the Roswell incident in 1947. And this created the SAP known as the MAJestic organization.
MM and the MAJestic Narrative
I joined MAJestic as a Naval Aviator / (Astrophysicist & Aerospace Engineer) in May 1981. After thirty years of active participation in the organization, I was retired in May 2006. My “active retirement” lasted five years and ended in 2011. I am now a discarded MAJestic operator.
EBP insertion and non-physical training began in 1981. My training, and calibration of the ELF probes happened a number of years after that. All exposure that I have to knowledge, understanding and skills comes from the entanglement of our benefactors.
My primary and functional duty was “anchoring” of consciousnesses in this region to prevent catastrophic events from occurring. (Whatever those catastrophic events were, I haven’t a clue.) This meant world-line travel and consciousness manipulation were my primary tools.
I was involved in…
Manipulation of consciousness
World-line travel
Anchoring of clustered world-line behaviors.
As strange as this might appear and sound, if you look at what the events and operational projects entailed, you can clearly see that they were involved in the control and manipulation of world-line alterations as a function of consciousness mass-manipulation.
Not protecting the earth from those pesky Reptilians as part of the great marine space fleet. LOL! I had to throw this bunch of popular fiction in, don't you know!
If you consider that each consciousness was “retarded” in access to their memories, then…
… my actions were all in alignment with rehabilitative services within a restorative clinic or hospital environment.
So, obviously Earth is a “sentience nursery”. Just as what has been described to me all these years within MAJestic.
So, please most kindly take notes. Today the earth is not considered to be a “Prison Planet”. It is considered and treated as a rehabilitation complex. And all those “abductions” and “probing” and “procedures” are good things designed to alter your prison (non-physical) bodies into a (operation gown) bodies for rehabilitation purposes.
But what happened? What changed?
Think people.
If you manage to destroy a sizable number of the systems and facilities (the walls and the guard towers) of a prison, what are you going to do with all the inmates? Are you going to release them “Ghostbusters” style all at once (like what happened in the Ghostbusters movie)?
All the spirits were released in Ghostbusters all at once.
No.
There are all kinds of people in the Earth Prison Planet Environment.
Some are really innocent. Some just got caught up and imprisoned here. Others were political prisoners who were sent here. Some are terribly creative individuals who were sent here, and some are truly evil, and selfish creatures.
So how you do sort them all out?
And you do need to sort them all out. If you don’t you would end up polluting the entire galaxy with hordes of very evil and dangerous entities.
You sort them.
You sort them by sentience.
The criteria
So if you are going to sort consciousness by sentience, you need to filter out what you keep, what you allow to leave, and what you keep an eye on as they are almost ready to leave, just not totally there yet.
As far as I understand, the sentience of human beings fall into the following categories…
Service to self (being selfish and greedy).
Service to another (a follower, a believer, a NPC).
Service to others (a member of a group of people putting them first).
Disjointed, confused, or emotionally, mentally sick.
Service to Self sentience sub-types
As best as I can tell, the subcategories of a Service to Self person are…
Psychopath
Sociopath
Selfish
Greedy
Narcissistic
They get to stay in the “Sentience Nursery” / “Prison Planet” environment simply because they are too dangerous to unleash on the rest of the universe.
Service to Another sentience sub-types
These consciousnesses are not ready to leave yet, but they are on the way and almost ready to go. I would guess that their progression in sentience would depend on many things, most importantly is their position in any of the subcategories of this type of sentience.
And the subcategories of a Service to other person are…
1. Sycophants
These are very close (if not the same as) a Service to Self sentience.
Also known as a toady, a sycophant follower knows nothing but an advantage. All that is in his mind is nothing but a strategic plan to keep on holding on or following till he gets what he really wants or keep on maintaining the advantage he wants.
More often than not the sycophant follower seems to be self-seeking and behaves like a parasite: gives nothing, yet takes.
2. Critics
Critics are also close to being Service to Self sentience entities.
They are annoying, they are also motivating. The critic followers will always post, comment or say unfavorable opinions concerning a person or an organization or a political party at all times. For others it may be a very annoying process yet for some it is a learning point and adjusting method for future reference.
3. Realists
These are sentience’s that are caught up in the material world. They are not necessarily bad, but they still have much to learn. They need a few more cycles of “reincarnation” to straighten out their sentience.
Here are the philosophers. The realist followers are so aware of reality and they have to let you accept it. The realist followers are always on the side of the truth, the naked truth. They will always accept the physical and most evident of circumstances and issues and they will always let the world know, and to the person or thing or group, they might be following.
4. Loyalists
These are close to Service to Others sentience, but not all the way there. They, for the most part, are but one reincarnation away from a Service to Others sentience.
They are the best kind of followers, the loyalist followers. They are as loyal as dogs can be. You will likely never be disappointed by a loyal follower for they are as true and as honest. No mischief in them or cunning activities. They are loyal almost to a fault.
5. Traitors
These are Service to self individualists in disguise.
Traitors are another bunch of followers that are the complete opposite of the loyal followers. These are the Judases that will betray Jesus from time to time.
Traitor followers will stick by you; follow up with you as long as the weather seems as conducive to continue being with you, not forever but till that time when the first drop of rain falls and the going gets tough, then they will betray you.
6. Spectators
These are Service to self individualists in disguise.
The spectator followers are always on the sideline and surely enough are careful enough not to cross it and only do so when the excitement gets too much. The spectator followers are never in the game but will make sure that you get your support.
They will give you all deserving praises and belief then let you walk into the battlefield all alone.
7. Opportunists
These are Service to self individualists in disguise.
They have not much of a difference from the sycophant followers or traitor followers. The opportunist follower will have no other reason for starting following other than for an advantage at some point.
He or she does not have upmost loyalty. They are like a soaring eagle in the sky keenly eyeing and falling indistinctively with an end goal to capture an unaware fish or mouse.
8. Sheep
These sentience’s are on the path, but they need a few more cycles of reincarnation to sort out the sentience better.
The common myths and facts suggest that sheep are the dumbest of all animals following without question or doubt, keenly observant to only beck at its master’s call and commands. And so is the sheep follower.
They follow with no question, they seem so loyal, and they might be. More often than not, the sheep followers would rather follow other than making an informed and independent decision.
Many associate those that blindly follow government rules or elected officials without any questions as sheep.
9. “Yes” People
They need a few more reincarnations to straighten out their sentience direction. They are actually “sitting on the fence” in the over all scheme of sentience selection.
The ‘yes’ followers simply want to avoid confrontation and pleasing people is their number one priority. The ‘yes’ people follower will always find themselves in uncalled for situations since they do not take their time to think through the yes responses that they give.
They are a often resentful types of people which makes them end up having following what they do not even believe in.
10. Alienated
They are almost at a Service to Self sentience.
The alienated type of follower will always strive to make you feel indifferent and rather hostile. They really know how to pick their words and actions to fit well with their aim and purpose.
11. Survivor
These kind of sentience’s are closer to the Service to Other’s sentience, but need some time to sort things out a little better.
Survivor followers are the most prevailing as they stick by you through hard moments and also stick by you through the good times. The survivor followers have a strong belief in you.
12. Effective
They are almost at a Service to Self sentience. Almost “one foot in the door”.
Here are the kinds of followers that just really know which decisions to make in the order for you reach your intended goal. The effective followers not only follow you but also have a really good impact on your success.
13. The Isolate(d)
A person who is strongly leaning to a Service to Self sentience.
The isolate(d) follower needs no cushioning. He or she acts on their own and most seemingly enjoys the following solo. He does not like crowds. The isolate follower is a lone wolf.
14. The Bystander
This person is solidly in the Service to another realm, and needs a few cycles to sort things out.
The bystander follower seems like the spectator follower. He too does not necessarily take part in the course of action. In his following, he becomes the keen observant from a distance.
15. The Participant
This person is almost a Service to others sentience, and might end up being one entirely within this lifetime.
Here is the jack of all spades. The participant follower is active and vibrant. He is very present and would even go the extra mile for you. He is also the type to bring fun along.
16. The Activist
Almost a full Service to Others sentience in this life.
The activist follower is not just the average follower. He is the one that always follows and cares to bring about change and in most cases, the popular good is his aim.
17. The Diehard
Almost a full Service to Others sentience in this life.
The diehard follower is very instinctive. Like a viper, he is ready to strike and will go down even to the bottomless pit for you. If there is one who can die for you then it is the diehard follower. Fans of the Lord of the Rings franchise would quickly identify Sam Gamgee as the diehard follower of Frodo.
Who gets to leave and who needs to stay?
As I understand it, the ability to leave the “Sentience Nursery” is a function of what your consciousness is.
A service to others sentience gets to leave. At least that is how I understand it today. Obviously when the Old Empire controlled this area, no one ever got to leave it. But things are quite different now.
A service to self sentience gets to stay. They get to relive their time in the earth habitat over and over, and over, and over until they start to feel compassion towards others and their sentience changes.
A service to another sentience stays but is monitored. They are not yet fully developed enough to leave, but not really ready to be released. You can consider this sentience to be on various states of parole.
Disjointed, confused, or non-settled sentience’s stays. Until they straighten out one way or the other, they must stay in this realm under supervision.
Summary and conclusion
The earth realm, both physical and non-physical, is a Sentience Nursery. it was initially set up as a Prison, but that has changed since the Domain started working with MAJestic. The ability to leave this environment depends on your true nature, and this is determined by your sentience.
If you watch Rufus videos and in your heart, you think that they are suckers, idiots, or fools; then you are probably a Service to Self sentience.
If you watch Rufus videos and in your heart, you feel emotion, joy and wish to be a helpful person, then you are a Service to Others sentience.
If you watch a few Rufus videos but are quickly bored and find no interest in them, then you are a Service to Another sentience.
If you watch Rufus videos and wonder about them, are curious about them, but cannot relate to the Rufus in the video, nor the people needing help, you are a disjointed sentience.
Are you ready to take the test?
Watch the video below. Measure your feelings and thoughts after viewing it, and use it to see what sentience that you are “leaning towards”. Sentience is not something that you can hide. It is a resonance point that is affiliated with your consciousness.
There are no right or wrong answers. It’s a method to determine where you are at in regards to sentience and whether or now you need to reincarnate over and over again on the earth, or if you are worthy to be “altered” to permit “escape velocity” from this region.
The sentience test.
Grading
If you think that She is brave and the embodiment of what a person should be, then you are a Service to Others Sentience.
If you think that she is stupid for not trying to steal the guys wallet, then you are most certainly a Service to Self Sentience.
If you think that she should have stood by and called the police, as she is too old, and the accident is too serious, then you are a Service to Another Sentience.
If you don’t think anything other than this is a “stupid” and silly movie, and a waste of your time, then you are a Disjointed Sentience.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
We all have experiences, and once we step outside the realm of what is "normal", or experiences take on a surreal aspect. Others, sometimes well-meaning, don't understand what you are trying to relate. And thus, you learn. You keep quiet and you don't share your experiences with anyone. But that really isn't healthy.
The following is a personal narrative regarding PissedLizard's (Lovingly referred to as PL here on MM) personal experiences. He died, left his body, and entered the non-physical realms. If you read with an open mind, and then consider his experiences to be "puzzle pieces", you can use them to construct a fuller picture of where you are at in your own life and society. It's good stuff you all.
-MM
I would like to explain the “light/void” concept as I experienced it and can communicate it.
I did not go anywhere.
First, I PHYSICALLY did not go anywhere.
I wasn’t “abducted” by a UFO.
I was here on this planet at my house. My consciousness left my physical body.
My physical body was here (in my house) annoying the crap out of my wife.
I wasn’t acting right. I wasn’t behaving right. Things were “off” about me.
For instance, I did not take care of my animals the way I normally do, I did not eat at all. And I was terribly thirsty. In fact, I drank 2 bottles of water.
Something was really “off”.
The Physical world around me was in turmoil
I became convinced that something was up.
Somehow, and in some way.
There was this hurricane barreling straight at us, it was more than just a physical hurricane. There was something different in the air. Something substantive. Something thick. Something that was “shaking everyone up”.
There is so much to say about the oppressive heat, the unbearable anxiety, and the huge buildup on all levels. I felt like I was a balloon inside a pressure cooker and I was about to *pop*.
The Build-up
At this point I will put in that for the last six months there have been waves of uncontrollable anxiety and heat.
The anxiety felt like waiting for the results of a very, very important and critical test.
All day.
Every day. It dragged on.
The heat. Lordy! The heat!
You can even see condensation coming off of me (if I was against a black background.)
It is feverish heat followed by chills. I would take my temperature and it would actually be below normal.
The Experience
Here is how I experienced the light and void.
Going into the light is a repeat of this planet but in a different timeline.
I have used this analogy before – you are put in a totally random human body. You can end up as Hunter Biden’s love child, born into a world where “everything is taken care of” or you can end up as a poor kid making sweaters for 20 cents each. Most, including myself would jump at the rich baby, but that human is given the same kind of “issues” the other kid has only presented differently.
So it all evens out.
As I said I spoke with and was allowed to experience what the Christian messiah went through because EVERYONE has to. That is what salvation actually means.
The Christ did say that this planet was sacred to him and his followers. This is why he has them stay.
This is where my personal confusion as to who is keeping us here, because to me it’s a prison.
Is it that God/Jesus or is it – a big lie the way “Alien Interview” described it.
It shouldn’t matter to me but it does.
He asked “Well, did you understand the experience?”
After I experienced that event, my Mantid asked me if I understood what just transpired.
Mantid = Angel.
My Mantid = My Guardian Angel
Different terms for the same thing. -MM
I explained what I thought transpired.
He then said that the one aspect of human life that I did not and will not experience is being a father.
And this is correct. I do not have kids.
I was then shown how to be a father and a dad.
And it was amazing, but not me.
I travel light. I hate to say it but I saw having children as being a hindrance to my life. I was very selfish that way.
No worries. In MAJestic I was forbidden to have children as well, and my first and second wives were both unable to conceive. It wasn't until I was "retired" from MAJestic that I was able to have children. I had my first daughter when I was 62. -MM
Upon Death and the light
Upon death when you are shown the light, if you don’t stop to look around you go to what is comfortable, which is the light.
I saw many people I know and met the Christian Jesus.
He showed me fatherly like love, and he let me be him.
Then, after all was finished he asked if I still wished to NOT go to the light or if I wanted to go somewhere else.
So I went into the light…
At this point I was scared to death. My Mantid took me into the light.
Once a person goes into the light THEY HAVE TO EXPERIENCE a “something” which I call “THE VOID”.
In other words there is no getting around it.
When you go into the light you go into the void first.
But, yah, there is another flash of light that gets much bigger.
Hell
Those who go to “hell” stay here in THE VOID for a bit.
But everyone WILL eventually get out of the void and be able to go into the “true” light afterwards.
And with that comes the mandatory amnesia…
…followed by placement in a unformed embryo.
The Alien interview said the amnesia was by a heavy voltage.
My interpretation was how you acted on this planet determines the voltage, but everyone experiences it as a static shock.
There is no punitive “Hitler gets a million volts while you get a few”.
The idea isn’t to punish but to grow.
My Mantid then showed me how to get out of the void and how to contact them if I get stuck.
A Second Chance
The Christ then even gave me a second chance to go with him.
I could go with him, into the light again keeping everything I have.
He said he only wanted me to be a better person.
I found this to be an extraordinarily nice gesture on his part.
But…
Before I go on to the void I have to say that those faithful Christians will be raptured. Of this I am certain. Just as it says in the Bible. Others in other religions WILL GO to where you believe heaven to be.
Heaven, or the idea of it, depends on the person.
My Mantid took me back into the void and this is where things really took off.
He showed me the light.
In it was the entire knowledge of the universe.
It was the most thrilling thing imaginable.
Every good feeling you have is there. It didn’t get boring.
No. Not at all. That’s for certain.
I was then shown that the light (if you take the PARTICLE form of light, not the waveform, but a photon) you would see it as light, but you can’t really “touch” a photon.
But a photon is how I was shown it all.
So I will explain it as best I can without being “all over the place”…
A Photon
Imagine a photon. Divide it in half and you get a pair or 1 “level”. If you divide that in half you will go all the way down to “strings” of energy – MM really explains it well in his articles.
When you get down to the last string to the quantum level you have a “hole”. It would look like a wall at your house with a big string hanging out of one side.
You see the wall and you see the string of energy going into that wall. It looks like a physical string into a hole.
If you go alllllll the way up to the hole and look through it – you would see that the string “disappears”.
This is where the particle and wave meet – at that hole.
That HOLE IS THE VOID!
Once your physical has been cut down to it’s wave form (0.000000000000000000000000000000000001 nm) you can tap into everything.
Everything.
Changes
This is where I know these two things to be true:
[1] My DNA was altered. How we think of DNA and what it really is are 2 different things.
I am a human male with no kids. My Y chromosome was “terminated” at this time and new DNA was inserted.
My DNA was cut not at my first human on the chain but past it to a primitive form, but it’s still a “relative”.
The Human species is a hybrid construction that has many evolutionary components and contributors. The DNA from one of the contributors was cut and an earlier progenitor was spliced into the space there. Thus a certain section of the DNA regressed to an earlier form. Ugh! -MM
I needed to feel this anger as when I was a kid in high school I got caught with my girlfriend by her father during an “intimate moment”. He lost his shit. Like went NUTS.
Because I have no daughters I could never feel that kind of anger but I needed to as my void in THIS life was being a father. He showed me how to control the anger.
I was then shown that each 0 in the quantum number of 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000001 Is a different “level” of our DNA and as the number gets smaller – you go back in “time” on your DNA.
For example 0.0000 is my great-great grandfather. The zero on the left side of the decimal point is me (or you) so writing this looks like:
At each “level” you have a quantum “hole” to tap into.
These are actual real people you are related to. It’s their “spirit” but they are still connected to you.
I had one LONG portion of my DNA removed and another put in.
However, my guess is if I was to do a DNA test it would look identical to an old one because that is the particle form not waveform.
If I was abducted by a UFO that would be particle form. Because I physically stayed here it’s waveform.
Some “UFO”s are actually biological entities (yes, the whole craft) and these can travel by wave or particle form.
I was then brought to the Gods and Goddesses and was shown why I had to study Islam.
Islam a quick study
In a quick QUICK nutshell -this is about Islam and can be looked up further- the Both Sunni and Shia believe in the end times. Their “messiah” is a child Imam who is in a vegetative state in a well in Qom, Iran. He is going to lead the MUSLIMS. His name is Imam al Mahdi.
The Mahdi has an enemy – his name is al Dajjal – it means “the deceiver” and will lead the Christians and Jews against the Mahdi. Like Jesus the Christ will.
The Dajjal (Christian Jesus) can be identified by having ONE EYE. He also survives a head shot.
So in MY mind – for years and years and years I thought the Mahdi was the Antichrist BUT thought the One eyed God, the ones the Muslims call the Dajjal – was “the good guy” and the Mahdi as “the bad guy”.
I thought that If the person or entity that the Muslims called “the antichrist” – it MUST be Jesus. So, the one eyed God – to me – had to be Jesus.
I worship the AllFather Odin. He is one of many Gods and Goddesses but he is the FATHER of the Gods and Goddesses. I am personally VERY religious when it comes to my Gods and Goddesses.
I take this stuff VERY seriously.
Then ZOOM…
Next, I am with all of the Gods and Goddesses and it’s just freaking awesome.
Odin literally came to me (not the other way around) and looked at me with that one eye of his…
… and two things happened…
… I went back INTO the void hole while staring at Odins eye, realizing that in order to know what God was I really had to know good versus evil.
He showed me (something otherwise obvious) but I did not understand then, that I needed to study something I hated (which at the time was, in fact, Islam) in order to come out the other end and be worthy of the Valhalla of my choosing.
The God with one eye was, in fact, a distraction to get me to learn what I needed to learn.
And I passed his test.
DNA comparability
NOW he said I had to be able to show that our DNA and Christian DNA is compatible.
I have to be able to translate the Eddas into Bible words so that everyone is on the same page and that I can HELP these people without the fear of them thinking I am satanic or something.
As MM said – yeah, the fundamentalism of the South and Baptism is on par with any other kind of fundamentalism- and that’s fine but I am to help not harm.
The problem is the way things are going elsewhere – how much human time do we have?
Anyone watching this fiasco and doesn’t see the writing on the wall – whether it’s all real or all a show – it’s just looking like things are moving faster than I can do everything and do THAT as well.
It’s all good though.
DNA reconfiguration
The DNA reconfigure was like this.
I was at a facility described by MM, I am not comfortable sharing where at this point but I was with my Mantid.
I was put on a table and he talked to others.
They then went through every feeling I ever had – like waking up Christmas morning – all the way to the feeling of defeat when I failed a big exam. Those feelings were removed and given – all of this WILLINGLY- to other humans that haven’t been born, this way they can “jump ahead” in life with my “books”.
I did this willingly as I have no children nor intend to.
My Y chromosome ends with this body and all my relatives agreed.
In that DNA space I was given knowledge.
I can access somethings but not others.
Seven Women
I was then brought to Seven women.
These are REALLY REALLY REALLY Important women according to my Mantid and I was to control my thoughts – in other words if I thought one was attractive – to keep that thought to myself.
My Mantid knows me.
These women took me into a circle and causally asked questions about my interactions with all kinds of things on earth.
Being honest to these women was difficult because it’s honesty – and it’s difficult, but I was absolutely brutally honest.
They asked – and all attention was on these answers – how or what I would do different given the knowledge I have.
When I my answer could have been better they showed me – by being the people at the moment I affected them – stopping time – the showing me the right way.
An APP and a Telephone
I am uncomfortable writing the rest of this interaction, but one of them showed me an app – YES – an APP to use to meditate to contact them.
I am learning how to use it.
Then my Mantid got me and he showed me how to call them if I ever need them.
He then showed me how the consciousness around me works.
He brought me back to the void and said [1] the amnesia given by the “old players” was lifted but [2] the access to the info is controlled.
We went into the void – I clicked out of it and was home – with a “Viking” and his son who were making a camp.
I was shown this so I could see distance in my bubble.
Science
Before “modern science” our ancestors saw things this way. Reality was in the bubble only. In quantum physics – reality is in the bubble only – that’s how they thought and maneuvered through the world. We lost that when we put our faith in “science”.
This lasted a while.
I learned a lot.
The Mantid gave me a cloth with XXXXX on it. He showed me how to distinguish it from the other smells in the cloth.
When he was satisfied – we moved on.
I hope this helps, especially Christians.
The whole light thing is a concept that is very important to them and I do not want this to scare them.
The entire time “Satan” was the enemy.
The manifestation of Satan was a reason to call the Mantids.
But it’s a manifestation of EVIL waves that cause the physical to appear.
My Mantid was clear – indication of evil was a clear cause to call more than My Mantid.
Anger!
And I am telling you – straight up – You feel the Mantids anger.
You live it.
I would never ever ever fuck with one of these things for anything, so although the concept of “Satan” creeps me out – even today – I know what happens when the Mantids are called and am leaving that there.
Coming out of the void…
Finally, coming out of the void and into this realm was like this:
Look at this character zero below:
0
The void is inside the zero. The outside of the zero – the line itself – is “reality” or A light (single)
When you are inside the zero all you have to do is say “I” and you become a person who can only say “I” – then the rest of the words come-but they have to be chosen carefully.
When I write “I think I am going to go to then store” has to be corrected to “I will go to the store” otherwise I am communicating that I am thinking about the store only.
This is driving my wife nuts, but it’s getting better.
Learning to speak takes a couple of full days.
Conclusion
Phew! As I have said, these other contributors have a world of experiences so unlike mine, but in some ways so vary familiar. I think that we can all take what is important to us and learn from PL experiences. Don’t you?
More on the way.
-MM
Do you want more?
The master Index of PissedLizard articles can be found here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is the second part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 2 – Contact with the Elder Guardians
In the last part I talked about my first contact experience with a group of Elders resembling the Ascended Masters whilst lucid dreaming back in 2012.
I mentioned (in this last article) how these Elders told me [1] about a “spiritual amnesia” that was affecting mankind and cutting them off from a higher state of conscious awareness.
I also mentioned (in the article) how the [2] physical human brain had apparently been deliberately engineered to help with this dumbing down of consciousness.
It was during this experience that I was able to tap into this higher state of conscious awareness – what I refer to as the higher self or higher intellect.
The higher self (or higher intellect)
This higher self equates to a processing power orders of magnitude far above what we (normally) use whilst contained within the physical body.
It lets you see through physical and non physical realities like they are glass.
Different States of being
It is important to note here, that I use the connection with this higher state of mind to differentiate between [A] a lucid dream/ astral projection and [B] a mystical experience.
When I mention a mystical experience – or what I call an Auric projection – it means that I have been under this superior state of conscious awareness whilst lucid.
It is a completely different experience to what both astral projection and lucid dreaming entail.
Whilst in this state, there is a constant flux of information coming in and being perceived of higher reality aspects; only a very small percentage of it can ever be remembered upon waking up.
This information also contains soul-time memories, and is not limited to a single physical incarnation.
There is always a catch 22 dilemma when functioning from this state; you know the information coming in is important, but you are also aware you will forget most of it when awakening back into your physical body.
Thus one is forced to try and focus on specific elements to try and remember them when waking up.
It is beyond frustrating.
My mystical experiences
All in all I had 5 or so “mystical experiences” in which I was connected to this higher state of awareness. It was over a 7 year period, many of which the Grand Elder appeared in.
This is not including my “second contact” experience.
This “second contact experience” occurred as a recurring lucid dream.
In this recurring lucid dream, I was also connected to this state of awareness and being bombarded by information.
So (all told), including these recurring dreams, the amount of mystical experiences I had whilst connected to the higher self would easily be over 20 events.
Hijacking of dreamscape
In part one I briefly touched upon the idea that I was playing around with consciousness and conducting experiments with it whilst lucid dreaming.
It was apparently because I had developed advanced abilities in this area that the Ascended Masters were able to contact me; at least that is what they told me.
One of these experiments related to “hijacking” my wife’s dreamscape and implanting a dream scenario of my devising.
What I didn’t talk about, is that around this same time, my wife was also having her own contact experiences with both physical and non physical entities.
Wife’s Contact Experiences
These entities took on a myriad of different forms from [1] “angels” and [2] “demons” to [3] ETs wearing strange space suits.
I did not realize it at the time but they had been “visiting” my wife since she was a little kid.
She had only vaguely mentioned very few of these experiences in fear of me thinking she was crazy.
In actual fact she had had enough experiences to fill a whole volume. I did not get much of the specifics of these experiences until very recently (this year).
What I find curious is that when she was little, one of the angelic types suggested to her the same thing about the human brain; it had been deliberately created to hold consciousness at a lesser level.
In many of these visitations, she was also under the influence of a similar higher state of conscious awareness. Her description of this state of awareness matches my experience of it.
Having “synchronized” dreams and experiences.
I am not sure if it was because of my hijacking experiment or not, but thereafter my wife and I also began having “synchronized” dreams and experiences.
These related to visiting the same places whilst lucid (she was just as proficient at lucid dreaming and astral projecting as me, if not better).
Often times we would describe to each other a place we’d been to or a lucid dream we’d just had only to have the other finish the sentence with an exact description of the scenario.
Many of these synchronised dreams related to “waking up” and trying to retrieve each other from “sleep facilities”.
Consciousness brainwashing facilities
These “sleep facilities” were unique. In them, it appeared consciousness brainwashing was being undertaken, or (a cleansing of) memories of things we did in past lives or other worlds.
One of these synchronicities was a scenario where we were both killed in one world, and “woke up” in another. Other memories included being trained in remembering “timeline resets”.
Out of all of my mystical experiences, a great deal of them were synchronised in this manner.
One of the “worlds” we were both visiting prior to my first contact experience with the Elder Guardians, was this place that was very reminiscent of a movie theater.
We’d always pop out in a hallway that had various ‘theater” rooms coming off it. These rooms would be lined with chairs, in typical theater fashion, except that instead of a screen there was a spherical shaped portal floating in mid air.
Though I have no specific recollection of them being used for consciousness brainwashing, my wife remembers this place as being used for exactly that.
Whenever I would enter the portal in the theater room, it would take me to a completely different world.
My wife was also able to describe this same world in exact detail.
In this other world there is this weird road that sort of curves upwards into the sky. It sort of looks like what the great Wall Of China would look like if you bent it upwards; the gravity changes as you move along the road so you are always on it.
There appears to be some sort of ancient market festival going on and something to do with timeline resets.
I was having lucid dreams about both the portal theater and the market festival place almost weekly for a whole year; they were, evidently, astral assignments my handlers were sending me to.
There were also instances of being “attacked” whilst lucid that, fortunately for us, we were able to corroborate as both of us had experienced similar things happening.
Such things included weird entities entering our heads and pushing our consciousness to one side, distorting it in the process.
Others included typical succubus expeditions, timeline slips and things that aren’t even describable with human words.
At one point I had something extremely heavy – about 100kg – sit on me and crush my chest to the point I couldn’t breathe.
Majority of these strange occurrences would happen whilst in the sleep paralysis/ hypnogogic state.
Strange occurrences
My wife spoke of one astral projection experience where she went into our roof and found a strange creature living there guarding an ancient dusty box.
This creature was humanoid, had no face and pounced around like a cat. It would not let her anywhere near the box. It wanted to play with her, like a kitten would.
We had “ghosts” moving stuff in many of the houses we moved into.
Our life was one big paranormal experience that for us just became normality.
The weirdest example is a doppelganger version of myself that both my wife and daughter saw and heard that appeared when I was out with my son.
I believe such a doppelganger almost got me executed, but for the sake of brevity I will skip over that whole ordeal.
What I will mention was that this particular incident happened only a few short months after my recurring mystical dreams.
These eventually culminated in me remembering my own reincarnation at the guidance of the voice of the Grand Elder and the torture my soul had undergone moments prior to becoming incarnated in this current body – what I call “soul burning”.
Strange Lucid Dreams
The lucid dreams themselves were strange; they started as me appearing in an apocalyptic purgatorial like place.
There were broken decrepit houses every where one looked.
A single path that led seemingly into nowhere was the only thing besides the houses. There as what appeared to be another version of myself waiting for me along this road.
As I approached it I realized it was a zombie; it was me but it was devoid of all emotion, and as it noticed me it began to give chase.
The information that was coming in from my higher consciousness and through the voice of the Grand Elder told me how this was a part of my higher energetic body.
That body had been damaged by the spiritual amnesia;
It was effectively, a corrupted part of my soul from a higher, non physical plane;
It was an unseen baggage that I would always carry with me.
For about a year this dream would start from the exact same point and slowly progress.
It was like watching the same movie from the start over and over, but each time watching a little bit more before turning it off.
My zombie would chase me and eventually catch me and I would wake up as soon as it touched me.
Eventually my time line resetting memories would start kicking in, and I would be back at the start of the dream with 2 zombies chasing me instead of one upon a zombie touching me.
It would progress in this fashion, with the number of zombies doubling every time I got reset.
It got to the point where I had thousands upon thousands of zombified versions of my energetic body chasing me.
After about a year of having these dreams on a monthly, sometime fortnightly basis, I started to realize it was the period between a zombie touching me and “resetting” that the Grand Elder was trying to get me to remember; whenever I had one of these dreams, my focus would go entirely on trying to figure out what was happening in between the resets.
The amount of information coming through each and every time I had one of these experiences was intense.
I was constantly comparing everything that was happening with the physical world my body was asleep in…
…whilst listening to the Grand Elder’s voice telling me to pay attention to certain details.
They were simply not normal dreams or even normal lucid dreams.
He was guiding me through this experience each and every time I had it like I was back at college opening a textbook and continuing study of a subject from a previous week.
Each experience thus was a continuation of the “lessons” from the previous one.
The Grand Elder would not let up in what he was trying to show/ teach me.
A force controlling the zombified energetic bodies
Because of my connection to my higher mind, I could feel that some kind of external force was controlling these zombified energetic bodies. It was an incredibly strong telepathic connection.
I could sense the raw hatred of this external force coming through; I simply knew it was not part of the zombie’s make up.
It was pure evil and I knew whatever it was, was the same Slave God the Grand Elder had told me was responsible for the Ancient Egyptian slave trade and the spiritual amnesia.
This purgatorial domain I was in it evidently owned and controlled.
In the last experience I was being chased by thousands of these zombies when all of a sudden I realized this hatred emotion I could use to my advantage.
I started taunting these zombies as they gave chase which angered the controller immensely.
Like it’s hatred, I could feel this anger surging through.
I went out of my way to bring this anger to a level where the Slave God would lose control of the situation.
Then I just stopped running and turned around, deliberately allowing the zombies to catch me.
My plan had worked.
The next thing I knew I was being taken to a sort of operating room and was being strapped to a bed.
The zombified versions of my energetic bodies all stood around me, as I was hooked up to a strange piece of apparatus.
Torture!
What followed was the most excruciating torture I have ever experienced in either lucid dreaming or physical reality.
It was unbelievably intense that it literally felt like my very soul was on fire.
It felt like I was being electrocuted with incredibly high current as well as being cut to pieces and set on fire all at once.
I called it Soul Burning.
At the same time this was all carried out there was things being done that I can only describe as a brainwashing regime courtesy of the same apparatus that was torturing me.
It was like it had the ability to instill my very being with false memories.
I could feel things being spliced into my soul that I knew should not have been there.
The controller was so angered by my insolence, that he made the zombies increase the savageness of their “purging” me into one of them.
They ripped and tore at my soul so brutally that I could feel it coming to pieces.
It was a similar feeling to what projecting into the anomaly had done to my consciousness, except that it wouldn’t disintegrate my higher mind.
What was worse was that I suddenly remembered every other time this had happened to me.
Fourty thousand years worth of lifetimes that ended with this same torture all came flooding back to me.
Each one amplified the pain by a million.
Because I was operating from my higher mind I could feel every single one of these tortures as if they were all happening at the same time.
The Grand Elder had warned me it was going to be an uncomfortable memory, but I did not care.
The knowledge of my soul’s history was more important to me than comfort.
My commitment had been to remember whatever was necessary and bring it back here into the physical plane at all costs.
After the soul burning session finished, the zombies all left, courtesy of the controller and I found myself lying alone on the bed in this hellish operating room.
Finished and exhausted
I was completely, 100% lucid and could remember everything that had just happened as well as that somewhere back on Earth my body was asleep in its bed.
My consciousness was completely detached from it.
Whatever it was that had carried out this torture on me had failed to properly administer the amnesia, and I realized this was exactly what the Grand Elder wanted me to see.
I was, however, mentally and emotionally spent from everything that had just transpired.
With my last ounce of energy I deliberately projected my consciousness away from that purgatorial realm into space – I didn’t even have enough energy to get back to my body I was that exhausted.
So I just floated in space for what seemed like a minute, looking at some nearby stars.
There was a suddenly change in my environment as my perceptive field went from that of the universe to a wall of skin that clung to me and enclosed me within it.
That is when I realized I was free floating in a placenta as a fetus.
I even kicked out and could feel the resistance of the skin in my foot as I did so.
This placenta provided a great soothing comfort for me after the whole soul burning ordeal; it was incredibly inviting and felt as though it was healing me as I floated within it.
Shortly after this I awoke back in my bed.
I was certain this was a memory of the moments prior to me being incarnated into this current body.
The Grand Elder plucks me out…
Several months later I was again abducted out of another lucid dream by the Grand Elder.
This time he showed himself to me like he did at the 2012 gathering in the celestial courtyard; it was the very same being, I am 100% sure of this.
He told me that the ordeal in the purgatorial realm was necessary for me to remember before this second meeting with him could be undertaken.
He was teaching me a higher knowledge about consciousness and how it was being affected by the amnesia.
Like the reincarnation dreams this was yet another Auric experience and the information coming through was with a potency that the Earth mind is just not capable of processing.
Again I was taken to a point on the outskirts of a universe in a different, non physical plane.
There was this sort of racing circuit laid out; it was similar to a formula one track just floating randomly in space.
There were these canon like things blotted about around the track randomly that were shooting light far out into the universe. Guarding these canons were these hairy, bipedal, monkey like beasts.
The Grand Elder told me my mind had been deliberately sped up so that I could comprehend this light, which I was perceiving as if it was being slowed down.
The beasts could apparently not see me because their minds were operating at a lower frequency; I was moving faster than the light, they weren’t.
I was also told by the Grand Elder I was seeing these canons in this manner so I could more easily remember them back here in the physical plane.
The actual devices cannot be comprehended by the limited human mind.
This light was not the same as light that we know of on earth.
It was of a much higher frequency and, according to the Grand Elder was responsible for the creation of physical and non physical universes.
We watched as the beasts pointed the canons upwards and fired light pulses out into the vast empty space that surrounded us.
The pulses would fly through space until they collided with the pulses from other canons, whereby whole galaxies would just appear out of no where from the collision.
Suddenly I could see a myriad of stars that had formed because of these collisions. This was happening in every direction we looked. These whole galaxies were extremely small from our vantage point.
There was probably about 20 or so canons placed strategically on this circuit track.
Whenever one of the beasts would fire their canon, you could see the light pulse move around the track before coming out of it.
It was strange in that it looked like a racing track but functioned more like an electronic circuit. You could see the light enter various components before reaching the canons.
Another lesson
What followed was the Grand Elder giving me yet another lesson in consciousness and how it was being affected by the amnesia.
Apparently the Slave Gods had somehow hijacked this light here, right as it came from the source before it could even create the first non physical universes.
The way it was explained to me was that they had embedded “codes” that would affect consciousness in a similar manner to how we vary digital pulses using Pulse Width Modulation.
This effectively meant a consciousness – any consciousness – could be used as a carrier of information that was not part of the “divine” creator’s purpose.
Consciousness could be controlled remotely in this “place” by changing the PWM codes.
This was the whole point of the circuit track we were watching.
The beasts were there to ensure consciousness was being kept in a dumbed down state, and creating the “realities” where those consciousnesses could be trapped.
After this, the Grand Elder took me below the circuit track. We were now in the middle of what appeared to be an electronics manufacturing factory.
The divine light would drop out of the track above us and on to a conveyor belt that was lined with cell phones and similar technology.
It would go into the phones, the phones would be picked up by even more of these beasts, packaged and sent off for shipment.
It was an extremely bizarre affair and, to begin with, I didn’t quite understand what I was looking at.
The Grand Elder told me that the consciousness manipulation technology I had just witnessed was directly connected (at a quantum level) to technologies currently being used around the world.
The actual connection was never explained to me. I was just made to take note that there was a connection.
Shortly after this the dream ended.
Back to the physical world
About 3 months later is when I was very nearly killed by my own neighbors.
My hand was cut open and I was left permanently disabled in my left hand as a result.
As I lay in a hospital bed that very night waiting for surgery, I could hear a crowd of voices in my head all speaking incredibly fast.
The languages they spoke in were not any languages native to Earth.
This was new to me.
These voices were so loud and fast that I thought I was going crazy.
I thought my mind had been broken by the whole ordeal, and that this was going to be my life from then on out.
Unbeknownst to me, about 50kms away at her mother’s house, my wife was also hearing similar voices that same night.
Whereas I could not make out anything mine were saying, hers were screaming “THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!” over and over again.
This was apparently directly in relation to me being almost being killed and having my hand cut open. The idea it could have all been instigated by my doppelganger didn’t enter my mind until this year.
And yet, the crazy train didn’t stop there…
Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 3 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
We all have experiences, and once we step outside the realm of what is "normal", or experiences take on a surreal aspect. Others, sometimes well-meaning, don't understand what you are trying to relate. And thus, you learn. You keep quiet and you don't share your experiences with anyone. But that really isn't healthy.
The following is an introductory statement / story regarding PissedLizard's personal experiences. (Lovingly referred to as PL here on MM) If you read with an open mind, and then consider his experiences to be "puzzle pieces", you can use them to construct a fuller picture of where you are at in your own life and society. It's good stuff you all.
-MM
A crash, then death, then rebirth and then to MM
I am going to start to write what happened to me. MM can verify as soon as something happened on whoever’s end – things just got crazy…
First, I remember the crash and remembered it happened 2 years ago.
I wrote about this before. Where a person would have an accident and "die", only to find out that there was a world-line slide and they really didn't actually die.
Though they will remember dying and the entire death sequence. Most people who encounter this tend to be quite shaken up by it.
After the “Alien Interview” things started to clear up.
I posted a series of articles, parsing and the full text of "Alien Interview" on MM. This was the transcript (and narrative by the translating nurse) of the interview with a type-1 extraterrestrial commander by the United States military in 1947.
When I say I remember the crash, it was in this body…
… but the crash and impact was elsewhere…
…even though it looked like it was in my house. There were others with me I just do not know what happened to them.
Second, the going to the light thing has a lot of Christian meaning and if they choose to believe that they go to God, then I am not to interfere only to say where I stand with them. Other than that I can only speak for me.
PL is relating his experiences. He is trying to do so free of religious overtones.
When the cycle of not going into the light is broken you remember everything. EVERYTHING.
The problem I am having is relearning how to read, speak, write and overall communicate. This is what’s freaking out my wife. Because now I am a better “listener”. Go figure.
As out of place as this sounds – I have to put it here.
When it happened to me I was shown everything that happened to Jesus Christ. The whole nine (yards).
The "whole nine yards" is an American idiomatic expression.
.
"The whole nine yards" or "the full nine yards" is a colloquial American English phrase meaning "everything, the whole lot" or, when used as anadjective, "all the way", as in, "The Army came out and gave us the whole nine yards on how they use space systems." Its origin is unknown and has been described by Yale University librarian Fred R. Shapiro as "the most prominent etymological riddle of our time".
From asking for a cup of water to the resurrection. I lived it.
I had to live it because I am a pagan and always will be.
My ancestors are showing me how to communicate what has to be communicated to an area of Southern Baptist’s who believe everything else is satanic.
I have to translate (THAT – that right there – I know this and I have to know that – this shit is driving me nuts but in a great way).
In the area where PL lives is a fundamentalist Christian hard-line, hard-Right, Hard-belief religious extremist area. It's sort of the American equivalent of Taliban-controlled, or ISIS controlled Syria. It is known as the "Bible Belt", and is peopled with some rather unique people with very strong and strange belief systems.
To exist within that society, you need to fit in and understand others. You need to be able to "speak their language" and work with them so that they accept you. Otherwise, you can be ostracized and hurt in the process.
I was sent thru all this biblical stuff in order to understand it.
For example – “Jesus died for your sins” I never understood.
Now I do. And that’s real cool of him to do so.
(But) I created my sins. I will die for them.
I made a blood oath to MY Gods and Goddesses to protect my land with my life years ago. I did not understand what the word “sacred” REALLY meant, and now I do. And I will never break that oath.
One of the most important aspects of clarity of mind, is clarity of soul and consciousness. When you stand for what you believe in and you walk the walk and talk the talk.
I was at a facility where my soul was worked on and my DNA reconfigured at the exact facility that MM describes and he was there. Slightly behind and to the right and he was helping. The whole “soul anchor thing” I understand.
Nothing to be afraid of here. There is a non-physical reality and there are others that exist there and they help us repair, recover, change and alter ourselves.
The Mantids are very, VERY real.
I am honored to be allowed to use them as a symbol.
I am going to explain how I interpret their race for you and it’s easy – it is a quote from Sonny Barger.
“Treat me good and I will treat you better. Treat me bad and I will treat you worse”.
A Mantid is what guided me and protected me when I went through the light.
And it feels like a static shock – but it depends on who you are and what is attached to you.
They have this unbelievable loving quality to them. Like a love I have never felt before. BUT – you do not want to mess with them.
Like at all.
They are showing me – along with a real Viking how to live. What signs to see and how to read them.
They explained a very important concept that those who need to know will understand COMPLETELY.
This has to do with reading and writing.
Light reflected off of something is processed very different than generated light – like from a phone or computer.
Reflected light directs the flow of information 2 ways. If you were to print this up and read it on paper – the information is accessed differently.
When you come out the other side it’s a feeling I cannot describe other than Christmas morning at the age of 5, followed by seeing all of the negativity YOU carry with you.
The way the Mantid did it – it was just AWESOME.
He was like a father showing me what I did wrong, who I did it to and how it affected everyone else.
That is all I can say about that.
But it’s really cool.
I was shown this body’s death through both murder and suicide and was given the choice on both and lived through both. I watched someone put a bullet in my head then watched it in slow motion and reverse. My Mantid was showing me what to look for.
That’s all I can write about this right now.
I am sure that PL will go on in greater detail about the death event and what transpired, but it will take time, and it will take away from what is presented herein.
I was shown the beginnings of how to live from my Mantid and “Viking” I guess I could call him, but he is showing me literally how to communicate 2 ways with animals and it’s a frigging crazy crazy way.
He showed me how to smell the difference between smoke from an enemy area versus friendly.
He is showing me how to do a ton of stuff – even what not to write here.
And that's the way it works, don't you know.
I asked what a Mantid smelled like on this board out of curiosity not to be a wise-ass. I don’t know how to put this as I still don’t know their sense of humor at this point (they have one) and I saw what they can do – so maybe another time.
They do have an easygoing sense of humor. Much more personable than say the type-1 greys. (Not bad mouthing them, mind you.) Just telling you like it is.
That’s all I can say right now.
Whoever was there – because I am CLEARLY not steering the proverbial boat and you all know that – just know that I KNOW that and genuinely appreciate it.
Once that switch was flipped – and I remember it, I just can’t remember which one of you did it – but I do remember it and can’t wait to buy you (all) a beer.
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Here’s some notes that I collected over the years, and pulled together for myself. It’s just some thoughts, and some guidelines that I collected in a file that I promised myself that I would get to “one of these days”. On Saturday, I was going though a dusty old hard drive and found this collection. And so, I decided to “put it up there” for everyone to read and (perhaps) to scoff at. (Hopefully not.)
Now, I have gone in and out of fashions and styles all my life. There were times when I was truly fashionable. Such as the bell-bottom, long-haired 1970’s, and the cargo pants and layered pastel polo 1980’s. This evolved over time into the early 1990’s when I was wearing pencil thin neck-ties, double breasted suits and mullets. And so on and so forth.
But something happened to me.
Maybe it was prison.
Maybe it was no longer working in a corporate environment.
Maybe it was China.
Or maybe it was when my facial hair started to turn grey.
There comes a time, in every man’s life, where you take a step back and say, “well, I just want to wear clothes that are comfortable, and where I look good in them”. And that is what caused me to generate this collection of guidelines.
Don’t you know…
Introduction
There’s a joke that “we spend all our lives trying to look older, right up until we spend all our lives trying to look younger.”
Terrible idea, really.
The perfect age to be is always the one you are.
Although you all have to admit that being of legal age to do everything is always an improvement.
When you start seeing your hair turn grey (or white) is when a man should fully come into his own. You’re a gentleman with a firm idea of himself and his place in the world, and your wardrobe should reflect that.
Casual Attire
Your business wardrobe is your business wardrobe. Sigh. It’s dictated by the necessity of your profession. Whether you wear a uniform, or meet the company “dress code”. Do it well — but do your “casual” wardrobe better.
Your casual clothes are, quite simply, what you wear for yourself. It’s the most obvious outward expression of your taste, your attitude, and your place in life.
Don’t go on confusing “casual” with “sloppy”.
Big mistake.
Just because you’re not at the office is no reason to look like you don’t care. Your clothes should still look like a deliberate choice and a conscious statement — a powerful one, too, at this age.
Here are some things an older man wants to keep in mind when choosing his casual wardrobe:
[1] Fit
Wear ONLY clothes that fit you well.
Do not wear clothes that don’t fit.
Do not wear clothes that are too tight. Or clothes that are too big. You wear clothes that fit you well. I know that you all probably have nice clothes that cost some money, but you never wear because they don’t fit you well. But you keep them anyways.
Throw them out or give them away.
Fitting well on a man’s frame.
By this decade of your life, you should have a very good sense of your body.
[2] Tailoring clothes to fit you well
I go on the internet, and especially on English websites, they talk about having a tailor make some perfectly fitting clothes for you. How wonderful! But let’s face it, most men don’t have a few thousand dollars to dedicate to this. And having clothes that fit is not on the main list.
Instead, it is on a secondary list that includes chores, repairs, and special purchases for the family. And at that, unless you are single, it’s at the bottom of that list.
But think a minute.
If you had no other issues; no other attachments, wouldn’t clothing rank as your top priority after food? (Fine, delicious food, by the way.)
The guy (or gal) you go to doesn’t have to be someone who actually creates tailor-made clothing, though they’re often the best. There are perfectly good tailors at basic clothing repair shops and even some dry cleaners that can do adjustments. The point is that you should be getting those adjustments done.
They don’t cost a lot of money.
In the days when I worked for a massive automotive electronics company, our dress code was a white shirt and a red tie. But I made sure that I would buy off-the-shelf high quality shirts, and then spend a few dollars having each one tailored to fit me exactly. It did make a difference on how I looked and felt about myself.
Get everything trimmed to fit you.
Shirts, and trousers are mandatory. Suits and jackets go without saying. About the only thing you should be leaving unadjusted at this age are your socks, underwear, and gym/chore clothing. Everything else gets a tailored fit.
Oh, and don’t be afraid to toss old underwear, too. And, ladies… this includes old bras. Toss those fancy wire things that you love that never wear, and those bras that are old, and frayed. Go get yourself a nice VERY WELL fitting bra. Make sure that you have the right cup size, and the right under boob width. Wearing a comfortable bra makes all the difference in the world.
Or, so I am told.
This has a twofold benefit: it makes your body look better, flattering the best parts of your figure, and it also makes you more comfortable.
A big part of looking good when you get old is looking relaxed and at ease with yourself — hard to pull off when you’re constantly re-tucking your shirt or tugging the crotch of your pants into place. (It’s a guy thing, don’t you know.)
[3] Comfort
I wear black tee-shirts all the time.
But that’s just me. When they get old I toss them and get a newer one. These are plain black shirts that fit me well, and that either have a small logo on my left chest, or an embroidered pattern. I rarely wear large garish patterns, or designs.
Again, that is just me.
Look good. feel good.
And remember that I live in the tropics. Zhuhai temperatures are much like Singapore. We have two seasons. Warm, and very Hot and very humid.
On that note, an older man really should look comfortable, and even relaxed, at nearly all times. Leave the hard-edged, high-strung look to the younger guys.
A lot of looking comfortable in your clothes comes down to actually being comfortable in your clothes, but you can do a lot with tailoring and styling too.
For those of you who still wear suits, and even I do from time to time, this is a good time of life to be moving away from aggressively fitted “power suits” and sharp-edged European cuts. The American, slightly looser suit was made with the middle-aged man in mind — give it a try.
For less dressy styles, try relaxed looks like sweaters and knitted tee-shirts, or other more relaxed shirts. You just need to move away from the business-standard dress shirt and its turn-down collar (and tie) ensemble. (Burrr.) Handsome, well-fitted clothing that’s obviously made for leisure tells people that you’re prioritizing your own pleasures.
A man who is comfortable, will look comfortable.
A man who is happy, and confident, will look happy and confident.
The key here is to have stylish comfortable options. Yeah, stretch-waist sweatpants are comfortable, but there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. Buy clothes that fit your personality; grown-up clothes, just buy them in soft fabrics, relaxed cuts, and a nice casual variety of colors.
[4] Luxury
Not to be confused with comfort, though it often provides it, luxury in clothing is the province of the older gentleman.
This mostly comes about as increased discretionary income intersects with a life’s worth of dressing experience. Even if you never got that serious about your wardrobe, decades of putting fabric on your body gives you some idea of what feels good and what feels cheap. And of course you know this. Don’t you?
Look good and feel good.
Rich wools, soft cottons, light linens — live ’em all up.
The texture and “drape” of a good fabric are more noticeable, even at a distance, than we often think.
It’s the reason a bunch of men in $99 blazers from the sale rack at Men’s Wearhouse all look vaguely insubstantial — and the reason a man in the middle of them wearing a $599 blazer made from top-notch worsted wool stands out like a lighthouse.
Buy less frequently than you did when you were younger, but more expensively.
Decades of accumulation should have your wardrobe in decent shape for the staples. That frees up your clothing budget to add a couple reallynice things for yourself.
Whatever you like to wear most, buy it in the best quality you can get…
…Then wear the hell out of it.
[5] Some “Looks”
When you were younger, your style perhaps could have been summed up in one or two words: “urban cowboy,” “power exec,” “thrift-store hipster,” whatever.
By now you should be past that.
Your clothing should just be you, defying categories. It should look like what you wanted to wear, not like what a “style blog” told you to wear.
Maybe the most important thing at this age is for everything to look like an outfit, rather than a collection of unrelated clothes all thrown on together.
Look good and feel good.
You should put some time and care into selecting not just the big pieces (trousers, shirt, jacket), but the accents as well (everything from the necktie and shoes to things like scarves, watches, hats, pocket squares; even your eyeglasses if you wear them).
For me, I tend to wear (and keep in mind that I am in the topics), a nice well fitting black tee-shirt, and long well made (hiking) trousers. I wear with a special kind of canvas loafer local to China, and accessorize with my (good will energy) bracelet, watch, and belt.
With that in mind, here are a couple of looks that will always look good on a man in his older years…
The Sunday Best
We’ll start at the top end of your casual wardrobe: the social suit and tie.
For most men, especially younger men, this doesn’t exist anymore. Suits are strictly business wear, and not even then are they a necessity for a lot of professions.
That just makes it even easier for you to stand apart from the crowd when you dapper it up don’t you know. A suit in a casual color and pattern offers all the things we talked about above: luxury, comfort, and, if your tailor did his job right, a perfect fit as well.
But what ever you do, don’t look like a used car salesman!
The traditional time for a man to wear his social suit was on Sunday, to church and then to the inevitable social activities afterward, but don’t let that middle-American habit limit you. A casual suit, with or without a necktie, is always good daytime wear when you want to look sharp.
When I wear a suit, I always simply wear a black blazer over my black tee-shirt. It’s simple. I’m dressed up. Ya gotta problem with that?
For a real impression, I buy a brand new crisp white tee shirt. Then wear it instead of a black one. You gotta break out of your mold every now and then, don’t you know.
Shirts. I do wear them from time to time. Especially when the temperature drops below 90C (30C or so).
After 5:00 or so be sure to skip the necktie — you don’t want to be mistaken for a businessman with dubious professionalism coming home from work. Leave the collar open unless you’re going somewhere very fancy (and if you are, maybe wear a darker, more somber suit).
The Stroller
A “stroller” is an older phrase for daytime semi-formal wear, especially for being out and about — truly strolling somewhere.
It’s really a cool thing to do. But what ever you do, don’t clasp your hands behind your back, carry a boom-box playing forty-year old pop music, or wear pristine white tennis shoes as you do so.
Not recommended.
You should own a good walking outfit, or several, because frankly a man in his silvering years needs to be walking from time to time. It keeps you in good shape — and strolling down Main Street, taking in the crowd for no reason other than personal pleasure is both a perk and a tradition of the silver-haired years.
So own some simple, comfortable trousers and nice clean top, and a good pair of walking shoes, and then… Suddenly you’re a respectable gentleman of means out for a stroll.
A couple of good accents help with this one.
Own some scarves, hats, and gloves with a little flavor to them. Yes, you could wear a baseball cap and stick your hands in your pockets, but (come on!) you can do better than that.
Besides, if a fine attractive lady and you strike a nice conversation, take it inside and enjoy their company over some delicious food!
The Silverback Badass
Style in your older years (not ancient years) is all about not trying too hard. You don’t want to look like a rebel without a cause. That was silly when you were 20, and now it’s really silly.
But can you still be a bit of a rebel from time to time?
Sure. An older gentleman can still wear a leather jacket and jeans, or a denim coat and cords. He just has to make it a little more dignified.
This is a great age for plain-fronted leather jackets — think stripped-down bomber or fatigue styles, not too heavy on the details and fitted close but not hyper-streamlined. Don’t be shy of a little surface weathering; it goes well with gray hairs (assuming you have those — some guys don’t, even in their fifties).
If leather’s not your thing, show some attitude with mix-and-match levels of formality instead. Wear a plush velvet suit jacket over a pair of jeans and let people like it or lump it. You do what you want, right? You gotta problem with that?
It’s important not to get too experimental — you don’t want to look like a runway designer’s latest vision. That’s for younger men. If you can’t wear the look with casual confidence, skip it. But if you can, go ahead and be a rebel now and again.
Here’s some things that an older man should own by now…
Given your environment, obviously.
A Wool Cardigan
No, it’s not a grandpa sweater.
Did Steve McQueen wear grandpa sweaters? No. He wore cardigans, and he looked rugged as hell doing it. So did John Wayne. So does Daniel Craig. They’re awesome, and you should have one.
Look good; feel good.
A good cardigan should be knit wool, heavy enough to be your outer layer for much of the fall and spring. An inner lining of something like flannel makes it warmer and can minimize dry cleaning needs as well. Stay away from hugely oversized floppy collars or really big buttons — those are a little feminine — but otherwise feel free to play around with styles.
Gray is always a reliable color if you don’t feel like experimenting. For the more adventurous man in his fifties, try a cardigan in deep shades of bright primary and secondary colors — burgundy red, forest green, burnt goldenrod.
You can throw a good cardigan over almost anything and be ready for everything from brunch to a cozy late night coffee date. Expect to, once you’ve bought one you like.
A Good Scarf Collection
Scarves?
Yeah. I tend to dress in dark colors and when I am wearing a black blazer over my black tee-shirt, a few nice black scarves really makes the outfit “pop”! And it’s a great conversation piece with the ladies.
Scarves as a style piece rather than a functional necessity are a direct descendant of early airmen and fighter pilots. That made them popular during the interwar years in America, and worn well they still lend you a little of that old-fashioned, dashing appeal, like a gentleman who goes about in something called a “motorcar.”
Start with the basics (black and brown) and then start adding color and pattern. A scarf can be an eye-popping centerpiece or it can blend right into your jacket until the moment when the wind catches the end and whisks it about. Both are good.
Look good, feel good.
While you’re at it, practice a few different ways of looping/tying your scarf. There’s no reason to use the same knot every time. Thin materials look better in different knots than thick materials, and you may want a more or less structured look depending on the rest of your outfit.
So are you fully scarf literate yet? If not, that’s a good project for your later years.
Suede / Canvas topped Shoes or Boots
I have been told that I’m done with sneakers and court shoes at this point in life, except for on the actual court. But that is ok. Suede / Canvas toppers are your new casual, comfortable footwear default.
For the classically-styled man, bluchers in white, gray, blue, and brown are the way to go. If your style is more modern, suede skate-style shoes with contrast lacing make a nice grown-up alternative to teenager’s footgear.
And if you’ve never tried the look, go ahead and get yourself a pair of high-ankled boots in suede. They’ll serve you from about the time it gets too cold for sandals to when the snow starts falling, and the reverse in the spring.
Skin Care Lotion That You Respect
Ignore the commercials; there’s nothing wrong with wrinkles. Your face ought to have some creases after fifty years of well-lived life. If it doesn’t, you weren’t using it enough.
But…
But you want your skin to feel good, and as you age that means taking a little more care of it than you did when you were younger. Find a product or two that keeps your hide feeling supple and healthy. I use moisturizing cream twice daily, and I live in the tropics. If I didn’t my face would probably look like the grand canyon with all sorts of deep crevasses and wrinkles from my days of working the chain-gain at Brickey’s East Arkansas Regional Unit’s Hoe Squad.
If it makes you feel artificially slick or dried out, it’s the wrong product. A really basic moisturizing cream made from natural ingredients if often all a man needs. Lightly scented if you please — you don’t want it to clash with your cologne.
(You are putting a splash of subtle cologne on when you get dressed up at this point in your life, aren’t you? Work on that if you’re not.)
Looks to avoid
There are no completely hard and fast rules in fashion. Someone, somewhere, has probably pulled one of these off in his later years. But you’re not him, and you’ll probably just look bad if you try. So don’t.
Sneakers/trainers. You’re done with ’em. Give it up and get over it. A pair for the gym or other athletic endeavors is fine, but unless you’re in a rock band and on stage, you shouldn’t be wearing athletic shoes as a style choice.
Neckties without jackets. This is a look men should avoid in general, but once you get into your fifties it can only make you look like a depressed, mid-salary cubicle worker with nothing left to live for. Very Death of a Salesman. Throw a jacket on if you’re wearing a necktie. For that matter, throw a jacket on if you’re wearing a dress shirt in general, even without the tie.
Sleeveless shirts. Even on the beach. Tank tops, especially the scoop-neck kind, should be firmly left behind as soon as your hair starts receding and/or going gray. And if you’re in your fifties and it hasn’t, good for you, but still don’t wear sleeveless shirts as your only upper-body covering. (Though, I do wear them in the house as house clothing in the impossibly hot Summers of the South China Sea.)
Also worth avoiding is anything with too much of an “advancing age” feel to it — the really chunky orthopedic shoes, thick, dated eyeglasses, worn-out sweatshirts, or elastic-waist trousers. Oh, and don’t forget to toss that Alice Cooper Tee-Shirt from 1971.
If there’s something you need for your physical health, do it, and don’t ever let anyone make you feel ashamed of it. But go ahead and keep the element small and surrounded by other, purely aesthetic accents, so that it’s not defining who you are the moment people look your way.
Youth is almost always wasted on the young, but with a bit of sharp dressing, middle age can be made to work great for the man in his fifties. Have fun with it. You might be surprised how well you feel, how well you look, and the kinds of people you will meet and strike up conversations with. You never know.
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The following is the first part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
-MM
Part 1 – With the Elder Guardians
Daegonmagus Contact With the Elder Guardians Part One:
This is a preliminary background on who I am and how I came to know about the “spiritual amnesia”. Although I have provided a more complete and in depth description of these circumstances in my autobiography, this will provide some context to future articles that will be dealing with these issues. I have deliberately left out much information as it is too cumbersome to include in an article of this nature.
I had my first sleep paralysis experience when I was 8 years old, and it terrified me.
These became a regular occurrence to the point I would be having them every couple of days. I’d be paralyzed, unable to move anything but my eyes, and I would be this way for what seemed like an eternity.
I’d try calling out for my dad, but all that I could ever muster was a faint squeak.
When the paralysis did eventually stop, I’d throw my blankets off and run out of the room to him; he’d tell me they were just nightmares and to go back to sleep. It was beyond frustrating. I simply knew there was much more to them.
I became curious.
I wanted to know what the hell was going on with these paralysis episodes; I wanted to know why everything was so chthonic whilst in them; the noises, the feeling like my soul was being sucked away. The strange entities that would always stand at the end of my bed.
Grandmother and family
My grand mother used to live only a few short kilometers away.
Every Friday we would go there and eat curry lunch. If I was at school that day, I‘d walk there afterwards instead of venturing home, knowing my mother would still be there. It was a nice little tradition we had going on.
But chicken curry wasn’t the only thing I was treated to.
My mother and grandmother were self proclaimed psychics who had a few stories to tell. These were nothing really that special, but they did offer intriguing conversation that couldn’t be found at school.
So in my quest for understanding my sleep paralysis, I listened probably a little too enthusiastically for my own good. Not that I learnt anything valuable in regards to that subject. It did, however, eventually get me interested in Rene Descartes and his philosophies on consciousness.
Down the back of my grandmother’s property was an old abandoned house that she and her family used to live in many years prior to my mother being born.
It was derelict and falling to pieces. The inside walls had massive holes smashed through them. The concrete padding had turned to dust in places. Electrical wiring hung from the exposed roof rafters. The front door had become so overgrown with grass that it wouldn’t open. The only way in was to scale the small chimney that poked out the side of the wall and climb down it. One would come out through the open fireplace facing what used to be a living room, and it was here that I found my treasure.
Boxes and boxes full of books had been left to rot in the middle of the living room, some of them left untouched on a small book shelf.
After sitting here exposed to the elements for the better part of 30 years, a lot of them had decayed beyond readability.
But in amongst the mulch pile, I did find a few gems that had somehow survived the ravages of time. Aleister Crowley’s Moonchid, The predictions of Nostradamus, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain and Atlantis were just a few of the ones that were still in a decent, readable condition.
However, the true treasure came in the form of a complete four volume encyclopaedia set that explored the idea of magic through different world cultures.
It was a real magical library one would expect to find in some sort of fantasy novel about sorcerers, and I had access to it every Friday.
Naturally, I took these books home with me, saving them from becoming mulch like all the rest. I read through the encyclopaedia front to back.
I was trying to find any scrap of information I could on sleep paralysis.
Once again I was met with much frustration, as there didn’t seem to be much beyond a few vague mentions of tribal shamans using “dreaming” to obtain mystical visions.
Adaptation
Time slipped by, and my sleep paralysis became such a regular occurrence, that I ultimately became bored of it.
I realized that it wasn’t harming me, and it became somewhat annoying. I learnt to relax through it all, and that is when I truly began to learn the power of lucid dreaming and how to control one’s dreams. I suddenly had a new found appreciation for the tribal shamans I’d read about and why they were so into it.
I began unlocking parts of my mind that I otherwise would have been denied access to.
By the time I turned 12 my proficiency in lucid dreaming had reached its peak. I was able to remain conscious during the transition of being awake and asleep, and bypass the sleep paralysis stage altogether.
This became a regular occurrence.
School became a somewhat secondary necessity . I’d play the game and get good grades, but deep down I was more interested in the metaphysical than what the physical had to offer me.
I was too involved in my dream worlds that I would visit on such a regular basis that the physical world became dull by comparison.
I was using study time in the library meant for science and maths tests on researching occult concepts and ideologies such as astral projection. I started wondering why everyone was so content in the idea they must work themselves to death, rather than study consciousness via the avenue of lucid dreaming. To me, the latter was much more exciting and pointed to a much better sense of purpose than the former.
By the time I reached high school, I had become extremely proficient at creating my own dreams.
I became so good, that I was able to simulate sensations within my dream environments including touch, taste and smell, and generate entire environments just by thinking of them.
It was because of these “simulations” that I was also able to explore my own sexuality and solve problems that I was having in the “real world”. It was then that I started really experimenting with consciousness whilst in this dreaming state, using Descartes’ philosophies as a starting point.
Exploration
I began to frequent several places in the lucid domain that appeared to be completely separate to my mind’s fabrication.
One of these places was a tropical island that I used to go on regular “lucid holidays” to.
It was here that I discovered the existence of these portals that could be used to traverse the “other worlds”. Thus I started learning how ones consciousness could be projected through these portals to access other realms/ dimensions.
Projection of consciousness
It was around about the age of 14, I had my first real breakthrough in regards to the projection of my consciousness outside of my body.
I had somehow found myself on another planet watching a tribal Elder of a humanoid race of people talking to his tribe.
I was completely lucid, in that I could remember my body being asleep back in my bed on earth. These people, although completely alien to any human species on earth, had a very Native American vibe to them.
All of a sudden the Elder realized I was there, observing them.
I heard his voice within my mind, telling me not to be afraid and to come closer – to move within him.
He knew I was a curious consciousness, and took the opportunity to give me a lesson in how multiple consciousness can inhabit one body.
I obliged, and immediately felt myself go within him. It was an incredible feeling; an entire lifetime’s worth of his memories came flooding into my mind, and yet I still remembered my physical, sleeping body.
I knew he could have kicked me out from within him any time he chose, but he allowed me to stay for several minutes as an apprentice to the mysteries of consciousness.
It was one of the most humbling moments of my life.
He then spoke to his tribe, and announced that they had a guest. They looked around, somewhat confused, and he explained that my consciousness was residing within him.
When they asked where I was from, he pointed to a very specific star in the sky without hesitation and said “from there”. Soon after this I thanked him for his hospitality and departed, waking back up in my body on earth.
Second Breakthrough
My next breakthrough came about a year later when I first astral projected. I had been curious about the subject for several years after seeing a story about it on a show called The Extraordinary.
My purpose was to try and contact my grandfather who had passed away from lung cancer when I was nine.
My meditations, as a result got to the point where I could sit for hours on end in one pose, completely un-moving, whilst I tried to project.
I had been utilizing the Monroe Institute technique for several months and then one night it finally happened.
I was lying in bed meditating, and heard this loud popping noise. Suddenly, I felt as light as a feather, and I watched as I floated out of my body. I turned around and saw my physical body lying on the bed. I was so bewildered by the experience all I did was go outside and sit on the couch to just take it all in.
Death in the family
Shortly after that I was hit with grief as my brother was killed in a car accident right near our house, on the main drag going out of town. I had been suffering from severe depression and this was a kick in the guts I could have done without.
I started becoming uncaring in regards to my attitude towards life, and this bled over into the lucid realm.
The part of my mind that would sense danger became deactivated. I started going to dangerous places and messing with dangerous things not really caring if it resulted in my becoming permanently detached from my physical body.
Bad behaviors
I summoned all the “malevolent entities” that had taunted me during sleep paralysis into my dreamscapes and taunted them back, in an effort to take out my grievances on something that I considered deserved it.
Often times I was being chased by things that any rational person would have been terrified of, and I knew if they caught me it was game over.
What can I say; my depression and adventures in lucid dreaming had numbed me to the idea the physical body was important. I was at that point almost entirely disassociated from my body.
War!
It was around this time I became aware of my involvement in an “astral war”. I would become lucid in dream scenarios that I knew were not of my own devising.
In many of these scenarios it was like I had been drugged with a substance that was able to affect consciousness, and consciousness alone.
My “assignments” revolved around voluntarily going into compounds where this drug and other tortures were being administered to try and figure out why.
It seemed very much like my astral body was being utilized as an infiltration agent for inter dimensional warfare. I would write little poems mentioning this war and vaguely mentioning my role within it.
I knew I was not like other kids my age, and I knew it was because I had embraced the lucid and astral worlds as being as real, if not more, as the physical world.
Assignments
At first these appeared as standard dreams – fragmented memories even– but as the years wore on, I would become more and more lucid in them.
I would “appear” at my assignment location, get doped or tortured, return to my handlers for debriefing, then wake up and go to school the next day as if nothing ever happened.
This was what about a third of my youth entailed from the age of 15 all the way up to adulthood.
The more I lucid dreamed, the more I would remember my roles in these scenarios that thing were to trying to “drug me” out of remembering.
I became the weird kid that would talk about lucid dreaming and the worlds I’d visited like it was a normal part of existence.
My peers just didn’t know how to handle it and would often shy away from after giving each other a weird look. The funny thing was, my brother was part of the popular crowd, which meant by default I ended up in the social circle of kids. The whole thing was laughable.
Leaving School
I left school at the age of 16, a whole year before graduation. My close friends were starting to dabble a little too liberally in hard substances like methamphetamine, and I had – due to my severe depression, and genetic tendacies – had picked up an unhealthy addiction to alcohol even by that age.
I decided this sort of lifestyle wasn’t getting me anywhere.
If I stayed around these people I was going to end up dead, or worse, addicted to the same drugs they were taking (I’d never dabbled in anything stronger than marijuana).
I enrolled to do a music course at college, and that is where I met Storme.
Meeting the Girl of your dreams
When I first saw her I had the whole “I am going to marry that girl” thought pop into my head. I found out that she too was into the metaphysical and believed in things like astral projection and lucid dreaming. Plus, she was into the exact same music I was into – this was a very big deal for me.
The last thing I wanted to do was end up with someone who listened to Justin Bieber in their spare time. Nope; my ideal woman needed to have at least some sort of idea of what constituted musical talent. She also lived the next town over from me, which was a bonus.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, Storme had just escaped a period of homeless and what appeared to be a very real sex trafficking operation.
She had experienced things very few people would believe.
Things like communications from both physical and non physical entities about our world and its “true” history. She was the only other person I had ever come across who knew about the astral war, and the reason she knew about it was because it had been directly told to her by one of these entities.
I decided to do a lucid dreaming experiment on Storme to see if I could “hack” into her dreamscape, replacing it with my own, and to both of our astonishment, it actually worked.
I pressed her on her dreams the next day and she told me the exact scenario I had dreamed up; a meeting at college.
I had made sure to include very specific points in the conversation, and she hit these with accuracy.
This marked my next breakthrough in my experiments with consciousness whilst in the dream state.
Dating
We ended up dating. I would help drive her band around to gigs and semi manage them.
These guys were into taking things like LSD to “expand their minds”, but Storme and I never obliged.
Like her, they also were curious about astral projection, but had never experienced it.
Their drummer, Damien, was big on conspiracy theories, and would always talk about people like Icke, mind invading reptilians and the NWO that I thought was a complete load of bullshit.
This is where I first came across the Isaac CARET program; the other guitarist, Sean, sent me a link to the original website. I ended up writing it off as some sort university experiment in psychology.
Occult Studies
My occult studies had continued on and off through these years. Somewhere along the lines I had come across a secret society called the Hell Fire Club based out of West Wycombe, England.
I had only really joined the club to gain access to their catalogue of rare esoteric books.
I was big on trying to find the most original documents I could find when conducting my research.
It was through this club that I scored a copy of both the Greater and Lesser keys of Solomon; these books were rumored to be very powerful books on spirit conjuration, though I only wanted them for study purposes. I had no intention of ever summoning anything.
The Steward of its English chapter seemed impressed with my knowledge of occult ideologies and asked me to open my own Chapter here in Western Australia.
Though I didn’t really know what I was doing, I obliged.
He sent me books on his interpretations of the club and its link to alchemical concepts. That is how I got into spiritual alchemy.
I was put in contact with the other Australian Stewards, and these turned out to be an even bigger source of occult information for me; they were very well respected in regards to their ideologies and were a treat away from the many charlatans I had come across on the internet.
Marriage
Storme and I moved in with each other and, after a rocky few years at the hands of other people , we eventually got married in a little grove out in the middle of the state forest with a small gathering of our families.
We both weren’t big on traditional weddings and opted for a more pagan hand fastening ceremony instead.
After a fall out with my family, we dropped off the radar and became hermits moving from one rental to the next until we found a house that seemed to be haunted by a ghost that was actually quite pleasant to be around. This thing would open and close doors at night , but there was never a feeling a malice from it.
It was in this house that I began reworking the concepts of Alchemy I picked up in the HFC into my own meditations. Though the Steward’s ideologies were profound, I felt they were lacking in some areas and left much to be desired.
I began spending hours researching many allegories and writings of alchemy with the idea that the philosopher’s stone was the higher self.
I noticed from old alchemist texts I had in my possession that those particular Alchemists were using alchemy as a model for understanding the soul.
Thus my attention at that point was wholly devoted towards reconnecting with my higher self and hopefully making contact with the ascended masters.
Pay Off
On May 11th 2012 my meditations in alchemy paid off, and I was granted an audience with the very “people” I was seeking.
I was engaged in a lucid dream when I was “abducted” out of it into what I can only describe was a more “complete and real reality”. In fact it was so real, that I was forced to the conclusion that the physical world was the lesser of two “reals”.
I was standing in what appeared to be a courtyard a few acres in size, amidst a very large gathering of other people.
Based on the many music festivals I had been to in my youth, I estimated this group to be at least 20 000. We were all crammed into this courtyard that appeared to just be floating on its own out in the middle of space; you could actually see a nearby moon that was circling it, and this was pretty damned large; probably 10 to 20 times the size of our moon.
There was this gnawing sense of confusion going through me, and I noticed that same confusion present on the faces of the 20 000 others. It was a confusion born from knowing that I knew this place, but also knowing that I had forgotten it, and couldn’t work out why.
Over at the edge of the courtyard was a stone altar, and on the other side of this alter was what looked alike a small, curved amphitheater of an Ancient Greek like architecture where a bunch of beings in hooded robes sat, watching us 20 000.
I got the immediate impression that these beings were extremely old “Elders” and extremely powerful, unlike anything we know on earth.
Between us 20 000 and the amphitheater stood one of these Elders watching us in our confusion.
There were other people in this crowd that appeared to be our celestial families and they were hugging us, in tears, saying how they had missed us all and we’d been away for too long.
Remembrance
The Elder who stood between us and the other Elders, slowly approached me waiting for me to remember where I was.
Once he was satisfied my memory of this place was sufficient he began to speak to me, and that is when my mind began opening up and processing information at an incredible speed. I started operating from a state of awareness far above that of what is used whilst in a physical body.
The “Grand Elder” – as I called him – told me there was a sort of spiritual amnesia affecting mankind.
He said that the human brain had been deliberately engineered to cut them off from this state of awareness that I was now experiencing.
He told me that this amnesia had been created by a race of beings that did not want humans reconnecting with this power, and that they were the same ones responsible for the Ancient Egyptian Slave trade.
He referred to them as the “slave gods”.
This Grand Elder expressed concern that this amnesia would see the end of human life if it was left to continue unimpeded.
He told me my soul was over 40 000 years old and that I had been an active participant in trying to eradicate the amnesia for much of that time.
The reason, he said, that I had been summoned before them, was because of my abilities at lucid dreaming.
Apparently what I had learned through years of experimentation was considered so advanced by them, that very few people on earth possessed these same abilities; the amount of other who apparently possessed these abilities could be counted on one hand.
Nick-name
I was told that they (the Elders) had nick-named me “trick and trip” in salutation of these abilities; trick because of my abilities at evading the unseen enemy presence responsible for the amnesia, and trip for my abilities to “travel” to other worlds.
Apparently, according to these Elders, anyone who demonstrated these abilities were held in high regard by them, as it allowed them the opportunity to communicate with those back on the physical plane without it being compromised by external forces.
I was also told that I had been part of a “hive consciousness” that had tracked this amnesia to a black hole anomaly.
This black hole anomaly existed at the edge of this physical universe and was where the device causing the amnesia was being hidden.
The Grand Elder took me to its edge to help boost my memory, then brought me back before the gathering.
Put in Charge
It was here I was put in charge of the 20 000 other souls by the same grand Elder.
He gave me the task of rewriting their “soul code” to provide an unlocking mechanism so they could more easily wake up from the amnesia once they came back here to earth.
My assignment upon returning here was to regather them as one fighting force against the amnesia and its operators from within the earth plane.
I was to spread the message of everything he told me to anyone who would listen in an effort to reawaken these 20 000 consciousnesses to their own tasks.
After this I projected to the anomaly to try and get an understanding of it, much to the advice of the Grand Elder.
Somehow it was able to completely disintegrate my consciousness even though it was functioning from this higher state.
Within minutes I was reduced to an insane, incoherent mess.
I struggled to comprehend even the simplest of words as I tried crying out for my wife and telling her I was sorry I would not “be coming back to earth”. Shortly after this, everything went black and I woke up in my bed.
This was the first time out of several that the Grand Elder would contact me in relation to this amnesia.
To Be Continued…
MM Thoughts
This is obviously fascinating and an easy read. It touches and broaches a number of related MAJestic subject areas and approaches it from a different angle and view point. I must admit that while I am aware of much of what DM discusses, my actual exposure to the occult teachings, and methodology is of a different nature entirely.
That is neither good, nor bad.
It is neutral.
To be open and willing to take this information in, absorb it and learn from it is a valid and important step for us to understand our true natures and role on this planet. I cannot vouch whether it is true or not, but I can vouch that it is sincere and that it is an accurate description of something that is obviously personal and private.
I, for one, look forward to many more contributions.
As well as looking forward to your thoughts in this matter.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The following is a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "ANONYMOUS" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here.
A quick note. When I first posted this article I confused two contributors. This caused me some headaches and all should be resolved by now.
-MM
Preamble
MM,
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Seeing you suffer under DOS and database attack and the drop in visitations has really effected me as well, so I wanted to send you a big, heartfelt intention-bump. Without any exaggeration, your website has completely and irrevocably changed my entire life. My general way of living, mentality, and many other aspects have changed forever.
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The tale here is odd to say the least.
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Your blog basically “unlocked” me in January of this year, and prompted a very bizarre, incredibly frightening, but ultimately useful transformation including the unlocking of a number of new “abilities” which still has me totally stunned.
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I was waiting for this moment…..
How it all started
I am a middle aged man in Canada.
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During some unrelated web surfing in September of 2020, I was directed to one of your SHTF articles which was referred to on Reddit.
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As someone very prep-oriented, nothing you wrote there shocked me at all, but I enjoyed your style, grit and honesty.
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I had no idea at the time you had other experiences elsewhere, but upon return (to the MM site) I discovered your MAJ and all over documents, not to mention other hosted works in Bibliotech etc.
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As a quick backgrounder on me, I am a Spectrum-learner, with virtually no subject that I do not enjoy knowing more about, but with a huge focus on Science, ExoBiology, Planetary Sciences, Astronomy, Physics, Botany, and many more.
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But I am also a musician, artist, and I’ve worked as a professional Sous Chef before, so food is a huge thing for me.
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For what its worth, I brew my own beer, grow my own food, and so on. Where I live, I am very unusual.
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My professional background includes banking, high tech security and surveillance, and other technology related elements. I have also run my own business twice, and taken a company to the stock market here publicly. I understand computers, networks, and so on.
The Change
Before discovering you I was agnostic. One of those extremely skeptical types who values everything based on return on investment….. a “show me” kind of guy.
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This doesn’t mean I was closed. Dear Lord, no, I am voracious in learning and understanding in anything I can, and ET/UFOLOGY etc was all part of my general interest.
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For the record, I never believed we were “alone” and since I was 9 years old I took it for granted we would discover countless worlds and meet/interact with countless entities. Much of my childhood was spiritual, but that can be saved for another time.
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Sept 2020 I began reading your material, alongside my reading at the time which included Roger Penrose / Hawking but as well as a number of UFO related channeling websites and other such material.
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Nonetheless I kept coming back to MM over and over again.
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Something in the back of my mind started what I can only describe as a “rising agitation” as I consumed your material.
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I got the distinct impression I was being watched, and I hope that doesn’t sound too nuts, but it grew over time.
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As I continued reading the material, I became very very focused upon it, studying the Base 8 Number system, Functional Diagrams, Comments on Brown Dwarfs etc. It was like I had imagined a website built just for me, by you! Every article was incredible!
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But what started my experience was the growing realization that multidimensionally we were indeed being watched, every single moment of every day.
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I had a very frightening “oh shit!” moment when I finally accepted what I was learning.
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Studying Quantum Physics and other related topics for 20 years brought me to this one moment.
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I can tell you it was personally very shocking to realize everything I had ever done, every thought, every action, every Sin, every Rufus moment, was known. Also, I felt pretty stupid for not coming to this knowing earlier.
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Then something very dramatic happened, and I hope you can both understand and possibly shed light.
The Event
During a five-day period in January of 2021 I was really pushing hard to continue to read as much as possible from your site while maintaining my busy corporate life.
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Each day, I felt a rising wave of energy in me, like waves of “chills” beginning from the bottom of my feet and rising up my spine, spreading like energetic wings left and right, and then culminating in my head/crown.
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Keep in mind, I had very limited esoteric/spiritual background. I had no idea this was leading somewhere…..
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Each day the sensation grew, but it got weirder.
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Suddenly, and without any prompting or training, I had a very serious interest suddenly in sitting down on the ground, and breathing by inhaling through my nose (tongue on roof of mouth) and then exhaling as I digested your materials and revelations.
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I would pray in place (keep in mind I had prayed ZERO times for my entire life prior), and consider my own errors and successes as well as the nature of consciousness, the soul, etc.
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During this breathing, the energy would increase.
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Whilst my eyes were closed, I started to see what seemed to be a “field” of dimensionality I hadn’t seen, which was lit up. Then, shimmering light from the top of my field of view (with eyes closed).
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By the third day, I was sleeping less and less and less and reading more and more and more.
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Also, during my circular breathing moments, I started to notice all of my hair would stand on end, and massive goosebumps would show up along the entire length of my body.
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I felt pressure at the top of my head in the shape of a torus, and then soon, the sensation of a DOT roaming around on my forehead, then “fixing” in place between my eyes.
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Another sensation was at the exact center of the top of my skull, like a “pulling” upwards from my body to somewhere above me, so to speak.
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On the fifth day, I had slept less than 3 hours, and was meditating, breathing and praying a LOT. Yet, for whatever reason, even though this was totally bizarre and unprecedented behavior, I felt bliss.
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On that day, I mentally said the words “God I know believe in you, and I want to Serve Others”.
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I knew personally, that being a mixed Sentience was NOT what I was, and not the man I knew I could be.
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MM, this was nuts. I was pulled to the tips of my toes and what felt like lightning ripped through my body. The feeling was akin to a bizarre ecstasy and I knew I was a different person.
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I said “thank you” out loud.
Follow though…
During my intense meditations afterwards I began projecting block letters in my mind, and i didn’t know why, but they had themes like “Unity” “Peace” “Co-Operate” “UNITY MIND to MIND” and other ideas.
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But it got even crazier.
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I started seeing visions in my mind of our civilization in the future, and I knew it was 500 years from now approx, but I didn’t know how I knew.
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In it I saw thousands and thousands of people gathering, as I hovered over the landscape watching them assemble. These people assembled first in one triangle, and then another overlapping triangle. The Double-Tetrahedron Star of David.
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In the middle of the grouping there were elders or seers with hands outstretched. Then the entire crowd (tens of thousands of people) began to sing in a way I’ve never heard.
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Now please don’t think I am certifiable but for some reason I could sense why this was being done.
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It was a massive prayer and intention ritual used to bring Earth to a Zero-Point in a different pocket universe to allow for planetary healing and a reset as humanity began to graduate into STO Sentience and Sovereignty.
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We were growing up…..finally.
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There is so much more insane detail here I can barely begin, but it included Psychic Colleges, Parent-Child classes from birth and all kinds of incredible outcomes from this new Way. It was very detailed and incredibly inspirational….
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…and alien.
End of part 1
Pretty exciting? Right? Well this is one man's experience. And everyone will have their own personal experience that will be just as profound and just as amazing. From seeing faeries to breathless communication with cherished pets, to mind-boggling breakthroughs in understandings and realizations. It's all the same thing. - MM
What to expect in future articles…
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…an encounter with an Entity and a terrifying “debate” where I was mentally crushed by this entity. Afterwards, and to this very moment, I have the ability to pull “source/prana/energy/whatever” at will, and this seems to have a massive impact on my prayers and intentions.
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In other words, I am starting to see very noticeable manifestations.
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I have also seen many many different shapes, diagrams (which I can interact with sort of), and other images in my meditative mind.
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The synchronicities in my life are off the chart, sometimes 8 to 10 jaw dropping events in a single day. Its like living in my own Movie now, and its a trip.
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My entire life has changed. I mediate often and pray often. I am single for the first time in decades and without a solid footing.
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The MM website is a touchstone for sanity. I am becoming the Rufus……slowly. I will say, that changing ones Sentience from Mixed (which I absolutely was) to STO is the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. Ever.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Here’s a “master list” of heirloom tomatoes that I have collected off the internet. I have extracted the data from heavy advertisement saturated websites, and other pay-wall blocked for-profit venues. Whether or not you enjoy heirloom tomatoes, I hope that this list will be beneficial to you.
What is a Heirloom Tomato…
An heirloom tomato (also called heritage tomato in the UK) is an open-pollinated, non-hybrid heirloom cultivar of tomato. They are classified as: family heirlooms, commercial heirlooms, mystery heirlooms, or created heirlooms. They usually have a shorter shelf life and are less disease resistant than hybrids. They are grown for a variety of reasons: for food, historical interest, access to wider varieties, and by people who wish to save seeds from year to year, as well as for their taste.
I wish that I was as talented as some of the women that I know. They have a real understanding, or a “feel” on how food comes together and mates with other foods. And they have this kind of innate ability that I seem so very clumsy with. And they seem to know which is the right tomato for the right application.
Never the less, I do know that I like to eat. I know that when I go to a store, I like to smell the produce, and if I am growing things, I am always smelling the tomatoes on the vine. There’s a real connection between scent and taste. Seriously.
Here’s some pictures to illustrate what you can do with heirloom tomatoes…
The best thing about heirloom tomatoes is the taste.
I strongly argue that the best thing to do with heirloom tomatoes is to eat them. After all, they are so very delicious.
Tomatoes are meant to be eaten.
Not a full sandwich, but tasty never the less…
Good eating.
A recipe
Here’s a great heirloom tomato sandwich recipe. Yum!
A very delicious heirloom tomato sandwich.
And the details…
A story…
When I was around 12 years old, I was given free reign in the family garden, and there, every day I would how the ground, pull the weeds, water the plants and so forth. I developed a real love for the plants. With tomatoes, and zucchini being my favorites. Peppers and cucumbers grew too slowly for my tastes, while onions and carrots remained hidden under the ground.
There, every day during the middle to late summer I would pick my tomatoes and was amazed at the enormous big bounty and delicious flavor that they provided.
I remember my mother coming in to the kitchen one day and asking what “the heck” I was doing. Why, I had made a thick, fresh, tomato sandwich with mayonnaise, salt and pepper on plain white (store bought) bread. And I was busily smunching down on it over the sink, with the tomato drippings falling into the sink. I guess she must have thought me to be so silly.
But it was glorious.
And I still remember that day. I still remember how great it tasted. I still remember how wonderful it was.
In China…
Chinese stir fry tomatoes and eggs 番茄炒蛋.
One of the top favorite foods is this dish called eggs and tomatoes. It’s not prepared American style, where you simply scramble the tomatoes in with the eggs. No NO. Instead, there is a certain procedure and the results are glorious.
Because of the many different regions in China, defining a Chinese national dish is nearly impossible. But if you ask Chinese people their favorite childhood dish, stir fried tomatoes and eggs is THE ONE that everyone will agree on!
There’re a few variations of this dish. I sometimes stir fry the tomatoes with tofu or beef.
You won’t find this dish in American-Chinese restaurants often, but it’s definitely a staple dish served with rice at home.
Hint: In China, just about every restaurant will serve this dish on the menu.
If you are just starting to learn how to cook in a wok, this is a great recipe for a beginner.
Back in Guangzhou, China, there’re fresh fruits and vegetables all year long and tomatoes are in season most of the time. My mom usually doesn’t add ketchup to this dish, but I do that when tomatoes are out of season in Cleveland. This helps enrich the flavor of the tomato sauce and enhance the color of the dish.
Here’re a few things to know when cooking this dish:
Tomatoes must be fresh, ripe and soft. Ripe tomatoes make the sauce flavorful and juicy.
Pealing off the tomato skin will help soften the flesh and make them melt in your mouth.
The determinate tomatoes come from the Beaverlodge Research Center in Canada. With only 54 days to reach maturity, the tomatoes are suitable for colder environments.
As a result of the Dwarf Tomato Project, the determinate tomatoes have a hybrid profile. They are a cross between Roza Vetrov and Anna Banana Russian. The tomatoes have a balanced sweet flavor.
Developed by the Dwarf Tomato Project, the determinate tomatoes are a cross between Dwarf Wild Fred and Brad’s Black Heart. They have a purple-black color.
Probably originating from Germany, the indeterminate tomatoes have red beefsteak fruits which can grow up to 1.5 pounds. Double fruit is common with the low acidity tomatoes.
These pink determinate tomatoes have a balanced flavor. They are a cross between Budai Torpe and Stump and one of the results of the Dwarf Tomato Project.
The indeterminate tomatoes were gifted in 1989’s Siberia by a man called Sasha. They have been seen as one of the best early producing tomatoes in the world.
There are many things that you can do with tomatoes. For instance, you can…
Juggle them.
Play fetch with them with your loyal dog.
Use them as table top decorations.
Use them in sauces.
Use them in salads.
Use them in stews.
Play catch with them.
Show them off to your friends.
And trade them for other delicious foodstuffs.
But in my humble opinion, I believe the best thing that you can do with a heirloom tomato is to eat it.
Eating tomatoes.
Conclusion
Tomatoes are delicious. Heirloom tomatoes are even more so. Please take a moment and make yourself up a fine tomato sandwich and savor the moment. Don’t let this moment pass you by.
Although I couldn’t resist giving it a fancy name, it’s nothing more than a fancy tomato sandwich. I’m using heirloom tomatoes, because they taste better than hybrid versions, and they are everywhere right now from farmers markets to local grocery stores.
If you are interested in learning more about heirloom tomatoes, and perhaps even growing some, I recommend The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table by Amy Goldman, and Seed Savers, a non-profit organization that sells all kinds of heirloom seeds, including some beautiful tomato varieties.
This Napoleon is really nothing more than puff pastry, tomatoes, herbed goat cheese and jam. That’s it. Pretty simple, right?
Heirloom Tomato & Goat Cheese Napoleon
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
4 ounces soft, fresh goat cheese
2 tablespoons cream (or half and half)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons tomato jam (or apricot or other light colored jam)
1-1/2 pounds heirloom or vine-ripened tomatoes, cored and sliced 1/3-inch thick
Method
1. Heat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper.
2. Unfold puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut along the fold lines into three strips. Place on baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Cut in half with a serrated knife, creating a top and bottom.
3. Stir the cream, herbs and pepper into the goat cheese.
4. Spread the goat cheese on the top and bottom of two of the puff pastries. (The third top and bottom will become the middle layer of the other two.)
5. Spread the middle layer with the jam (just 1 side of each, it doesn’t matter if you do the inside or the outside.)
6. Layer 1/4 of the sliced tomatoes on each of the two bottom halves with the goat cheese. Top each with the jam smeared layer. Layer with the remaining tomatoes and place the tops on. Cut into thirds, crosswise, to create six pieces and serve.
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my Food Index here…
This is a nice story by Ray Bradbury. I like it because it reminds me of the treasures of being a kid in the 1960’s / 1970’s. There things that our communities and parents provided for us that are now seemingly absent in America today. But in those days were simply precious treasures. Ray Bradbury captures these ideas and images so well.
Time in Thy Flight
A wind blew the long years away past their hot faces.
The Time Machine stopped.
“Nineteen hundred and twenty-eight,” said Janet. The two boys looked past her.
Mr. Fields stirred. “Remember, you’re here to observe the behavior of these ancient people. Be inquisitive, be intelligent, observe.”
“Yes,” said the girl and the two boys in crisp khaki uniforms. They wore identical haircuts, had identical wristwatches, sandals, and coloring of hair, eyes, teeth, and skin, though they were not related.
“Shh!” said Mr. Fields.
They looked out at a little Illinois town in the spring of the year. A cool mist lay on the early morning streets.
Far down the street a small boy came running in the last light of the marble-cream moon. Somewhere a great clock struck 5 A.M. far away.
Leaving tennis-shoe prints softly in the quiet lawns, the boy stepped near the invisible Time Machine and cried up to a high dark house window.
The house window opened. Another boy crept down the roof to the ground. The two boys ran off with banana-filled mouths into the dark cold morning.
“Follow them,” whispered Mr. Fields. “Study their life patterns.
Quick!”
Janet and William and Robert ran on the cold pavements of spring, visible now, through the slumbering town, through a park. All about, lights flickered, doors clicked, and other children rushed alone or in gasping pairs down a hill to some gleaming blue tracks.
“Here it comes!” The children milled about before dawn. Far down the shining tracks a small light grew seconds later into steaming thunder.
“What is it?” screamed Janet.
“A train, silly, you’ve seen pictures of them!” shouted Robert.
And as the Time Children watched, from the train stepped gigantic gray elephants, steaming the pavements with their mighty waters, lifting question-mark nozzles to the cold morning sky. Cumbrous wagons rolled from the long freight flats, red and gold. Lions roared and paced in boxed darkness.
“Why— this must be a—circus!” Janet trembled.
“You think so? Whatever happened to them?”
“Like Christmas, I guess. Just vanished, long ago.”
Janet looked around. “Oh, it’s awful, isn’t it.”
The boys stood numbed. “It sure is.”
Men shouted in the first faint gleam of dawn. Sleeping cars drew up, dazed faces blinked out at the children. Horses clattered like a great fall of stones on the pavement.
Mr. Fields was suddenly behind the children. “Disgusting, barbaric, keeping animals in cages. If I’d known this was here, I’d never let you come see. This is a terrible ritual.”
“Oh, yes.” But Janet’s eyes were puzzled. “And yet, you know, it’s like a nest of maggots. I want to study it.”
“I don’t know,” said Robert, his eyes darting, his fingers trembling.
“It’s pretty crazy. We might try writing a thesis on it if Mr. Fields says it’s all right …”
Mr. Fields nodded. “I’m glad you’re digging in here, finding motives, studying this horror. All right—we’ll see the circus this afternoon.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” said Janet.
The Time Machine hummed.
“So that was a circus,” said Janet, solemnly.
The trombone circus died in their ears. The last thing they saw was candy-pink trapeze people whirling while baking powder clowns shrieked and bounded.
“You must admit psychovision’s better,” said Robert slowly.
“All those nasty animal smells, the excitement.” Janet blinked. “That’s bad for children, isn’t it? And those older people seated with the children.
Mothers, fathers, they called them. Oh, that was strange.”
Mr. Fields put some marks in his class grading book.
Janet shook her head numbly. “I want to see it all again. I’ve missed the motives somewhere. I want to make that run across town again in the early morning. The cold air on my face—the sidewalk under my feet—the circus train coming in. Was it the air and the early hour that made the children get up and run to see the train come in? I want to retrace the entire pattern.
Why should they be excited? I feel I’ve missed out on the answer.”
“They all smiled so much,” said William.
“Manic-depressives,” said Robert.
“What are summer vacations? I heard them talk about it.” Janet looked at Mr. Fields.
“They spent their summers racing about like idiots, beating each other up,” replied Mr. Fields seriously.
“I’ll take our State Engineered summers of work for children anytime,” said Robert, looking at nothing, his voice faint.
The Time Machine stopped again.
“The Fourth of July,” announced Mr. Fields. “Nineteen hundred and twenty-eight. An ancient holiday when people blew each other’s fingers off.”
They stood before the same house on the same street but on a soft summer evening. Fire wheels hissed, on front porches laughing children tossed things out that went bang!
“Don’t run!” cried Mr. Fields. “It’s not war, don’t be afraid!”
But Janet’s and Robert’s and William’s faces were pink, now blue, now white with fountains of soft fire.
“We’re all right,” said Janet, standing very still.
“Happily,” announced Mr. Fields, “they prohibited fireworks a century ago, did away with the whole messy explosion.”
Children did fairy dances, weaving their names and destinies on the dark summer air with white sparklers.
“I’d like to do that,” said Janet, softly. “Write my name on the air.
See? I’d like that.”
“What?” Mr. Fields hadn’t been listening.
“Nothing,” said Janet.
“Bang!” whispered William and Robert, standing under the soft summer trees, in shadow, watching, watching the red, white, and green fires on the beautiful summer night lawns. “Bang!”
October.
The Time Machine paused for the last time, an hour later in the month of burning leaves. People bustled into dim houses carrying pumpkins and corn shocks. Skeletons danced, bats flew, candles flamed, apples swung in empty doorways.
“Halloween,” said Mr. Fields. “The acme of horror. This was the age of superstition, you know. Later they banned the Grimm Brothers, ghosts, skeletons, and all that claptrap. You children, thank God, were raised in an antiseptic world of no shadows or ghosts. You had decent holidays like William C. Chatterton’s Birthday, Work Day, and Machine Day.”
They walked by the same house in the empty October night, peering in at the triangle-eyed pumpkins, the masks leering in black attics and damp cellars. Now, inside the house, some party children squatted telling stories, laughing!
“I want to be inside with them,” said Janet at last.
“Sociologically, of course,” said the boys.
“No,” she said.
“What?” asked Mr. Fields.
“No, I just want to be inside, I just want to stay here, I want to see it all and be here and never be anywhere else, I want firecrackers and pumpkins and circuses, I want Christmases and Valentines and Fourths, like we’ve seen.”
“This is getting out of hand …” Mr. Fields started to say.
But suddenly Janet was gone. “Robert, William, come on!” She ran.
The boys leaped after her.
“Hold on!” shouted Mr. Fields. “Robert! William, I’ve got you!” He seized the last boy, but the other escaped. “Janet, Robert—come back here!
You’ll never pass into the seventh grade!
You’ll fail, Janet, Bob— Bob! ”
An October wind blew wildly down the street, vanishing with the children off among moaning trees.
William twisted and kicked.
“No, not you, too, William, you’re coming home with me. We’ll teach those other two a lesson they won’t forget. So they want to stay in the past, do they?” Mr. Fields shouted so everyone could hear. “All right, Janet, Bob, stay in this horror, in this chaos! In a few weeks you’ll come sniveling back here to me. But I’ll be gone! I’m leaving you here to go mad in this world!”
He hurried William to the Time Machine. The boy was sobbing.
“Don’t make me come back here on any more Field Excursions ever again, please, Mr. Fields, please—”
“Shut up!”
Almost instantly the Time Machine whisked away toward the future, toward the underground hive cities, the metal buildings, the metal flowers, the metal lawns.
“Good-bye, Janet, Bob!”
A great cold October wind blew through the town like water. And when it had ceased blowing it had carried all the children, whether invited or uninvited, masked or unmasked, to the doors of houses which closed upon them. There was not a running child anywhere in the night. The wind whined away in the bare treetops.
And inside the big house, in the candlelight, someone was pouring cold apple cider all around, to everyone, no matter who they were.
The End
Conclusion
This story takes me back to a time when things were simpler and reminds me of how precious the moments were that we possessed. Don’t let the preciousness of the moments that you have today slip from your hands.
Whether it is the 1950’s or the 1990’s, or even today. Treasure what you have now. For it is all fleeting….
This is a nice story by Ray Bradbury.Three hundred years after his death, William Lantry awakes from his coffin. One thing is very clear to him – this sterile world without superstition, fear, or imagination must be destroyed. Ray Bradbury was one of the best-known writers of our time. He was a master storyteller, a champion of creative freedom, and a space-age visionary.
Pillar of Fire
I
He came out of the earth, hating. Hate was his father; hate was his mother.
It was good to walk again. It was good to leap up out of the earth, off of your back, and stretch your cramped arms violently and try to take a deep breath!
He tried. He cried out.
He couldn’t breathe. He flung his arms over his face and tried to breathe. It was impossible. He walked on the earth, he came out of the earth.
But he was dead. He couldn’t breathe. He could take air into his mouth and force it half down his throat, with withered moves of long-dormant muscles, wildly, wildly! And with this little air he could shout and cry! He wanted to have tears, but he couldn’t make them come, either. All he knew was that he was standing upright, he was dead, he shouldn’t be walking! He couldn’t breathe and yet he stood.
The smells of the world were all about him. Frustratedly, he tried to smell the smells of autumn. Autumn was burning the land down into ruin. All across the country the ruins of summer lay; vast forests bloomed with flame, tumbled down timber on empty, unleafed timber. The smoke of the burning was rich, blue, and invisible.
He stood in the graveyard, hating. He walked through the world and yet could not taste nor smell of it. He heard, yes. The wind roared on his newly opened ears. But he was dead. Even though he walked he knew he was dead and should expect not too much of himself or this hateful living world.
He touched the tombstone over his own empty grave. He knew his own name again. It was a good job of carving.
WILLIAM LANTRY
That’s what the gravestone said.
His fingers trembled on the cool stone surface.
BORN 1898—DIED 1933
Born again…?
What year? He glared at the sky and the midnight autumnal stars moving in slow illuminations across the windy black. He read the tiltings of centuries in those stars. Orion thus and so, Aurega here! and where Taurus?
There!
His eyes narrowed. His lips spelled out the year:
“2349.”
An odd number. Like a school sum. They used to say a man couldn’t encompass any number over a hundred. After that it was all so damned abstract there was no use counting. This was the year 2349! A numeral, a sum. And here he was, a man who had lain in his hateful dark coffin, hating to be buried, hating the living people above who lived and lived and lived, hating them for all the centuries, until today, now, born out of hatred, he stood by his own freshly excavated grave, the smell of raw earth in the air, perhaps, but he could not smell it!
“I,” he said, addressing a poplar tree that was shaken by the wind, “am an anachronism.” He smiled faintly.
He looked at the graveyard. It was cold and empty. All of the stones had been ripped up and piled like so many flat bricks, one atop another, in the far corner by the wrought iron fence. This had been going on for two endless weeks. In his deep secret coffin he had heard the heartless, wild stirring as the men jabbed the earth with cold spades and tore out the coffins and carried away the withered ancient bodies to be burned. Twisting with fear in his coffin, he had waited for them to come to him.
Today they had arrived at his coffin. But—late. They had dug down to within an inch of the lid. Five o’clock bell, time for quitting. Home to supper.
The workers had gone off. Tomorrow they would finish the job, they said, shrugging into their coats.
Silence had come to the emptied tombyard.
Carefully, quietly, with a soft rattling of sod, the coffin lid had lifted.
William Lantry stood trembling now, in the last cemetery on Earth.
“Remember?” he asked himself, looking at the raw earth. “Remember those stories of that last man on Earth? Those stories of men wandering in ruins, alone? Well, you, William Lantry, are a switch on the old story. Do you know that? You are the last dead man in the whole world!”
There were no more dead people. Nowhere in any land was there a dead person. Impossible! Lantry did not smile at this. No, not impossible at all in this foolish, sterile, unimaginative, antiseptic age of cleansings and scientific methods! People died, oh my God, yes. But— dead people?
Corpses? They didn’t exist!
What happened to dead people?
The graveyard was on a hill. William Lantry walked through the dark burning night until he reached the edge of the graveyard and looked down upon the new town of Salem. It was all illumination, all color. Rocket ships cut fire above it, crossing the sky to all the far ports of Earth.
In his grave the new violence of this future world had driven down and seeped into William Lantry. He had been bathed in it for years. He knew all about it, with a hating dead man’s knowledge of such things.
Most important of all, he knew what these fools did with dead men.
He lifted his eyes. In the center of the town a massive stone finger pointed at the stars. It was three hundred feet high and fifty feet across. There was a wide entrance and a drive in front of it.
In the town, theoretically, thought William Lantry, say you have a dying man. In a moment he will be dead. What happens? No sooner is his pulse cold when a certificate is flourished, made out, his relatives pack him into a car-beetle and drive him swiftly to—
The Incinerator!
That functional finger, that Pillar of Fire pointing at the stars.
Incinerator. A functional, terrible name. But truth is truth in this future world.
Like a stick of kindling your Mr. Dead Man is shot into the furnace.
Flume!
William Lantry looked at the top of the gigantic pistol shoving at the stars. A small pennant of smoke issued from the top.
There’s where your dead people go.
“Take care of yourself, William Lantry,” he murmured. “You’re the last one, the rare item, the last dead man. All the other graveyards of Earth have been blasted up. This is the last graveyard and you’re the last dead man from the centuries. These people don’t believe in having dead people about, much less walking dead people. Everything that can’t be used goes up like a matchstick. Superstitions right along with it!”
He looked at the town. All right, he thought, quietly, I hate you. You hate me, or you would if you knew I existed. You don’t believe in such things as vampires or ghosts. Labels without referents, you cry! You snort. All right, snort! Frankly, I don’t believe in you, either! I don’t like you! You and your Incinerators.
He trembled. How very close it had been. Day after day they had hauled out the other dead ones, burned them like so much kindling. An edict had been broadcast around the world. He had heard the digging men talk as they worked!
“I guess it’s a good idea, this cleaning up the graveyards,” said one of the men.
“Guess so,” said another. “Grisly custom. Can you imagine? Being buried, I mean! Unhealthy! All them germs!”
“Sort of a shame. Romantic, kind of. I mean, leaving just this one graveyard untouched all these centuries. The other graveyards were cleaned out, what year was it, Jim?”
“About 2260, I think. Yeah, that was it, 2260, almost a hundred years ago. But some Salem Committee, they got on their high horse and they said,
‘Look here, let’s have just one graveyard left, to remind us of the customs of the barbarians.’ And the government scratched its head, thunk it over, and said, ‘Okay. Salem it is. But all other graveyards go, you understand, all!’”
“And away they went,” said Jim.
“Sure, they sucked out ’em with fire and steam shovels and rocket-cleaners. If they knew a man was buried in a cow pasture, they fixed him!
Evacuated them, they did. Sort of cruel, I say.”
“I hate to sound old-fashioned,but still there were a lot of tourists came here every year, just to see what a real graveyard was like.”
“Right. We had nearly a million people in the last three years visiting.
A good revenue. But—a government order is an order. The government says no more morbidity, so flush her out we do! Here we go. Hand me that spade, Bill.”
William Lantry stood in the autumn wind, on the hill. It was good to walk again, to feel the wind and to hear the leaves scuttling like mice on the road ahead of him. It was good to see the bitter cold stars almost blown away by the wind.
It was even good to know fear again.
For fear rose in him now, and he could not put it away. The very fact that he was walking made him an enemy. And there was not another friend, another dead man, in all of the world, to whom one could turn for help or consolation. It was the whole melodramatic living world against one. William Lantry. It was the whole vampire-disbelieving, body-burning, graveyard-annihilating world against a man in a dark suit on a dark autumn hill. He put out his pale cold hands into the city illumination. You have pulled the tombstones, like teeth, from the yard, he thought. Now I will find some way to push your Incinerators down into rubble. I will make dead people again, and I will make friends in so doing. I cannot be alone and lonely. I must start manufacturing friends very soon. Tonight.
“War is declared,” he said, and laughed. It was pretty silly, one man declaring war on an entire world.
The world did not answer back. A rocket crossed the sky on a rush of flame, like an Incinerator taking wing.
Footsteps. Lantry hastened to the edge of the cemetery. The diggers, coming back to finish up their work? No. Just someone, a man, walking by.
As the man came abreast the cemetery gate, Lantry stepped swiftly out. “Good evening,” said the man, smiling.
Lantry struck the man in the face. The man fell. Lantry bent quietly down and hit the man a killing blow across the neck with the side of his hand.
Dragging the body back into shadow, he stripped it and changed clothes with it. It wouldn’t do for a fellow to go wandering about this future world with ancient clothing on. He found a small pocket knife in the man’s coat; not much of a knife, but enough if you knew how to handle it properly.
He knew how.
He rolled the body down into one of the already opened and exhumed graves. In a minute he had shoveled dirt down upon it, just enough to hide it.
There was little chance of it being found. They wouldn’t dig the same grave twice.
He adjusted himself in his new loose-fitting metallic suit. Fine, fine.
Hating. William Lantry walked down into town, to do battle with the Earth.
II
The Incinerator was open. It never closed. There was a wide entrance, all lighted up with hidden illumination, there was a helicopter landing table and a beetle drive. The town itself was dying down after another day of the dynamo. The lights were going dim, and the only quiet, lighted spot in the town now was the Incinerator. God, what a practical name, what an unromantic name.
William Lantry entered the wide, well-lighted door. It was an entrance, really; there were no doors to open or shut. People could go in and out, summer or winter, the inside was always warm. Warm from the fire that rushed whispering up the high round flue to where the whirlers, the propellors, the air jets pushed the leafy gray ashes on away for a ten-mile ride down the sky.
There was the warmth of the bakery here. The halls were floored with rubber parquet. You couldn’t make a noise if you wanted to. Music played in hidden throats somewhere. Not music of death at all, but music of life and the way the sun lived inside the Incinerator; or the sun’s brother, anyway. You could hear the flame floating inside the heavy brick wall.
William Lantry descended a ramp. Behind him he heard a whisper and turned in time to see a beetle stop before the entranceway. A bell rang. The music, as if at a signal, rose to ecstatic heights. There was joy in it.
From the beetle, which opened from the rear, some attendants stepped carrying a golden box. It was six feet long and there were sun symbols on it.
From another beetle the relatives of the man in the box stepped and followed as the attendants took the golden box down a ramp to a kind of altar. On the side of the altar were the words, “WE THAT WERE BORN OF THE SUN RETURN TO THE SUN.” The golden box was deposited upon the altar, the music leaped upward, the Guardian of this place spoke only a few words, then the attendants picked up the golden box, walked to a transparent wall, a safety lock, also transparent, and opened it. The box was shoved into the glass slot.
A moment later an inner lock opened, the box was injected into the interior of the flue, and vanished instantly in quick flame.
The attendants walked away. The relatives without a word turned and walked out. The music played.
William Lantry approached the glass fire lock. He peered through the wall at the vast, glowing never-ceasing heart of the Incinerator. It burned steadily, without a flicker, singing to itself peacefully. It was so solid it was like a golden river flowing up out of the earth toward the sky. Anything you put into the river was borne upward, vanished.
Lantry felt again his unreasoning hatred of this thing, this monster, cleansing fire.
A man stood at his elbow. “May I help you, sir?”
“What?” Lantry turned abruptly. “What did you say?”
“May I be of service?”
“I—that is—” Lantry looked quickly at the ramp and the door. His hands trembled at his sides. “I’ve never been in here before.”
“Never?” The Attendant was surprised.
That had been the wrong thing to say, Lantry realized. But it was said, nevertheless. “I mean,” he said. “Not really. I mean, when you’re a child, somehow, you don’t pay attention. I suddenly realized tonight that I didn’t really know the Incinerator.”
The Attendant smiled. “We never know anything, do we, really? I’ll be glad to show you around.”
“Oh, no. Never mind. It—it’s a wonderful place.”
“Yes, it is.” The Attendant took pride in it. “One of the finest in the world, I think.”
“I—” Lantry felt he must explain further. “I haven’t had many relatives die on me since I was a child. In fact, none. So, you see I haven’t been here for many years.”
“I see.” The Attendant’s face seemed to darken somewhat.
What’ve I said now, thought Lantry. What in God’s name is wrong?
What’ve I done? If I’m not careful I’ll get myself shoved right into that monstrous firetrap. What’s wrong with this fellow’s face? He seems to be giving me more than the usual going-over.
“You wouldn’t be one of the men who’ve just returned from Mars, would you?” asked the Attendant.
“No. Why do you ask?”
“No matter.” The Attendant began to walk off. “If you want to know anything, just ask me.”
“Just one thing,” said Lantry.
“What’s that?”
“This.”
Lantry dealt him a stunning blow across the neck.
He had watched the fire-trap operator with expert eyes. Now, with the sagging body in his arms, he touched the button that opened the warm outer lock, placed the body in, heard the music rise, and saw the inner lock open.
The body shot out into the river of fire. The music softened.
“Well done, Lantry, well done.”
Barely an instant later another Attendant entered the room. Lantry was caught with an expression of pleased excitement on his face. The Attendant looked around as if expecting to find someone, then he walked toward Lantry.
“May I help you?”
“Just looking,” said Lantry.
“Rather late at night,” said the Attendant.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
That was the wrong answer, too. Everybody slept in this world.
Nobody had insomnia. If you did you simply turned on a hypnoray, and, sixty seconds later, you were snoring. Oh, he was just full of wrong answers. First he had made the fatal error of saying he had never been in the Incinerator before, when he knew that all children were brought here on tours, every year, from the time they were four, to instill the idea of the clean fire death and the Incinerator in their minds. Death was a bright fire, death was warmth and the sun. It was not a dark, shadowed thing. That was important in their education.
And he, pale, thoughtless fool, had immediately gabbled out his ignorance.
And another thing, this paleness of his. He looked at his hands and realized with growing terror that a pale man also was nonexistent in this world. They would suspect his paleness. That was why the first attendant had asked, “Are you one of those men newly returned from Mars?” Here, now, this new Attendant was clean and bright as a copper penny, his cheeks red with health and energy. Lantry hid his pale hands in his pockets. But he was finally aware of the searching the Attendant did on his face.
“I mean to say,” said Lantry, “I didn’t want to sleep. I wanted to think.”
“Was there a service held here a moment ago?” asked the Attendant, looking about.
“I don’t know, I just came in.”
“I thought I heard the fire lock open and shut.”
“I don’t know,” said Lantry.
The man pressed a wall button. “Anderson?”
A voice replied. “Yes.”
“Locate Saul for me, will you?”
“I’ll ring the corridors.” A pause. “Can’t find him.”
“Thanks.” The Attendant was puzzled. He was beginning to make little sniffing motions with his nose. “Do you— smell anything?”
Lantry sniffed. “No. Why?”
“I smell something.”
Lantry took hold of the knife in his pocket. He waited.
“I remember once when I was a kid,” said the man. “And we found a cow lying dead in the field. It had been there two days in the hot sun. That’s what this smell is. I wonder what it’s from?”
“Oh, I know what it is,” said Lantry quietly. He held out his hand.
“Here.”
“What?”
“Me, of course.”
“You?”
“Dead several hundred years.”
“You’re an odd joker.” The Attendant was puzzled.
“Very.” Lantry took out the knife. “Do you know what this is?”
“A knife.”
“Do you ever use knives on people any more?”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean—killing them, with knives or guns or poison?”
“You are an odd joker!” The man giggled awkwardly.
“I’m going to kill you,” said Lantry.
“Nobody kills anybody,” said the man.
“Not any more they don’t. But they used to, in the old days.”
“I know they did.”
“This will be the first murder in three hundred years. I just killed your friend. I just shoved him into the fire lock.”
That remark had the desired effect. It numbed the man so completely, it shocked him so thoroughly with its illogical aspects that Lantry had time to walk forward. He put the knife against the man’s chest. “I’m going to kill you.”
“That’s silly,” said the man, numbly. “People don’t do that.”
“Like this,” said Lantry. “You see?”
The knife slid into the chest. The man stared at it for a moment.
Lantry caught the falling body.
III
The Salem flue exploded at six that morning. The great fire chimney shattered into ten thousand parts and flung itself into the earth and into the sky and into the houses of the sleeping people. There was fire and sound, more fire than autumn made burning in the hills.
William Lantry was five miles away at the time of the explosion. He saw the town ignited by the great spreading cremation of it. And he shook his head and laughed a little bit and clapped his hands smartly together.
Relatively simple. You walked around killing people who didn’t believe in murder, had only heard of it indirectly as some dim gone custom of the old barbarian races. You walked into the control room of the Incinerator and said, “How do you work this Incinerator?” and the control man told you, because everybody told the truth in this world of the future, nobody lied, there was no reason to lie, there was no danger to lie against. There was only one criminal in the world, and nobody knew HE existed yet.
Oh, it was an incredibly beautiful setup. The Control Man had told him just how the Incinerator worked, what pressure gauges controlled the flood of fire gases going up the flue, what levers were adjusted or readjusted.
He and Lantry had had quite a talk. It was an easy, free world. People trusted people. A moment later Lantry had shoved a knife in the Control Man also and set the pressure gauges for an overload to occur half an hour later, and walked out of the Incinerator halls, whistling.
Now even the sky was palled with the vast black cloud of the explosion.
“This is only the first,” said Lantry, looking at the sky. “I’ll tear all the others down before they even suspect there’s an unethical man loose in their society. They can’t account for a variable like me. I’m beyond their understanding. I’m incomprehensible, impossible, therefore I do not exist. My God, I can kill hundreds of thousands of them before they even realize murder is out in the world again. I can make it look like an accident each time. Why, the idea is so huge, it’s unbelievable!”
The fire burned the town. He sat under a tree for a long time, until morning. Then, he found a cave in the hills, and went in, to sleep.
He awoke at sunset with a sudden dream of fire. He saw himself pushed into the flue, cut into sections by flame, burned away to nothing. He sat up on the cave floor, laughing at himself. He had an idea.
He walked down into the town and stepped into an audio booth. He dialed OPERATOR. “Give me the Police Department,” he said.
“I beg your pardon?” said the operator.
He tried again. “The Law Force,” he said.
“I will connect you with the Peace Control,” she said, at last.
A little fear began ticking inside him like a tiny watch. Suppose the operator recognized the term Police Department as an anachronism, took his audio number, and sent someone out to investigate? No, she wouldn’t do that.
Why should she suspect? Paranoids were nonexistent in this civilization.
“Yes, the Peace Control,” he said.
A buzz. A man’s voice answered. “Peace Control. Stephens speaking.”
“Give me the Homicide Detail,” said Lantry, smiling.
“The what? ”
“Who investigates murders?”
“I beg your pardon, what are you talking about?”
“Wrong number.” Lantry hung up, chuckling. Ye gods, there was no such a thing as a Homicide Detail. There were no murders, therefore they needed no detectives. Perfect, perfect!
The audio rang back. Lantry hesitated, then answered.
“Say,” said the voice on the phone. “Who are you?”
“The man just left who called,” said Lantry, and hung up again.
He ran. They would recognize his voice and perhaps send someone out to check. People didn’t lie. He had just lied. They knew his voice. He had lied. Anybody who lied needed a psychiatrist. They would come to pick him up to see why he was lying. For no other reason. They suspected him of nothing else. Therefore—he must run.
Oh, how very carefully he must act from now on. He knew nothing of this world, this odd straight truthful ethical world. Simply by looking pale you were suspect. Simply by not sleeping nights you were suspect. Simply by not bathing, by smelling like a—dead cow?—you were suspect. Anything.
He must go to a library. But that was dangerous, too. What were libraries like today? Did they have books or did they have film spools which projected books on a screen? Or did people have libraries at home, thus eliminating the necessity of keeping large main libraries?
He decided to chance it. His use of archaic terms might well make him suspect again, but now it was very important he learn all that could be learned of this foul world into which he had come again. He stopped a man on the street. “Which way to the library?”
The man was not surprised. “Two blocks east, one block north.”
“Thank you.”
Simple as that.
He walked into the library a few minutes later.
“May I help you?”
He looked at the librarian. May I help you, may I help you. What a world of helpful people! “I’d like to ‘have’ Edgar Allan Poe.” His verb was carefully chosen. He didn’t say ‘read.’ He was too afraid that books were passé, that printing itself was a lost art. Maybe all ‘books’ today were in the form of fully delineated three-dimensional motion pictures. How in blazes could you make a motion picture out of Socrates, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Freud?
“What was that name again?”
“Edgar Allan Poe.”
“There is no such author listed in our files.”
“Will you please check?”
She checked. “Oh, yes. There’s a red mark on the file card. He was one of the authors in the Great Burning of 2265.
“How ignorant of me.”
“That’s all right,” she said. “Have you heard much of him?”
“He had some interesting barbarian ideas on death,” said Lantry.
“Horrible ones,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Ghastly.”
“Yes. Ghastly. Abominable, in fact. Good thing he was burned.
Unclean. By the way, do you have any of Lovecraft?”
“Is that a sex book?”
Lantry exploded with laughter. “No, no. It’s a man.”
She riffled the file. “He was burned, too. Along with Poe.”
“I suppose that applies to Machen and a man named Derleth and one named Ambrose Bierce, also?”
“Yes.” She shut the file cabinet. “All burned. And good riddance.” She gave him an odd warm look of interest. “I bet you’ve just come back from Mars.”
“Why do you say that?”
“There was another explorer in here yesterday. He’d just made the Mars hop and return. He was interested in supernatural literature, also. It seems there are actually ‘tombs’ on Mars.”
“What are ‘tombs’?” Lantry was learning to keep his mouth closed.
“You know, those things they once buried people in.”
“Barbarian custom. Ghastly!”
“Isn’t it? Well, seeing the Martian tombs made this young explorer curious. He came and asked if we had any of those authors you mentioned. Of course we haven’t even a smitch of their stuff.” She looked at his pale face.
“You are one of the Martian rocket men, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said. “Got back on the ship the other day.”
“The other young man’s name was Burke.”
“Of course. Burke! Good friend of mine!”
“Sorry I can’t help you. You’d best get yourself some vitamin shots and some sun lamps. You look terrible, Mr.—?”
“Lantry. I’ll be good. Thanks ever so much. See you next Hallows’
Eve!”
“Aren’t you the clever one.” She laughed. “If there were a Hallows’
Eve, I’d make it a date.”
“But they burned that, too,” he said.
“Oh, they burned everything,” she said. “Good night.”
“Good night.” And he went on out.
Oh, how carefully he was balanced in this world! Like some kind of dark gyroscope, whirling with never a murmur, a very silent man. As he walked along the eight o’clock evening street he noticed with particular interest that there was not an unusual amount of lights about. There were the usual street lights at each corner, but the blocks themselves were only faintly illuminated. Could it be that these remarkable people were not afraid of the dark? Incredible nonsense! Every one was afraid of the dark. Even he himself had been afraid, as a child. It was as natural as eating.
A little boy ran by on pelting feet, followed by six others. They yelled and shouted and rolled on the dark cool October lawn, in the leaves. Lantry looked on for several minutes before addressing himself to one of the small boys who was for a moment taking a respite, gathering his breath into his small lungs, as a boy might blow to refill a punctured paper bag.
“Here, now,” said Lantry. “You’ll wear yourself out.”
“Sure,” said the boy.
“Could you tell me,” said the man, “why there are no street lights in the middle of the blocks?”
“Why?” asked the boy.
“I’m a teacher, I thought I’d test your knowledge,” said Lantry.
“Well,” said the boy, “you don’t need lights in the middle of the block, that’s why.”
“But it gets rather dark,” said Lantry.
“So?” said the boy.
“Aren’t you afraid?” asked Lantry.
“Of what?” asked the boy.
“The dark,” said Lantry.
“Ho ho,” said the boy. “Why should I be?”
“Well,” said Lantry. “It’s black, it’s dark. And after all, street lights were invented to take away the dark and take away fear.”
“That’s silly. Street lights were made so you could see where you were walking. Outside of that there’s nothing.”
“You miss the whole point—” said Lantry. “Do you mean to say you would sit in the middle of an empty lot all night and not be afraid?”
“Of what?”
“Of what, of what, of what, you little ninny! Of the dark!”
“Ho ho.”
“Would you go out in the hills and stay all night in the dark?”
“Sure.”
“Would you stay in a deserted house alone?”
“Sure.”
“And not be afraid?”
“Sure.”
“You’re a liar!”
“Don’t you call me nasty names!” shouted the boy. Liar was the improper noun, indeed. It seemed to be the worst thing you could call a person.
Lantry was completely furious with the little monster. “Look,” he insisted. “Look into my eyes …”
The boy looked.
Lantry bared his teeth slightly. He put out his hands, making a clawlike gesture. He leered and gesticulated and wrinkled his face into a terrible mask of horror.
“Ho ho,” said the boy. “You’re funny.”
“What did you say?”
“You’re funny. Do it again. Hey, gang, c’mere! This man does funny things!”
“Never mind.”
“Do it again, sir.”
“Never mind, never mind. Good night!” Lantry ran off.
“Good night, sir. And mind the dark, sir!” called the little boy.
Of all the stupidity, of all the rank, gross, crawling, jelly-mouthed stupidity! He had never seen the like of it in his life! Bringing the children up without so much as an ounce of imagination! Where was the fun in being children if you didn’t imagine things?
He stopped running. He slowed and for the first time began to appraise himself. He ran his hand over his face and bit his fingers and found that he himself was standing midway in the block and he felt uncomfortable. He moved up to the street corner where there was a glowing lantern. “That’s better,” he said, holding his hands out like a man to an open warm fire.
He listened. There was not a sound except the night breathing of the crickets. Finally there was a fire-hush as a rocket swept the sky. It was the sound a torch might make brandished gently on the dark air.
He listened to himself and for the first time he realized what there was so peculiar to himself. There was not a sound in him. The little nostril and lung noises were absent. His lungs did not take nor give oxygen or carbon dioxide; they did not move. The hairs in his nostrils did not quiver with warm combing air. That faint purling whisper of breathing did not sound in his nose.
Strange. Funny. A noise you never heard when you were alive, the breath that fed your body, and yet, once dead, oh how you missed it!
The only other time you ever heard it was on deep dreamless awake nights when you wakened and listened and heard first your nose taking and gently poking out the air, and then the dull deep dim red thunder of the blood in your temples, in your eardrums, in your throat, in your aching wrists, in your warm loins, in your chest. All of those little rhythms, gone. The wrist beat gone, the throat pulse gone, the chest vibration gone. The sound of the blood coming up down around and through, up down around and through.
Now it was like listening to a statue.
And yet he lived. Or, rather, moved about. And how was this done, over and above scientific explanations, theories, doubts?
By one thing, and one thing alone.
Hatred.
Hatred was a blood in him, it went up down around and through, up down around and through. It was a heart in him, not beating, true, but warm.
He was—what? Resentment. Envy. They said he could not lie any longer in his coffin in the cemetery. He had wanted to. He had never had any particular desire to get up and walk around. It had been enough, all these centuries, to lie in the deep box and feel but not feel the ticking of the million insect watches in the earth around, the moves of worms like so many deep thoughts in the soil.
But then they had come and said, “Out you go and into the furnace!”
And that is the worst thing you can say to any man. You cannot tell him what to do. If you say you are dead, he will want not to be dead. If you say there are no such things as vampires, by God, that man will try to be one just for spite. If you say a dead man cannot walk, he will test his limbs. If you say murder is no longer occurring, he will make it occur. He was, in toto, all the impossible things. They had given birth to him with their practices and ignorances. Oh, how wrong they were. They needed to be shown. He would show them! Sun is good, so is night, there is nothing wrong with dark, they said.
Dark is horror, he shouted, silently, facing the little houses. It is meant for contrast. You must fear, you hear! That has always been the way of this world. You destroyers of Edgar Allan Poe and fine big-worded Lovecraft, you burner of Halloween masks and destroyer of pumpkin jack-o-lanterns! I will make night what it once was, the thing against which man built all his lanterned cities and his many children!
As if in answer to this, a rocket, flying low, trailing a long rakish feather of flame. It made Lantry flinch and draw back.
IV
It was but ten miles to the little town of Science Port. He made it by dawn, walking. But even this was not good. At four in the morning a silver beetle pulled up on the road beside him.
“Hello,” called the man inside.
“Hello,” said Lantry, wearily.
“Why are you walking?” asked the man.
“I’m going to Science Port.”
“Why don’t you ride?”
“I like to walk.”
“Nobody likes to walk. Are you sick? May I give you a ride?”
“Thanks, but I like to walk.”
The man hesitated, then closed the beetle door. “Good night.”
When the beetle was gone over the hill, Lantry retreated into a nearby forest. A world full of bungling, helping people. By God, you couldn’t even walk without being accused of sickness. That meant only one thing. He must not walk any longer, he had to ride. He should have accepted that fellow’s offer.
The rest of the night he walked far enough off the highway so that if a beetle rushed by he had time to vanish in the underbrush. At dawn he crept into an empty dry water drain and closed his eyes.
The dream was as perfect as a rimed snowflake.
He saw the graveyard where he had lain deep and ripe over the centuries. He heard the early morning footsteps of the laborers returning to finish their work.
“Would you mind passing me the shovel, Jim?”
“Here you go.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute!”
“What’s up?”
“Look here. We didn’t finish last night, did we?”
“No.”
There was one more coffin, wasn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“Well, here it is, and open!”
“You’ve got the wrong hole.”
“What’s the name say on the gravestone?”
“Lantry. William Lantry.”
“That’s him, that’s the one! Gone!”
“What could have happened to it?”
“How do I know. The body was here last night.”
“We can’t be sure, we didn’t look.”
“God man, people don’t bury empty coffins. He was in his box. Now he isn’t.”
“Maybe this box was empty.”
“Nonsense. Smell that smell? He was here all right.”
A pause.
“Nobody would have taken the body, would they?”
“What for?”
“A curiosity, perhaps.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. People just don’t steal. Nobody steals.”
“Well, then, there’s only one solution.”
“And?”
“He got up and walked away.”
A pause. In the dark dream, Lantry expected to hear laughter. There was none. Instead, the voice of the grave-digger, after a thoughtful pause, said, “Yes. That’s it, indeed. He got up and walked away.”
“That’s interesting to think about,” said the other.
“Isn’t it, though!”
Silence.
Lantry awoke. It had all been a dream, but, how realistic. How strangely the two men had carried on. But not unnaturally, oh, no. That was exactly how you expected men of the future to talk. Men of the future. Lantry grinned wryly. That was an anachronism for you. This was the future. This was happening now. It wasn’t three hundred years from now, it was now, not then, or any other time. This wasn’t the twentieth century. Oh, how calmly those two men in the dream had said, “He got up and walked away.” “—
interesting to think about.” “Isn’t it, though?” With never a quaver in their voices. With not so much as a glance over their shoulders or a tremble of spade in hand. But, of course, with their perfectly honest, logical minds, there was but one explanation; certainly nobody had stolen the corpse. “Nobody steals.” The corpse had simply got up and walked off. The corpse was the only one who could have possibly moved the corpse. By the few casual slow words of the gravediggers Lantry knew what they were thinking. Here was a man that had lain in suspended animation, not really dead, for hundreds of years. The jarring about, the activity, had brought him back.
Everyone had heard of those little green toads that are sealed for centuries inside mud rocks or in ice patties, alive, alive oh! And how when scientists chipped them out and warmed them like marbles in their hands the little toads leapt about and frisked and blinked. Then it was only logical that the gravediggers think of William Lantry in like fashion.
But what if the various parts were fitted together in the next day or so?
If the vanished body and the shattered, exploded Incinerator were connected?
What if this fellow named Burke, who had returned pale from Mars, went to the library again and said to the young woman he wanted some books and she said, “Oh, your friend Lantry was in the other day.” And he’d say, ‘Lantry who? Don’t know anyone by that name.’ And she’d say, “Oh, he lied.” And people in this time didn’t lie. So it would all form and coalesce, item by item, bit by bit. A pale man who was pale and shouldn’t be pale had lied and people don’t lie, and a walking man on a lonely country road had walked and people don’t walk any more, and a body was missing from a cemetery, and the Incinerator had blown up and and and—
They would come after him. They would find him. He would be easy to find. He walked. He lied. He was pale. They would find him and take him and stick him through the open fire lock of the nearest Burner and that would be your Mr. William Lantry, like a Fourth of July set-piece!
There was only one thing to be done efficiently and completely. He arose in violent moves. His lips were wide and his dark eyes were flared and there was a trembling and burning all through him. He must kill and kill and kill and kill and kill. He must make his enemies into friends, into people like himself who walked but shouldn’t walk, who were pale in a land of pinks. He must kill and then kill and then kill again. He must make bodies and dead people and corpses. He must destroy Incinerator after Flue after Burner after Incinerator. Explosion on explosion. Death on death. Then, when the Incinerators were all in thrown ruin, and the hastily established morgues were jammed with the bodies of people shattered by the explosion, then he would begin his making of friends, his enrollment of the dead in his own cause.
Before they traced and found and killed him, they must be killed themselves. So far he was safe. He could kill and they would not kill back.
People simply do not go around killing. That was his safety margin. He climbed out of the abandoned drain, stood in the road.
He took the knife from his pocket and hailed the next beetle.
It was like the Fourth of July! The biggest firecracker of them all. The Science Port Incinerator split down the middle and flew apart. It made a thousand small explosions that ended with a greater one. It fell upon the town and crushed houses and burned trees. It woke people from sleep and then put them to sleep again, forever, an instant later.
William Lantry, sitting in a beetle that was not his own, tuned idly to a station on the audio dial. The collapse of the Incinerator had killed some four hundred people. Many had been caught in flattened houses, others struck by flying metal. A temporary morgue was being set up at—
An address was given.
Lantry noted it with a pad and pencil.
He could go on this way, he thought, from town to town, from country to country, destroying the Burners, the Pillars of Fire, until the whole clean magnificent framework of flame and cauterization was tumbled. He made a fair estimate—each explosion averaged five hundred dead. You could work that up to a hundred thousand in no time.
He pressed the floor stud on the beetle. Smiling, he drove off through the dark streets of the city.
The city coroner had requisitioned an old warehouse. From midnight until four in the morning the gray beetles hissed down the rain-shiny streets, turned in, and the bodies were laid out on the cold concrete floors, with white sheets over them. It was a continuous flow until about four-thirty, then it stopped. There were about two hundred bodies there, white and cold.
The bodies were left alone; nobody stayed behind to tend them. There was no use tending the dead; it was a useless procedure; the dead could take care of themselves.
About five o’clock, with a touch of dawn in the east, the first trickle of relatives arrived to identify their sons or their fathers or their mothers or their uncles. The people moved quickly into the warehouse, made the identification, moved quickly out again. By six o’clock, with the sky still lighter in the east, this trickle had passed on, also.
William Lantry walked across the wide wet street and entered the warehouse.
He held a piece of blue chalk in one hand.
He walked by the coroner who stood in the entranceway talking to two others. “… drive the bodies to the Incinerator in Mellin Town, tomorrow …”
The voices faded.
Lantry moved, his feet echoing faintly on the cool concrete. A wave of sourceless relief came to him as he walked among the shrouded figures. He was among his own. And—better than that! He had created these! He had made them dead! He had procured for himself a vast number of recumbent friends!
Was the coroner watching? Lantry turned his head. No. The warehouse was calm and quiet and shadowed in the dark morning. The coroner was walking away now; across the street, with his two attendants; a beetle had drawn up on the other side of the street, and the coroner was going over to talk with whoever was in the beetle.
William Lantry stood and made a blue chalk pentagram on the floor by each of the bodies. He moved swiftly, swiftly, without a sound, without blinking. In a few minutes, glancing up now and then to see if the coroner was still busy, he had chalked the floor by a hundred bodies. He straightened up and put the chalk in his pocket.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party, now is the time …
Lying in the earth, over the centuries, the processes and thoughts of passing peoples and passing times had seeped down to him, slowly, as into a deep-buried sponge. From some death-memory in him now, ironically, repeatedly, a black typewriter clacked out black even lines of pertinent words: Now is the time for all good men, for all good men, to come to the aid of—
William Lantry.
Other words—
Arise my love, and come away—
The quick brown fox jumped over … Paraphrase it. The quick risen body jumped over the tumbled Incinerator…
Lazarus, come forth from the tomb …
He knew the right words. He need only speak them as they had been spoken over the centuries. He need only gesture with his hands and speak the words, the dark words that would cause these bodies to quiver, rise and walk!
And when they had risen he would take them through the town, they would kill others, and the others would rise and walk. By the end of the day there would be thousands of good friends, walking with him. And what of the naïve, living people of this year, this day, this hour? They would be completely unprepared for it. They would go down to defeat because they would not be expecting war of any sort. They wouldn’t believe it possible, it would all be over before they could convince themselves that such an illogical thing could happen.
He lifted his hands. His lips moved. He said the words. He began in a chanting whisper and then raised his voice, louder. He said the words again and again. His eyes were closed tightly. His body swayed. He spoke faster and faster. He began to move forward among the bodies. The dark words flowed from his mouth. He was enchanted with his own formulae. He stooped and made further blue symbols on the concrete, in the fashion of long-dead sorcerers, smiling, confident. Any moment now the first tremor of the still bodies, any moment now the rising, the leaping up of the cold ones!
His hands lifted in the air. His head nodded. He spoke, he spoke, he spoke. He gestured. He talked loudly over the bodies, his eyes flaring, his body tensed. “Now!” he cried, violently. “Rise, all of you!”
Nothing happened.
“Rise!” he screamed, with a terrible torment in his voice.
The sheets lay in white blue-shadow folds over the silent bodies.
“Hear me, and act!” he shouted.
Far away, on the street, a beetle hissed along.
Again, again, again he shouted, pleaded. He got down by each body and asked of it his particular violent favor. No reply. He strode wildly between the even white rows, flinging his arms up, stooping again and again to make blue symbols!
Lantry was very pale. He licked his lips. “Come on, get up,” he said.
“They have, they always have, for a thousand years. When you make a mark
—so! and speak a word—so! they always rise! Why not now, why not you!
Come on, come on, before they come back!”
The warehouse went up into shadow. There were steel beams across and down. In it, under the roof, there was not a sound, except the raving of a lonely man.
Lantry stopped.
Through the wide doors of the warehouse he caught a glimpse of the last cold stars of morning.
This was the year 2349.
His eyes grew cold and his hands fell to his sides. He did not move.
Once upon a time people shuddered when they heard the wind about the house, once people raised crucifixes and wolfbane, and believed in walking dead and bats and loping white wolves. And as long as they believed, then so long did the dead, the bats, the loping wolves exist. The mind gave birth and reality to them.
But …
He looked at the white sheeted bodies.
These people did not believe.
They had never believed. They would never believe. They had never imagined that the dead might walk. The dead went up flues in flame. They had never heard superstition, never trembled or shuddered or doubted in the dark. Walking dead people could not exist, they were illogical. This was the year 2349, man, after all!
Therefore, these people could not rise, could not walk again. They were dead and flat and cold. Nothing, chalk, imprecation, superstition, could wind them up and set them walking. They were dead and knew they were dead!
He was alone.
There were live people in the world who moved and drove beetles and drank quiet drinks in little dimly illumined bars by country roads, and kissed women and talked much good talk all day and every day.
But he was not alive.
Friction gave him what little warmth he possessed.
There were two hundred dead people here in this warehouse now, cold upon the floor. The first dead people in a hundred years who were allowed to be corpses for an extra hour or more. The first not to be immediately trundled to the Incinerator and lit like so much phosphorus.
He should be happy with them, among them.
He was not.
They were completely dead. They did not know nor believe in walking once the heart had paused and stilled itself. They were deader than dead ever was.
He was indeed alone, more alone than any man had ever been. He felt the chill of his aloneness moving up into his chest, strangling him quietly.
William Lantry turned suddenly and gasped.
While he had stood there, someone had entered the warehouse. A tall man with white hair, wearing a light weight tan overcoat and no hat. How long the man had been nearby there was no telling.
There was no reason to stay here. Lantry turned and started to walk slowly out. He looked hastily at the man as he passed and the man with the white hair looked back at him, curiously. Had he heard? The imprecations, the pleadings, the shoutings? Did he suspect? Lantry slowed his walk. Had this man seen him make the blue chalk marks? But then, would he interpret them as symbols of an ancient superstition? Probably not.
Reaching the door, Lantry paused. For a moment he did not want to do anything but lie down and be coldly, really dead again and be carried silently down the street to some distant burning flue and there dispatched in ash and whispering fire. If he was indeed alone and there was no chance to collect an army to his cause, what, then, existed as a reason for going on? Killing? Yes, he’d kill a few thousand more. But that wasn’t enough. You can only do so much of that before they drag you down.
He looked at the cold sky.
A rocket went across the black heaven, trailing fire.
Mars burned red among a million stars.
Mars. The library. The librarian. Talk. Returning rocket men. Tombs.
Lantry almost gave a shout. He restrained his hand, which wanted so much to reach up into the sky and touch Mars. Lovely red star on the sky.
Good star that gave him sudden new hope. If he had a living heart now it would be thrashing wildly, and sweat would be breaking out of him and his pulses would be stammering, and tears would be in his eyes!
He would go down to wherever the rockets sprang up into space. He would go to Mars, one way or another. He would go to the Martian tombs.
There, there were bodies, he would bet his last hatred on it, that would rise and walk and work with him! Theirs was an ancientculture, much different from that of Earth, patterned on the Egyptian, if what the librarian had said was true. And the Egyptian—what a crucible of dark superstition and midnight terror that culture had been. Mars it was, then. Beautiful Mars!
But he must not attract attention to himself. He must move carefully.
He wanted to run, yes, to get away, but that would be the worst possible move he could make. The man with the white hair was glancing at Lantry from time to time, in the entranceway. There were too many people about. If anything happened he would be outnumbered. So far he had taken on only one man at a time.
Lantry forced himself to stop and stand on the steps before the warehouse. The man with the white hair came on onto the steps also and stood, looking at the sky. He looked as if he was going to speak at any moment. He fumbled in his pockets and took out a packet of cigarettes.
V
They stood outside the morgue together, the tall, pink, white-haired man, and Lantry, hands in their pockets. It was a cool night with a white shell of a moon that washed a house here, a road there, and farther on, parts of a river.
“Cigarette?” The man offered Lantry one.
“Thanks.”
They lit up together. The man glanced at Lantry’s mouth. “Cool night.”
“Cool.”
They shifted their feet. “Terrible accident.”
“Terrible.”
“So many dead.”
“So many.”
Lantry felt himself some sort of delicate weight upon a scale. The other man did not seem to be looking at him, but rather listening and feeling toward him. There was a feathery balance here that made for vast discomfort.
He wanted to move away and get out from under this balancing, weighing.
The tall white-haired man said, “My name’s McClure.”
“Did you have any friends inside?” asked Lantry.
“No. A casual acquaintance. Awful accident.”
“Awful.”
They balanced each other. A beetle hissed by on the road with its seventeen tires whirling quietly. The moon showed a little town farther over in the black hills.
“I say,” said the man McClure.
“Yes.”
“Could you answer me a question?”
“Be glad to.” He loosened the knife in his coat pocket, ready.
“Is your name Lantry?” asked the man at last.
“Yes.”
“William Lantry?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re the man who came out of the Salem graveyard day before yesterday, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Good Lord, I’m glad to meet you, Lantry! We’ve been trying to find you for the past twenty-four hours!”
The man seized his hand, pumped it, slapped him on the back.
“What, what?” said Lantry.
“Good Lord, man, why did you run off? Do you realize what an instance this is? We want to talk to you!”
McClure was smiling, glowing. Another handshake, another slap. “I thought it was you!”
The man is mad, thought Lantry. Absolutely mad. Here I’ve toppled his incinerators, killed people, and he’s shaking my hand. Mad, mad!
“Will you come along to the Hall?” said the man, taking his elbow.
“Wh-what hall?” Lantry stepped back.
“The Science Hall, of course. It isn’t every year we get a real case of suspended animation. In small animals, yes, but in a man, hardly! Will you come?”
“What’s the act!” demanded Lantry, glaring. “What’s all this talk.”
“My dear fellow, what do you mean?” the man was stunned.
“Never mind. Is that the only reason you want to see me?”
“What other reason would there be, Mr. Lantry? You don’t know how glad I am to see you!” He almost did a little dance. “I suspected. When we were in there together. You being so pale and all. And then the way you smoked your cigarette, something about it, and a lot of other things, all subliminal. But it is you, isn’t it, it is you!”
“It is I. William Lantry.” Dryly.
“Good fellow! Come along!”
The beetle moved swiftly through the dawn streets. McClure talked rapidly.
Lantry sat, listening, astounded. Here was this fool, McClure, playing his cards for him! Here was this stupid scientist, or whatever, accepting him not as a suspicious baggage, a murderous item. Oh no! Quite the contrary!
Only as a suspended animation case was he considered! Not as a dangerous man at all. Far from it!
“Of course,” cried McClure, grinning. “You didn’t know where to go, whom to turn to. It was all quite incredible to you.”
“Yes.”
“I had a feeling you’d be there at the morgue tonight,” said McClure, happily.
“Oh?” Lantry stiffened.
“Yes. Can’t explain it. But you, how shall I put it? Ancient Americans? You had funny ideas on death. And you were among the dead so long, I felt you’d be drawn back by the accident, by the morgue and all. It’s not very logical. Silly, in fact. It’s just a feeling. I hate feelings but there it was. I came on a, I guess you’d call it a hunch, wouldn’t you?”
“You might call it that.”
“And there you were!”
“There I was,” said Lantry.
“Are you hungry?”
“I’ve eaten.”
“How did you get around?”
“I hitchhiked.”
“You what? ”
“People gave me rides on the road.”
“Remarkable.”
“I imagine it sounds that way.” He looked at the passing houses. “So this is the era of space travel, is it?”
“Oh, we’ve been traveling to Mars for some forty years now.”
“Amazing. And those big funnels, those towers in the middle of every town?”
“Those. Haven’t you heard? The Incinerators. Oh, of course, they hadn’t anything of that sort in your time. Had some bad luck with them. An explosion in Salem and one here, all in a forty-eight-hour period. You looked as if you were going to speak; what is it?”
“I was thinking,” said Lantry. “How fortunate I got out of my coffin when I did. I might well have been thrown into one of your Incinerators and burned up.”
“Quite.”
Lantry toyed with the dials on the beetle dash. He wouldn’t go to Mars. His plans were changed. If this fool simply refused to recognize an act of violence when he stumbled upon it, then let him be a fool. If they didn’t connect the two explosions with a man from the tomb, all well and good. Let them go on deluding themselves. If they couldn’t imagine someone being mean and nasty and murderous, heaven help them. He rubbed his hands with satisfaction. No, no Martian trip for you, as yet, Lantry lad. First, we’ll see what can be done boring from the inside. Plenty of time. The Incinerators can wait an extra week or so. One has to be subtle, you know. Any more immediate explosions might cause quite a ripple of thought.
McClure was gabbling wildly on.
“Of course, you don’t have to be examined immediately. You’ll want a rest. I’ll put you up at my place.”
“Thanks. I don’t feel up to being probed and pulled. Plenty of time in a week or so.”
They drew up before a house and climbed out.
“You want to sleep, naturally.”
“I’ve been asleep for centuries. Be glad to stay awake. I’m not a bit tired.”
“Good.” McClure let them into the house. He headed for the drink bar.
“A drink will fix us up.”
“You have one,” said Lantry. “Later for me. I just want to sit down.”
“By all means sit.” McClure mixed himself a drink. He looked around the room, looked at Lantry, paused for a moment with the drink in his hand, tilted his head to one side, and put his tongue in his cheek. Then he shrugged and stirred the drink. He walked slowly to a chair and sat, sipping the drink quietly. He seemed to be listening for something. “There are cigarettes on the table,” he said.
“Thanks.” Lantry took one and lit it and smoked it. He did not speak for some time.
Lantry thought, I’m taking this all too easily. Maybe I should kill and run. He’s the only one that has found me, yet. Perhaps this is all a trap.
Perhaps we’re simply sitting here waiting for the police. Or whatever in blazes they use for police these days. He looked at McClure. No. They weren’t waiting for police. They were waiting for something else.
McClure didn’t speak. He looked at Lantry’s face and he looked at Lantry’s hands. He looked at Lantry’s chest a long time, with easy quietness.
He sipped his drink. He looked at Lantry’s feet.
Finally he said, “Where’d you get the clothing?”
“I asked someone for clothes and they gave these things to me. Darned nice of them.”
“You’ll find that’s how we are in this world. All you have to do is ask.”
McClure shut up again. His eyes moved. Only his eyes and nothing else. Once or twice he lifted his drink.
A little clock ticked somewhere in the distance.
“Tell me about yourself, Mr. Lantry.”
“Nothing much to tell.”
“You’re modest.”
“Hardly. You know about the past. I know nothing of the future, or I should say ‘today’ and day before yesterday. You don’t learn much in a coffin.”
McClure did not speak. He suddenly sat forward in his chair and then leaned back and shook his head.
They’ll never suspect me, thought Lantry. They aren’t superstitious, they simply can’t believe in a dead man walking. Therefore, I’ll be safe. I’ll keep putting off the physical checkup. They’re polite. They won’t force me.
Then, I’ll work it so I can get to Mars. After that, the tombs, in my own good time, and the plan. God, how simple. How naïve these people are.
McClure sat across the room for five minutes. A coldness had come over him. The color was very slowly going from his face, as one sees the color of medicine vanishing as one presses the bulb at the top of a dropper. He leaned forward, saying nothing, and offered another cigarette to Lantry.
“Thanks.” Lantry took it. McClure sat deeply back into his easy chair, his knees folded one over the other. He did not look at Lantry, and yet somehow did. The feeling of weighing and balancing returned. McClure was like a tall thin master of hounds listening for something that nobody else could hear. There are little silver whistles you can blow that only dogs can hear. McClure seemed to be listening acutely, sensitively for such an invisible whistle, listening with his eyes and with his half-opened, dry mouth, and with his aching, breathing nostrils.
Lantry sucked the cigarette, sucked the cigarette, sucked the cigarette, and, as many times, blew out, blew out, blew out. McClure was like some lean red-shagged hound listening and listening with a slick slide of eyes to one side, with an apprehension in that hand that was so precisely microscopic that one only sensed it, as one sensed the invisible whistle, with some part of the brain deeper than eyes or nostril or ear.
The room was so quiet the cigarette smoke made some kind of invisible noise rising to the ceiling. McClure was a thermometer, a chemist’s scales, a listening hound, a litmus paper, an antennae; all these. Lantry did not move. Perhaps the feeling would pass. It had passed before. McClure did not move for a long while and then, without a word, he nodded at the sherry decanter, and Lantry refused as silently. They sat looking but not looking at each other, again and away, again and away.
McClure stiffened slowly. Lantry saw the color getting paler in those lean cheeks, and the hand tightening on the sherry glass, and a knowledge come at last to stay, never to go away, into the eyes.
Lantry did not move. He could not. All of this was of such a fascination that he wanted only to see, to hear what would happen next. It was McClure’s show from here on in.
McClure said, “At first I thought it was the first psychosis I have ever seen. You, I mean. I thought, he’s convinced himself, Lantry’s convinced himself, he’s quite insane, he’s told himself to do all these little things.”
McClure talked as if in a dream, and continued talking and didn’t stop.
“I said to myself, he purposely doesn’t breathe through his nose. I watched your nostrils, Lantry. The little nostril hairs never once quivered in the last hour. That wasn’t enough. It was a fact I filed. It wasn’t enough. He breathes through his mouth, I said, on purpose. And then I gave you a cigarette and you sucked and blew, sucked and blew. None of it ever came out your nose. I told myself, well, that’s all right. He doesn’t inhale. Is that terrible, is that suspect? All in the mouth, all in the mouth. And then, I looked at your chest. I watched. It never moved up or down, it did nothing. He’s convinced himself, I said to myself. He’s convinced himself about all this. He doesn’t move his chest, except slowly, when he thinks you’re not looking.
That’s what I told myself.”
The words went on in the silent room, not pausing, still in a dream.
“And then I offered you a drink but you don’t drink and I thought, he doesn’t drink, I thought. Is that terrible? And I watched and watched you all this time.
Lantry holds his breath, he’s fooling himself. But now, yes, now, I understand it quite well. Now I know everything the way it is. Do you know how I know?
I do not hear breathing in the room. I wait and I hear nothing. There is no beat of heart or intake of lung. The room is so silent. Nonsense, one might say, but I know. At the Incinerator I know. There is a difference. You enter a room where a man is on a bed and you know immediately whether he will look up and speak to you or whether he will not speak to you ever again. Laugh if you will, but one can tell. It is a subliminal thing. It is the whistle the dog hears when no human hears. It is the tick of a clock that has ticked so long one no longer notices. Something is in a room when a man lives in it. Something is not in the room when a man is dead in it.”
McClure shut his eyes a moment. He put down his sherry glass. He waited a moment. He took up his cigarette and puffed it and then put it down in a black tray.
“I am alone in this room,” he said.
Lantry did not move.
“You are dead,” said McClure. “My mind does not know this. It is not a thinking thing. It is a thing of the senses and the subconscious. At first I thought, this man thinks he is dead, risen from the dead, a vampire. Is that not logical? Would not any man, buried as many centuries, raised in a superstitious, ignorant culture, think likewise of himself once risen from the tomb? Yes, that is logical. This man has hypnotized himself and fitted his bodily functions so that they would in no way interfere with his self-delusion, his great paranoia. He governs his breathing. He tells himself, I cannot hear my breathing, therefore I am dead. His inner mind censors the sound of breathing. He does not allow himself to eat or drink. These things he probably does in his sleep, with part of his mind, hiding the evidences of this humanity from his deluded mind at other times.”
McClure finished it. “I was wrong. You are not insane. You are not deluding yourself. Nor me. This is all very illogical and—I must admit—
almost frightening. Does that make you feel good, to think you frighten me? I have no label for you. You’re a very odd man, Lantry. I’m glad to have met you. This will make an interesting report indeed.”
“Is there anything wrong with me being dead?” said Lantry. “Is it a crime?”
“You must admit it’s highly unusual.”
“But, still now, is it a crime?” asked Lantry.
“We have no crime, no criminal court. We want to examine you, naturally, to find out how you have happened. It is like that chemical which, one minute is inert, the next is living cell. Who can say where what happened to what. You are that impossibility. It is enough to drive a man quite insane.”
“Will I be released when you are done fingering me?”
“You will not be held. If you don’t wish to be examined, you will not be. But I am hoping you will help by offering us your services.”
“I might,” said Lantry.
“But tell me,” said McClure. “What were you doing at the morgue?”
“Nothing.”
“I heard you talking when I came in.”
“I was merely curious.”
“You’re lying. That is very bad, Mr. Lantry. The truth is far better. The truth is, is it not, that you are dead and, being the only one of your sort, were lonely. Therefore you killed people to have company.”
“How does that follow?”
McClure laughed. “Logic, my dear fellow. Once I knew you were really dead, a moment ago, really a—what do you call it—a vampire (silly word!) I tied you immediately to the Incinerator blasts. Before that there was no reason to connect you. But once the one piece fell into place, the fact that you were dead, then it was simple to guess your loneliness, your hate, your envy, all of the tawdry motivations of a walking corpse. It took only an instant then to see the Incinerators blown to blazes, and then to think of you, among the bodies at the morgue, seeking help, seeking friends and people like yourself to work with—”
“Blast you!” Lantry was out of the chair. He was halfway to the other man when McClure rolled over and scuttled away, flinging the sherry decanter. With a great despair Lantry realized that, like an idiot, he had thrown away his one chance to kill McClure. He should have done it earlier. It had been Lantry’s one weapon, his safety margin. If people in a society never killed each other, they never suspected one another. You could walk up to any one of them and kill him.
“Come back here!” Lantry threw the knife.
McClure got behind a chair. The idea of flight, of protection, of fighting, was still new to him. He had part of the idea, but there was still a bit of luck on Lantry’s side if Lantry wanted to use it.
“Oh, no,” said McClure, holding the chair between himself and the advancing man. “You want to kill me. It’s odd, but true. I can’t understand it.
You want to cut me with that knife or something like that, and it’s up to me to prevent you from doing such an odd thing.”
“I will kill you!” Lantry let it slip out. He cursed himself. That was the worst possible thing to say.
Lantry lunged across the chair, clutching at McClure.
McClure was very logical. “It won’t do you any good to kill me. You know that.” They wrestled and held each other in a wild, toppling shuffle.
Tables fell over, scattering articles. “You remember what happened in the morgue?”
“I don’t care!” screamed Lantry.
“You didn’t raise those dead, did you?”
“I don’t care!” cried Lantry.
“Look here,” said McClure, reasonably. “There will never be any more like you, ever, there’s no use.”
“Then I’ll destroy all of you, all of you!” screamed Lantry.
“And then what? You’ll still be alone, with no more like you about.”
“I’ll go to Mars. They have tombs there. I’ll find more like myself!”
“No,” said McClure. “The executive order went through yesterday. All of the tombs are being deprived of their bodies. They’ll be burned in the next week.”
They fell together to the floor. Lantry got his hands on McClure’s throat.
“Please,” said McClure. “Do you see, you’ll die.”
“What do you mean?” cried Lantry.
“Once you kill all of us, and you’re alone, you’ll die! The hate will die. That hate is what moved you, nothing else! That envy moves you.
Nothing else! You’ll die, inevitably. You’re not immortal. You’re not even alive, you’re nothing but a moving hate.”
“I don’t care!” screamed Lantry, and began choking the man, beating his head with his fists, crouched on the defenseless body. McClure looked up at him with dying eyes.
The front door opened. Two men came in.
“I say,” said one of them. “What’s going on? A new game?”
Lantry jumped back and began to run.
“Yes, a new game!” said McClure, struggling up. “Catch him and you win!”
The two men caught Lantry. “We win,” they said.
“Let me go!” Lantry thrashed, hitting them across their faces, bringing blood.
“Hold him tight!” cried McClure.
They held him.
“A rough game, what?” one of them said. “What do we do now? ”
The beetle hissed along the shining road. Rain fell out of the sky and a wind ripped at the dark green wet trees. In the beetle, his hands on the half-wheel, McClure was talking. His voice was susurrant, a whispering, a hypnotic thing. The two other men sat in the back seat. Lantry sat, or rather lay, in the front seat, his head back, his eyes faintly open, the glowing green light of the dash dials showing on his cheeks. His mouth was relaxed. He did not speak.
McClure talked quietly and logically, about life and moving, about death and not moving, about the sun and the great sun Incinerator, about the emptied tombyard, about hatred and how hate lived and made a clay man live and move, and how illogical it all was, it all was, it all was. One was dead, was dead, was dead, that was all, all, all. One did not try to be otherwise. The car whispered on the moving road. The rain spattered gently on the windshield. The men in the back seat conversed quietly. Where were they going, going? To the Incinerator, of course. Cigarette smoke moved slowly up on the air, curling and tying into itself in gray loops and spirals. One was dead and must accept it.
Lantry did not move. He was a marionette, the strings cut. There was only a tiny hatred in his heart, in his eyes, like twin coals, feeble, glowing, fading.
I am Poe, he thought. I am all that is left of Edgar Allan Poe, and I am all that is left of Ambrose Bierce and all that is left of a man named Lovecraft.
I am a gray night bat with sharp teeth, and I am a square black monolith monster. I am Osiris and Bal and Set. I am the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead. I am the house of Usher, falling into flame. I am the Red Death. I am the man mortared into the catacomb with a cask of Amontillado … I am a dancing skeleton. I am a coffin, a shroud, a lightning bolt reflected in an old house window. I am an autumn-empty tree, I am a rapping, flinging shutter. I am a yellowed volume turned by a claw hand. I am an organ played in an attic at midnight. I am a mask, a skull mask behind an oak tree on the last day of October. I am a poison apple bobbling in a water tub for child noses to bump at, for child teeth to snap … I am a black candle lighted before an inverted cross. I am a coffin lid, a sheet with eyes, a foot-step on a black stairwell. I am Dunsany and Machen and I am the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I am The Monkey’s Paw and I am The Phantom Rickshaw. I am the Cat and the Canary, the Gorilla, the Bat. I am the ghost of Hamlet’s father on the castle wall.
All of these things am I. And now these last things will be burned.
While I lived they still lived. While I moved and hated and existed, they still existed. I am all that remembers them. I am all of them that still goes on, and will not go on after tonight. Tonight, all of us, Poe and Bierce and Hamlet’s father, we burn together. They will make a big heap of us and burn us like a bonfire, like things of Guy Fawkes’ day, gasoline, torches, cries, and all!
And what a wailing will we put up. The world will be clean of us, but in our going we shall say, oh what is the world like, clean of fear, where is the dark imagination from the dark time, the thrill and the anticipation, the suspense of old October, gone, never more to come again, flattened and smashed and burned by the rocket people, by the Incinerator people, destroyed and obliterated, to be replaced by doors that open and close and lights that go on and off without fear. If only you could remember how once we lived, what Halloween was to us, and what Poe was, and how we gloried in the dark morbidities. One more drink, dear friends, of Amontillado, before the burning. All of this, all, exists but in one last brain on earth. A whole world dying tonight. One more drink, pray.
“Here we are,” said McClure.
The Incinerator was brightly lighted. There was quiet music nearby.
McClure got out of the beetle, came around to the other side. He opened the door. Lantry simply lay there. The talking and the logical talking had slowly drained him of life. He was no more than wax now, with a small glow in his eyes. This future world, how the men talked to you, how logically they reasoned away your life. They wouldn’t believe in him. The force of their disbelief froze him. He could not move his arms or his legs. He could only mumble senselessly, coldly, eyes flickering.
McClure and the two others helped him out of the car, put him in a golden box, and rolled him on a roller table into the warm glowing interior of the building.
I am Edgar Allan Poe, I am Ambrose Bierce, I am Halloween, I am a coffin, a shroud, a Monkey’s Paw, a Phantom, a Vampire …
“Yes, yes,” said McClure, quietly, over him. “I know. I know.”
The table glided. The walls swung over him and by him, the music played. You are dead, you are logically dead.
I am Usher, I am the Maelstrom, I am the MS Found In A Bottle, I am the Pit and I am the Pendulum, I am the Telltale Heart, I am the Raven nevermore, nevermore.
“Yes,” said McClure, as they walked softly. “I know.”
“I am in the catacomb,” cried Lantry.
“Yes, the catacomb,” said the walking man over him.
“I am being chained to a wall, and there is no bottle of Amontillado here!” cried Lantry weakly, eyes closed.
“Yes,” someone said.
There was movement. The flame door opened.
“Now someone is mortaring up the cell, closing me in!”
“Yes, I know.” A whisper.
The golden box slid into the flame lock.
“I’m being walled in! A very good joke indeed! Let us be gone!” A wild scream and much laughter.
“We know, we understand …”
The inner flame lock opened. The golden coffin shot forth into flame.
“For the love of God, Montresor! For the love of God !”
The End
Conclusion
It’s a nice little story to read. A bit on the horrific side, but a good read never the less. I hope that you all enjoyed it.
This is a nice story by Ray Bradbury. I dedicate it to the many, many MM readers that tell me that they have changed by visiting this site, and that they are all the better for it. They tell me stories, and adventures, and just amazing events that confirm that everyone is on the right track. This story is about a man who changes.
Chrysalis.
This story is dedicated to youse guys. It’s my way of telling you that I recognize what you are tying to ell me, and that I am so gladdened by your stories. It’s just a fictional story, and you all, well, you all are the “real deal”. But Ray Bradbury has such a way with the words, and he conjures up such imagery, that I think that this is a treasure.
A treasure that is worthy for you all.
Chrysalis
Rockwell didn’t like the room’s smell. Not so much McGuke’s odor of beer, or Hartley’s unwashed, tired smell—-but the sharp insect tang rising from Smith’s cold green-skinned body lying stiffly naked on the table. There was also a smell of oil and grease from the nameless machinery gleaming in one comer of the small room.
The man Smith was a corpse. Irritated, Rockwell rose from his chair and packed his stethoscope. “I must get back to the hospital. War rush. You understand, Hartley. Smith’s been dead eight hours. If you want further information call a post-mortem—”
He stopped as Hartley raised a trembling, bony hand. Hartley gestured at the corpse—this corpse with brittle hard green shell grown solid over every inch of flesh. “Use your stethoscope again, Rockwell. Just once more. Please.”
Rockwell wanted to complain, but instead he sighed, sat down, and used the stethoscope. You have to treat fellow doctors politely. You press your stethoscope into cold green flesh, pretending to listen—
The small, dimly lit room exploded around him. Exploded in one green cold pulsing. It hit Rockwell’s ears like fists. It hit him. He saw his own fingers jerk over the recumbent corpse.
He heard a pulse.
Deep in the dark body the heart beat once. It sounded like an echo in fathoms of sea water.
Smith was dead, unbreathing, mummified. But at the core of that deadness—his heart lived. Lived, stirring like a small unborn baby!
Rockwell’s crisp surgeon’s fingers darted rapidly. He bent his head. In the light it was dark-haired, with flecks of gray in it. He had an even, level, nice-looking face. About thirty-five. He listened again and again, with sweat coming cold on his smooth cheeks. The pulse was not to be believed.
One heartbeat every thirty-five seconds.
Smith’s respiration—how could you believe that, too one breath of air every four minutes. Lungcase movement imperceptible.
Body temperature?
Sixty degrees.
Hartley laughed. It was not a pleasant laugh. More like an echo that had gotten lost. “He’s alive,” he said tiredly. “Yes, he is. He almost fooled me many times. I injected adrenalin to speed that pulse, but it was no use. He’s been this way for twelve weeks. And I couldn’t stand keeping him a secret any longer. That’s why I phoned you, Rockwell. He’s—unnatural.
The impossibility of it overwhelmed Rockwell with an inexplicable excitement. He tried to lift Smiths’ eyelids. He couldn’t. They were webbed with epidermis. So were the lips. So were the nostrils. There was no way for Smith to breathe—
“Yet, he’s breathing.” Rockwell’s voice was numb. He dropped his stethoscope blankly, picked it up, and saw his fingers shaking.
Hartley grew tall, emaciated, nervous over the table. “Smith didn’t like my calling you. I called anyway. Smith warned me not to. Just an hour ago.”
Rockell’s eyes dilated into hot black circles. “How could he warn you? He can’t move.”
Hartley’s face, all razor-sharp bone, hard jaw, tight squinting gray eyes, twitched nervously. Smith— thinks. I know his thoughts. He’s afraid you’ll expose him to the world. He hates me. Why? I want to kill him, that’s why. Here.” Hardey fumbled blindly for a blue-steel revolver in his rumpled, stained coat. “Murphy. Take this. Take it before I use it on Smith’s foul body!”
Murphy pulled back, his thick red face afraid. “Don’t like guns. You take it, Rockwell.”
Like a scalpel, Rockwell made his voice slash. “Put the gun away, Hartley. After three months tending one patient you’ve got a psychological blemish. Sleep’ll help that.” He licked his lips. “What sort of disease has Smith got?”
Hartley swayed. His mouth moved words out slowly. Falling asleep on his feet, Rockwell realized. “Not diseased,” Hartley managed to say. “Don’t know what. But I resent him, like a kid resents the birth of a new brother or sister. He’s wrong. Help me. Help me, will you?”
“Of course.” Rockwell smiled. “My desert sanitarium’s the place to check him over, good. Why—why Smith’s the most incredible medical phenomenon in history. Bodies just don’t act this way!”
He got no further. Hartley had his gun pointed right at Rockwell’s stomach. “Wait. Wait. You—you’re not going to bury Smith! I thought you’d help me. Smith’s not healthy. I want him killed! He’s dangerous! I know he is!”
Rockwell blinked. Hartley was obviously psychoneurotic. Didn’t know what he was saying. Rockwell straightened his shoulders, feeling cool and calm inside. “Shoot Smith and I’ll turn you in for murder. You’re overworked mentally and physically. Put the gun away.”
They stared at one another.
Rockwell walked forward quietly and took the gun, patted Hartley understandingly on the shoulder, and gave the weapon to Murphy, who looked at it as if it would bite him. “Call the hospital. Murphy. I’m taking a week off. Maybe longer. Tell them I’m doing research at the sanitarium.”
A scowl formed in the red fat flesh of Murphy’s face. “What do I do with this gun?”
Hartley shut his teeth together, hard. “Keep it. You’ll want to use it—
later.”
Rockwell wanted to shout it to the world that he was sole possessor of the most incredible human in history. The sun was bright in the desert sanitarium room where
Smith lay, not saying a word, on his table; his handsome face frozen into a green, passionless expression.
Rockwell walked into the room quietly. He used the stethoscope on the green chest. It scraped, making the noise of metal tapping a beetle’s carapace.
McGuire stood by, eyeing the body dubiously, smelling of several recently acquired beers.
Rockwell listened intently. “The ambulance ride may have jolted him.
No use taking a chance—”
Rockwell cried out.
Heavily, McGuire lumbered to his side. ‘What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” Rockwell stared about in desperation. He made one hand into a fist. “Smith’s dying!”
“How do you know? Hartley said Smith plays possum. He’s fooled you again—”
“No!” Rockwell worked furiously over the body, injecting drugs. Any drugs. Swearing at the top of his voice. After all this trouble, he couldn’t lose Smith. No, not now.
Shaking, jarring, twisting deep down inside, going completely liquidly mad. Smith’s body sounded like dim volcanic tides bursting.
Rockwell fought to remain calm. Smith was a case unto himself.
Normal treatment did nothing for him. What then? What?
Rockwell stared. Sunlight gleamed on Smith’s hard flesh. Hot sunlight. It flashed, glinting off the stethoscope tip. The sun. As he watched, clouds shifted across the sky outside, taking the sun away. The room darkened. Smith’s body shook into silence. The volcanic tides died.
“McGuire! Pull the blinds! Before the sun comes back!”
McGuire obeyed.
Smith’s heart slowed down to its sluggish, infrequent breathing.
“Sunlight’s bad for Smith. It counteracts something. I don’t know what or why, but it’s not good—” Rockwell relaxed. “Lord, I wouldn’t want to lose Smith. Not for anything. He’s different, making his own standards, doing things men have never done. Know something, Murphy?”
“What?”
“Smith’s not in agony. He’s not dying either. He wouldn’t be better off dead, no matter what Hartley says. Last night as I arranged Smith on the stretcher, readying him for his trip to this sanitarium, I realized, suddenly, that Smith likes me.”
“Gah. First Hartley. Now you. Did Smith tell you that?”
“He didn’t tell me. But he’s not unconscious under all that hard skin.
He’s aware. Yes, that’s it. He’s aware.”
“Pure and simply—he’s petrifying. He’ll die. It’s been weeks since he was fed. Hartley said so. Hartley fed him intravenously until the skin toughened so a needle couldn’t poke through it.”
Whining, the cubicle door swung slowly open. Rockwell started.
Hartley, his sharp face relaxed after hours of sleep, his eyes still a bitter gray, hostile, stood tall in the door. “If you’ll leave the room,” he said, quietly, “I’ll destroy Smith in a very few seconds. Well?”
“Don’t come a step closer.” Rockwell walked, feeling irritation, to Hartley’s side. “Every time you visit, you’ll have to be searched. Frankly, I don’t trust you.” There were no weapons. “Why didn’t you tell me about the sunlight?”
“Eh?” Soft and slow Hartley said it. “Oh—yes. I forgot. I tried shifting Smith weeks ago. Sunlight struck him and he began really dying.
Naturally, I stopped trying to move him. Smith seemed to know what was coming, vaguely. Perhaps he planned it; I’m not sure. While he was still able to talk and eat ravenously, before his body stiffened completely, he warned me not to move him for a twelve-week period. Said he didn’t like the sun.
Said it would spoil things. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. He ate like an animal, a hungry, wild animal, fell into a coma, and here he is—” Hartley swore under his breath. “I’d rather hoped you’d leave him in the sun long enough to kill him inadvertently.”
McGuire shifted his two hundred fifty pounds. “Look here, now.
What if we catch Smith’s disease?”
Hartley looked at the body, his pupils shrinking. “Smith’s not diseased. Don’t you recognize degeneration when you see it? It’s like cancer.
You don’t catch it, you inherit a tendency. I didn’t begin to fear and hate Smith until a week ago when I discovered he was breathing and existing and thriving with his nostrils and mouth sealed. It can’t happen. It mustn’t happen.”
McGuire’s voice trembled. “What if you and I and Rockwell all turn green and a plague sweeps the country—what then?”
“Then,” replied Rockwell, “if I’m wrong, perhaps I am, I’ll die. But it doesn’t worry me in the least.”
He turned back to Smith and went on with his work.
A bell. A bell. Two bells, two bells. A dozen bells, a hundred bells.
Ten thousand and a million clangorous, hammering metal dinning bells. All born at once in the silence, squalling, screaming, hurting echoes, bruising ears!
Ringing, chanting with loud and soft, tenor and bass, low and high voices. Great-armed clappers knocking the shells and ripping air with the thrusting din of sound!
With all those bells ringing, Smith could not immediately know where he was. He knew that he could not see, because his eyelids were sealed tight, knew he could not speak because his lips had grown together. His ears were clamped shut, but the bells hammered nevertheless.
He could not see. But yes, yes, he could, and it was like inside a small dark red cavern, as if his eyes were turned inward upon his skull. And Smith tried to twist his tongue, and suddenly, trying to scream, he knew his tongue was gone, that the place where it used to be was vacant, an itching spot that wanted a tongue but couldn’t have it just now.
No tongue. Strange. Why? Smith tried to stop the bells. They ceased, blessing him with a silence that wrapped him up in a cold blanket. Things were happening. Happening.
Smith tried to twitch a finger, but he had no control. A foot, a leg, a toe, his head, everything. Nothing moved. Torso, limbs—immovable, frozen in a concrete coffin.
A moment later came the dread discovery that he was no longer breathing. Not with his lungs, anyway.
“BECAUSE I HAVE NO LUNGS!” he screamed. Inwardly he screamed and that mental scream was drowned, webbed, clotted, and journeyed drowsily down in a red, dark tide. A red drowsy tide that sleepily swathed the scream, garroted it, took it all away, making Smith rest easier.
I am not afraid, he thought. I understand that which I do not understand. I understand that I do not fear, yet know not the reason.
No tongue, no nose, no lungs.
But they would come later. Yes, they would. Things were—
happening.
Through the pores of his shelled body air slid, like rain needling each portion of him, giving life. Breathing through a billion gills, breathing oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and using it all. Wondering.
Was his heart still beating?
But yes, it was beating. Slow, slow, slow. A red dim susurrance, a flood, a river surging around him, slow, slower, slower. So nice.
So restful.
The jigsaw pieces fitted together faster as the days drifted into weeks.
McGuire helped. A retired surgeon-medico, he’d been Rockwell’s secretary for a number of years. Not much help, but good company.
Rockwell noted that McGuire joked gruffly about Smith, nervously; and a lot. Trying to be calm. But one day McGuire stopped, thought it over, and drawled, “Hey, it just came to me! Smith’s alive. He should be dead. But he’s alive. Good God!”
Rockwell laughed. “What in blazes do you think I’m working on? I’m bringing an X-ray machine out next week so I can find out what’s going on inside Smith’s shell.” Rockwell jabbed with a hypo needle. It broke on the hard shell.
Rockwell tried another needle, and another, until finally he punctured, drew blood, and placed the slides under the microscope for study. Hours later he calmly shoved a serum test under McGuire’s red nose, and spoke quickly.
“Lord, I can’t believe it. His blood’s germicidal. I dropped a streptococci colony into it and the strep was annihilated in eight seconds! You could inject every known disease into Smith and he’d destroy them all, thrive on them!”
It was only a matter of hours until other discoveries. It kept Rockwell sleepless, tossing at night, wondering, theorizing the titanic ideas over and over. For instance—
Hartley’d fed Smith so many cc’s of blood-food every day of his illness until recently. NONE OF THAT FOOD HAD EVER BEEN
ELIMINATED. All of it had been stored, not in bulk-fats, but in a perfectly abnormal solution, an x-liquid contained in high concentrate form in Smith’s blood. An ounce of it would keep a man well fed for three days. This x-liquid circulated through the body until it was actually needed, when it was seized upon and used. More serviceable than fat. Much more!
Rockwell glowed with his discovery. Smith had enough x-liquid stored in him to last months and months more. Self-sustaining.
McGuire, when told, contemplated his paunch sadly.
“I wish I stored my food that way.”
That wasn’t all. Smith needed little air. What air he had he seemed to acquire by an osmotic process through his skin. And he used every molecule of it. No waste.
“And,” finished Rockwell, “eventually Smith’s heart might even take vacations from beating, entirely!”
“Then he’d be dead,” said McGuire.
“To you and I, yes. To Smith—maybe. Just maybe. Think of it, McGuire. Collectively, in Smith, we have a self-purifying blood stream demanding no replenishment but an interior one for months, having little breakdown and no elimination of wastes whatsoever because every molecule is utilized, self-evolving, and fatal to any and all microbic life. All this, and Hartley speaks of degeneration!”
Hartley was irritated when he heard of the discoveries. But he still insisted that Smith was degenerating. Dangerous.
McGuire tossed his two cents in. “How do we know that this isn’t some super microscopic disease that annihilates all other bacteria while it works on its victim. After all—malarial fever is sometimes used surgically to cure syphilis; why not a new bacillus that conquers all?”
“Good point,” said Rockwell. “But we’re not sick, are we?”
“It may have to incubate in our bodies.”
“A typical old-fashioned doctor’s response. No matter what happens to a man, he’s ‘sick’—if he varies from the norm. That’s your idea, Hartley,”
declared Rockwell, “not mine. Doctors aren’t satisfied unless they diagnose and label each case. Well, I think that Smith’s healthy; so healthy you’re afraid of him.”
“You’re crazy,” said McGuire.
“Maybe. But I don’t think Smith needs medical interference. He’s working out his own salvation. You believe he’s degenerating. I say he’s growing.’*
“Look at Smith’s skin,” complained McGuire.
“Sheep in wolfs clothing. Outside, the hard, brittle epidermis. Inside, ordered regrowth, change. Why? I’m on the verge of knowing. These changes inside Smith are so violent that they need a shell to protect their action. And as for you. Hartley, answer me truthfully, when you were young, were you afraid of insects, spiders, things like that?”
“Yes.”
“There you are. A phobia. A phobia you use against Smith. That explains your distaste for Smith’s change.”
In the following weeks, Rockwell went back over Smith’s life carefully. He visited the electronics lab where Smith had been employed and fallen ill. He probed the room where Smith had spent the first weeks of his
“illness” with Hartley in attendance. He examined the machinery there.
Something about radiations
While he was away from the sanitarium, Rockwell locked Smith tightly, and had McGuire guard the door in case Hartley got any unusual ideas.
The details of Smith’s twenty-three years were simple. He had worked for five years in the electronics lab, experimenting. He had never been seriously sick in his life.
And as the days went by Rockwell took long walks in the dry-wash near the sanitarium, alone. It gave him time to think and solidify the incredible theory that was becoming a unit in his brain.
And one afternoon he paused by a night-blooming jasmine outside the sanitarium, reached up, smiling, and plucked a dark shining object off of a high branch. He looked at the object and tucked it in his pocket. Then he walked into the sanitarium.
He summoned McGuire in off the veranda. McGuire came. Hartley trailed behind, threatening, complaining. The three of them sat in the living quarters of the building.
Rockwell told them.
“Smith’s not diseased. Germs can’t live in him. He’s not inhabited by banshees or weird monsters who’ve ‘taken over’ his body. I mention this to show I’ve left no stone untouched. I reject all normal diagnoses of Smith. I offer the most important, the most easily accepted possibility of—delayed hereditary mutation.”
“Mutation?” McGuire’s voice was funny.
Rockwell held up the shiny dark object in the light.
“I found this on a bush in the garden. It’ll illustrate my theory to perfection. After studying Smith’s symptoms, examining his laboratory, and considering several of these”—he twirled the dark object in his fingers— “I’m certain. It’s metamorphosis. It’s regeneration, change, mutation after birth.
Here. Catch. This is Smith.”
He tossed the object to Hartley. Hartley caught it.
“This is the chrysalis of a caterpillar,” said Hartley.
Rockwell nodded. “Yes, it is.”
“You don’t mean to infer that Smith’s a— chrysalis?”
“I’m positive of it,” replied Rockwell.
Rockwell stood over Smith’s body in the darkness of evening. Hartley and McGuire sat across the patient’s room, quiet, listening. Rockwell touched Smith softly. “Suppose that there’s more to life than just being born, living seventy years, and dying. Suppose there’s one more great step up in man’s existence, and Smith has been the first of us to make that step.
“Looking at a caterpillar, we see what we consider a static object. But it changes to a butterfly. Why? There are no final theories explaining it. It’s progress, mainly. The pertinent thing is that a supposedly unchangeable object weaves itself into an intermediary object, wholly unrecognizable, a chrysalis, and emerges a butterfly. Outwardly the chrysalis looks dead. This is misdirection. Smith has misdirected us, you see. Outwardly, dead. Inwardly, fluids whirlpool, reconstruct, rush about with wild purpose. From grub to mosquito, from caterpillar to butterfly, from Smith to—?”
“Smith a chrysalis?” McGuire laughed heavily.
“Yes.”
“Humans don’t work that way.”
“Stop it, McGuire. This evolutionary step’s too great for your comprehension. Examine this body and tell me anything else. Skin, eyes, breathing, blood flow. Weeks of assimilating food for his brittle hibernation.
Why did he eat all that food, why did he need that x-liquid in his body except for his metamorphosis? And the cause of it all was—eradiations. Hard radiations from Smith’s laboratory equipment. Planned or accidental I don’t know. It touched some part of his essential gene-structure, some part of the evolutionary structure of man that wasn’t scheduled for working for thousands of years yet, perhaps.”
“Do you think that some day all men—?”
“The maggot doesn’t stay in the stagnant pond, the grub in the soil, or the caterpillar on a cabbage leaf. They change, spreading across space in waves.
“Smith’s the answer to the problem ‘What happens next for man, where do we go from here?’ We’re faced with the blank wall of the universe and the fatality of living in that universe, and man as he is today is not prepared to go against the universe. The least exertion tires man, overwork kills his heart, disease his body. Maybe Smith will be prepared to answer the philosophers’ problem of life’s purpose. Maybe he can give it new purpose.
“Why, we’re just petty insects, all of us, fighting on a pinhead planet.
Man isn’t meant to remain here and be sick and small and weak, but he hasn’t discovered the secret of the greater knowledge yet.
“But—change man. Build your perfect man. Your— your superman, if you like. Eliminate petty mentality, give him complete physiological, neurological, psychological control of himself: give him clear, incisive channels of thought, give him an indefatigable blood stream, a body that can go months without outside food, that can adjust to any climate anywhere and kill any disease. Release man from the shackles of flesh and flesh misery and then he’s no longer a poor, petty little man afraid to dream because he knows his frail body stands between him and the fulfillment of dreams, then he’s ready to wage war, the only war worth waging—the conflict of man reborn and the whole confounded universe!”
Breathless, voice hoarse, heart pounding, Rockwell tensed over Smith, placed his hands admiringly, firmly on the cold length of the chrysalis and shut his eyes. The power and drive and belief in Smith surged through him. He was right. He was right. He knew he was right. He opened his eyes and looked at McGuire and Hartley who were mere shadows in the dim shielded light of the room.
After a silence of several seconds. Hartley snuffed out his cigarette. “I don’t believe that theory.”
McGuire said, “How do youknow Smith’s not just a mess of jelly inside? Did you X-ray him?”
“I couldn’t risk it, it might interfere with his change, like the sunlight did.”
“So he’s going to be a superman? What will he look like?”
“We’ll wait and see.”
“Do you think he can hear us talking about him now?”
“Whether or not he can, there’s one thing certain— we’re sharing a secret we weren’t intended to know. Smith didn’t plan on myself and McGuire entering the case. He had to make the most of it. But a superman doesn’t like people to know about him. Humans have a nasty way of being envious, jealous, and hateful. Smith knew he wouldn’t be safe if found out. Maybe that explains your hatred, too. Hartley.”
They all remained silent, listening. Nothing sounded. Rockwell’s blood whispered in his temples, that was all. There was Smith, no longer Smith, a container labeled Smith, its contents unknown.
“If what you say is true,” said Hartley, “then indeed we should destroy him. Think of the power over the world he would have. And if it affects his brain as I think it will affect it—he’ll try to kill us when he escapes because we are the only ones who know about him. He’ll hate us for prying.”
Rockwell said it easily. “I’m not afraid.”
Hartley remained silent. His breathing was harsh and loud in the room.
Rockwell came around the table, gesturing.
“I think we’d better say good-night now, don’t you?”
The thin rain swallowed Hartley’s car. Rockwell closed the door, instructed McGuire to sleep downstairs tonight on a cot fronting Smith’s room, and then he walked upstairs to bed.
Undressing, he had time to conjure over all the unbelievable events of the passing weeks. A superman. Why not? Efficiency, strength—
He slipped into bed.
When. When does Smith emerge from his chrysalis? When?
The rain drizzled quietly on the roof of the sanitarium.
McGuire lay in the middle of the sound of rain and the earthquaking of thunder, slumbering on the cot, breathing heavy breaths. Somewhere, a door creaked, but McGuire breathed on. Wind gusted down the hall.
McGuire granted and rolled over. A door closed softly and the wind ceased.
Footsteps tread softly on the deep carpeting. Slow footsteps, aware and alert and ready. Footsteps. McGuire blinked his eyes and opened them.
In the dim light a figure stood over him.
Upstairs, a single light m the hall thrust down a yellow shaft near McGuire’s cot.
An odor of crashed insect filled the air. A hand moved. A voice started to speak.
McGuire screamed.
Because the hand that moved into the light was green.
Green.
“Smith!’
McGuire flung himself ponderously down the hall, yelling.
“He’s walking! He can’t walk, but he’s walking!”
The door rammed open under McGuire’s bulk. Wind and rain shrieked in around him and he was gone into the storm, babbling.
In the hall, the figure was motionless. Upstairs a door opened swiftly and Rockwell ran down the steps. The green hand moved back out of the light behind the figure’s back.
“Who is it?” Rockwell paused halfway.
The figure stepped into the light.
Rockwell’s eyes narrowed.
“Hartley! What are you doing back here?”
“Something happened,” said Hartley. “You’d better get McGuire. He ran out in the rain babbling like a fool.”
Rockwell kept his thoughts to himself. He searched Hartley swiftly with one glance and then ran down the hall and out into the cold wind.
“McGuire! McGuire, come back you idiot!” The rain fell on Rockwell’s body as he ran. He found McGuire about a hundred yards from the sanitarium, blubbering,
“Smith—Smith’s walking .. .” “Nonsense. Hartley came back, that’s all.”
“I saw a green hand. It moved.”
“You dreamed.”
“No. No.” McGuire’s face was flabby pale, with water on it. “I saw a green hand, believe me. Why did Hartley come back? He—”
At the mention of Hartley’s name, full comprehension came smashing to Rockwell. Fear leaped through his mind, a mad blur of warning, a jagged edge of silent screaming for help.
“Hartley!”
Shoving McGuire abruptly aside, Rockwell twisted and leaped back toward the sanitarium, shouting. Into the hall, down the hall—
Smith’s door was broken open.
Gun in hand, Hartley was in the center of the room. He turned at the noise of Rockwell’s running. They both moved simultaneously. Hartley fired his gun and Rockwell pulled the light switch.
Darkness. Flame blew across the room, profiling Smith’s rigid body like a flash photo. Rockwell jumped at the flame. Even as he jumped, shocked deep, realizing why Hartley had returned. In that instant before the lights blinked out Rockwell had a glimpse of Hartley’s fingers.
They were a brittle mottled green.
Fists then. And Hartley collapsing as the lights came on, and McGuire, dripping wet at the door, shook out the words, “Is—is Smith killed?”
Smith wasn’t harmed. The shot had passed over him.
“This fool, this fool,” cried Rockwell, standing over Hartley’s numbed shape. “Greatest case in history and he tries to destroy it!”
Hartley came around, slowly. “I should’ve known. Smith warned you.”
“Nonsense, he—” Rockwell stopped, amazed. Yes. That sudden premonition crashing into his mind. Yes. Then he glared at Hartley. “Upstairs with you. You’re being locked in for the night. McGuire, you, too. So you can watch him.”
McGuire croaked. “Hartley’s hand. Look at it. It’s green. It was Hartley in the hall—not Smith!”
Hartley stared at his fingers. “Pretty, isn’t it?” he said, bitterly. “I was in range of those radiations for a long time at the start of Smith’s illness. I’m going to be a—creature—like Smith. It’s been this way for several days. I kept it hidden. I tried not to say anything. Tonight, I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I came back to destroy Smith for what he’s done to me …”
A dry noise racked, dryly, splitting the air. The three of them froze.
Three tiny flakes of Smith’s chrysalis flicked up and then spiraled down to the floor.
Instantly, Rockwell was to the table, and gaping.
“It’s starting to crack. From the collar-bone to the navel, a miscroscopic fissure! He’ll be out of his chrysalis soon!”
McGuire’s jowls trembled. “And then what?”
Hartley’s words were bitter sharp. “We’ll have a superman. Question: what does a superman look like? Answer: nobody knows.”
Another crust of flakes crackled open.
McGuire shivered. “Will you try to talk to him?”
“Certainly.”
“Since when do—butterflies—speak?”
“Oh, Good God, McGuire!”
With the two others securely imprisoned upstairs, Rockwell locked himself into Smith’s room and bedded down on a cot, prepared to wait through the long wet night, watching, listening, thinking.
Watching the tiny flakes flicking off the crumbling skin of chrysalis as the Unknown within struggled quietly outward.
Just a few more hours to wait. The rain slid over the house, pattering.
What would Smith look like? A change in the earcups perhaps for greater hearing; extra eyes, maybe; a change in the skull structure, the facial setup, the bones of the body, the placement of organs, the texture of skin, a million and one changes.
Rockwell grew tired and yet was afraid to sleep. Eyelids heavy, heavy. What if he was wrong? What if his theory was entirely disjointed?
What if Smith was only so much moving jelly inside? What if Smith was mad, insane—so different that he’d be a world menace?
No. No. Rockwell shook his head groggily. Smith was perfect.
Perfect. There’d be no room for evil thought in Smith. Perfect.
The sanitarium was death quiet. The only noise was the faint crackle of chrysalis flakes skimming to the hard floor …
Rockwell slept. Sinking into the darkness that blotted out the room as dreams moved in upon him. Dreams in which Smith arose, walked in stiff, parched gesticulations and Hartley, screaming, wielded an ax, shining, again and again into the green armor of the creature and hacked it into liquid horror.
Dreams in which McGuire ran babbling through a rain of blood. Dreams in which—
Hot sunlight. Hot sunlight all over the room. It was morning.
Rockwell rubbed his eyes, vaguely troubled by the fact that someone had raised the blinds. Someone had—he leaped! Sunlight! There was no way for the blinds to be up. They’d been down for weeks! He cried out.
The door was open. The sanitarium was silent. Hardly daring to turn his head, Rockwell glanced at the table. Smith should have been lying there.
He wasn’t.
There was nothing but sunlight on the table. That— and a few remnants of shattered chrysalis. Remnants.
Brittle shards, a discarded profile cleft in two pieces, a shell segment that had been a thigh, a trace of arm, a splint of chest—these were the fractured remains of Smith!
Smith was gone. Rockwell staggered to the table, crushed. Scrabbling like a child among the rattling papyrus of skin. Then he swung about, as if drunk, and swayed out of the room and pounded up the stairs, shouting:
“Hartley! What did you do with him? Hartley! Did you think you could kill him, dispose of his body, and leave a few bits of shell behind to throw me off trail?”
The door to the room where McGuire and Hartley had slept was locked. Fumbling, Rockwell unlocked it. Both McGuire and Hartley were there.
“You’re here,” said Rockwell, dazed. “You weren’t downstairs, then.
Or did you unlock the door, come down, break in, kill Smith and—no, no.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Smith’s gone! McGuire, did Hartley move out of this room?”
“Not all night.’*
“Then—there’s only one explanation—Smith emerged from his chrysalis and escaped during the night! I’ll never see him, I’ll never get to see him, damn it! What a fool I was to sleep!”
“That settles it!” declared Hartley. “The man’s dangerous or he would have stayed and let us see him! God only knows what he is.”
“We’ve got to search, then. He can’t be far off. We’ve got to search then! Quick now. Hartley. McGuire!”
McGuire sat heavily down. “I won’t budge. Let him find himself. I’ve had enough.”
Rockwell didn’t wait to hear more. He went downstairs with Hartley close after him. McGuire puffed down a few moments later.
Rockwell moved wildly down the hall, halted at the wide windows that overlooked the desert and the mountains with morning shining over them.
He squinted out, and wondered if there was any chance at all of finding Smith. The first superbeing. The first perhaps in a new long line. Rockwell sweated. Smith wouldn’t leave without revealing himself to at least Rockwell.
He couldn’t leave. Or could he?
The kitchen door swung open, slowly.
A foot stepped through the door, followed by another. A hand lifted against the wall. Cigarette smoke moved from pursed lips.
“Somebody looking for me?”
Stunned, Rockwell turned. He saw the expression on Hartley’s face, heard McGuire choke with surprise. The three of them spoke one word together, as if given their cue:
“Smith.”
Smith exhaled cigarette smoke. His face was red-pink as he had been sunburnt, his eyes were glittering blue.
He was barefoot and his nude body was attired in one of Rockwell’s old robes.
“Would you mind telling me where I am? What have I been doing for the last three or four months? Is this a—hospital or isn’t it?”
Dismay slammed Rockwell’s mind, hard. He swallowed.
“Hello. I. That is— Don’t you remember—anything?”
Smith displayed his fingertips. “I recall turning green, if that’s what you mean. Beyond that—nothing.” He raked his pink hand through his nut-brown hair with the vigor of a creature newborn and glad to breathe again.
Rockwell slumped back against the wall. He raised his hands, with shock, to his eyes, and shook his head. Not believing what he saw he said,
“What time did you come out of the chrysalis?’*
“What time did I come out of—what?”
Rockwell took him down the hall to the next room and pointed to the table.
“I don’t see what you mean,” said Smith, frankly sincere. “I found myself standing in this room half an hour ago, stark naked.”
“That’s all?” said McGuire, hopefully. He seemed relieved.
Rockwell explained the origin of the chrysalis on the table.
Smith frowned. “That’s ridiculous. Who are you?”
Rockwell introduced the others.
Smith scowled at Hartley. “When I first was sick you came, didn’t you. I remember. At the radiations plant. But this is silly. What disease was it?”
Hartley’s cheek muscles were taut wire. “No disease. Don’t you know anything about it?”
“I find myself with strange people in a strange sanitarium. I find myself naked in a room with a man sleeping on a cot. I walk around the sanitarium, hungry. I go to the kitchen, find food, eat, hear excited voices, and then am accused of emerging from a chrysalis. What am I supposed to think?
Thanks, by the way, for this robe, for food, and the cigarette I borrowed. I didn’t want to wake you at first, Mr. Rockwell. I didn’t know who you were and you looked dead tired.”
“Oh, that’s all right.’ Rockwell wouldn’t let himself believe it.
Everything was crumbling. With every word Smith spoke, his hopes were pulled apart like the crumpled chrysalis. “How do you feel?”
“Fine. Strong. Remarkable, when you consider how long I was under.”
“Very remarkable,” said Hartley.
“You can imagine how I felt when I saw the calendar. All those months—crack—gone. I wondered what I’d been doing all that time.”
“So have we.”
McGuire laughed. “Oh, leave him alone, Hartley. Just because you hated him—”
“Hated?” Smith’s brows went up. “Me? Why?”
“Here. This is why!” Hartley thrust his fingers out “Your damned radiations. Night after night sitting by you in your laboratory. What can I do about it?”
“Hartley,” warned Rockwell. “Sit down. Be quiet.”
“I won’t sit down and I won’t be quiet! Are you both fooled by this imitation of a man, this pink fellow who’s carrying on the greatest hoax in history? If you had any sense you’d destroy Smith before he escapes!”
Rockwell apologized for Hartley’s outburst.
Smith shook his head. “No, let him talk. What’s this about?”
“You know already!” shouted Hartley, angrily. “You’ve lain there for months, listening, planning. You can’t fool me. You’ve got Rockwell bluffed, disappointed. He expected you to be a superman. Maybe you are. But whatever you are, you’re not Smith any more. Not any more. It’s just another of your misdirections. We weren’t supposed to know all about you, and the world shouldn’t know about you. You could kill us, easily, but you’d prefer to stay and convince us that you’re normal. That’s the best way. You could have escaped a few minutes ago, but that would have left the seeds of suspicion behind. Instead, you waited, to convince us that you’re normal.”
“He is normal,” complained McGuire.
“No he’s not. His mind’s different. He’s clever.’*
“Give him word association tests then,” said McGuire.
“He’s too clever for that, too.”
“It’s very simple, then. We take blood tests, listen to his heart, and inject serums into him.”
Smith looked dubious. “I feel like an experiment, but if you really want to. This is silly.”
That shocked Hartley. He looked at Rockwell. “Get the hypos,” he said.
Rockwell got the hypos, thinking. Now, maybe after all, Smith was a superman. His blood. That super-blood. Its ability to kill germs. His heartbeat.
His breathing. Maybe Smith was a superman and didn’t know it. Yes. Yes, maybe—
Rockwell drew blood from Smith and slid it under a microscope. His shoulders sagged. It was normal blood. When you dropped germs into it the germs took a normal length of time to die. The blood was no longer super germicidal. The x-liquid, too, was gone. Rockwell sighed miserably. Smith’s temperature was normal. So was his pulse. His sensory and nervous system responded according to rule.
“Well, that takes care of that,” said Rockwell, softly.
Hartley sank into a chair, eyes widened, holding his head between bony fingers. He exhaled. “I’m sorry. I guess my—mind—it just imagined things. The months were so long. Night after night. I got obsessed, and afraid.
I’ve made a fool out of myself. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He stared at his green fingers. “But what about myself?”
Smith said, “I recovered. You’ll recover, too, I guess. I can sympathize with you. But it wasn’t bad … I don’t really recall anything.”
Hartley relaxed. “But—yes I guess you’re right. I don’t like the idea of my body getting hard, but it can’t be helped. I’ll be all right.”
Rockwell was sick. The tremendous letdown was too much for him.
The intense drive, the eagerness, the hunger and curiosity, the fire, had all sunk within him.
So this was the man from the chrysalis? The same man who had gone m. All this waiting and wondering for nothing.
He gulped a breath of air, tried to steady his innermost, racing thoughts. Turmoil. This pink-cheeked, fresh-voiced man who sat before him smoking calmly, was no more than a man who had suffered some partial skin petrification, and whose glands had gone wild from radiation, but, nevertheless, just a man now and nothing more. Rockwell’s mind, his overimaginative, fantastic mind had seized upon each facet of the illness and built it into a perfect organism of wishful thinking. Rockwell was deeply shocked, deeply stirred and disappointed.
The question of Smith’s living without food, his pure blood, low temperature, and the other evidences of superiority were now fragments of a strange illness. An illness and nothing more. Something that was over, down and gone and left nothing behind but brittle scraps on a sunlit tabletop.
There’d be a chance to watch Hartley now, if his illness progressed, and report the new sickness to the medical world.
But Rockwell didn’t care about illness. He cared about perfection.
And that perfection had been split and ripped and torn and it was gone. His dream^ was gone. His supercreature was gone. He didn’t care if the whole world went hard, green, brittle-mad now.
Smith was shaking hands all around. “I’d better get back to Los Angeles. Important work for me to do at the plant. I have my old job waiting for me. Sorry I can’t stay on. You understand.”
“You should stay on and rest a few days, at least,” said Rockwell. He hated to see the last wisp of his dream vanish.
“No thanks. I’ll drop by your office in a week or so for another checkup, though. Doctor, if you like? I’ll drop in every few weeks for the next year or so so you can check me, yes?”
“Yes. Yes,’smith. Do that, will you please? I’d like to talk your illness over with you. You’re lucky to be alive.”
McGuire said, happily, “I’ll drive you to L.A.”
“Don’t bother. I’ll walk to Tujunga and get a cab. I want to walk. It’s been so long, I want to see what it feels like.”
Rockwell lent him an old pair of shoes and an old suit of clothes.
“Thanks, Doctor. I’ll pay you what I owe you as soon as possible.”
“You don’t owe me a penny. It was interesting.”
“Well, good-bye, Doctor. Mr. McGuire. Hartley.”
“Good-bye, Smith.”
“Good-bye.”
Smith walked down the path to the dry wash, which was already baked dry by the late afternoon sun. He walked easily and happily and whistled. I wish I could whistle now, thought Rockwell tiredly.
Smith turned once, waved to them, and then he strode up the hillside and went on over it toward the distant city.
Rockwell watched him go as a small child watches his favorite sand castle eroded and annihilated by the waves of the sea. “I can’t believe it,” he said, over and over again. “I can’t believe it. The whole thing’s ending so soon, so abruptly for me. I’m dull and empty inside.”
“Everything looks rosy to me!” chuckled McGuire happily.
Hartley stood in the sun. His green hands hung softly at his side and his white face was really relaxed for the first time in months, Rockwell realized. Hartley said, softly,
“I’ll come out all right. I’ll come out all right. Oh, thank God for that.
Thank God for that. I won’t be a monster. I won’t be anything but myself.” He turned to Rockwell. “Just remember, remember, don’t let them bury me by mistake. Don’t let them bury me by mistake, thinking I’m dead. Remember that.”
Smith took the path across the dry wash and up the hill. It was late afternoon already and the sun had started to vanish behind blue hills. A few stars were visible. The odor of water, dust, and distant orange blossoms hung in the warm air.
Wind stirred. Smith took deep breaths of air. He walked.
Out of sight, away from the sanitarium, he paused and stood very still. He looked up at the sky.
Tossing away the cigarette he’d been smoking, he mashed it precisely under one heel. Then he straightened his well-shaped body, tossed his brown hair back, closed his eyes, swallowed, and relaxed his fingers at his sides.
With nothing of effort, just a little murmur of sound, Smith lifted his body gently from the ground into the warm air.
He soared up quickly, quietly—and- very soon he was lost among the stars as Smith headed for outer space …
…
…
The End
Conclusion
When you all tell me your stories, about how you have changed since arriving at MM… well, this is always what comes to mind.
And this is only the beginning.
Who knows what greatness lies in the futures ahead of you?
There’s a flush, lush beauty in pastels. A long time ago, my High School art teacher suggested that I try using the medium. He gave me some basic colors, but no direction. And so the effort fell by the wayside. Now, I see that perhaps I should have continued.
There’s numerous great artists of this medium. And here is just one of them. His works speak to me. Maybe they will to you as well.
Eero Järnefelt
He used both oils and pastels, and the results are quite impressive.
46 artworks. Finnish. Born 11/8/1863 – Died 11/15/1937. Born in Vyborg, Russia. Died in Helsinki, Finland.
Kaislikkoranta
Lake Shore with Reeds. 95.5 x 75.5 cms | 37 1/2 x 29 1/2 ins. Oil on canvas
Dead calm. Dreary winter day. Lovely trees. You can almost hear the lone leaf or two rattling in the breeze.
Leena
One of the first things I learns, back when I was young, was to outline the work in heavy dark pencil and then color it in. Later, I discovered by painting and highlighting it emphasized the work and framed it. Much like this work.
.
Lady of the Island and Hero of the Sea
24.8 x 18.9 cms | 9 3/4 x 7 1/4 ins
Pastel
It’s unfinished, but I really do love this in it’s rough state.
Christ Calming the Waters
This, in itself is just beautiful. I love the colors and everything about this work. Even the simplicity of the sail is just beautiful. The ascetic is just wonderful.
He really has quite the way with the pastel medium.
1908. Oil painting. 23.6 x 21.7 cms | 9 1/4 x 8 1/2 ins
I love this work.
Though maybe others might not agree with me. It’s calming and lovely.
Jesus and the Fallen Woman
1908. Oil on canvas
Again, a wonderful allegory, and well painted and displayed.
After Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus left that area called Judea and was traveling back to Galilee. As he was traveling he went through Samaria and stopped at a city called Sychar. He stopped at what was called Jacob’s well. This was a well that his ancestor had dug himself and given to Joseph.
Jesus sat at the well tired and hungry after a long walk. I picture the day that is talked about in the scripture as a hot day, the text tells us that it was about six in the evening. It was just about harvest time. I picture Jesus looking upward and seeing the famous Mt. Gerizim overshadowing that well. This mount would have been the home to the Samaritan temple.
Jesus sat there by the well with only John with him, the other disciples were sent into the city to buy food.
I picture our savior sitting down, tired, discouraged, and hungry. Then I picture this Samaritan woman coming into the picture to draw water from the well. I picture her looking timidly at Jesus because she would have recognized him as a Jew. She probably expected to be mocked because of her Samaritan roots. The woman realized quickly that Jesus was not the typical arrogant Jewish man. I want to look at the way in which Jesus dealt with this fallen woman from Samaria.
Perhaps Jesus would respond in a similar way to us. We all though are forced to confront certain aspects of our lives when we hear and learn about Jesus. The Samaritan woman was forced to confront certain aspects of her life because of her encounter with Jesus and so must we.
-SermonCentral
Lovely. I really like how he did this. You know, it’s really difficult to paint these evening scenes, and when you do it right, well… it’s magical. This is a superb work, and I personally think it is wonderful.
Saimi in the Meadow
1892 . Oil on canvas. 70 x 100 cms | 27 1/2 x 39 1/4 ins. Järvenpää Art Museum| Järvenpää| Finland
Saimi means “lake” in Finland, and it is often used as a woman’s name. this is lovely yes? A nice day, lying in the grass and looking up towards the clouds. Quite wonderful.
Berry Pickers
45.4 x 69.7 cms | 17 3/4 x 27 1/4 ins
Oil on canvas
Again, this is a wonderful work. It’s a fine painting that would look good in a living room, a dining room, or even a well appointed bedroom. I love it.
And with that being said…
Let’s look at what life was like when these paintings and works were being made…
Historical Perspective
Just some photos. Here’s a bridge.
Bridges.
In those days, all was art.
Dining room on a steamer.
And then we have this…
Beautiful building.
And then we have this…
Library.
In those days, beauty was appreciated. Not for profit, or for sex, or for power and control (like we see in America and the West today), but rather simply for the sake of beauty itself. And isn’t that a valuable thing?
Conclusion
Art isn’t a singular painting that some wealthy patron buys and hoards inside his house. It is everything. It is the dew on the grass in the morning, to the sleek lines of your clothes iron. It is the smile on your pet’s face when it is napping after a meal, and the warmth of a pile of clothes out of the dryer on a cold, cold Winter day.
I just wanted to share these images with you all. I hope that you enjoyed them.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The extraterrestrial discussed period of time in…
Trillions of years. (Birth of consciousness, universe creation.)
Billions of years. (Galaxy creation, and early civilizations.)
Millions of years. (Local events in our region, and mankind.)
Thousands of years. (A scope most important to humans.)
In this article we will discuss the time scope of thousands of years.
Because the text will be taken out of the document, there might be some discontinuity in the text. In any case, I would advise reading the entire full document for a better understanding of context. Further, keep in mind that the purpose of this particular post / article is to separate the transcript into wide categories depending on the span of times discussed. I fear that the extraterrestrial was talking about a few thousand years in the past, then jumped to trillions of years ago, jumps to millions of years ago, jumps to decades, and then back to billions of years ago. This effort is to help sort things out chronologically.
The text segments…
"What would you like to say, Airl?", I asked. "I have been a part of the Domain Expeditionary Force in this sector of space for several thousand years. However, I have not personally had intimate contact with beings on Earth since 5,965 BCE. It is not my primary function to interact with inhabitants of planets within The Domain. I am an Officer, Pilot and Engineer, with many duties to perform. Nonetheless, although I am fluent in 347 other languages within The Domain, I have not been exposed to your English language.
The last Earth language with which I was conversant was the Sanskrit language of the Vedic Hymns. At that time I was a member of a mission sent to investigate the loss of a Domain base located in the Himalaya Mountains. An entire battalion of officers, pilots, communications and administrative personnel disappeared and the base destroyed.
…
One of my duties involved interrogation of the human population that inhabited the adjoining area at that time. Many of the people in that region reported sighting "vimanas" or space craft in the area.
Following the logical extension of evidence, testimony, observation, as well as the absence of certain evidence, I led my team to the discovery that there were still "Old Empire" ships and well-hidden "Old Empire" installations in this solar system of which we had been completely unaware.
…
"Airl told me her reasons for coming to Earth and for being in the area of the 509th Bomber Squadron. She was sent by her superior officers to investigate the explosions of nuclear weapons which have been tested in New Mexico. Her superiors ordered her to gather information from the atmosphere that could be used to determine the extent of radiation and potential harm this might cause to the environment. During her mission, the space craft was struck by a lighting, which caused her to lose control and crash.
…
Airl was, and still is, an officer, pilot and engineer in an expeditionary force which is part of a space opera civilization which refers to itself as "The Domain". This civilization controls a vast number of galaxies, stars, planets, moons and asteroids throughout an area of space that is approximately one-fourth of the entire physical universe! The continuing mission of her organization is to "Secure, control and expand the territory and resources of The Domain".
Airl pointed out that their own activities were very similar in many ways to the European explorers who "discovered" and "claimed" the New World for The Holy Father, The Pope and for the kings of Spain, Portugal and later, Holland, England, France and so forth. Europe benefited from the property "acquired" from the native inhabitants. However, the native inhabitants were never consulted with or asked for their permission to become a part of the "domain" of European nations and the soldiers and priests they sent to acquire territory and wealth in order to advance their interests.
Airl said she read in a history book that the Spanish king regretted the brutal treatment of the native inhabitants by his soldiers. He feared retribution from the gods he worshipped, as described in the various testaments of the Bible. He asked the Pope to prepare a statement called "The Requirement" which was supposed to be read to each of the newly encountered native inhabitants.
The king hoped that the statement, whether it was accepted or rejected by the natives, would absolve the King of all responsibility for the resulting slaughter and enslavement of these people. He used this statement as justification to confiscate their lands and possessions by his soldiers and the Pope's priests. Apparently, the Pope, personally, did not have any feelings of guilt or responsibility in the matter.
Airl thought that such actions were those of a coward and that it is no surprise that the territory of Spain was diminished so quickly. Only a few years later the king was dead and his empire had been assimilated by other nations.
Airl said that this sort of behavior does not occur in The Domain. Their leaders assume full responsibility for the actions of The Domain, and would not denigrate themselves in this fashion. Nor do they fear any gods or have any regret for their actions. This idea reinforces my earlier suggestion that Airl and her people are probably atheists.
In the case of the acquisition of Earth by The Domain, the rulers of The Domain have chosen not to openly reveal this intention to the "native inhabitants" of Earth until a later time when it may, or may not, suit their interests to reveal themselves. For the present time, it is not strategically necessary to make the presence of The Domain Expeditionary Force known to Mankind. In fact, until now, it has been very aggressively hidden, for reasons that will be revealed later.
The asteroid belt near Earth is a very small, but important location for The Domain in this part of space. Actually, some of the objects in our solar system are very valuable for use as low-gravity "space stations". They are interested primarily in the low gravity satellites in this solar system which consists mainly of the side of the moon facing away from Earth and the asteroid belt, which was a planet that was destroyed billions of years ago, and to a lesser degree, Mars and Venus. Domed structures synthesized from gypsum or underground bases covered by electromagnetic force screens are easily constructed to house the Domain forces.
Once an area of space is acquired by The Domain and becomes a part of the territory under its control, it is treated as the "property" of The Domain. The space station near the planet Earth is important only because it lay along a path of The Domain expansion route toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy and beyond. Of course, everyone in The Domain is aware of this -- except for the people of Earth."
…
"Airl described the abilities of an IS-BE officer of The Domain to me, and she demonstrated one to me when she contacted -- telepathically -- a communications officer of The Domain who is stationed in the asteroid belt.
The asteroid belt is composed of thousands of broken up pieces of a planet that once existed between Mars and Jupiter. It serves as a good low-gravity jumping off point for incoming space craft traveling toward the center of our galaxy.
She requested that this officer consult information stored in the "files" of The Domain, concerning the history of Earth. She asked the communications officer to "feed" this information to Airl. The communications officer immediately complied with the request. Based on the information stored in the files of The Domain, Airl was able to give me a brief overview or "history lesson". This is what Airl told me that The Domain had observed about the history of Earth:
She told me that The Domain Expeditionary Force first entered into the Milky Way galaxy very recently -- only about 10,000 years ago. Their first action was to conquer the home planets of the "Old Empire" (this is not the official name, but a nick-name given to the conquered civilization by The Domain Forces) that served as the seat of central government for this galaxy, and other adjoining regions of space. These planets are located in the star systems in the tail of the Big Dipper constellation. She did not mention which stars, exactly.
About 1,500 years later The Domain began the installation bases for their own forces along the path of invasion which leads toward the center of this galaxy and beyond. About 8,200 years ago The Domain forces set up a base on Earth in the Himalaya Mountains near the border of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was a base for a battalion of The Domain Expeditionary Force, which included about 3,000 members.
They set up a base under or inside the top of a mountain. The mountain top was drilled into and made hollow to create an area large enough to house the ships and personnel of that force. An electronic illusion of the mountain top was then created to hide the base by projecting a false image from inside the mountain against a "force screen". The ships could then enter and exit through the force screen, yet remain unseen by homo sapiens.
Shortly after they settled there the base was surprised by an attack from a remnant of the military forces of the "Old Empire". Unbeknownst to The Domain, a hidden, underground base on Mars, operated by the "Old Empire", had existed for a very long time. The Domain base was wiped out by a military attack from the Mars base and the IS-BEs of The Domain Expeditionary Force were captured.
You can imagine that The Domain was very upset about losing such a large force of officers and crew, so they sent other crews to Earth to look for them. Those crews were also attacked. The captured IS-BEs from The Domain Forces were handled in the same fashion as all other IS-BEs who have been sent to Earth. They were each given amnesia, had their memories replaced with false pictures and hypnotic commands and sent to Earth to inhabit biological bodies. They are still a part of the human population today.
After a very persistent and extensive investigation into the loss of their crews, The Domain discovered that "Old Empire" has been operating a very extensive, and very carefully hidden, base of operations in this part of the galaxy for millions of years. No one knows exactly how long. Eventually, the space craft of the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain engaged each other in open combat in the space of the solar system.
According to Airl, there was a running battle between the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain until about 1235 AD, when The Domain forces finally destroyed the last of the space craft of the "Old Empire" force in this area. The Domain Expeditionary Force lost many of its own ships in this area during that time also.
About 1,000 years later the "Old Empire" base was discovered by accident in the spring of 1914 AD. The discovery was made when the body of the Archduke of Austria was "taken over" by an officer of The Domain Expeditionary Force. This officer, who was stationed in the asteroid belt, was sent to Earth on a routine mission to gather reconnaissance.
The purpose of this "take over" was to use the body as a "disguise" through which to infiltrate human society in order to gather information about current events on Earth. he officer, as an IS-BE, having greater power than the being inhabiting the body of the Archduke, simply "pushed" the being out and took over control of the body.
However, this officer did not realize how much the Hapsburgs were hated by feuding factions in the country, so he was caught off guard when the body of the Archduke was assassinated by a Bosnian student. The officer, or IS-BE, was suddenly "knocked out" of the body when it was shot by the assassin. Disoriented, the IS-BE inadvertently penetrated one of the "amnesia force screens" and was captured.
Eventually The Domain discovered that a wide area of space is monitored by an "electronic force field" which controls all of the IS-BEs in this end of the galaxy, including Earth. The electronic force screen is designed to detect IS-BEs and prevent them from leaving the area.
If any IS-BE attempts to penetrate the force screen, it "captures" them in a kind of "electronic net". The result is that the captured IS-BE is subjected to a very severe "brainwashing" treatment which erases the memory of the IS-BE. This process uses a tremendous electrical shock, just like Earth psychiatrists use "electric shock therapy" to erase the memory and personality of a "patient" and to make them more "cooperative".
On Earth this "therapy" uses only a few hundred volts of electricity. However, the electrical voltage used by the "Old Empire" operation against IS-BEs is on the order of magnitude of billions of volts! This tremendous shock completely wipes out all the memory of the IS- BE. The memory erasure is not just for one life or one body. It wipes out all of the accumulated experiences of a nearly infinite past, as well as the identity of the IS-BE!
The shock is intended to make it impossible for the IS-BE to remember who they are, where they came from, their knowledge or skills, their memory of the past, and ability to function as a spiritual entity. They are overwhelmed into becoming a mindless, robotic non-entity.
After the shock a series of post hypnotic suggestions are used to install false memories, and a false time orientation in each IS-BE. This includes the command to "return" to the base after the body dies, so that the same kind of shock and hypnosis can be done again, and again, again -- forever. The hypnotic command also tells the "patient" to forget to remember.
What The Domain learned from the experience of this officer is that the "Old Empire" has been using Earth as a "prison planet" for a very long time -- exactly how long is unknown -- perhaps millions of years.
So, when the body of the IS-BE dies they depart from the body. They are detected by the "force screen", they are captured and "ordered" by hypnotic command to "return to the light". The idea of "heaven" and the "afterlife" are part of the hypnotic suggestion -- a part of the treachery that makes the whole mechanism work.
After the IS-BE has been shocked and hypnotized to erase the memory of the life just lived, the IS-BE is immediately "commanded", hypnotically, to "report" back to Earth, as though they were on a secret mission, to inhabit a new body. Each IS-BE is told that they have a special purpose for being on Earth. But, of course there is no purpose for being in a prison -- at least not for the prisoner.
Any undesirable IS-BEs who are sentenced to Earth were classified as "untouchable" by the "Old Empire". This included anyone that the "Old Empire" judged to be criminals who are too vicious to be reformed or subdued, as well as other criminals such as sexual perverts, or beings unwilling to do any productive work.
An "untouchable" classification of IS-BEs also includes a wide variety of "political prisoners". This includes IS-BEs who are considered to be noncompliant "free thinkers" or "revolutionaries" who make trouble for the governments of the various planets of the "Old Empire". Of course, anyone with a previous military record against the "Old Empire" is also shipped off to Earth.
A list of "untouchables" include artists, painters, singers, musicians, writers, actors, and performers of every kind. For this reason Earth has more artists per capita than any other planet in the "Old Empire".
"Untouchables" also include intellectuals, inventors and geniuses in almost every field. Since everything the "Old Empire" considers valuable has long since been invented or created over the last few trillion years, they have no further use for such beings. This includes skilled managers also, which are not needed in a society of obedient, robotic citizens.
Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the "Old Empire" are "untouchable" and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth.
The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can't remember who they are, where they came from, where they are. They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than where they really are.
The Domain officer who was "assassinated" while in the body of Archduke of Austria was, likewise, captured by the "Old Empire" force. Because this particular officer was a high powered IS-BE, compared to most, he was taken away to a secret "Old Empire" base under the surface of the planet Mars. They put him into a special electronic prison cell and held him there.
Fortunately, this Domain officer was able to escape from the underground base after 27 years in captivity. When he escaped from the "Old Empire" base, he returned immediately to his own base in the asteroid belt. His commanding officer ordered that a battle cruiser be dispatched to the coordinates of the base provided by this officer and to destroy that base completely. This "Old Empire" base was located a few hundred miles north of the equator on Mars in the Cydonia region.
Although the military base of the "Old Empire" was destroyed, unfortunately, much of the vast machinery of the IS-BE force screens, the electroshock / amnesia / hypnosis machinery continues to function in other undiscovered locations right up to the present moment. The main base or control center for this "mind control prison" operation has never been found. So, the influences of this base, or bases, are still in effect.
The Domain has observed that since the "Old Empire" space forces were destroyed there is no one left to actively prevent other planetary systems from bringing their own "untouchable" IS-BEs to Earth from all over this galaxy, and from other galaxies nearby. Therefore, Earth has become a universal dumping ground for this entire region of space.
This, in part, explains the very unusual mix of races, cultures, languages, moral codes, religious and political influences among the IS-BE population on Earth. The number and variety of heterogeneous societies on Earth are extremely unusual on a normal planet. Most "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets are inhabited by only one humanoid body type or race, if any.
In addition, most of the ancient civilizations of Earth, and many of the events of Earth have been heavily influenced by the hidden, hypnotic operation of the "Old Empire" base. So far, no one has figured out exactly where and how this operation is run, or by whom because it is so heavily protected by screens and traps.
Furthermore, there has been no operation undertaken to seek out, discover and destroy the vast and ancient network of electronics machinery that create the IS-BE force screens at this end of the galaxy. Until this has been done, we are not able to prevent or interrupt the electric shock operation, hypnosis and remote thought control of the "Old Empire" prison planet.
Of course all of the crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force now remain aware of this phenomena at all times while operating in this solar system space so as to prevent detection and the capture by "Old Empire" traps."
…
"The Domain Expeditionary Force has observed a resurgence in science and culture of the Western world since 1150 AD when the remaining remnants of the space fleet of the "Old Empire" in this solar system were destroyed.
The influence of the remote control hypnosis operation diminished slightly after that time, but still remains largely in force.
Apparently a small amount of damage was done to the "Old Empire" remote mind control operation which resulted in a small decrease in the power of this mechanism.
As a result, some memory of technologies that IS-BEs already knew before they came to Earth started to be remembered. Thereafter the oppression of knowledge that is called the "Dark Ages" in Europe began to diminish after that time.
Since then knowledge of the basic laws of physics and electricity have revolutionized Earth culture virtually overnight.
The ability to remember technology by many of the geniuses in the IS-BE population of Earth was partially restored, when not so actively suppressed as it was before 1150 AD. Sir Isaac Newton, is one of the best examples of this. In only a few decades he single-handedly reinvented several major and fundamental scientific and mathematical disciplines.
The men who "remembered" these sciences already knew them before they were sent to Earth. Ordinarily, no one would ever observe or discover as much about science and mathematics in a single life-time, or even in a few hundred life-times. These subjects have taken civilizations billions and billions of years to create!
IS-BEs on Earth have only just begun to remember small fragments of all the technologies that exist throughout the universe. Theoretically, if the amnesia mechanisms being used against Earth could be broken entirely, IS-BEs would regain all of their memory!
Unfortunately, similar advances have not been seen in the humanities as the IS-BEs of Earth continue to behave very badly toward each other. This behavior, however, is heavily influenced by the "hypnotic commands" given to each IS-BE between lifetimes.
And, the very unusual combination of "inmates" on Earth - criminals, perverts, artists, revolutionaries and geniuses - is the cause of a very restive and tumultuous environment. The purpose of the prison planet is to keep IS-BEs on Earth, forever. Promoting ignorance, superstition, and war between IS-BEs helps to keep the prison population crippled and trapped behind "the wall" of electronic force screens.
IS-BEs have been dumped on Earth from all over the galaxy, adjoining galaxies, and from planetary systems all over the "Old Empire", like Sirius, Aldebaron, the Pleiades, Orion, Draconis, and countless others. There are IS- BEs on Earth from unnamed races, civilizations, cultural backgrounds, and planetary environments. Each of the various IS-BE populations have their own languages, belief systems, moral values, religious beliefs, training and unknown and untold histories.
These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta and Lemuria. Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary "polar shift", many thousands of years before the current "prison" population started to arrive. Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia.
On the other hand, the civilizations set up on Earth by the "Old Empire" prison system were very different from the civilization of the "Old Empire" itself, which is an electronic space opera, atomic powered conglomeration of earlier civilizations that were conquered with nuclear weapons and colonized by IS-BEs from another galaxy.
The bureaucracy that controlled the former "Old Empire" was from an ancient space opera society, run by a totalitarian confederation of planetary governments, regulated by a brutal social, economic, and political hierarchy, with a royal monarch as its figurehead.
This type of government emerges with regularity on planets where the citizens abandon personal responsibility for autonomous, self-regulation. They frequently lose their freedom to demented IS-BEs who suffer from an overwhelming paranoia that every other IS-BE is their enemy who must be controlled or destroyed. Their closest friends and allies, whom they espouse to love and cherish, are literally "loved to death" by them.
Because such IS-BEs exist, The Domain has learned that freedom must be won and maintained through eternal vigilance and the ability to use defensive force to maintain it.
As a result, The Domain has already conquered the governing planet of the "Old Empire". The civilization of The Domain, although considerably younger and smaller in size, is already more powerful, better organized, and united by an egalitarian esprit de corps never known in the history of the "Old Empire".
The recently despoiled German totalitarian state on Earth was similar to the "Old Empire", but not nearly as brutal, and about ten thousand times less powerful. Many of the IS- BEs on Earth are here because they are violently opposed to totalitarian government, or because they were so psychotically vicious that they could not be controlled by "Old Empire" government.
Consequently, the population of Earth is disproportionately comprised of a very high percentage of such beings. The conflicting cultural and ethical moral codes of the IS-BEs on Earth is unusual in the extreme.
The Domain conquest of the central "Old Empire" planets was fought with electronic cannon. The citizens of the planets forming the core of government for the "Old Empire" are a filthy, degraded, slave society of mindless, tax-paying workers, who practice cannibalism. Violent automotive race tracks and bloody, Roman circus type entertainments are their only amusements.
Regardless of any reasonable justification we may have had for using atomic weapons to vanquish the planets of the "Old Empire", The Domain is careful not to ruin the resources of those planets by using weapons of crude, radioactive force.
The government of the "Old Empire", before being supplanted by The Domain, was comprised of beings who possessed a very craven intelligence, very much like the Axis powers during your recent world war. Those beings manifested precisely the same behavior as the galactic government that exiled them to eternal imprisonment on Earth. They were a gruesome reminder of the ageless maxim that an IS-BE will often manifest the treatment they have received from others.
Kindness fosters kindness. Cruelty begets cruelty. One must be able and willing to use force, tempered with intelligence, to prevent harm to the innocent. However, extraordinary understanding, self- discipline and courage are required to effectively prevent brutality, without being overwhelmed by the malice that motivated the brutality.
Only a demonic, self-serving government would employ a "logic" or "science" to conceive that an "ultimate solution" to any problem is to murder and permanently erase the memory of every artist, genius, skilled manager, and inventor, and cast them into a planetary prison together with political opponents, killers, thieves, perverts, and disabled beings of an entire galaxy!
Once the IS-BEs expelled from the "Old Empire" arrived on Earth, they were given amnesia, and hypnotically tricked into thinking that something else had happened to them. The next step was to implant the IS-BEs into biological bodies on Earth. The bodies became the human populations of "false civilizations" which were designed and installed in the minds of IS-BEs to look completely unlike the "Old Empire".
All of the IS-BEs of India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe were guided to pattern and build the cultural elements of these societies based on standard patterns developed by the IS-BEs of many earlier, similar civilizations on "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets that have existed for trillions of years throughout the universe.
In the earliest times the IS-BEs sent to prison Earth lived in India. They gradually spread into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mesoamerica, Achaea, Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, and to the New World. They were hypnotically "commanded" to follow the pattern of a given civilization by the "Old Empire" prison operators. This is an effective mechanism to disguise the actual time and location from the IS-BEs imprisoned on Earth. The languages, costumes and culture of each false civilization are intended to reinforce amnesia because they do not remind the IS-BEs on Earth of the original "Old Empire" planets from which they were deported.
On the very far back-track of time these types of civilizations tended to repeat themselves over and over because the IS-BEs who created them become familiar with certain patterns and styles, and stayed with them. It is a lot of work to invent an entire civilization, complete with culture, architecture, language, customs, mathematics, moral values, and so forth. It is much easier to replicate a copy based on a familiar and successful pattern.
A "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planet is the designation given to a planet inhabited by carbon-oxygen based life forms. The class of the planet is based on the size and radiation intensity of the star, the distance of the planetary orbit from the star, and the size, density, gravity, and chemical composition of the planet.
Likewise, flora and fauna are designated and identified according to the star type and class of planet they inhabit.
On the average, the percentage of planets in the physical universe with a breathable atmosphere is relatively small. Most planets do not have an atmosphere upon which life-forms "feed", as on Earth, where the chemical composition of the atmosphere provides nutrition to plants, and other organisms, which in turn support other life forms.
When the Domain Force brought the Vedic Hymns to the Himalayas region 8,200 years ago, some human societies already existed. The Aryan people invaded and conquered India , bringing the Vedic Hymns to the area.
The Vedas were learned by them, memorized and carried forward verbally for 7,000 years before being committed to written form. During that span of time one of the officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force was incarnated on Earth as "Vishnu". He is described many times in the Rig-Veda. He is still considered to be a god by the Hindus. Vishnu fought in the religious wars against the "Old Empire" forces. He is a very able and aggressive IS-BE as well as a highly effective officer, who has since been reassigned to other duties in The Domain.
This entire episode was orchestrated as an attack and revolt against the Egyptian pantheon installed by "Old Empire" administrators. The conflict was intended to help free humankind from implanted elements of the false civilization that focused attention on many "gods" and superstitious ritual worship demanded by the priests who "managed" them. It is all part of the mental manipulation by the "Old Empire" to hide their criminal actions against the IS-BEs on Earth.
A priesthood, or prison guards, were used to help reinforce the idea that an individual is only a biological body and is not an Immortal Spiritual Being. The individual has no identity. The individuals have no past lives.
The individual has no power. Only the gods have power. And, the gods are a contrivance of the priests who intercede between men and the gods they serve. Men are slaves to the dictates of the priests who threaten eternal spiritual punishment if men do not obey them.
What else would one expect on a prison planet where all prisoners have amnesia, and the priests themselves are prisoners?
The intervention of The Domain Force on Earth has not been entirely successful due to the secret mind-control operation of the "Old Empire" that still continues to operate.
A battle was waged between the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain through religious conquest. Between 1500 BCE and about 1200 BCE, The Domain Forces attempted to teach the concept of an individual, Immortal Spiritual Being, to several influential beings on Earth.
One such instance resulted in a very tragic misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misapplication of the concept. The idea was perverted and applied to mean that there is only one IS-BE, instead of the truth that everyone is an IS-BE! Obviously, this was a gross incomprehension and an utter unwillingness to take responsibility for one's own power.
The "Old Empire" priests managed to corrupt the concept of individual immortality into the idea that there is only one, all-powerful IS-BE, and that no one else is or is allowed to be an IS- BE. Obviously, this is the work of the "Old Empire" amnesia operation.
It is easy to teach this altered notion to beings who do not want to be responsible for their own lives. Slaves are such beings. As long as one chooses to assign responsibility for creation, existence and personal accountability for one's own thoughts and actions to others, one is a slave.
As a result, the concept of a single monotheistic "god" resulted and was promoted by many self-proclaimed prophets, such as the Jewish slave leader -- Moses -- who grew up in the household of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, as well as his son Tutankhamen.
The attempt to teach certain beings on Earth the truth that they are, themselves, IS-BEs, was part of a plan to overthrow the fictional, metaphorical, anthropomorphic panoply of gods created by the "Old Empire" mystery cult called "The Brothers of The Serpent" known in Egypt as the Priests of Amun. They were a very ancient, secret society within the "Old Empire".
The Pharaoh Akhenaten was not a very intelligent being, and was heavily influenced by his personal ambition for self- glorification. He altered the concept of the individual spiritual being and embodied the concept in the sun god, Aten. His pitiful existence was soon ended. He was assassinated by Maya and Parennefer, two of the Priests of Amun, or "Amen", which the Christians still say, who represented the interests of the "Old Empire" forces.
The idea of "One God" was perpetuated by the Hebrew leader Moses while he was in Egypt. He left Egypt with his adopted people, the Jewish slaves. While they were crossing the desert, Moses was intercepted by an operative of the "Old Empire" near Mt. Sinai. Moses was tricked into believing that this operative was "the" One God through the use of hypnotic commands, as well as technical and aesthetic tricks which are commonly used by the "Old Empire" to trap IS-BEs. Thereafter, the Jewish slaves, who trusted the word of Moses implicitly, have worshiped a single god they call "Yaweh".
The name "Yaweh" means "anonymous", as the IS- BE who "worked with" Moses could not use an actual name or anything that would identify himself, or blow the cover of the amnesia / prison operation. The last thing the covert amnesia / hypnosis / prison system wants to do is to reveal themselves openly to the IS-BEs on Earth. They feel that this would restore the inmates memories!
This is the reason that all traces of physical encounters between operatives of space civilizations and humans is very carefully hidden, disguised, covered-up, denied or misdirected.
This "Old Empire" operative contacted Moses on a desert mountain top and delivered the "Ten Hypnotic Commands" to him. These commands are very forcefully worded, and compel an IS-BE into utter subservience to the will of the operator. These hypnotic commands are still in effect and influence the thought patterns of millions of IS-BEs thousands of years later!
Incidentally, we later discovered that the so- called "Yaweh" also wrote, programmed and encoded the text of the Torah, which when it is read literally, or in its decoded, form, will provide a great deal more false information to those who read it.
Ultimately, the Vedic Hymns became the source of nearly all of Eastern the religions and were the philosophical source of the ideas common to Buddha, Laozi, Zoroaster, and other philosophers. The civilizing influences of these philosophies eventually replaced the brutal idolatry of the "Old Empire" religions and were the true genesis of kindness and compassion.
You asked me earlier why The Domain, and other space civilizations do not land on Earth or make their presence known.
Land on Earth? Do you think we are crazy or want to be crazy?
It takes a very brave IS-BE to come down through the atmosphere and land on Earth, because this is a prison planet, with a very uncontrolled, psychotic population. And, no IS-BE is entirely proof against the risk of entrapment, as with the members of The Domain Expeditionary Force who were captured in the Himalayas 8,200 years ago.
No one knows what IS-BEs on Earth are going to do.
We are not scheduled to invest the resources of The Domain to take total control of all the space surrounding the area at this time. This will occur in the not-too-distant future -- about 5,000 Earth years -- according to the time schedule of The Domain. At this time we do not prevent transports from other planetary systems or galaxies from continuing to drop IS-BEs into the amnesia force screen area. Eventually, this will change.
In addition, Earth, inherently, is a highly unstable planet. It is not suitable for settlement or permanent habitation for any sustainable civilization. This is part of the reason why it is being used as a prison planet. No one else would seriously consider living here for a variety of simple and compelling reasons:
The continental land masses of Earth are floating on a sea of molten lava beneath the surface which causes the land masses to crack, crumble and drift
Because of the liquid nature of the core, the planet is largely volcanic and subject to earthquakes and volcanic explosion
The magnetic poles of the planet shift radically about once every 20,000 years. This causes a greater or lesser degree of devastation as a result of tidal waves, and climatic
Earth is very distant from the center of the galaxy and from any other significant galactic civilization. This isolation makes it unsuitable for use, except as a "pit stop" or jumping off point along the way between galaxies. The moon and asteroids are far more suitable for this purpose because they do not have any significant gravity.
Earth is a heavy gravity planet, with heavy metallic soil and a dense atmosphere. This makes it treacherous for navigational That fact that I am in this room, as the result of an in flight accident, in spite of the technology of my craft and my extensive expertise as a pilot, are proof of these facts.
There are approximately sixty billion Earth- like (Sun Type 12, Class 7) planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, not to mention the vast expanses of The Domain, and the territories we will claim in the future. It is difficult to stretch our resources to do much more than a periodic reconnaissance of Earth. Especially when there are no immediate advantages to invest resources
On Earth most beings are not aware that they are IS-BEs, or that there are spirits of any kind. Many other beings are aware of this, but nearly everyone has a very limited understanding of themselves as an IS-BE.
One of the reasons for this is that IS-BEs have been waging war against each other since the beginning of time. The purpose of these wars have always been to establish domination by one IS-BE or group of IS-BEs over another. Since an IS-BE cannot be "killed", the objective has been to capture and immobilize IS-BEs.This has been done in an nearly unlimited variety of ways. The most basic method to capture and immobilize an IS-BE is through the use of various kinds of "traps".
IS-BE traps have been made and put in place by many invading societies, such as the one that established the "Old Empire", beginning about sixty-four trillion years ago. Traps are often set up in the "territory" of the IS-BEs being attacked.Usually a trap is set with the electronic wave of "beauty" to attract the interest and attention of the IS-BE. When the IS-BE moves toward the source of the aesthetic wave, such as a beautiful building or beautiful music, the trap is activated by the energy put out by the IS-BE.
One of the most common trap mechanism uses the IS-BE's own thought energy output when the IS- BE tries to attack or fight back against the trap. The trap is activated and energized by the IS-BE's own thought energy. The harder the IS-BE fights against the trap, the more it pulls the IBS toward it and keeps them "stuck" in the trap.
Throughout the entire history of this physical universe, vast areas of space have been taken over and colonized by IS-BE societies who invade and take over new areas of space in this fashion. In the past, these invasions have always shared common elements:
(1) the overwhelming use of force of arms, usually with nuclear or electronic mind control of the IS-BEs in the invaded area through the use of electroshock, drugs, hypnosis, erasure of memory and the implantation of false memory or false information intended to subjugate and enslave the local IS-BE
(2) takeover of natural resources by the invading IS-BEs.
(3) political, economic and social slavery of the local population.
These activities continue in present time. All of the IS-BEs on Earth have been members of one or more of these activities in the past, both as an invader, or as part of the population being invaded. There are no "saints" in this universe. Very few have avoided or been exempted from warfare between IS-BEs.
IS-BEs on Earth are still the victims of this activity at this very moment. The between- lives amnesia administered to IS-BEs is one of the mechanisms of an elaborate system of "Old Empire" IS-BE traps, that prevent an IS-BE from escaping.
This operation is managed by an illicit, renegade secret police force of the "Old Empire", using false provocation operations to disguise their activities in order to prevent detection by their own government, The Domain and by the victims of their activities.
They are mind-control methods developed by government psychiatrists.
Earth is a "ghetto" planet. It is the result of an intergalactic "Holocaust". IS-BEs have been sentenced to Earth either because:
They are too viciously insane or perverse to function as part of any civilization, no matter how degraded or
Or, they are a revolutionary threat to the social, economic and political caste system that has been so carefully built and brutally enforced in the "Old Empire". Biological bodies are specifically designed and designated as the lowest order of entity in the "Old Empire" caste system. When an IS-BE is sent to Earth, and then tricked or coerced into operating in a biological body, they are actually in a prison, inside a...
In an effort to permanently and irreversibly rid the "Old Empire" of such "untouchables", the eternal identity, memory, and abilities of every IS-BE is forcefully erased. This "final solution" was conceived and carried out by the psychopathic criminals who are controlled by the "Old Empire".
The mass extermination of "untouchables" and prison camps created by Germany during World War II were recently revealed. Likewise, the IS-BEs of Earth are the victims of spiritual eradication and eternal slavery inside frail, biological bodies, inspired by the same kind of craven hatred in the "Old Empire".
The kind and creative inmates of Earth are continuously tortured by butchers and lunatics who are controlled by the "Old Empire" prison operators. The so-called "civilizations" of Earth, from the age of useless pyramids to the age of nuclear holocaust, have been a colossal waste of natural resources, a perverted use of intelligence, and an overt oppression of the spiritual essence of every single IS-BE on the planet.
If The Domain sent ships to every corner of the universe in search of "Hell", their quest could end on Earth. What greater brutality can be inflicted on anyone than to erase the spiritual awareness, identity, ability, and memory that is the essence of oneself?
The Domain has, as yet, been unable to rescue the 3,000 IS-BEs of the Expeditionary Force Battalion either.
They are forced to inhabit biological bodies on Earth. We have been able to recognize and track most of them for the past 8,000 years. However, our attempts to communicate with them are usually futile, as they are unable to remember their true identity.
The majority of lost members of The Domain force have followed the general progression of Western civilization from India, into the Middle East, then to Chaldea, and Babylon, into Egypt, through Achaia, Greece, Rome, into Europe, to the Western Hemisphere, and then all around the world.
The members of the lost Battalion and many other IS-BEs on Earth, could be valuable citizens of The Domain, not including those who are vicious criminals or perverts. Unfortunately, there has been no workable method conceived to emancipate the IS-BEs from Earth.
Therefore, as a matter of common logic, as well as the official policy of The Domain, it is safer and more sensible to avoid contact with the IS-BE population of Earth until such time as the proper resources can be allocated to locate and destroy the "Old Empire" force screen and amnesia machinery and develop a therapy to restore the memory of an IS-BE."
…
"The actual history of Earth is very bizarre. It is so nonsensical that is it is incredible to anyone on Earth who attempts to investigate it. A myriad of vital information is missing from it. A huge conglomeration of non sequitur relics and mythology has been arbitrarily introduced into it. The volatile nature of the Earth itself cyclically covers, drowns, mixes and shreds physical evidence.
These factors, combined with amnesia and post- hypnotic suggestions, false facades and covert manipulation make a reconstruction of the factual origins and history of Earth civilizations virtually indecipherable. Any investigator, no matter how brilliant, is doomed to wallow in a quagmire of inconclusive assumptions, unworkable hypotheses, and perpetual mystery.
Since The Domain does not suffer these afflictions, having the advantage of memory, longevity and an exterior point of view, I will add some clarification to your fragmentary knowledge of the history of Earth.
These are some of the dates and events that are not mentioned in Earth history textbooks.
These dates are significant because they provide some information concerning the influences of the "Old Empire" and of The Domain on Earth.
Although I have attended several briefings by our mission control personnel on the general background of Earth within the past few hundred years, I will rely principally on data gathered from records captured after our invasion of the "Old Empire" planetary headquarters. Since that time The Domain Expeditionary Force has tracked the general progress of events on Earth.
As I mentioned, in some cases The Domain has chosen to intervene in certain affairs on Earth in order to ensure the success of our long term expansion plans. Although The Domain has no interest in Earth, per se, or in the population of IS-BEs on this planet, it does serve our interests to ensure that the resources of Earth are not destroyed or spoiled. To that end, certain officers of The Domain have been sent to Earth on reconnaissance missions from time to time to gather information.
However, the following dates and events have been extrapolated from the accumulated information in the data files of The Domain -- at least those that are accessible to me through the space station communications center.
208,000 BCE --
The establishment of the "Old Empire", whose headquarters were located near one of the "tail stars" in the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) Constellation of this galaxy. The "Old Empire" invasion force conquered the area with nuclear weapons sometime earlier. After the radioactivity subsided and the clean-up and restoration were completed, it received the immigration of beings from another galaxy into this galaxy. Those beings set up a society that kept going until about 10,000 years ago when it was superseded by The Domain.
Very recently Earth civilization has come to resemble aspects of that civilization, now that it has fallen out of its immediate control. In particular, the appearance and technology of transportation such as planes, trains, ships, fire engines, and automobiles, as well as what you consider to be "modern" or "futuristic" architecture, which emulate the design of buildings in the major cities of the "Old Empire".
Before 75,000 BCE --
The Domain records contain very little information about the civilizations on the continental land masses of Atlanta and Lemur, except to note that they did coexist on Earth at more or less the same time. Apparently, both civilizations were founded by remnants of electronic, space opera cultures who fled from their native planetary systems to escape political or religious persecution.
The Domain knows that a long-standing edict of the "Old Empire" prohibits unauthorized colonization of planets. Therefore, it is possible that their destruction was caused by police or military forces who pursued the colonists as criminals and destroyed them. Although this seems a likely supposition, no conclusive evidence exists that explains the complete destruction and disappearance of two entire electronic civilizations.
Another possibility is that a massive submarine volcanic eruption in the region of Lake Toba, in Sumatra and Mt. Krakatoa in Java caused the destruction of Lemur. The flood waters caused by the eruption overwhelmed all the land masses, including the highest mountains. Survivors of the destruction of the civilization, the Lemurians, are the earliest ancestors of the Chinese. Australia and the ocean areas to the north were the center of the Lemurian civilization and are the source of Oriental races. Both civilizations possessed electronics, flight and similar technologies of space opera cultures.
Apparently, the volcanic eruption expelled such a significant mass of molten rock that the resulting vacuum beneath the crust of Earth caused great areas of the land masses to sink below the oceans. The continental areas occupied by both civilizations were covered with volcanic matter, and then submerged, leaving very little evidence that they ever existed except for legends of a global flood which prevail in every culture of the Earth, and for survivors who are the genus of oriental races and cultures.
That kind of colossal volcanic explosion fills the stratosphere with toxic gases which are carried around the whole planet. The usual refuse of these volcanic eruptions can easily cause a rain that lasts for "40 days and 40 nights" due to atmospheric pollution as well as an extensive period during which radiation from the sun is deflected back into space, and cause global cooling. Certainly such an event would cause an ice age, extinctions of life forms and many other relatively long-term changes lasting thousands of years.
Due to the myriad types of naturally occurring global cataclysmic events which are indigenous to Earth, it is not a suitable planet for habitation by IS-BEs. In addition there have been occasional global cataclysms caused by IS- BEs such as the one that destroyed the dinosaurs more than 70 million years ago. That destruction was caused by intergalactic warfare during which time Earth, and many other neighboring moons and planets, were bombarded by atomic weapons. Atomic explosions cause atmospheric fallout much like that of volcanic eruptions. Most of the planets in this sector of the galaxy have been uninhabitable deserts since then.
Earth is undesirable for many other reasons: heavy gravity and dense atmosphere, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, polar shifts, continental drift, meteor impacts, atmospheric and climatic changes, to name a few. What kind of lasting civilization could any sophisticated culture propose to develop in such an environment?
In addition, Earth is a small planet of a "rim star" of a galaxy. This makes Earth very isolated geographically from the more concentrated planetary civilizations which exist toward the center of the galaxy. These obvious facts have made Earth suitable for use only as a zoological or botanical garden, or for its current use as a prison -- but not much else.
Before 30,000 BCE --
Earth started being used as a dumping ground and prison for IS-BEs who were judged "untouchable", meaning criminal or non- conformists. IS-BEs were captured, encapsulated in electronic traps and transported to Earth from various parts of the "Old Empire". Underground "amnesia stations" were set up on Mars and on Earth in the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa, in the Pyrenees Mountains of Portugal, and in steppes of Mongolia.
These electronic monitoring points create force screens designed to detect and capture IS-BEs, when the IS-BE departs the body at death. IS- BEs are brainwashed using extreme electronic force in order to maintain Earth's population in state of perpetual amnesia. Further population controls are installed through the use of long range electronic thought control mechanisms.
These stations are still in operation and they are extremely difficult to attack or destroy, even for The Domain, which will not maintain a significant military force in this area until a later date.
The pyramid civilizations were intentionally created as part of the IS-BE prison system on Earth. The pyramid is alleged to be the symbol for "wisdom". However, the "wisdom" of the "Old Empire" on planet Earth is intended to operate as part of the elaborate amnesia "trap" consisting of MASS, MEANING and MYSTERY. These are opposite to the qualities of an Immortal Spiritual Being which have no mass, or meaning. An IS-BE "is" solely because it thinks that it "is".
MASS represents the physical universe, including objects such as stars, planets, gases, liquids, energy particles and tea cups. The Pyramids were very, very solid objects, as were all of the structures created by the "Old Empire". Heavy, massive, dense, solid objects create the illusion of eternity. Dead bodies wrapped in linen, soaked in resin, placed inside engraved golden coffins and entombed with Earthly possessions amid cryptic symbols create an illusion of eternal life. However, dense, heavy physical universe symbols are the exact opposite of an IS-BE. An IS-BE has no mass or time. Objects do not endure forever. An IS-BE "is" forever.
MEANING: False meanings prevent knowledge of the truth.
The pyramid cultures of Earth are a fabricated illusion. They are nothing more than "false civilizations" contrived by the "Old Empire" mystery cult called the Brothers of the Serpent. False meanings were invented to create the illusion of a false society to further reinforce the amnesia mechanism among the intimates in the Earth prison system.
MYSTERY is built of lies and half-truths.
Lies cause persistence because they alter facts which are comprised of exact dates, places and events. When truth is known, a lie no longer persists. If the exact truth is revealed, it is no longer a mystery.
All of the pyramid civilizations of Earth were carefully contrived of layer upon layer of lies, skillfully combined with a few truths. The priest cult of the "Old Empire" combined sophisticated mathematics and space opera technology, with theatrical metaphors and symbolism. All of these are complete fabrications of truth, baited with the allure of aesthetics and mystery.
The intricate rituals, astronomical alignments, secret rites, massive monuments, marvelous architecture, artistically rendered hieroglyphs and man-animal "gods" were designed to create a unsolvable mystery for the IS-BE prison population on Earth.
The mystery diverts attention away from the truth that IS-BEs have been captured, given amnesia and imprisoned on a planet far, far away from their home.
The truth is that every single IS-BE on Earth came to Earth from some other planetary system. Not one person on Earth is a "native" inhabitant. Human beings did not "evolve" on Earth.
In the past, Egyptian society was run by the prison administrators or priests, who, in turn, manipulated a Pharaoh, controlled the treasury and kept the inmate population enslaved physically and spiritually. In modern times, the priests have changed, but the function is the same. However, now the priests are prisoners too.
Mystery reinforces the walls of the prison. The "Old Empire" feared that the IS-BEs on Earth might regain their memory. Therefore, one of the primary functions of The "Old Empire" priesthood is to prevent IS-BEs on Earth from remembering who they really are, how they came to Earth, where they came from.
The "Old Empire" operators of the prison system, and their superiors, do not want IS-BEs to remember who murdered them, captured them, stole all of their possessions, sent them to Earth, gave them amnesia and condemned them to eternal imprisonment!
Imagine what might happen if all of the inmates in the prison suddenly remembered that they have the right to be free! What if they suddenly realized that they have been falsely imprisoned and rise up as one against the guards?
They are afraid to reveal anything that looks like the civilization of the inmates home planets. A body, a piece of clothing, a symbol, a space ship, an advanced electronics device, or any other remnant of civilization from a home planet could "remind" a being and rekindle his memory.
Sophisticated technologies of entrapment and enslavement, which were developed over millions of years in the "Old Empire", have been applied to the IS-BEs on Earth with the intention to create a false facade for the prison. These facades were installed on Earth in totality, all at once. Every piece is a fully integrated part of the prison system.
This includes a religion of mumbo-jumbo double- speak. Every pyramid civilization uses this as part of a control mechanism to keep the population enslaved by force, by fear and by ignorance. The indecipherable muddle of irrelevant information, geometric designs, mathematical calculation, astronomical alignments, are part of a false spirituality based on solid objects, rather than immortal spirits, in order to confuse and disorient the IS-BEs on Earth.
When the body of a person died they were buried with their Earthly possessions, including their former body wrapped in linen, to sustain their "soul" or "Ka" after death. An IS-BE does not "have" as soul. An IS-BE is a soul.
On the home planet of an IS-BE their material possessions were not lost, stolen or forgotten when the being died or left the body.
An IS-BE could return and claim the possessions. However, if the IS-BE has amnesia, they will not remember that they had any possession.
So, governments, insurance companies, bankers, family members and other vultures can pick their possessions clean without fear of retribution from the deceased.
The only reason for these false meanings is to instill the idea that an IS-BE is NOT a spirit, but a physical object! This is a lie. It is a trap for an IS-BE.
Countless people have spent endless hours attempting to solve the jig-saw puzzle of Egypt and other "Old Empire" civilizations. They are puzzles made of pieces that do not fit. A question states its own answer. What is the mystery of Egypt and other pyramid cultures? Mystery!
circa 15,000 BCE --
The "Old Empire" forces supervised the construction of a hydraulic mining operation in the Andes Mountains in present day Bolivia near Lake Titicaca (Lake of Tin Stones) at Tiahuanaco including construction of the massive stone complex of carved stone buildings known as Kalasasaya and its "Gate of the Sun" at an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet.
11,600 BCE --
The Polar Axis of Earth shifted to a sea area. The last Ice Age came to an end abruptly as the polar ice caps melted and the level of the ocean rose to submerge large sections of the land masses of Earth. The last remaining vestiges of Atlantis and Lemuria were covered by water. Massive extinctions of animals occurred in the Americas, Australia and the Artic Regions due to the shift of the poles.
10,450 BCE --
Plans were made by the "Old Empire" IS-BE called Thoth for construction of a Great Pyramid of Giza. The 4 "air shafts" of the pyramid point precisely to key stars in the "Old Empire" as seen from Giza in this year. The alignment of the Pyramids of Giza on the ground matches perfectly the alignment of the constellation of Orion as seen in the sky from Giza relative to the Nile as the earthly representation of the Milky Way in the sky.
10,400 BCE --
According to the Earth historian, Herodotus, records from the ruined civilization of Atlantis, containing electronic technology and other technology of that society, were buried in a vault beneath the paws of The Sphinx. The Greek historian wrote that he was told this by some of his friends who were Priests of Anu, the Sumerian god, at the Egyptian city of Heliopolis. However, it is highly unlikely that any traces of an electronic civilization would be allowed to be left intact on Earth by the "Old Empire" prison system administrators.
8,212 BCE --
The Veda or Vedic hymns are a set of religious hymns that were introduced into the societies of Earth. They came forward in spoken tradition, memorized, from generation to generation. "The Hymn to the Dawn Child'' includes an idea called the "cycle of the physical universe": the creation, growth, conservation, decay and death or destruction of energy and matter in a space. These cycles produce time. The same set of hymns describes the "theory of evolution". Here is a tremendous body of knowledge which contains a great deal of spiritual truth.
Unfortunately, it has been incorrectly evaluated by humans and altered with lies and reversals of fact by priests which are a booby trap to prevent anyone from using the wisdom to discover a way to escape from the prison planet.
8,050 BCE --
Destruction of the "Old Empire" home planet government in this galaxy. This was the end of the "Old Empire" as a political entity in the galaxy. However, the vast size of the "Old Empire" will take many thousands of years for The Domain to conquer completely. The inertia of the political, economic and cultural systems of the "Old Empire" will remain in place for some time to come.
However, remnants of the "Old Empire" space fleet in the solar system of Earth were finally destroyed in 1,230 AD. In addition to operatives of the "Old Empire" who run the Earth prison operation, there were other beings from the "Old Empire" who came to Earth.
Since Earth was no longer under the control of the "Old Empire" after their defeat by The Domain Forces, there was no police force to control military renegades, space pirates, miners, merchants and entrepreneurs who came to Earth to exploit the resources of the planet for personal gain, and many other nefarious reasons.
For example, the history of Earth, according to the Jewish people, describes the "Nephilim". Chapter 6 of The Book of Genesis, describes the origin of the "Nephilim" :
"Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the "sons of God" saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."
The ancient Jewish people who wrote the history book called the Old Testament were slaves, herders and gatherers. Any modern technology, even a simple flashlight, would seem astounding and miraculous to them. They attributed any unexplainable phenomenon or technology to the workings of a "god". Unfortunately, this behavior is universal among all IS-BEs who have been given amnesia, and cannot remember their own experiences, training, technology, personality or identity.
Obviously, if these were men, and they mated with Earth women, they were not "sons of god". They were IS-BEs who inhabited biological bodies in order to take advantage of the political situation in the "Old Empire", or simply to indulge in physical sensation. They set up small colonies of their own on Earth beyond the reach of the police and tax authorities.
Coincidentally, one of the most serious crimes an IS-BE could commit in the "Old Empire" was to violate income tax regulations. Income taxes were used as a slavery mechanism and as a punishment in the "Old Empire". The slightest error in a tax report made an IS-BE "untouchable", followed by imprisonment on Earth.
6,750 BCE --
Other Pyramid civilizations were set up by the "Old Empire" on Earth. These were established in Babylon, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. The Mesopotamian area provided service facilities, communication stations, space ports, and stone quarry operations for these false civilizations.
Ptah was the name given to the first in a succession of administrators from the "Old Empire" who represented themselves to the Earth population as "divine" rulers.
Ptah's importance may be understood when one learns that the word "Egypt" is a Greek corruption of the phrase "Het-Ka-Ptah," or "House of the Spirit of Ptah". Ptah, was nick- named "The Developer". He was a construction engineer. His high priest was given the title 'Great Leader of Craftsmen'.
Ptah was also the god of reincarnation in Egypt. He originated the "opening of the mouth ceremony" which was performed by priests at funerals to "release souls" from their corpses. Of course, when the "souls" were released, they were captured, given amnesia, and returned to Earth again.
The so-called "Devine" rulers who followed Ptah on Earth were called "Ntr", meaning "Guardians or Watchers" by the Egyptians. Their symbol was the Serpent, or Dragon which represented a secret priesthood of the "Old Empire" called the "Brothers of the Serpent".
"Old Empire" engineers used cutting tools of highly concentrated light waves to quickly carve and excavate stone blocks. They also used force fields and space craft to lift and transport blocks of stone weighing hundred or thousands of tons each. The placement on the ground of some of these structures will be found to have geodetic or astronomical significance relative to various stars in this galactic region.
The buildings are crude and impractical, compared to building standards on most planets. As an engineer of The Domain, I can attest that make-shift structures like these would never pass inspection on a planet in The Domain. Stone blocks such as those used in the pyramid civilizations can still be seen, partially excavated, in the stone quarries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Most of the structures were hastily built "props", much like the false facades of a western town on the set of a motion picture. They appear to be real, and to have some use or value, however, they have no value. They have no useful purpose. The pyramids and all of the other stone monuments erected by the "Old Empire" could be called "mystery monuments". For what reason would anyone waste so many resources to construct so many useless buildings? To create a mysterious illusion.
The fact of the matter is that each one of the "divine rulers" were IS-BEs who served as operatives of the "Old Empire". They were certainly not "divine", although they were IS- BEs.
6248 BCE --
The beginning of active warfare between The Domain Space Command and the surviving remnants of the "Old Empire" space fleet in this solar system that lasted nearly 7,500 years. It began when an installation was established in the Himalaya mountains by a battalion of the 3,000 officers and crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force. The installation was not fortified as The Domain was not aware that the "Old Empire" maintained Earth as a prison planet.
The Domain installation was attacked and destroyed by space forces of the "Old Empire" who continued to operate in the solar system of Earth. IS-BEs of The Domain battalion were captured, taken to Mars, given amnesia, and sent back to Earth to inhabit human biological bodies. They are still on Earth.
5,965 BCE --
Investigations into the disappearance of Domain forces in this solar system led to the discovery of "Old Empire" bases on Mars and elsewhere. The Domain took over the planet Venus as a defensive position against the space forces of the "Old Empire". The Domain Expeditionary Force also monitors life forms on Venus which has a very dense, hot and heavy atmosphere of sulfuric acid clouds. There are a few life forms on Earth that can endure an atmospheric environment like Venus.
The Domain also established secret installations or space stations in the Earth solar system. This solar system has a planet that is broken up -- the asteroid belt. It provides a very useful low-gravity platform for take off and landing of space craft. It is used as a "galactic jump" between the Milky Way and adjoining galaxies. There aren't any planets at this end of the galaxy that can serve as a good galactic entering spot for incoming transport, and other ships. But this broken up planet makes a very ideal space station. As a result of our war against the "Old Empire", this area of the solar system is now a valuable possession of The Domain.
3,450 - 3,100 BCE --
The intervention into the affairs on Earth by the "Old Empire" operatives or "divine gods" was disrupted at this time by The Domain Forces. They were forced to replace themselves with human rulers. The First Dynasty of human Pharaohs who united Upper and Lower Egypt began with the rule of a Pharaoh who, coincidentally, was named "MEN". He established the capital city called Men-Nefer, "The Beauty of Men" in Egypt. This started the first succession of 10 human Pharaohs and a period of 350 years of chaos that followed in the administrative ranks of the "Old Empire".
3,200 BCE --
As I mentioned earlier, Earth was under attack between The Domain and the "Old Empire" forces during this period. Of course this does not make any sense to archaeologists or historians on Earth, because the Egyptian period is a space opera era period. Since Earth historians have amnesia, they assume that this was only a religious period.
Further, because the technology and civilizations installed on Earth during this period were "pre-packaged", they did not "evolve" on Earth. Of course, there is no evidence anywhere on Earth of an evolutionary transition which resulted in sophisticated mathematics, language, writing, religion, architecture, cultural traditions in Egypt or any of the pyramid civilizations. These cultures, complete with all of the details of racial body types, hair-styles, facial make-up, rituals, moral codes and so forth, just "appeared" as complete integrated packages.
The physical evidence suggests that all evidence of the intervention of The Domain or "Old Empire" Forces, or any other extraterrestrial activity, has been carefully "cleaned up", so as not to create suspicion. The "Old Empire" force does not want the IS-BEs of Earth to suspect that they have been captured, transplanted to Earth and brainwashed.
So, Earth historians continue to assume that Egyptian priests were not supposed to have "ray guns" or other technology of the "Old Empire". And, they suppose that there was nothing going on, on Earth, except some priests walking around saying 'Amen', which the Christians still say.
3,172 BCE --
Layout of the astronomical grid that joins the key mining sites and astronomical buildings of 'the gods' in the Andes Mountains such as Tiahuanaco, Cuzco, Quito, the cities of Ollantaytambu, Machupiccu and Pachacamac for the mining of rare metals, including tin for use in making bronze. Metals were the property of "the gods", of course.
A great variety of entrepreneurial mining was done on Earth at that time due to the war between the "Old Empire" force and The Domain. These miners did carve a few sculptures of themselves. They are seen wearing mining helmets. The Ponce Stela sculpture in the sunken courtyard of the Kalasasaya temple is a crude rendering of a stone worker using an electronic, light-wave emitting stone cutter and carving tools, held in a holster.
The "Old Empire" has also maintained mining operations on planets throughout the galaxy for a very long time. The mineral resources of Earth are now a property of The Domain.
2,450 BCE --
The "great" pyramid and complex of pyramids near Cairo were completed. An inscription created by the "Old Empire" administrators can be seen in the so-called Pyramid texts. The texts say that the pyramid was built under the direction of Thoth, Son of Ptah. Of course there was never a King buried in the chamber, since the pyramids were never intended to be used as a burial chamber.
The great pyramid was located precisely at the exact center of all of the land masses of Earth, as viewed from space. Obviously such precise measurements require aerial perspective and a view of the land masses of Earth from space. Purely mathematical calculations of the geodetic center of the continents of Earth could not be made otherwise.
Shafts were constructed inside the pyramid to align with the configuration of stars in the constellation of Orion, Canus Majora, and specifically Sirius. The shafts are also aligned to the Big Dipper, where the home planet of the "Old Empire" existed. Also, Ainitak, Alpha Draconis and Beta Ursa Minor. These stars are each one of the key systems in the "Old Empire" from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
The configuration of all the pyramids of the Giza Plateau was intended to create a "mirror image", on Earth of the solar system and certain constellations within the "Old Empire".
2,181 BCE --
MIN, became the God of Fertility of Egypt. The IS-BE, also known as Pan, was also a Greek god. Min or Pan, was an IS-BE who somehow managed to escape from the "Old Empire" amnesia system.
2,160 - 2040 BCE --
One of the results of the intensifying battle between The Domain Forces and the "Old Empire" forces was that the control of the "divine rulers", was broken at this time. They finally left Egypt and returned to the "heavens", so to speak, in defeat. Human beings took over the ruling role as Pharaohs. The first human pharaoh moved the Capital city of Egypt from Memphis to Heracleopolis.
1,500 BCE --
This is the date for the destruction of Atlantis given by the Egyptian high-priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis, and Sonchis of Sais, to the Greek sage Solon. The Priests of Anu recorded that the Mediterranean area was invaded by "Atlantean" people about this time. Of course, these people were not from the ancient continent of Atlanta, in the Atlantic Ocean, which existed more than 70,000 years earlier.
These were refugees from the Minoan civilization on Crete escaping from the volcanic eruption and tidal waves of Mt. Thera that destroyed their civilization.
Plato's references to Atlantis were borrowed from the writings of the Greek philosopher Solon, who was given the information by the Egyptian priest who called Atlantis "Kepchu", which also happens to be the Egyptian name for the people of Crete. Some of the survivors of the Minoan volcanic disaster asked Egypt for help, since they were the only other civilization with high culture in the Mediterranean area at the time.
1351 BCE - 1337 BCE --
The Domain Expeditionary Force actively waged a war of religious conquest against the Egyptian mystery cult called the Priest of Amun, also known as the "Old Empire" Brothers of The Serpent. During this time the Pharaoh Akhenaten abolished the priesthood of Amun, and moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to the new location at Amarna, at the exact geodetic center of Egypt. However, this plot to overthrow the "Old Empire" religious control was quickly spoiled.
1,193 BCE --
In the Near East and Achaea, the Greeks and Trojans fought for supremacy, which ended in the destruction of Troy as the finale of the Trojan War. During this same time, war was being fought out in the space of the solar system between two forces for control of the "space stations" surrounding Earth. That period of 300 years was a very violent resistance to The Domain Forces by the remnants of the "Old Empire" forces. It did not last long however, as it is futile to resist The Domain.
850 BCE --
Homer, the blind Greek poet, wrote the stories 'the gods' as borrowed and modified from earlier sources in Vedic texts, Sumerian texts, Babylonian and Egyptian mythology. His poems, as well as many other "myths" of the ancient world are very accurate descriptions of the exploits of IS-BE's on Earth who were able to avoid the "Old Empire amnesia operation and operate without biological bodies.
700 BCE --
The Vedic Hymns were first translated in the Greek language. This was the beginning of a cultural revolution in Western civilization that transformed crude and brutal tribal cultures into democratic republics based on more reasonable conduct.
638 - 559 BCE --
Solon, a wise man from Greece, reported the existence of Atlantis. This was information he received from the "Old Empire" high-priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis and Sonchis of Sais, with whom he studied in Egypt.
630 BCE --
Zoroaster created religious practices in Persia around an IS-BE called Ahura Mazda. This was yet another of the growing number of "monotheistic" gods put in place by operatives of The Domain to displace a panoply of "Old Empire" gods.
604 BCE --
Laozi, a philosopher who wrote a small book called "The Way", was an IS-BE of great wisdom, who overcame the effects of the "Old Empire" amnesia / hypnosis machinery and escaped from Earth. His understanding of the nature of an IS-BE must have been very good to accomplish this.
According to the common legend, his last lifetime as a human was lived in a small village in China. He contemplated the essence of his own life. Like Guatama Siddhartha, he confronted his own thoughts, and past lives. In so doing, he recovered some of his own memory, ability and immortality.
As an old man, he decided to leave the village and go to the forest to depart the body. The village gatekeeper stopped him and begged him to write down his personal philosophy before leaving. Here is a small piece of advice he gave about "the way" he rediscovered his own spirit:
"He who looks will not see it; He who listens will not hear it; He who gropes will not grasp it. The formless nonentity, the motionless source of motion. The infinite essence of the spirit is the source of life. Spirit is self. Walls form and support a room, yet the space between them is most important. A pot is formed of clay, yet the space formed therein is most useful. Action is caused by the force of nothing on something, just as the nothing of spirit is the source of all form.
One suffers great afflictions because one has a body. Without a body what afflictions could one suffer? When one cares more for the body than for his own spirit, One becomes the body and looses the way of the spirit. The self, the spirit, creates illusion. The delusion of Man is that reality is not an illusion. One who creates illusions and makes them more real than reality, follows the path of the spirit and finds the way of heaven".
593 BCE --
The Genesis story written by the Jewish people describe "angels" or "sons of god" mating with women of Earth, who bore them children. These were probably renegades from the "Old Empire". They may also have been space pirates or merchants from a system outside the galaxy who came to steal mineral resources, or smuggle drugs.
The Domain has observed that there are many visitors to Earth from neighboring planets and galaxies, but they rarely stop and live here. What kind of beings would live on a prison planet if they were not forced to do so?
The same book also reports the story of a human named Ezekiel who witnessed a spacecraft or aircraft landing near Chebar River in Chaldea. His description of the craft uses very archaic language, technically, but is nevertheless, quite an accurate description of an "Old Empire" saucer or scout craft. It is similar to the sighting of "vimanas" by the people in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Their Genesis story also mentions that "Yahweh" designed biological bodies to live for 120 years on Earth. Biological bodies on most "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets are usually engineered to last for an average of about 150 years. Human bodies on Earth last only about one half as long. We suspect this is because the prison administrators have altered the biological material of human bodies on Earth to die more frequently so that the IS-BEs who inhabit them will recycle through the amnesia mechanism more frequently.
It should be noted that much of the "Old Testament" was written during the captivity of the Jews who were enslaved in Babylon, which was very heavily controlled by priests of the "Old Empire". The book introduces a false sense of time and a false concept of the origin of the creation.
The serpent is the symbol of the "Old Empire". It appears in the beginning of their creation story, or as the Greeks say, "Genesis", and causes the spiritual destruction of the first human beings, who are metaphorically represented by Adam and Eve.
The Old Testament, clearly influenced by the "Old Empire" Forces, gives a detailed description of the IS-BEs being induced into biological bodies on Earth. This book also describes many of the "Old Empire" brainwashing activities, including the installation of false memories, lies, superstitions, commands to "forget" and all manner of tricks and traps designed to keep IS-BEs on Earth. Most importantly, it destroys the awareness that humans are Immortal Spiritual Beings.
580 BCE --
The Oracle at Delphi was one temple in a network of many oracle temples. Each temple was a communication center. The "Old Empire" priests designated a local "god" for each temple. Each of the temples in this network were located at precisely 5 degrees of latitude intervals from the capital city of Thebes throughout the Mediterranean area as far north as the Baltic Sea.
The shrines served, among other things, as a grid, housing electronic beacons, later called "Omphalus Stones". The grid arrangement of Oracle sites can only be seen from miles above the Earth. The original network of electronic communications beacons were disabled when the priesthood was dispersed, and were replaced by carved stones.
The symbol of the "Old Empire" priesthood is a Python, dragon or serpent. It was called the "earth-dragon" at Delphi, which is always represented in sculpture and vase-paintings as a serpent.
In Greek mythology the guardian of the Omphalus Stone at the temple at Delphi was an oracle whose name was Python, the serpent. She was an IS-BE, who was conquered by a "god" named Apollo. He buried her under the Omphalos stone. This is a case of one "god" setting up his temple on the grave of another. This is a very accurate euphemism for The Domain Force that detected and disabled the "Old Empire" temple network on Earth. It was one of the fatal blows to the "Old Empire" Force in the solar system of Earth.
559 BCE --
The Commanding Officer of The Domain Battalion who was lost in 5,965 BCE was detected and located by a search party sent to Earth from The Domain Expeditionary Force. He was incarnated as Cyrus II of Persia during this time.
A unique system of organization was used by Cyrus II and the members of that Battalion who followed him from India through his progression of human lives on Earth. In part, it enabled them to build the largest empire in the history of the Earth to that date.
The Domain Search Party who located him traveled around the Earth searching for the lost Battalion for several thousand years. The party consisted of 900 officers of The Domain, divided into teams of 300 each. One team searched the land, another team search the oceans and the third team searched the space surrounding Earth.
There are many reports made in various human civilizations concerning their activities, which humans did not understand, of course.
The Domain Search Party devised a wide variety of electronic detection devices needed to track the electronic signature or wavelength of each of the missing members of the Battalion. Some were used in space, others on land, and special devices were invented to detect IS-BEs under water.
One of these electronic detection devices is referred to as a "tree of life". The device is literally a tool designed to detect the presence of life, which is an IS-BE. This was a large electronic screen generator designed to permeate wide areas. To the ancient humans on Earth it resembled a sort of tree, since is consists of an interwoven lattice of electronic field generators and receivers. The electronic field detects the presence of IS-BEs, whether the IS-BE is occupying a body, or if they are outside a body.
A portable version of this detection device was carried by each of the members of The Domain Search Party. Stone carvings in Sumeria show winged beings using pinecone-shaped instruments to scan the bodies of human beings. They are also shown carrying the power unit for the scanner which are depicted as stylized baskets or water buckets, being carried by eagle- headed, winged beings.
Members of the aerial unit of The Domain Search Party, led by Ahura Mazda, were often called "winged gods" in human interpretations. Throughout the Persian civilization there are a great many stone relief carvings that depict winged space craft, that they called a "faravahar".
Members of the Aquatic Unit of The Domain Search Party were called "Oannes" by local humans. Stone carvings of the so-called Oannes are shown wearing silver diving suits. They lived in the sea and appeared to the human population to be men dressed to look like fish. Some members of the lost Battalion were found in the oceans inhabiting the bodies of dolphins or whales.
On land, The Domain Search Party members were referred to as "Annunaki" by the Sumerians, and "Nephilim", in the Bible. Of course, their true mission and activities were never disclosed to homo sapiens. heir activities have been purposefully disguised. Therefore, the human stories and legends about the Annunaki, and the other members of The Domain Search Party have not been understood and were badly misinterpreted.
In the absence of complete and accurate data, anyone observing a phenomenon will assume or hypothesize explanations in an attempt to make sense of the data. Therefore, although mythology and history may be based on factual events, they are likewise full of misunderstood and misinterpreted evaluations of the data, and embellished with assumptions, theories and hypotheses which are false.
The space unit of The Domain Expeditionary Force are shown flying in a "Winged-Disc". This is an allusion to the spiritual power of the IS-BEs, as well as to the space craft used by The Domain Search Party.
The Commander of the lost Battalion, as Cyrus II, was an IS-BE who was regarded as a messiah on Earth by both the Jews, and the Muslims. In less than 50 years he established a highly ethical, and humanitarian philosophy which pervaded all of Western Civilization.
His territorial conquests, organization of people and monumental building projects were unprecedented before or since. Such sweeping accomplishments in a short period of time could only have been achieved by a leader and a team of trained officers, pilots, engineers and crew members of a unit of The Domain, acting as a team, who had been trained and worked together for thousands of years.
Although we have discovered the location of many of the IS-BEs in the lost Battalion, The Domain has been unable to restore their memory and return them to active duty as yet.
Of course we cannot transport IS-BEs who are inhabiting biological bodies to the space stations of The Domain since there is no oxygen in our space craft. Also we do not maintain life support facilities for biological entities there. Our only hope has been to locate and rekindle the awareness, memory and identity of the IS-BEs of the Lost Battalion. One day they will be capable of rejoining us.
200 BCE --
The last remnant of the "Old Empire" pyramid civilization is at "Teotihuacán". The Aztec name means “place of the gods” or “where men were transformed into gods”. Like the astronomical configuration of the Giza pyramids in Egypt, the entire complex is a precise scale-model of the solar system that accurately reflects the orbital distances of the inner planets, the asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Since the planet Uranus had only been "discovered" with modern Earth telescopes in 1787, and Pluto not until 1930, it is apparent that the builders had information from "other sources".
A common element of the Pyramid Civilizations around the Earth is the constant use of the image of the snake, dragon, or serpent.
This is because the beings who planted these civilizations here want to create an illusion that the "gods" are reptilian. This is also a part of an illusion designed to perpetuate amnesia.
The beings who placed false civilizations on Earth are IS-BEs, just like you. Many of the biological bodies inhabited by IS-BEs in the "Old Empire" are very similar in appearance to the bodies on Earth. The "gods" are not reptiles, although they often behave like snakes.
1,034 - 1,124 AD --
The entire Arab world was enslaved by one man: Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah , the Old Man of the Mountain. He established the Hashshashin who operated a part of Mohammedanism which controlled by terror and fear much of India, Asia Minor and most of the Mediterranean Basin. They became a priesthood that used an extremely effective mind-control mechanism and extortion tool that enabled the "Assassins" to control the civilized world for several hundred years.
Their method was simple. Young men were kidnapped and knocked unconscious with hashish. They were taken to a garden filled with beautiful black-eyed houris in a harem decorated with rivers of milk and honey. The young men were told that they were in paradise. They were promised they could return and live there forever if they sacrificed themselves as an assassin of whomever they were commanded to kill. The men were knocked out again, and shoved out into the world to carry out the assassination mission.
Meanwhile, the Old Man of the Mountain sent a messenger to the caliph or, whatever wealthy ruler from whom they demanded payment, demanding camel-loads of gold, spices, incense or other valuables. If payment did not arrive on time, the assassin would be sent to kill the offending party. There was virtually no defense against the unknown assailant who wanted nothing more than to carry out his mission, be killed and return to "heaven".
This is a very crude example of how simple and effective a brainwashing and mind-control operation can be when it is used skillfully, and forcefully. It is a small scale demonstration of how the amnesia mind-control operation is used against the entire IS-BE population of Earth by the "Old Empire".
1119 AD --
The Knights Templar was established as a Christian military unit after the First Crusade but quickly transformed into the basis for the international banking system to accumulate money to conduct the agenda of operatives for vestiges of the "Old Empire" on Earth.
1135 - 1230 AD --
The Domain Expeditionary Force completed the annihilation of the remaining remnants of the "Old Empire" space fleet operating in the solar system around Earth. Unfortunately, their long established thought control operation remains largely intact.
1307 AD --
The Knights Templar was disbanded by King Philip IV of France, who was deeply in debt to the Order. He pressured Pope Clement V to condemn the Order's members, have them arrested, tortured them into giving false confessions, and burned them at the stake in an effort to erase his debt by seizing all of their wealth.
A majority of the Templars fled to Switzerland where they established an international banking system which secretly controls the economy of Earth.
"Old Empire" operatives act as an unseen influence on international bankers. The banks are operated covertly as a non-combatant provocateur to covertly promote and finance weapons and warfare between the nations of Earth. Warfare is an internal mechanism of control over the inmate population.
The purpose of the senseless genocide and carnage of wars financed by these international banks is to prevent the IS- BEs of Earth from sharing open communication, cooperate together in activities that might enable IS-BEs to prosper, become enlightened, and escape their imprisonment."
…
This was compounded by the fact that The Vedic Hymns were brought to Earth 8,200 years ago by The Domain Expeditionary Force. While they were based in the Himalaya Mountains, the verses were taught to some of the local humans who memorized them. However, I should note that this was not an authorized activity for the crew of The Domain installation, although I am sure it seemed like an innocent diversion for them at the time.
The verses were passed along verbally from one generation to the next for thousands of years in the foothills and eventually spread throughout India. No one in The Domain credits any of the material in the Vedic Hymns as factual material, any more than you would use "Grimm's Fairy Tales" as a guide for rearing children. However, on a planet where all of the IS-BEs have had their memory erased, one can understand how these tales and fantasies could be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, the humans who learned the Vedic verses passed them along to others saying that they came from "the gods". Eventually, the content of the verses were adopted verbatim as "truth". The euphemistic and metaphorical content of the Veda were accepted and practiced as dogmatic fact. The philosophy of the verses were ignored and the verses became the genesis of nearly every religious practice on the planet, especially Hinduism.
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain, I must always assume a very pragmatic point of view. I could not be effective or accomplish my missions if I were to use philosophical dogma or rhetoric as my operations manual. Therefore, our discussion of history is based on actual events that occurred long before any IS-BEs arrived on Earth, and long before the "Old Empire” came into power.
…
Coincidentally, a friend and engineer with whom I used to work with at the Arcadia Regeneration Company -- a long time after I left the company -- told me that one of the projects they contracted to do, in more recent times, was to deliver life forms to Earth to replenish them after a war in this region of the galaxy devastated most of the life on the planets in this region of space. This would have been about seventy million years ago.
The skill required to modify the planet into an ecologically interactive environment that will support billions of diverse species was an immense undertaking. Specialized consultants from nearly every biotechnology company in the galaxy were brought in to help with the project.
…
"Today Airl told me about some very technical things. I took a few notes to remind myself, so I can repeat what she said as closely as possible. She began with an analogy about scientific knowledge:
Can you imagine how much progress could have been made on Earth if people like Johannes Gutenberg, Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Nicola Tesla, Jonas Salk, and Richard Trevithick, and many thousands of similar geniuses and inventors were living today?
Image what technical accomplishments might have been developed if men like these never died? What if they were never given amnesia and made to forget everything they knew? What if they continued to learn and work forever?
What level of technology and civilization could be attained if Immortal Spiritual Beings like these were allowed to continue to create -- in the same place and at the same time -- for billions or trillions of years?
Essentially, The Domain is one civilization that has existed for trillions of years with relatively uninterrupted progress. Knowledge has been accumulated, refined, and improved upon in nearly every field of study imaginable
-- and beyond imagining.
Originally, the interaction of IS-BE illusions or inventions created the very fabric of the physical universe -- the microcosm and the macrocosm. Every single particle of the universe has been imagined and brought into existence by an IS-BE. Everything created from an idea -- a thought with no weight or size or location in space.
Every speck of dust in space, from the size of the tiniest subatomic particle, to the size of a sun or a magelantic cloud the size of many galaxies, was created from the nothingness of a thought. Even the tiniest, individual cells were contrived and coordinated to enable a microbial entity to sense, and navigate through infinitesimally small spaces. These also came from an idea thought up by an IS-BE.
You, and every IS-BE on Earth, have participated in the creation of this universe. Even though you are now confined to a fragile body made of flesh; you live for only 65 short rotations of your planet around a star; you have been given overwhelming electric shock treatments to wipe out your memory; you must learn everything all over again each lifetime; in spite of all these circumstances, you are who you are and will always be. And, deep down, you still know that you are and what you know. You are still the essence of you.
How else can one understand the child prodigy? An IS-BE who plays concertos on a piano at three years of age, without formal training? Impossible, if they did not simply remember what they have already learned from thousands of lives spent in front of a keyboard in times untold, or on planets far away. They may not know how they know. They just know.
Humankind has developed more technology in the past 100 years than in the previous 2,000 years. Why? The answer is simple: the influence of the "Old Empire" over the mind and over the affairs of Mankind has been diminished by The Domain.
A renaissance of invention on Earth began in 1,250 AD with the destruction of the "Old Empire" space fleet in the solar system. During the next 500 years, Earth may have the potential to regain autonomy and independence, but only to the degree that humankind can apply the concentrated genius of the IS-BEs on Earth to solve the amnesia problem.
However, on a cautionary note, the inventive potential of the IS-BEs who have been exiled to this planet is severely compromised by the criminal elements of the Earth population. Specifically, politicians, war-mongers and irresponsible physicists who create unlimited weapons such as nuclear bombs, chemicals, diseases and social chaos. These have the potential to extinguish all life forms on Earth, forever.
Even the relatively small explosions that were tested and used in the past two years on Earth have the potential to destroy all of life, if deployed in sufficient quantities. Larger weapons could consume all of the oxygen in the global atmosphere in a single explosion!
Therefore, the most fundamental problems that must be solved in order to ensure that Earth will not be destroyed by technology, are social and humanitarian problems. The greatest scientific minds of Earth, in spite of mathematical or mechanical genius, have never addressed these problems.
Therefore, do not look to scientists to save Earth or the future of humanity. Any so-called "science" that is solely based on the paradigm that existence is composed only of energy and objects moving through space is not a science. Such beings utterly ignore the creative spark originated by an individual IS-BE and collective work of the IS-BEs who continually create the physical universe and all universes. Every science will remain relatively ineffective or destructive to the degree that it omits or devaluates the relative importance of the spiritual spark that ignites all of creation and life.
Unfortunately this ignorance has been very carefully and forcefully instilled in human beings by the "Old Empire" to ensure that IS- BEs on this planet will not be able to recover their innate ability to create space, energy, matter and time, or any other component part of universes. As long as awareness of the immortal, powerful, spiritual "self" is ignored, humanity will remain imprisoned until the day of its own, self-destruction and oblivion.
Do not rely on the dogma of physical sciences to master the fundamental forces of creation any more than you would trust the chanted incantations of an incense-burning shaman. The net result of both of these is entrapment and oblivion. Scientists pretend to observe, but they only suppose that they see, and call it fact. Like the blind man, a scientist can not learn to see until he realizes that he is blind. The "facts" of Earth science do not include the source of creation. They include only the result, or byproducts of creation.
The "facts" of science to not include any memory of the nearly infinite past experience of existence.
The essence of creation and existence cannot be found through the lens of a microscope or telescope or by any other measurement of the physical universe. One cannot comprehend the perfume of a flower or the pain felt by an abandoned lover with meters and calipers.
Everything you will ever know about the creative force and ability of a god can be found within you -- an Immortal Spiritual Being.
How can a blind man teach others to see the nearly infinite gradients that comprise the spectrum of light? The notion that one can understand the universe without understanding the nature of an IS-BE is as absurd as conceiving that an artist is a speck of paint on his own canvas. Or, that the lace on a ballet shoe is the choreographer's vision, or the grace of a dancer, or the electric excitement of opening night.
Study of the spirit has been booby-trapped by the thought control operation through religious superstitions they instill in the minds of men. Conversely, the study of the spirit and the mind have been prohibited by science which eliminates anything that is not measurable in the physical universe. Science is the religion of matter. It worships matter.
The paradigm of science is that creation is all, and the creator is nothing. Religion says the creator is all, and the creation is nothing. These two extremes are the bars of a prison cell. They prevent observation of all phenomenon as an interactive whole.
Study of creation without knowing the IS-BE, the source of creation, is futile. When you sail to the edge of a universe conceived by science, you fall off the end into an abyss of dark, dispassionate space and lifeless, unrelenting force. On Earth, you have been convinced that the oceans of the mind and spirit are filled with gruesome, ghoulish monsters that will eat you alive if you dare to venture beyond the breakwater of superstition.
The vested interest of the "Old Empire" prison system is to prevent you from looking at your own soul. They fear that you will see in your own memory the slave masters who keep you imprisoned. The prison is made of shadows in your mind. The shadows are made of lies, and pain, and loss, and fear.
The true geniuses of civilization are those IS- BEs who will enable other IS-BEs to recover their memory and regain self-realization and self-determination. This issue is not solved through enforcing moral regulation on behavior, or through the control of beings through mystery, faith, drugs, guns or any other dogma of a slave society. And certainly not through the use of electric shock and hypnotic commands!
The survival of Earth and every being on it depends on the ability to recover the memory of skills you have accrued through the trillenia; to recover the essence of yourself. Such an art, science, or technology has never been conceived in the "Old Empire". Otherwise, they would not have resorted to the "solution" that brought you to your current condition on Earth.
Neither has such technology ever been developed by The Domain. Until recently, the necessity of rehabilitating an IS-BE with amnesia has not been needed. Therefore, no one has ever worked on solving this problem. So far, unfortunately, The Domain has no solution to offer.
A few officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force have taken it upon themselves to provide technology to Earth during their off duty time. These officers leave their "doll" at the space station and, as an IS-BE, assume or take over a biological body on Earth. In some cases an officer can remain on duty while they inhabit and control other bodies at the same time.
This is a very dangerous and adventurous undertaking. It requires a very able IS-BE to accomplish such a mission, and return to base successfully. One officer who did this recently, while continuing to attend to his official duties, was known on Earth as the electronics inventor, Nicola Tesla.
It is my intention, although is not a part of my mission orders, to assist you in your efforts to advance scientific and humanitarian progress on Earth. My intention is to help other IS-BEs to help themselves. In order to solve the amnesia problem on Earth you will need much more advanced technology, as well as social stability to allow enough time for research and development of techniques to free the IS-BE from the body, and to free the mind of the IS-BE from amnesia.
Although The Domain has a long term interest in maintaining Earth as a useful planet, it has no particular interest in the human population of Earth, other than its own personnel here. We are interested in preventing destruction, as well as accelerating the development of technologies that will sustain the infrastructures of the global biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere.
To this end, you will discover, on very careful and thorough examination, that my space craft contains a wide assortment of technology that does not yet exist on Earth. If you distribute pieces of this craft to various scientists for study, they will be able to reverse engineer some of the technology to the extent that Earth has the raw materials required to replicate these components.
Some features will be indecipherable. Other features cannot be duplicated as Earth does not have the natural resources required to replicate them. This is especially true of the metals used to construct the craft. Not only do these metals not exist on Earth, the refining process required to produce these metals took billions of years to develop.
It is also true of the navigation system which requires an IS-BE whose own personal wavelength has been specifically attuned to the "neural network" of the craft. The pilot of the craft must possess a very high order of energy volition, discipline, training and intelligence to manipulate such a craft. IS-BEs on Earth are incapable of this expertise because it requires the use of an artificial body specifically created for this purpose.
Certain individual Earth scientists, some of whom are among the most brilliant minds in the history of the universe, will have their memory of this technology jogged when they examine the craft components. Just as some of the scientists and physicists on Earth have been able to "remember" how to recreate electric generators, internal combustion and steam locomotion, refrigeration, aircraft, antibiotics, and other tools of your civilization, they will also rediscover other vital technology in my craft.
The following are the specific systems embodied in my craft that contain useful components:
There is an assortment of microscopic wiring or fibers within the walls of the craft that control such things as communications, information storage, computer function, and automatic navigation.
The same wiring is used for light, sub- light and ultra-light spectrum detection and vision.
The fabrics of the interior of the craft are far superior to any on Earth at this time and have hundreds or thousands of applications.
You will also find mechanisms for creating, amplifying and channeling light particles or waves as a form of...
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain Forces, I am not at liberty to discuss or convey the detailed operation or construction of the craft in any way, other than what I have just disclosed. However, I am confident that there are many competent engineers on Earth who will develop useful technology with these resources.
I am providing these details to you in the hope that the greater good of The Domain will be served."
...
Although The Domain will not hesitate to destroy any active vestiges of the "Old Empire" operations where ever they are discovered this is not our primary mission in this galaxy. I am sure that the "Old Empire" mind-control mechanisms can be deactivated and destroyed eventually. However, it is not possible to estimate how long this make take, as we do not understand the extent of this operation at this time.
We do know that the "Old Empire" force screen is vast enough to cover this end of the galaxy, at least. We also know from experience that each force generator and trapping device is very difficult to detect, locate and destroy. Also, it is not the current mission of The Domain Expeditionary Force to commit resources to this endeavor.
The eventual destruction of these devices may make it possible for your memory to be restored, simply by virtue of not having it erased after each lifetime. Fortunately, the memory of an IS-BE cannot be permanently erased.
There are many other active space civilizations who maintain various nefarious operations in this area...
... not the least of which is dumping unwanted IS-BEs on Earth.
None of these craft are hostile or in violent opposition to The Domain Forces. They know better than to challenge us!
For the most part The Domain ignores Earth and its inhabitants, except to ensure that the resources of the planet itself are not permanently spoiled. This sector of the galaxy was annexed by The Domain and is the possession of The Domain, to do with or dispose of as it deems best.
The moon of Earth and the asteroid belt have become a permanent base of operations for The Domain Forces.
Needless to say, any attempt by humans or others to interfere in the activities of The Domain in this solar system -- even if it were possible, which it definitely is not -- will be terminated swiftly. This is not a serious concern, as I mentioned earlier, since homo sapiens cannot operate in open space.
Of course we will continue with the next steps of The Domain Expansion Plan which has remained on schedule for billions of years. Over the next 5,000 years there will be increasing traffic and activity of The Domain Forces as we progress toward the center of this galaxy and beyond to spread our civilization through the universe.
If humanity is to survive, it must cooperate to find effective solutions to the difficult conditions of your existence on Earth. Humanity must rise above its human form and discover where they are, and that they are IS- BEs, and who they really are as IS-BEs in order to transcend the notion that they are merely biological bodies. Once these realizations have been made, it may be possible to escape your current imprisonment. Otherwise, there will be no future for the IS-BEs on Earth.
Although there are no active battles or war being waged between The Domain and the "Old Empire", there still exists the covert actions of the "Old Empire" taken against Earth through their thought control operation.
When one knows that these activities exist, the effects can be observed clearly. The most obvious examples of these actions against the human race can be seen as incidents of sudden, inexplicable behavior. A very recent instance of this occurred in the United States military just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Just three days before the attack, someone in authority ordered all the ships in Pearl Harbor to go into port and secure for inspection. The ships were ordered to take all the ammunition out of their magazines, and store it below. On the afternoon before attack all of the admirals and generals were attending parties, even though two Japanese aircraft carriers were discovered standing right off Pearl Harbor.
The obvious action to take would have been to contact Pearl Harbor by telephone to warn them of the danger of a fight starting and to put the ammunition back and order the ships to get out of port into open sea.
About six hours before the Japanese attack began, a U.S. navy ship sank a small Japanese submarine right outside the harbor. Instead of contacting Pearl Harbor by telephone to report the incident, a warning message was put into top secret code, which took about two hours to encode, and then it took another two hours to decode. The word of warning to Pearl Harbor did not arrive until 10:00 AM Pearl Harbor time, Sunday -- two hours after the Japanese attack destroyed the U.S. fleet.
How do things like this happen?
If the men who were responsible for these obviously disastrous errors were stood up and asked bluntly to justify their actions and intentions you would find out that they were quite sincere in their jobs. Ordinarily, they do the very best they can do for people and nations. However, all of a sudden, from some completely unknown and undetectable source enters these wild, unexplainable situations that just 'can't exist'.
The "Old Empire" thought control operation is run by a small group of old "baboons" with very small minds. They are playing insidious games with no purpose and no goal other than to control and destroy IS-BEs who could otherwise manage themselves perfectly well, if left alone.
These types of artificially created incidents are being forced upon the human race by the operators of the mind-control prison system. The prison guards will always promote and support oppressive or totalitarian activities of IS-BEs on Earth. Why not keep the inmates fighting between themselves? Why not empower madmen to run the governments of Earth? The men who run the criminal governments of Earth mirror the commands given them by covert thought-controllers of the "Old Empire".
The human race will continue to shadow box with this for a long time -- as long as it remains the human race.
Until then, the IS-BEs on Earth will continue to live a series of consecutive lives, over and over and over. The same IS-BEs who lived during the rise and fall of civilizations in India, China, Mesepotamia, Greece, and Rome are inhabiting bodies in the present time in America, France, Russia, Africa, and around the world.
In between each lifetime an IS-BE is sent back again, to begin all over, as though the new life was the only life they had ever lived. They begin anew in pain, in misery, and mystery.
Some IS-BEs have been transported to Earth more recently than others. Some IS-BEs have been on Earth only a few hundred years, so they have no personal experiences with the earlier civilizations of Earth. They have no experiences of having lived on Earth, so could not remember a previous existence here, even if their memory was restored. They might, however, remember lives they lived elsewhere on other planets and in other times.
Others have been here since the first days of Lemuria. In any case, the IS-BEs of Earth are here forever, until they can break the amnesia cycle, conquer the electronic traps set up by their captors and free themselves.
Because The Domain has three thousand of their own IS-BEs in captivity on Earth also, they have an interest in solving this problem. This problem has never been encountered or effectively solved before in the universe, as far as they know. They will continue their efforts to free those IS-BEs from Earth, where and when it is possible, but it will require time to develop an unprecedented technology and the diligence to do so.'
…
Summary and conclusion
The vast bulk of the narrative in the “Alien Interview” contained references and information relative to the conventional situation. When a need to elaborate on certain points occurred, the extraterrestrial used personal stories and data to “flush it out” so as to clarify the situations involved.
This article contains the vast bulk of the narrative as it pertains to contemporaneous humans on Earth devoid of any older historical references.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The extraterrestrial discussed period of time in…
Trillions of years. (Birth of consciousness, universe creation.)
Billions of years. (Galaxy creation, and early civilizations.)
Millions of years. (Local events in our region, and mankind.)
Thousands of years. (A scope most important to humans.)
In this article we will discuss the largest and most alien time scope; trillions of years.
Because the text will be taken out of the document, there might be some discontinuity in the text. In any case, I would advise reading the entire full document for a better understanding of context. Further, keep in mind that the purpose of this particular post / article is to separate the transcript into wide categories depending on the span of times discussed. I fear that the extraterrestrial was talking about a few thousand years in the past, then jumped to trillions of years ago, jumps to millions of years ago, jumps to decades, and then back to billions of years ago. This effort is to help sort things out chronologically.
The text segments…
"Personally, it is my conviction that all sentient beings are immortal spiritual beings. This includes human beings. For the sake of accuracy and simplicity I will use a made-up word: "IS-BE".
Because the primary nature of an immortal being is that they live in a timeless state of "is", and the only reason for their existence is that they decide to "be".
No matter how lowly their station in a society, every IS-BE deserves the respect and treatment that I myself would like to receive from others. Each person on Earth continues to be an IS-BE whether they are aware of the fact or not."
…
"Before you can understand the subject of history, you must first understand the subject of time. Time is simply an arbitrary measurement of the motion of objects through space.
Space is not linear. Space is determined by the point of view of an IS-BE when viewing an object. The distance between an IS-BE and the object being viewed is called "space".
Objects, or energy masses, in space do not necessarily move in a linear fashion. In this universe, objects tend to move randomly or in a curving or cyclical pattern, or as determined by agreed upon rules.
History is not only a linear record of events, as many authors of Earth history books imply, because it is not a string that can be stretched out and marked like a measuring tool. History is a subjective observation of the movement of objects through space, recorded from the point of view of a survivor, rather than of those who succumbed.
Events occur interactively and concurrently, just as the biological body has a heart that pumps blood, while the lungs provide oxygen to the cells, which reproduce, using energy from the sun and chemicals from plants, at the same time as the liver strains toxic wastes from the blood, and eliminates them through the bladder and the bowels.
All of these interactions are concurrent and simultaneous. Although time runs consecutively, events do not happen in an independent, linear stream.
In order to view and understand the history or reality of the past, one must view all events as part of an interactive whole. Time can also be sensed as a vibration which is uniform throughout the entire physical universe.
Airl explained that IS-BEs have been around since before the beginning of the universe. The reason they are called "immortal", is because a "spirit" is not born and cannot die, but exists in a personally postulated perception of "is - will be". She was careful to explain that every spirit is not the same. Each is completely unique in identity, power, awareness and ability.
The difference between an IS-BE like Airl and most of the IS-BEs inhabiting bodies on Earth, is that Airl can enter and depart from her "doll" at will. She can perceive at selective depths through matter. Airl and other officers of The Domain can communicate telepathically. Since an IS-BE is not a physical universe entity it has no location in space or time.
An IS-BE is literally, "immaterial". They can span great distances of space instantly.
They can experience sensations, more intensely than a biological body, without the use of physical sensory mechanisms. An IS-BE can exclude pain from their perception. Airl can also remember her "identity", so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!
She says that the existing collection of suns in this immediate vicinity of the universe have been burning for the last 200 trillion years. The age of the physical universe is nearly infinitely old, but probably at least four quadrillion years since its earliest beginnings.
Time is a difficult factor to measure as it depends on the subjective memory of IS-BEs and there has been no uniform record of events throughout the physical universe since it began. As on Earth, there are many different time measurement systems, defined by various cultures, which use cycles of motion, and points of origin to establish age and duration.
The physical universe itself is formed from the convergence and amalgamation of many other individual universes, each one of which were created by an IS-BE or group of IS-BEs.
The collision of these illusory universes commingled and coalesced and were solidified to form a mutually created universe. Because it is agreed that energy and forms can be created, but not destroyed, this creative process has continued to form an ever-expanding universe of nearly infinite physical proportions.
Before the formation of the physical universe there was a vast period during which universes were not solid, but wholly illusionary. You might say that the universe was a universe of magical illusions which were made to appear and vanish at the will of the magician. In every case, the "magician" was one or more IS-BEs. Many IS-BEs on Earth can still recall vague images from that period. Tales of magic, sorcery and enchantment, fairy tales and mythology speak of such things, although in very crude terms.
Each IS-BE entered into the physical universe when they lost their own, "home" universe. That is, when an IS-BE's "home" universe was overwhelmed by the physical universe, or when the IS-BE joined with other IS-BEs to create or conquer the physical universe.
On Earth, the ability to determine when an IS- BE entered the physical universe is difficult for two reasons:
1) the memory of IS-BEs on Earth have been erased, and
2) IS-BEs arrival or invasion into the physical universe took place at different times, some 60 trillion years ago, and others only 3 trillion.
…
The Domain has conducted a periodic survey of the galaxies in this sector of the universe since it developed space travel technologies about 80 trillion years ago.
A review of changes in the complexion of Earth reveal that mountain ranges rise and fall, continents change location, the poles of the planet shift, ice caps come and go, oceans appear and disappear, rivers, valleys and canyons change. In all cases, the matter is the same. It is always the same sand.
Every form and substance is made of the same basic material, which never deteriorates.
…
"The origins of this universe and life on Earth, as discussed in the textbooks I have read, are very inaccurate. Since you serve your government as a medical personnel, your duties require that you understand biological entities. So, I am sure that you will appreciate the value of the material I will share with you today.
The text of books I have been given on subjects related to the function of life forms contain information that is based on false memories, inaccurate observation, missing data, unproven theories, and superstition.
…
The correct information about the origins of biological entities has been erased from your mind, as well as from the minds of your mentors. In order to help you regain your own memory, I will share with you some factual material concerning the origin of biological entities.
I asked Airl if she was referring to the subject of evolution. Airl said, "No, not exactly".
You will find "evolution" mentioned in the ancient Vedic Hymns. The Vedic texts are like folk tales or common wisdoms and superstitions gathered throughout the systems of The Domain. These were compiled into verses, like a book of rhymes. For every statement of truth, the verses contain as many half-truths, reversals of truth and fanciful imaginings, blended without qualification or distinction.
The theory of evolution assumes that the motivational source of energy that animates every life form does not exist. It assumes that an inanimate object or a chemical concoction can suddenly become "alive" or animate accidentally or spontaneously.
Or, perhaps an electrical discharge into a pool of chemical ooze will magically spawn a self- animated entity.
There is no evidence whatsoever that this is true, simply because it is not true. Dr. Frankenstein did not really resurrect the dead into a marauding monster, except in the imagination of the IS-BE who wrote a fictitious story one dark and stormy night.
No Western scientist ever stopped to consider who, what, where, when or how this animation happens. Complete ignorance, denial or unawareness of the spirit as the source of life force required to animate inanimate objects or cellular tissue is the sole cause of failures in Western medicine.
In addition, evolution does not occur accidentally. It requires a great deal of technology which must be manipulated under the careful supervision of IS-BEs. Very simple examples are seen in the modification of farm animals or in the breeding of dogs. However, the notion that human biological organisms evolved naturally from earlier ape-like forms is incorrect. No physical evidence will ever be uncovered to substantiate the notion that modern humanoid bodies evolved on this planet.
The reason is simple: the idea that human bodies evolved spontaneously from the primordial ooze of chemical interactivity in the dim mists of time is nothing more than a hypnotic lie instilled by the amnesia operation to prevent your recollection of the true origins of Mankind. Factually, humanoid bodies have existed in various forms throughout the universe for trillions of years.
…
Immortal Spiritual Beings, which I refer to as "IS-BEs", for the sake of convenience, are the source and creators of illusions. Each one, individually and collectively, in their original, unfettered state of being, are an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing entity.
IS-BEs create space by imagining a location. The intervening distance between themselves and the imagined location is what we call space.
An IS-BE can perceive the space and objects created by other IS-BEs.
IS-BEs are not physical universe entities. They are a source of energy and illusion. IS- BEs are not located in space or time, but can create space, place particles in space, create energy, and shape particles into various forms, cause the motion of forms, and animate forms. Any form that is animated by an IS-BE is called life.
An IS-BE can decide to agree that they are located in space or time, and that they, themselves, are an object, or any other manner of illusion created by themselves or another or other IS-BEs.
The disadvantage of creating an illusion is that an illusion must be continually created. If not continually created, it disappears. Continual creation of an illusion requires incessant attention to every detail of the illusion in order to sustain it.
A common denominator of IS-BEs seems to be the desire to avoid boredom.
A spirit only, without interaction with other IS-BEs, and the unpredictable motion, drama, and unanticipated intentions and illusions being created by other IS-BEs, is easily bored.
What if you could imagine anything, perceive everything, and cause anything to happen, at will? What if you couldn't do anything else? What if you always knew the outcome of every game and the answer to every question?
Would you get bored?
The entire back time track of IS-BEs is immeasurable, nearly infinite in terms of physical universe time.
There is no measurable "beginning" or "end" for an IS-BE.
They simply exist in an everlasting now.
Another common denominator of IS-BEs is that admiration of one's own illusions by others is very desirable.
If the desired admiration is not forthcoming, the IS-BE will keep creating the illusion in an attempt to get admiration. One could say that the entire physical universe is made of unadmired illusions.
The origins of this universe began with the creation of individual, illusionary spaces. These were the "home" of the IS-BE.
Sometimes a universe is a collaborative creation of illusions by two or more IS-BEs. A proliferation of IS-BEs, and the universes they create, sometimes collide or become commingled or merge to an extent that many IS-BEs shared in the co-creation of a universe.
IS-BEs diminish their ability in order to have a game to play. IS-BEs think that any game is better than no game.
They will endure pain, suffering, stupidity, privation, and all manner of unnecessary and undesirable conditions, just to play a game. Pretending that one does not know all, see all and cause all, is a way to create the conditions necessary for playing a game: unknowns, freedoms, barriers and/or opponents and goals. Ultimately, playing a game solves the problem of boredom.
In this fashion, all of the space, galaxies, suns, planets, and physical phenomena of this universe, including life forms, places, and events have been created by IS-BEs and sustained by mutual agreement that these things exist.
There are as many universes as there are IS-BEs to imagine, build and perceive them, each existing concurrently within its own continuum. Each universe is created using its own unique set of rules, as imagined, altered, preserved or destroyed by one or more IS-BEs who created it. Time, energy, objects and space, as defined in terms of the physical universe, may or may not exist in other universes. The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe.
One of the rules of the physical universe is that energy can be created, but not destroyed. So, the universe will keep expanding as long as IS-BEs keep adding more new energy into it. It is nearly infinite. It is like an automobile assembly line that never stops running and none of the cars are ever destroyed.
Every IS-BE is basically good.
Therefore, an IS-BE does not enjoy doing things to other IS- BEs which they themselves do not want to experience. For an IS-BE there is no inherent standard for what is good or bad, right or wrong, ugly or beautiful. These ideas are all based on the opinion of each individual IS-BE.
The closest concept that human beings have to describe an IS-BE is as a god: all-knowing, all-powerful, infinite. So, how does a god stop being a god?
They pretend NOT to know. How can you play a game of "hide and seek" if you always know where the other person is hiding?
You pretend NOT to know where the other players are hiding, so you can go off to "seek" them. This is how games are created. You have forgotten that you are just "pretending". In so doing, IS-BEs become entrapped and enslaved inside a maze of their own devising.
How does one create a cage, lock one's own self inside the cage, throw away the key, and forget there is a key or a cage, and forget there is an "inside" or "outside", and even forget there is a self? Create the illusion that there is no illusion: the entire universe is real, and that no other universe exists or can be created.
On Earth, the propaganda taught and agreed upon is that the gods are responsible, and that human beings are not responsible. You are taught that only a god can create universes. So, the responsibility for every action is assigned to another IS-BE or god. Never oneself.
No human being ever assumes personal responsibility for the fact that they, themselves -- individually and collectively -- are gods. This fact alone is the source of entrapment for every IS-BE.
…
Some comments on this.
These discussions, and text narratives, refer to a time where our universe (via the “Big Bang”) was not yet created. And in that land of no time (yet the extraterrestrial refers to time…?) and no space, the IS-BE consciousness existed. And this is what it was like.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The extraterrestrial discussed period of time in…
Trillions of years. (Birth of consciousness, universe creation.)
Billions of years. (Galaxy creation, and early civilizations.)
Millions of years. (Local events in our region, and mankind.)
Thousands of years. (A scope most important to humans.)
In this article we will discuss the time scope of billions of years.
Because the text will be taken out of the document, there might be some discontinuity in the text. In any case, I would advise reading the entire full document for a better understanding of context. Further, keep in mind that the purpose of this particular post / article is to separate the transcript into wide categories depending on the span of times discussed. I fear that the extraterrestrial was talking about a few thousand years in the past, then jumped to trillions of years ago, jumps to millions of years ago, jumps to decades, and then back to billions of years ago. This effort is to help sort things out chronologically.
Perspective
According to the learned “experts” the “big bang” hit around 14 – 15 billion years ago. Eventually forming our galaxy which absorbed other galaxies in the process. Based on the composition of stars, they have estimated that most stars in our universe today are fourth or fifth generation.
Our solar system is around 4 – 5 billion years old.
The text segments
Every once in a short while, a few million years, an area or planet will be taken over by another group of IS-BEs entering into the area.
Sometimes they will capture other IS-BEs as slaves. They will be forced to inhabit bodies to perform menial, or manual work -- especially mining mineral ores on heavy-gravity planets, such as Earth.
Airl says that, when she became a pilot for a biological survey mission which included occasional visits to Earth. She can remember her entire career there, and for a very long time before that.
She told me that Earth scientists do not have an accurate measuring system to gauge the age of matter. They assume that because certain types of materials seem to deteriorate rather quickly, such as organic or carbon-based matter, that there is a deterioration of matter. It is not accurate to measure the age of stone, based on the measurement of the age of wood or bone. This is a fundamental error. Factually, matter does not deteriorate. It cannot be destroyed. Matter may be altered in form, but it is never truly destroyed.
…
I can relate part of this history from personal experience:
Many billions of years ago I was a member of a very large biological laboratory in a galaxy far from this one. It was called the "Arcadia Regeneration Company". I was a biological engineer working with a large staff of technicians. It was our business to manufacture and supply new life forms to uninhabited planets. There were millions of star systems with millions of inhabitable planets in the region at that time.
There were many other biological laboratory companies at that time also. Each of them specialized in producing different kinds of life forms, depending on the "class" of the planet being populated. Over a long span of time these laboratories developed a vast catalogue of species throughout the galaxies. The majority of basic genetic material is common to all species of life. Therefore, most of their work was concerned with manipulating alterations of the basic genetic pattern to produce variations of life forms that would be suitable inhabitants for various planetary classes.
The "Arcadia Regeneration Company" specialized in mammals for forested areas and birds for tropical regions. Our marketing staff negotiated contracts with various planetary governments and independent buyers from all over the universe. The technicians created animals that were compatible with the variations in climate, atmospheric and terrestrial density and chemical content. In addition we were paid to integrate our specimens with biological organisms engineered by other companies already living on a planet.
In order to do this our staff was in communication with other companies who created life forms. There were industry trade shows, publications and a variety of other information supplied through an association that coordinated related projects.
As you can imagine, our research required a great deal of interstellar travel to conduct planetary surveys. This is when I learned my skills as a pilot. The data gathered was accumulated in huge computer databases and evaluated by biological engineers.
A computer is an electronic device that serves as an artificial "brain" or complex calculating machine. It is capable of storing information, making computations, solving problems and performing mechanical functions. In most of the galactic systems of the universe, very large computers are commonly used to run the routine administration, mechanical services and maintenance activities of an entire planet or planetary system.
Based on the survey data gathered, designs and artistic renderings were made for new creatures. Some designs were sold to the highest bidder. Other life forms were created to meet the customized requests of our clients.
The design and technical specifications were passed along an assembly line through a series of cellular, chemical, and mechanical engineers to solve the various problems. It was their job to integrate all of the component factors into a workable, functional and aesthetic finished product.
Prototypes of these creatures were then produced and tested in artificially created environments. Imperfections were worked out, modifications made and eventually the new life form was "endowed" or "animated" with a life force or spiritual energy before being introduced into the actual planetary environment for final testing.
After a new life form was introduced, we monitored the interaction of these biological organisms with the planetary environment and with other indigenous life-forms. Conflicts resulting from the interaction between incompatible organisms were resolved through negotiation between ourselves and other companies. The negotiations usually resulted in compromises requiring further modification to our creatures or to theirs or both. This is part of a science or art you call "Eugenics".
In some cases changes were made in the planetary environment, but not often, as planet building is much more complex than making changes to an individual life form.
…
What you see now on Earth is the huge variety of life forms left behind. Your scientists believe that the fallacious "theory of evolution" is an explanation for the existence of all the life forms here. The truth is that all life forms on this and any other planet in this universe were created by companies like ours.
How else can you explain the millions of completely divergent and unrelated species of life on the land and in the oceans of this planet? How else can you explain the source of spiritual animation which defines every living creature? To say it is the work of "god", is far too broad. Every IS-BE has many names and faces in many times and places. Every IS-BE is a god. When they inhabit a physical object they are the source of Life.
For example, there are millions of species of insects. About 350,000 of these are species of beetles. There may be as many as 100 million species of life forms on Earth at any given time. In addition, there are many times more extinct species of life on Earth than there are living life forms. Some of these will be rediscovered in the fossil or geological records of Earth.
The current "theory of evolution" of life forms on Earth does not consider the phenomena of biological diversity. Evolution by natural selection is science fiction. One species does not accidentally, or randomly evolve to become another species, as the Earth textbooks indicate, without manipulation of genetic material by an IS-BE.
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Factually, some organisms on Earth, such as Proteobacteria, are modifications of a Phylum designed primarily for "Star Type 3, Class C" planets. In other words, The Domain designation for a planet with an anaerobic atmosphere nearest a large, intensely hot blue star, such as those in the constellation of Orion's Belt in this galaxy.
Creating life forms is very complex, highly technical work for IS-BEs who specialize in this field. Genetic anomalies are very baffling to Earth biologists who have had their memory erased. Unfortunately, the false memory implantations of the "Old Empire" prevent Earth scientists from observing obvious anomalies.
The greatest technical challenge of biological organisms was the invention of self- regeneration, or sexual reproduction. It was invented as the solution to the problem of having to continually manufacture replacement creatures for those that had been destroyed and eaten by other creatures. Planetary governments did not want to keep buying replacement animals.
The idea was contrived trillions of years ago as a result of a conference held to resolve arguments between the disputing vested interests within the biotechnology industry. The infamous "Council of Yuhmi-Krum" was responsible for coordinating creature production.
A compromise was reached, after certain members of the Council were strategically bribed or murdered, to author an agreement which resulted in the biological phenomenon which we now call the "food chain".
The idea that a creature would need to consume the body of another life form as an energy source was offered as a solution by one of the biggest companies in the biological engineering business. They specialized in creating insects and flowering plants.
The connection between the two is obvious. Nearly every flowering plant requires a symbiotic relationship with an insect in order to propagate. The reason is obvious: both the bugs and the flowers were created by the same company. Unfortunately, this same company also had a division which created parasites and bacteria.
The name of the company roughly translated into English would be "Bugs & Blossoms" . They wanted to justify the fact that the only valid purpose of the parasitic creatures they manufactured was to aid the decomposition of organic material. There was a very limited market for such creatures at that time.
In order to expand their business they hired a big public relations firm and a powerful group of political lobbyists to glorify the idea that life forms should feed from other life forms. They invented a "scientific theory" to use as a promotion gimmick. The theory was that all creatures needed to have "food" as a source of energy. Before that, none of the life forms being manufactured required any external energy. Animals did not eat other animals for food, but consumed sunlight, minerals or vegetable matter only.
Of course, "Bugs & Blossoms" went into the business of designing and manufacturing carnivores. Before long, so many animals were being eaten as food that the problem of replenishing them became very difficult. As a 'solution', "Bugs & Blossoms" proposed, with the help of some strategically placed bribes in high places, that other companies begin using 'sexual reproduction' as the basis for replenishing life-forms. "Bugs & Blossoms" was the first company to develop blueprints for sexual reproduction, of course.
As expected, the patent licenses for the biological engineering process required to implant stimulus-response mating, cellular division and pre-programmed growth patterns for self-regenerating animals were owned by "Bugs & Blossoms" too.
Through the next few million years laws were passed that required that these programs be purchased by the other biological technology companies. These were required to be imprinted into the cellular design of all existing life- forms. It became a very expensive undertaking for other biotechnology companies to make such an awkward, and impractical idea work.
This led to the corruption and downfall of the entire industry. Ultimately, the 'food and sex' idea completely ruined the bio-technology industry, including "Bugs & Blossoms". The entire industry faded away as the market for manufactured life forms disappeared. Consequently, when a species became extinct, there is no way to replace them because the technology of creating new life forms has been lost. Obviously, none of this technology was ever known on Earth, and probably never will be.
There are still computer files on some planets far from here which record the procedures for biological engineering. Possibly the laboratories and computers still exist somewhere. However, there is no one around doing anything with them. Therefore, you can understand why it is so important for The Domain to protect the dwindling number of creatures left on Earth.
The core concept behind 'sexual reproduction' technology was the invention of a chemical/electronic interaction called "cyclical stimulus-response generators". This is an programmed genetic mechanism which causes a seemingly spontaneous, recurring impulse to reproduce. The same technique was later adapted and applied to biological flesh bodies, including Homo Sapiens.
Another important mechanism used in the reproductive process, especially with Homo Sapiens type bodies, is the implantation of a "chemical-electrical trigger" mechanism in the body. The "trigger" which attracts IS-BEs to inhabit a human body, or any kind of "flesh body", is the use of an artificially imprinted electronic wave which uses "aesthetic pain" to attract the IS-BE.
Every trap in the universe, including those used to capture IS-BEs who remain free, is "baited" with an aesthetic electronic wave.
The sensations caused by the aesthetic wavelength are more attractive to an IS-BE than any other sensation. When the electronic waves of pain and beauty are combined together, this causes the IS-BE to get "stuck" in the body.
The "reproductive trigger" used for lesser life forms, such as cattle and other mammals, is triggered by chemicals emitted from the scent glands, combined with reproductive chemical- electrical impulses stimulated by testosterone, or estrogen.
These are also interactive with nutrition levels which cause the life form to reproduce more when deprived of food sources. Starvation promotes reproductive activity as a means of perpetuating survival through future regenerations, when the current organism fails to survive. These fundamental principles have been applied throughout all species of life.
The debilitating impact and addiction to the "sexual aesthetic-pain" electronic wave is the reason that the ruling class of The Domain do not inhabit flesh bodies. This is also why officers of The Domain Forces only use doll bodies. This wave has proven to be the most effective trapping device ever created in the history of the universe, as far as I know.
The civilizations of The Domain and the "Old Empire" both depend on this device to "recruit" and maintain a work force of IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies on planets and installations. These IS-BEs are the "working class" beings who do all of the slavish, manual, undesirable work on planets.
As I mentioned, there is a very highly regimented and fixed hierarchy or "class system" for all IS-BEs throughout the "Old Empire", and The Domain, as follows:
The highest class are "free" IS-BEs. That is, they are not restricted to the use of any type of body and may come and go at will, provided that they do not destroy or interfere with the social, economic or political structure.
Below this class are many strata of "limited" IS-BEs who may or may not use a body from time to time. Limitations are imposed on each IS-BE regarding range of power, ability and mobility they can exercise.
Below these are the "doll body" classes, to which I belong. Nearly all space officers and crew members of space craft are required to travel through intergalactic space. Therefore, they are each equipped with a body manufactured from lightweight, durable materials. Various body types have been designed to facilitate specialized functions. Some bodies have accessories, such as interchangeable tools or apparatus for activities such as maintenance, mining, chemical management, navigation, and so forth. There are many gradations of this body type which also serve as an "insignia" of rank.
Below these are the soldier class. The soldiers are equipped with a myriad of weapons, and specialized armaments designed to detect, combat and overwhelm any imaginable foe. Some soldiers are issued mechanical bodies. Most soldiers are merely remote controlled robots with no class designation.
The lower classes are limited to "flesh bodies". Of course, it is not possible for these to travel through space for obvious reasons. Fundamentally, flesh bodies are far too fragile to endure the stresses of gravity, temperature extremes, radiation exposure, atmospheric chemicals and the vacuum of space. There are also the obvious logistical inconveniences of food, defecation, sleep, atmospheric elements, and air pressure required by flesh bodies, that doll bodies do not require.
Most flesh bodies will suffocate in only a few minutes without a specific combination of atmospheric chemicals. After 2 or 3 days the bacteria which live internally and externally on the body cause severe odors to be emitted. Odors of any kind are not acceptable in a space vessel.
Flesh can tolerate only a very limited spectrum of temperatures, whereas in space the contrast of temperatures may vary hundreds of degrees within seconds. Of course flesh bodies are utterly useless for military duty. A single shot from a hand-held, electronic blast gun instantly turns a flesh body into a noxious vapor cloud.
IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies have lost much of their native ability and power. Although it is theoretically possible to regain or rehabilitate these abilities, no practical means has been discovered or authorized by The Domain.
Even though space craft of The Domain travel trillions of "light years" in a single day, the time required to traverse the space between galaxies is significant, not to mention the length of time to complete just one set of mission orders, which may require thousands of years. Biological flesh bodies live for only a very short time -- only 60 to 150 years, at most -- whereas doll bodies can be re-used and repaired almost indefinitely.
The first development of biological bodies began in this universe about seventy-four trillion years ago. It rapidly became a fad for IS-BEs to create and inhabit various types of bodies for an assortment of nefarious reasons: especially for amusement, this is to experience various physical sensations vicariously through the body.
Since that time there has been a continuing "de-evolution" in the relationship of IS-BEs to bodies. As IS-BEs continued to play around with these bodies, certain tricks were introduced to cause IS-BEs to get trapped inside a body so they were unable to leave again.
This was done primarily by making bodies that appeared sturdy, but were actually very fragile. An IS-BE, using their natural power to create energy, accidentally injured a body when contacting it. The IS-BE was remorseful about having injured this fragile body. The next time they encountered a body they began to be "careful" with them. In so doing, the IS-BE would withdraw or minimize their own power so as not to injure the body. A very long and treacherous history of this kind of trickery, combined with similar misadventures eventually resulted in a large number of IS-BEs becoming permanently trapped in bodies.
Of course this became a profitable enterprise for some IS-BEs who took advantage of this situation to make slaves of others. The resulting enslavement progressed over trillions of years, and continues today. Ultimately the dwindling ability of IS-BEs to maintain a personal state of operational freedom and ability to create energy resulted in the vast and carefully guarded hierarchy or class system. Using bodies as a symbol of each class is used throughout the "Old Empire", as well as The Domain.
The vast majority of IS-BEs throughout the galaxies of this universe inhabit some form of flesh body. The structure, appearance, operation and habitat of these bodies vary according to the gravity, atmosphere, and climatic conditions of the planet they inhabit. Body types are predetermined largely by the type and size of the star around which the planet revolves, the distance from the star, the geological, as well as the atmospheric components of the planet.
On the average, these stars and planets fall into gradients of classification which are fairly standard throughout the universe. For example, Earth is identified, roughly, as a "Sun Type 12, Class 7 planet". That is a heavy gravity, nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere planet, with biological life-forms, in proximity to a single, yellow, medium-size, low-radiation sun or "Type 12 star". The proper designations are difficult to translate accurately due to the extreme limitations of astronomical nomenclature in the English language.
There are as many varieties of life forms as there are grains of sands on the beach. You can imagine how many different creatures and types of bodies have been manufactured by the millions of companies such as "Bugs & Blossoms" for all of the myriad planetary systems during the course of seventy-four trillion years!"
…
As Airl mentioned previously, a very rigid and distinctive hierarchy of social, economic and cultural classes exists throughout The Domain which has remained unvaried and inviolate for many millennia. The body type and function assigned to an IS-BE officer varies specifically according to the rank, class, longevity, training level, command level, service record, and meritorious citations earned by each individual IS-BE, as with any other military insignia.
The body used by Airl is specifically designed for an officer, pilot and engineer of her rank and class. The bodies of her companions, which were destroyed in the crash, were not of the same rank or class, but of a junior rank. Therefore, the appearance, features, composition and functionality of those bodies were specialized, and limited to the requirements of their duties.
The junior officers whose bodies were damaged in the crash have left their bodies and returned to their duties on the space station. The damage suffered by their bodies was due primarily to the fact that they were officers of lower rank. They used bodies which were partially biological and therefore far less durable and resilient than hers.
…
Some thoughts
In general, we can consider these selected text extracts to represent the time period from when the “Big Bang” happened to the early years in the formation of our solar system.
You can see that The Domain (or what ever it called itself then) was very busy creating life templates or systems, or archetypes for our universe. And most of the discussions during this period involved this activity. You can also see that it had created organizations that had similar names to what we refer to as companies, groups, marketing and scientists.
All in all it is very interesting. And in many ways is near equal to my understanding of this time period.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The extraterrestrial discussed period of time in…
Trillions of years. (Birth of consciousness, universe creation.)
Billions of years. (Galaxy creation, and early civilizations.)
Millions of years. (Local events in our region, and mankind.)
Thousands of years. (A scope most important to humans.)
In this article we will discuss the time scope of millions of years.
Because the text will be taken out of the document, there might be some discontinuity in the text. In any case, I would advise reading the entire full document for a better understanding of context. Further, keep in mind that the purpose of this particular post / article is to separate the transcript into wide categories depending on the span of times discussed. I fear that the extraterrestrial was talking about a few thousand years in the past, then jumped to trillions of years ago, jumps to millions of years ago, jumps to decades, and then back to billions of years ago. This effort is to help sort things out chronologically.
Millions of years ago.
Our solar system is around 4 – 5 billion years old (according to the “experts”). And our planet Earth really wasn’t much of anything worthwhile up until the last one billion years. Up until around 800 million years ago or so, it was just a hot smoggy mess.
Most Earth humans cannot picture a span of time in the millions of years. But to put things in context, you can use this handy guide…
Most of the stars and planets that we can see through our telescopes were pretty much also visible millions of years ago. Though many had changed and gone through “life cycles” in the process.
On the Earth, life fit into these broad categories…
800m – 500m Early life
500m – 70m Dinosaurs
70m – 10m Mammals
10m – 3m Proto-apes
3m – present Humans
Now there are all sorts of ways to splice and dice these categories up, so I’m not gonna want to hear your arguments one way or the other. This is just a very rough (ROUGH) rule of thumb to put things into context when you are reading the text extracted from the “Alien Interview” document.
The following text refers to stories, experiences, and narratives that took place when the world was rather young. As the extraterrestrial entity narrates, please keep in mind that the earth at this particular time was primitive. If it had life, the chances were that the life was dinosaurs or something similar.
The text segments
Several million years ago I was trained and served as an Investigation, Data Evaluation and Program Development Officer for The Domain. Because I was experienced in that technology, I was sent to Earth as part of the search team. (around 8,000 years ago.)
…
A simple example of IS-BE intervention is the selective breeding of a species on Earth. Within the past few hundred years several hundred dog breeds and hundreds of varieties of pigeons and dozens of Koi fish have been "evolved" in just a few years, beginning with only one original breed. Without active intervention by IS-BEs, biological organisms rarely change.
The development of an animal like the 'duck- billed platypus' required a lot of very clever engineering to combine the body of a beaver with the bill of a duck and make a mammal that lays eggs. Undoubtedly, some wealthy client placed a "special order" for it as a gift or curious amusement. I am sure the laboratory of some biotechnical company worked on it for years to make it a self-replicating life form!
The notion that the creation of any life form could have resulted from a coincidental chemical interaction moldering up from some primordial ooze is beyond absurdity!
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Thoughts and conclusions
This article discusses extracted quotes relating to a period of time on the order of millions of earth years. Roughly 100 million to 1 million years ago.
The extraterrestrial did not mention much about this period of time. There were only two separate instances that include dates in this time frame.
What we do know, or can infer, is that during this period of time that [1] “The Domain” existed. And that this particular extraterrestrial was involved in various roles to include [2] “training”, “working” and “learning”.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 8.
This is part eight of the parsing of this document
“It is my personal belief that the truth should not be sacrificed on the altar of political, religious or economic expediency.
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain it is my duty to protect the greater good of The Domain and its possessions.
However, we cannot defend ourselves against forces of which we are not aware.
The extraterrestrial wants to discuss truths as it understands them, but realizes that there are limitations on what it can say, and barriers in understanding what is related.
The isolation of Earth from the rest of civilization prevents me from discussing many subjects with you at this time.
The forced isolated of Earth, makes it very difficult to discuss matters of importance. Most of what would be discussed would be new, strange or incomprehensible to humans.
Security and protocol prevent me from revealing any but the broadest, general statements about the plans and activities of The Domain.
It is a military officer in an organization with limitations are requirements that it must meet.
However, I can give you some information that you may find useful.
But, and never the less, some information can be provided that will be useful.
I must return to my assigned duties on the “space station” now.
This "Alien interview" was a distraction. Not a major event. It it time for the extraterrestrial to return to it's normal duties.
I have provided as much help as I feel ethically able to offer, given the requirements and constraints of my duties as an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain Forces. Therefore, I will depart, as an IS-BE, from Earth within the next 24 hours.’
It is time for it to leave.
Notes
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following several paragraphs appear to be personal comments made by Matilda to the stenographer regarding her interview with Airl.)
What this means is that Airl will leave her “doll” with us, as her craft is damaged beyond repair. We can examine, dissect and study the body at our leisure. She does not have any further use for it, nor does she have any personal feelings or attachments to it as others are readily available for her use.
Airl does not recommend that there is any technology in the body that Earth scientists will find useful, however. The technology of the body is simple, yet vastly beyond the reckoning of our current ability to analyze or reverse engineer any facet of it. The body is neither biological or mechanical, but a unique fabrication a materials and ancient technologies not found on any Earth-type planet.
As Airl mentioned previously, a very rigid and distinctive hierarchy of social, economic and cultural classes exists throughout The Domain which has remained unvaried and inviolate for many millennia. The body type and function assigned to an IS-BE officer varies specifically according to the rank, class, longevity, training level, command level, service record, and meritorious citations earned by each individual IS-BE, as with any other military insignia.
The body used by Airl is specifically designed for an officer, pilot and engineer of her rank and class. The bodies of her companions, which were destroyed in the crash, were not of the same rank or class, but of a junior rank. Therefore, the appearance, features, composition and functionality of those bodies were specialized, and limited to the requirements of their duties.
The junior officers whose bodies were damaged in the crash have left their bodies and returned to their duties on the space station. The damage suffered by their bodies was due primarily to the fact that they were officers of lower rank. They used bodies which were partially biological and therefore far less durable and resilient than hers.
Transcript resumes
(EDITOR'S NOTE: At this point, the transcript appears to resume with statements made by Airl.)
Although The Domain will not hesitate to destroy any active vestiges of the “Old Empire” operations where ever they are discovered this is not our primary mission in this galaxy.
The Domain primary mission is something else. It will destroy "Old Empire" remnants where ever it finds them.
I am sure that the “Old Empire” mind-control mechanisms can be deactivated and destroyed eventually.
I agree with this.
However, it is not possible to estimate how long this make take, as we do not understand the extent of this operation at this time.
I also agree with this, though I do believe that things has changed substantially with MAJestic assistance from the 1960's to present.
We do know that the “Old Empire” force screen is vast enough to cover this end of the galaxy, at least.
It is not limited to the Earth. Nor is it limited to the solar system. But it extends much further than that and includes a region of space with numerous solar systems. I can tell you that there are at least five "sentience nurseries" or recovering "prison planets" in this neighborhood.
We also know from experience that each force generator and trapping device is very difficult to detect, locate and destroy.
Not a good thing.
Also, it is not the current mission of The Domain Expeditionary Force to commit resources to this endeavor.
Not a good thing.
The eventual destruction of these devices may make it possible for your memory to be restored, simply by virtue of not having it erased after each lifetime.
The destruction of the devices will probably and likely prevent the erasure of memories. But it will not be able to recover previously lost memories unfortunately.
Fortunately, the memory of an IS-BE cannot be permanently erased.
So, the memories will still be dormant, sitting there. They just will not be easily recovered.
There are many other active space civilizations who maintain various nefarious operations in this area, not the least of which is dumping unwanted IS-BEs on Earth.
There are many other space civilizations similar to the "Old Empire" that acts in this geographic area of our solar system.
None of these craft are hostile or in violent opposition to The Domain Forces. They know better than to challenge us!
They are war-mongering with evil intent, but they are afraid of the Domain. Which is probably why the Type-1 greys are so dominant in the solar system with MAJestic.
For the most part The Domain ignores Earth and its inhabitants, except to ensure that the resources of the planet itself are not permanently spoiled.
They do not want the earth to be radioactive, or swamped with incurable biological weapons.
This sector of the galaxy was annexed by The Domain and is the possession of The Domain, to do with or dispose of as it deems best.
This entire region, including the Earth is the property of The Domain.
The moon of Earth and the asteroid belt have become a permanent base of operations for The Domain Forces.
Permanent bases of operations for the Domain exist on the moon and in the asteroid belt. You all might want to read my article on The Hollow Moon.
Needless to say, any attempt by humans or others to interfere in the activities of The Domain in this solar system – even if it were possible, which it definitely is not – will be terminated swiftly.
Up front warning to the military leadership at Roswell.
This is not a serious concern, as I mentioned earlier, since homo sapiens cannot operate in open space.
Still the warning is there.
Of course we will continue with the next steps of The Domain Expansion Plan which has remained on schedule for billions of years. Over the next 5,000 years there will be increasing traffic and activity of The Domain Forces as we progress toward the center of this galaxy and beyond to spread our civilization through the universe.
This region of space will see more type-1 grey activities and will become more important as time moves on.
If humanity is to survive, it must cooperate to find effective solutions to the difficult conditions of your existence on Earth.
Humanity must cooperate with the Domain. Which is probably why MAJestic was established.
Humanity must rise above its human form and discover where they are, and that they are IS-BEs, and who they really are as IS-BEs in order to transcend the notion that they are merely biological bodies.
Once these realizations have been made, it may be possible to escape your current imprisonment.
Otherwise, there will be no future for the IS-BEs on Earth.
Thus anyone or anything that dwells on the carnal things of the flesh and the physical takes away from the notion of consciousness and purpose. Be the Rufus, or try to become filthy rich and popular like the media says. there is no in between.
Although there are no active battles or war being waged between The Domain and the “Old Empire”, there still exists the covert actions of the “Old Empire” taken against Earth through their thought control operation.
Covert actions are engaged on the earth.
When one knows that these these activities exist, the effects can be observed clearly.
The most obvious examples of these actions against the human race can be seen as incidents of sudden, inexplicable behavior.
A very recent instance of this occurred in the United States military just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Such as carpet bombing China with bio-weapons, and the Coronavirus, and the strange behaviors of American and British Naval vessels.
Just three days before the attack, someone in authority ordered all the ships in Pearl Harbor to go into port and secure for inspection. The ships were ordered to take all the ammunition out of their magazines, and store it below. On the afternoon before attack all of the admirals and generals were attending parties, even though two Japanese aircraft carriers were discovered standing right off Pearl Harbor.
The obvious action to take would have been to contact Pearl Harbor by telephone to warn them of the danger of a fight starting and to put the ammunition back and order the ships to get out of port into open sea.
About six hours before the Japanese attack began, a U.S. navy ship sank a small Japanese submarine right outside the harbor. Instead of contacting Pearl Harbor by telephone to report the incident, a warning message was put into top secret code, which took about two hours to encode, and then it took another two hours to decode.
The word of warning to Pearl Harbor did not arrive until 10:00 AM Pearl Harbor time, Sunday – two hours after the Japanese attack destroyed the U.S. fleet.
How do things like this happen?
If the men who were responsible for these obviously disastrous errors were stood up and asked bluntly to justify their actions and intentions you would find out that they were quite sincere in their jobs. Ordinarily, they do the very best they can do for people and nations. However, all of a sudden, from some completely unknown and undetectable source enters these wild, unexplainable situations that just ‘can’t exist’.
Such unexplainable actions by otherwise sensible people can and will occur.
The “Old Empire” thought control operation is run by a small group of old “baboons” with very small minds. They are playing insidious games with no purpose and no goal other than to control and destroy IS-BEs who could otherwise manage themselves perfectly well, if left alone.
It's an apt description of a very low mental state of humanoid.
These types of artificially created incidents (as recently) are being forced upon the human race by the operators of the mind-control prison system. The prison guards will always promote and support oppressive or totalitarian activities of IS-BEs on Earth.
Think of America today, and South Africa.
Why not keep the inmates fighting between themselves?
Why not empower madmen to run the governments of Earth?
The men who run the criminal governments of Earth mirror the commands given them by covert thought-controllers of the “Old Empire”.
Directions from their controllers who are well hidden and dispersed throughout the Old Empire. Even though it is in ruin, they still work their roles.
The human race will continue to shadow box with this for a long time – as long as it remains the human race. Until then, the IS-BEs on Earth will continue to live a series of consecutive lives, over and over and over. The same IS-BEs who lived during the rise and fall of civilizations in India, China, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome are inhabiting bodies in the present time in America, France, Russia, Africa, and around the world.
Sigh. This sucks.
In between each lifetime an IS-BE is sent back again, to begin all over, as though the new life was the only life they had ever lived. They begin anew in pain, in misery, and mystery.
Sigh. This sucks.
Some IS-BEs have been transported to Earth more recently than others. Some IS-BEs have been on Earth only a few hundred years, so they have no personal experiences with the earlier civilizations of Earth. They have no experiences of having lived on Earth, so could not remember a previous existence here, even if their memory was restored. They might, however, remember lives they lived elsewhere on other planets and in other times.
A very interesting statement. If the person had a life on another planet and was then transported to earth and had the memories erased, the memories of the prior planet might still exist and be easier to acquire.
Others have been here since the first days of Lemuria.
In any case, the IS-BEs of Earth are here forever, until they can break the amnesia cycle, conquer the electronic traps set up by their captors and free themselves.
It is a four step plan on what to do.
[1] Break the amnesia cycle.
[2] Conquer the electronic traps.
[3] free themselves from this region.
Because The Domain has three thousand of their own IS-BEs in captivity on Earth also, they have an interest in solving this problem.
This problem has never been encountered or effectively solved before in the universe, as far as they know.
It is a new problem as of 1947.
They will continue their efforts to free those IS-BEs from Earth, where and when it is possible, but it will require time to develop an unprecedented technology and the diligence to do so.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following statement is a comment by Matilda.)
I think it is Airl’s sincere desire, as one IS-BE to another, that the rest of our eternity will be as pleasant as possible.”
End of Part eight
It’s all a pretty interesting discussion. What’s up? Well, now I am going to parse this entire document all over, but in a format for us contemporary humans to understand. Actually the “Alien Interview” as well written and narrated as it is, is actually “all over the place” and jumps back and froth from great swaths of time and situations. My next series of articles will correct this uncomfortable situation.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 6.
This is part seven of the parsing of this document
Immortal Spiritual Beings, which I refer to as “IS-BEs”, for the sake of convenience, are the source and creators of illusions. Each one, individually and collectively, in their original, unfettered state of being, are an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing entity.
IS-BEs create space by imagining a location. The intervening distance between themselves and the imagined location is what we call space. An IS-BE can perceive the space and objects created by other IS-BEs.
IS-BEs are not physical universe entities. They are a source of energy and illusion. IS-BEs are not located in space or time, but can create space, place particles in space, create energy, and shape particles into various forms, cause the motion of forms, and animate forms. Any form that is animated by an IS-BE is called life.
I have no problem with this. Though I do realize just how difficult it is to understand.
An IS-BE can decide to agree that they are located in space or time, and that they, themselves, are an object, or any other manner of illusion created by themselves or another or other IS-BEs.
I have no problem with this.
The disadvantage of creating an illusion is that an illusion must be continually created. If not continually created, it disappears. Continual creation
of an illusion requires incessant attention to every detail of the illusion in order to sustain it.
Indeed. Entire books can be written on this subject.
A common denominator of IS-BEs seems to be the desire to avoid boredom. A spirit only, without interaction with other IS-BEs, and the unpredictable motion, drama, and unanticipated intentions and illusions being created by other IS-BEs, is easily bored.
This is a deep statement, and I guess, that it is wholly above the heads and minds of the Roswell military leadership present at the facility at that time.
What if you could imagine anything, perceive everything, and cause anything to happen, at will?
What if you couldn’t do anything else?
What if you always knew the outcome of every game and the answer to every question?
Would you get bored?
Yes. You would.
The entire back time track of IS-BEs is immeasurable, nearly infinite in terms of physical universe time. There is no measurable “beginning” or “end” for an IS-BE. They simply exist in an everlasting now.
Yes. I have no problems with this statement.
Another common denominator of IS-BEs is that admiration of one’s own illusions by others is very desirable.
If the desired admiration is not forthcoming, the IS-BE will keep creating the illusion in an attempt to get admiration.
One could say that the entire physical universe is made of unadmired illusions.
This is so very deep that it deserves complete indexes of articles to investigate further.
The origins of this universe began with the creation of individual, illusionary spaces.
Also known as the "Big Bang".
These were the “home” of the IS-BE.
Sometimes a universe is a collaborative creation of illusions by two or more IS-BEs.
A proliferation of IS-BEs, and the universes they create, sometimes collide or become commingled or merge to an extent that many IS-BEs shared in the co-creation of a universe.
Here we are discussing the creation of heavens and universes. And most strangely, I have dim recollections of events similar to what is described. Dim, curious, "memories" of a "something else".
IS-BEs diminish their ability in order to have a game to play.
Of course. You give up omnipotence for physical sensation.
IS-BEs think that any game is better than no game.
They will endure pain, suffering, stupidity, privation, and all manner of unnecessary and undesirable conditions, just to play a game.
Pretending that one does not know all, see all and cause all, is a way to create the conditions necessary for playing a game: unknowns, freedoms, barriers and/or opponents and goals.
Ultimately, playing a game solves the problem of boredom.
Reincarnation as a mortal being solves the problem of boredom. If you don't know what he is talking about, then perhaps a re-watching of the old Sean Connery movie "Zardoz" is in order.
In this fashion, all of the space, galaxies, suns, planets, and physical phenomena of this universe, including life forms, places, and events that have been created by IS-BEs…
…and sustained by mutual agreement that these things exist.
Sustained by mutual agreement.
There are as many universes as there are IS-BEs to imagine, build and perceive them, each existing concurrently within its own continuum.
Each universe is created using its own, unique set of rules, as imagined, altered, preserved or destroyed by one or more IS-BEs who created it.
This idea has been adopted by the scientific community as a given concerning "bubble universes".
Time, energy, objects and space, as defined in terms of the physical universe, may or may not exist in other universes.
Very true, and this is something that MM has stated repeatedly.
The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe.
Big stuff here. The Domain exists within a non-physical universe, and the physical universe as well.
One of the rules of the physical universe is that energy can be created, but not destroyed.
E=mc2
So, the universe will keep expanding as long as IS-BEs keep adding more new energy into it.
This physical universe is ever expanding.
It is nearly infinite. It is like an automobile assembly line that never stops running and none of the cars are ever destroyed.
Every IS-BE is basically good.
Therefore, an IS-BE does not enjoy doing things to other IS-BEs which they themselves do not want to experience.
A consciousness does not enjoy doing things to others which they do not want to experience. Hum. Unless, they have no recollection of their past.
For an IS-BE there is no inherent standard for what is good or bad, right or wrong, ugly or beautiful. These ideas are all based on the opinion of each individual IS-BE.
Beauty is in the beholder. Good and bad is as determined by the consciousness.
The closest concept that human beings have to describe an IS-BE is as a god: all-knowing, all-powerful, infinite. So, how does a god stop being a god? They pretend NOT to know.
How can you play a game of “hide and seek” if you always know where the other person is hiding?
You pretend NOT to know where the other players are hiding, so you can go off to “seek” them.
This is how games are created.
You have forgotten that you are just “pretending”.
In so doing, IS-BEs become entrapped and enslaved inside a maze of their own devising.
All of this is very deep and a very in-depth discussion and conversation that must have been way, way above the heads of the Roswell military leadership at that time.
How does one create a cage, lock one’s own self inside the cage, throw away the key, and forget there is a key or a cage, and forget there is an “inside” or “outside”, and even forget there is a self?
How to do this?
Create the illusion.
As in the Earth Sphere.
On Earth, the propaganda taught and agreed upon is that the gods are responsible, and that human beings are not responsible. You are taught that only a god can create universes. So, the responsibility for every action is assigned to another IS-BE or god.
Never oneself.
No human being ever assumes personal responsibility for the fact that they, themselves – individually and collectively – are gods. This fact alone is the source of entrapment for every IS-BE.
Thus, as I have repeatedly stated in MM, it's all your life and soul and consciousness and pre-birth world-line template. And you have the means and the ability to define your life, your future and your happiness. You do. No others.
End of Part seven
You can visit part eight HERE.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
Today, I am going to present a follow up article to my earlier post titled the “MM blue plate special”. Here we are going to follow the same format, with articles, photos and short videos depicting various things in no particular order. I hope that you all enjoy it.
And boy oh boy is she ever! This is the kind of girl that you would spend the day browsing the malls, looking at dogs and cats, and then going home to a nice home-cooked lasagna with a plain, but simple, dry red Cabernet wine. (Oh, and a nice side of fresh crunchy bread with some soft spreadable cheese and well-salted butter.)
I can see us talking on a bridge, and just being playful under the trees. She’s just delicious!
And the sad thing is that she has no idea. And I am not nearby to tell her.
If she only knew. If she only knew.
A fine lasagna.
Seriously! Who would not want to eat this, drink some dry wine, and have a nice fun conversation with a friend or a member of the opposite sex?
Can you possibly believe that some people just do not enjoy lasagna? I know I know. But what can I say?
A fine lasagna.
Night life in China
America is so very quiet. Canada is so very quiet. Everyone is inside alone, watching televisions, playing on the computer or doing their own things. Meanwhile, China which is a very social nation, everyone is out and about. This is a pretty good video depiction of what it’s all pretty much like.
Night time China.
This is America
Well, Americans are so numb to what America is today, that the images are just “ho hum”, but when I show them to other people they are in shock. They say “What? Where is this? Syria? The Middle East? Nope. Just another average day in a typical American city.
The USA has a death wish
An American Naval Vessel is trying to provoke a war between the Philippines and China, and trigger USA involved.
From Daniel…
From Global times, July 12th :”The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) forces expelled a US Navy destroyer that trespassed into Chinese territorial waters in the South China Sea on Monday, the day that coincided with the fifth anniversary of the so-called South China Sea Arbitration ruling.
..Without authorization from the Chinese government, the US guided missile destroyer USS Benfold illegally trespassed into China’s territorial waters of Xisha on Monday, and the PLA Southern Theater Command organized maritime and aerial forces to track and monitor it and warned it away, Senior Colonel Tian Junli, spokesperson of the command, said in a statement released on the same day..
The Xisha Islands are inherent territory of China, and the US military’s move seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, damaged peace and stability in the South China Sea, and violated international law and international relations norm, Tian said, noting that this marks another irrefutable evidence of US’ militarization in the region with navigational hegemony.”
The name of the ship ringed a bell, USS Benfold, It is named after a war hero, I think they even made a movie about him ,that was during the, drums please … the Korean War. Maybe it has a significance, maybe not.
I think and really believe that the USA is so out of control that it is going to really provoke a major catastrophic event that will be difficult to unravel.
This is what is going on from the Chinese point of view. Click on the picture for the video…
Here we have a BBC camera crew filming inside of America
America is on it’s death throes. It is thrashing around terribly, and the world needs calm and cool heads to prevail. First a provocation aimed at Russia. Didn’t happen. Then a provocation aimed at China. Didn’t happen. To me it seems that a major “False Flag” is in the works…
…only this time, if America tries this nonsense, both Russia and China will hit them hard. Look at the wasteland of what constitutes America today…
What happened to America?
Evil, self-centered, service-to-self psychopathic personalities took over. And they molded and reshaped the nation into their idea of utopia. Today it is a place where fear abounds, and people believe that they are doing well because the alternatives are far worse. It is a place where everything has a price, and no one ever has enough money because of a thousand little hands in your wallet.
Americans need to wake up to the reality that it’s all a big, big lie. Yes. America is a big, big lie. Check out this video…
The big lie.
Why? Intentional control of the minds of Americans
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here”
– William Shakespeare (The Tempest Act 1 Scene 2)
War has always depended on a reliable system to spread its propaganda. The Arthashastrawritten by Chankya (350-283 BCE) who was chief advisor to the Emperor Chandragupta (the first ruler of the Mauryan Empire) discusses propaganda and how to disperse and apply it in warfare. It is one of the oldest accounts of the essentialism of propaganda in warfare.
Propaganda is vital in times of war because it is absolutely imperative that the people, who often need to make the greatest sacrifices and suffer the most, believe that such a war is justified and that such a war will provide them security. To the degree that they believe this to be true, the greater the degree of sacrifice and suffering they are willing to submit themselves for said “promised security”.
It is crucial that when the people look at the “enemy” they see something sub-human, for if they recognise that said “enemy” has in fact humanity, the jig is up so to speak.
And thus we are bombarded day after day, hour after hour of reminders as to why the “enemy” is not human like us, not compassionate like us, not patient, just and wise like us.
No doubt, war has been a necessary response when tyranny has formed an army to fight for its cause, but I would put forth that most wars have been rather unnecessary and downright manipulated for the design of a small group of people.
During WWI, on Dec 25th 1914, something rather unexpected occurred and a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front took place between the French/British soldiers and the German soldiers. Some even ventured into “no man’s land”, given its name since none left it alive, to mingle with the “enemy” and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps. A game of football took place as well. It is said that these truces were not unique to the Christmas period but that they were much more widespread during the holiday season.
These fraternisations would understandably make it quite difficult to return to combat against one another…for no apparently good reason. Some units needed to be relocated since they had developed friendships with the opposing side and now refused to fight them.
The lesson was quickly learned and propaganda was heavily pumped down the throats of the Allied countries, and by the course of just a few years, they no longer viewed the Germans as human.
The CIA’s Family Jewels and Operation Mockingbird
For us to understand the implications of modern propaganda and how it is used in warfare today, our story starts post-WWII with Churchill’s announcement of the “Iron Curtain” which launched the Cold War and has kept the East and West divided to this day.
Quickly after the Cold War was announced by Churchill, it was necessary to create a fervor of fear and paranoia amongst the American people in order to have them quickly forget the fact that the Russians were their greatest allies during both WWI and WWII, and to replace it with the image of a ghoulish race of boogeymen.
If Americans were to remember that the Russians had fought valiantly during WWII and had paid by far the largest sacrifice to the cause, that they had in fact been their comrades in arms against the brutality of fascism, if this were remembered then the Cold War division could never occur, and that was something that could not be tolerated by Churchill and the Empire. Thus terror was unleashed on the American people and McCarthyism was given precedence over the people’s right to question and form conclusions for themselves. That sort of thing could not be tolerated when the “enemy” could be anywhere; they could be your neighbour, your child’s teacher, your co-worker…your partner.
In order to combat the “threat” of Soviet “propaganda” entering the U.S. and seducing Americans, Operation Mockingbird was created as a form of “control” over information dissemination during the period of McCarthyism. Operation Mockingbird was an “alleged” CIA program that was started in the early 1950s in order to control the narrative of the news. Though this role has never been confirmed entirely, in the CIA Family Jewels report compiled in the mid-1970s, it is confirmed that Project Mockingbird did exist as a CIA operation and that it was guilty of wire-tapping journalists in Washington.
At the helm of this project was none other than CIA Director Allen Dulles, an enemy of JFK, who by the early 1950s “allegedly” oversaw the media network and had major influence over 25 newspapers and wire agencies. Its function was to have the CIA write reports that would be used by a network of cooperating “credible” reporters. By these “credible” reporters spreading the CIA dictated narrative, it would be parroted by unwitting reporters (mockingbirds) and a successful echo chamber would be created across the world.
The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), originally named Office of Special Projects but that was thought to conspicuous, was a covert operation wing of the CIA and was created by the United States National Security Council (NSC). For those who are unfamiliar with the origins of the NSC and its close relationship with the CIA, who was born on the same day, refer to my paper on the subject.
According to Deborah Davis’ biography of Katherine Graham (the owner of Washington Post), the OPC created Operation Mockingbird in response to addressing Soviet propaganda and included as part of its CIA contingency respected members from Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and others.
The Family Jewels report was an investigation made by the CIA to investigate…the CIA, spurred in response to the Watergate Scandal and the CIA’s unconstitutional role in the whole affair. The investigation of the CIA would include any other actions that were deemed illegal or inappropriate spanning from the 1950s-mid 1970s.
We are told “most” of the report was declassified on June 25, 2007 (30 years later) hoping that people would have lost interest in the whole brouhaha. Along with the release of the redacted report was included a six-page summary with the following introduction:
“The Central Intelligence Agency violated its charter for 25 years until revelations of illegal wiretapping, domestic surveillance, assassination plots, and human experimentation led to official investigations and reforms in the 1970s.”
The most extensive investigation of the CIA relations with news media was conducted by the Church Committee, a U.S. Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated the abuses committed by the CIA, NSA, FBI, and IRS. The Church Committee report confirmed abundant CIA ties in both foreign and domestic news media.
It is very useful that there exists an official recognition that false news was not only being encouraged by the CIA under the overseeing of the NSC during the Cold War period, but that the CIA was complicit in actually detailing the specific narrative that they wanted disseminated, and often going so far as to write the narrative and have a “credible” reporter’s name stamped on it.
But the question begs, “Did the Cold War ever end?” and if not, why should we believe that the CIA’s involvement in such activities is buried in its past and that it has “reformed” its old ways?
Western Journalists for Hire: How the CIA Buys News
In order to answer this question, let us visit the sad case of Udo Ulfkotte. Udo Ulfkotte is a well-known German journalist and author of numerous books. He worked for 25 years as a journalist, 17 of which were for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), including his role as editor. In his 2014 book “Journalists for Hire: How the CIA Buys News” Ulfkotte goes over how the CIA along with German Intelligence (BND) were guilty of bribing journalists to write articles that either spun the truth or were completely fictitious in order to promote a pro-western, pro-NATO bent, and that he was one of those bought journalists.
In an interview, Ulfkotte describes how he finally built up the nerve to publish the book, after years of it collecting dust, in response to the erupting crisis in Ukraine stating
“I felt that the right time had come to finish it and publish it, because I am deeply worried about the Ukrainian crisis and the possible devastating consequences for all of Europe and all of us…I am not at all pro-Russia, but it is clear that many journalists blindly follow and publish whatever the NATO press office provides. And this type of information and reports are completely one-sided”.
In another interview Ulfkotte stated:
“it is clear as daylight that the agents of various Services were in the central offices of the FAZ, the place where I worked for 17 years. The articles appeared under my name several times, but they were not my intellectual product. I was once approached by someone from German Intelligence and the CIA, who told me that I should write about Gaddafi and report how he was trying to secretly build a chemical weapons factory in Libya. I had no information on any of this, but they showed me various documents, I just had to put my name on the article. Do you think this can be called journalism? I don’t think so.”
Ulfkotte has publicly stated:
“I am ashamed of it. The people I worked for knew from the get-go everything I did. And the truth must come out. It’s not just about FAZ, this is the whole system that’s corrupt all the way.”
Udo Ulfkotte has since passed away. He died January 2017, found dead in his home, it is said by a hear t attack. His body was quickly after cremated and thus prevented any possibility of an autopsy occurring.
You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks
(Note: This article was published March 14, 2020) The Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act is a bipartisan bill that was passed into law in December 2016, it was initially called Countering Information Warfare Act. It was included together with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This bill was brought into effect just weeks before Trump was to enter office….hmmm, foreshadowing much?
Soon after the 2016 U.S. election, the Washington Post led the charge asserting that it was due to Russian propaganda that the U.S. elections turned out the way it did, that is, that Hillary had somehow, inconceivably, lost to Donald Trump and that the American people had been turned against her like a child caught in the middle of a messy divorce case. But there is no need here to set the record straight on Hillary, when Hillary herself has done suffice damage to any illusion of credibility she once had. That ultimately not even Hillary could hide the fact that her closet full of skeletons turned out to be the size of a catacomb.
But we are told that citizens do not know what is best for one’s self. That they cannot be trusted with “sensitive” information and in accordance act in a “responsible” manner, that is, to have a strong enough stomach to do what is “best” for their country.
And therefore, fear not subjects of the land, for the Global Engagement Center (GEC) is here to make those hard decisions for you. Don’t know what to think about a complicated subject? GEC will tell you the right way!
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would allow for the Secretary of State to collaborate with the Secretary of Defense, and other Federal agencies in the year 2017 to create the Global Engagement Center (GEC). The GEC’s purpose in life is to fight propaganda from foreign governments and publicize the nature of ongoing foreign propaganda and disinformation operations against the U.S. and other countries.
Let us all take a moment to thank the GEC for such a massive task in the cause for justice all around the world.
The GEC had a very slow start in its first year, however, it has been gaining momentum in the last year under Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who seems especially excited over the hiring of Lea Gabrielle as special envoy and coordinator of GEC.
Mike Pompeo was the CIA Director from 2017-2018. On April 15, 2019, Pompeo participated in a discussion at the Texas A&M University where he voluntarily offered the admission that though West Points’ cadet motto is “You will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do.”, his training under the CIA was the very opposite, stating “I was the CIA Director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. It was like we had entire training courses. (long pause) It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment”.
This is apparently the man for the job of dealing with matters of “truth” and “justice”.
Lea Gabrielle was approved for her position by Mike Pompeo, what are her “qualifications”? Well, Gabrielle is also CIA trained, and while assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), she “directed and conducted global clandestine strategic intelligence collection operations.” Gabrielle also “deployed in tactical anti-terrorist operations in hostile environments”. After 12 years of active duty service, Lea Gabrielle became a television news journalist, who worked at NBC and FOX News.
Noticing a pattern?
The CIA really does not have the best track record for their role in “managing” foreign wars and counter-insurgency activities. In fact, they have been caught rather red handed in fueling such crisis situations. And these are the people who are deciding what information is fit for the American public, and western public in general, and what is not fit for their ears.
Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil
On March 5, 2020, Lea Gabrielle testified on the role of GEC in countering state-sponsored and non-state propaganda and disinformation. Gabrielle states: “We have the full support of Secretary Pompeo who is committed to deploying a broad suite of tools to stop America’s adversaries from using disinformation, malign propaganda, and other tools to undermine free societies.” She goes on to acknowledge that the hearing is focused on countering Russian government and CCP disinformation and propaganda. She then goes on to outline her criticisms of both governments with no factual detail or evidence but rather generalised accusations and criticisms, obviously pulling from her experience as a news journalist for NBC.
Following this, Gabrielle proceeds to outline her “rules of engagement” in countering this offensive with what seems to be the beginnings of McCarthyism 2.0, amounting to a threat to anyone who dares not take a hard stance against Russia and China, that such a person will be considered complicit in essentially committing treason.
Gabrielle concludes,
“Both the Russian government and the CCP view censorship, media manipulation, and propaganda as appropriate tools to control public opinion. Both exploit open, democratic societies to further their own ends while tightening controls around their own countries.”
Don’t worry, the CIA will eventually admit that they are elbow deep in all of the above, it just won’t be released until 30 years from now…In the meantime, I wouldn’t believe everything you read in the newspaper to stoke the fires for another war.
Instead of seeing the reality, the “West”, insists on believing the carefully constructed fantasy world that it has created and that it promotes on the MSM (Main Stream Media). It holds China up as an example of a big, bag evil empires, when it is nothing of the sort, and holds itself up as the “great beacon of light on the shining hill”; a fantasy that never actually existed.
Until these fantasies are destroyed, the “West” will continue it’s long, drawn out decay and destruction. Check out this video…
The West is collapsing.
Thinking Long Term…
China uses more concrete in a single year than all the concrete ever used by America in all of it’s history. 2021. Look at the stats. Period. China is growing and is a serious, serious nation. It’s engineering and manufacturing capabilities are formidable. And to discount this, or ignore it, is a mistake.
America cannot not simply flick a “light switch” and suddenly the American manufacturing system will roar into life. The spark of creativity has been extinguished in America. The drive to work, to produce, to contribute are all gone. The relationships between design, and fabrication are missing, and the regulations and laws are too corrupt, too stifling, and out of date.
When you look at the “so called” American Industry, you will see a lot of nice shiny office buildings staffed with planners, finance folk, accountants, and legal teams supporting Marketing. But very little in the way of hard, dirty, assembly machinery. The opposite is true in China.
Watch this video…
Meanwhile, What’s the news about in the USA?
When you watch American “news” it’s really quite different from what you would see in the rest of the world. Shootings, murders, kidnaps, rapes are so common place that they are hardly ever reported. The big news tends to revolve around plans for more taxes, higher regulation entities, and “think tanks” proposing renaming a new holiday or tearing down a statue.
However, sometimes the “news” can be funny. As this video attests…
Lancaster Pennsylvania
The last time I was in Lancaster Pennsylvania I pulled into a roadside restaurant and got myself a club sandwich, with fries, cole slaw, and a (bottomless) cup of coffee. Of course that was years ago. I wonder if you can still get that in the USA today. As I recall, I think it cost me about $3.50 or so.
A typical club sandwich.
Learning how to make my first sandwich
You know, I first learned how to make a sandwich when I was four years old. My girlfriend at the time; a beautiful lass named Mary, who was much older than me. She was five. Brought me into her house, up the stairs and hid me in her bed room. But being the good hostess that she was, she ran downstairs and brought up a bottle of ketchup and some slices of bread. She then showed me how to make my first sandwich.
As we were sitting there on her bed smunching, and chatting, her mother burst into the room shouting “Mary, why do you keep bringing up boys into your room?” and Scooted me away.
Sigh.
She was a bit of a rascally girl, don’t you know.
She also taught me how to steal from the candy store. But that is another story for another time. Right now I want to talk about sandwiches.
My first real sandwich was part of an exercise to obtain a “badge” as part of being in the cub scouts. It was there where I learned how to cut a tomato, get slices of cold cuts, cheese, lettuce, and how to add mayonnaise to it. I learned how to do it in my “den”, and my “den mother” taught me how to make the sandwich. Afterwards, we all sat down and ate the sandwiches with a bottle of orange Fresca.
Cubbing, as it was first know, started in the United States in 1930. However, it was in 1916 when Baden-Powell published The Wolf Cub Handbook that Cubbing became an official part of scouting in England and endorsements for the program began in the United States. At that time, James E. West, BSA Chief Executive, felt that this new program might take adult leadership away from the Boy Scouts so initially he opposed the program.
It is interesting to note that in the beginning, each Cub den was led by a Boy Scout Den Chief. It wasn’t until 1936 that the position of Den Mother was added as an optional position even though Den Mothers had been helping since 1932. Still, that position was to provide support for the Den Chief. It was not until the late 1940’s to mid 1950’s that the Den Mother assumed full control of the den.
Dens were formed by age until 1986 when the phase in for grade level began, lasting until 1991. In the beginning, Wolfs were 9 year olds, Bears were 10 years old and Lions were 11 years old. They could enter Boy Scouts when they turned 12. Until 1942, when a boy joined, he would start with the Wolf rank after completing his Bobcat requirements and work his way up regardless of his age. During these early years, he could only wear his current rank and associated arrow points.
A fine painting by Norman Rockwell.
Speaking about food
As I have explained, I always associate food with pretty women. I don’t know why, but that is me. I think that it has something to do with the saying “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. All the pretty girls were always trying to keep me well fed and satisfied.
And they are everywhere in China.
This woman is definitely a “Shepherd’s Pie” kind of girl. Check out her video…
While this girl is definitely spaghetti and garlic bread
This slim lady is all about the well stocked larder, the warm bread in the oven, and the spaghetti sauce that has been cooking all day on the stove. She’s the kind of woman that will insist that you have a clean napkin near you when you eat, and a glass of water with your meal whether you wanted it or not.
Check out the video.
This girl is a YUM!
And let’s not forget about the Summer time foods…
This beauty, with the well done eyebrows, and the big eyes is all about cut up watermelon, cantaloupe, and strawberries. She’s exactly the kind of girl that you would want to go out and have a nice light dessert, and then walk along the night city streets doing some window shopping and chatting.
These Chinese women are just lovely.
Peach Cobbler
What could be a more perfect ending to a summertime meal than peach cobbler? Savor the flavors of summer with sliced fresh peaches cooking away with butter and spices.
Peach Cobbler topped with French Vanilla Ice Cream.
The topping can made from pantry ingredients you have on hand and peaches can easily be substituted with any fruit you have depending on the time of year. The tang of the lemon juice paired with the sweetness of the peaches is perfectly balanced with the crisp topping. Want to make dessert even better? A dollop of fresh whipped cream or cold vanilla ice cream truly makes it the perfect way to end a summer night.
I must say that as much as I love this great and wonderful dish, it was not a staple in my home when I grew up. My mother never made peach cobbler. I never had the house fill with the delicious aroma of baked peaches. I never had that pleasure.
The trees of New Iberia, Louisiana.
But…
When I moved to Louisiana, I came to know the wonderful world of CreoleCooking , and the local folk in New Iberia that would make a most luscious peach cobbler that was “to die for”.
You can go on line and find a zillion recipes on how to make this most delicious dish.It’s so easy to make! It makes me wonder why my mother never made it. For the life of me, I just cannot recall her ever making it. Not even during peach season, and certainly not with canned peaches.
One thing I do know is that I can tell you that it is best enjoyed when it is made in your home kitchen by friends or family, and where the aroma fills the house and you get a big monster sized bowl of peach cobbler topped with delicious French Vanilla ice cream.
I would take it to the porch, and sit on the rocking chair and eat while the sun set and the gathering dusk enveloped the large trees covered with Spanish moss.
Spanish Moss hanging from the huge trees of New Iberia, Louisiana.
Of course, no one wants to hear an old foggy guy talking about his past…
Right? I mean to say that my past doesn’t even resemble anything that you see today. It’s so different that it boggles the mind and astounds the cockles. As this video clearly shows…
How do you handle failure?
Some of those zoom and skype videos are cute and funny, but more serious things can and do occur. So what do you do? And how do you handle the trials in life? Will your blood Pressure go ballistic like Metallicman’s, or will you just relax and grab some Wise Potato chips and a cold beer instead?
Check out this video…
Fear is what is trapping many people into their slave-serf existence
You are being manipulated by fear. You are being lied to, and manipulated, and massaged until you run about like scared rabbits. And when a real emergency occurs, like an American bio-weapon, you think that the government is just doing “just another one” of it’s many many manipulative techniques.
Even though there are real and good valid reasons for strong and preventative actions. Like this video describes why China told everyone that the entire nation of 1.6 billion people, over four times the population of the United States, must all wear face masks in public…
Again, what is China really like?
Yeah. This is what China is really like, and narrated by a Vblogger who was condemned by Yahoo! as a member of the “Communist disinformation network” LOL. I mean the bullshit of the United States is so very think these days, you just cannot make it up!
A Fried Chicken kind of girl
When I see this beauty I cannot help but think of fried chicken. Especially with a fine crunchy exterior served with hot steaming biscuits, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, coleslaw, and extra butter. this girl is the kind of gal that you would go into a restaurant with, the kind with a red and white checkered table cloth, a small flower in a vase, and a circular table with a window seat.
Strangely I don’t picture drinking wine, beer, or even Coke with her. I picture a locally brewed ginger beer. Oh, the fun we could have! Smunching, and eating. Drinking and talking. Looking good, feeling good, with the scent of her perfume wafting near me, and the fine crunchy feeling when you bit into that delicious chicken.
I tell you that I would pick those bones clean! I tell you what!
P.S. Look at her eyebrows! Aren’t they lovely?
Any day now…
Sure. Any day now, America will overtake China and remain the “king of the hill” and sit atop of the money heap!
The problem is that America is devolving.
What the wealthy oligarchy has created is a civilization filled with a rulership of “service to self people” that has manipulated a large swath of the population to be “service for another” people. When the entire nation should be “service for others”. Here’s a funny video about devolution.
Hyper-velocity nuclear tipped MIRV ICBM’s
Ever since Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump set their eyes on invading and attacking China, China has sprinted to catch up with America in nuclear warheads. Not just those old fashioned ICBM’s like America has, but the impossible to stop hyper-velocity, MIRV weapons carrying 10 to 15 warheads each about 1000 times more powerful than what destroyed Hiroshima.
Of course, you will never will hear about this in the Western press. To most Americans, China is a backwards third-world nation.
So you wanna “poke the panda” eh?
China is mass producing enough nuclear bombs to destroy every community in America larger than 1000 people. China is a serious, serious nation, and they DO NOT BLUFF.
But Hey! Enough of that shit…
Let’s talk about people, and our normal day to day battles with life. And I want you all to know that everyone has a story, and many have a library of stories that they could share. Here is one from a famous “little guy” actor. And his words ring true.
This is my call out to assholes…
The world is filled with them. They are self-centered, hurtful and cause great pain to all of us. People (!) if you have nothing good to say, then say nothing. The world needs good, kind and helpful people. Not war-mongering, evil sociopaths and wealthy psychopaths. We need to help others. Not to constantly keep tearing them down.
These bad thoughts and evil words hurt. And they can result in bad things happening. We need to undo their damage in what ever way possible.
Delicious yum!
This is something I have been missing…
Hobos
There’s some good write ups about hobos. In America today, many are becoming Hobo’s out of necessity. America is such a mess that all the social contracts are broken, society, culture, and the government have all become absolute failures. The people, now terribly in debt have taken to a homeless, nomadic lifestyle to survive. It might appear to be temporary, but knowing what I know about the value of money, and endless fiat currency, it looks more like the beginning of the end, rather than a temporary lapse in the economy.
As long as man has organized into society, there have been those on the fringe. These were people who, for one reason or another, just didn’t fit into polite society.
Such were the hobos of our nation’s past. We tend to think of hobos as bums who stole rides on trains and lived in shanty towns. But in some cases, they were traveling workers who would go where there was work and move on when the job was done.
Building this country required a huge amount of manpower, especially when you consider that much was built by human hands rather than power equipment. Projects like the Transcontinental Railroad and the Hoover Dam required workforces numbering in the thousands, and hard-working men who came and went with the job. They lived in shanty towns, because that’s all there was at the end of the tracks and they carried little with them, because they knew they’d be moving on.
These were tough men, accustomed to backbreaking work and long hours. They survived and endured, becoming a forgotten part of our country’s history. Yet the work that they did has often survived and become part of making our country what it is today.
-Off the grid news
Historically, many people have been forced into becoming hobos because of circumstances where jobs are so scarce that they have no choice but to travel from place to place in search of work.
There are many theories of the origin of the word hobo, ranging from a contraction of the words “Hoe Boys” to one from the words “Homeward Bound”.
In any case, the American Heritage Dictionary defines a hobo as “one who wanders from place to place without a permanent home or a means of livelihood.”
Every hobo has a moniker, a nickname grounded in habit or origin or appearance, like Redbird or Frisco Jack or Bookworm. Not every hobo wants to share his or her real name with the straights and the Square Johns. A few, the ones trying to outrun something, won’t even talk to anyone new or strange.
But the dawn of the Internet and increased dissatisfaction with the 9-to-5 routine have led more and more people to wonder if earning a living while on the road is a viable alternative to the daily grind.
If you’re thinking about becoming an opportunistic and resourceful transient worker, keeping your costs low, your responsibilities simple, and your freedom intact, here are the questions you’ll need to ask yourself—and the preparations you’ll need to make.
[1] Remember the differences between hobos, tramps, and bums:hobos are people who travel and look for work, tramps are people who travel and don’t look for work, bums are people who neither travel nor look for work.
In a society of citizen consumers, to have nothing, to own nothing, by choice, might be the most radical politics of all. And it’s worth mentioning here that not every homeless person is a hobo. And as the hobo fades from the American scene—except as a visual or literary cliché—there’s more and more confusion on the matter. A hobo is homeless by choice. Even then, not every hobo is completely homeless. Most these days have a semi-permanent address somewhere for the winter. Especially the older hoppers.
[2]Take stock of your skills and experience. Historically, hobos have made their living from manual labor, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. Any skill that is in wide demand and does not require an extended time commitment can be useful to a hobo. As long as you can advertise your services and earn people’s trust (ideally through references), you can do anything. Some pursuits that lend themselves to this lifestyle are:
Landscaping and construction – Many migrant workers who cross international borders find work in this area, as it is the least demanding in terms of language barriers. Having experience is essential, however, as you’d be required to work with potentially dangerous equipment and machinery.
Farm hand – If you’ve ever thought about becoming a farmer, there are internships all over the world that offer housing, food, a stipend, and experience, in exchange for getting your hands dirty. You can follow harvest seasons around the country or around the globe. Progressive farms tend to provide better circumstances.
Fishing – Serve as a deckhand, cook, or fisherman as you travel the high seas.
[3]Establish Plan B. This is a serious, life-altering decision. Don’t abandon everything suddenly and disappear. You need something to come back to if your life on the road doesn’t work out. Make sure all your debts are paid and responsibilities are handled before departure. If possible, have some savings set aside before you go, that you can access while you’re on the road, if need be. Emergencies happen, and they cost money.
Hobo slang can be intuitive, or impenetrable, but it’s always colorful. For example, the “jungle” is just the communal hobo camp, usually near the railroad yard. Your “bindle” is your bedroll. Your “poke” is your wallet. “Hundred on a plate” is a can of beans, and the jungle kitchen is run by the “Crumb Boss.” The “bulls” are the railroad police. “Flyers” and “hotshots” and “redballs” are all fast freights. “Catching out” means hopping the train. To die is to “catch the westbound.” And understand this, above all else: A “hobo” is an itinerant worker; someone who travels and finds work. A “tramp” travels, but mostly does not work. A “bum” neither travels nor works.
And of course the whole thing runs on talk, endless talk. Because talk’s free; because even if you give away everything you own, or they take away everything you have, you still have your stories. And every story here begins as the same story.
[4]Be prepared. You may like the romantic idea of leaving with nothing but the clothes on your back and whatever is in your wallet, but that is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. You must assume that you will be sleeping, cooking, traveling, and essentially living outdoors, unless you decide to drive a car.
How will you get from place to place? Hobos are often associated with train-hopping, because this is what many hobos during the Great Depression did. A car can double as transportation and sleeping quarters, but keep in mind that gas is expensive, and upkeep on a vehicle is a major expense and if the expense bothers you, hitch-hiking is a good option since it’s free. Some hobos prefer bicycles, but this will limit your range (to warm weather regions) and limit how much you can carry. A motorcycle can get you where you’re going faster, but has maintenance requirements similar to those of a car, though not to the same degree. Buses are also an option: Greyhound, in the US at least, offers steep discounts when you purchase tickets a week in advance, and even more for still earlier purchases. Buy tickets at the station for the best deals; web purchases have an extra $3 or $4 tagged on whether the tickets are mailed or “on call”.
Where will you sleep? Unless the place you work can offer housing, you will have to sleep in your car (if you have one), urban camp, squat in an abandoned building, or stay in hostels or motels. Another option is using the Communities Directory online to find urban co-ops, land trusts, and other alternative housing arrangements, which often welcome guests. See directory.ic.org. Yet another option is a traveler’s network such as couchsurfing.com or globalfreeloaders.com, which offer free lodging to those who intend to contribute (in kind, or in other ways). Consider the costs and dangers associated with each.
Where will you take showers? Some campsites have showers, but many don’t, so you may consider purchasing portable shower equipment. You can also obtain a membership to a national gym chain and use the showers there (provided you actually work out and maintain your appearance).
How will you defend yourself? A nomadic lifestyle can be a dangerous one because you’re constantly putting yourself in unfamiliar situations, and you’re probably alone—both of which can make you a target for theft and assault. You’ll need to outline some precautions you can take, such as always letting people know where you are, carrying a cell phone – and only going places where there’s a reliable signal, having an alert system or weapon on you, etc. In addition, always know where you are so when you call for help you will be able to give them a location.
[5]Make a list of connections. Look at maps of the areas in which you’ll be traveling, and determine whether or not there’s anyone you know, directly or indirectly, who lives there. Ask your Aunt Sally if your great uncle Billy still lives in that cabin in the woods. Ask your friend if his cousin still works at the car dealership in Utah. Most important of all, ask them if it’s okay if you can get in touch with those people in case of an emergency. Some people might offer to make arrangements so that you can actually visit, which is always nice. (Just be a good house guest!)
I did a lot of hitchhiking right after high school. And one time my brother was out hitchhiking in California, and some tramps got a hold of him and told him ride the trains instead of hitchhiking, and so he rode trains. They came back, and that was in 1973. They were talking in a bar about riding out to see Evel Knievel jump the Snake River Canyon, and I started to listening to it, and I worked seasonal and stuff. I had some freedom there. I was in. And so my older brother....There was 11 of us gone out of St. Cloud and hopping freights, and I fell in love with it right away. I mean, I like hitchhiking because you get to meet a lot of different people, but the freight-train riding was like the freedom, you know? —Ricardo
Vintage hobo life.
[6]Make an itinerary based on the type of work you plan to do, the connections you have in place, and the places you’d like to see. Do as much research as you can beforehand. Make a list of places you can stay, eat, shower, camp, etc. It’s also wise to look up churches and shelters and any other services that are offered to the homeless. The more prepared you are, the more you’ll enjoy your travels.
My father was a hobo, born in 1898 in Frog Level, North Carolina. Ran away from home when he was 12 or 13, rode freights for about 17 years. He’s a wonderful storyteller, musician, singer. He was always the one to tuck me in bed at night. He would say, “Two songs, one story. You get to choose one song, and I’ll choose one.” I always chose “Cocaine Jubilee,” because he learned it out in the opium dens and it was a funny song. Then he would sing one, and he’d tell me one of his adventure stories. I remember when he’d leave every night, I’d think, “I can’t wait until I’m old enough to do that.” I started hitchhiking right out of high school and eventually was a student at Indiana University. I had the honor of doing a directed writing course which I could choose the professor. He said, “You need to choose a good topic.” And I chose hobos, and I said, “Because I grew up with it.” —Gypsy Moon
[7]Learn the hobo code. Historically hobos relied on a shared system of symbols that let fellow travelers know more about their current environment.The symbols can vary from place to place and may no longer be used in many areas. Here are some symbols to get you started:
spearhead – defend yourself
circle with two parallel arrows – get out fast, hobos not welcome
wavy line (signifying water) above an X – fresh water and a campsite nearby
three diagonal lines – not a safe place.
cross – “angel food,” (food served to hobos after a party)
[8]Hit the road! Leave your roots behind. Find a place to live and work from day to day. See the sights of each new place you visit. Make interesting friends (you never know when they might lend a helping hand). Life on the road means that every moment is your own. With no schedule and no responsibilities (except keeping yourself healthy), you must decide how to best use your time to achieve a balance between work, travel, relaxation, and entertainment. Enjoy the variety that each day has to offer…you’re earning it.
When I was a really young kid, I lived in a neighborhood in Houston close to a big train yard. It’s had a hobo jungle there for a long, long time. I had a buddy named Dusty, and me and Dusty used to sneak out there in the field and watch the hobos. We used to watch guys get on and off the trains all the time, so we kind of knew how it all worked.Dusty and I did catch a train, to Galveston. We just got on the train in the dark. We got down there, and we’re like, “We’re 60 miles from home, how are we going to get back?” Maybe half an hour later, there was a train going the other way, rolling real slow. We saw empties. We caught a train going the other way, and by sheer luck, it went right back to the same place we were at. We were just really lucky. —K-Bar
[9]Don’t hesitate to dumpster dive. You wouldn’t believe the amount of free undamaged food that is thrown away all the time. For the best results check behind smaller grocery stores and fruit markets, as they usually don’t invest money in a sealed garbage compactor (although these can sometimes be opened as well)—just be careful. Fast food chains are also usually good, but more traditional restaurants generally don’t waste nearly as much food—although if you are really hungry you can usually find at least something there.
The history of the hobo is the history of modern America. Starts right after the Civil War and the building of America’s great railroads. There had always been a small floating population of agrarian workers, but they were limited by geography and technology. They were regional. Local. Language historians and etymologists aren’t sure, but the word “hobo” may come from this original population of farmworkers: “hoe boys.”
The railroads change all that. After the war there’s an expanding displaced population available to ride—and help build—a transportation network running from coast to coast. As this is happening, America is industrializing too, and the need for a mobile work force, willing, adaptable and relatively inexpensive to transport, becomes evident. The hobo.
[10]Be tough. Physical toughness is essential for surviving in adverse circumstances. A lot of us in the survival movement aren’t as physically fit as we need to be (me included). But toughness goes beyond just being physically fit. A boxer learns to take blows, just as he learns how to give them. Strength and agility allow him to give them, but toughness allows him to take them. If you’re not tough, you’re not going to be able to take the blows that life gives you; you’ll fold and just wait to die.
There are two types of toughness: physical and mental. Of the two, mental toughness can be harder to develop than physical. If your mind can’t take the blows and bounce back, you are at a disadvantage. Your mind has to be able to accept the changing reality of a crisis situation or a disaster, quickly overcome the grief, and move into survival mode. This is all about training. The better trained you are, the better you can adapt. Training also gives you confidence, so that you know you’re able to survive.
Don’t romanticize it. Empty your pockets. Empty your heart. There’s only what you carry on your back. There’s whatever you’re chasing and whatever’s chasing you. Maybe there’s some grace to be won in the burdens you bear, or in your swiftness, but at moments like this it feels like the price of your freedom is an unimaginable loneliness.
[11]Learn a variety of useful kills. Hobos did whatever the job called for. While they may not have been experts in any one trade, they were capable of working in a number of them. One month they might be busting broncos and the next swinging a double jack in a mine.
Today’s society has become so specialized that in some cases one engineer can only work on one part of a project. He’s lost when he looks at the rest. But in Henry Ford’s day, the guy who designed the engine could also design the body.
In a survival situation, you need to have a wide variety of skills. If your home is damaged by a hurricane and you need to make it safe to sleep in, you don’t have to be a master carpenter. But you will probably need to be able to cut boards and nail them together. You’re probably also going to need to know a little plumbing and electrical work.
[12]Develop a minimalist lifestyle. When you’re on the go, you can’t take a lot of extra baggage with you. You’ve got to cut things down to what you really need. Our modern lifestyle is so cluttered with stuff that we’d need a backpack the size of a semi-trailer to bug out.
In passing you’ll hear that “Dutch owns the boxcar,” and it won’t matter if they mean this literally or figuratively. The boxcar is a fixture in the Britt jungle, permanent. Long off the main line and set here years ago, it is a meeting place and a memorial, an antique keepsake and a hideout. Dutch sits with his gear at the north end of the car. Everything he owns fits in a knapsack. Heaviest thing he carries are his memories. Folks come and go, talking. The Dutchman is a focused listener. Intense, even at rest. As often as not, he’s up there with the younger ’bos, the newer riders, answering questions and giving tips. (For insight into this next generation of gutter punks and crusties and dirty kids, the postmodern hobos, search out the stunning photography of Mike Brodie.)
Learn what you need and then cut down to that point. If you’ve got stuff in your house that you never use, then why do you have it? Really, if you haven’t used it in a year or two, you probably won’t. So, pass it on to someone who can use it and make room in your life for what you need. You have to limit yourself to what was important, and if something wasn’t important, you need to let it go.
[13]Community is important for survival.
Hobos typically gathered together in communities, wherever they were working. That way they could help each other out. Cooking for 10 people is easier than cooking for one, and by doing so, everyone doesn’t have to carry a pot around with them. One would bring the pot and the others would bring the ingredients.
No one rides with the hobos, so let them ride.
When you’re part of a community you also tend to watch out for each other. If you’re by yourself, you might not see what’s happening to you. For example, hypothermia can set in in such a subtle way that you freeze to death, without even realizing what’s happening to you. But if other people are around, they’ll likely notice you’re not well and help.
[14]Learn to live off the land. Most hobos could recognize edible plants and those which could serve as medicines. While they bought food, they augmented what they bought with what they found. Knowing what you can eat can mean the difference between a full belly and starving to death. Knowing what you can use for medicine can also save your life. God has provided a wide range of foods and medicines in nature around us. But you’ve got to know what to use and how to use it. When you’re living that minimalist lifestyle, you really need that knowledge.
“It’s a hard life in a lot of ways. It probably shouldn’t be romanticized the way that it is. You get yourselves out there, and it’s cold, wet, and the steel is hard. It’s very dangerous. There are people out there that aren’t very nice. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It takes a lot. I’m a man of few words.
[15] Nothing is beneath you. Throughout history, there have been people out of jobs because they wouldn’t take one that’s beneath them. While I can understand that to some extent, that pride can be deadly. When things go bad, such as in a financial collapse, we’re all going to have to do whatever we can, no matter how much education we have or what we did before. There’s no room for pride when it comes to surviving a crisis.
“Everything I’ve owned, and everything I want in life, fits in this house [points to his knapsack], right in my pack. Anything that doesn’t fit in my pack, I can’t carry with me. I don’t want it. I can’t have it. It all gets left behind. It makes me a different kind of person. It’s given me something special in life. I’m not attached to anything. I wander with the winds. I know that a lot of people wish they could do the same.
[16] Quit worrying and do what you can
Part of the reason that hobos are seen as lazy and shiftless is that they weren’t worriers. They did what they could and left the rest up to divine providence. We could all learn from that. Yes, there is always a part that we are to do. If we don’t work, we’re not going to eat. But on the other hand, worrying never added a day to anyone’s life. When you’ve done what you can, just hope and pray it’s enough. The rest is beyond your capability.
Worry causes incredible health problems. High blood pressure is caused more by worry, than by any other reason. Why do you think they call it “hypertension?” That literally means, “too much tension” or “too much stress.” Quit stressing out and get to work. Do your part and then follow the example of the hobos, putting the rest in God’s hands.
You might need to become a hobo…
America is really in that bad of a state. Consider this video below. It’s not staged. It’s real Americans “on the street”. This is what happens when you intentionally dumb down an entire society of people.
This is not just worrisome, it is scary.
There are 62 million illiterate people in the USA, that is 39 million more than in China.
In the USA with its overwhelming military power, 1/5 of the population is illiterate. And all these people vote.
Kitty Anxiety
Poor kitty. Don’t worry, she’ll be back. Don’t worry. The girl was gone for ten days, and left the cat alone! God! That cat was probably worrying it’s little heart out! People never do this! At least get a house sitter, or someone to check on your cats, if you cannot afford to take them to the pet hotel.
Ten days!
A cat’s life in China
It’s sort of like this. And due to the urban situation, many people have cat backpacks and strollers that they take their cats with them with. That way they can go into establishments, and eat and drink and have a good time.
Which country has a better human rights situation?
If you watch the American “news” you would be inclined to believe that America has the best human rights. Which is strange as less than 13% of American trust their government. So how can you possibly have strong human rights and such a pitiful trust in government? Well, you just cannot.
Another beautiful Chinese girl
This girl is just a classic plate of over easy side eggs, with a side of rye toast and baked beans (erp. I mean grilled potatoes) with a tall glass of orange juice, a fine cup of coffee and a short stack of “flap jacks”. She’s a morning dew kind of girl, with perfection in her clothing, and sunniness in her smiles. check out the video.
A breakfast kind of girl.
Chinese Aviation
China has some serious cutting-edge aviation. These are all home designed, locally manufactured aircraft produced in mass quantities. Here’s a video to give you an idea of the extent and scope of Chinese aviation. Click on the picture to watch the video.
Chinese aviation.
Vibrato
This is a K-pop song performed by Stellar which is a Korean organization. Their membership is about one half Korean, and the other half Chinese. All are Han Chinese ethnically.
This particular song was released back a few years ago, but I must tell you all that the dance troupes in my office building (for a long period of time) would always practice this particular dance and the related moves.
All the girls love to dance it, and I would stand outside in the hallway, and watch them dance through the floor to ceiling glass walls. I must admit that I loved watching them all dance. Eye candy, so they say.
One dance practice was so inspirational to me that I just walked into the studio after a dance and invited all of them out to a dinner and KTV. I can tell you that we all had a great time afterwards. You just go in with a big smile and tell everyone how fantastic they were and how it would be personally important if you could buy them a meal and have some fun at a KTV.
Easy-peasy. Lemon-squeezy.
Click on the picture to watch the amazing dance video.
Vibrato by Stellar.
A fine baked potato girl
This fine woman is a “baked potato girl”. When I see her, I think of baked potatoes with creme cheese, and cut up bacon, spring onions, and olives. Not to mention the side of strip steak, and buttered green beans. When I see her, I think of a nice dinner, together. Talking. Just having fun.
A nice leek and eggs kind of girl
Here is a thin Chinese girl. She reminds me of a scrambled eggs and leek dish that is so delicious. I like to eat it with a side of hot peppers in oil (a very Hunan Chinese dish) and wash it down with some gulps of white wine. Of course, eating in a nice family-style Chinese restaurant.
Spaghetti and meatballs
One of the things that is difficult to get in China is Spaghetti and meatballs. You need to make it by scratch. And in China, a land without ground beef, you really need to get the meat, and grind it up yourself. Some fast and convenient American foods aren’t really all the accessible in China. Sigh.
One of the things that is difficult to get in China is Spaghetti and meatballs.
The old railroad spur
Just some cool pictures taken with a railroad theme. I love this theme. I hope that you all do as well.
Colorado circa 1900. “Mining camp at Chattanooga on Mineral Creek.” 8×10 glass negative by William Henry Jackson, Detroit Publishing Co.
Chattanooga thrived as a staging point for ore and supplies passing between Silverton and Ouray. The arrival of the Silverton Railroad in 1888 eliminated that need. The following year an avalanche wiped out most of the town and it was not rebuilt.
There’s plenty of slide evidence in this photo. Today, the BLM uses howitzer rounds nearby to trigger controlled avalanches. The Million Dollar Highway passes through.
This is one of the few Colorado photos by William Henry Jackson in the LOC. Most ended up with, I believe, the Colorado Historical Society.
April 1939. “Jersey City and Manhattan skyline.” 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.
The intersection at the far left right above the trains is Jersey Avenue & 10th Street. The park is Hamilton Park. The building with the columns is not there any longer. Nor is the building with the kind of cupola adjacent to the park. But you can make out Harborside Financial Center in the distance, that was the key. Most the other industrial buildings in the distance are gone. Photo probably taken from the roof of the Erie warehouse bounded by Coles, 11th, Monmouth, and 12th.
Jersey City has always been a dense, gritty city with its share of slums. However, it was a pretty safe city until the 1960s, when things started to deteriorate. My grandfather, who lived in the Greenville section, used to say “Jersey City is getting so bad, the muggers are mugging the muggers.” He wasn’t far off. While it’s a little safer today, there are still many parts of the city where you don’t want to be walking at night. And the majority of the buildings date from the late 19th and early 20th century. Fortunately, the misguided highrise public housing projects are coming down (Currie’s Woods, Montgomery Gardens), and the JC waterfront is being built up to the point where its skyline has overtaken Newark’s as the best in the state. The spillover from Manhattan that started in the ’80s to escape the high cost & taxes continues today.
Syracuse, N.Y., circa 1905. “New York Central Railroad depot.” 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company.
Oh, and what do you all think of this?
This came out of Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990’s. I don’t know if it is fake or real or what it is, however it sure is interesting.
Video 1
Video 2
If anyone has some further information or thoughts, please please tell me. I’d appreciate it.
And never forget to be the RUFUS!
Just because you are in Jail for tax evasion, crossing the street when you aren’t supposed to, or got in a fight and are in jail. The person you are is not what others say your are. Your worth is your ability to help others, be good, and to help improve the lives of all those around you. Be the Rufus!
Be the Rufus!
Chinese Air, Sea Rescue
A nice video showing something that you would NEVER see in the Western media. This is one of the Chinese Air, Sea, Rescue helicopters that are used to rescue people from the sea. I found it very interesting.
Chinese air, sea rescue.
Feels Like Summer
Shawn the Sheep is a great series of fun movies and videos. I have always enjoyed them. They had a movie and this following song was featured in the movie. It’s an up-beat happy, peppy tune that is Springtime and Summer, and ice cream all rolled into one. I hope you enjoy it.
Click on the picture to watch the video.
Feels like summer.
It’s time to turn in and chill out
MM needs some Me Me time. So there’s a bottle of cheap red wine, some slices of fruit, and peanuts waiting for me. I hope you all enjoyed this.
From MM’s home to yours; have a great evening.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The new book, ” The Ganymede Hypothesis” is meant as a replacement for the earlier “Cosmos in Collision”, beginning with the .PDF/download edition. The new book is substantially better organized then the earlier book, flows better, is easier to read, contains updated material, and a number of better images.
"The experience of the last few years has cured me of wanting to deal with ebooks or the companies involved in the e-book business. Those have acted like anchors to prevent the earlier book from going anywhere and the ideas involved in this work are too important to allow that to go on.Moreover, ebooks are difficult for users to deal with both to read and to copy from for quoting, while anybody with any kind of a Computing device at all can easily manage and deal with .PDF files. The Ganymede Hypothesis is thus being released as a free download from this site."
Paperback and/or hardbound copies will be available as time and conditions permit.
The download is in the form of a .zip file since having large numbers of people trying to read the document itself in a web browser could crash goDaddy and this website. The idea is to download the file, unzip it, and read it in a normal pdf reader such as Adobe Acrobat
I have known Theodore A Holden for years, and he has the most amazing resource on information that would be of interest to MM searchers. I highly recommend that everyone take a look at his website HERE.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
“Today Airl told me about some very technical things. I took a few notes to remind myself, so I can repeat what she said as closely as possible. She began with an analogy about scientific knowledge:
Can you imagine how much progress could have been made on Earth if people like Johannes Gutenberg , Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Nicola Tesla, Jonas Salk, and Richard Trevithick, and many thousands of similar geniuses and inventors were living today?
Image what technical accomplishments might have been developed if men like these never died? What if they were never given amnesia and made to forget everything they knew? What if they continued to learn and work forever?
What level of technology and civilization could be attained if Immortal Spiritual Beings like these were allowed to continue to create – in the same place and at the same time – for billions or trillions of years?
Essentially, The Domain is one civilization that has existed for trillions of years with relatively uninterrupted progress.
This is TRUE.
Knowledge has been accumulated, refined, and improved upon in nearly every field of study imaginable – and beyond imagining.
This is TRUE.
Originally, the interaction of IS-BE illusions or inventions created the very fabric of the physical universe – the microcosm and the macrocosm. Every single particle of the universe has been imagined and brought into existence by an IS-BE. Everything created from an idea – a thought with no weight or size or location in space.
This is MM language. Consciousness can do only ONE singular thing; think. This is all it can do in wave form.
Every speck of dust in space, from the size of the tiniest subatomic particle, to the size of a sun or a magelantic cloud the size of many galaxies, was created from the nothingness of a thought.
This is TRUE.
Even the tiniest, individual cells were contrived and coordinated to enable a microbial entity to sense, and navigate through infinitesimally small spaces. These also came from an idea thought up by an IS-BE.
This is TRUE.
You, and every IS-BE on Earth, have participated in the creation of this universe. Even though you are now confined to a fragile body made of flesh; you live for only 65 short rotations of your planet around a star; you have been given overwhelming electric shock treatments to wipe out your memory; you must learn everything all over again each lifetime; in spite of all these circumstances, you are who you are and will always be. And, deep down, you still know that your are and what you know. You are still the essence of you.
This is TRUE.
How else can one understand the child prodigy? An IS-BE who plays concertos on a piano at three years of age, without formal training?
Impossible, if they did not simply remember what they have already learned from thousands of lives spent in front of a keyboard in times untold, or on planets far away.
They may not know how they know. They just know.
This is TRUE.
Humankind has developed more technology in the past 100 years than in the previous 2,000 years. Why? The answer is simple: the influence of the “Old Empire” over the mind and over the affairs of Mankind has been diminished by The Domain.
This appears to certainly be the case. It's like shackles have been removed, and people are allowed to grow; to fly, to develop and to grow.
A renaissance of invention on Earth began in 1,250 AD with the destruction of the “Old Empire” space fleet in the solar system.
A major encounter. It had great influences throughout our solar system.
During the next 500 years, Earth may have the potential to regain autonomy and independence, but only to the degree that humankind can apply the concentrated genius of the IS-BEs on Earth to solve the amnesia problem.
Starting in 1947, the next 500 years has the potential to be astounding.
However, on a cautionary note…
… the inventive potential of the IS-BEs who have been exiled to this planet is severely compromised by the criminal elements of the Earth population.
All you need to do is look at the United States today to see how true this is.
Specifically, politicians, warmongers and irresponsible physicists who create unlimited weapons such as nuclear bombs, chemicals, diseases and social chaos. These have the potential to extinguish all life forms on Earth, forever.
Oh, and aren't we facing these three threats right here, right now?
Even the relatively small explosions that were tested and used in the past two years on Earth have the potential to destroy all of life, if deployed in sufficient quantities. Larger weapons could consume all of the oxygen in the global atmosphere in a single explosion!
No reasonable person wants nuclear war. The problem is that America is run by idiotic psychopaths.
Therefore, the most fundamental problems that must be solved in order to ensure that Earth will not be destroyed by technology, are social and humanitarian problems.
And which nation is handling the social and humanitarian problems?
United States - War, money, power, rich oligarch greed.
China - Social systems, reduction of poverty, humanitarian issues.
The greatest scientific minds of Earth, in spite of mathematical or mechanical genius, have never addressed these problems.
Not in 1947. But they are being addressed by China from 1980 to the present.
Therefore, do not look to scientists to save Earth or the future of humanity. Any so-called “science” that is solely based on the paradigm that existence is composed only of energy and objects moving through space is not a science.
"Science" without a understanding of how quantum consciousness animates the physical is just voodoo-woo-doo.
Such beings utterly ignore the creative spark originated by an individual IS-BE and collective work of the IS-BEs who continually create the physical universe and all universes.
You cannot ignore the quantum consciousness.
Every science will remain relatively ineffective or destructive to the degree that it omits or devaluates the relative importance of the spiritual spark that ignites all of creation and life.
This is TRUE.
So anyone who has ideas or wants to promote the information that they obtain from "their handlers" or contacts as they try to disseminate the information MUST REALIZE that unless they include the aspects germane to the mechanism of consciousness within their calculus, they are heading down the road to a dead end.
Unfortunately this ignorance has been very carefully and forcefully instilled in human beings by the “Old Empire”.
(This is) to ensure that IS-BEs on this planet will not be able to recover their innate ability to create space, energy, matter and time, or any other component part of universes.
As long as awareness of the immortal, powerful, spiritual “self” is ignored, humanity will remain imprisoned until the day of its own, self-destruction and oblivion.
It's a dangerous destructive cycle. And we are watching it in "real time" with a "front row seat".
Do not rely on the dogma of physical sciences to master the fundamental forces of creation any more than you would trust the chanted incantations of an incense-burning shaman.
Any "science" that does not include the spark of consciousness is just mumbo-jumbo.
The net result of both of these is entrapment and oblivion.
Which is the way that the "prison planet" operates.
Scientists pretend to observe, but they only suppose that they see, and call it fact.
I have argued this point for years.
Like the blind man, a scientist can not learn to see until he realizes that he is blind.
The “facts” of Earth science do not include the source of creation. They include only the result, or byproducts of creation.
The “facts” of science to not include any memory of the nearly infinite past experience of existence.
These omissions are serious ones. It's like have a beautiful nice car, but without an engine, transmission, radio, air conditioning, or electrical system.
The essence of creation and existence cannot be found through the lens of a microscope or telescope or by any other measurement of the physical universe.
It cannot be discerned through observation, which is the technique used by science through all these centuries. As you cannot observe thought. You cannot observe soul. You cannot observe emotions or feelings. You cannot observe attachments.
One cannot comprehend the perfume of a flower or the pain felt by an abandoned lover with meters and calipers.
As I have said.
Everything you will ever know about the creative force and ability of a god can be found within you – an Immortal Spiritual Being.
It's all inside of you.
But you are unaware of it. This is by design and intent. And by evil destructive people. It is a horrible situation.
How can a blind man teach others to see the nearly infinite gradients that comprise the spectrum of light?
The notion that one can understand the universe without understanding the nature of an IS-BE is as absurd as conceiving that an artist is a speck of paint on his own canvas.
Or, that the lace on a ballet shoe is the choreographer’s vision, or the grace of a dancer, or the electric excitement of opening night.
Study of the spirit has been booby-trapped by the thought control operation through religious superstitions they instill in the minds of men.
A very true statement and worthy of discussion off-line.
Conversely, the study of the spirit and the mind have been prohibited by science which eliminates anything that is not measurable in the physical universe. Science is the religion of matter. It worships matter.
So very TRUE. It is the study of the observation of physical matter. Anything that happens in the non-physical simply does not exist according to science.
The paradigm of science is that creation is all, and the creator is nothing.
Religion says the creator is all, and the creation is nothing.
These two extremes are the bars of a prison cell. They prevent observation of all phenomenon as an interactive whole.
Study of creation without knowing the IS-BE, the source of creation, is futile.
When you sail to the edge of a universe conceived by science, you fall off the end into an abyss of dark, dispassionate space and lifeless, unrelenting force.
On Earth, you have been convinced that the oceans of the mind and spirit are filled with gruesome, ghoulish monsters that will eat you alive if you dare to venture beyond the breakwater of superstition.
This is true.
The vested interest of the “Old Empire” prison system is to prevent you from looking at your own soul.
This is true.
They fear that you will see in your own memory the slave masters who keep you imprisoned.
This is true. Just like the oligarchy in Washington DC are all afraid of the vast bulk of American citizens who have had enough with the mindless game of around-and-around-and-around.
The prison is made of shadows in your mind. The shadows are made of lies, and pain, and loss, and fear.
This is true.
The true geniuses of civilization are those IS-BEs who will enable other IS-BEs to recover their memory and regain self-realization and self-determination.
I hope that I am able to live up to this standard. -MM
This issue is not solved through enforcing moral regulation on behavior, or through the control of beings through mystery, faith, drugs, guns or any other dogma of a slave society.
Moral regulation, or the regulation of morals, is a characteristic of a slave society.
And certainly not through the use of electric shock and hypnotic commands!
Indeed.
The survival of Earth and every being on it depends on the ability to recover the memory of skills you have accrued through the trillenia; to recover the essence of yourself.
The survival of the Earth is up to us. We must all do our part, no matter how small.
Do not be confused by the lies in the "news" media. You do not need to be a millionaire oligarch to enact change, nor some kind of crazed radical protestor. You just need to be yourself, be helpful, and be the Rufus.
Such an art, science, or technology has never been conceived in the “Old Empire”. Otherwise, they would not have resorted to the “solution” that brought you to your current condition on Earth.
Very True.
Neither has such technology ever been developed by The Domain.
This technology about mind-wipe, and shocks, and erasure amnesia, has never been developed by the Domain; the type-1 greys.
Until recently, the necessity of rehabilitating an IS-BE with amnesia has not been needed.
Until 1947.
Therefore, no one has ever worked on solving this problem. So far, unfortunately, The Domain has no solution to offer.
In 1947.
A few officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force have taken it upon themselves to provide technology to Earth during their off duty time.
These officers leave their “doll” at the space station and, as an IS-BE, assume or take over a biological body on Earth. In some cases an officer can remain on duty while they inhabit and control other bodies at the same time.
This is understood.
This is a very dangerous and adventurous undertaking.
Yes it is.
It requires a very able IS-BE to accomplish such a mission, and return to base successfully.
It is extremely dangerous.
One officer who did this recently, while continuing to attend to his official duties, was known on Earth as the electronics inventor, Nicola Tesla.
Interesting.
It is my intention, although is not a part of my mission orders, to assist you in your efforts to advance scientific and humanitarian progress on Earth.
It's intention, but not it's orders.
My intention is to help other IS-BEs to help themselves.
The purpose of MM is to give everyone the tools to better your lives, and to free yourself to what ever level or degree that you desire.
In order to solve the amnesia problem on Earth you will need much more advanced technology, as well as social stability to allow enough time for research and development of techniques to free the IS-BE from the body, and to free the mind of the IS-BE from amnesia.
From the point of view from the type-1 grey commander in 1947, the task to free the trapped IS-BE's on Earth is herculean.
It requires...
[1] Much more advanced technology.
[2] Social stability.
[3] Time to develop the necessary R&D baselines.
Although The Domain has a long term interest in maintaining Earth as a useful planet, it has no particular interest in the human population of Earth, other than its own personnel here.
The Domain has it's own issues and directives to follow. The situation on Earth, as bad as it is, is rally not of critical importance to the Domain.
We are interested in preventing destruction, as well as accelerating the development of technologies that will sustain the infrastructures of the global biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere.
It can offer, as a Domain officer,...
...technologies that can prevent destruction of the world. As well as technologies that can sustain the infrastructures of the global environment.
To this end, you will discover, on very careful and thorough examination, that my space craft contains a wide assortment of technology that does not yet exist on Earth.
If you distribute pieces of this craft to various scientists for study, they will be able to reverse engineer some of the technology to the extent that Earth has the raw materials required to replicate these components.
Some of the components. Not all.
Some features will be indecipherable.
Other features cannot be duplicated as Earth does not have the natural resources required to replicate them.
This is especially true of the metals used to construct the craft.
Not only do these metals not exist on Earth, the refining process required to produce these metals took billions of years to develop.
This is true. But I can tell you that MAJesic has been working on these technologies for years now. Decades, even.
It is also true of the navigation system which requires an IS-BE whose own personal wavelength has been specifically attuned to the “neural network” of the craft. The pilot of the craft must possess a very high order of energy volition, discipline, training and intelligence to manipulate such a craft.
Understood.
IS-BEs on Earth are incapable of this expertise because it requires the use of an artificial body specifically created for this purpose.
Understood.
Certain individual Earth scientists, some of whom are among the most brilliant minds in the history of the universe, will have their memory of this technology jogged when they examine the craft components.
Just as some of the scientists and physicists on Earth have been able to “remember” how to recreate electric generators, internal combustion and steam locomotion, refrigeration, aircraft, antibiotics, and other tools of your civilization, they will also rediscover other vital technology in my craft.
And they are. All over the place.
I posit that there are members of the "Old Empire", either formally, or of like mind, embedded within the Earth civilian population. They control the West. They control Washington DC. And in this control, they have purposely created a world of fiat paper money, and a destruction of science, technology and manufacturing.
And we see this in real time.
The following are the specific systems embodied in my craft that contain useful components:
1) There is an assortment of microscopic wiring or fibers within the walls of the craft that control such things as communications, information storage, computer function, and automatic navigation.
2) The same wiring is used for light, sub-light and ultra-light spectrum detection and vision. 3) The fabrics of the interior of the craft are far superior to any on Earth at this time and have hundreds or thousands of applications.
4) You will also find mechanisms for creating, amplifying and channeling light particles or waves as a form of energy.
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain Forces, I am not at liberty to discuss or convey the detailed operation or construction of the craft in any way, other than what I have just disclosed.
Understood. We all have our limitations.
However, I am confident that there are many competent engineers on Earth who will develop useful technology with these resources.
I am providing these details to you in the hope that the greater good of The Domain will be served.”
Provided so that the Earth will be maintained, and not be destroyed, and that eventually, the imprisoned IS-BE's on Earth will be able to free themselves.
Conclusion
As I parse though this entire document, sentence by sentence, I have come to revise some of my beliefs and understandings. I have obtained numerous “Eureka!” moments where events and experiences fall into place and explain things. Yes, I can honestly say. Everything herein is accurate and is exactly what has occurred.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 5.
Key point – Document appears to be genuine
And I can tell you all that the more that I parse this document, the clearer it is (to me) that it is genuine.It is exactly what it says it is. And the extraterrestrial is actually telling the truth, so far.
Key point – Errors
However, there are some errors in translation, and confusion in the interpretation of what is being stated. Anything concerning “time” and the translation of dates seems to have some errors. The translator was having difficulty with those areas.
Humans think of time as “shared” and “linear”.
The type-1 greys think of time as circular and repeating. As in, consciousness enters and exits different world lines” and if you graph that movement of consciousness you will see a “corkscrew” movement through the MWI. Which is what it was referring to. All of which was WAY beyond the concepts of anyone in Roswell at that time.
Therefore all dates and time, and anything associated with these characteristics might in error. If you are having trouble in these areas, treat them as non-resolved issues and can be ignored.
Key point – This document predates MAJestic
Also take note that this document pre-dates MAJestic, and it is crystal clear to me now, that my role was, and still is, in the rehabilitation aspects of moving the Earth from a Hellish “Prison Planet” to that of a “sentience nursery”.
This document has (for me, personally) helped to clarify elements and aspects of my role that were “blurred” and obscured from me. To that I am eternally grateful.
Look at the dates on my articles, and look at what I covered. You will see that they match up nearly perfectly with this “Alien Interview” transcript. And this is the first time that I have ever heard of this document. The timing was transcendental.
“The origins of this universe and life on Earth, as discussed in the textbooks I have read, are very inaccurate.
I have no problem with this statement.
Since you serve your government as a medical personnel, your duties require that you understand biological entities. So, I am sure that you will appreciate the value of the material I will share with you today.
I have no problem with this statement.
The text of books I have been given on subjects related to the function of life forms contain information that is based on…
false memories,
inaccurate observation,
missing data,
unproven theories,
and superstition.
For example, just a few hundred years ago your physicians practiced bloodletting as a means to release supposed ill-humors from the body in an attempt to relieve or heal a wide variety of physical and mental afflictions.
Although this has been corrected somewhat, many barbarisms are still being practiced in the name of medical science.
In addition to the application of incorrect theories concerning biological engineering, many primary errors that Earth scientists make are the result of an ignorance of the nature and relative importance of IS-BEs as the source of energy and intelligence which animate every life form.
No medical textbook includes the relationship between consciousness and the body and how they interact.
Although it is not a priority of The Domain to intervene in the affairs of Earth, The Domain Communications Office has authorized me to provide you with some information.
(It is) in an effort to provide a more accurate and complete understanding of these things and thereby enable you to discover more effective solutions to the unique problems you face on Earth.
I have no problems with these statements.
The correct information about the origins of biological entities has been erased from your mind.
As well as from the minds of your mentors.
In order to help you regain your own memory, I will share with you some factual material concerning the origin of biological entities.
I have no problem with these statements.
I asked Airl if she was referring to the subject of evolution. Airl said, “No, not exactly”.
You will find “evolution” mentioned in the ancient Vedic Hymns.
The Vedic texts are like folk tales or common wisdoms and superstitions gathered throughout the systems of The Domain.
Hum. This makes me want to add the Vedic Texts to MM.
These were compiled into verses, like a book of rhymes. For every statement of truth, the verses contain as many half-truths, reversals of truth and fanciful imaginings, blended without qualification or distinction.
Unfortunately.
The theory of evolution assumes that the motivational source of energy that animates every life form does not exist.
It assumes that an inanimate object or a chemical concoction can suddenly become “alive” or animate accidentally or spontaneously.
Or, perhaps an electrical discharge into a pool of chemical ooze will magically spawn a self-animated entity.
There is no evidence whatsoever that this is true, simply because it is not true.
Dr. Frankenstein did not really resurrect the dead into a marauding monster, except in the imagination of the IS-BE who wrote a fictitious story one dark and stormy night.
This extraterrestrial did have quite the word power.
No Western scientist ever stopped to consider who, what, where, when or how this animation happens.
Complete ignorance, denial or unawareness of the spirit as the source of life force required to animate inanimate objects or cellular tissue is the sole cause of failures in Western medicine.
Obviously, as I have stated herein throughout MM. The physical (body and world-line(s)) are just physical containers. It is the consciousness that animates them.
In addition, evolution does not occur accidentally.
It requires a great deal of technology which must be manipulated under the careful supervision of IS-BEs.
Evolution does not occur naturally. It requires a consciousness to make it happen and form into place.
So, for example, you are desirous of a new kind of frog. One that is yellow with horns, then a consciousness must work over long swaths of time to manifest the changes to create such a creature. This is what evolution is.
Very simple examples are seen in the modification of farm animals or in the breeding of dogs.
However, the notion that human biological organisms evolved naturally from earlier ape-like forms is incorrect.
No physical evidence will ever be uncovered to substantiate the notion that modern humanoid bodies evolved on this planet.
Humans DID NOT evolve on Earth. Nor did they evolve from primates as is the current belief.
The reason is simple: the idea that human bodies evolved spontaneously from the primordial ooze of chemical interactivity in the dim mists of time…
…is nothing more than a hypnotic lie…
…instilled by the amnesia operation…
….to prevent your recollection of the true origins of Mankind.
I have no problem with this statement, no matter how ungainly wordy it is.
Factually, humanoid bodies have existed in various forms throughout the universe for trillions of years.
The human form is an archetype. But the issue of consciousness and sentience makes the utility of that archetype vary.
So there are "people" that look like humans all over the universe, and in every corner of the galaxy.
This was compounded by the fact that The Vedic Hymns were brought to Earth 8,200 years ago by The Domain Expeditionary Force.
The Vedic Hymns originated from the type-1 greys.
While they were based in the Himalaya Mountains, the verses were taught to some of the local humans who memorized them.
However, I should note that this was not an authorized activity for the crew of The Domain installation, although I am sure it seemed like an innocent diversion for them at the time.
This is the second time it mentioned this. The Domain has a policy of non-intervention, but some of the Domain information activity was passed down as part of a kind of recreational pastime.
The verses were passed along verbally from one generation to the next for thousands of years in the foothills and eventually spread throughout India.
No one in The Domain credits any of the material in the Vedic Hymns as factual material, any more than you would use “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” as a guide for rearing children.
However, on a planet where all of the IS-BEs have had their memory erased, one can understand how these tales and fantasies could be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, the humans who learned the Vedic verses passed them along to others saying that they came from “the gods”.
Eventually, the content of the verses were adopted verbatim as “truth”.
The euphemistic and metaphorical content of the Veda were accepted and practiced as dogmatic fact.
The philosophy of the verses were ignored and the verses became the genesis of nearly every religion practice on the planet, especially Hinduism.
The philosophy of the Vedic verses are what is important. Not the content.
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain, I must always assume a very pragmatic point of view.
I could not be effective or accomplish my missions if I were to use philosophical dogma or rhetoric as my operations manual.
The extraterrestrial begins to discuss very ancient history that predates the "Old Empire", and certainly pre-dates humans on the Earth.
Therefore, our discussion of history is based on actual events that occurred long before any IS-BEs arrived on Earth, and long before the “Old Empire” came into power.
I can relate part of this history from personal experience:
Many billions of years ago I was a member of a very large biological laboratory in a galaxy far from this one.
It was called the “Arcadia Regeneration Company”.
I was a biological engineer working with a large staff of technicians.
It was our business to manufacture and supply new life forms to uninhabited planets.
There were millions of star systems with millions of inhabitable planets in the region at that time.
The creation of lifeforms to inhabit worlds and planets that have no life, but will potentially be able to thrive with custom made life.
There were many other biological laboratory companies at that time also.
Each of them specialized in producing different kinds of life forms, depending on the “class” of the planet being populated.
Over a long span of time these laboratories developed a vast catalogue of species throughout the galaxies.
Also known as approved archetypes.
The majority of basic genetic material is common to all species of life.
Therefore, most of their work was concerned with manipulating alterations of the basic genetic pattern to produce variations of life forms that would be suitable inhabitants for various planetary classes.
You take a basic form, and then you modify it to fill a unique and specialized planetary environment.
The “Arcadia Regeneration Company” specialized in mammals for forested areas and birds for tropical regions.
Our marketing staff negotiated contracts with various planetary governments and independent buyers from all over the universe.
The technicians created animals that were compatible with the variations in climate, atmospheric and terrestrial density and chemical content.
There are many worlds that are similar, but have variations that run from the comfortable to the uncomfortable. This effort produced animals and creatures that were stable and able to thrive in a very broad and diverse range of planetary environments.
In addition we were paid to integrate our specimens with biological organisms engineered by other companies already living on a planet.
You take local organism "A", then you integrate specific changes taken from a catalog of "attributes" and you end up with an organism "A++".
In order to do this our staff was in communication with other companies who created life forms.
There were industry trade shows, publications and a variety of other information supplied through an association that coordinated related projects.
As you can imagine, our research required a great deal of interstellar travel to conduct planetary surveys.
This is when I learned my skills as a pilot.
The data gathered was accumulated in huge computer databases and evaluated by biological engineers.
All this happened billions of years ago. Could the Domain be the same thing as the progenitors?
Mind BLOWN!
A computer is an electronic device that serves as an artificial “brain” or complex calculating machine.
It is capable of storing information, making computations, solving problems and performing mechanical functions.
In most of the galactic systems of the universe, very large computers are commonly used to run the routine administration, mechanical services and maintenance activities of an entire planet or planetary system.
Based on the survey data gathered, designs and artistic renderings were made for new creatures.
Some designs were sold to the highest bidder. Other life forms were created to meet the customized requests of our clients.
The design and technical specifications were passed along an assembly line through a series of cellular, chemical, and mechanical engineers to solve the various problems.
It was their job to integrate all of the component factors into a workable, functional and aesthetic finished product.
Prototypes of these creatures were then produced and tested in artificially created environments.
Imperfections were worked out, modifications made and eventually the new life form was “endowed” or “animated” with a life force or spiritual energy before being introduced into the actual planetary environment for final testing.
This is the basic procedure. Can you just imagine the shock on the faces of the Roswell military leadership?
After a new life form was introduced, we monitored the interaction of these biological organisms with the planetary environment and with other indigenous life-forms.
Obviously, sometimes things didn't work out so well.
Conflicts resulting from the interaction between incompatible organisms were resolved through negotiation between ourselves and other companies.
The negotiations usually resulted in compromises requiring further modification to our creatures or to theirs or both.
This is part of a science or art you call “Eugenics”.
In some cases changes were made in the planetary environment, but not often, as planet building is much more complex than making changes to an individual life form.
This is understandable.
Coincidentally, a friend and engineer with whom I used to work with at the Arcadia Regeneration Company – a long time after I left the company – told me that one of the projects they contracted to do, in more recent times, was to deliver life forms to Earth to replenish them after a war in this region of the galaxy devastated most of the life on the planets in this region of space. This would have been about seventy million years ago.
About 70 million years ago was a major war in our region of space and many solar systems were affected. Many planets were devastated beyond casual repair, and efforts were made to not only replace the lost life forms, but also to improve and add new forms.
"One of the planet’s largest extinctions, which wiped out non-flying dinosaurs and most other species 66 million years ago, was caused by a “one-two punch” of volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts, a new reconstruction of Antarctic Ocean temperatures suggests."
-From HERE.
The skill required to modify the planet into an ecologically interactive environment that will support billions of diverse species was an immense undertaking.
Specialized consultants from nearly every biotechnology company in the galaxy were brought in to help with the project.
For this region, or for the Earth proper? I wonder.
What you see now on Earth is the huge variety of life forms left behind.
Your scientists believe that the fallacious “theory of evolution” is an explanation for the existence of all the life forms here.
The truth is that all life forms on this and any other planet in this universe were created by companies like ours.
Now this is just a "kick in the teeth" for evolutionary theory.
How else can you explain the millions of completely divergent and unrelated species of life on the land and in the oceans of this planet?
How else can you explain the source of spiritual animation which defines every living creature?
To say it is the work of “god”, is far too broad.
Every IS-BE has many names and faces in many times and places. Every IS-BE is a god. When they inhabit a physical object they are the source of Life.
For example, there are millions of species of insects.
About 350,000 of these are species of beetles.
There may be as many as 100 million species of life forms on Earth at any given time.
In addition, there are many times more extinct species of life on Earth than there are living life forms. Some of these will be rediscovered in the fossil or geological records of Earth.
The current “theory of evolution” of life forms on Earth does not consider the phenomena of biological diversity.
Evolution by natural selection is science fiction.
One species does not accidentally, or randomly evolve to become another species, as the Earth textbooks indicate, without manipulation of genetic material by an IS-BE.
Consciousness creation of life is what animates it.
Fundamental.
A simple example of IS-BE intervention is the selective breeding of a species on Earth. Within the past few hundred years several hundred dog breeds and hundreds of varieties of pigeons and dozens of Koi fish have been “evolved” in just a few years, beginning with only one original breed.
Without active intervention by IS-BEs, biological organisms rarely change.
The development of an animal like the ‘duck-billed platypus’ required a lot of very clever engineering to combine the body of a beaver with the bill of a duck and make a mammal that lays eggs.
Undoubtedly, some wealthy client placed a “special order” for it as a gift or curious amusement.
I am sure the laboratory of some biotechnical company worked on it for years to make it a self-replicating life form!
This "cracks me up"!
The notion that the creation of any life form could have resulted from a coincidental chemical interaction moldering up from some primordial ooze is beyond absurdity!
Factually, some organisms on Earth, such as Proteobacteria, are modifications of a Phylum designed primarily for “Star Type 3, Class C” planets.
This differs from our solar system which is a "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planet.
In other words, The Domain designation for a planet with an anaerobic atmosphere nearest a large, intensely hot blue star, such as those in the constellation of Orion’s Belt in this galaxy.
The three bright stars that form the Orion’s Belt are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. The stars are believed to have formed from the same nebula in Orion constellation, and they are roughly the same age.
Creating life forms is very complex, highly technical work for IS-BEs who specialize in this field.
Genetic anomalies are very baffling to Earth biologists who have had their memory erased.
Unfortunately, the false memory implantations of the “Old Empire” prevent Earth scientists from observing obvious anomalies.
This is the core, underlying theme, of the extraterrestrial.
The greatest technical challenge of biological organisms was the invention of self-regeneration, or sexual reproduction.
It was invented as the solution to the problem of having to continually manufacture replacement creatures for those that had been destroyed and eaten by other creatures.
Planetary governments did not want to keep buying replacement animals.
The idea was contrived trillions of years ago as a result of a conference held to resolve arguments between the disputing vested interests within the biotechnology industry.
The infamous “Council of Yuhmi-Krum” was responsible for coordinating creature production.
Such a story. I am just positive the the Roswell military leadership were besides themselves in incredulity.
A compromise was reached, after certain members of the Council were strategically bribed or murdered, to author an agreement which resulted in the biological phenomenon which we now call the “food chain”.
The idea that a creature would need to consume the body of another life form as an energy source was offered as a solution by one of the biggest companies in the biological engineering business. They specialized in creating insects and flowering plants.
The connection between the two is obvious. Nearly every flowering plant requires a symbiotic relationship with an insect in order to propagate. The reason is obvious: both the bugs and the flowers were created by the same company. Unfortunately, this same company also had a division which created parasites and bacteria.
Hum...
The name of the company roughly translated into English would be “Bugs & Blossoms”.
Hum...
They wanted to justify the fact that the only valid purpose of the parasitic creatures they manufactured was to aid the decomposition of organic material. There was a very limited market for such creatures at that time.
Interesting.
In order to expand their business they hired a big public relations firm and a powerful group of political lobbyists to glorify the idea that life forms should feed from other life forms.
They invented a “scientific theory” to use as a promotion gimmick.
The theory was that all creatures needed to have “food” as a source of energy.
Before that, none of the life forms being manufactured required any external energy.
Animals did not eat other animals for food, but consumed sunlight, minerals or vegetable matter only.
Very, very interesting.
Of course, “Bugs & Blossoms” went into the business of designing and manufacturing carnivores.
Before long, so many animals were being eaten as food that the problem of replenishing them became very difficult.
As a ‘solution’, “Bugs & Blossoms” proposed, with the help of some strategically placed bribes in high places, that other companies begin using ‘sexual reproduction’ as the basis for replenishing life-forms.
“Bugs & Blossoms” was the first company to develop blueprints for sexual reproduction, of course.
Curious, and fascinating.
As expected, the patent licenses for the biological engineering process required to implant stimulus-response mating, cellular division and preprogrammed growth patterns for self-regenerating animals were owned by “Bugs & Blossoms” too.
Of course.
Through the next few million years laws were passed that required that these programs be purchased by the other biological technology companies.
These were required to be imprinted into the cellular design of all existing life-forms.
It became a very expensive undertaking for other biotechnology companies to make such an awkward, and impractical idea work.
This led to the corruption and downfall of the entire industry.
Ultimately, the ‘food and sex’ idea completely ruined the bio-technology industry, including “Bugs & Blossoms”.
The entire industry faded away as the market for manufactured life forms disappeared.
Consequently, when a species became extinct, there is no way to replace them because the technology of creating new life forms has been lost.
Here we are talking about the "worlds and the realities of the Gods".
Obviously, none of this technology was ever known on Earth, and probably never will be.
There are still computer files on some planets far from here which record the procedures for biological engineering. Possibly the laboratories and computers still exist somewhere. However, there is no one around doing anything with them. Therefore, you can understand why it is so important for The Domain to protect the dwindling number of creatures left on Earth.
Understandable.
The core concept behind ‘sexual reproduction’ technology was the invention of a chemical/electronic interaction called “cyclical stimulus-response generators”.
This is very interesting. It is what drives humans to reproduce.
This is an programmed genetic mechanism which causes a seemingly spontaneous, recurring impulse to reproduce. The same technique was later adapted and applied to biological flesh bodies, including Homo Sapiens.
Also known as "going into heat". It cause the female to go into a Lordosis posture.
Another important mechanism used in the reproductive process, especially with Homo Sapiens type bodies, is the implantation of a “chemical-electrical trigger” mechanism in the body.
The “trigger” which attracts IS-BEs to inhabit a human body, or any kind of “flesh body”, is the use of an artificially imprinted electronic wave which uses “aesthetic pain” to attract the IS-BE.
An "artificially imprinted electronic wave" used to attract a consciousness to inhabit a physical body.
Every trap in the universe, including those used to capture IS-BEs who remain free, is “baited” with an aesthetic electronic wave.
Very interesting.
The sensations caused by the aesthetic wavelength are more attractive to an IS-BE than any other sensation. When the electronic waves of pain and beauty are combined together, this causes the IS-BE to get “stuck” in the body.
Avoid them if you want to be free.
The “reproductive trigger” used for lesser life forms, such as cattle and other mammals, is triggered by chemicals emitted from the scent glands, combined with reproductive chemical-electrical impulses stimulated by testosterone, or estrogen.
Well understood.
These are also interactive with nutrition levels which cause the life form to reproduce more when deprived of food sources.
Interesting. China's population sky-rocketed during famines. As did India's.
Starvation promoted reproductive activity as a means of perpetuating survival through future regenerations, when the current organism fails to survive. These fundamental principles have been applied throughout all species of life.
All species of life.
The debilitating impact and addiction to the “sexual aesthetic-pain” electronic wave is the reason that the ruling class of The Domain do not inhabit flesh bodies.
This is also why officers of The Domain Forces only use doll bodies.
This wave has proven to be the most effective trapping device ever created in the history of the universe, as far as I know.
It is the MOST effective trapping snare in the universe.
The civilizations of The Domain and the “Old Empire” both depend on this device to “recruit” and maintain a work force of IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies on planets and installations.
These IS-BEs are the “working class” beings who do all of the slavish, manual, undesirable work on planets.
Class System
As I mentioned, there is a very highly regimented and fixed hierarchy or “class system” for all IS-BEs throughout the “Old Empire”, and The Domain, as follows:
The highest class are “free” IS-BEs. That is, they are not restricted to the use of any type of body and may come and go at will, provided that they do not destroy or interfere with the social, economic or political structure.
Below this class are many strata of “limited” IS-BEs who may or may not use a body from time to time. Limitations are imposed on each IS-BE regarding range of power, ability and mobility they can exercise.
Below these are the “doll body” classes, to which I belong. Nearly all space officers and crew members of space craft are required to travel through intergalactic space. Therefore, they are each equipped with a body manufactured from light weight, durable materials. Various body types have been designed to facilitate specialized functions. Some bodies have accessories, such as interchangeable tools or apparatus for activities such as maintenance, mining, chemical management, navigation, and so forth. There are many gradations of this body type which also serve as an “insignia” of rank.
Below these are the soldier class. The soldiers are equipped with a myriad of weapons, and specialized armaments designed to detect, combat and overwhelm any imaginable foe. Some soldiers are issued mechanical bodies. Most soldiers are merely remote controlled robots with no class designation.
The lower classes are limited to “flesh bodies”. Of course, it is not possible for these to travel through space for obvious reasons. Fundamentally, flesh bodies are far too fragile to endure the stresses of gravity, temperature extremes, radiation exposure, atmospheric chemicals and the vacuum of space. There are also the obvious logistical inconveniences of food, defecation, sleep, atmospheric elements, and air pressure required by flesh bodies, that doll bodies do not require.
Flesh Bodies
Most flesh bodies will suffocate in only a few minutes without a specific combination of atmospheric chemicals.
After 2 or 3 days the bacteria which live internally and externally on the body cause severe odors to be emitted. Odors of any kind are not acceptable in a space vessel.
Flesh can tolerate only a very limited spectrum of temperatures, whereas in space the contrast of temperatures may vary hundreds of degrees within seconds. Of course flesh bodies are utterly useless for military duty. A single shot from a hand-held, electronic blast gun instantly turns a flesh body into a noxious vapor cloud.
IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies have lost much of their native ability and power. Although it is theoretically possible to regain or rehabilitate these abilities, no practical means has been discovered or authorized by The Domain.
Even though space craft of The Domain travel trillions of “light years” in a single day, the time required to traverse the space between galaxies is significant, not to mention the length of time to complete just one set of mission orders, which may require thousands of years.
Biological flesh bodies live for only a very short time – only 60 to 150 years, at most – whereas doll bodies can be re-used and repaired almost indefinitely.
Development of biological bodies
The first development of biological bodies began in this universe about seventy-four trillion years ago.
It rapidly became a fad for IS-BEs to create and inhabit various types of bodies for an assortment of nefarious reasons: especially for amusement, this is to experience various physical sensations vicariously through the body.
Since that time there has been a continuing “de-evolution” in the relationship of IS-BEs to bodies.
As IS-BEs continued to play around with these bodies, certain tricks were introduced to cause IS-BEs to get trapped inside a body so they were unable to leave again.
Very interesting.
This was done primarily by making bodies that appeared sturdy, but were actually very fragile. An IS-BE, using their natural power to create energy, accidentally injured a body when contacting it. The IS-BE was remorseful about having injured this fragile body. The next time they encountered a body they began to be “careful” with them. In so doing, the IS-BE would withdraw or minimize their own power so as not to injure the body. A very long and treacherous history of this kind of trickery, combined with similar misadventures eventually resulted in a large number of IS-BEs becoming permanently trapped in bodies.
Now, who would think of such a thing?
Of course this became a profitable enterprise for some IS-BEs who took advantage of this situation to make slaves of others.
The resulting enslavement progressed over trillions of years, and continues today.
Ultimately the dwindling ability of IS-BEs to maintain a personal state of operational freedom and ability to create energy resulted in the vast and carefully guarded hierarchy or class system.
Sigh.
Using bodies as a symbol of each class is used throughout the “Old Empire”, as well as The Domain.
Sigh.
The vast majority of IS-BEs throughout the galaxies of this universe inhabit some form of flesh body.
The structure, appearance, operation and habitat of these bodies vary according to the gravity, atmosphere, and climatic conditions of the planet they inhabit.
Body types are predetermined largely by the type and size of the star around which the planet revolves, the distance from the star, the geological, as well as the atmospheric components of the planet.
All well understood parameters now. But at that time must have been enlightening and shocking.
On the average, these stars and planets fall into gradients of classification which are fairly standard throughout the universe.
Archetypes.
For example, Earth is identified, roughly, as a “Sun Type 12, Class 7 planet”. That is a heavy gravity, nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere planet, with biological life-forms, in proximity to a single, yellow, medium-size, low-radiation sun or “Type 12 star”.
The proper designations are difficult to translate accurately due to the extreme limitations of astronomical nomenclature in the English language.
Understood.
There are as many varieties of life forms as there are grains of sands on the beach. You can imagine how many different creatures and types of bodies have been manufactured by the millions of companies such as “Bugs & Blossoms” for all of the myriad planetary systems during the course of seventy-four trillion years!”
(MATILDA O’DONNELL MACELROY PERSONAL NOTE)
“When Airl finished telling me this “story”, there was a long, silent pause while I muddled through all this in my mind. Had Airl been reading science fiction books and fantasy stories during the night? Why would she tell me something so incredibly far-fetched?
The science fiction stories of the pulp magazines of that day wouldn't even begin to consider the things this extraterrestrial was saying.
If there had not been a 40 inch tall alien, with gray “skin”, and three fingers on each hand and foot sitting directly across from me, I would not have believed a single word of it!
In retrospect, over the 60 years since Airl gave me this information, Earth doctors have begun to develop some of the biological engineering technology that Airl told me about right here on Earth. Heart bypasses, cloning, test tube babies, organ transplants, plastic surgery, genes, chromosomes, and so forth.
One thing is very sure: I have never looked at a bug or flower the same way since then, not to mention my religious belief in Genesis.”
Conclusion
As I parse though this entire document, sentence by sentence, I have come to revise some of my beliefs and understandings. I have obtained numerous “Eureka!” moments where events and experiences fall into place and explain things. Yes, I can honestly say. Everything herein is accurate and is exactly what has occurred.
End of Part five
You can visit part six HERE.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
Today, I am going to present a follow up article to my earlier post titled the “MM blue plate special”. Here we are going to follow the same format, with articles, photos and short videos depicting various things in no particular order. I hope that you all enjoy it.
We will start with…
Philly Cheese-steak Sandwich
The cheesesteak sandwich is made up of thinly sliced steak that served hot with melted cheese in a long, crusty Italian roll. Peppers, onions and mushrooms are optional, but highly recommended (by me). It’s a popular street-cart food, with its origins coming from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Philly Cheese-steak Sandwich.
Chinese boy and girl scout “Jamboree”
In China, most things are co-ed, so there really isn’t a boy scouts, or a girl scouts. It’s just “The Scouts”. Here we see the Chinese equivalent of a Scout Jamboree. It’s a really short video, but a lot of fun. Check it out.
Chinese Scout Jamboree.
Helping an old man cross the street
Oh, I know. It’s so “boy scout”. But really! Where is your humanity? We all need each other. We really do. No one is alone. We all all connected, and if we start treating each other as part of our family, then maybe… just maybe the world will be a better place.
Getting Married in Beirut
In 2020, Israel fired two Air to ground Thermobaric weapon to the Beirut port. This devastated one of the key ports for the Chinese BRI, Belt and Road Initiative. Initially, the American media heavily promoted the excuse that it was just accidentally self-ignited fertilizer, but when photos of the actual missiles were produced, the narrative quickly changed to birds and crows being misidentified.
Afterwards, (then) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gleefully announced that there was “substantial progress” in stopping the Chinese BRI in the Mediterranean. You all can put two plus two together and realize what is going on. You don’t need a degree in Geo-political international politics to figure it out.
The following is a woman, on her wedding day, getting married in Beirut when the United States destroyed the Port of Beruit, via proxy using Israeli aircraft.
Getting Married in Beirut
Bathers at Atlantic City.
The Jersey Shore circa 1910. “Bathers at Atlantic City.” Many of them gamely striking a pose for the camera as they peer into the existential void. 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.
Bathers at Atlantic City.
Did women wear corsets under their swimming suits back then? They all seem to have very slender waists.
Be the Rufus!
Man gets horrible news and lunges towards a high speed train! Only a real Rufus can save him! Be the Rufus! It’s our highest calling!
Be the Rufus! It’s our highest calling.
Metal detecting
Ponder this…
Nice finds.
A typical park in China
In China the purpose of the government is to support and enrich the standard of living for the Chinese citizenry. It is not to make the richest people wealthier. Thus money, time and effort goes into making parks, improving infrastructure, and improving every aspect of the lives of the Chinese.
Here’s a typical park.
Mom Making A Kettle Of Apple Butter
Making a kettle of apple butter.
When I was growing up, one of my least favorite tasks was helping make apple butter. It seemed like it took forever, and it did indeed take the better part of an entire day – usually on a beautiful fall day that God must surely have provided for the sole purpose of running around and playing in the woods. But there I was, helping make apple butter while the precious daylight hours wasted away!
Yes, in the opinion of most any little boy, a day spent making apple butter is a day thoroughly wasted. First, you have to peel, cut up and wash about a million apples.
Then you have to gather a mountain of firewood and keep the flame burning nice and hot for hours on end…all the while stirring the smoldering apple butter non-stop until you’re old enough to begin sprouting facial hair. Of course about every six minutes throughout the day I would annoy mom just a little bit more by asking her if the apple butter was “almost done”…
And finally, after having asked for about the 10,000th time, she would say the two most beautiful words in the English language: “just about“.
Shortly after that she would break out the “cans” and start filling them up with the precious concoction that we had just spent such a large portion of our lifetimes making.
Finally, after all the pint and quart jars were filled, an amazing thing would happen: mom would give several jars of it away! I remember thinking “What are you doing, mom? After all we went through to make that stuff you’re gonna hand it out for free?”
But that was mom, always being generous and sharing with others regardless of how hard she had to work to get something.
Reflecting back on those years, I now understand why mom did so much work for what seemed to me to be such a small “payout” – she had to. She had a large family to feed and little extra money with which to do it, and we kids had to do our part to help put food on the table. And now that I think about it, those were some of the best times of my life.
Saved by a Rufus!
A truck is out of control. The driver is unconscious, and it’s a treacherous mountain road. What are you going to do? Well, if you are a Rufus, then you know exactly what you should do!
Saved by a Rufus.
周杰伦、费玉清 – 千里之外 (Live)
One of the most famous Pop songs in China. Performed live of one of the Chinese talent shows by the original singers.
周杰伦、费玉清 – 千里之外 (Live).
Being silenced by the war-loving neocon cabal
All of us who live in China are used to this kind of bullshit. Ignorant fucks accuse us for being paid to say good things about China. Why? because they read about it on their “news”. But what is “news”? Today, it’s a fully paid arm of the government, and if the government wants to demonize China, and you say “Whoa! That’s wrong.” then they will demonize you too.
I try to stay out of the fray. But it affects all of us here.
This 35mm Kodachrome found in a thrift store is dated August 1959 and bears the notation “Jim, Bristlecone.” The color-coordinated Chevrolet truck and Traveleze trailer are a nice late-Fifties touch.
Nice. 1959. I was a baby at the time.
Where else could one stumble on something like this, nicely blown up for close viewing?
I drove one of these pickups up in the Colorado Rockies with the Forest Service for two summers back in the mid '60s. Four on the floor (with a super-low stump-yanker first gear, good only for hauling heavy loads up 4% grades--most of the time you started in 2nd if you wanted to make progress), and yes, mine was two-tone as well.
The rest of the stable included a '58 Ford F100, also two tone, and a couple of shiny new Dodge Ram V8s that were all-green, and two Jeeps, a Wagoneer and a CJ5.
It was a joy and a privilege to motor around in such a beautiful mountain setting (much like in this shot) in such a cool vehicle. Thanks for the memory!
-DougR
季彦霖 – 选择失忆
Here is a typical Chinese MV. This is the kind of song that the chicks in the KTV would sing their hearts out to. I hope that you all like it.
季彦霖 – 选择失忆.
Meanwhile In Hawaii
There is a movement inside of Hawaii calling for separation away form the United States Federal Government. I am sure that many people on the mainland also feel this way about their own States. After all, if you get rid of the Federal government, automatically your taxes are slashed, and your income increase an easy 30%, not to mention Social Security, and forget about all those wars in far off and distant lands.
Heck! If Kentucky want’s to fight Kenya, go for it. But let those in Kentucky decide, not some rich oligarchy psychopath in Washington DC.
Ah. But you know, nah it will never happen. But it’s nice to see something that the mainstream, and the alternative will refuse to cover.
Ghetto Blaster
70s Ghetto blasters and boomboxes in the 80s existed long before pocket-sized radios were a possibility. Part of the era before the iPod, the MP3 player, and even the Walkman in some cases, people needed a way to take the clunky tech of an audio system with them outside.
Ghetto Blaster
The ghetto blaster sprang to life in 1969, introducing a large, yet still (somewhat) portable machine with multiple loud speakers. The Philips company was the first to discover the tech required to make audio “portable”.
In the early days, most people referred to these products as boomboxes. The name, in part, referred to the heavy, box-like design of the machine. Plus, most boombox radios also came with a bass-enhancing codec, which meant you got plenty of boom.
Margherita Pizza
Margherita pizza is a special variety of pizza that originates in Naples, Italy. In Italy, this pizza is a protected food, meaning that it must be prepared in a certain way to bear the “pizza Margherita” label, and the Italian government actually certifies bakeries that produce it.
This pizza is very simple, placing an emphasis on fresh, wholesome ingredients and high quality bread dough. It is also the basis for many pizzas served around the world; most people can probably obtain a version of it from a local pizza establishment, and cooks can also make it at home.
Margherita pizza.
A man collapses in a hospital
You go to a hospital when you are not feeling well. Well, what if you were delayed, and you are really in a bad state? Well, don’t worry, there will always be a Rufus nearby to help you when you need it most.
Be the Rufus!
Be the Rufus!
Another pretty Chinese woman
I do love to look at pretty women.
A pretty Chinese woman.
So, what is a ghetto blaster?
The name alone is enough to conjure an image of one of these products. In the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, most ghetto blasters were large, angular (box-shaped) devices.
Ghetto Blaster gone mobile.
While the features available from a ghetto blaster have changed over the years, they usually include:
An amplifier (with extra bass support)
Two loudspeakers (volume is a must)
A radio tuner (AM, FM, and sometimes DAB)
A cassette or CD player
A handle for portability
The cassette tape and CD player components of the modern ghetto blaster are quickly being phased out. Although you can find a new ghetto blaster with CD player components these days, it’s more common to simply play your music collection via Bluetooth.
A Ghetto Blaster is also known as a “boom box”.
Ghetto blasters need to be loud, versatile, and portable. In the past, designers used to slap a handle on a blocky machine and leave customers to figure out the rest.
This frequently led to people carrying ghetto blasters on their shoulders to make managing the weight a bit easier.
Today, more modern ghetto blasters from companies like JBL and Sony are a little more ergonomic. Some products come with straps so you can carry your radio like a backpack.
A Ghetto Blaster is also known as a “boom box”.
Others feature unique designs that make carrying the machine on your shoulder more comfortable.
A “Mexican” Plate
I happen to really like Mexican food, but unfortunately, I just can’t get it in China. Sigh. But no matter, Here we have some refried beans, some burritos, lots of cheese and rice. It’s really mouth-watering.
A “Mexican” Plate.
Street walkers in Vietnam
There are some interesting sights and sounds in Vietnam. Here’s a short clip of some “street walkers” in one of the main (foreigner) areas of Ho Chi Min city.
Street walkers in Vietnam. Be careful! They might be “Lady Boys”.
A New York Style Pizza
This is a type of American pizza known as a “New York Style” Pizza. It has a very thing crust, is long, and has piping hot cheese on the top of it. Us “locals” like to curve up the ends of it when we eat it.
New York Style Pizza.
80s ghetto blasters and the identity of an era
While Ghetto blasters in the 70s and 60s were available, it wasn’t until the 1980s when popularity surged. The ghetto blaster became the icon of a generation, acting as both a practical tool, and a status symbol.
A young man sits on his bicycle with his boombox. Cairo, Illinois. 1985.
Today, we still see boomboxes as a component of the 80s and early 90s aesthetic. Many leading artists use ghetto blasters in their music videos. Just look at “Hung Up” by Madonna, or “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga.
So, why did the ghetto blaster suddenly surge into the mainstream in the 1980s? There are a few answers to this question.
In the 80s, cassette ghetto blaster products were often associated with urban society. African American and Hispanic youths frequently carried ghetto blasters with them wherever they went.
Rapper LL Cool J holds a boombox outside of a concert. 1986.
In fact, the popularity that boomboxes had in this environment is what helped them to earn their new term “ghetto blaster”.
What to do if you have some fresh Italian bread and some tomatoes…
A nice idea. Especially nice if you add some friends and a few bottles of wine. Hint. Hint.
Are you getting hungry?
And how you do it / make it…
Something like this…
What a steak!
Now this is my idea of a steak!
How about this for a steak?
How mothers bathed their babies in the 1950’s
It’s a joke! But it does seem kind of funny how the mother is posing next to her new washing machine.
How mothers bathed their babies in the 1950’s.
Boomboxes start community bans
The problem with the boomboxes is that they play LOUD, and everyone can hear the “music”.
As is often the case when music incites a community, cities began to ban boomboxes from public places. Unlike standard radio sets, governments didn’t have complete control over what people listened to on their ghetto blasters.
It was just as easy to listen to your own cassettes and CDs as it was to tune into Kiss FM.
Young men and their boombox. Newark, New Jersey. 1987.
Ghetto blasters in the 80s grew in popularity as a versatile way to listen to all kinds of music. Some groups even started using these portable players to create music.
The boombox became instrumental to the rise of hip hop music. Curb-side rap battles often included a number of ghetto blasters. The fact that ghetto blasters could deliver more bass and volume than a standard speaker made it perfect for the rise of a new genre.
A young man poses with his boombox on a sidewalk in Brooklyn. 1985.
Aside from providing the soundtrack to many urban music battles, ghetto blasters also became a status symbol. The Beastie Boys embraced the ghetto blaster as a signature of their “rebellious” nature. The Clash always seemed to have a boombox with them.
Elsewhere, the devices appeared frequently in shows and movies. Just think of Fame, in the 1980s, or Flash dance, for instance.
Even the National Museum of American History once created an exhibition around ghetto blasters. The event, titled “Hip-Hop won’t stop” featured an insight into the impact boomboxes had on the urban underground.
Bruce Springsteen fans have a picnic with a boombox in the trunk. Location unspecified. 1985.
A pretty girl from China
From one of my “pretty girls of China” collections.
Chicago Pizza
This is what we call a “Chicago Deep Dish Pizza”. It’s sort of like a Pizza Soup and it is so very delicious.
Chicago Pizza.
I really like this picture
I don’t really know why. I think and believe that it teleports me to a different time; a quieter time and a more peaceful time. I think that it is lovely.
A nicer time.
Comfort food
For me, one of my favorite comfort foods is a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. My wife, who is Chinese, has a different comfort food. She likes snails, and shellfish. And my friend Mike, who is also Chinese, prefers noodles. Lots and lots of hot noodles.
We are all different. This is my “comfort food”…
Grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup.
Guess the movie?
Can you guess which 1960’s American movie that these quotes came from? Hint: a song about “burning bridges” from the movie become a top pop hit.
A “star studded” cast.
What happened to ghetto blasters in the 1990s?
As ghetto blasters earned more popularity around the world, they also became more complex in functionality and design. By the end of the 80s, ghetto blasters frequently came with separate high/low-frequency speakers.
You could also access secondary tape decks so that you could record off the radio and other music systems.
Over the years, manufacturers introduced a host of new features, from balance adjusters and equalisers, to Dolby noise reduction tools, LED sound gauges, and CD players. Despite all of this extra functionality, ghetto blasters in the 1990s weren’t as popular as they used to be.
Teddy Boys in Tokyo’s Harajaku Park. 1986.
The problem wasn’t with the technology of ghetto blaster boomboxes. Rather, customers didn’t see the objects as capturing as much soul as their predecessors. Sometimes, when things in our history go “mainstream”, their impact can feel a little watered down.
Manufacturers jumped to add new bells and whistles to their systems to ensure that customers could have the latest and greatest tech. Unfortunately, the old-fashioned feel of the ghetto blaster wasn’t there.
On top of that, in the 2000s, when the ghetto blaster started to take on more high-tech functionality, it seemed to lose its retro appeal.
Breakdancers on 5th Avenue in New York. 1981.
The popularity of 80s ghetto blasters was about more than just what these systems could do. People loved the portability and impact of the boombox. However, it was the stigma attached to the device that really made having a boombox exciting.
People felt less inclined to risk the issues of carrying a boombox in public. After all, you could have all your music on the go with a Walkman, and you didn’t need to spend as much. In the 90s, an appreciation of music became a more personal, inward experience.
People weren’t as keen to blast their music in public places. We started to think of radio, CDs, and other audio experiences as more personal affairs.
A young man in roller skates and a pith helmet in New York City. 1970.
Even some of the more popular modern ghetto blasters available on the market today are equipped with headphone jacks for that very purpose.
Chinese military
You never see anything at all about the Chinese military in American (or Western press). It is always depicted as some kind of third world group of starving, illiterate peasants that are fielding hand-me-down Russian AK-47 clones. Not true. Here’s a nice video showing some of the weapons that China has developed on their own and field right now.
Chinese weapons.
Problems in America
All over the West are problems with kids and their parents who never had to deal with the consequences of their actions. Why? Because it’s “forgive and forget”. Well, maybe the judicial authorities are easy to “forgive and forget”, but not the victim and the perpetrators. So imagine my surprise in reading this…
A Pleasant life
You could say that this was me when I was on Parole and living in Erie, PA. Of course, at that time I was forbidden to have a computer, or a phone, or to watch movies. But I did have a cat, and a simple apartment where I lived alone. But I had a dream and a goal and my affirmations.
You all too will be able to move to more meaningful lives. Just use the time that you have now. Start making friends, and savor the elements of life more. Smell tomatoes in the store. Go to a bakery when it opens in the morning. Take a new walk down a street that you never walked on before. Make a point of smiling to one person and complementing them.
Your life will improve. I promise you.
Moving towards more…
Rejected by the editors
For some reason.
Girls being girls
And why not? Well, I love the dresses, and you will note that they are all having a great time together.
Girls being girls.
Guys being guys
And why not? To me they look like they are having a good time.
Guys being guys.
Guys and girls together
And why not?
It looks like fun, though I do think that the turkey is a “bit too much” for a picnic.
Guys and girls together.
Yet another Rufus saves someone
It’s up to us; me and you, to make the world a better place. Stop waiting on the sidelines. Stop waiting for the “perfect moment”. Stop dreaming and start doing. Once you be the Rufus all sorts of things enter in your life. You will be stunned. So stop being an observer, and start being a participant. Be the Rufus. Nothing else is worthy of you.
Helping others is our highest calling.
Barber Chair
I think these things are beautiful.
The rise of the modern ghetto blaster
The ghetto blaster of days gone by is often regarded a relic of history today. Think back to the 80s, and you’re sure to have an image in your mind of a ghetto blaster with cassette player functionality and a unique chrome trim.
While many people still have a place in their heart for old-fashioned boomboxes, it’s safe to say that the older models did have their issues.
Equaliser settings seemed to make absolutely no difference to the sound quality. The chunky and blocky design meant carrying your ghetto blaster was a real headache. That’s particularly true if you had extra cassette recorders and speakers to think about.
Man with a boombox walking among a crowd at the Taste of Chicago festival. July 3, 1988.
On top of all that, ghetto blasters also had a major problem with battery life. These portable devices often required a huge number of batteries. Filling a device full of 10-12 D batteries could leave it weighing anywhere up to 26 pounds.
Many of the updates appearing in the new ghetto blaster market come with a focus on correcting the key issues of days gone by. As society continues to embrace the idea of “public music” again, ghetto blasters are seeing a resurgence.
However, today’s consumers don’t want to deal with the old gripes of their parents.
UK Fresh Hip Hop event in Wembley, London. 1986.
Cassettes might have been the perfect way to store and carry music back in the 70s and 80s when they were small and cheap – but they’re not going to have the same impact now.
People want the freedom to stream their music digitally through USB sticks and Bluetooth connections instead.
A group of young men pose with a boombox on a subway platform. New York. 1983.
You may occasionally encounter a CD ghetto blaster which gives you the option to play older audio formats. However, it’s more common to find a portable device that looks more like a massive speaker than a CD player these days.
The modern ghetto blaster combines radio and Bluetooth to introduce something more portable than anything we had in the past.
艾热 – 风语画江湖
Here’s what some Chinese RAP music looks like. Enjoy.
艾热 – 风语画江湖
Rescue the babies!
A car carrying children falls into a pond. The mother cannot get out! What is to be done? You need a Rufus nearby. That is what you need. For a Rufus will help you. A Rufus will provide support. A Rufus will set things right! Be the Rufus!
Be the Rufus!
New York, July 5, 1921. “Lanier Hotel restaurant.”
Fried kidney only 20 cents. Note the sleeping mousers. What’s all that stuff on the floor? Sawdust?
Young girls on roller skates
This takes me back. I used to have a pair of skates like this. Obviously this pre-dates roller blades. It was a simpler time.
Young girls on roller skates.
Acts of kindness in India
The world needs more Rufus’s. Look what is going on in India! It doesn’t take much. But you too can help others. You too can make a difference. You too can be the Rufus.
Acts of kindness in India.
Washington, D.C., 1920. “Suffragettes voting.”
Well, I don’t know about you all, but I do love the place where they are at.
Washington, D.C., 1920. “Suffragettes voting.”
A hungry man sits down at a table in a restaurant…
And starts to eat the left over food that was left behind by the people who were eating there. He’s eating the few remaining table scraps when a Rufus comes and throws away the dirty food, and gives him is own brand new meal. It doesn’t cost much. But a Rufus participates. A Rufus helps. A Rufus makes the world a better place.
Be that Rufus!
Be the Rufus.
Summer is here
For me, nothing says “Summer” than a nice fire in the woods. Especially at dusk when the air chills a bit, the dusk glooms, and the insects start making those night-time noises that they often do. It’s a time of reflection, companionship, drinking and hotdogs. Never forget the food.
In most cases, it’s cheaper to buy a pack of hotdogs and buns than it is to buy some Doritos. So cut down the costs, and have more get-togethers. Spend some time with others. Have a good time. And talk. Just talk.
Make a campfire.
A Rufus participates in his community
It is very, VERY important that a Rufus be part of his / her community. You be helpful. You smile, and you be that light that others look forward to seeing every day. And when things go “South”, the Rufus is always there to “pick up the slack”; to make the world a better place. Maybe in a small way…
…but if everyone was a Rufus, well, there would be a lot less trouble and discomfort in this world. Be the Rufus, anything less is a disservice.
Be the Rufus, anything less is a disservice.
A Rufus is helpful
Not everyone needs to save someone in crisis. But it does not matter. A real Rufus is helpful. A real Rufus is considerate and caring. A real Rufus shows humanity.
Be the Rufus.
A Rufus is helpful.
John Ross says
Well, he said this truth.
John Ross says.
Why are Americans so fat?
Well, there are multiple reasons, but this chart summarizes the most critical ones.
For those of you that are trying alternative campaign ideas…
I have laid out a methodology on how to navigate the MWI through world-line travel. And the key to this is affirmation campaigns. But others might not like the discipline that it requires. If you want to try something easier, might I suggest this…
It’s up to us
It’s not up to the “elected” officials to make rules, laws and budgets. It’s up to us to make meaningful change. We need it. Do not be in denial. We all need each other, and we need to step up to the plate, put away our fears and start making the world a better place to live in. We cannot control the entire world, or the country. But we can make a difference in our town and in our community.
Be the Rufus. Don’t be the spectator.
Be the Rufus. Don’t be the spectator.
Oh No!
What must this tiger be thinking?
Oh No!
Death Wish USA
As an American, I am often asked (innocently) what the heck the USA is doing? I mean it is behind an event trying to cause World War III with the Russians, it is trying to provoke World War III with Taiwan, and it is being so very cocky and dangerous at just about every level internationally.
I respond that America is desperate.
The American leadership has squandered everything it has and run the nation into the ground.
Now the people are starting to get really upset and angry. Their only answer is to point elsewhere…
"It's not Washington's fault... it's Russia!"
Or, of course…
"It's not Washington's fault... it's China!"
And you know what, the USA military knows, and the rest of the world knows, that the USA is in absolutely no state to pick fights with anyone. Not at all. America is not a nation of Rambo’s. It’s become something else.
So what the heck is going on?
I argue that the next video describes WHY the USA is acting so brazenly crazy…
Here’s a guy so desperate, so unhappy, so fed up with his life that he wants to commit suicide by police officer. And you know what? This is becoming more and more common throughout the Untied States.
An attempt at suicide by police officer.
Van life 1960’s
Today, in 2021, many Americans now live in their cars. The failure of society, of culture, and of government has been colossal. And their solution? To have world war III with both Russia and China simultaneously. I think that they have a true death wish.
Van life 1960’s
A considerate Rufus
Notice how these Chinese Rufus street sweepers handle the spray nozzles when confronting pedestrians and motor bike riders. A Rufus is considerate. A Rufus makes the world a better place.
A place to get away from it all.
There is something about Ireland and Scotland that shouts peace and tranquility. At least in my mind anyways. And this picture of a “man’s castle” is the image of a nice place where a person can go to just be left alone. And you know what? Everyone needs to be left alone from time to time, don’t you know.
A “man’s castle”.
Be the Rufus!
Are you happy with the way the world is now? If not, do you want to change it? What about your life?
The first step in making meaningful change is to recognize that all change is local.
It starts with you.
Not by writing a letter to your Congress-person, or by waving a banner and staging a protest. It begins with you taking part in your community. Be a helping hand. Make a difference. this world of ours needs people that will help change it.
You can be that person.
Start small. Start simple.
Smile more. Be kind. Go out of the way to make friends. Complement another person.
Be that catalyst for good, meaningful change. Be the Rufus!
Be that catalyst for good, meaningful change. Be the Rufus!
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and a lot of things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 4.
Key point – Document appears to be genuine
And I can tell you all that the more that I parse this document, the clearer it is (to me) that it is genuine.It is exactly what it says it is. And the extraterrestrial is actually telling the truth, so far.
Key point – Errors
However, there are some errors in translation, and confusion in the interpretation of what is being stated. Anything concerning “time” and the translation of dates seems to have some errors. The translator was having difficulty with those areas.
Humans think of time as “shared” and “linear”.
The type-1 greys think of time as circular and repeating. As in, consciousness enters and exits different world lines” and if you graph that movement of consciousness you will see a “corkscrew” movement through the MWI. Which is what it was referring to. All of which was WAY beyond the concepts of anyone in Roswell at that time.
Therefore all dates and time, and anything associated with these characteristics might in error. If you are having trouble in these areas, treat them as non-resolved issues and can be ignored.
Key point – This document predates MAJestic
Also take note that this document pre-dates MAJestic, and it is crystal clear to me now, that my role was, and still is, in the rehabilitation aspects of moving the Earth from a Hellish “Prison Planet” to that of a “sentience nursery”.
This document has (for me, personally) helped to clarify elements and aspects of my role that were “blurred” and obscured from me. To that I am eternally grateful.
Look at the dates on my articles, and look at what I covered. You will see that they match up nearly perfectly with this “Alien Interview” transcript. And this is the first time that I have ever heard of this document. The timing was transcendental.
“The actual history of Earth is very bizarre. It is so nonsensical that is it is incredible to anyone on Earth who attempts to investigate it. A myriad of vital information is missing from it. A huge conglomeration of non sequitur relics and mythology has been arbitrarily introduced into it. The volatile nature of the Earth itself cyclically covers, drowns, mixes and shreds physical evidence.
I have no problem with this.
These factors, combined with amnesia and post-hypnotic suggestions, false facades and covert manipulation make a reconstruction of the factual origins and history of Earth civilizations virtually indecipherable.
I have no problem with this.
Any investigator, no matter how brilliant, is doomed to wallow in a quagmire of inconclusive assumptions, unworkable hypotheses, and perpetual mystery.
I have no problem with this.
Since The Domain does not suffer these afflictions, having the advantage of memory, longevity and an exterior point of view, I will add some clarification to your fragmentary knowledge of the history of Earth.
Stand by for clarification of our fragmentary knowledge.
These are some of the dates and events that are not mentioned in Earth history textbooks.
These are significant dates. All of which are not mentioned in any of the history books that were provided to the extraterrestrial.
These dates are significant because they provide some information concerning the influences of the “Old Empire” and of The Domain on Earth.
They are significant as they introduce the role of both the "Old Empire" and the "Domain" regarding Earth.
Although I have attended several briefings by our mission control personnel on the general background of Earth within the past few hundred years, I will rely principally on data gathered from records captured after our invasion of the “Old Empire” planetary headquarters. Since that time The Domain Expeditionary Force has tracked the general progress of events on Earth.
"The Domain" was unaware of Earth and what was going on. This all changed when "The Domain" conquered "The Old Empire". When "The Domain" took over the main capital, they acquired substantive documents regarding Earth. Most of what the extraterrestrial is relaying is in regards to what the records of the "Old Empire" has recorded.
As I mentioned, in some cases The Domain has chosen to intervene in certain affairs on Earth in order to ensure the success of our long term expansion plans.
I have no problem with this statement.
Although The Domain has no interest in Earth, per se, or in the population of IS-BEs on this planet, it does serve our interests to ensure that the resources of Earth are not destroyed or spoiled.
Important points;
"The Domain" has [1] no interest in the Earth or the population of IS-BE on the planet.
[2] However, they do not want to see the Earth destroyed as a result of uncontrolled activity of it's population. They want to see a "green" planet that takes care of it's environment, and does not destroy the world in a global wide nuclear holocaust.
For those of you who are wondering where some of these media narratives come from, perhaps you all should be looking at a grand strategy to turn the Earth into a Sentience Nursery.
To that end, certain officers of The Domain have been sent to Earth on reconnaissance missions from time to time to gather information.
I have no problem with this.
However, Moreover, the following dates and events have been extrapolated from the accumulated information in the data files of The Domain – at least those that are accessible to me through the space station communications center.
208,000 BCE — Old Empire Established
The establishment of the “Old Empire”, whose headquarters were located near one of the “tail stars” in the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) Constellation of this galaxy. The “Old Empire” invasion force conquered the area with nuclear weapons sometime earlier.
From the point of view of humans on the earth, this statement is loaded with information.
[1] We know that the Earth was seeded way, way a long time ago by the progenitors.
[2] We also know that intelligent sentient beings, native to earth, grew and developed and either died out or changed.
[3] We know that (according to this extraterrestrial) that there were large colonies of humanoid extraterrestrials that established the colonies of Lemuria, and Atlantis, around 400,000 years ago.
[4] We know that proto-humans started to develop at that time, with the earliest monkey-like creatures two million years earlier. And tool-making humanoids around 200,000 years ago.
This statement then says that after the extraterrestrial colonies of Atlantis and Lemuria were long gone, and proto-humans were starting to use tools, the "Old Empire" came to power. Their base of power, or primary settlement, is at a cluster of stars that we identify as the "tail stars" in the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) Constellation.
It does not mean that the huge enormous O, B, and A stars were the ones that harbored the civilization seat. But rather that this was the geographic region for the planets, where ever their existed or orbited.
They were brutal in conquering the previous civilizations and nuclear weapons and other very dangerous weapons of destruction were utilized, and we can well imagine that they completely devastated the civilizations that they encountered in severe "space opera" style.
After the radioactivity subsided and the clean-up and restoration were completed, it received the immigration of beings from another galaxy into this galaxy. Those beings set up a society that kept going until about 10,000 years ago when it was superseded by The Domain.
Again, this is just full of information. We don't know what the "Old Empire" was. But what we do know is that right after they had conquered the major civilizations in this section of our galaxy, they started to import or migrate other species from another galaxy to here.
This "other group of immigrants" were either of the same type, species, or sentience of the "Old Empire" and thus were able to occupy the conquered worlds of that empire.
This continued for 10,000 years.
Then the "Domain" entered the region, and took over, and conquered them. We know from (part 3) that they did not use nuclear weapons, but rather highly powerful disruptive beans that affected the IS-BE consciousnesses directly.
Very recently Earth civilization has come to resemble aspects of that civilization, now that it has fallen out of its immediate control.
I personally find this statement alluring. This was 1947. This was right before the 1950's and the 1960's in America. What he is referring to is the creation of central-power governments that controlled all else.
Hitler and the Nazi Germans out of Berlin.
Mao and China out of Beijing.
Stalin and Russia out of Moscow.
The United States out of Washington DC
A central European "block".
From this we can extrapolate that the central power model with very little control locally represents the fundamental structural elements of the "Old Empire".
In particular, the appearance and technology of transportation such as planes, trains, ships, fire engines, and automobiles, as well as what you consider to be “modern” or “futuristic” architecture, which emulate the design of buildings in the major cities of the “Old Empire”.
Again, very interesting. It is saying that all the "modern" advancements of technology resemble those which defined the "Old Empire".
Before 75,000 BCE — Colonies on Earth
The Domain records contain very little information about the civilizations on the continental land masses of Atlanta and Lemur, except to note that they did coexist on Earth at more or less the same time.
The records of the "Domain" were just cursory reviews of the solar system as a whole. And between 400,000 and 75,000 years ago, both Atlantis and Lemuria colonies existed at that time.
Apparently, both civilizations were founded by remnants of electronic, space opera cultures who fled from their native planetary systems to escape political or religious persecution.
So we can well imagine a solid science-fiction narrative where an escaping group of settlers leave a harsh "space opera" galactic empire. Where they fled to an out-of-the-way planet, in a generally not well traveled part of the galaxy.
The Domain knows that a long-standing edict of the “Old Empire” prohibits unauthorized colonization of planets.
At this time of the founding of the "Old Empire" was the same time as the colonies of Atlantis and Lemuria came into being. Since the "Old Empire" did not authorize these colonies, they must have been illegal.
We can imagine that when the "Old Empire" came into being, that some of the people or creatures that they conquered, fled the ruins and devastation and came to earth to start a new life.
And apparently, for many years they had good, prosperous societies upon the earth. But eventually we know that both were destroyed suddenly and with a complete violence that left very little remaining.
Therefore, it is possible that their destruction was caused by police or military forces who pursued the colonists as criminals and destroyed them.
The extraterrestrial hypothesise that the destruction of the "renegade" colonies was conducted by the "Old Empire".
Although this seems a likely supposition, no conclusive evidence exists that explains the complete destruction and disappearance of two entire electronic civilizations.
It's just a hypothesis. There isn't any proof for it. What is interesting is that both civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria were both "entire electronic civilizations" which would be well understood to be similar to what exists around the world today.
Another possibility is that a massive submarine volcanic eruption in the region of Lake Toba, in Sumatra and Mt. Krakatoa in Java caused the destruction of Lemur.
The flood waters caused by the eruption overwhelmed all the land masses, including the highest mountains.
Survivors of the destruction of the civilization, the Lemurians, are the earliest ancestors of the Chinese.
This is very interesting. The Chinese race then are descended from the survivors of the Lemuria colony, which were survivors of a previous civilization that was conquered by the "Old Empire", and who thus fled to Earth.
Australia and the ocean areas to the north were the center of the Lemurian civilization and are the source of Oriental races. Both civilizations possessed electronics, flight and similar technologies of space opera cultures.
Both of the colonies of Atlantis, and Lemuria were fully modern and electronic civilizations possessing great technology.
Now, aside from the idea that the "Old Empire" eradicated and destroyed the colonies of those that fled when the "Old Empire" took over, the extraterrestrial posits that there might be another explanation. The loss of the colonies could be the result of natural geologic forces...
Apparently, the volcanic eruption expelled such a significant mass of molten rock that the resulting vacuum beneath the crust of Earth caused great areas of the land masses to sink below the oceans.
The continental areas occupied by both civilizations were covered with volcanic matter, and then submerged, leaving very little evidence that they ever existed except for legends of a global flood which prevail in every culture of the Earth, and for survivors who are the genus of oriental races and cultures.
That kind of colossal volcanic explosion fills the stratosphere with toxic gases which are carried around the whole planet. The usual refuse of these volcanic eruptions can easily cause a rain that lasts for “40 days and 40 nights” due to atmospheric pollution as well as an extensive period during which radiation from the sun is deflected back into space, and cause global cooling.
Certainly such an event would cause an ice age, extinctions of life forms and many other relatively long-term changes lasting thousands of years.
The extraterrestrial states that aside from [1] the systematic destruction of the two colonies by the "Old Empire", the only remaining potential cause for the destruction is [2] a natural event, and in this case, it offers the idea of a global wide volcanic eruption of significant magnitude and duration.
Due to the myriad types of naturally occurring global cataclysmic events which are indigenous to Earth, it is not a suitable planet for habitation by IS-BEs.
The Earth is not a suitable environment for IS-BE's. This is because of natural events. And that these natural events can cause global cataclysmic calamities.
In addition there have been occasional global cataclysms caused by IS-BEs such as the one that destroyed the dinosaurs more than 70 million years ago.
This extraterrestrial states that the Cretaceous–Paleogene Extinction was not a natural event, but rather an intentional event made by IS-BE's.
About 66 million years ago, 75% of species became extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene Extinction. Rates of extinction broadly swept the land, sea, and air.
In the oceans, ammonites disappeared. All non-avian dinosaurs became extinct. But avian dinosaurs survived because it was birds that descended from theropod dinosaurs. Eventually, mammals emerged as dominant large land animals.
It is believed that the cause of this extinction event was from an asteroid impact which left an impact called the Chicxulub Crater. Also, giant floor basalts aggravated called Deccan Traps.
That destruction was caused by intergalactic warfare during which time Earth, and many other neighboring moons and planets, were bombarded by atomic weapons.
This is also an interesting statement. So in the extraterrestrials' narrative, which is talking about the "Old Empire" from 400,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE.
Now, the narrative suddenly jumps to a point in time, long before the period of discussion.
At this point in time, 66 - 70 million years ago, long before the "Old Empire", and "The Domain", there was a terrible war in our solar system. It is not mentioned who were involved in this war, or why.
Atomic explosions cause atmospheric fallout much like that of volcanic eruptions. Most of the planets in this sector of the galaxy have been uninhabitable deserts since then.
Another interesting point. This war of 66 - 70 million years ago was not limited to our solar system, but rather involved multiple star systems. It also was devastating. Many otherwise habitable planets were turned into wasteland and barren deserts as a result of it.
An old 3D map showing the many of the stars in a 20 light year radius from our solar system. Since this graphic map was made substantial numbers of very cool brown dwarfs have been discovered that makes this map obsolete. Never the less, we can assume that many of the (once inhabitable) stars are shown on this map.
Earth is undesirable for many other reasons: heavy gravity and dense atmosphere, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, polar shifts, continental drift, meteor impacts, atmospheric and climatic changes, to name a few.
An interesting point, and something that I have stated elsewhere.
[1] heavy gravity
[2] dense atmosphere,
[3] floods,
[4] earthquakes,
[5] volcanoes,
[6] polar shifts,
[7] continental drift,
[8] meteor impacts,
[9] atmospheric and climatic changes,
The changes that greatly affect the Earth for many thousands of years after the event are shown in bold.
What kind of lasting civilization could any sophisticated culture propose to develop in such an environment?
Good point. I have no problem with this.
In addition, Earth is a small planet of a “rim star” of a galaxy.
Not really true; geographically. The solar system is smack dab in one of the major "arms" of the galaxy geographically. You can see this on a map.
Location in our galaxy.
However, if you look at the statement from the point of view of the population centers of the galaxy in our region, then you can find some answers.
The extraterrestrial stated that an enormous war took place in our section of the galaxy 70 million years ago and it resulted in many neighboring solar system to lose what ever habitable worlds that existed.
Imagine that in all that devastation, nothing much remains, and the Earth solar system is one of the few "oasis" in a sea of death, destruction and wasteland.
This makes Earth very isolated geographically from the more concentrated planetary civilizations which exist toward the center of the galaxy.
These obvious facts have made Earth suitable for use only as a zoological or botanical garden, or for it’s current use as a prison – but not much else.
Which is also something that I have stated in my previous articles.
Before 30,000 BCE — Misfits started arriving to the Earth
I can tell you that I have long known about the presence of "federation" craft in and around our Earth at 30,000 years ago. Its just that I assumed that they were type-1 grey vehicles. This disclosure clarifies my information. It states that the visitations to the earth at 30,000 BCE were "Old Empire" vehicles performing specific activities in and around the Earth.
Earth started being used a dumping ground and prison for IS-BEs who were judged “untouchable”, meaning criminal or non-conformists.
IS-BEs were captured, encapsulated in electronic traps and transported to Earth from various parts of the “Old Empire”.
Underground “amnesia stations” were set up on Mars…
…and on Earth in the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa…
… in the Pyrenees Mountains of Portugal…
Pyrenees Mountains of Portugal.
… and in steppes of Mongolia.
Mongolian Mountains.
These electronic monitoring points create force screens designed to detect and capture IS-BEs, when the IS-BE departs the body at death.
The way these devices work is it [1] senses when a person dies, and the consciousness departs the body at death. Then, [2] it attracts, snares or captures that consciousness.
IS-BEs are brainwashed using extreme electronic force in order to maintain Earth’s population in state of perpetual amnesia.
A high enough, or powerful enough, electronic force can do anything. This then provides amnesia for the consciousness.
However, there is evidence that it no longer is wholly functional.
You see, according to the extraterrestrial, the devices (the electronic amnesia screens) only work when the person departs the body as consciousness, they lose all memories and then are reshuffled back to the Earth.
Yet, we know, that through various techniques (such as hypnosis) we can recover these memories of time before lives, and within other lives.
I have copied complete books of Robert Newton in this regard. You can see my articles here;
Thus the works by the great Doctor Michael Newton who studied the geography of Heaven through regression hypnosis. It might be something that most people would discount as "tin foil hat" nonsense, but his works absolutely and accurately describe what I have observed personally in my MAJestic dealings.
Though, please take note that he did not understand the MWI, and some of his assumptions are in error. What he did was try to map out what Heaven was from the basis of what "time" and "reality" is. Still the best reads out there.
The first book is considered “ground breaking”, I however thought that it was rather elementary. Thus, I strongly urge any reader to read this book first before you tackle the second…
Unfortunately, this first book has all kinds of “new age” things inside of it that pretty much “turned off” my readership. It also had some misconceptions. So I went ahead and annotated the book and explained things so that my base readership would understand what is going on, relative to MAJestic and the entire universe. Here are the posts broken down for easy reading and study…
The second book is full of “red meat” and is just packed with information. However, most readers will not be able to understand it unless they read the first book. This book, due to the size and complexity has been broken down into three posts. A lot of good stuff is here.
Again, realize that he and his patents did not understand what “time”, “realities” and the concept of “quantum shadows”. Please take his misconceptions into account when you read his works.
So in summary, my point is that [1] things have certainly changed since 1947. And that [2] during the 1970's all sorts of discoveries were starting to be made regarding regaining memories of past lives, and the interim period between lives.
Combined, this offers [3] the suggestion that efforts of MAJestic and the Domain extraterrestrials have been successful in greatly reducing the influences of these force screens.
Yet, some questions remain.
[4] Being able to recall past lives, that occurred before 10,000 years ago suggests that the shield amnesia effect is not permanent.
[5] However, most human subjects that I have read in the Dr. Newton studies suggest that their memories are more recent than that. Which suggests that it was only after the shield was turned off that they were able to remember memories that happened after 10,000 years.
But,
I can tell you that MM has partial memory retention, and that MM memories date back to around 250,000 years.
What does this mean?
[6] I have a EBP that (perhaps) assists in memory retention.
[7] If the memory can be recalled under hypnosis earlier than 1150AD (the destruction of a major "old Empire" base), it means that your memory amnesia is not permanent.
[8] If your memory can be recalled under hypnosis earlier than 8,000 BCE, it means that you are probably not part of the 3,000 domain expeditionary forces that had complete memory wipes. For they had a complete and permanent wipe that was (at 1947) unrecoverable.
Obviously there are many unanswered questions.
Could it be lying, or could things have changed substantially since 1947 and with MAJestic support and assistance starting one year later in 1948? I personally believe that things have changed, and I also believe that the world-line clustering, slides to anchor world-lines were very effective in the support of bringing about a recovery of memories.
But that is just me.
Further population controls are installed through the use of long range electronic thought control mechanisms.
So it is not just one or two facilities or bases that run these devices, but an entire constellation of them, with many located far away geographically.
These stations are still in operation and they are extremely difficult to attack or destroy, even for The Domain, which will not maintain a significant military force in this area until a later date.
That later date may have already happened. Most certainly things have changed substantially since 1947.
The pyramid civilizations were intentionally created as part of the IS-BE prison system on Earth.
Interesting. The Egyptian pyramids are part of the prison structure? Tell me more.
The pyramid is alleged to be the symbol for “wisdom”. However, the “wisdom” of the “Old Empire” on planet Earth is intended to operate as part of the elaborate amnesia “trap” consisting of MASS, MEANING and MYSTERY.
These are opposite to the qualities of an Immortal Spiritual Being which have no mass, or meaning. An IS-BE “is” solely because it thinks that it “is”.
A consciousness consists of:
[1] Thoughts. Not physical mass.
[2] Formlessness. Not tangible meaning.
[3] Clarity. Not mystery.
MASS: represents the physical universe, including objects such as stars, planets, gases, liquids, energy particles and tea cups. The Pyramids were very, very solid objects, as were all of the structures created by the “Old Empire”. Heavy, massive, dense, solid objects create the illusion of eternity.
Dead bodies wrapped in linen, soaked in resin, placed inside engraved golden coffins and entombed with Earthly possessions amid cryptic symbols create an illusion of eternal life.
However, dense, heavy physical universe symbols are the exact opposite of an IS-BE. An IS-BE has no mass or time. Objects do not endure forever. An IS-BE “is” forever.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements.
MEANING: False meanings prevent knowledge of the truth. The pyramid cultures of Earth are a fabricated illusion. They are nothing more than “false civilizations” contrived by the “Old Empire” mystery cult called the Brothers of the Serpent.
False meanings were invented to create the illusion of a false society to further reinforce the amnesia mechanism among the intimates in the Earth prison system.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements.
MYSTERY: is built of lies and half-truths. Lies cause persistence because they alter facts which are comprised of exact dates, places and events. When truth is known, a lie no longer persists. If the exact truth is revealed, it is no longer a mystery.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements.
All of the pyramid civilizations of Earth were carefully contrived of layer upon layer of lies, skillfully combined with a few truths. The priest cult of the “Old Empire” combined sophisticated mathematics and space opera technology, with theatrical metaphors and symbolism. All of these are complete fabrications of truth, baited with the allure of aesthetics and mystery.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements.
The intricate rituals, astronomical alignments, secret rites, massive monuments, marvelous architecture, artistically rendered hieroglyphs and man-animal “gods” were designed to create an unsolvable mystery for the IS-BE prison population on Earth. The mystery diverts attention away from the truth that IS-BEs have been captured, given amnesia and imprisoned on a planet far, far away from their home.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements. It is the common misdirection technique deployed by black program, and the American media mechanism today.
The truth is that every single IS-BE on Earth came to Earth from some other planetary system.
This is very curious. Every single person... every single human on Earth is an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant.
Not one person on Earth is a “native” inhabitant. Human beings did not “evolve” on Earth.
Humans did not evolve from primates.
Primates evolved, and went into various "dead ends".
But the humans that existed upon the earth were transplants. None of them evolved per the common belief that everyone holds. Monkeys did not eventual evolve into humans.
In the past, Egyptian society was run by the prison administrators or priests, who, in turn, manipulated a Pharaoh, controlled the treasury and kept the inmate population enslaved physically and spiritually. In modern times, the priests have changed, but the function is the same. However, now the priest are prisoners too.
This system of religion controlling the leadership is an on-going theme throughout the human cultures and societies, and it has only been most recently that this has changed.
Mystery reinforces the walls of the prison. The “Old Empire” feared that the IS-BEs on Earth might regain their memory. Therefore, one of the primary functions of The “Old Empire” priesthood is to prevent IS-BEs on Earth from remembering who they really are, how they came to Earth, where they came from.
And so they destroyed the mere idea of reincarnation...
The “Old Empire” operators of the prison system, and their superiors, do not want IS-BEs to remember who murdered them, captured them, stole all of their possessions, sent them to Earth, gave them amnesia and condemned them to eternal imprisonment!
Well, of course not!
Imagine what might happen if all of the inmates in the prison suddenly remembered that they have the right to be free! What if they suddenly realized that they have been falsely imprisoned and rise up as one against the guards?
Yikes!
They are afraid to reveal anything that looks like the civilization of the inmates home planets. A body, a piece of clothing, a symbol, a space ship, an advanced electronics device, or any other remnant of civilization from a home planet could “remind” a being and rekindle his memory.
So they did everything in their power to keep everyone primitive. When Greece started to advance, it was destroyed. When Persia started to advance, it was destroyed. When Rome started to advance it was destroyed. When the Chinese kingdoms advanced, they were destroyed. But it all came to an end, more or less around 1150 ad.
Sophisticated technologies of entrapment and enslavement, which were developed over millions of years in the “Old Empire”, have been applied to the IS-BEs on Earth with the intention to create a false facade for the prison. These facades were installed on Earth in totality, all at once. Every piece is a fully integrated part of the prison system.
This idea that everything was established all at once is highly suggestive of a pre-designed system of prison construction. This goes along with my strong belief that there are five "sentience nurseries" in this region of space.
All of which occupy the formerly ruined worlds of the catastrophic space wars of 66 million years ago.
This includes a religion of mumbo-jumbo double-speak.
Every pyramid civilization uses this as part of a control mechanism to keep the population enslaved by force, by fear and by ignorance.
The indecipherable muddle of irrelevant information, geometric designs, mathematical calculation, astronomical alignments, are part of a false spirituality based on solid objects, rather than immortal spirits, in order to confuse and disorient the IS-BEs on Earth.
I have no problem with these statements.
When the body of a person died they were buried with their Earthly possessions, including their former body wrapped in linen, to sustain their “soul” or “Ka” after death. An IS-BE does not “have” as soul. An IS-BE is a soul.
I agree.
On the home planet of an IS-BE their material possessions were not lost, stolen or forgotten when the being died or left the body. An IS-BE could return and claim the possessions.
Nothing is ever lost in our universe it only changes shape.
However, if the IS-BE has amnesia, they will not remember that they had any possessions. So, governments, insurance companies, bankers, family members and other vultures can pick their possessions clean without fear of retribution from the deceased.
This is something that the Roswell leadership could well understand. And something that I too understand most perfectly.
The only reason for these false meanings is to instill the idea that an IS-BE is NOT a spirit, but a physical object!
This is a lie.
It is a trap for an IS-BE.
And, isn't that exactly what is taught in schools and religions?
Countless people have spent endless hours attempting to solve the jig-saw puzzle of Egypt and other “Old Empire” civilizations. They are puzzles made of pieces that do not fit. A question states its own answer.
Everything is an intentional "dead end".
What is the mystery of Egypt and other pyramid cultures? Mystery!
circa 15,000 BCE – Bolivia mining operations
The “Old Empire” forces supervised the construction of a hydraulic mining operations in the Andes Mountains in present day Bolivia near Lake Titicaca (Lake of Tin Stones) at Tiahuanaco including construction of the massive stone complex of carved stone buildings known as Kalasasaya and its “Gate of the Sun” at an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet.
No problem with this.
11,600 BCE – Polar Axis Shift
The Polar Axis of Earth shifted to a sea area. The last Ice Age came to an end abruptly as the polar ice caps melted and the level of the ocean rose to submerge large sections of the land masses of Earth. The last remaining vestiges of Atlantis and Lemuria were covered by water. Massive extinctions of animals occurred in the Americas, Australia and the Arctic Regions due to the shift of the poles.
10,450 BCE — Plans for the Great Pryramid were created.
Plans were made by the “Old Empire” IS-BE called Thoth for construction of a Great Pyramid of Giza. The 4 “air shafts” of the pyramid point precisely to key stars in the “Old Empire” as seen from Giza in this year. The alignment of the Pyramids of Giza on the ground matches perfectly the alignment of the constellation of Orion as seen in the sky from Giza relative to the Nile as the earthly representation of the Milky Way in the sky.
No problem with this. This date is in alignment with Graham Hancock. Like the Cayce Association, he continues to argue for a 10,500 B.C. "origin" of the Great Pyramid and Giza Plateau.
10,400 BCE – Herodotus records that Atlantis records are buried under the Sphinx.
According to the Earth historian, Herodotus, records from the ruined civilization of Atlantis, containing electronic technology and other technology of that society, were buried in a vault beneath the paws of The Sphinx.
The Greek historian wrote that he was told this by some of his friends who were Priests of Anu, the Sumerian god, at the Egyptian city of Heliopolis.
However, it is highly unlikely that any traces of an electronic civilization would be allowed to be left intact on Earth by the “old empire” prison system administrators.
No problem with this.
8,212 BCE — Veda Hymns created.
The Veda or Vedic hymns are a set of religious hymns that were introduced into the societies of Earth. They came forward in spoken tradition, memorized, from generation to generation. “The Hymn to the Dawn Child” includes an idea called the “cycle of the physical universe”: the creation, growth, conservation, decay and death or destruction of energy and matter in a space. These cycles produce time. The same set of hymns describes the “theory of evolution”.
Here is a tremendous body of knowledge which contains a great deal of spiritual truth. Unfortunately, it has been incorrectly evaluated by humans and altered with lies and reversals of fact by priests which are a booby trap to prevent anyone from using the wisdom to discover a way to escape from the prison planet.
No problem with this.
8,050 BCE — Old Empire Home Planet is conquered and destroyed.
Destruction of the “Old Empire” home planet government in this galaxy.
This was the end of the “Old Empire” as a political entity in the galaxy.
However, the vast size of the “Old Empire” will take many thousands of years for The Domain to conquer completely.
The inertia of the political, economic and cultural systems of the “Old Empire” will remain in place for some time to come.
No problem with this.
However, remnants of the “Old Empire” space fleet in the solar system of Earth were finally destroyed in 1,230 AD.
Massive destruction in the solar system at 1230 AD. Meanwhile on Earth everyone was fighting everyone else. See HERE.
In addition to operatives of the “Old Empire” who run the Earth prison operation, there were other beings from the “Old Empire” who came to Earth.
Since Earth was no longer under the control of the “Old Empire” after their defeat by The Domain Forces, there was no police force to control military renegades, space pirates, miners, merchants and entrepreneurs who came to Earth to exploit the resources of the planet for personal gain, and many other nefarious reasons.
No problem with this. After the government collapsed, everyone came to take advantage of the situation, loot and acquire power.
For example, the history of Earth, according to the Jewish people, describes the “Nephilim“. Chapter 6 of The Book of Genesis, describes the origin of the “Nephilim” :
“Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the “sons of God” saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
The ancient Jewish people who wrote the history book called the Old Testament were slaves, herders and gatherers. Any modern technology, even a simple flashlight, would seem astounding and miraculous to them. They attributed any unexplainable phenomenon or technology to the workings of a “god”.
Unfortunately, this behavior is universal among all IS-BEs who have been given amnesia, and cannot remember their own experiences, training, technology, personality or identity.
Obviously, if these were men, and they mated with Earth women, they were not “sons of god”.
They were humans that mated with human Earth women who had no recollections of their true nature.
They were IS-BEs who inhabited biological bodies in order to take advantage of the political situation in the “Old Empire”, or simply to indulge in physical sensation.
They set up small colonies of their own on Earth beyond the reach of the police and tax authorities.
I am sure... all over the world.
Coincidentally, one of the most serious crimes an IS-BE could commit in the “Old Empire” was to violate income tax regulations. Income taxes were used as a slavery mechanism and as a punishment in the “Old Empire”. The slightest error in a tax report made an IS-BE “untouchable”, followed by imprisonment on Earth.
These were established in Babylon, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. The Mesopotamian area provided service facilities, communication stations, space ports, and stone quarry operations for these false civilizations.
Ptah was the name given to the first in a succession of administrators from the “Old Empire” who represented themselves to the Earth population as “divine” rulers.
Ptah’s importance may be understood when one learns that the word “Egypt” is a Greek corruption of the phrase “Het-Ka-Ptah,” or “House of the Spirit of Ptah”. Ptah, was nick-named “The Developer”. He was a construction engineer. His high priest was given the title ‘Great Leader of Craftsmen’.
Ptah was also the god of reincarnation in Egypt. He originated the “opening of the mouth ceremony” which was performed by priests at funerals to “release souls” from their corpses. Of course, when the “souls” were released, they were captured, given amnesia, and returned to Earth again.
The so-called “Devine” rulers who followed Ptah on Earth were called “Ntr”, meaning “Guardians or Watchers” by the Egyptians. Their symbol was the Serpent, or Dragon which represented a secret priesthood of the “Old Empire” called the “Brothers of the Serpent”.
“Old Empire” engineers used cutting tools of highly concentrated light waves to quickly carve and excavate stone blocks. They also used force fields and space craft to lift and transport blocks of stone weighing hundred or thousands of tons each. The placement on the ground of some of these structures will be found to have geodetic or astronomical significance relative to various stars in this galactic region.
The buildings are crude and impractical, compared to building standards on most planets.
As an engineer of The Domain, I can attest that make-shift structures like these would never pass inspection on a planet in The Domain. Stone blocks such as those used in the pyramid civilizations can still be seen, partially excavated, in the stone quarries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Most of the structures were hastily built “props”, much like the false facades of a western town on the set of a motion picture. They appear to be real, and to have some use or value however, they have no value. They have no useful purpose. The pyramids and all of the other stone monuments erected by the “Old Empire” could be called “mystery monuments”.
Good points. Why create these enormous stone structures unless to support some kind of an illusion of power? The people lived in wood structures. Why make these big stone creations that apparently served no functional purpose?
Most of these discussions sound very familiar as the "alternative history" of the world. People point to the alternative "historians" as the folk that started these beliefs, but aside from the Edgar Cayce narratives, everything actually began at this "Alien Interview". And it was kept secret from the general population for decades.
For what reason would anyone waste so many resources to construct so many useless buildings? To create a mysterious illusion.
The fact of the matter is that each one of the “divine rulers” were IS-BEs who served as operatives of the “Old Empire”. They were certainly not “divine”, although they were IS-BEs.
6248 BCE – Battles for the Solar System
The beginning of active warfare between The Domain Space Command and the surviving remnants of the “Old Empire” space fleet in this solar system that lasted nearly 7,500 years.
So for the firm dates, we can say that the warfare began in 6278 BCE, and ended in 1150 AD. Or roughly 7500 years.
It began when an installation was established in the Himalaya mountains by a battalion of the 3,000 officers and crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force. The installation was not fortified as The Domain was not aware that the “Old Empire” maintained Earth as a prison planet.
So the Domain set up a undefended base. And it was destroyed and the members imprisoned.
The Domain installation was attacked and destroyed by space forces of the “Old Empire” who continued to operate in the solar system of Earth.
IS-BEs of The Domain battalion were captured, taken to Mars, given amnesia, and sent back to Earth to inhabit human biological bodies. They are still on Earth.
5,965 BCE — Dominion bases on Venus set up to fight the Old Empire forces
Investigations into the disappearance of Domain forces in this solar system led to the discovery of “Old Empire” bases on Mars and elsewhere.
The Domain took over the planet Venus as a defensive position against the space forces of the “Old Empire”.
When the warfare began, the Domain set up defensive positions on Venus.
The Domain Expeditionary Force also monitors life forms on Venus which has a very dense, hot and heavy atmosphere of sulfuric acid clouds. There are a few life forms on Earth that can endure an atmospheric environment like Venus.
This provided them protection from the "Old Empire" forces, which were, after all, all humans.
The Domain also established secret installations or space stations in the (Earth) solar system.
This solar system has a planet that is broken up – the asteroid belt. It provides a very useful low-gravity platform for take off and landing of space craft. It is used as a “galactic jump” between the Milky Way and adjoining galaxies.
This asteroid belt is in the "frost zone" and planetary formation in this area is not stable.
There aren’t any planets at this end of the galaxy that can serve as a good galactic entering spot for incoming transport, and other ships. But this broken up planet makes a very ideal space station.
As a result of our war against the “Old Empire”, this area of the solar system is now a valuable possession of The Domain.
So as a side effect of cleaning out the "rat's nest" that was the "Old Empire" was the ability to set up staging locations for on-ward progress towards the more populated sections of the galaxy.
The intervention into the affairs on Earth by the “Old Empire” operatives or “divine gods” was disrupted at this time by The Domain Forces.
They were forced to replace themselves with human rulers.
The Warden(s) for the "Prison planet" of Earth now had to leave. They could no longer maintain their roles and their positions. If they did, the Domain, would secure them, and remove them. So the roles were taken over by the "inmates".
The First Dynasty of human Pharaohs who united Upper and Lower Egypt began with the rule of a Pharaoh who, coincidentally, was named “MEN”. He established the capital city called Men-Nefer, “The Beauty of Men” in Egypt.
This started the first succession of 10 human Pharaohs and a period of 350 years of chaos that followed in the administrative ranks of the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with this statement.
3,200 BCE — Open war between the Domain and the Old Empire on Earth
As I mentioned earlier, Earth was under attack between The Domain and the “Old Empire” forces during this period.
Of course this does not make any sense to archaeologists or historians on Earth, because the Egyptian period is a space opera era period. Since Earth historians have amnesia, they assume that this was only a religious period.
Archaeologists who study ancient Egypt assume all the writings are not technical or historical. Instead they view it as religious and superstitious.
Further, because the technology and civilizations installed on Earth during this period were “prepackaged”, they did not “evolve” on Earth.
Of course, there is no evidence anywhere on Earth of an evolutionary transition which resulted in sophisticated mathematics, language, writing, religion, architecture, cultural traditions in Egypt or any of the pyramid civilizations.
These cultures, complete with all of the details of racial body types, hair-styles, facial makeup, rituals, moral codes and so forth, just “appeared” as complete integrated packages.
This is something that I too have commented about.
The physical evidence suggests that all evidence of the intervention of The Domain or “Old Empire” Forces, or any other extraterrestrial activity, has been carefully “cleaned up”, so as not to create suspicion.
I would agree with this as well.
The “Old Empire” force does not want the IS-BEs of Earth to suspect that they have been captured, transplanted to Earth and brainwashed.
I have no problem with this statement.
So, Earth historians continue to assume that Egyptian priests were not supposed to have “ray guns” or other technology of the “Old Empire”. And, they suppose that there was nothing going on, on Earth, except some priests walking around saying ‘Amen’, which the Christians still say.
3,172 BCE – Astronomical grid layout
Layout of the astronomical grid that joins the key mining sites and astronomical buildings of ‘the gods’ in the Andes Mountains such as Tiahuanaco, Cuzco, Quito, the cities of Ollantaytambu, Machu Picchu and for the mining of rare metals, including tin for use in making bronze.
Metals were the property of “the gods”, of course.
Graham Hancock discussed this in one of his books.
A great variety of entrepreneurial mining was done on Earth at that time due to the war between the “Old Empire” force and The Domain.
These miners did carve a few sculptures of themselves.
They are seen wearing mining helmets.
The Ponce stela sculpture in the sunken courtyard of the Kalasasaya temple is a crude rendering of a stone worker using an electronic, light-wave emitting stone cutter and carving tools, held in a holster.
Ponce stela sculpture.
The “Old Empire” has also maintained mining operations on planets throughout the galaxy for a very long time. The mineral resources of Earth are now a property of The Domain.
2,450 BCE — Great pyramid complex finished
The “great” pyramid and complex of pyramids near Cairo were completed.
I am a little bit confused with this.
Earlier he started talking or discussing the creation of pyramids in Egypt at around 10,000 BCE. Now he is saying that they were completed at 2450 BCE, which is about 7,500 years later.
An inscription created by the “Old Empire” administrators can be seen in the so-called Pyramid texts.
The pyramid texts inscription.
The texts say that the pyramid was built under the direction of Thoth, Son of Ptah.
Of course there was never a King buried in the chamber, since the pyramids were never intended to be used as a burial chamber.
The great pyramid was located precisely at the exact center of all of the land masses of Earth, as viewed from space.
Obviously such precise measurements require aerial perspective and a view of the land masses of Earth from space. Purely mathematical calculations of the geodetic center of the continents of Earth could not be made otherwise.
Of course. This is one of the many arguments made by alternative historians.
Shafts were constructed inside the pyramid to align with the configuration of stars in the constellation of Orion, Canus Majora, and specifically Sirius.
The shafts are also aligned to the Big Dipper, where the home planet of the “Old Empire” existed.
Also, Ainitak, Alpha Draconis and Beta Ursa Minor. These stars are each one of the key systems in the “Old Empire” from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
Well, now another point of confusion. All the stars listed are huge, hot, short lived and energetic stars. Certainly not the kind of a place that one could assume humans would live. But I will pause my incredulity, and make the statement that there is much that we do not know about stars, and the technological abilities of the "Old Empire".
I am now going to diverge a small bit from the narrative to take a closer look at the stars that the extraterrestrial mentioned.
I have color coded the information to make it easier to understand.
Orion Constellation
Great Pyramid alignment
The constellation of Orion is among the oldest recognized constellations in the world. Among the earliest known depictions of Orion lies in a prehistoric Aurignacian mammoth ivory carving dated to be between 32,000 to 38,000 years old. The constellation of Orion is probably the most prominent, and amongst the oldest constellations in the night sky, hosting numerous bright stars, nebulae, clusters, and more.
The distinctive pattern of Orion is recognized in several cultures around the world, and thus many myths and legends are associated with it.
Canis Major
Great pyramid alignment
(Latin: “Greater Dog”) constellation in the southern sky, at about 7 hours right ascension and 20° south in declination. The brightest star in Canis Major is Sirius, the brightest star in the sky and the fifth nearest to Earth, at a distance of 8.6 light-years. This constellation is also home to the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, which at a distance of 25,000 light-years is the closest galaxy to Earth. Because of its proximity to Orion, the constellation was identified as one of Orion’s hunting dogs. Canis Major was also thought to represent other dogs in Greek mythology, such as one of the hounds of Actaeon.
Sirius System Summary
Great pyramid alignment
Also known as Alpha Canis Majoris, Sirius is the fifth closest system to Sol, at 8.6 light-years (ly) away. It is located in the north central part (06:45:08.92-16:42:58.02, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Canis Major, the Larger Dog. Sirius is also the lower left member of the "Winter Triangle" of first magnitude stars, whose other components are Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris) at upper left and Betegeuse (Alpha Orionis) at right center.
The bright star is the title member of the Sirius stellar moving group (also known as the Sirius Super Cluster or Ursa Major star stream), which include all five stars of the Great Dipper as well as Gemma and are mostly around 490 million years old and all moving towards the galactic center.
Although Ejnar Hertzsprung (1873-1967) claimed that Sirius was a likely member of the Ursa Major moving group as early as 1909, a 2003 study of possible moving group members using HIPPARCOS' parallax data led by Jeremy King was not able to confirm the system's membership (Ken Croswell, Astronomy.com, March 2005), and the Sirius system appears to be too young, only about half the apparent age of the Ursa Major star stream (Liebert et al, 2005; and Ken Croswell, 2005).
And now for the systems that the extraterrestrial says were home solar systems for the various "Old Empire" citizenry.
Alnitak 3
This star is one of the key systems in the "Old Empire" from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
Once thought to be around 1,500 to 1,600 light-years (ly) away, the Alnitak, or Zeta Orionis, system is now estimated to be located around 820 +/- 170 ly from Sol (based on a HIPPARCOS Plx= 3.99 +/- e_Plx= 0.79 mas).
It lies in the south central part (5:40:45.5-1:56:34 for Stars Aab, J2000, or 5:40:45.5-1:56:33.3, ICRS 2000) of Constellation Orion (see chart and labelled photo), the Hunter.
There, Alnitak can be found at: left or immediately southeast of the neighboring belt stars of Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis) and Mintaka (Delta Orionis); southwest of Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), northeast of Rigel, and northwest of Saiph (Kappa Orionis).
In addition to wide binary companion Star B, Alnitak's primary also has a close stellar companion Ab, (USNO press release). However, the star (sometimes called "C") that has a separation of around 57.6" away is thought to be a optical companion.
Alnitak lies in a region crowded with several dusty clouds of interstellar gas actively forming new stars, including the famous "Horsehead Nebula" to the south. The system is a member of the "Orion OB1 Association," where massive young objects with over 10 times the Sol's mass can be found in abundance (more on OB associations and stellar nurseries).
Zeta Orionis A or Aa
Detailed information.
Alnitak Aa is a blue supergiant star of spectral and luminosity type O9.7 Ibe (with "peculiar" emission lines), where O-type stars are the hottest stars in the spectral sequence excluding white dwarfs. The star may have as much as 28 times Sol's mass (Hummel et al, 2000, in pdf), perhaps 20 times Sol's diameter (Remie and Lamers, 1982, page 87; as reported in Pasinetti-Fracassini et al, 2001), and around 100,000 times its bolometric luminosity, which is much greater than its visual luminosity of around 10,500 times Solar.
The European Space Agency's astrometry satellite HIPPARCOS has measured Zeta Orionis Aab's distance from Earth to be around 820 light years, giving it an absolute visual magnitude of -5.25 (based on a HIPPARCOS Vmag= 1.74), somewhat under-luminous for stars of its class; however, these measurements may have been significantly affected by the presence of the recently discovered, dimmer close stellar companion Ab (described below). Even so, Alnitak Aa is the brightest O-type star in Earth's night sky (according to Professor Jim Kaler's excellent Stars' web page on Alnitak). Its 31,000-degree-Kelvin surface, however, radiates mostly ultraviolet wavelengths that are invisible to Human eyes.
Type-O supergiants show strong stellar winds that produce optical spectral emission lines and thermal radio and X-ray emissions. How these stars produce high-energy X-rays, however, is still subject to intense research because they lack significant magnetic fields and are not sufficiently hot despite their very high surface temperatures.
Alnitak Aa seems to generate and maintain magnetic loops like Sol, which is difficult for astronomers to explain. Although O-type stars have inner convection zones in their core, they are believed to lack outer convection zones, which astronomers considered necessary to create the hot and energetic plasmas confined in magnetic loops. Convection zones are internal regions where most of the energy is transported by fluid motions from hotter regions to cooler ones.
Without such zones located near a star's surface, astronomers are currently unable to explain how high-density knots of X-rays could exist. On the other hand, shock waves created in the turbulent stellar wind flow are an important part of current theories. Like all O stars, Alnitak Aa's X-rays may come from a wind that blows from its surface at nearly 2,000 km (1,200 miles) per second, which produces x-rays when blobs of gas in the wind crash violently into one another (Donati et al, 2002; Waldron and Cassinelli, 2001, and 2000 in pdf; and CXC press release, 10/18/2000).
Massive stars use their fuel quickly and do not live very long. Although Alnitak Aa may only be around six million years old, hydrogen fusion may already have ceased at its core. The star will eventually become a red supergiant somewhat like Betelgeuse and will probably explode as a supernova. Useful catalogue numbers and designations for the star include: Zet Ori A, 50 Ori A, HR 1948/9, HIP 26727, HD 37742, BD-02 1338, SAO 132444, STF 774 A, and ADS 4263 A.
In a wide orbit around the primary is a 4th magnitude visual companion, a B-type giant star that is currently separated by about 2.3 arcseconds (USNO press release, 4/15/1998). The pair orbits each other with a period estimated around 1,500 years long. According to old calculations (from J. Hopmann in 1967) cited in the Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binaries, Star "B" is separated on average from the primary by around 680 AUs (a semi-major axis of a= 2.728" at a distance of 817 ly), with an estimated orbital period of 1,508.6 years. Their highly circular orbit (e= 0.07) is inclined 72.0° from the perspective of an observer from Earth.
In 1998, Star A was found to have a close stellar companion ("Ab") only around 11 AUs away (0.042" in February and March 1998 at a distance of 820 ly). The close companion is only two magnitudes fainter and would be easily visible to the naked eye from Earth if it was farther from its brighter neighbor. The relative motion of the inner stellar pair has been detected, which was "most likely due to their being gravitationaly bound with an orbital period of only a few years" (Hummel et al, 2000, in pdf; and USNO press release).
The distance from the star pair Aab where an Earth-type planet would be "comfortable" with liquid water is at least 300 AUs -- over seven times the orbital of Pluto in the Solar System. Given that the stars are only a few million years old, however, they are too probably young for any forming planets to have cooled off sufficiently to have much surface water instead of superheated steam. Astronomers would find it very difficult to detect an Earth-sized planet around this star using present methods.
Zeta Orionis Ab
Detailed information
As Star Ab has a high visual magnitude (around 4) and a presumably youthful age of a few million years shared with the primary, it may be a late O-type main sequence dwarf (Hummel et al, 2000, in pdf). Hence, it should have a much greater mass (e.g., 23 times Solar), diameter, and visual luminosity (over 1,300 times Solar) than Sol.
According to the Yale Bright Star Catalogue, 1991 5th Revised Edition notes entry for HR 1948 and 1949, Star B is a blue-white giant star of spectral and luminosity type B2 III. It may have 14 times Sol's mass, a much larger diameter, and around 1,100 times its visual luminosity, based on an apparent magnitude of 4.2 with an even greater bolometric luminosity due to the high ultraviolet emission of its spectral type (Hummel et al, 2000, in pdf).
As with the inner star pair Aab, the orbit of an Earth-like planet (with liquid water) around Star B would be centered beyond the orbital distance of Pluto in the Solar System. Given the youth of the host star (which should be similar to that of the primary), moreover, such a planet is unlikely to have cooled sufficiently to have much surface water instead of steamon its surface. Useful catalogue numbers and designations for the star include: Zet Ori B, 50 Leo B, HD 17743, and ADS 4263 B.
Thuban (α Draconis) Facts
This star is one of the key systems in the "Old Empire" from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
Thuban is a relatively inconspicuous star in the night sky of the Northern Hemisphere, located at around 305 light-years away from the Sun. Thuban, also designated as Alpha Draconis, is a double star system located in the constellation of Draco. Thuban is historically significant since it was the north pole star from the 4th to 2nd millennium BCE. Based upon it metallicity, the interstellar medium from which Thuban formed, was somewhat metal-poor. Thuban’s exact age is uncertain. However, it has ceased hydrogen fusion in its core, and it is no longer in the main-sequence.
Distance, Size, and Mass
Thuban is located at around 303 light-years / 93 parsecs away from the Sun. The primary component star is both more massive and several times bigger than our Sun.
Thuban has 2.8 solar masses, or 280% of the Sun’s mass, and a radius of 3.4 solar radii, or 340% of the Sun’s radius. Based upon its radius, Thuban should be around six times, or more, bigger than our Sun. Thuban’s companion star has 2.6 solar masses or 260% of our Sun’s mass.
Other Characteristics
Thuban is a white giant star of spectral class A0III, indicating similarities to Vega in temperature and spectrum, but more luminous and massive.
Thuban has been used as an MK spectral standard for the A0III type. It has ceased hydrogen fusion in its core and started to expand. It has an apparent magnitude of 3.6 and an absolute magnitude of -1.20.
Thuban is 479 times brighter than our Sun and has average surface temperatures of around 10,100 K, or 1.7 times hotter than our Sun.
Thuban’s companion, Alpha Draconis B, is 40 times brighter than our Sun, being 1.83 magnitudes fainter than the primary star. Not much is known about the companion, though it is speculated that it is a main-sequence star slightly cooler than Thuban, and possibly of spectral type A2.
Stellar System
The Thuban / Alpha Draconis star system is a single-lined spectroscopic binary star system, which means that only the spectral liens of the primary component are visible.
The two stars orbit each other once every 51.5 days and have an orbital eccentricity of 0.43. The two components are separated from one another by about 0.46 AU.
This system is an eclipsing binary star system. The eclipses displayed are only partial, with an inclination of slightly less than 90 degrees, with depths of 9% and 2%. These eclipses last for only six hours.
Thuban is one of the stars that take turns as the North Star during the Earth’s precession cycle. Thuban was the Pole Star from 3942 BCE to 1793 BCE, during the creation of some of Egypt’s largest pyramids.
Thuban was closest to the pole in 2830 BCE, coming closest to the north celestial pole out of all the other pole stars. However, Thuban was among the faintest pole stars.
In comparison, the current pole star, Polaris, comes within 0.5 degrees of the north celestial pole and has an apparent magnitude of 1.98.
As the North Star, Thuban was preceded by Edasich (Iota Draconis) and succeeded by the brighter Kochab (Beta Ursae Minoris), one of the stars of the Little Dipper, and the fainter Kappa Draconis. Thuban has slowly drifted away from true north over the last 4,800 years.
Location
Thuban is located in the constellation of Draco, the eighth largest constellation in the sky and the fourth largest northern constellation, occupying an area of 1,083 square degrees.
Thuban is easy to spot though, from light-polluted areas, this can become a challenge. Thuban lies about halfway between Mizar, the middle star of the Big Dipper’s handle, and Kochab and Pherkad, the stars that form the outer side of the Little Dipper’s Bowl.
44 Boötis System Summary
This star system is one of the key systems in the "Old Empire" from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
This triple star system is located about 41.6 light-years (ly) away from our Sun, Sol. It lies in the northwestern part (15:3:47.3+47:39:14.6, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Boötes, the Herdsman or Bear Driver -- north of Nekkar (Beta Boötis), east of Lamda Boötis, northeast of Seginus (Gamma Boötis), southwest of Edasich (Iota Draconis), southeast of Theta Boötis and Alkaid (Eta Ursae Majoris), and west of Tau and Nu Herculis.
The "star" was noted to be variable in 1785 by Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), who was born Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel. According to Robert Burnham, Jr. (1931-93), the system was confirmed to be a visual binary in 1832 by Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (1793-1864).
In 1926, the fainter component itself was found to be an eclipsing binary by Jan Schilt by photographic observations, which had already been suspected from a spectrum that showed rotationally broadened absorption lines.
The system has the variable star designation i Boötis and is often confused with Iota Boötis, a Delta-Scuti-type variable star of spectral and luminosity type A9 V.
All three stars of the 44 Boötis system are similar to Sol in size, brightness, and color. The annual proper motion of the system is about 40" in PA 274°, and it's radial velocity is around 24 km per second (15 miles per second) in approach. It is visible to the naked eye. All three are believed to be more than a billion years old (Alan Hale, 1994, pp. 312 and 314).
44 (i) Boötis A
This star is a yellowish main sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type F5-G1 Vn (Nikolic et al, 1997; based on Frans van't Veer, 1971; and Kurpinska and van't Veer, 1970; versus Hill et al, 1989, page 89). It may be as massive as (or slightly more so than) Sol, with about the same diameter -- 1.03 to 1.05 percent Solar (Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 683; and Hill et al, 1989) and around 1.14 times its luminosity. Useful star catalogue numbers and designations for 44 Boötis A include: 44 Boo, i Boo, 44i Boo, HR 5618*, Gl 575 A, Hip 73695, HD 133640, BD+48 2259, SAO 45357, Struve 1909 A, and ADS 9494 A.
From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the orbit of Star A and the BC tight binary pair exhibit a very elongated and narrow ellipse whose separation has varied from 4.7" in 1880 to less than 0.4" in 1969 (Kaj Aage Gunnar Strand, 1937; A. Gennaro, 1940; L. Bennendijk, 1955; Worley and Heintz, 1983; and Wulff Dieter Heintz, 1963 to 1997; among others). According to new measurements (Staffan Soderhjelm, 1999) found in the new Sixth Catalog of Visual Orbits of Binary Stars, Stars A and B are separated by an "average distance" of about 48.5 AUs (semi-major axis of 3.8" with a HIPPARCOS distance estimate of 41.6 ly), or more than the average of orbital distance of Pluto in the Solar System. They move in a highly elliptical orbit (e= 0.55) that takes about 206 years to complete. Their orbit is inclined about 84° from the perspective of an observer on Earth. These elements are similar to Heintz's 1997 elements of: P=220.0 years; a=3.70"; e= 0.451; and i=83.7 (Wulff Dieter Heintz, 1997). (See an animation of the orbits of Stars A, B, and C and their potentially habitable zones, with a table of basic orbital and physical characteristics.)
44 (i) Boötis B
This star is a yellow-orange main sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type G2 V (Nikolic et al, 1997; and Hill et al, 1989). This star may have around the same mass as Sol, 87 to 89 percent of its diameter (Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 683; and Hill et al, 1989), and as little as 54 percent of its luminosity. Useful catalogue numbers for the star include: Gl 575 B, Struve 1909 B, and ADS 9494 B.
44 Boötis is classified as an eclipsing variable of W Ursae Majoris type (that also resembles U Pegasi) because Star B has a double-lined, spectroscopic companion that is close enough to be considered a (weak thermal) shallow contact binary (Hill et al, 1989, page 96; and Jan Schilt, 1926). Since the outer gas envelopes of the stars are in contact (overflowing their Roche lobes), they essentially share a common photosphere despite having two distinct nuclear-burning cores. Indeed, Stars B and C are separated by only some 0.008 AU, around three quarters of a million miles (more than one million km) or about three times the distance between the Earth and its Moon. They are revolving in a highly circular orbit (e~ 0) that takes only 6.427 hours to complete. Moreover, from the perspective of an observer on Earth, Stars B and C eclipse each other twice at every revolution (every three hours). (See an animation of the orbits of Stars A, B, and C and their potentially habitable zones, with a table of basic orbital and physical characteristics.)
X-ray emission from stellar coronal material has been observed around Stars B and C with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (press release; Brickhouse et al, 2001; and Nikolic et al, 1997; among others). According to the Yale Bright Star Catalogue's notes entry for HR 5618, a variation in the light curve for this close spectroscopic binary pair appears to be caused by mass transfer, which is supported by observations of gaseous streams between the stars. Eclipsing variables of this type may develop into eruptive "dwarf novae" similar to U Geminorum and SS Cygni, and U Pegasi has been observed to exhibit flares or eruptions of small amplitude that may presage more violent activity at a later stage of evolution. (More discussion on W Ursae Majoris type binaries is available from: Maceroni and van't Veer, 1996.)
44 (i) Boötis C
This star is a yellow-orange main sequence dwarf star of possibly spectral and luminosity type G V (Nikolic et al, 1997; and Hill et al, 1989), or later spectral type. This star probably has less mass than Sol, as little as 66 percent of its diameter (Hill et al, 1989), and significantly lower luminosity than Star B. Useful catalogue numbers for the star include Gl 575 C and NS 1503+4739 C.
Hunt for Substellar Companions
Since at least one of the stars of 44 Boötis is fairly similar to our Sun, some speculate whether the system might contain planets that harbor life. The distance from Star A where an Earth-type planet would be "comfortable" with liquid water is centered around 1.07 AU -- just beyond the orbital distances of Earth in the Solar System, with an orbital period of more than an Earth year. For close-orbiting Stars B and C, the liquid water zone may be centered around 0.73 AU -- between the orbital distances of Venus and Earth, with an orbital period around half a year. Astronomers would find it very difficult to detect an Earth-type planet around either of these stars using present methods.
Sorry for the detailed stellar data, but I couldn't help myself. Let's get back to the extraterrestrial narrative.
The configuration of all the pyramids of the Giza Plateau was intended to create a “mirror image”, on Earth of the solar system and certain constellations within the “Old Empire”.
2,181 BCE — Some manage to escape
MIN, became the God of Fertility of Egypt. The IS-BE, also known as Pan, was also a Greek god. Min or Pan, was an IS-BE who somehow managed to escape from the “Old Empire” amnesia system.
2,160 – 2040 BCE — Old Empire Rulers left
One of the results of the intensifying battle between The Domain Forces and the “Old Empire” forces was that the control of the “divine rulers”, was broken at this time.
They finally left Egypt and returned to the “heavens”, so to speak, in defeat.
Human beings took over the ruling role as Pharaohs. The first human pharaoh moved the Capital city of Egypt from Memphis to Heracleopolis.
I have no problem with this.
1,500 BCE – Destruction of Crete
This is the date for the destruction of Atlantis given by the Egyptian high-priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis, and Sonchis of Sais, to the Greek sage Solon.
This is the date of the destruction of the colony of Atlantis provided by the Egyptians. It differs from that provided by the extraterrestrial, who stated that Atlantis was destroyed.
While the extraterrestrial stated that between 400,000 and 75,000 years ago, both Atlantis and Lemuria colonies existed.
The Priests of Anu recorded that the Mediterranean area was invaded by “Atlantean” people about this time. Of course, these people were not from the ancient continent of Atlanta, in the Atlantic Ocean, which existed more than 70,000 years earlier.
These were refugees from the Minoan civilization on Crete escaping from the volcanic eruption and tidal waves of Mt. Thera that destroyed their civilization.
Here, the extraterrestrial clarifies the discrepancy.
Plato’s references to Atlantis were borrowed from the writings of the Greek philosopher Solon, who was given the information by the Egyptian priest who called Atlantis “Kepchu”, which also happens to be the Egyptian name for the people of Crete.
Nicely clarified.
Some of the survivors of the Minoan volcanic disaster asked Egypt for help, since they were the only other civilization with high culture in the Mediterranean area at the time.
1351 BCE – 1337 BCE — Earth Warfare
The Domain Expeditionary Force actively waged a war of religious conquest against the Egyptian mystery cult called the Priest of Amun, also known as the “Old Empire” Brothers of The Serpent.
While the space fleet of the "Old Empire" was destroyed in the solar system much earlier. We can say that the warfare began in 6278 BCE, and ended in 1150 AD. Or roughly 7500 years.
The "Old Empire" IS-BE's maintained occupancy in the human bodies on Earth.
As the leaders were removed, one by one, their cohorts formed "fifth column activities and "secret societies" that needed to be rooted out and eliminated.
During this time the Pharaoh Akhenaten abolished the priesthood of Amun, and moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to the new location at Amarna, at the exact geodetic center of Egypt. However, this plot to overthrow the “Old Empire” religious control was quickly spoiled.
1,193 BCE — Greek wars / battle for control of space stations
In the Near East and Achaea, the Greeks and Trojans fought for supremacy, which ended in the destruction of Troy as the finale of the Trojan War.
During this same time, war was being fought out in the space of the solar system between two forces for control of the “space stations” surrounding Earth.
That period of 300 years was a very violent resistance to The Domain Forces by the remnants of the “Old Empire” forces. It did not last long however, as it is futile to resist The Domain.
I have no problem with this.
850 BCE — Homer wrote about IS-BE’s
Homer, the blind Greek poet, wrote the stories ‘the gods’ as borrowed and modified from earlier sources in Vedic texts, Sumerian texts, Babylonian and Egyptian mythology.
His poems, as well as many other “myths” of the ancient world are very accurate descriptions of the exploits of IS-BE’s on Earth who were able to avoid the “Old Empire amnesia operation and operate without biological bodies.
Interesting. Homer wrote stories about IS-BE's that escaped the amnesia operations. They were accurate descriptions. And so it was absolutely possible to undo the Empire amnesia operations.
700 BCE – Vedic Hymns translated into Greek
The Vedic Hymns were first translated in the Greek language. This was the beginning of a cultural revolution in Western civilization that transformed crude and brutal tribal cultures into democratic republics based on more reasonable conduct.
638 – 559 BCE — Atlantis reported to exist
Solon, a wise man from Greece, reported the existence of Atlantis. This was information he received from the “Old Empire” high-priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis and Sonchis of Sais, with whom he studied in Egypt.
630 BCE – Domain replacements for Old Empire religions
Zoroaster created religious practices in Persia around an IS-BE called Ahura Mazda. This was yet another of the growing number of “monotheistic” gods put in place by operatives of The Domain to displace a panoply of “Old Empire” gods.
604 BCE -Laozi
Laozi, a philosopher who wrote a small book called “The Way”, was an IS-BE of great wisdom, who overcame the effects of the “Old Empire” amnesia/hypnosis machinery and escaped from Earth. His understanding of the nature of an IS-BE must have been very good to accomplish this.
According to the common legend, his last lifetime as a human was lived in a small village in China. He contemplated the essence of his own life. Like Gautama Siddhartha, he confronted his own thoughts, and past lives. In so doing, he recovered some of his own memory, ability and immortality.
As an old man, he decided to leave the village and go to the forest to depart the body. The village gatekeeper stopped him and begged him to write down his personal philosophy before leaving.
Here is a small piece of advice he gave about “the way” he rediscovered his own spirit:
"He who looks will not see it;
He who listens will not hear it;
He who gropes will not grasp it.
The formless nonentity,
the motionless source of motion.
The infinite essence of the spirit is the source of life.
Spirit is self.
Walls form and support a room,
yet the space between them is most important.
A pot is formed of clay,
yet the space formed therein is most useful.
Action is caused by the force of nothing on something,
just as the nothing of spirit is the source of all form.
One suffers great afflictions because one has a body.
Without a body what afflictions could one suffer?
When one cares more for the body than for his own spirit,
One becomes the body and looses the way of the spirit.
The self, the spirit, creates illusion.
The delusion of Man is that reality is not an illusion.
One who creates illusions and makes them more real than reality,
follows the path of the spirit and finds the way of heaven".
593 BCE – Genesis Story
The Genesis story written by the Jewish people describe “angels” or “sons of god” mating with women of Earth, who bore them children. These were probably renegades from the “Old Empire”. They may also have been space pirates or merchants from a system outside the galaxy who came to steal mineral resources, or smuggle drugs.
The Domain has observed that there are many visitors to Earth from neighboring planets and galaxies, but they rarely stop and live here. What kind of beings would live on a prison planet if they were not forced to do so?
The same book also reports the story of a human named Ezekiel who witnessed a spacecraft or aircraft landing near Chebar River in Chaldea. His description of the craft uses very archaic language, technically, but is nevertheless, quite an accurate description of an “Old Empire” saucer or scout craft. It is similar to the sighting of “vimanas” by the people in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Their Genesis story also mentions that “Yahweh” designed biological bodies to live for 120 years on Earth. Biological bodies on most “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planets are usually engineered to last for an average of about 150 years.
Human bodies on Earth last only about one half as long.
We suspect this is because the prison administrators have altered the biological material of human bodies on Earth to die more frequently so that the
IS-BEs who inhabit them will recycle through the amnesia mechanism more frequently.
It should be noted that much of the “Old Testament” was written during the captivity of the Jews who were enslaved in Babylon, which was very heavily controlled by priests of the “Old Empire”. The book introduces a false sense of time and a false concept of the origin of the creation.
The serpent is the symbol of the “Old Empire“. It appears in the beginning of their creation story, or as the Greeks say, “Genesis”, and causes the spiritual destruction of the first human beings, who are metaphorically represented by Adam and Eve.
The Old Testament, clearly influenced by the “Old Empire” Forces, gives a detailed description of the IS-BEs being induced into biological bodies on Earth.
This book also describes many of the “Old Empire” brainwashing activities, including the installation of false memories, lies, superstitions, commands to “forget” and all manner of tricks and traps designed to keep IS-BEs on Earth. Most importantly, it destroys the awareness that humans are Immortal Spiritual Beings.
I have no problem at all with these statements.
580 BCE — Communication centers
The Oracle at Delphi was one temple in a network of many oracle temples. Each temple was a communication center.
The “Old Empire” priests designated a local “god” for each temple.
Each of the temples in this network were located at precisely 5 degrees of latitude intervals from the capital city of Thebes throughout the Mediterranean area as far north as the Baltic Sea.
The shrines served, among other things, as a grid, housing electronic beacons, later called “Omphalus Stones”. The grid arrangement of Oracle sites can only be seen from miles above the Earth.
An Omphalus Stone
The original network of electronic communications beacons were disabled when the priesthood was dispersed, and were replaced by carved stones.
Very interesting. The original network of electronic communications beacons were disabled when the priesthood was dispersed, and were replaced by carved stones.
The symbol of the “Old Empire” priesthood is a Python, dragon or serpent. It was called the “earth-dragon” at Delphi, which is always represented in sculpture and vase-paintings as a serpent.
In Greek mythology the guardian of the Omphalus Stone at the temple at Delphi was an oracle whose name was Python, the serpent.
She was an IS-BE, who was conquered by a “god” named Apollo.
He buried her under the Omphalos stone.
This is a case of one “god” setting up his temple on the grave of another. This is a very accurate euphemism for The Domain Force that detected and disabled the “Old Empire” temple network on Earth.
It was one of the fatal blows to the “Old Empire” Force in the solar system of Earth.
As I parse this document, I find more and more tidbits of extreme interest. You must keep in mind that all of this was recorded after ten days in captivity and after scanning some books.
559 BCE – Lost Commander of The Domain Battalion was rediscovered
The Commanding Officer of The Domain Battalion who was lost in 5,965 BCE was detected and located by a search party sent to Earth from The Domain Expeditionary Force.
He was incarnated as Cyrus II of Persia during this time.
A unique system of organization was used by Cyrus II and the members of that Battalion who followed him from India through his progression of human lives on Earth.
In part, it enabled them to build the largest empire in the history of the Earth to that date.
The Domain Search Party who located him traveled around the Earth searching for the lost Battalion for several thousand years.
The party consisted of 900 officers of The Domain, divided into teams of 300 each.
One team searched the land, another team search the oceans and the third team searched the space surrounding Earth.
There are many reports made in various human civilizations concerning their activities, which humans did not understand, of course.
The Domain Search Party devised a wide variety of electronic detection devices needed to track the electronic signature or wavelength of each of the missing members of the Battalion.
Some were used in space, others on land, and special devices were invented to detect IS-BEs under water.
One of these electronic detection devices is referred to as a “tree of life”.
The device is literally a tool designed to detect the presence of life, which is an IS-BE. This was a large electronic screen generator designed to permeate wide areas.
To the ancient humans on Earth it resembled a sort of tree, since is consists of an interwoven lattice of electronic field generators and receivers.
The electronic field detects the presence of IS-BEs, whether the IS-BE is occupying a body, or if they are outside a body.
A portable version of this detection device was carried by each of the members of The Domain Search Party.
Stone carvings in Sumeria show winged beings using pinecone-shaped instruments to scan the bodies of human beings. They are also shown carrying the power unit for the scanner which are depicted as stylized baskets or water buckets, being carried by eagle-headed, winged beings.
Stone carvings in Sumeria show winged beings using pinecone-shaped instruments to scan the bodies of human beings.
Members of the aerial unit of The Domain Search Party, led by Ahura Mazda, were often called “winged gods” in human interpretations.
Throughout the Persian civilization there are a great many stone relief carving that depict winged space craft, that they called a “faravahar”.
A faravahar.
Members of the Aquatic Unit of The Domain Search Party were called “Oannes” by local humans.
Stone carvings of the so-called Oannes are shown wearing silver diving suits. They lived in the sea and appeared to the human population to be men dressed to look like fish. Some members of the lost Battalion were found in the oceans inhabiting the bodies of dolphins or whales.
Stone carvings of the so-called Oannes.
Very interesting stuff.
Therefore, although mythology and history may be based on factual events, they are likewise full of misunderstood and misinterpreted evaluations of the data, and embellished with assumptions, theories and hypotheses which are false.
The space unit of The Domain Expeditionary Force are shown flying in a “Winged-Disc”. This is an allusion to the spiritual power of the IS-BEs, as well as to the space craft used by The Domain Search Party.
I have no problem with this statement.
The Commander of the lost Battalion, as Cyrus II, was an IS-BE who was regarded as a messiah on Earth by both the Jews, and the Muslims. In less than 50 years he established a highly ethical, and humanitarian philosophy which pervaded all of Western Civilization.
Be the Rufus!
His territorial conquests, organization of people and monumental building projects were unprecedented before or since. Such sweeping accomplishments in a short period of time could only have been achieved by a leader and a team of trained officers, pilots, engineers and crew members of a unit of The Domain, acting as a team, who had been trained and worked together for thousands of years.
Although we have discovered the location of many of the IS-BEs in the lost Battalion, The Domain has been unable to restore their memory and return them to active duty as yet.
Of course we cannot transport IS-BEs who are inhabiting biological bodies to the space stations of The Domain since there is no oxygen in our space craft.
Also we do not maintain life support facilities for biological entities there.
Our only hope has been to locate and rekindle the awareness, memory and identity of the IS-BEs of the Lost Battalion. One day they will be capable of rejoining us.
So this differs from what many "more conventionally minded" readers might think. The Domain cannot ever rescue or recover a amnesiac IS-BE member that is in the human form. They have to find other methods to recover their memories, and then extract them from the prison system that exists. Or that did exist in 1947.
200 BCE — Teotihuacan
The last remnant of the “Old Empire” pyramid civilization is at “Teotihuacan“. The Aztec name means “place of the gods” or “where men were transformed into gods”.
Like the astronomical configuration of the Giza pyramids in Egypt, the entire complex is a precise scale-model of the solar system that accurately reflects the orbital distances of the inner planets, the asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
Since the planet Uranus had only been “discovered” with modern Earth telescopes in 1787, and Pluto not until 1930, it is apparent that the builders had information from “other sources”.
A common element of the Pyramid Civilizations around the Earth is the constant use of the image of the snake, dragon, or serpent. This is because the beings who planted these civilizations here want to create an illusion that the “gods” are reptilian.
This is also a part of an illusion designed to perpetuate amnesia.
The beings who placed false civilizations on Earth are IS-BEs, just like you. Many of the biological bodies inhabited by IS-BEs in the “Old Empire” are very similar in appearance to the bodies on Earth.
The “gods” are not reptiles, although they often behave like snakes.
I have no problem with these statements.
1,034 – 1,124 AD – Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah
The entire Arab world was enslaved by one man: Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah, the Old Man of the Mountain. He established the Hashshashin who operated a part of Mohammedanism which controlled by terror and fear much of India, Asia Minor and most of the Mediterranean Basin. They became a priesthood that used an extremely effective mind-control mechanism and extortion tool that enabled the “Assassins” to control the civilized world for several hundred years.
Their method was simple. Young men were kidnapped and knocked unconscious with hashish. They were taken to a garden filled with beautiful black-eyed houris in a harem decorated with rivers of milk and honey.
The young men were told that they were in paradise.
They were promised they could return and live there forever if they sacrificed themselves as an assassin of whomever they were commanded to kill. The men were knocked out again, and shoved out into the world to carry out the assassination mission.
Meanwhile, the Old Man of the Mountain sent a messenger to the caliph or, whatever wealthy ruler from whom they demanded payment, demanding camel-loads of gold, spices, incense or other valuables.
If payment did not arrive on time, the assassin would be sent to kill the offending party.
There was virtually no defense against the unknown assailant who wanted nothing more than to carry out his mission, be killed and return to “heaven”.
This is a very crude example of how simple and effective a brainwashing and mind-control operation can be when it is used skillfully, and forcefully. It is a small scale demonstration of how the amnesia mind-control operation is used against the entire IS-BE population of Earth by the “Old Empire”.
Very interesting.
1119 AD — The Knights Templar
The Knights Templar was established as a Christian military unit after the First Crusade.
But (it) quickly transformed into the basis for the international banking system to accumulate money.
(With a purpose of) conducting funding the agenda of operatives for vestiges of the “Old Empire” on Earth.
I have no problem with this.
1135 – 1230 AD – Old Empire Space Fleet completely removed from the solar system
The Domain Expeditionary Force completed the annihilation of the remaining remnants of the “Old Empire” space fleet operating in the solar system around Earth.
Unfortunately, their long established thought control operation remains largely intact.
I have no problem with this. Just keep in mind that it was narrated back in 1947.
1307 AD – Knights Templar disbanded
The Knights Templar was disbanded by King Philip IV of France, who was deeply in debt to the Order. He pressured Pope Clement V to condemn the Order’s members, have them arrested, tortured them into giving false confessions, and burned them at the stake in an effort to erase his debt by seizing all of their wealth.
A majority of the Templars fled to Switzerland where they established an international banking system which secretly controls the economy of Earth.
“Old Empire” operatives act as an unseen influence on international bankers.
The "traditional" West banking system, that controls the US dollar, and all that fiat currency, isn't so much as controlled by "Jews" as it is controlled by elements of the "Old Empire" that need to fund their efforts and activities.
It is no wonder that the "Old Empire" operatives are scared shitless with the advent of e-yuan and all those electronic currency options now being implemented.
The banks are operated covertly as a on-combatant provocateur.
(It is designed) to covertly promote and finance weapons and warfare between the nations of Earth.
Warfare is an internal mechanism of control over the inmate population.
This was written in 1947, and most people today in 2021 realize this with the crazy shit coming out of America today.
The purpose of the senseless genocide and carnage of wars financed by these international banks is to prevent the IS-BEs of Earth from sharing open communication, cooperate together in activities that might enable IS-BEs to prosper, become enlightened, and escape their imprisonment.”
I have no problem with these statements.
End of part 4
Sure, there are miss-translations on time, confusions in regard to galaxies and universes, and a mish-mash of confusion between consciousness+, humans, and some confusion regarding galactic “ownership” and “power projection” between different species, however this is the real deal. It fits in perfectly with everything that I know about MAJestic.
The more I parse it in detail, the clearer to me that this is exactly what it is claimed to be.
I will admit that I was unaware of the “Old Empire”, and the role that the Earth had as a “prison planet” for it. I am also unaware of the details regarding it.
But as I compare what I know, and what I have experienced with what I have parsed, I have been able to “open doors” so to speak, and suddenly mysteries that I have been part of have now been explained. I can tell you that this document has really been a real benefit to me personally.
Please do NOT read the document without reading my parsing. I think my parsing will help you all move foreword with this.
Key Points
Never the less, I believe the following to be true in regards to this parsing of this section of the book…
Everything here is true.
Earth is no longer a “prison planet”
Earth is now a “sentience nursery”.
Fear not an “abduction”. It’s actually a good thing. Not a bad thing.
Type-1 greys of “the Domain” are service-for-others sentience.
MAJestic is changing everything, hand in hand with the Type-1 greys.
In regards to much of this “historical data” it is very interesting, and rings true to those of us who have read the alternative-histories that abound in the books and the internet. Yet, we must always keep in mind that this document was recorded from an extraterrestrial that had only ten or so days in interrogation, and this is it’s statement made in 1947.
Today, I am going to present something which I hope will become a periodic feature in MM. It is the “MM blue plate special”. My intention is to model it after my very popular “Holiday extravaganza” post that I made on 4 July 2021. Here, I would just place interesting tidbits and stuff. With no particular order.
What is a “Blue Plate Special”?
Throughout the decades of the 1920’s – 1950’s, a popular restaurant promotion was the “blue plate special.” Served mostly at dinners and other simple eateries, the blue plate special was a reduced cost meal consisting of some kind of meat, (beef, pork, chicken, fish etc.), with a number of vegetables side dishes.
Meatloaf blue plate special.
It appears to have gleaned its name from the actual plates it was presented on. Solid blue, or sporting a blue pattern, the plates were also divided into sections, a large one for the protein, and smaller segments for the vegetables. Typically the items were pre-cooked and held at serving temperature.
Because they were not made on the spot, they tended to be a little “over cooked”. This allowed for alacritous service and more efficient turnover.
Over time, the blue plates got broken or disappeared. Today, there just isn’t any special plates that tend to be used.
I guess that the big thing about this meal was that the one plate meal saved time and money on dish washing. This was very important at a time when people washed dishes by hand, and there was no such thing as disposable plates.
An American Diner.
While the “blue plate” sobriquet has all but faded from use, many modern restaurants still offer “specials.” However, daily specials are no longer the sole domain of workaday eateries but rather unique meals where the cook makes up a batch of unusual food that they can serve on that day. When I worked as a short-order-breakfast-chef in San Louis Obispo, California a “Blue Plate Special” might be something like “Stuffed Peppers”, “Cabbage rolls”, “Beef tips on rice”, or a gourmet omelet such as “Blue cheese and prosciutto ham omelet”.
How expats in China make their coffee
Not me. Someone else. But so very relatable. The white bottle that he is pouring in is called Baijiu . It is typically 53% alcohol.
Baijiu is a clear distilled liquor, which can be regarded as thenational drink of the People's Republic of China. Its name translates as "white wine" but it is, in fact, a high-alcohol spirit. Chinese people will generally drink Baijiu with food, rather than on its own.
Click on the picture to watch the video.
How expats drink their coffee.
America is collapsing and needs to blame someone…
America is collapsing all over, in so many ways. And part of it is a system that is unstable; this idea of “democracy”, but part of it is the evil psychopaths that run the country, and part of it is the dumbed down, balkanized population. But what ever the reason, it is a mess, and the United States desperately wants to point the finger elsewhere… to blame someone else.
Because if they can’t find a person to blame, the entire population of a America is going to rise up and lynch everyone in Washington DC on scaffolding.
Click on the picture to watch the video.
A discussion on why America is vilifying China right now.
Riding on a Chinese High Speed Train
Personally, I love these things. Big and roomy. Easy and quiet. Cheap. Convenient. No hassles like at an airport. The Chinese have them everywhere. I wrote about them in a couple of posts, and here is just a quick blurb by a English expat on board one of the trains.
Some history. President Obama announced that he would establish a massive High Speed Train Network in America and funded it with billions of dollars. That same time, so did China. Today, America has nothing, while China has the most dynamic, largest and most elaborate high speed trains system in the world.
To catch up, President Biden announced that he is going to build a HST system that will be bigger and better than what the Chinese has done. And he is funding it lavishly. If you were to bet, how successful do you think that it will be?
Click on the picture to see the movie.
Inside a Chinese High Speed Train.
This is how you eat dumplings in China
The dumplings are something that is truly unique, and you just cannot get them in America or the West. You get sort of a “fast food” version, and you certainly are not provided with all sorts of dipping sauces. Dumplings are one of my favorite foods in China, and I made this video below to show you why I love it so much…
How to eat dumplings in China.
Riding a Subway in Shenzhen
This is a video that I took when I went to Shenzhen to deal with some matters. Everything in China is brand new, clean and very well maintained. You just have to compare this to the piss-poor pathetic subway systems in the West. If you aren’t comparing then you must be brain-dead. America doesn’t have anything even remotely resembling this.
Mother's Swiss-dot curtains are torn on the left panel; her drain rack for her dishes is in its place by the drainboard.
She normally uses her table for her counter space, but since the table is set for dinner, she's using her sink drainboard for her Sunbeam Mixmaster which whipped up the frosting.
Ah, yes, that tiny black spray nozzle on the sink.
Is that grated cheese in the cheese shaker or do they use a lot of salt?
The younger daughter has her eyes on the boiled frosting cake, as would be mine as well.
Father and the boy are eying the fried chicken.
Deviled eggs on a side plate with lettuce?
There are sweater 'pills' on the older daughter's sweater, at the farthest point West.
Nice white bread, hard to find nowadays with all the nutritious breads forced on us in our stores.
Father's hair is combed in a 'combover' on his bald spot.
Bet any money that Mother's wrist watch is a Bulova.
Mother ironed and 'starched' the tablecloth, so it must be Sunday.
Father's shirt is ironed, older daughter's sweater is ironed, younger daughter's dress is ironed, younger son's t-shirt is ripped with holes.
The plant at the window is a 'Wandering Jew.'
The tin pots and pans are surely much lighter to lift than my All-Clad set today.
All in all, the scene resembled by own childhood in 1952, right down to the floral design on the linoleum on the floor.
And then you have this…
In my grandma's kitchen was the soup ladle hanging above the stove.
Having come from a Pennsylvania coal miner grandfather, my 'take' on this picture is that it was staged, posed and fully planned in advance (unless this was on a Sunday when they would have their best meal of the week).
The other six week-night suppers were mostly home-made soup and bread, every kind of soup imaginable, more than Campbells could ever come up with.
Having a large family, my mom said there was nothing else that could satisfy seven or eight hungry, hard-working people as a filling, hot and inexpensive meal like soup and fresh bread & butter.
She was a master soup cook too, taught by her mother, and I was pretty much raised on soup, some heartier than others, but never disappointing.
It can be time-consuming to prepare but I've never felt deprived and it really stretches your meat to feed any number of people. (If someone got a big chunk of chicken or beef in their soup, or too many clams in their clam chowder, we used to say "the string must have broke").
And yet another precious comment…
The logo in front of the sink is from Youngstown Kitchens. Yup, I grew up with them.
Yes. I really love Shorpy.
And all the negative “news” about China…
It’s all “hate China”, all the time. And if you believe it then you are sheeple. There simply isn’t any good news about China int he Western press; the Western “news”. During the last two weeks, China had an 8 hour spacewalk, a 100 year anniversary, the recording of sounds on Mars, a new joint moon-base plans, and an expansion of the BRI into Pakistan. What “news” did America report?
A quick video blurb about this strange behavior…
Hate China all the time. It’s what the American “news” media does.
Getting a ferry ticket at AI kiosks
Here is a short video that I took. It depicts what it is like to get a ferry in Shekou. These are the automated ferry kiosks, and you just scan your bio-metics and pay by QR. So fast, so easy. It’s really cool and very relaxed an unhurried.
Getting a ferry in Shekou.
Trying to kidnap a middle school girl
Kidnapping and bad crimes still happen in China, but they are getting to be less and less frequent. Here is a favorite video of mine when a group of guys on a motorcycle tries to kidnap a middle school girl on her way home from school.
It’s one of my favorite videos.
Trying to kidnap a middle school girl.
Chinese military protecting the Uighur Muslims from American-backed terrorism
If you read the neocon publications out of America such as the National Review, you would get the impression that the Chinese military is a third world group of conscripts armed with cheap AK-47 clones. Not even remotely true. The Chinese are a serious, serious nation that DOES NOT PLAY.
Here’s a video (I posted this before) showing a group of Chinese forces that fight the American-backed Uighur “pro-democracy” terrorists out of Afghanistan. They protect the BRI which is the land route that bypasses the threat of American Naval blockade as part of the “QUAD”.
Chinese military forces in Xinjiang.
Beach Road
This stretch of road is just two blocks from my house and it is named “Lovers Road”. I filmed it as I was riding home on a bus. You can see the statue of the “Fisher Girl” which is a major tourist attraction.
Right now this entire area is under massive renovation. New parks are sprouting up everywhere and all sorts of malls and waling areas are being developed. China has designated this area as an economic corridor for AI, robotics and IoT technologies and along with the influx of industry comes an equal investment into the supporting parks, green areas, public spaces and transportation hubs. In China the two go hand-in-hand.
Road near my home.
Advertising Jeans
One of the trends in China today is to make your own designer clothing. You design it, and then you work with factories to make them, and finally you advertise it on Chinese media to sell. These videos are great where the owners or their models wear their uniquely designed clothing and promote them.
In this video, which was taken outside a woman’s bathroom, you can see this gal showing off her nice pair of jeans.
Advertising your own brand of clothing.
The New American Army
There has been a lot of talk about how Presidents Trump, Obama and Biden have revamped and reorganized the Army. It’s an “Army of one”; a transgender, a polite and kinder Army. You read about it, and you hear about it. But nothing says more than watching the proud fighting troops sing cadences as they perform drills in front of their barracks…
Check out the video.
The new American military.
Chinese Boy / Girl scouts
The American boy scouts and girl scouts have changed to reflect a softer, squishier and gentler America. Not so in China. Boy and girl scouts are co-ed and they are taught to fight, be the best they can be and endure.
Chinese boy and girl scouts.
An Amazing Landing
I am sure that the pilot was well shaken up after this. I’ll bet that he went to the local “watering hole” (bar or pub) and got totally smashed. OMG! Check out the video…
An amazing landing.
Pre-Avatar: 1982
Found on Shorpy HERE.
Watching television 1982.
From the text…
A friend of mine and I "enjoy" 3-D on television in 1982, when there was a boomlet of local stations showing 3-D films such as "Creature from the Black Lagoon" using the anaglyph method.
This method used red and blue lenses to separate the images rather than the polarized system originally used in the theaters thirty years earlier.
I say "enjoy" because the effect was problematic.
If you had your color adjusted correctly it was possible to get a moderate dimensional effect out of the blur. With my never-rectified amblyopia, I could get it mostly when things were flying at the camera.
We're watching it on my Advent VideoBeam, no longer in the basement of my folks' house, but in my new digs in Petaluma.
Fans of the yellow lamp will notice that it's already starting to deteriorate, the hinge holding the middle shade being secured with duct tape.
Another indication of the absence of parental caregiving is the burst cushion of my red chair.
Other necessary video room adjuncts visible are Ritz Crackers, a TV Guide (is that Farrah Fawcett?) and shelves full of Betamax tapes.
Oh, and under my chair a metal file box storing my card catalog of said tapes. The blue binder contains a hand-typed list of just the cartoons.
Computerization of the collection was still four years in the future.
Afghanistan – U.S. Sneaks Out At Night – Taliban Take Multiple Districts Per Day
The U.S. left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base’s new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said.
...
“We (heard) some rumor that the Americans had left Bagram ... and finally by seven o’clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram,” Gen. Mir Asadullah Kohistani, Bagram’s new commander said.
...
Before the Afghan army could take control of the airfield about an hour’s drive from the Afghan capital Kabul, it was invaded by a small army of looters, who ransacked barrack after barrack and rummaged through giant storage tents before being evicted, according to Afghan military officials.
“At first we thought maybe they were Taliban,” said Abdul Raouf, a soldier of 10 years. He said the the U.S. called from the Kabul airport and said “we are here at the airport in Kabul.”
There is video from the empty base. Hundreds of cars were left behind. The network equipment in the headquarter was ripped out but the base hospital seems to have been left intact. There are even some useful medical supplies stocked there.
Meanwhile the Taliban continue their blitz operation to take over the country. They snatch up district after district especially in the north.
Taliban control.
The Taliban have probably some 3-4,000 fighters in the north-eastern Badakhshan province but they managed to take 90% of it in just 4 days, 14 of its districts fell in the last 48 hours. Some 1,500 Afghan government soldiers stationed there have fled to Tajikistan. The province capital Faizabad is now isolated and the only place that is still under government control.
Where Afghanistan borders China.
Something is quite curious with this. Badakhshan was a stronghold of the Northern Alliance which in the late 1990s fought against the Taliban. It is the home of the Jamiat-e Islami party which consists mostly of ethnic Tajiks and has its own militia. The leader of Jamiat-e Islami is Salahuddin Rabbani who is now also the chair of the government’s Afghan High Peace Council which negotiates with the Taliban.
The mountainous province has 1 million inhabitants. But here are 4 Taliban showing up in a car in the remote Wakhan district. They are not opposed by local militia but are welcomed by the local (male) population.
It is inconceivable that a brigade size Taliban force can seize Badakhshan in a few days and at little cost without having a deal with the militia of the dominant local party. Something must have happened behind the curtains that the media is not aware of.
Americans leave so much behind.
This is good news as a fast Taliban victory in the north will make a new civil war less likely. The neoconservative Long War Journalis aghast as it explains:
Afghanistan is at risk of complete collapse after the Taliban has made dramatic gains in recent days, striking at the heart of the Afghan government’s base of power in the north while seizing control of large areas of the country – often unopposed by government forces.
...
Much of the Taliban gains have occurred in the north. The importance of the Taliban’s northern thrust cannot be understated. The Taliban is taking the fight directly to the home of Afghanistan’s elite power brokers and government officials.
If the Taliban can deny Afghanistan’s government and its backers their base of power, Afghanistan is effectively lost. The government could not possibly keep its tenuous footholds in the south, east, west, and even in central Afghanistan if the north is lost. If the Afghan government loses the north, the Taliban could take the population centers in the south, east, and west without a fight, and begin its siege of Kabul.
I currently do not think that there will be a long ‘siege of Kabul’ but a negotiated transfer of power.
The events of the last weeks show a more or less controlled retreat or defeat of demoralized government forces and a systematic takeover of most of the countryside and district centers by well prepared Taliban forces. Only the bigger province capitals have not yet fallen though some think that Mazar i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, will fall tonight.
It seems that there is a willingness of at least certain parts of Afghanistan’s current government to let the Taliban take over the country without much of a fight.
That gives me hope that a further long conflict will be avoided. After more than 42 years of war Afghanistan needs peace. While the Taliban rule is harsh it is also somewhat just and certainly less corrupt than the U.S. imposed structures. Afghanistan must be given time to find a new balance from which it can then develop in a way that fits the local circumstances and the local peoples’ tradition and morality.
The last 42 years have shown that nothing else will work.
Chinese military concentration
Since Trump’s and Biden’s budgets have just “blown away” all records for military spending, China has taken notice, and has been mass producing nuclear hyper-velocity warheads, missiles and launch systems at a frantic pace. These weapons are impossible to stop, have artificial intelligence, incapable of being jammed, and uses stealth while traveling at hyper-velocities. They are decades ahead of anything the United States fields.
And China is churning them out like buttons from a button making machine.
China is beefing up it’s self-defense forces like “there’s no tomorrow”.
A typical day in America
When I say that America is really “out of control” and in a bad state, it refers to behaviors and events that should not be occurring. What you see in the below video is NOT freedom. It is what happens when you live inside of ghetto that is treated as a prison-fortress.
Life in America.
Pittsburgh
From where I grew up (well, at least where my parents and grandparents lived)…
January 1941. “Mill district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Long stairway in a working class section.”
Talking about freedom in China
Here is a UK expat who has lived in China talking about “freedom” inside of China. It’s pretty good stuff, and he reflects the view of about 99.999% of us who actually live inside of China.
Of course, you would NEVER see this in the West. And it is censored and shadow-banned on Twitter, Google, Facebook, and You-tube. So go ahead and watch what is forbidden to you to observe…
Freedom in China.
Wife delivers a birthday meal to a fireman husband in China
Firemen eat in mess halls and live in barracks. Two weeks on, then two weeks off. (Depending on the location.) Here is a guy’s birthday and his wife and child came to visit him and brought him a special birthday meal (or other special occasion, I’m not so sure as my Chinese isn’t that good.) Great video.
Be the Rufus. Make a difference!
A special meal for a special person.
China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty
I remember talking about this fact with my brother, and he was like “yeah. I get it. China has helped some of it’s people”.
No. He didn’t get it.
The population of the United States of America is 330 million people. In the fifty or so years on the American War on Poverty” hardly anyone was lifted out of poverty. In fact, today, a full half of the United States is in poverty and lives off welfare.
China not only produced results where America did nothing, but did it for nearly three times the amount of people. This is amazing!
Check out the video…
An amazing accomplishment.
What it is like to get a vaccination for COVID in China
This is a pretty good video, and it shows the organization and structure of how this is being handled in China. I will tell you that my experience is pretty much nearly identical to this. Of course, it was in a different geographical area, and a different building. This was in Zhongshan, I believe. Mine was in tiny Zhuhai. I actually own a home in Zhongshan.
It’s nice, but I love Zhuhai.
Getting a coronavirus vaccination in China.
Chinese Airport Security
Well, the Chinese are very understanding and humane about how they handle people They do not treat them as some kind of object. Like the American TSA does. Check out this video.
Meanwhile in America
America is a God Damn cluster fuck. Doing “your own thing”.
America is one enormous cluster fuck.
A very interesting para-military video from China
You might think that this is a video about the Chinese PLA. But no it isn’t. This is a police detachment. Specifically the “corruption police”. Their job is to find and arrest powerful people who use their power, whether in government, or in industry to thwart the law. In China people like Trump, Jeff Bezos, and Nancy Polaski would never make it.
From the collection of film and 4x5 glass negatives I recently purchased that seem to have been taken in upstate New York about 1912. This is from a film negative that has been bent, hence the flare on the right side. The lady's dress is spectacular, and she is coordinated with gloves and white shoes. I don't think this was an inexpensive outfit.
The comments are great…
My wife and I have done historical costuming for years. The fabric of this dress is almost certainly worsted wool. It's surface smoothness looks like worsted and the folds and drapes are too full to be even heavy linen. The dress she's wearing in the first photo posted (the eyelet lace dress) is either linen or cotton or possibly even a blend of the two.
As to colors, that's harder to determine than you might think. Early black and white films didn't respond to colors in quite the way we expect nowadays. Silver halide is most responsive to the blue end of the spectrum. Colors from the other end often wound up overly dark. With glass plate negatives, special dies and filters could be used to produce a more accurate tonal map of the colors, but those didn't work with film at this time.
It wouldn't surprise me if the dress was actually bright blue with bright yellow collar and cuffs or something like that. Wool takes die especially well and so was often very brightly colored (particularly after the invention of aniline dyes in the 1850s).
And I do agree with this comment…
I know nobody cares what I think and I know many people who would never allow themselves to crack a smile in their posed pictures because it may not be "cool" or sophisticated, but this elegant lady would look a million times better, younger and healthier if only she would have smiled or at least put on a pleasant face. Instead she has a dour expression in both of the photos we've seen that makes her look gloomy and judgmental, with a superior attitude. Even Mona Lisa looks more approachable. Perhaps we will see a happy picture of her in the future. (That's my story and I'm stickin' to it).
The new Chinese fighter aircraft
After decades of being the second and third tier suppliers for American, French, German, and Russian aviation, China has developed and designed their own fighter aircraft, and by all accounts is cheaper, better, faster, more maneuverable, and superior that the top line American counterparts. Whether or not this is true depends on who you ask. Certainly K-street believes that American weapons systems are invincible.
Never the less, this is a great video of Chinese military aviation.
I most especially like the little Artificial Intelligence bee-sized hand-grenade that the Army uses.
A great video of Chinese military aviation.
Being a Rufus
Just being kind to others is all you need to do to be a Rufus. Just some some compassion. Show some kindness. Show some understanding. Emote and help others. It’s our highest calling.
Watch the video.
Be the Rufus. It’s our highest calling.
A cool car
“1950 Nash experimental NXI.” The Nash Experimental International, basis for the Nash Metropolitan, piloted by Nash-Kelvinator Chairman George Mason with VP George Romney (Mitt’s dad) riding shotgun.
What it is like to travel on a Chinese High Speed Train
Here you can see why I love it. China and Russia are linked by rail , and a new High Speed Line is being established inside of Russia. Russia and China have a great relationship and as time moves forward it keeps getting better and better with each day.
Going to Russia on Chinese High Speed Rail.
New wording inside of all Chinese passports
Ever since the neocons in America have been openly being hostile to China, and Chinese citizens, the Chinese have implemented changes and training and advice sessions to Chinese citizens who wish to travel abroad. One of the changes in policy is the text placed inside of each passport issued to citizens of China.
See the video below…
How a Rufus springs into action
This woman is wearing a red vest, which means that she is a volunteer. She is working in her community. Often older, these people play a valuable role and in this particular instance, I think that she was trying to perform some gardening, clean up of landscaping. And she collapsed. Instead of just standing round and filming it, a real Rufus springs into action.
A Rufus springs into action.
An American school
This was filmed in an American school. I do not know if it was a university or a High School (it appears to be an American university), but I can tell you that this kind of behavior shows a complete lack of control and discipline. People ask me why I don’t give American citizenship to my daughter. Why?
I don’t want her anywhere near these piss-ant pampered, cocky moronic idiots. Watch this college student “doing his own thing”.
Some background; this young man is the END RESULT of the fire-hose of HATE directed at the Chinese, and the ONLY reason why he is being so God-damn rude is because the professor is Chinese. Thank you FOX news, Bloomberg, Hal Turner, and all the rest.
An American school.
What America, the UK and Australia have planned for China…
Most people in the West have absolutely no concept of how poorly and malevolently the Western powers treated the Chinese. Whether it was getting hundreds of millions addicted to Opium, creating and forcing starvation, looting the land and it’s people, it was brazen and astounding in scope and depth. Here’s a little video of some of the rich Victorian ladies throwing rice onto the streets and the starving Chinese people running to collect it.
And this… watch it closely… is what America wants to happen again.
Watch the video.
Throwing rice to the starving Chinese.
Cute Robot Dogs
These robot dogs are all so very cute. They were designed to be mass produced into a disposable “throw away” configuration, and are in production for the Chinese military. I can well imagine, about 20,000 of these cute little robots swarming a military base, and then detonating when their AI detects that it is near a target.
Cute Chinese AI dog.
Notable American actors visit the North Korea DMZ
In some kind of silly, suicidal move, some very famous American actors decide to visit the DMZ border to South Korea. You can see Mike Tyson, and Henry Winkler, and William Shatner there. And they are just playing around, joking.
The Asians are a very serious people.
And the idiotic Americans are delirious and have no concept about how dangerous they are playing and dancing with death. This video, seems to have been forgotten, but this attitude has not changed. And I see this attitude being replicated, time and time again in regards to China, and Russia.
Watch the video.
North Korean soldier who will shoot to kill.
Rufus saves a woman and her cat
Nothing makes me feel better than to watch a true and real Rufus in action. A Rufus is a Service to others person, and when they leap into action, I feel so much pride in their actions. It gives me hope for the human species. Because right now, most especially in America, it’s every-man-for-himself, dog-eat-dog world of service-for-self psychopaths.
Rufus to the rescue.
Thank you for your smile. It made me see her again.
Sometimes, as we age, we lose those who matter to us. We lose lovers, family, friends. Daughters.
This old man hasn’t seen his daughter since she died so long ago, but this girl has the same smile that his daughter had…
Thank you for your smile. It made me see her again.
A Rufus cares about others
There are all kinds of people in this world. Some, well many, have their own issues, demons and problems. We must do what we can within our community. In the video below we have a man who is known in the community as having “problems”. He’s not a bad person. Just has issues.
Unlike the USA, he isn’t shunned and told to lie on cardboard under a bridge, or sleep in a car, or shelter under a tree in a poncho. The community all pitches in and takes care of “one of their own”. having this sense of community is important. You are never alone. You are part of something bigger than yourself.
Be the Rufus. Everything else is a waste of your life.
Be the Rufus. Everything else is a waste of your life.
Conclusion
I do hope that you enjoyed the “Blue Plate Special” article / post. Tell me what you think. If you found it enjoyable, interesting or beneficial, I’ll post more of them. If you don’t then I will stop. If you don’t care, well then, I’ll add that to my calculus.
The future is becoming more and more clear with each passing day. Continue to protect your personal life. Make sure that you run your affirmation prayers, and make sure that they protect you and your loved ones from any strange behaviors on the part of the out of control American empire.
There’s a future ahead. By being aware of what’s going on the the rest of the world we can determine what our part in that world will be.
Keep focused.
Be the Rufus.
Our relationships with others will make our affirmations manifest. Nurture them. Protect them. become a meaningful person in your small group of friends and family.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and a lot of things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 3.
Document appears to be genuine
And I can tell you all that the more that I parse this document, the clearer it is (to me) that it is genuine.It is exactly what it says it is. And the extraterrestrial is actually telling the truth, so far.
Errors
However, there are errors in translation, and confusion in the interpretation of what is being stated. Anything concerning “time” and the translation of dates are all wrong.
Humans think of time as “shared” and “linear”.
The type-1 greys think of time as circular and repeating. As in, consciousness enters and exits different world lines” and if you graph that movement of consciousness you will see a “corkscrew” movement through the MWI. Which is what it was referring to. All of which was WAY beyond the concepts of anyone in Roswell at that time.
Therefore all dates and time, and anything associated with these characteristics are in error, and can be ignored.
This document predates MAJestic
Also take note that this document pre-dates MAJestic, and it is crystal clear to me now, that my role was, and still is, in the rehabilitation aspects of moving the Earth from a Hellish “Prison Planet” to that of a “sentience nursery”.
This document has (for me, personally) helped to clarify elements and aspects of my role that were “blurred” and obscured from me. To that I am eternally grateful.
Look at the dates on my articles, and look at what I covered. You will see that they match up nearly perfectly with this “Alien Interview” transcript. And this is the first time that I have ever heard of this document. The timing was transcendental.
This is part three of the parsing of this document
“The Domain Expeditionary Force has observed a resurgence in science and culture of the Western world since 1150 AD when the remaining remnants of the space fleet of the “Old Empire” in this solar system were destroyed.
No problem with this.
The influence of the remote control hypnosis operation diminished slightly after that time, but still remains largely in force.
By removing the local leadership, the impact on the "electromagnetic force projection field" wasn't really affected. It still remained in place as of 1948. Therefore, there must have been other systems, facilities, bases, and operations scattered in and around the Earth that were still functional.
Apparently a small amount of damage was done to the “Old Empire” remote mind control operation which resulted in a small decrease in the power of this mechanism.
This offered a clue as to the techniques and methodologies involved, but at the time of the interview little else was understood.
As a result, some memory of technologies that IS-BEs already knew before they came to Earth started to be remembered.
It appears to me that the methodology seemed to be stratified. And by taking out the leadership, a great deal of the suppression system disappeared.
Thereafter the oppression of knowledge that is called the “Dark Ages” in Europe began to diminish after that time.
Since then knowledge of the basic laws of physics and electricity have revolutionized Earth culture virtually overnight.
No problem with this.
The ability to remember technology by many of the geniuses in the IS-BE population of Earth was partially restored, when not so actively suppressed as it was before 1150 AD. Sir Isaac Newton, is one of the best examples of this. In only a few decades he single-handedly reinvented several major and fundamental scientific and mathematical disciplines.
The men who “remembered” these sciences already knew them before they were sent to Earth.
No problem with this.
Ordinarily, no one would ever observe or discover as much about science and mathematics in a single life-time, or even in a few hundred life-times. These subjects have taken civilizations billions and billions of years to create!
No problem with this. Genius level skills and abilities point to much deeper understandings and connections. Much the same way that I discuss world-line travel int he MWI. I did not "invent" it. It's knowledge that lies all around us, it's just that the suppression field keeps this knowledge from us.
IS-BEs on Earth have only just begun to remember small fragments of all the technologies that exist throughout the universe. Theoretically, if the amnesia mechanisms being used against Earth could be broken entirely, IS-BEs would regain all of their memory!
We can only hope! But it will take time, and it cannot happen too quickly, as the result would be catastrophic. So things need to be nurtured into place.
Unfortunately, similar advances have not been seen in the humanities as the IS-BEs of Earth continue to behave very badly toward each other.
I have no problem with this statement.
This behavior, however, is heavily influenced by the “hypnotic commands” given to each IS-BE between lifetimes.
I have no problem with this. The pre-birth world-line template is what he is talking about. Though in different terms, adjusted to the mindset of Roswell military leadership in 1948. Specifically, he is referring the the consciousness components that are established and associated with the pre-birth world-line template.
And, the very unusual combination of “inmates” on Earth – criminals, perverts, artists, revolutionaries and geniuses – is the cause of a very restive and tumultuous environment.
No problem with this.
The purpose of the prison planet is to keep IS-BEs on Earth, forever.
I have no problem with this.
Promoting ignorance, superstition, and war between IS-BEs helps to keep the prison population crippled and trapped behind “the wall” of electronic force screens.
I have no problem with this.
IS-BEs have been dumped on Earth from all over the galaxy, adjoining galaxies, and from planetary systems all over the “Old Empire”, like Sirius, Aldebaran, the Pleiades, Orion, Draconis, and countless others.
I am sure that he is referring to star names that the pitiful astronomic knowledge of the Roswell military leadership would recognize. In truth, most civilizations are around much cooler, older, and stable stars. Not the short lived, blazing, and highly transitory stars that he specifically named.
There are IS-BEs on Earth from unnamed races, civilizations, cultural backgrounds, and planetary environments. Each of the various IS-BE populations have their own languages, belief systems, moral values, religious beliefs, training and unknown and untold histories.
I have no problem with this.
These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta and Lemuria.
Do not get too caught up in the conventional narratives about "Atlantis" and "Lemuria". That is sure as Hell a route to send you all down into a black hole that you will have a difficult time extracting yourself from.
All evidence, all over the world, points to tool making humanoids around 400,000 years ago. This predates the normally accepted histories of the rise and evolution of man.
The sudden appearance of these humanoid civilizations at 400,000 BCE is clearly indicative of transplanted civilizations.
The size, magnitude and locations of their communities are (as of now) lost in time. Do not get too worked up about the details. Just realize the most basic history.
Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary “polar shift”, many thousands of years before the current “prison” population started to arrive.
Important points here.
Humanoid colonies were established on the Earth. These eventually were destroyed or collapsed by natural events.
Following that destruction was the rise of native proto-humans.
It was during that period came the creation of the Earth as "Prison Planet" as part of the "Old Empire".
Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia.
The "oriental races", such as the Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, and the Indians were all descended from the pre-deluge colonies.
On the other hand, the civilizations set up on Earth by the “Old Empire” prison system were very different from the civilization of the “Old Empire” itself.
I have no problem with this statement.
Which is an electronic space opera, atomic powered conglomeration of earlier civilizations that were conquered with nuclear weapons and colonized by IS-BEs from another galaxy.
The civilizations set up on Earth differed from the "Old Empire". They are "artificial" and retarded societies.
This was intentional.
The idea (I am sure) was to create a place of perpetual hardship and torture. A place where everyone was constantly fighting, where starvation, and hardship was normal.
The Earth was set up to be a perpetual prison where the inmates were trapped to relive Hell over and over again.
The bureaucracy that controlled the former “Old Empire” was from an ancient space opera society, run by a totalitarian confederation of planetary governments, regulated by a brutal social, economic, and political hierarchy, with a royal monarch as its figurehead.
It appears to me that this is exactly the kinds of societies that have been setup throughout human history, with the most advanced and strongest manifestations being the current United States, and Western Europe.
Were I to be an administrator of the "Old Empire" that was in charge of this Earth "Prison Plant", and realized that "The Domain" has invaded and taken control, I would flee. But where to? It seems to me that the most likely location would be on Earth itself and to occupy the bodies of the ruling classes. There I could live a life as I have become accustomed to living.
This type of government emerges with regularity on planets where the citizens abandon personal responsibility for autonomous, self-regulation.
I have no problem with this statement.
They frequently lose their freedom to demented IS-BEs who suffer from an overwhelming paranoia that every other IS-BE is their enemy who must be controlled or destroyed.
I have no problem with this statement.
Their closest friends and allies, whom they espouse to love and cherish, are literally “loved to death” by them.
I have no problem with this statement.
Because such IS-BEs exist, The Domain has learned that freedom must be won and maintained through eternal vigilance and the ability to use defensive force to maintain it.
I have no problem with this statement. Additionally, I believe that the military leadership at Roswell, would have agreed with this comment as well.
As a result, The Domain has already conquered the governing planet of the “Old Empire”.
I was unaware about any of the information regarding the "Old Empire", but I do believe what is being stated.
The civilization of The Domain, although considerably younger and smaller in size, is already more powerful, better organized, and united by a egalitarian esprit de corps never known in the history of the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with this, and I am sure that the Roswell military leadership would recognize this as well.
The recently despoiled German totalitarian state on Earth was similar to the “Old Empire”, but not nearly as brutal, and about ten thousand times less powerful.
This statement is directly directed to the Roswell military leadership.
Many of the IS-BEs on Earth are here because they are violently opposed to totalitarian government, or because they were so psychotically vicious that they could not be controlled by “Old Empire” government.
Which tends to be the case in most American prisons today.
Consequently, the population of Earth is disproportionately comprised of a very high percentage of such beings. The conflicting cultural and ethical moral codes of the IS-BEs on Earth is unusual in the extreme.
I have no problem with this statement.
The Domain conquest of the central “Old Empire” planets was fought with electronic cannon.
I think that many readers will not understand. They will probably think of some "new" type of weapon, or a weaponized ray gun based on Nikola Tesla technology.
This is wrong.
What he is actually talking about is a weapon that disrupts the consciousness+ in much the same way that the "electromagnetic force screen" disrupted the lives of the consciousnesses on Earth. This type of weapon would be very powerful against consciousness, but do little damage to physical structures.
The citizens of the planets forming the core of government for the “Old Empire” are a filthy, degraded, slave society of mindless, tax-paying workers, who practice cannibalism. Violent automotive race tracks and bloody, Roman circus type entertainments are their only amusements.
Pretty much sounds like America today.
America today.
Regardless of any reasonable justification we may have had for using atomic weapons to vanquish the planets of the “Old Empire”, The Domain is careful not to ruin the resources of those planets by using weapons of crude, radioactive force.
The Domain did not use massive weapons like we would associate with war.
They used disruptive electromagnetically designed beam weapons that upset the consciousness stability in the physical realms.
The current U.S. civilization is beginning to mimic some of the trappings of that civilization, especially in the design of airplanes, automobiles, ships, trains, and telephones. Likewise, buildings in the cities of Earth are thought to be “modern” or “futuristic” if their design resembles the architecture of the “Old Empire”.
Yes. I believe this. And this statement was made in 1947.
The government of the “Old Empire”, before being supplanted by The Domain, was comprised of beings who possessed a very craven intelligence, very much like the Axis powers during your recent world war. Those beings manifested precisely the same behavior as the galactic government that exiled them to eternal imprisonment on Earth.
A bit confused wording.
The ruling class of the "Old Empire" very much resembled Nazi Germany.
And the Nazi Germans exhibited the same behaviors that the leadership of the "Old Empire" maintained.
I can see this information resonating with the Roswell generals and leadership in 1947.
They were a gruesome reminder of the ageless maxim that an IS-BE will often manifest the treatment they have received from others. Kindness fosters kindness. Cruelty begets cruelty.
No problem with this.
One must be able and willing to use force, tempered with intelligence, to prevent harm to the innocent.
No problem with this.
However, extraordinary understanding, self-discipline and courage are required to effectively prevent brutality, without being overwhelmed by the malice that motivated the brutality.
It takes a special kind of sentience to rise above the brutality that you suffered through. Not necessarily to find and giver forgiveness, but to prevent it from ever happening again.
Only a demonic, self-serving government would employ a “logic” or “science” to conceive that an “ultimate solution” to any problem is to murder and permanently erase the memory of every artist, genius, skilled manager, and inventor, and cast them into a planetary prison together with political opponents, killers, thieves, perverts, and disabled beings of an entire galaxy!
"Tell me about it."
Oh how well I know this! If you have any doubts about my experience on this, read about how I was "retired" from MAJestic.
Once the IS-BEs expelled from the “Old Empire” arrived on Earth, they were given amnesia, and hypnotically tricked into thinking that something else had happened to them.
It discusses the process. I have no problem with this.
The next step was to implant the IS-BEs into biological bodies on Earth. The bodies became the human populations of “false civilizations” which were designed and installed in the minds of IS-BEs to look completely unlike the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with this. It's a logical extension.
All of the IS-BEs of India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe were guided to pattern and build the cultural elements of these societies based on standard patterns developed by the IS-BEs of many earlier, similar civilizations on “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planets that have existed for trillions of years throughout the universe.
I have no problems with this. The civilization archetypes are quite standard.
In the earliest times the IS-BEs sent to prison Earth lived in India.
When Earth was used as a "Prison Planet", the very first convicts were sent to ancient India. At that time, my guess is that this was the most populated, or densely populated area on the Earth. Certainly not like it is today, but more populated than say Africa, or Europe.
They gradually spread into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mesoamerica, Achaea, Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, and to the New World.
It stated that the migration and expansion of the prison population moved Westward not East. Eventually moving into the Mediterranean Sea, and associated civilizations there. Into Europe, and then into the Americas.
They did not move into the East, as these areas had descendants of prior civilizations (Atlantis and Lemuria) which maintained the Asian genetic code.
They were hypnotically “commanded” to follow the pattern of a given civilization by the “Old Empire” prison operators.
This would be pre-structuring, or "front-loading" the pre-birth world-line template by consciousness component attributes.
This is an effective mechanism to disguise the actual time and location from the IS-BEs imprisoned on Earth. The languages, costumes and culture of each false civilization are intended to reinforce amnesia because they do not remind the IS-BEs on Earth of the original “Old Empire” planets from which they were deported.
This make sense. You remove anything that might trigger a memory. You make everything, new, different and contentious.
On the very far back-track of time these types of civilizations tended to repeat themselves over and over because the IS-BEs who created them become familiar with certain patterns and styles, and stayed with them.
I have no problem with this.
It is a lot of work to invent an entire civilization, complete with culture, architecture, language, customs, mathematics, moral values, and so forth. It is much easier to replicate a copy based on a familiar and successful pattern.
I have no problem with this.
A “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planet is the designation given to a planet inhabited by carbon-oxygen based life forms.
This is in 1947. Long, long before the television series "Star Trek". No one ever thought like this back then. Not even in the wildest dreams of the scientists of the day, no one ever thought like this.
The class of the planet is based on the size and radiation intensity of the star, the distance of the planetary orbit from the star, and the size, density, gravity, and chemical composition of the planet. Likewise, flora and fauna are designated and identified according to the star type and class of planet they inhabit.
I have no problem with this.
On the average, the percentage of planets in the physical universe with a breathable atmosphere is relatively small.
I have no problem with this. While life abounds in the universe, the idea that there are lifeforms identical to what we have on the Earth isn't as common as we would hope for.
Most planets do not have an atmosphere upon which life-forms “feed”, as on Earth, where the chemical composition of the atmosphere provides nutrition to plants, and other organisms, which in turn support other life forms.
I have no problem with this.
Though, when it was addressing the Roswell leadership it was speaking in terms that they could understand, such as human-like creatures and intelligence's. Today, we would widen up the scope a bit, and include all types of microbes and other bacterial forms.
When the Domain Force brought the Vedic Hymns to the Himalayas region 8,200 years ago, some human societies already existed. The Aryan people invaded and conquered India, bringing the Vedic Hymns to the area.
What was discussed by the Type-1 extraterrestrial in 1947 is common knowledge today.
Population migration out of India.
The Vedas were learned by them, memorized and carried forward verbally for 7,000 years before being committed to written form.
During that span of time one of the officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force was incarnated on Earth as “Vishnu”. He is described many times in the Rig-Veda. He is still considered to be a god by the Hindus.
Vishnu fought in the religious wars against the “Old Empire” forces. He is a very able and aggressive IS-BE as well as a highly effective officer, who has since been reassigned to other duties in The Domain.
This Domain officer inhabited a human body and was involved in the teaching and changing the conditions of the human civilization at that time. It was never erased, and never sentenced to the "Prison Planet" and is now performing other duties within the Domain.
This entire episode was orchestrated as an attack and revolt against the Egyptian pantheon installed by “Old Empire” administrators.
The type-1 greys planned and orchestrated this and other series of battles and Geo-political posturings to help break the grip of the "electro-magnetic force screen" that had so completely incarcerated them.
The conflict was intended to help free humankind from implanted elements of the false civilization that focused attention on many “gods” and superstitious ritual worship demanded by the priests who “managed” them. It is all part of the mental manipulation by the “Old Empire” to hide their criminal actions against the IS-BEs on Earth.
I have no problem with this.
A priesthood, or prison guards, were used to help reinforce the idea that an individual, is only a biological body, and is not an Immortal Spiritual Being. The individual has no identity. The individuals have no past lives. The individual has no power. Only the gods have power. And, the gods are a contrivance of the priests who intercede between men and the gods they serve.
It's a power control mechanism,. I have no problem with this.
I have no problem with this. This is a theme that has been repeated over, and over, and over again. From the Americas, to Europe, to Egypt, to Rome, to today inside of America, and televangelists.
What else would one expect on a prison planet where all prisoners have amnesia, and the priests themselves are prisoners?
I have no problem with this.
The intervention of The Domain Force on Earth has not been entirely successful due to the secret mind-control operation of the “Old Empire” that still continues to operate.
As of 1947, the Dominion has not been all that successful erasing the programming and changing the destructive paths that mankind was set upon.
A battle was waged between the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain through religious conquest.
The attempts to change the planetary system began around 8,000 BCE, and wasn't really all that successful.
Between 1500 BCE and about 1200 BCE, The Domain Forces attempted to teach the concept of an individual, Immortal Spiritual Being to several influential beings on Earth.
A new avenue, or methodology was attempted during a 300 year span of time. It started around 1500 BCE.
One such instance resulted in a very tragic misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misapplication of the concept. The idea was perverted and applied to mean that there is only one IS-BE, instead of the truth that everyone is an IS-BE! Obviously, this was a gross incomprehension and an utter unwillingness to take responsibility for one’s own power.
What a fiasco!
The “Old Empire” priests managed to corrupt the concept of individual immortality into the idea that there is only one, all-powerful IS-BE, and that no one else is or is allowed to be an IS-BE. Obviously, this is the work of the “Old Empire” amnesia operation.
I have no problem with this statement.
It is easy to teach this altered notion to beings who do not want to be responsible for their own lives. Slaves are such beings. As long as one chooses to assign responsibility for creation, existence and personal accountability for one’s own thoughts and actions to others, one is a slave.
Which is a major issue going on inside the United States today.
As a result, the concept of a single monotheistic “god” resulted and was promoted by many self-proclaimed prophets, such as the Jewish slave leader – Moses -who grew up in the household of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, as well as his son Tutankhamen.
I am not well versed in the lineages of Ancient Egypt. However, I can see how this could take place.
The attempt to teach certain beings on Earth the truth that they are, themselves, IS-BEs, was part of a plan to overthrow the fictional, metaphorical, anthropomorphic panoply of gods created by the “Old Empire” mystery cult called “The Brothers of The Serpent” known in Egypt as the Priests of Amun.
News to me, but I can see it happening.
They were a very ancient, secret society within the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with this statement.
The Pharaoh Akhenaten was not a very intelligent being, and was heavily influenced by his personal ambition for self-glorification. He altered the concept of the individual spiritual being and embodied the concept in the sun god, Aten. His pitiful existence was soon ended. He was assassinated by Maya and Parennefer, two of the Priests of Amun, or “Amen”, which the Christians still say, who represented the interests of the “Old Empire” forces.
I am not well versed in Ancient Egyptian history, but this does make sense and could very well have happened.
The idea of “One God” was perpetuated by the Hebrew leader Moses while he was in Egypt. He left Egypt with his adopted people, the Jewish slaves. While they were crossing the desert, Moses was intercepted by an operative of the “Old Empire” near Mt. Sinai. Moses was tricked into believing that this operative was “the” One God through the use of hypnotic commands, as well as technical and aesthetic tricks which are commonly used by the “Old Empire” to trap IS-BEs.
I have no problem with this statement.
Thereafter, the Jewish slaves, who trusted the word of Moses implicitly, have worshiped a single god they call “Yaweh“.
I have no problem with this statement.
The name “Yaweh” means “anonymous”, as the IS-BE who “worked with” Moses could not use an actual name or anything that would identify himself, or blow the cover of the amnesia/prison operation. The last thing the covert amnesia/hypnosis/prison system wants to do is to reveal themselves openly to the IS-BEs on Earth. They feel that this would restore the inmates memories!
I have no problem with this statement.
This is the reason that all traces of physical encounters between operatives of space civilizations and humans is very carefully hidden, disguised, covered-up, denied or misdirected.
I have no problem with this statement.
This “Old Empire” operative contacted Moses on a desert mountain top and delivered the “Ten Hypnotic Commands” to him. These commands are very forcefully worded, and compel an IS-BE into utter subservience to the will of the operator. These hypnotic commands are still in effect and influence the thought patterns of millions of IS-BEs thousands of years later!
So, and if you read this exactly as written. It states that any of the ten commandments trigger hypnotic commands. And thus are used by the "Old Empire" to influence the will of the people who thus believe them. Petty powerful, and yes, even dangerous stuff.
Is it true or not? I do not know.
Incidentally, we later discovered that the so-called “Yaweh” also wrote, programmed and encoded the text of the Torah, which when it is read literally, or in its decoded, form, will provide a great deal more false information to those who read it.
The type-1 extraterrestrial is saying that all of the major religions at that time spouted writings which were trigger hypnotic commands, and thus influenced all the people who read or listened to them.
Ultimately, the Vedic Hymns became the source of nearly all of Eastern the religions and were the philosophical source of the ideas common to Buddha, Laozi, Zoroaster , and other philosophers.
So it spread throughout the world...
The civilizing influences of these philosophies eventually replaced the brutal idolatry of the “Old Empire” religions and were the true genesis of kindness and compassion.
You asked me earlier why The Domain, and other space civilizations do not land on Earth or make their presence known. Land on Earth? Do you think we are crazy or want to be crazy?
Obviously, it knew very well how to respond to the questions poised by the Roswell military leadership.
It takes a very brave IS-BE to come down through the atmosphere and land on Earth, because this is a prison planet, with a very uncontrolled, psychotic population.
Well stated, and factually correct.
And, no IS-BE is entirely proof against the risk of entrapment, as with the members of The Domain Expeditionary Force who were captured in the Himalayas 8,200 years ago.
As powerful as the type-1 greys of the Dominion are, they can be hurt and harmed. And they need to be very cautious when they are in dangerous situations and dangerous people.
No one knows what IS-BEs on Earth are going to do.
I think that is is a very accurate statement.
We are not scheduled to invest the resources of The Domain to take total control of all the space surrounding the area at this time.
This should be well understood.
This will occur in the not-to-distant future – about 5,000 Earth years – according to the time schedule of The Domain.
I believe that this time-line has sped up substantially with the formation of MAJestic, and with people such as MM, and Sebastian providing "boots on the ground" and performing various "anchoring" activities.
At this time we do not prevent transports from other planetary systems or galaxies from continuing to drop IS-BEs into the amnesia force screen area.
A couple of points here.
[1] In 1947, the Domain did not prevent interstellar "drop offs". I do know that that policy changed when I was active in MAJestic.
[2] The "amnesia force screen area" is a specific region. It is not infinite. It has geographic boundaries, and limits.
Eventually, this will change.
In addition, Earth, inherently, is a highly unstable planet. It is not suitable for settlement or permanent habitation for any sustainable civilization. This is part of the reason why it is being used as a prison planet.
This is a serious point that no one, in any analysis that I have read really understands. Contrary to the other statements about O, B and A stars, (Those were proximity locations for civilization anchors, not the homes of specific species themselves) most civilizations prefer the cooler, longer life, K, M and drown dwarfs for civilization stability.
The next point(s) are all very important and you all should read them, and pay attention to them.
No one else would seriously consider living here for a variety of simple and compelling reasons:
The continental land masses of Earth are floating on a sea of molten lava beneath the surface which causes the land masses to crack, crumble and drift continually.
Because of the liquid nature of the core, the planet is largely volcanic and subject to earthquakes and volcanic explosions.
The magnetic poles of the planet shift radically about once every 20, 000 years. This causes a greater or lesser degree of devastation as a result of tidal waves, and climatic changes.
This was written long before "Worlds in Collision".
Earth is very distant from the center of the galaxy and from any other significant galactic civilization. This isolation makes it unsuitable for use, except as a “pit stop” or jumping off point along the way between galaxies. The moon and asteroids are far more suitable for this purpose because they do not have any significant gravity.
Our solar system is in a relatively "rural area" in our galaxy. Though, the center of our galaxy is rather dangerous for us humans, it isn't for other species that have adapted to that environment.
Earth is a heavy gravity planet, with heavy metallic soil and a dense atmosphere. This makes it treacherous for navigational purposes. That fact that I am in this room, as the result of an in flight accident, in spite of the technology of my craft and my extensive expertise as a pilot, are proof of these facts.
There are approximately sixty billion Earth-like (Sun Type 12, Class 7) planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, not to mention the vast expanses of The Domain, and the territories we will claim in the future. It is difficult to stretch our resources to do much more than a periodic reconnaissance of Earth. Especially when there are no immediate advantages to invest resources here.
On Earth most beings are not aware that they are IS-BEs, or that there are spirits of any kind. Many other beings are aware of this, but nearly everyone has a very limited understanding of themselves as an IS-BE.
One of the reasons for this is that IS-BEs have been waging war against each other since the beginning of time.
I have no problem with this.
The purpose of these wars have always been to establish domination by one IS-BE or group of IS-BEs over another. Since an IS-BE cannot be “killed”, the objective has been to capture and immobilize IS-BEs. This has been done in an nearly unlimited variety of ways. The most basic method to capture and immobilize an IS-BE is through the use of various kinds of “traps”.
I prefer the use of the term "snare" instead. But I am sure that the point was made in the communication narrative.
IS-BE traps have been made and put in place by many invading societies, such as the one that established the “Old Empire”, beginning about sixty-four trillion years ago.
Again, ignore the dates and time. They are wholly messed up and incomprehensible to the translator and the Roswell military leadership audience.
Traps are often set up in the “territory” of the IS-BEs being attacked. Usually a trap is set with the electronic wave of “beauty” to attract the interest and attention of the IS-BE. When the IS-BE moves toward the source of the aesthetic wave, such as a beautiful building or beautiful music, the trap is activated by the energy put out by the IS-BE.
A trap or snare of beauty, or attractiveness. Yikes!
One of the most common trap mechanism uses the IS-BE’s own thought energy output when the IS-BE tries to attack or fight back against the trap. The trap is activated and energized by the IS-BE’s own thought energy. The harder the IS-BE fights against the trap, the more it pulls the IBS toward it and keeps them “stuck” in the trap.
It's like trying to stop smoking, by just smoking the last pack instead of throwing it away.
Throughout the entire history of this physical universe, vast areas of space have been taken over and colonized by IS-BE societies who invade and take over new areas of space in this fashion.
Not just the "Old Empire", but many others. The universe has a history of consciousness dominance.
In the past, these invasions have always shared common elements:
the overwhelming use of force of arms, usually with nuclear or electronic weapons.
mind control of the IS-BEs in the invaded area through the use of electroshock, drugs, hypnosis, erasure of memory and the implantation of false memory or false information intended to subjugate and enslave the local IS-BE population.
take over of natural resources by the invading IS-BEs.
political, economic and social slavery of the local population.
These activities continue in present time.
I have no problem with these statements.
All of the IS-BEs on Earth have been members of one or more of these activities in the past, both as an invader, or as part of the population being invaded. There are no “saints” in this universe. Very few have avoided or been exempted from warfare between IS-BEs.
I have no problem with these statements.
IS-BEs on Earth are still the victims of this activity at this very moment. The between-lives amnesia administered to IS-BEs is one on the mechanisms of an elaborate system of “Old Empire” IS-BE traps, that prevent an IS-BE from escaping.
I have no problem with these statements.
This operation is managed by an illicit, renegade secret police force of the “Old Empire”, using false provocation operations to disguise their activities in order to prevent detection by their own government, The Domain and by the victims of their activities.
All this is news to me, but it does explain the fear and concern that the Type-1 grey has when dealing with humans. I can tell you that things have improved significantly once MAJestic became involved. And movement with the type-1 greys and other species proceeded unhindered and unmolested.
They are mind-control methods developed by government psychiatrists.
Of course. I have no problem with this statement.
Earth is a “ghetto” planet. It is the result of an intergalactic “Holocaust”.
This is news to me, but I can see it happening by a very big, very corrupt and very powerful "Old Empire".
IS-BEs have been sentenced to Earth either because:
They are too viciously insane or perverse to function as part of any civilization, no matter how degraded or corrupt.
Or, they are a revolutionary threat to the social, economic and political caste system that has been so carefully built and brutally enforced in the “Old Empire”. Biological bodies are specifically designed and designated as the lowest order of entity in the “Old Empire” caste system. When an IS-BE is sent to Earth, and then tricked or coerced into operating in a biological body, they are actually in a prison, inside a prison.
In an effort to permanently and irreversibly rid the “Old Empire” of such “untouchables”, the eternal identity, memory, and abilities of every IS-BE is forcefully erased. This “final solution” was conceived and carried out by the psychopathic criminals who are controlled by the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with these statements.
The mass extermination of “untouchables” and prison camps created by Germany during World War II were recently revealed. Likewise, the IS-BEs of Earth are the victims of spiritual eradication and eternal slavery inside frail, biological bodies, inspired by the same kind of craven hatred in the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with these statements.
The kind and creative inmates of Earth are continuously tortured by butchers and lunatics who are controlled by the “Old Empire” prison operators. The so-called “civilizations” of Earth, from the age of useless pyramids to the age of nuclear holocaust, have been a colossal waste of natural resources, a perverted use of intelligence, and an overt oppression of the spiritual essence of every single IS-BE on the planet.
I have no problem with these statements.
If The Domain sent ships to every corner of the universe in search of “Hell”, their quest could end on Earth. What greater brutality can be inflicted on anyone than to erase the spiritual awareness, identity, ability, and memory that is the essence of oneself?
I have no problem with these statements.
The Domain has, as yet, been unable to rescue the 3,000 IS-BEs of the Expeditionary Force Battalion either. They are forced to inhabit biological bodies on Earth. We have been able to recognize and track most of them for the past 8,000 years. However, our attempts to communicate with them are usually futile, as they are unable to remember their true identity.
I have no problem with these statements. However, I do know that there is a program with "abductees" who are taken to type-1 grey facilities and undergo biological monitoring, cleansing techniques, and other procedures designed to rehabilitate them.
MAJestic members (such as myself) participate in various ways. Sometimes assisting, sometimes providing <redacted> and sometimes being part of the procedure ourselves.
I myself have taken part in these rehabilitation procedures, and I even wrote up about one. I think I wrote about it last year or so.
Wouldn't it truly be something if I was one of the lost legion!
Anyways, all this stuff about "abductions" are misinterpretations of important efforts made to take care of the consciousnesses+ that inhabit this Earth wide region.
The majority of lost members of The Domain force have followed the general progression of Western civilization from India, into the Middle East, then to Chaldea, and Babylon, into Egypt, through Achaia, Greece, Rome, into Europe, to the Western Hemisphere, and then all around the world.
I can tell you that all MAJestic members must be of service-to-others sentience, and that is the sentience that all of the Type-1 greys that I have encountered possessed. I cannot help but to believe that any members of the lost members of the Domain would also possess this sentience.
The members of the lost Battalion and many other IS-BEs on Earth, could be valuable citizens of The Domain, not including those who are vicious criminals or perverts. Unfortunately, there has been no workable method conceived to emancipate the IS-BEs from Earth.
As of 1947. I believe that this situation has changed somewhat. I can tell you that <redacted>.
Therefore, as a matter of common logic, as well as the official policy of The Domain, it is safer and more sensible to avoid contact with the IS-BE population of Earth until such time as the proper resources can be allocated to locate and destroy the “Old Empire” force screen and amnesia machinery and develop a therapy to restore the memory of an IS-BE.”
I agree with this, and I personally believe that this situation changed one year later when MAJestic was formed. And that substantial strides and changes were made and implemented throughout the 1980's and 1990's up until my retirement as well as the mass retirement of everyone within my cluster of cells.
End of part 3
Sure, there are miss-translations on time, confusions in regard to galaxies and universes, and a mish-mash of confusion between consciousness+, humans, and some confusion regarding galactic “ownership” and “power projection” between different species, however this is the real deal. It fits in perfectly with everything that I know about MAJestic.
The more I parse it in detail, the clearer to me that this is exactly what it is claimed to be.
I will admit that I was unaware of the “Old Empire”, and the role that the Earth had as a “prison planet” for it. I am also unaware of the details regarding it.
But as I compare what I know, and what I have experienced with what I have parsed, I have been able to “open doors” so to speak, and suddenly mysteries that I have been part of have now been explained. I can tell you that this document has really been a real benefit to me personally. I have seen and read many, many, MANY faked bullshit nonsense on the internet. But folks, this is the real deal. It has been able to unlock some things that only I know, and open them and suddenly all sorts of puzzle pieces that I have participated in, like <redacted> and the time that <redacted> with the particular <redacted> explains the ancient <redacted> and the especial oddity that I encountered when dealing with the Oxia Palus <redacted>.
I well remember an event that I had regarding a world-line slide, and it really was a mystery to me. Most of the time, I would just brush them off as just odd things that I had to endure, but on one occasion it seemed to me that they all fit together, and when <redacted> which brought me to the understanding of the anchoring process for world-line groupings, and at this time the <redacted> along with a type-1 grey were involved in <redacted> and it clearly showed to me that there MUST have been a previous or prior Empire or federation” of some sort, or of some type that were involved in <redacted> to such an extent. All requiring some kind of “work around” to accomplish specific goals and changes. Now I know.
The solution to the reversal of the amnesia was tied to the “world-line” anchoring that I have been so painfully involved in these last three decades. And with that, and the understanding that the <redacted> of the various attributes <redacted> fit in the consciousness <redacted> collaboration <redacted> reconfiguration by region, time, and <redacted>.
I just cannot express myself in any way that you can understand. Guys! This is the missing cypher.
Please do NOT read the document without reading my parsing. I think my parsing will help you all move foreword with this.
Key Points
Never the less, I believe the following to be true in regards to this parsing of this section of the book…
Everything here is true.
Earth is no longer a “prison planet”
Earth is now a “sentience nursery”.
Fear not an “abduction”. It’s actually a good thing. Not a bad thing.
Type-1 greys of “the Domain” are service-for-others sentience.
MAJestic is changing everything, hand in hand with the Type-1 greys.
Part four
You can visit part four HERE.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and a lot of things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
“Before you can understand the subject of history, you must first understand the subject of time. Time is simply an arbitrary measurement of the motion of objects through space.
No problem with this.
Space is not linear. Space is determined by the point of view of an IS-BE when viewing a object. The distance between an IS-BE and the object being viewed is called “space”.
No problem with this.
Objects, or energy masses, in space do not necessarily move in a linear fashion. In this universe, objects tend to move randomly or in a curving or cyclical pattern, or as determined by agreed upon rules.
No problem with this.
History is not only a linear record of events, as many authors of Earth history books imply, because it is not a string that can be stretched out and marked like a measuring tool. History is a subjective observation of the movement of objects through space, recorded from the point of view of a survivor, rather than of those who succumbed.
No problem with this.
Events occur interactively and concurrently, just as the biological body has a heart that pumps blood, while the lungs provide oxygen to the cells, which reproduce, using energy from the sun and chemicals from plants, at the same time as the liver strains toxic wastes from the blood, and eliminates them through the bladder and the bowels.
All of these interactions are concurrent and simultaneous. Although time runs consecutively, events do not happen in an independent, linear stream. In order to view and understand the history or reality of the past, one must view all events as part of an interactive whole. Time can also be sensed as a vibration which is uniform throughout the entire physical universe.
No problem with this.
Airl explained that IS-BEs have been around since before the beginning of the universe. The reason they are called “immortal”, is because a “spirit” is not born and cannot die, but exists in a personally postulated perception of “is – will be”. She was careful to explain that every spirit is not the same. Each is completely unique in identity, power, awareness and ability.
No problem with this.
The difference between an IS-BE like Airl and most of the IS-BEs inhabiting bodies on Earth, is that Airl can enter and depart from her “doll” at will. She can perceive at selective depths through matter. Airl and other officers of The Domain can communicate telepathically. Since an IS-BE is not a physical universe entity it has no location in space or time. An IS-BE is literally, “immaterial”.
No problem with this.
They can span great distances of space instantly.
No problem with this.
They can experience sensations, more intensely than a biological body, without the use of physical sensory mechanisms. An IS-BE can exclude pain from their perception. Airl can also remember her “identity”, so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!
No problem with this.
She says that the existing collection of suns in this immediate vicinity of the universe have been burning for the last 200 trillion years. The age of the physical universe is nearly infinitely old, but probably at least four quadrillion years since its earliest beginnings.
Not true.
You can calculate the age of a star based upon how long it takes to burn. A star is like this big tureen of fuel, that is on fire. The fire will burn and burn until all the fuel is gone. There is a relationship between the mass of the star, the size of the star, and it's longevity.
The oldest stars in our Milky Way galaxy are 13.4 billion years, give or take 800 million years. This is somewhat close to what the age of the Universe is (which hovers around 13.7 billion years).
Personally, I believe that this paragraph is an error in understanding by the translator.
All the statements leading up to this point discussed consciousness+. And then suddenly "out of the blue" comes this discussion about physical stars. It is totally and completely out of place, and out of context to the thought stream. Thus, I believe that the translator miss-translated it.
My best guess is that the extraterrestrial was trying to continue on this statement...
"Airl can also remember her "identity", so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!"
In which case the proper translation should have been...
"She says that the existing collection of consciousness+ in this (particular) immediate vicinity of the universe have been in existence for the last 200 trillion years."
It far out-dates the physical universe. Which is something that I agree with.
Time is a difficult factor to measure as it depends on the subjective memory of IS-BEs and there has been no uniform record of events throughout the physical universe since it began.
No problem with this.
As on Earth, there are many different time measurement systems, defined by various cultures, which use cycles of motion, and points of origin to establish age and duration.
No problem with this.
The physical universe itself is formed from the convergence and amalgamation of many other individual universes, each one of which were created by an IS-BE or group of IS-BEs.
No problem with this. A universe is created as a tool by a consciousness, or a group of consciousnesses.
The collision of these illusory universes commingled and coalesced and were solidified to form a mutually created universe.
No problem with this.
Because it is agreed that energy and forms can be created, but not destroyed, this creative process has continued to form an ever-expanding universe of nearly infinite physical proportions.
No problem with this.
Before the formation of the physical universe there was a vast period during which universes were not solid, but wholly illusionary. You might say that the universe was a universe of magical illusions which were made to appear and vanish at the will of the magician.
No problem with this. There was a point in time where the only thing that existed was thoughts and consciousnesses. Then over time, the consciousnesses began to construct physical realities as tools to obtain experiences within, and thus further their individual growth.
In every case, the “magician” was one or more IS-BEs. Many IS-BEs on Earth can still recall vague images from that period. Tales of magic, sorcery and enchantment, fairy tales and mythology speak of such things, although in very crude terms.
No problem with this.
Each IS-BE entered into the physical universe when they lost their own, “home” universe. That is, when an IS-BE’s “home” universe was overwhelmed by the physical universe, or when the IS-BE joined with other IS-BEs to create or conquer the physical universe.
This understanding differs from mine. But only slightly. I was always under the impression that a physical universe (bubble) was a stable and constant thing. This extraterrestrial says that once the consciousness+ leaves that physical universe that it ceases to exist.
As I see it, a "soul" anchors itself in the original physical universe, then creates a consciousness+ that migrates from that universe to another one to obtain experiences in. Since the consciousness+ and the soul are still connected by quantum entanglement, both physical universes exist simultaneously.
On Earth, the ability to determine when an IS-BE entered the physical universe is difficult for two reasons:
the memory of IS-BEs on Earth have been erased, and
IS-BEs arrival or invasion into the physical universe took place at different times, some 60 trillion years ago, and others only 3 trillion. Every once in a short while, a few million years, an area or planet will be taken over by another group of IS-BEs entering into the area.
At this point, the extraterrestrial is discussing the injection of consciousness+ into the bodies of creatures in the Earth sphere of influence.
What we can gather from this discussion is that...
[1] Entry point for consciousness+ injection into physical bodies in and around the Earth is difficult to determine both geographically, and by date and time.
[2] Consciousness+ injections in this region came in waves from different points and from different locations in geographical location and in time.
Sometimes they will capture other IS-BEs as slaves. They will be forced to inhabit bodies to perform menial, or manual work – especially mining mineral ores on heavy-gravity planets, such as Earth.
No problem with this. I work about this is a similar vein regarding "farming sentience's".
Airl says that she has been a member of The Domain Expeditionary Force for more than 625 million years, when she became a pilot for a biological survey mission which included occasional visits to Earth. She can remember her entire career there, and for a very long time before that.
No problem with this. For a non-corporal being the enormous spans of time involved are given and expected.
She told me that Earth scientists do not have an accurate measuring system to gauge the age of matter. They assume that because certain types of materials seem to deteriorate rather quickly, such as organic or carbon-based matter, that there is a deterioration of matter. It is not accurate to measure the age of stone, based on the measurement of the age of wood or bone.
No problem with this. In all of this, I see a fundamental difference in dating things from the point of view of a non-corporal entity, and that of cycling biological creatures.
This is a fundamental error. Factually, matter does not deteriorate. It cannot be destroyed. Matter may be altered in form, but it is never truly destroyed.
No problem with this. Einstein E=mc2.
The Domain has conducted a periodic survey of the galaxies in this sector of the universe since it developed space travel technologies about 80 trillion years ago.
Actually it should be written as:
"The Domain has conducted periodic surveys of this sector of the universe. It has done so ever since it first developed space travel technologies."
A review of changes in the complexion of Earth reveal that mountain ranges rise and fall, continents change location, the poles of the planet shift, ice caps come and go, oceans appear and disappear, rivers, valleys and canyons change. In all cases, the matter is the same. It is always the same sand.
Every form and substance is made of the same basic material, which never deteriorates.
I have no problem with this.
“Airl described the abilities of an IS-BE officer of The Domain to me, and she demonstrated one to me when she contacted – telepathically – a communications officer of The Domain who is stationed in the asteroid belt.
No problem.
The asteroid belt is composed of thousands of broken up pieces of a planet that once existed between Mars and Jupiter. It serves as a good low-gravity jumping off point for incoming space craft traveling toward the center of our galaxy.
No problem. Sure the asteroid belt is a region of the "frost line" in our solar system, and rocky planets are not stable there. They tend to break up.
She requested that this officer consult information stored in the “files” of The Domain, concerning the history of Earth. She asked the communications officer to “feed” this information to Airl. The communications officer immediately complied with the request. Based on the information stored in the files of The Domain, Airl was able to give me a brief overview or “history lesson”.
No problem with this.
This is what Airl told me that The Domain had observed about the history of Earth:
She told me that The Domain Expeditionary Force first entered into the Milky Way galaxy very recently – only about 10,000 years ago.
This does not match my understanding.
As I understand things, the type-1 greys have been around for much longer than that. And as far as Earth goes, they have been around for at least 30,000 years.
From the human point of view, there has been observations and contacts with space vehicles, and their crews for all of human history. Whether or not they are Type-1 greys, members of the "Old Empire", or something else is unknown.
Their first action was to conquer the home planets of the “Old Empire” (this is not the official name, but a nick-name given to the conquered civilization by The Domain Forces) that served as the seat of central government for this galaxy, and other adjoining regions of space.
As I interpret this, the extraterrestrial is saying that they are from outside of the Milky Way Galaxy. When they entered our galaxy, the first thing that they needed to do was conquer the ruling "federation" or national communities on this side of the galaxy first. That this "federation" was the seat of the central government of our galaxy, and nearby regions of space.
This idea of conquering a region of space, and becoming the ruler of that area is something that the military leadership in Roswell New Mexico would well understand. After all, they just finished a long war with the Nazi Germans and the Japanese.
Yet, it makes no sense.
These extraterrestrials are non-corporal creatures. They exist as waves and inhabit manufactured bodies as they desire. They do not need to "claim" any geographic region for any purpose.
My "gut instinct" is that there is a very complicated and complex relationship of governance between different species, and the physical and non-physical realms. Whether this results in "space opera" type galactic battles or not is hard to say, but my guess, unlikely.
At least "unlikely" as described by this entity in how it was depicted to the Roswell military leadership.
I suspect other situations, truths and considerations were in play. And this entire detailed bit of narrative was just simply to evoke specific reactions from the military leadership.
To me, it appears that the extraterrestrial wanted to make some strong points apparent to the Roswell Military members...
[1] It is an officer of a large and powerful military empire.
[2] This military empire is so powerful that it completely broke and took over the massive galactic empire that ruled this section of space.
These planets are located in the stars systems in the tail of the Big Dipper constellation. She did not mention which stars, exactly.
"Within Ursa Major the stars of the Big Dipper have Bayer designations in consecutive Greek alphabetical order from the bowl to the handle.
Near Mizar is a star called Alcorr and together they are informally known as the Horse and Rider. At magnitude 4.1, Alcor would normally be relatively easy to see with the unaided eye, but its proximity to Mizar renders it more difficult to resolve, and it has served as a traditional test of sight. In the 17th century, Mizar itself was discovered to be a binary star system — the first telescopic binary found.
The component stars are known as Mizar A and Mizar B. In 1889, Mizar A was discovered to in fact be a binary as well, the first spectroscopic binary discovered, and with the subsequent discovery that Mizar B itself is also a binary, in total Mizar currently is known to be at least a quadruple star system."
About 1,500 years later The Domain began the installation bases for their own forces along the path of invasion which leads toward the center of this galaxy and beyond.
Based on what is being stated, I made up this simple drawing of our physical galaxy; The Milky Way. On it, I located the solar system, and the purported movement of the invasion forces.
Invasion path.
If this is the true case, and what he said is correct, then the dominance of the galaxy by his "federation" would look something like this...
About 8,200 years ago The Domain forces set up a base on Earth in the Himalaya Mountains near the border of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was a base for a battalion of The Domain Expeditionary Force, which included about 3,000 members.
So this base would be inside of China in the Tibet (XiZang) autonomous region.
Regions of China.
They set up a base under or inside the top of a mountain. The mountain top was drilled into and made hollow to create an area large enough to house the ships and personnel of that force. An electronic illusion of the mountain top was then created to hide the base by projecting a false image from inside the mountain against a “force screen”.
The ships could then enter and exit through the force screen, yet remain unseen by homo sapiens.
This is standard, well known, Type-1 grey technology.
Shortly after they settled there the base was surprised by an attack from a remnant of the military forces of the “Old Empire”. Unbeknownst to The Domain, a hidden, underground base on Mars, operated by the “Old Empire”, had existed for a very long time. The Domain base was wiped out by a military attack from the Mars base and the IS-BEs of The Domain Expeditionary Force were captured.
You can imagine that The Domain was very upset about losing such a large force of officers and crew, so they sent other crews to Earth to look for them. Those crews were also attacked.
This is most certainly an interesting story. But whether or not it is true is something else entirely.
On one hand, the story does nothing aside from provide background information on a battle between two groups of opposing forces, and establishes a narrative in support of the reasoning behind the presence of Type-1 greys in this section of the galaxy.
On the other hand, it could be a delicious fiction that would be accepted and acknowledged by the Roswell military leadership at the base at that time.
The captured IS-BEs from The Domain Forces were handled in the same fashion as all other IS-BEs who have been sent to Earth. They were each given amnesia, had their memories replaced with false pictures and hypnotic commands and sent to Earth to inhabit biological bodies. They are still a part of the human population today.
Here we see that the "Old Empire" has constructed systems (in this region of Earth) to interrupt the the ability of consciousness+ to easily migrate in and out of world-lines, and an established life-line.
After a very persistent and extensive investigation into the loss of their crews, The Domain discovered that “Old Empire” has been operating a very extensive, and very carefully hidden, base of operations in this part of the galaxy for millions of years.
No one knows exactly how long.
Eventually, the space craft of the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain engaged each other in open combat in the space of the solar system.
No problem with this. If the story about this war is true, this is the logical conclusion that you can expect.
According to Airl, there was a running battle between the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain until about 1235 AD, when The Domain forces finally destroyed the last of the space craft of the “Old Empire” force in this area. The Domain Expeditionary Force lost many of its own ships in this area during that time also.
About 1,000 years later the “Old Empire” base was discovered by accident in the spring of 1914 AD.
The dates and all of the matters regarding "time" are suspect as they do not make any sense. 1235AD + 1000 = 2235AD. Not 1914AD.
The discovery was made when the body of the Archduke of Austria, was “taken over” by an officer of The Domain Expeditionary Force. This officer, who was stationed in the asteroid belt, was sent to Earth on a routine mission to gather reconnaissance.
The extraterrestrial goes into some detail how a non-corporal entity can take over the body of a physical person. I am quite sure that this astounded, and "blew the minds" of the military leadership at the Roswell base.
The purpose of this “take over” was to use the body as a “disguise” through which to infiltrate human society in order to gather information about current events on Earth. The officer, as an IS-BE, having greater power than the being inhabiting the body of the Archduke, simply “pushed” the being out and took over control of the body.
No problem with this. Though it might have scared the living Dejesus out of the Roswell leadership at that time.
However, this officer did not realize how much the Hapsburgs were hated by feuding factions in the country, so he was caught off guard when the body of the Archduke was assassinated by a Bosnian student. The officer, or IS-BE, was suddenly “knocked out” of the body when it was shot by the assassin. Disoriented, the IS-BE inadvertently penetrated one of the “amnesia force screens” and was captured.
And that is how this species learned about the "electronic force field" that prevents wave form data transfer, consciousness+ movement, and all other associated elements.
"Franz Ferdinand (December 18, 1863 - June 28, 1914) was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Prince Imperial of Austria and Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, and from 1896 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated the Austrian declaration of war. This caused countries allied with Austria-Hungary (the Central Powers) and countries allied with Serbia (the Entente Powers) to declare war on each other, starting World War I.
In 1889, Franz Ferdinand's life changed dramatically. His cousin Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide at his hunting lodge in Mayerling, leaving Franz Ferdinand's father, Archduke Karl Ludwig, as first in line to the throne. However his father renounced his succession rights a few days after the Crown Prince's death. Henceforth, Franz Ferdinand was groomed to succeed.
On June 28, 1914, at approximately 11:15 am, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were killed in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia and one of several (a few) assassins organized by The Black Hand (UpHa pyKa/Tsrna Ruka). The event, known as the Assassination in Sarajevo, triggered World War I.
Franz and Sophie had previously been attacked when a bomb was thrown at their car. It missed them, but many civilians were injured. Franz and Sophie both insisted on going to see all those injured at the hospital. As a result of this, Princip saw them and shot Sophie in the abdomen. Franz was shot in the jugular and was still alive when witnesses arrived to his aid, but it was too late; he died within minutes.
The assassinations, along with the arms race, nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and the alliance system all contributed to the beginning of World War I, which began less than two months after Franz Ferdinand's death, with Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia."
Eventually The Domain discovered that a wide area of space is monitored by an “electronic force field” which controls all of the IS-BEs in this end of the galaxy, including Earth. The electronic force screen is designed to detect IS-BEs and prevent them from leaving the area.
Using the prison analogy, you can liken it to walls, barbed wire, and search lights.
If any IS-BE attempts to penetrate the force screen, it “captures” them in a kind of “electronic net”. The result is that the captured IS-BE is subjected to a very severe “brainwashing” treatment which erases the memory of the IS-BE.
No problem with this.
This process uses a tremendous electrical shock, just like Earth psychiatrists use “electric shock therapy” to erase the memory and personality of a “patient” and to make them more “cooperative”.
"The story of electric shock began in 1938, when Italian psychiatrist Ugo Cerletti visited a Rome slaughterhouse to see what could be learned from the method that was employed to butcher hogs. In Cerletti's own words, "As soon as the hogs were clamped by the [electric] tongs, they fell unconscious, stiffened, then after a few seconds they were shaken by convulsions.... During this period of unconsciousness (epileptic coma), the butcher stabbed and bled the animals without difficulty
"At this point I felt we could venture to experiment on man, and I instructed my assistants to be on the alert for the selection of a suitable subject."
Cerletti's first victim was provided by the local police - a man described by Cerletti as "lucid and well-oriented." After surviving the first blast without losing consciousness, the victim overheard Cerletti discussing a second application with a higher voltage. He begged Cerletti, "Non una seconda! Mortifierel" ("Not another one! It will kill me!")
Ignoring the objections of his assistants, Cerletti increased the voltage and duration and fired again. With the "successful" electrically induced convulsion of his victim, Ugo Cerletti brought about the application of hog-slaughtering skills to humans, creating one of the most brutal techniques of psychiatry.
'Electric shock is also called electro-convulsive "therapy" or treatment (ECT), electroshock therapy or electric shock treatment (EST), electrostimulation, and electrolytic therapy (ELT). All are euphemistic terms for the same process: sending a searing blast of electricity through the brain in order to alter behavior."(Reference: http://www.sntp.net/ect/ect3.htm)
Today Electroshock therapy (ECT) is most often used as a treatment for severe major depression which has not responded to other treatment, and is also used in the treatment of mania, catatonia, schizophrenia and other disorders. It first gained widespread use as a form of treatment in the 1940s and 50s. Today, an estimated 1 million people worldwide receive ECT every year, usually in a course of 6-12 treatments administered 2 or 3 times a week.
Electroconvulsive therapy has "side-effects" which include confusion and memory loss for events around the time period of treatment. ECT have been shown to cause persistent memory loss. It is the effects of ECT on long-term memory that give rise to much of the concern surrounding its use. The acute effects of ECT include amnesia.
Registered nurse Barbara C. Cody reports in a letter to the Washington Post that her life "was forever changed by 13 outpatient ECTs I received in 1983. Shock 'therapy' totally and permanently disabled me. "EEGs [electroencephalograms] verify the extensive damage shock did to my brain. Fifteen to 20 years of my life were simply erased; only small bits and pieces have returned. I was also left with short-term memory impairment and serious cognitive deficits. "Shock 'therapy' took my past, my college education, my musical abilities, even the knowledge that my children were, in fact, my children."
Ernest Hemingway, American author, committed suicide shortly after Electric Shock treatment at the Menninger Clinic in 1961. He is reported to have said to his biographer, "Well, what is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business? It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient...."
On Earth this “therapy” uses only a few hundred volts of electricity. However, the electrical voltage used by the “Old Empire” operation against IS-BEs is on the order of magnitude of billions of volts!
"The general public may consider household mains circuits (100-250 V AC), which carry the highest voltages they normally encounter, to be high voltage. For example, an installer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment may be licensed to install 24 Volt control circuits, but may not be permitted to connect the 240 volt power circuits of the equipment.
Voltages over approximately 50 volts can usually cause dangerous amounts of current to flow through a human being touching two points of a circuit.
Voltages of greater than 50 V are capable of producing heart fibrillation if they produce electric currents in body tissues which happen to pass through the chest area. The electrocution danger is mostly determined by the low conductivity of dry human skin. If skin is wet, or if there are wounds, or if the voltage is applied to electrodes which penetrate the skin, then even voltage sources below 40 V can be lethal if contacted."
This tremendous shock completely wipes out all the memory of the IS-BE. The memory erasure is not just for one life or one body. It wipes out the all of the accumulated experiences of a nearly infinite past, as well as the identity of the IS-BE!
I wrote about this before. This is how you take subjects, and "farm them", and then capture their experiences. Then erase and then send them back to relive the experiences.
The shock is intended to make it impossible for the IS-BE to remember who they are, where they came from, their knowledge or skills, their memory of the past, and ability to function as a spiritual entity. They are overwhelmed into becoming a mindless, robotic nonentity.
No problem with this.
After the shock a series of post hypnotic suggestions are used to install false memories, and a false time orientation in each IS-BE.
"The ability of a human to be induced into a form of behavior or thinking pattern after coming out of the hypnotic state. Post hypnotic suggestions are administered by the hypnotist and may optionally include a time scope. An altered sense of perception or behavioral pattern may be "programmed" into the person under hypnosis. Certain sequences of events may be set as triggers to enter or exit the post-hypnotic pattern. The behavior patterns resemble conditioned reflexes, though administered without classical behavior alteration techniques.
Examples:
Any number, color, object, etc. may be induced to be ignored by the patient after full consciousness. A certain keyword starts the suggestion and a different word ends it. The patient will not know nor use the item to be ignored. He/she may state that the sea is colored red, if suggested to ignore the color blue. A count of eleven may be achieved if asked to count ones fingers if a number -say 5- is suggested to be ignored. Thus the patient counts 1-2-3-4-6-7-8-9-10-11
Different type of behavior patterns may be induced such as forcing the patient to recite a certain sentence whenever anyone says out loud the special keyword. The patient is fully aware of the conditioned action but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to restrain from doing it. Sweating, loss of coordination and full lack of concentration plagues the patient until he/she performs the programmed action.
An object may be set to be perceived as invisible and it will be fully ignored and evaded during the period of suggestion. Experiments may be performed with a coffee mug, induced to be invisible. If the mug is put on top of a page with writing, the patient will only read the parts not covered by the mug. Even though the sentences may make no sense, nothing is seemingly wrong to the suspected. It is difficult to suggest an object be invisible, yet stay tactile. Usually the object is completely ignored by all senses. Thus, the mug in the example will reportedly not exist, even when the patient is touching it.
Stage hypnotists will sometimes perform shows in which they hypnotize participants to think they are some celebrity and behave exactly like them. John Mohl, stage hypnotist and member of The National Guild of Hypnotists, says that he has often hypnotized people to become someone else! Mohl noticed that adults often became a celebrity while Middle or High School students usually become something much more creative or imaginative."
What I find most interesting about this is that this concept of "brain washing" and suggestion to control others was NEW information provided to the Roswell military leadership in 1947.
From it, was spawned Monarchprogramming.
I can clearly see a straight line military development from this interrogation, to the Monarch mind control program. And since I do, it lends credibility to this entire disclosure.
This includes the command to “return” to the base after the body dies, so that the same kind of shock and hypnosis can be done again, and again, again – forever. The hypnotic command also tells the “patient” to forget to remember.
No problem with this.
What The Domain learned from the experience of this officer is that the “Old Empire” has been using Earth as a “prison planet” for a very long time – exactly how long is unknown – perhaps millions of years.
This is not what I understand. I think that "Prison Planet" is much too strong a term. I prefer the term "sentience nursery".
Aside from a completely different connotation, it helps us to understand that this area is a place for growth and development. While the idea of a "prison planet" is one of isolation and punishment.
It is very important that the reader understand the difference, between these two, and the relationship and role that thy have here in this life that they are living. While it might be true that this earth once might have been a "prison plant", today it is in the process of being reformed, and the Type-1 greys are working with other entities to make sure that this happens.
In fact, I am 100% convinced that the Earth being a "sentience nursery" is the recovery effort initiated by the Type-1 greys to rehabilitate the human species and get them out from under this horrible "electromagnetic force field". Which is why the Mantids are involved in dealing on a person-to-person, consciousness-to-consciousness basis.
So, when the body of the IS-BE dies they depart from the body. They are detected by the “force screen”, they are captured and “ordered” by hypnotic command to “return to the light“.
No problem with this.
The idea of “heaven” and the “afterlife” are part of the hypnotic suggestion – a part of the treachery that makes the whole mechanism work.
(Read “The Invisible College – War in Heaven – A Completely New And Revolutionary Conception of The Nature of Spiritual Reality”).
After the IS-BE has been shocked and hypnotized to erase the memory of the life just lived, the IS-BE is immediately “commanded”, hypnotically, to “report” back to Earth, as though they were on a secret mission, to inhabit a new body. Each IS-BE is told that they have a special purpose for being on Earth. But, of course there is no purpose for being in a prison – at least not for the prisoner.
No problem with this.
Any undesirable IS-BEs who are sentenced to Earth were classified as “untouchable” by the “Old Empire”.
"In the Indian caste system, a Dalit, often called an untouchable, or an outcaste, is a person who according to traditional Hindu belief does not have any 'varnas". Varna refers to the Hindu belief that most humans were supposedly created from different parts of the body of the divinity Purusha.
The part from which a varna was supposedly created defines a person's social status with regard to issues such as whom they may marry and which professions they may hold. Dalits fall outside the varnas system and have historically been prevented from doing any but the most menial jobs. (However, a distinction must be made between lower-caste people and Pariahs.) Included are leather-workers (called chamar), carcass handlers (called mahar), poor farmers and landless labourers, night soil scavengers (called bhangi or chura), street handicrafters, folk artists, street cleaners, dhobi, etc.
Traditionally, they were treated as pariahs in South Asian society and isolated in their own communities, to the point that even their shadows were avoided by the upper castes.
Discrimination against Dalits still exists in rural areas in the private sphere, in ritual matters such as access to eating places and water sources. It has largely disappeared, however, in urban areas and in the public sphere, in rights of movement and access to schools. The earliest rejection of discrimination, at least in spiritual matters, was made as far back as the Bhagavada Gita, which says that no person, no matter what, is barred from enlightenment There are an estimated 160 million Dalits in India."
Reference: Wikipedia.org
"Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: "Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit 'witch' paraded naked in Bihar"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; '7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash"; "5 Dalits lynched in Haryana"; "Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked"; "Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits".
"Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls," said Smita Narula, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, and author of Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's "Untouchables." Human Rights Watch is a worldwide activist organization based in New York. India's Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense. Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are Dalits."
Reference: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html
This included anyone that the “Old Empire” judged to be criminals who are too vicious to be reformed or subdued, as well as other criminals such as sexual perverts, or beings unwilling to do any productive work.
No problem with this.
An “untouchable” classification of IS-BEs also includes a wide variety of “political prisoners”.
"A political prisoner is someone held in prison or otherwise detained, perhaps under house arrest, for his/her involvement in political activity.
political prisoners are arrested and tried with a veneer of legality, where false criminal charges, manufactured evidence, and unfair trials are used to disguise the fact that an individual is a political prisoner. This is common in situations which may otherwise be decried nationally and internationally as a human rights violation and suppression of a political dissident. A political prisoner can also be someone that has been denied bail unfairly, denied parole when it would reasonably have been given to a prisoner charged with a comparable crime, or special powers may be invoked by the judiciary.
Particularly in this latter situation, whether an individual is regarded as a political prisoner may depend upon subjective political perspective or interpretation of the evidence. Governments typically reject assertions that they hold political prisoners.
Examples:
In the Soviet Union, dubious psychiatric diagnoses were sometimes used to confine political prisoners. In Nazi Germany, "Night and Fog"prisoners were among the first victims of fascist repression. In North Korea, entire families are jailed if one family member is suspected of anti-government sentiments."
-- Reference: Wikipedia.org
This includes IS-BEs who are considered to be noncompliant “free thinkers” or “revolutionaries” who make trouble for the governments of the various planets of the “Old Empire”. Of course, anyone with a previous military record against the “Old Empire” is also shipped off to Earth.
No problem with this.
A list of “untouchables” include artists, painters, singers, musicians, writers, actors, and performers of every kind. For this reason Earth has more artists per capita than any other planet in the “Old Empire”.
No problem with this.
“Untouchables” also include intellectuals, inventors and geniuses in almost every field. Since everything the “Old Empire” considers valuable has long since been invented or created over the last few trillion years, they have no further use for such beings. This includes skilled managers also, which are not needed in a society of obedient, robotic citizens.
No problem with this.
Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the “Old Empire” are “untouchable” and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth.
Is it just me? But it just seems like the United States is trying to replicate The "Old Empire".
The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can’t remember who they are, where they came from, where they are. They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than were they really are.
No problem with this.
The Domain officer who was “assassinated” while in the body of Archduke of Austria was, likewise, captured by the “Old Empire” force. Because this particular officer was a high powered IS-BE, compared to most, he was taken away to a secret “Old Empire” base under the surface of the planet Mars. They put him into a special electronic prison cell and held him there.
No problem with this.
Fortunately, this Domain officer was able to escape from the underground base after 27 years in captivity. When he escaped from the “Old Empire” base, he returned immediately to his own base in the asteroid belt.
No problem with this.
His commanding officer ordered that a battle cruiser be dispatched to the coordinates of the base, provided by this officer, and to destroy that base completely.
(The following internet links shows maps of a complex of artificial looking structures which some people have referred to a the "Pyramid Complex, The Face on Mars, and other geological features that are strikingly similar to symbols and architecture found in Mesoamerican and Egyptian pyramid civilizations. Notice how the "pyramids and face structures look as though they have been partially destroyed! Had there been an "Old Empire" base at this location, which was destroyed by a cruiser attack from The Domain Force, it base would have been significantly damaged.)
http://www.greatdreams.com/cydonia.htm
http://www.qtm.net/~geibdan/cydonia.html
"In addition, a team of scientists from the United States Geological Survey reported at the recent annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, that images taken by NASA s Mars-orbiting spacecraft Mars Odyssey show what appear to be cave entrances where primitive life forms - "past or present microbial life" - could have been sheltered, and where water could exist in liquid form.
A more detailed perusal of the report reveals that the spacecraft actually photographed, in both visual and infrared, puzzling dark circular structures associated with these caves -structures ranging in size from 100 to 250 meters (330 to 825 feet). Picking up the hardly-noticed story in its June 2007 issue, the prestigious journal Scientific American has now provided additional information: Seven such "football size" caverns were identified; they are 425 feet deep. "
Although the military base of the “Old Empire” was destroyed, unfortunately, much of the vast machinery of the IS-BE force screens, the electroshock / amnesia / hypnosis machinery continues to function in other undiscovered locations right up to the present moment. The main base or control center for this “mind control prison” operation has never been found. So, the influences of this base, or bases, are still in effect.
No problem with this.
The Domain has observed that since the “Old Empire” space forces were destroyed there is no one left to actively prevent other planetary systems from bringing their own “untouchable” IS-BEs to Earth from all over this galaxy, and from other galaxies nearby.
Therefore, Earth has become a universal dumping ground for this entire region of space.
Well, maybe, but who really knows?
This, in part, explains the very unusual mix of races, cultures, languages, moral codes, religious and political influences among the IS-BE population on Earth. The number and variety of heterogeneous societies on Earth are extremely unusual on a normal planet. Most “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planets are inhabited by only one humanoid body type or race, if any.
No problem with this.
In addition, most of the ancient civilizations of Earth, and many of the events of Earth have been heavily influenced by the hidden, hypnotic operation of the “Old Empire” base. So far, no one has figured out exactly where and how this operation is run, or by whom because it is so heavily protected by screens and traps.
No problem with this.
Furthermore, there has been no operation undertaken to seek out, discover and destroy the vast and ancient network of electronics machinery that create the IS-BE force screens at this end of the galaxy.
No problem with this.
Until this has been done, we are not able to prevent or interrupt the electric shock operation, hypnosis and remote thought control of the “Old Empire” prison planet.
No problem with this.
Of course all of the crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force now remain aware of this phenomena at all times while operating in this solar system space so as to prevent detection and the capture by “Old Empire” traps.”
End of part 2
There are miss-translations on time, confusions in regard to galaxies and universes, and a mish-mash of confusion between consciousness+, humans, and some confusion regarding galactic “ownership” and “power projection” between different species.
The more I parse it in detail, the clearer to me that this is exactly what it is claimed to be.
Key Points
Never the less, I believe the following to be true in regards to this parsing of this section of the book…
Most of what was stated was factually accurate… provided that the war between the “Dominion” and the “Old Empire” is correct. But this has never been a key knowledge base for my role, and thus I know nothing at all about it.
The information about “time” is also correct. It is wholly misunderstood by most humans.
Since the 1980’s MAJestic has taken a major role in working with this species and <redacted>, <redacted> and the Mantids towards the maintenance and development of this “Prison Planet” into a “Sentience Nursery”.
The Roswell leadership should be able to understand and relate to the military aspects of the narrative.
The aspects regarding consciousness+ movement would probably simply terrify the Roswell leadership, and confuse them. But they are really actually very accurate.
So far, in parsing this document, I see no reason to describe it as a fictional work. It appears to be exactly what it said it is.
Apparently the writings about “Mind Control” ended up spawning American covert effort in the Monarch Program.
There is no reason for the Type-1 grey extraterrestrial to lie. None.
The information provided had / has a purpose. It appears that the background information is truthful, but tailored to the limitations of the target audience, and worded to appeal to their understandings.
And finally…
Because MAJestic was established, and my role involved strong interaction with this species, and you all in MM land can see the content and the direction of my articles, it should be obvious that [1] MAJestic believed what the extraterrestrial said, and [2] my role is part of this reconstruction effort.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and a lot of things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
Website
There is a website devoted to this book. You can visit it HERE.
They seem to make posts based of passages from the book, and then delve into greater detail from there.
I do not (personally) believe that this is warranted. From what I know of the Type-1 greys they tell us what we want to hear, for the most part. And if you look at the content of the book, you can easily see fraudulent elements that were remnants of the popular culture at the time.
Never the less I believe the transcript to be authentic.
The bibliotecapleyades on-line version of the book. HERE.
Introduction
A Mrs. MacElroy presented an envelope of transcripts to a publisher in 2007. In the envelope and over the phone she asked the publisher to do what he could to get them to be published. She claimed to be the duty nurse at the Roswell Army base in New Mexico in 1947. And further, she claimed that she was the sole interpreter / translator of the sole surviving extraterrestrial fro the wreckage.
The content of this book is primarily excerpted from the letter, interview transcripts and personal notes I received from the late Matilda O'Donnell MacElroy. Her letter to me asserts that this material is based on her recollection of communication with an alien being, who "spoke" with her telepathically.
During July and August of 1947 she interviewed an extraterrestrial being who she identifies as "Airl", and whom she claims was and continues to be an officer, pilot and engineer who was recovered from a flyer saucer that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico on July 8th, 1947.
She was late in age and was ready to die. This, apparently, was her effort to make sure that the experience that she had would not be forgotten.
The initial letter from Mrs. MacElroy was received on September 14th, 2007, together with a package of documents. The package contained three types of documents:
Hand-written notes in cursive on ordinary, lined, 8 1/2″ X 11″school notebook paper, which I assume had been written personally by Mrs. MacElroy.
Notes typed on a manual typewriter on plain, white 20 lb. bond paper, which I am assume were prepared personally by her. At least both had the appearance of having been written in the same hand writing, and / or typed on the same typewriter consistently throughout. The writing in the notes I received also appeared to be the same as the writing on the address and return address of the manila envelope I received from Navan, Ireland, which was postmarked on 3 September, 2007. Since I am not a forensic expert, or handwriting analyst, my opinion in these matter is not a professionally qualified judgment.
Many pages of typewritten transcriptions of her interview with the alien. These were obviously typed on a different typewriter. These pages were typed on a different type of paper and showed apparent signs of age and repeated handling.
There is a lot, especially in the front 1/3 of the document, that seems credible to me an MAJestic “operator”. There is also quite a lot that is alien to me, and a substantial amount that does not match what I know to be the truth.
Thus, I must rightfully conclude that a large bulk of the information follows the type-1 grey MAJestic warning:
“They tell you what you want to believe, not necessarily the truth.“.
All in all, I think that [1] the truth is this is that these are actual transcripts from the Roswell event. However, [2] the content is tailored to the interpreter and her superiors. Thus, [3] most of it’s content is inaccurate, or misleading to us reading it 70 years later.
I have first-hand experience with these type-1 greys. I have worked with them. I have been at their facilities. I have interacted them in both the physical and the non-physical. So I do have more than just a little bit of knowledge concerning this subject.
However, my EBP entanglement was with another species known as the Mantids, and they view things quite differently. Though, truthfully, it was THIS species that manufactured the EBP, installed it inside my skull (off world), and laid out the “training” that I had at NAS, NASC China Lake.
From the MM point of view, this [4] entire exercise offers us a great “spring board” for investigation, and I would like to use what I know to sort out this document and turn it into something that is useful for all of us to learn from.
Finally, [5] there are errors in understanding of a 1948 nurse and terminology and lexicon, that I will try to resolve here.
Limitations
I am not going to reprint the entire book here. The same does for the notes by the nurse, and the various supporting documents held within the PDF.
Instead, I am going to parse the transcript of what the type-1 grey had to say. I will do so based on my role in MAJestic, and what I know through the EBP entanglements.
SUBJECT: ALIEN INTERVIEW, 9. 7. 1947
QUESTION – “Are you injured?”
ANSWER -NO
QUESTION – “What medical assistance do you require?”
ANSWER -NONE
QUESTION – “Do need food or water or other sustenance?”
ANSWER -NO
QUESTION – “Do you have any special environmental needs, such as air temperature, atmospheric chemical content, air pressure, or waste elimination?”
ANSWER – NO. I AM NOT A BIOLOGICAL BEING.
At this point, early on in the interview we see that the body is a construct used by a being in wave form. It does not require any of the support equipment needed by biological creatures.
QUESTION – “Does your body or space craft carry any germs or contamination that may be harmful to humans or other Earth life forms?”
ANSWER -NO GERMS IN SPACE.
QUESTION – “Does your government know you are here?”
ANSWER – NOT AT THIS TIME
QUESTION – “Are others of your kind going to come looking for you?”
ANSWER – YES
QUESTION – “What is the weapons capability of your people?”
ANSWER – VERY DESTRUCTIVE.
QUESTION – “Why did your space craft crash?”
ANSWER – IT WAS STRUCK BY AN ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE FROM THE ATMOSPHERE WHICH CAUSED US TO LOSE CONTROL.
This differs from my understanding. I was told that radar technology developed by the Germans during World War II were being tested in New Mexico, and they are what brought the vehicle down. Aircraft getting hit by lightening is a common event and rarely causes the crash of a vehicle.
QUESTION – “Why was your space craft in this area?”
ANSWER – INVESTIGATION OF “BURNING CLOUDS” / RADIATION /
EXPLOSIONS
The first test of a nuclear weapon was in the atmosphere on July 16, 1945, in a remote part of New Mexico on what was then the Alamogordo Bombing Range, and is now the White Sands Missile Range. The site is 55 miles northwest of Alamogordo, New Mexico.
QUESTION – “How does your space craft fly?”
ANSWER -IT IS CONTROLLED THROUGH “MIND”. RESPONDS TO “THOUGHT COMMANDS”.
QUESTION – “How do your people communicate with each other?”
ANSWER –
THROUGH MIND /THOUGHT.
QUESTION – “Do you have a written language or symbols for communication?”
ANSWER -YES
QUESTION – “What planet are you from?”
ANSWER – THE HOME / BIRTHPLACE WORLD OF THE DOMAIN
QUESTION – “Will your government send representatives to meet with our leaders?”
ANSWER -NO
QUESTION – “What are your intentions concerning
Earth?”
ANSWER -PRESERVE / PROTECT PROPERTY OF THE DOMAIN
QUESTION – “What have you learned about Earth governments and military installations?”
ANSWER – POOR / SMALL. DESTROY PLANET.
Earth governments are "poor" and "small", but they have the power to destroy the entire planet.
QUESTION – “Why haven’t your people made your existence known to the people of Earth?”
ANSWER – WATCH / OBSERVE. NO CONTACT.
QUESTION – “Have your people visited Earth’s previously?”
ANSWER – PERIODIC / REPEATING OBSERVATIONS.
QUESTION – “How long have you known about Earth?”
ANSWER – LONG BEFORE HUMANS.
Pre-historic humanoids date back to 400,000 years. At that time they were tool making, cart making creatures that seemed to have an appreciation of music, speaking, and society. Though no written language. Proto-humans date back even further, going back 2 million years. This knowledge will be useful to explain other statements made later on.
QUESTION – “What do you know about the history of civilization on Earth?”
ANSWER – SMALL INTEREST / ATTENTION. SMALL TIME.
QUESTION – “Can you describe your home world to us?”
ANSWER – PLACE OF CIVILIZATION / CULTURE / HISTORY. LARGE PLANET. WEALTH / RESOURCES ALWAYS. ORDER. POWER.
KNOWLEDGE / WISDOM. TWO STARS. THREE MOONS.
QUESTION – “What is the state of development of your civilization?”
ANSWER – ANCIENT. TRILLIONS OF YEARS. ALWAYS. ABOVE ALL OTHERS. PLAN. SCHEDULE. PROGRESS. WIN. HIGH GOALS / IDEAS.
Our universe is roughly 14 billion years old. While a soul and consciousness can be much older than that, I take the term "trillions" to mean "an unfathomably long period of time".
QUESTION – “Do you believe in God?”
ANSWER – WE THINK. IT IS. MAKE IT CONTINUE. ALWAYS.
QUESTION – “What type of society do you have?”
ANSWER – ORDER. POWER. FUTURE ALWAYS. CONTROL. GROW.
QUESTION – “Are there other intelligent life forms besides yourself in the universe?”
ANSWER – EVERYWHERE. WE ARE GREATEST / HIGHEST OF ALL.
Thoughts from the first interview
Obviously the book has the notes hand written on the paper that pretty much helped explain her thoughts and impressions. I left those out.
As you can see, not much was gleaned from the first interview.
But as it was, it was very productive. At that time, the entire Army base was abuzz with soldiers all of which just finished fighting a bloody global war with fanatical Nazi’s and Japanese. Their mind-set was militaristic, aggressive, defensive, protective, and nationalistic. It was a hostile environment for an extraterrestrial species to enter.
The extraterrestrial pilot, who like all type-1 greys, can read the non-physical world about it, fully understood the situation and was actively reading and absorbing the thoughts of everyone around it. And like all type-1 greys, assimilated the knowledge, and made the appropriate physical actions.
Which was do nothing. Wait in the room.
The next day…
SUBJECT: ALIEN INTERVIEW, 10. 7. 1947
“QUESTION – “Why have you stopped communicating?”
ANSWER -NO STOP. OTHERS. HIDDEN / COVERED. SECRET FEAR.
SUBJECT: ALIEN INTERVIEW, 11. 7. 1947
“QUESTION – Can you read or write any Earth languages?
ANSWER -NO.
QUESTION – Do you understand numbers or mathematics?
ANSWER – YES. I AM OFFICER / PILOT / ENGINEER
QUESTION – Can you write or draw symbols or pictures that we may be able to translate into our own language?
ANSWER –UNCERTAIN
QUESTION – Are there any other signs or means of communication you can use to help us understand your thoughts more clearly?
ANSWER -NO.”
QUESTION – Can you show us on a map of the stars which is the star of your home planet? ANSWER -NO.
As discussed, this question is based on the assumption that there is one singular planet that the species departed, and that is it's "home planet". Which is false, and if you understand that this species is a non-physical species that creates physical bodies for use in physical space, you can recognize what an impossible question this is to answer.
This species is part of a wide organization, with many, many regions that they inhabit. This includes both the physical and non-physical. Most of which 99.999% were unknown to the military and scientists at that time. In fact, at that time, they didn't know about brown dwarfs, or even if there were planets around stars. And many thought that the earth was the center of the universe.
QUESTION – How long will it take your people to locate you here?
ANSWER -UNKNOWN.
QUESTION – How long would it take your people to travel here to rescue you?
ANSWER – MINUTES OR HOURS.
QUESTION – How can we make them understand that we do not intend to harm you?
ANSWER – INTENTIONS ARE CLEAR. SEE IN YOUR MIND / IMAGES /FEELINGS.
At this point, the more astute should realize that they were absolutely transparent to this being. And that their plans, thoughts, secrets and desires were open and presented to it and they had no defense against it.
QUESTION – If you are not a biological entity, why do you refer to yourself as feminine?
ANSWER – I AM A CREATOR. MOTHER. SOURCE.”
“QUESTION – “What assurance or proof do you require from us that will make you feel safe enough to answer our questions.”
ANSWER – ONLY SHE SPEAKS. ONLY SHE HEARS. ONLY SHE QUESTIONS. NO OTHERS. MUST LEARN / KNOW / UNDERSTAND.”
There it is. The type-1 grey defines who, what, when, why, how and where. No one else.
Then, according to the notes;
“On the afternoon of the 16th day Airl and I sat next to each other as she read. She closed the last page of a book she was reading and placed it aside. I was about to hand her the next book from a large pile waiting to be read, when she turned and said or “thought” to me, “I am ready to speak now”. At first I was a little confused by the remark. I gestured for her to continue and she began to teach me my first lesson.”
Up to this point, everything was very matter-of-fact, clear, cut and dry. Now we enter “the twilight zone” and start getting into the real “meat” of the interview. And it is this part that REALLY NEEDS to be sorted out and put into context.
“I have been a part of the Domain Expeditionary Force in this sector of space for several thousand years. However, I have not personally had intimate contact with beings on Earth since 5,965 BCE. It is not my primary function to interact with inhabitants of planets within The Domain. I am an Officer, Pilot and Engineer, with many duties to perform. Nonetheless, although I am fluent in 347 other languages within The Domain, I have not been exposed to your English language.
Said very interestingly. However, let's parse this statement to it's basics.
This officer
[1] has been assigned to this region for a long stretch of time (from a human perspective).
[2] Hasn't interacted with humans for roughly 8,000 years.
[3] Is an officer, a pilot, and an engineer.
[4] Is fluent in numerous languages spoken within their "nation" / "federation".
[5] Does not speak English until now.
The last Earth language with which I was conversant was the Sanskrit language of the Vedic Hymns. At that time I was a member of a mission sent to investigate the loss of a Domain base located in the Himalaya Mountains. An entire battalion of officers, pilots, communications and administrative personnel disappeared and the base destroyed.
This officer learned the local Earth language when investigating the loss of one of their outposts. This was in the Himalaya mountains, and at that time 8,000 years ago, the locals spoke Sanskrit. It was a large outpost.
Knowing what I know, I can tell you that this was a sizable installation. It was large, and it maintained a large contingent of personnel, and they were active in doing what ever they were active in doing. A facility this size has a purpose. And what it was, or what it was doing, is not specified.
Several million years ago I was trained and served as an Investigation, Data Evaluation and Program Development Officer for The Domain. Because I was experienced in that technology, I was sent to Earth as part of the search team.
Again, do not get all caught up on the specific numbers and terms. Just look at the basics what it was saying.
The type-1 extraterrestrial had training in the specialties needed to investigate the mystery of the lost outpost. So it was sent down to the area to investigate.
One of my duties involved interrogation of the human population that inhabited the adjoining area at that time.Many of the people in that region reported sighting “vimanas” or space craft in the area.
Thus the reason why the "non-contact" protocols were breached. The local humans needed to be interviewed, and they needed to be understood. So it learned the local language at that time.
In interviewing them (not specified how), the humans reported seeing spaceships and vehicles in the area. Which was telling. As the type-1 greys have a "non-contact" / "non-interference" policy and all their ships are hidden from view (cloaked).
This means that they were observing space vehicles of another nation / civilization / species.
Following the logical extension of evidence, testimony, observation, as well as the absence of certain evidence, I led my team to the discovery that there were still “Old Empire” ships and well-hidden “Old Empire” installations in this solar system of which we had been completely unaware.
It makes reference to an "old empire". This is entirely plausible, however, it does seem to be contrived to fit the mind-set of the military at the facility at that time.
For all of military at the base (at that time) had just spent the last few years fighting the Nazi Germans and the Japanese empires. It seems logical to me that the Type-1 grey would carefully construct a narrative that the human base commanders would relate to, accept and understand.
You and I were unable to communicate in your language because I, personally, have not been exposed to your language. However, now that I have scanned the books and material you provided me this data has been relayed to our space station in this region and processed by our communications officer through our computers. It has been translated into my own language and relayed back to me in a context that I can think with. I have also received additional information from the files stored in our computers about the English language and Domain records concerning Earth civilization.”
It obtained the books. Scanned the content. Relayed it to "the cloud" at the base. Massaged it, cross-indexed it with known available records, and now is able to converse in English at a more professional level.
“Now I am prepared to give you certain information that I feel will be of great value to you.
Up until this point in time, I believe that all the information was wholly accurate, and truthful to the understanding of the people in the Roswell facility.
It is at this juncture, that it decides to "give certain information" that might benefit humans.
I will tell you the truth. Although truth is relative to all other truth, I wish to share with you as honestly and accurately as possible, truth as I see it, within the boundaries of my integrity to myself, to my race and without violating my obligations to the organization I serve and have sworn to uphold and protect”.
The key phrase is "truth is relative to other truths". And that is the KEY to unlocking and understanding all which was stated.
It is [1] providing a mixture of information that [2] will be believable to the military leadership at the base, all intended to convey [3] various points that it wants to establish.
Knowing what I know, the points that it wanted to establish were...
[A] The Type-1 greys are a old, advanced species.
[B] The Type-1 greys own the Earth and everything surrounding it.
[C] The Type-1 greys are very strong militarily.
[D] Avenues for further communication will be made possible but on the terms established by the Type-1 greys.
Everything else is clouded in a mish-mash of mercurial and seemingly unrelated, but highly detailed (trigger) subjects designed to evoke a certain degree of emotional and mental reactions from the military staff at the facility.
“OK”, I thought. “Will you answer questions from the gallery now?”
“No. I will not answer questions. I will provide information to you that I think will be beneficial to the well-being of the immortal spiritual beings who comprise humanity, and that will foster the survival of all the myriad life forms and the environment of Earth, as it is a part of my mission to ensure the preservation of Earth.
As part of it's role and mission to ensure the preservation of the Earth, it will provide a narrative. This narrative will provide "information" which will eventually be beneficial to the souls of the humans that exist on the Earth.
“Personally, it is my conviction that all sentient beings are immortal spiritual beings. This includes human beings. For the sake of accuracy and simplicity I will use a made-up word: “IS-BE“. Because the primary nature of an immortal being is that they live in a timeless state of “is”, and the only reason for their existence is that they decide to “be”.
What it is talking about is "individual consciousness" which is a creation of soul.
This term "IS-BE" is confusing. For our purposes here, we will simply refer to it as "consciousness+".
It describes consciousness as it has decided to enter various life-lines through various world-lines. Of course, this understanding was well-beyond the military minded folk right after world war 2. So it made up it's own term.
No matter how lowly their station in a society, every IS-BE deserves the respect and treatment that I myself would like to receive from others. Each person on Earth continues to be an IS-BE whether they are aware of the fact or not.”
Continued, and with personal notes from the interpreter.
“Airl told me her reasons for coming to Earth and for being in the area of the 509th Bomber Squadron. She was sent by her superior officers to investigate the explosions of nuclear weapons which have been tested in New Mexico. Her superiors ordered her to gather information from the atmosphere that could be used to determine the extent of radiation and potential harm this might cause to the environment. During her mission, the space craft was struck by a lighting which caused her to lose control and crash.
This was covered earlier (above).
While investigating nuclear detonations in the New Mexico region, the vehicle experienced some kind of wave frequency / electro-magnetic interference. The type-1 extraterrestrial believed that it was due to natural weather irregularities. But, within two years, they will realize that it was due to radar interference with their electrical control systems.
The space craft is operated by IS-BEs who use “doll bodies” in much the same way that an actor wears a mask and costume. It is a like a mechanical tool through which to operate in the physical world. She, as well as all of the other IS-BEs of the officer class and their superiors, inhabit these “doll bodies” when they are on duty in space. When they are not on duty, they “leave” the body and operate, think, communicate, travel, and exist without the use of a body.
Not stated in the transcripts, but in the personal notes of the nurse is the understanding that these constructed bodies are just like suits of clothing that the type-1 grey extraterrestrial entities wear.
The bodies are constructed of synthetic materials, including a very sensitive electrical nervous system, to which each IS-BE adjusts themselves or “tune in” to an electronic wave length that is matched uniquely to the wavelength or frequency emitted by each IS-BE.
Each IS-BE is capable of creating a unique wave frequency which identifies them, much like a radio signal frequency. This serves, in part, as identification like a finger print. The doll body acts like a radio receiver for the IS-BE. No two frequencies or doll bodies are exactly the same.
The bodies of each IS-BE crew member are likewise tuned into and connected to the “nervous system” built into the space craft. The space craft is built in much the same way as the doll body. It is adjusted specifically to the frequency of each IS-BE crew member. Therefore, the craft can be operated by the “thoughts” or energy emitted by the IS-BE. It is really a very simple, direct control system. So, there are no complicated controls or navigation equipment on board the space craft. They operate as an extension of the IS-BE.
When the lightning bolt struck the space craft this caused a short circuit and consequently “disconnected” them from the control of the ship momentarily which resulted in the crash.
Again, the belief is that the default explanation for the crash was a natural phenomenon based upon assumption.
Were the type-1 greys to investigate the crash and wreckage, they would (and eventually will) identify the root cause failure. Which was a real surprise to them, I am sure. And resulted in changes to the control systems of the spacecraft.
Airl was, and still is, an officer, pilot and engineer in an expeditionary force which is part of a space opera civilization which refers to itself as “The Domain”.
I have no problem calling the type-1 greys part of a "space opera civilization".
Firstly [1] because they are one of the dominant species in our region. Secondly [2] that the military leadership at Roswell would easily understand this reference. And thirdly [3] all the subsequent information provided illustrates this point most clearly.
This civilization controls a vast number of galaxies, stars, planets, moons and asteroids throughout an area of space that is approximately one-fourth of the entire physical universe!
It could be. Or it could not. No one really actually knows.
My understanding from this differs substantially.
As I understand it, this species can travel the universe, and has control over regions of space in other galaxies. But as far as our galaxy is concerned, it's control is about 25% of it, and our solar system is somewhere off to the side of the central area of control. The are expanding inward towards the center from the outer rim.
This nurse, is making a common mistake associating "the universe" with "the galaxy".
The continuing mission of her organization is to “Secure, control and expand the territory and resources of The Domain”.
Airl pointed out that their own activities were very similar in many ways to the European explorers who “discovered” and “claimed” the New World for The Holy Father, The Pope and for the kings of Spain, Portugal and later, Holland, England, France and so forth.
Europe benefited from the property “acquired” from the native inhabitants. However, the native inhabitants were never consulted with or asked for their permission to become a part of the “domain” of European nations and the soldiers and priests they sent to acquire territory and wealth in order to advance their interests.
Airl said she read in a history book that the Spanish king regretted the brutal treatment of the native inhabitants by his soldiers. He feared retribution from the gods he worshiped, as described in the various testaments of the Bible. He asked the Pope to prepare a statement called “The Requirement” which was supposed to be read to each of the newly encountered native inhabitants.
The king hoped that the statement, whether it was accepted or rejected by the natives, would absolve the King of all responsibility for the resulting slaughter and enslavement of these people. He used this statement as justification to confiscate their lands and possessions by his soldiers and the Pope’s priests. Apparently, the Pope, personally, did not have any feelings of guilt or responsibility in the matter.
Airl thought that such actions were those of a coward and that it is no surprise that the territory of Spain was diminished so quickly. Only a few years later the king was dead and his empire had been assimilated by other nations.
While this entire narrative and story was not included in the interview transcripts, I do not doubt that it occurred in silent unspoken communication between the two.
Souls are constructed and grow from the experiences that consciousness generates.
If your consciousness (in whatever form you take) creates destructive, unwarranted and unfair actions, tumult, pain, sadness, and emotional and physical strife...
...this creation will reside upon all your works, and your soul construct no matter how pleasant and beautiful you (and your works) look on the outside.
Eventually, it will try to find a point of lowest energy potential and all will manifest and come down hard on your "great works". It is no surprise that the type-1 grey talked in these terms.
Airl said that this sort of behavior does not occur in The Domain. Their leaders assume full responsibility for the actions of The Domain, and would not denigrate themselves in this fashion. Nor do they fear any gods or have any regret for their actions.
This idea reinforces my earlier suggestion that Airl and her people are probably atheists.
Missing the point.
Say that you kidnapped someone when you were in your 20's. You raped them, then you killed them, you hid the body, and no one knew anything at all about it.
For sixty years you raised a family, went to church, and worked at your job and got your gold watch at retirement.
On your death bed, you made a last confession. You told the priest about the murder, and he "absolved you of all your sins", and you died and expected to go into Heaven.
What's next?
A mantid (angel) comes and you go in front of a committee and they review your life. They see the good works, the bad works, and the terrible works.
Are your sins absolved?
No. They are not.
Buy doing those terrible things, you have "hoisted a huge grand piano, with a strong hemp rope, a full 80 stories above your head".
(This is a figurative illustration that suggests that you have created a very dangerous situation and now lie under the threat of this situation that you created.)
Until you resolve your deeds, you will have that danger with you always, and it attracts people who have sharp knives and who love to cut ropes.
(Again, figuratively, you will attract to you events, and things that will trigger a release of that danger that you created.)
You will need to resolve that, and the best way is a role reversal in your next life. The second best, is to take on a positive and helpful role doing good deeds and making great things happen. A third way is to accept it, and allow the piano to fall on you as that is the consequence for your actions.
Now all of this would have been totally alien to the military leadership at Roswell at that time.
In the case of the acquisition of Earth by The Domain, the rulers of The Domain have chosen not to openly reveal this intention to the “native inhabitants” of Earth until a later time when it may, or may not, suit their interests to reveal themselves. For the present time, it is not strategically necessary to make the presence of The Domain Expeditionary Force known to Mankind. In fact, until now, it has been very aggressively hidden, for reasons that will be revealed later.
Simple. The Earth is owned by the type-1 greys. There is no need to tell any of the Earth inhabitants of this truth. Maybe sometime in the future, the Type-1 greys will work and communicate with humans in various nations of the world, but not in 1948.
I can tell you that this occurred with the United States in the 1970's and MAJestic was formed as a result of this level of communication.
I can also tell you that both China, and Russia have also been in contact with the Type-1 greys. But I cannot elaborate on the extent of that communication.
The asteroid belt near Earth is a very small, but important location for The Domain in this part of space. Actually, some of the objects in our solar system are very valuable for use as low-gravity “space stations”. They are interested primarily in the low gravity satellites in this solar system which consists mainly of the side of the moon facing away from Earth and the asteroid belt, which was a planet that was destroyed billions of years ago, and to a lesser degree, Mars and Venus.
Nothing new here. The Type-1 greys are interested in the asteroid belt, and the moon (on the "far side").
Doom Domed structures synthesized from gypsum or underground bases covered by electromagnetic force screens are easily constructed to house the Domain forces.
Bases and facilities are easily created in this solar system. They consist of domed structures, or underground facilities hidden by electromagnetic force screens.
Once an area of space is acquired by The Domain and becomes a part of the territory under its control, it is treated as the “property” of The Domain. The space station near the planet Earth is important only because it lay along a path of The Domain expansion route toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy and beyond.
Nothing new. And this information can be well understood by the Roswell military at that time.
End of part 1
So far there is NOTHING in this transcript that I can find fault with.
There’s some minor errors in translation, and misconceptions, but most of what is going on is what you would expect. In this first part, there wasn’t any intentional misdirection, falsehoods, or deceptions that I can identify.
Of course, this information would have been an absolute SHOCK to the world at that time. And no one was ready for the idea that [1] there were other species in universe, or that [2] they owned us lock, stock and barrel.
In this article, I tried to put things into perspective with what I know, and added some insight. I also purposefully omitted much of the opinions, thoughts and clutter that the book has. I just wanted to “get to the meat” of it.
The next section(s) describe some very difficult things to absorb. Mostly because you (and most MM readers) do not have the mind-set of a 1947 military officer. And THAT was the target audience for the narrative presented.
We will continue with a parsing of this document / book in part 2.
Key Points
The Roswell military event that acquired a UFO is not a fiction.
A Type-1 grey extraterrestrial craft crashed and was recovered by military personnel.
One creature was captured and interrogated.
The person who was able to ask him questions and record the answers was an Army nurse.
She kept all records of the event, including the actual transcripts, and disclosed them on her death-bed.
The creature was a construct and the species wore the animated creature like we would wear clothing.
The creature claims to be very ancient, and that they own the Earth, and their role is to protect it and make sure that it is maintained
There is another extraterrestrial group. This group is referred to as the “old empire” and it has been administrating this region of space for a long time.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
A type 1 grey extraterrestrial was acquired from the vehicle wreckage in Roswell, New Mexico. One Army nurse was able to interview it. When the nurse was in her 80’s she moved to England and got ready to die, and left behind this document that describes her encounter with this creature, and all of her interrogations with it.
I was exposed to this document on the fourth of July, 2021, and when I read the book I was astounded how much matched MAJestic knowledge and understanding, and how much matched what I was exposed to through entanglement. I would say that it’s a solid 98% match.
For me, personally, it reaffirms (from a secondary source) the validity of my experiences, purpose and writings today.
Some notes
Sometimes, when the nurse refers to "the universe", I think she actually means "our galaxy". When you look at the writings, in this light, many things come into focus.
Other times, when she refers to "the universe", she is referring to the entire "universe" as we know it to be.
Dating is confusing. Enormous dates like "trillions of years" is again meaningless as we humans are not using the same "yard stick" for comparative measurement.
The "old empire" is a service-for-self species that farms the sentience on Earth. The way it is presented is more accurate than anything that I have said.
Both MM and this document, when combined together, establishes a solid framework towards understanding our place in this universe and YOUR ultimate role in it. I am presenting it here in PDF form.
I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have. And answers the questions that I have been unable to answer for you.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I am more than a bit “burnt out” on all the Geo-political bullshit. When I read an article about “containing China”, and how “America is roaring back” I just exit the browser tab. I’ve have enough. I am “toast”.
America is so full-on crazy right now, and they treat us “citizens” as slaves, and dumbed down nincompoops. It’s just an insult to see what constitutes “news” these days.
Instead, what I want to do do is relive a simpler time when I was a boy. And for me, that meant chilling out with my dog, and my cat in my tree house. It meant riding all over town and going on “hikes” and all-day-long “bike rides” and exploring old abandoned bridges, trestles, tunnels, and long abandoned rural homes. It meant lazying around eating home-made sandwiches, and sprawling out upon the couch as I read one of my hundreds of boyhood paperback books.
Rural Pennsylvania.
And one of the books that I loved then, and still love today, is the “Mad Scientist’s Club” series of short stories.
I still remember the book fair as one of the highlights of my elementary school year. For a half hour or so the teacher would take us down the long hall to the multipurpose room. I lived in rural Western Pennsylvania, and my school was too small to have a separate gym. Though it did have a basement cafeteria and a library on the nearby High School. There, in the gym where table after table had been set up with stacks of books arranged by interest and age level.
I loved books as a kid and I always looked forward to the event.
As a boy, I used to hang out in the tree house with my cat and read. But other times my friends would come up and we would read comic books together, and do other things that kids are forbidden to do.
Some of the books I purchased there would shape my reading habits for the rest of my life. I still remember taking the two dollars my mom gave me for the fair and investing it in Chariots of the Gods. It was astounding to me, and I found it impossible to put down.
Since then I have collected a small mountain of paperbacks. With science fiction and history being my favorites. I also had some war literature, some “how to” books, and Marmaduke comics paperbacks.
Another book fair introduced me to yet another author: Bertrand R. Brinley.
Few of you will recognize his name, though some will fondly remember series he authored: The Mad Scientists’ Club (referred to as MSC among fans).
His initial work consisted of two volumes of short stories and a novel. A second novel written by Brinley but not really published until after his death completes the set. In my opinion his stories rank as one of the best young people’s reading series ever created.
I mean…
…the BEST.
Dinky Poore didn't really mean to start the story about the huge sea monster in Strawberry Lake. He was only telling a fib because he had to have an excuse for getting home late for supper. So he told his folks he'd been running around the lake trying to get a closer look at a huge, snakelike thing he'd seen in the water, and the first thing he knew he was too far from home to get back in time.
His mother and father greeted the tale with some skepticism. But Dinky's two sisters were more impressionable, and that's how the story really got out. They kept pestering him for so many details about the monster that he had to invent a fantastic tale to satisfy them.
That's one of the troubles with a lie. You've got to keep adding to it to make it believable to people.
It didn't take long for the story to get around town, and pretty soon Dinky Poore was a celebrity in Mammoth Falls. He even had his picture in the paper, together with an "artists conception" of the thing he'd seen. It was gruesome-looking -- something like a dinosaur, but with a scaly, saw-toothed back like a dragon. Dinky was never short on imagination, and he was able to give the artist plenty of details.
It was the artists' sketch in the newspaper that got Henry Mulligan all excited. Henry is First Vice President and also Chief of Research for the Mad Scientists' Club and is noted for his brainstorms. Neither Henry nor anyone else in the club actually believed Dinky had seen a real monster, but we were all willing to play along with the gag -- especially when Henry suggested that we could build a monster just like the one shown in the newspaper ...
Bertrand R. Brinley
Bertrand Brinley was born in Hudson, New York, in 1917. As a child he moved with his family from place to place, eventually living in West Newbury, Massachusetts as a teenager where he graduated from the local high school.
West Newbury, Massachusetts. Small town America.
He worked at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in California as a systems analyst during the early years of World War II and joined the army in 1944. His tour with the army allowed him to see much of the world.
He left the army for a short time, then reentered it during the Korean War.
Much of his work with the army involved public relations and in the late 50’s, right after the Sputnik launch, he was put in charge of a program to instruct amateur rocketeers in safety.
This lead to his first book published in 1960, Rocket Manual for Amateurs.
1960, Rocket Manual for Amateurs.
This book taught young boys, and maybe High School teenagers, how to make their own rockets from scratch. Not just the shape; nose cones, and fins, but also how to make solid rocket propellant motors, firing systems, and parachute escape and retrieval devices.
Sigh.
You would never see that today.
This is ancient history – even to me – but the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1957 sent the United States into a crisis.
The successful orbiting of a satellite by America’s rival after the failure of several of our own rockets created the impression of a scientific gap between the two countries.
In 1958 the U.S. would orbit its own satellite, Vanguard, but by then the idea that America was behind the USSR in science and technology was firmly planted in the public’s mind.
To close this supposed “gap,” money was poured into education for the next decade or so. Not just funding for schools, and extra courses, but real STEM courses for everyone.
Everyone, all over America, were training to be engineers, designers, and scientists.
The introduction of new curriculum – such as the so-called New Math designed to promote engineering and science-was common. While it is doubtful that New Math really turned ten-year-olds into rocket engineers, it is indisputable that these events had Americans thinking about science and technology.
Elementary textbooks for fourth through six grade doesn’t resemble anything being taught in America today.
It was in this atmosphere that Brinley conceived his stories.
In 1961 the first of Brinley’s tales was published in Boy’s Life. Boy’s Life was, and remains, the official magazine of the Boy Scouts.
Boy’s Life magazine.
The story, The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake, told of a group of small-town teenagers whose genius for technology gets them both into and out of trouble when they build a fake sea serpent.
The story of the club was continued in two more stories that year in Boy’s Life. In 1965 the first seven of the short stories were gathered into book form and published under the title The Mad Scientists Club. It was a paperback copy of this I came across and purchased at a book fair several years later.
The crew in their tree-house. Plotting and scheming.
To say that I liked this book would be quite an understatement.
I read the seven tales contained in it over and over again.
Each, while involving the same characters and setting, were very different and engaging.
My personal favorite is The Secret of the Old Cannon, where the club probes the mystery of what is in the breech of a giant civil war cannon in the local park.
Mammoth Falls
A strange sea monster appears on the lake...a fortune is unearthed from an old cannon ...a valuable dinosaur egg is stolen.
Watch out as the Mad Scientists turn Mammoth Falls upside down!
Take seven, lively, "normal" boys -- one an inventive genius -- give them a clubhouse for cooking up ideas, an electronics lab above the town hardware store, and a good supply of Army surplus equipment, and you, dear reader, have a boyhood dream come true and a situation that bears watching.
In the hands of an author whose own work involved technological pioneering, the proceedings are well worth undivided attention, as the boys explore every conceivable possibility for high and happy adventure in the neighborhood of Mammoth Falls.
To the unutterable confusion of the local dignitaries -- and the unalloyed delight of Bertrand Brinley's fans -- the young heroes not only outwit their insidious rival, Harmon Muldoon, but emerge as town heroes.
The stories were told in first person by character Charlie Finckledinck (who didn’t have a last name until the first novel came out) but clearly the club’s most prominent member was the bespeckled teenager Henry Mulligan.
Henry, the group’s resident science genius, was just as likely to come up with some outlandish prank as a legitimate experiment or invention.
Other MSC members included Jeff Crocker, the president (by virtue of the club meeting in his father’s barn), Homer Snodgrass and Mortimer Dalrymple (experts in electronics and radio).
The club membership was rounded out by Freddy Mulldoon and Dinky Poore, the group’s Mutt and Jeff pair.
A couple of points about the characters: Freddy Muldoon was originally called Fatso Brown, and his cousin, the notorious Harmon Muldoon, Skinny Brown, in The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake. My father changed the names in the version that was published in Boys' Life and subsequently in The Mad Scientists' Club. Charlie Finckledinck, the narrator, did not have a last name until The Big Kerplop!
-The Mad Scientists Club
The adults of the mythical town of Mammoth Falls where the stories were set found themselves forever involved in some scheme or prank the club had thought up.
These, for example, took the forms of a fake monster in the local lake, an electronically-haunted house at the city limits and a mad balloonist in the town square.
When the boys weren’t giving Mayor Scragg, Police Chief Putney or Constable Billy Dahr problems, they often found themselves at odds with a rival gang formed by Harmon Mulldoon who had been a MSC member but had been thrown out for activity unbecoming of a scientist.
It always amazed me how the characters in the books were so clearly and finely drawn. Unfortunately Bertrand Brinley is no longer with us, but his son, Sheridan Brinley, explained how his father had come up with the characters.
Like many authors, Bertrand Brinley’s own personality found its ways into the people he created. “Henry is my father through and through,” said Sheridan. “A guy who thinks before he speaks, has an unusual perspective on things, has a vivid imagination, secretly feeds the dog at the table, is late to dinner because he is thinking about something, etc., etc.”
“Dinky Poore, I have always thought, was in part me, as I was small and skinny as a child and a bit of a whiner,” said Sheridan. “The Poore name is a family name in Westbury, Massachusetts, which is the source of a number of the names and places in the stories. For example, Billy Dahr is based on the constable in West Newbury in the ’30s. He was a bumbling sort of cop, as is Dahr.”
At least some of the events in the stories were inspired by real incidents that would have appeared in the news at the time. The accidental loss of a nuclear device off the coast of Spain in 1966 surely provided inspiration for the first novel, The Big Kerplop!, where an atomic bomb splashes into Mammoth Fall’s Strawberry Lake.
The Air Force’s Project Blue Book, which investigated UFO sightings, may have also been material for Brinley’s imagination to chew on. “The Unidentified Flying Man of Mammoth Falls was, I think, a parody of the Air Force program spending taxpayers’ dollars to trace down UFO sightings,” muses Sheridan.
“What a great joke: create a flying mannequin that makes fools of the town elders and police and scrambles the planes from the nearby Air Force base. Some of the same stuff is in The Flying Sorcerer.“
Engineers and Scientists
I’ve heard a lot of stories over the years about how the original Star Trek TV show in the 60’s influenced people to become scientists and engineers, and as a longtime Treker myself, I believe it is true.
However, I think there may quite a few people who made their career choices based on Brinley’s work. A gentleman named Mark Maxham runs a MSC tribute site and has collected some quotes from anonymous fans including this one:
I have had at least 5 copies of the Mad Scientist's Club over the years. I just gave away my only duplicate set. [...] They too were my favorites when I was younger. I am now a spacecraft flight engineer (worked with NASA controlling the Magellan Spacecraft to Venus) thanks in part to those books.
I suspect that this sentiment is widespread. There aren’t as many MSC fans around as Trekers, but those that exist seem to cherish their memories of the stories just as much as episodes of that seminal TV series.
I even suspect that my own choice of career as an Aerospace engineer hearkens back to Brinley’s tales of crazed boys tinkering around with electronics, rockets, and machinery. Sure there were many other influences. But only Brinley translated that love for gadgetry and messing around with machines that I so very love today.
Like all my books, I eventually lost my old tattered book. My best guess is that it lies at the bottom of some landfill inSanLuisObispo California.
By the way, do you know what I could use right now?
I could use a thin-crust cheese pizza with a goodly amount of salt on it. Maybe with a icy Coke. Not a beer. My doctor is telling me that my beer-drinking days are over. Beer is a “cold” food. I can only drink “warm” foods; like red wine and 53% alcohol. Sigh.
Anyways. For some reason, when I would plop myself and read these books, it was always with either sandwiches or pizza. I guess that I am just that kind of a silly guy. Eh?
What I liked about the thin crust pizza was that you could fold it up, and eat it like a gooey taco. I would plop myself down on this big sprawling 1940’s chair inherited from my grandparents, or our La-Z-boy and chill out. Smunching on a pizza, book about other kids like you, a nice breeze though the window, and a television or radio playing softly in the other room was what my boyhood was like.
Anyways, I had two books. They actually had a second volume that I had bought. It was titled The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club. I thought that it was even better than the first!
Unfortunately a novel entitled The Big Kerplop! Came out that I was unaware of, and so I never had the opportunity to read it.
Trying to get all these books has been a herculean task over the years. Not only due to the lack of availability, but also to the fact that I am in China. And obscure books in English are not readily available.
Unfortunately all of them had been out of print for many years and were almost impossible to find. This was bad news as I desperately wanted to get a hold of them for both myself and all the kids.
Purple House Press Reprints
Sheridan Brinley had been trying to get his father’s works republished for a number of years without success.
No publisher wanted to risk the money necessary to run off several thousand copies of the books no matter how ardent the small fan base might be.
Fortunately, Brinley came in contact withPurple House Press (PHP), a new publisher formed by a woman named Jill Morgan. Morgan had been locating and collecting out-of-print children books and had come to realize the cost of these original volumes were being driven through the roof.
Parents who wanted to share their favorite children’s books with their own kids were priced out of the market.This is that profit-greed based society that I always lament about. People in America do not care about society. They care about themselves; as a nation driven by psychopathic personalities, those of us with a different value system are often left out in the cold.
Morgan started contacting authors and their heirs and arranging for these works to be reprinted in small volumes. The company now has thirty-two books in its catalog including the original Mad Scientists’ Club, The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club and The Big Kerplop!
In fact for MSC fans there was perhaps an unexpected bonus from this alliance with PHP. Bertrand Brinley had written a second MSC novel, but it had never been published in the United States. After some editing, The Big Chunk of Ice – the story of the Mad Scientists entangled in a mystery in Austria – became available for readers for what was probably the first time.
I truly believe that one of the secrets of getting your kids to be great readers is not just to read to them, but to read to them stories you yourself are in love with.
The kind of excitement you radiate can’t be faked and kids pick up on it. That is one of the reasons why I am so happy to see efforts like Purple House Press succeed.
As a Rufus I’ve had the opportunity to not only share MSC stories with my kids, but my nieces and nephews as well.
From a technical point of view the stories show some signs of age – the radios, model rockets and remote controls the MSC kids used aren’t exactly cutting edge technology anymore (one can only wonder what trouble Henry and friends could get into using computers, the Internet and various wireless devices), but the stories are still great and worth sharing with a new generation.
Author’s Legacy
Bertrand Brinley died in 1994, but not without having left a significant mark in a lot of people’s lives.
I still can’t see more than two hot air balloons together without thinking of The Great Gas Bag Race.
I was ecstatic a few decades ago when I visited Fort McHenry in Baltimore and found they had a 15-inch Rodman cannon (the same one featured in The Secret of the Old Cannon).
I stood there pondering, could Homer Snodgrass really have wiggled his way down that barrel to find out what was inside?
In a way I like to think of this website, The Museum of UnNatural Mystery, as partly a tribute to Brinley’s work. I’m sure his stories inspired my interest in weird science.
I’d like to think that the halls of the museum are a place where the spirits of Henry Mulligan and Jeff Crocker, embodied into the children of today, can still find some adventure, or at least some mischief, to get into that would vex Mayor Scragg and the citizens of Mammoth Falls.
The Mad Scientist’s Club Series
The Mad Scientists’ Club – Seven Short Stories
– The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake – The club decides to shake up the town with a fake lake monster, but things go frather than they ever envisioned.
– The Big Egg – The kids find a dinosaur egg and it hatches, or does it?
– The Secret of the Old Cannon – What is hidden in an old civil war cannon up on Memorial Point?
-The Unidentified Flying Man of Mammoth Falls – A mad ballooner upsets the town’s Founder’s Day celebration.
– The Great Gas Bag Race – The club enters a balloon in the annual race and find themselves up against their old rival, Harmon Mulldoon.
– The Voice in the Chimney – The old house on Blueberry Hill is haunted, or is it just peoples’ imagination?
– Night Rescue – The club tries to rescue a downed jet pilot.
The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club – Five Short Stories
– The Telltale Transmitter – The club goes up against bank robbers.
– The Cool Cavern – The kids try to rescue Harmon’s gang from a cave in.
– Big Chief Rainmaker – The club tries to bring an end to a devastating drought.
– The Flying Sorcerer – A UFO seems to be visiting Mammoth Falls.
– The Great Confrontation – Harmon Mulldoon’s rival gang goes too far.
The Big Kerplop! – A full length novel that tells the story of the formation of the club during a scare when an atomic bomb is lost in Strawberry Lake.
The Big Chunk of Ice – A full length novel that tells the story of the club as it goes on a scientific expedition to Austria and gets entangled in the mystery of a lost diamond.
Do you want more?
You can go through the index page and explore. A lot of gems there. Have fun.
This is a really good movie to watch if you like silly/fun movies, parody movies, or john candy. It has a great blend of comedy, wit, action and all sorts of other things. I am pretty surprised by the low rating. Its not the best movie by any means, but greatly above standard and really enjoyable.
I used to have it on BetaMAX, which as a superior Sony product that was much, much better than VHS. I had the Super BetaMAX which consisted of a basic BetaMAX with a secondary image and sound unit that sat under it. The entire time when I was in training at China Lake NWC, we watched beta movies using this system on a tiny Sony color television screen.
This was during the early to middle 1980’s.
And yes, I know that everything is so very dated, and unknown to many of my readers, it was time, a very different time. It was a time when everyone was asking “Where’s the beef?”, drinking Strawberry coke, which later turned into Cherry Coke, and then Real Coke, and then Improved Coke, and finally to Coke classic. At that time in my life, the world-line slides were all over the place and the type of soda beverages we drank was constantly in flux.
Madonna was big.
A day did not go by where you couldn’t hear one of her songs. Same goes for Tears for Fears, cure, Cindi Lauper and SpandauBallet.
Pee Wee Herman was outrageous. Just like David Lee Roth, and Rodney Dangerfield. If I ever decide to say “fuck it” and to construct a time machine, it would be one that would take me back to here…
This must have been hone heck of a party.
But let’s get back to the movie at hand.
This is one of the movies that I had on BetaMAX and it starred one of my favorites actors; John Candy. What a true shame that he died so young. Those who find death an interesting subject will find this link fascinating about his death. It seems that he overworked himself in filming a movie, ate a late dinner at night (of spaghetti of all things), and died of a heart attack while sleeping. Do not ever work yourself to death. LINK about the circumstances about his death HERE.
As you get older you start to realize that you are no longer young and can “take on the world”. You have friends who get cancer, classmates who have died, good drinking buddies that have died, and close friends telling you of uncles that worked too hard, went to sleep and never woke up.
You start to take better care of what you do.
And so…
…you “hedge your bets”. You eat better, and are choosier bout what you eat, when and why. You exercise somewhat, and you go easy on the medications and the chemicals that you put in your body.
And you run affirmation prayer campaigns.
I personally like to use this movie to illustrate how thoughts can alter our reality, and that is exactly what the theme of this movie is. When you write up your campaign, think of yourself as Jack Gable (John Candy) writing up a script for you to experience.
That’s the way prayer affirmation campaigns work.
About the movie…
Delicious in parts
9 February 2007 | by hatchersan – See all my reviews
The all time best line in the movie -- John Candy rescuing Emma Samms on horseback -- "This stranger knows no danger!"
A bit spotty -- can't maintain a high comedy level throughout but nonetheless is enjoyable and a vehicle for John Candy to demonstrate comic range. Excited he will get to spend a romantic weekend tryst with Emma Samms (and misunderstanding her feminine wiles), he finds himself lugging umpteen of her suitcases to the taxi cab, then knocks himself out with the trunk door as he tries to load the suitcases. Wakes up in the pleasant little village where she reappears as new character, daughter of Raymund Burr, along with others in town, Mariel Hemingway et al. Plenty of lines for Candy in trying to write the new soap opera about family conspiracies with a stolen formula, and the rapid disintegration of Emma's brother while none in the family seem to notice or care. Again the highlight to me was the rescue chase by Candy when Emma's horse took her on a wild ride and Candy rides up and self congratulates later as modern day Zorro or Lone Ranger. All in all, enjoyable.
…
In New York City, Jack Gable (John Candy) grows irate waiting for the cable television repairman to arrive at his apartment.
When the signal is finally restored, he turns on “Beyond Our Dreams”, a daytime soap opera, explaining to the repairman that he writes for the show.
Later that morning, Jack goes to the production office for a meeting. There, he stumbles into Louise (Mariel Hemmingway), a demure actress who intends to audition for the role of “Janet Dubois.”
After insisting that “Janet” is no longer part of the story, Jack storms into Lou (David Orbach) and Arlene Sherwood’s (Renee Taylor) office. The two executives distract him by reminding him to “kill off” the character of “Rachel Hedison,” played by the temperamental Laura Claybourne (Emma Sams). Jack, who has a crush on the beautiful actress, refuses.
Lou pats him on the shoulder and tells Jack that everything will work out. After Jack leaves, Arlene calls writer Arnie Fetterman, who assures her that the “Janet Dubois” scenes are complete, and that he is working on writing “Rachel” out of the show.
After “Beyond Our Dreams” wraps up shooting for the day, an infatuated Jack asks Laura Claybourne what she thinks of the future story-lines he created for her, but the self-absorbed actress is unhappy with how he turned her rich heiress character into a working girl.
Jack returns home and packs for a weekend trip to Vermont. Laura Claybourne calls, seeking Jack’s attention. When he tells her he is about to leave, she invites herself along. Jack is thrilled, until she changes her mind at the last minute.
En route to Vermont, Jack gets into a car accident, awakening in the hospital on “Beyond Our Dreams.” The doctor (David Rasche) introduces himself as “Paul Kirkwood,” amusing Jack, who presumes that the actor, Dennis Graham, is playing a trick on him.
However, when the writer goes to the window, he is shocked to see the town of “Ashford Falls” bustling with activity.
Jack deduces that he is dead and living in hell.
When the nurse threatens to give him a shot, Jack plays along and insists he is feeling better.
Leaving the hospital, he encounters “Janet Dubois,” who recognizes him as Wall Street tycoon “Jack Gates,” a character created by Jack, but who has yet to be introduced on the show.
Across the street, a man with an eye patch (Charles Rocket) observes Jack and Janet, before driving away to a mansion.
There, he proudly informs his father, billionaire Carter Hedison (Raymond Burr), that Jack Gates is in town.
Carter Hedison dismisses his son, Ty, as a dreamer, and asks Ty’s yuppie brother, Blake, to investigate.
Meanwhile, Jack tries to make sense of his situation in his hotel room.
Janet informs him that he is in Ashford Falls to purchase her father’s pharmaceutical formula, which Carter Hedison also hopes to acquire.
Jack insists he is a writer, not a businessman, provoking Janet to retort that he should write his life as he sees it, rather than argue with her.
She storms out, and Jack decides to test her advice.
He types a scene on his typewriter, and realizes that whatever he writes comes true in this alternate reality.
After encountering a dismissive “Rachel Hedison” downtown, Jack decides to use his newfound power to make her fall in love with him.
A decent Candy vehicle LCShackley10 January 2007
This is a much more watchable film than many of the lightweight vehicles Candy took part in in his post-SCTV career. His part could have been played by any number of comic actors, but John steps in and gives it his best shot. He's always fun to watch on screen, and he has a good time here without going over the top, which he tended to do.
DELIRIOUS is a weird mixture of Groundhog Day, Soapdish, and various Rod Serling scripts in which the characters in a story are being controlled by someone at a typewriter. It's a workable premise, and the actors make the most of the stock soap opera characters they play. David Rasche, Emma Samms, Raymond Burr et al were well-chosen for their parts.
Bit parts by Robert Wagner and Marvin Kaplan (the voice of Choo-Choo on TOP CAT) are also memorable. Mariel Hemingway takes some flak on this comment board for her part, but she seemed suited for the role and moved smoothly from her gawky character to the soap opera "devil woman."
This is a pleasant comedy but not as consistently funny as SOAPDISH. The script by veteran writers of Gilligan's Island and Bewitched suffers from a lot of unnecessary "language" (for what could otherwise be a family film) but moves along at a brisk pace (except for the longish horse-riding scenes).
That afternoon, Rachel goes horseback riding with her boyfriend, Dr. Kirkwood. Suddenly, her horse breaks into a gallop. Just as she is about to careen over a cliff, Jack appears on his own horse and rescues her.
He does not reveal his identify, and Rachel swoons as he rides away.
That night, Carter Hedison and his three children-Rachel, Ty, and Blake-discuss making a fortune from a new fat-burning pill.
Blake notes that their scheme will be ruined if Jack Gates acquires the drug formula.
Later, Janet Dubois calls Jack and informs him that someone broke into her father’s laboratory.
She accuses him of working for the Hedisons, but Jack protests.
Just then, she realizes someone is still in the lab.
Hearing her screams, Jack quickly types a rescue mission featuring himself as the hero.
Afterward, the love-struck Janet invites Jack to have dinner with her.
A few days later, the Hedison family hosts a benefit auction in the town square. Jack stuns everyone when he drives up in a flashy sports car.
Against her father’s wishes, Rachel leaves with Jack, who tries to impress her by driving recklessly at high speed while blindfolded.
That night, Janet grows despondent while waiting for Jack to arrive for dinner.
Someone knocks on the door and introduces himself as “Jack Gates,” but he is not the Jack she knows.
The two confront Jack at his hotel.
The writer recognizes the stranger as Robert Wagner (himself), a prime time soap opera star who was originally to be cast as Jack Gates.
Unknown to the trio, Ty Hedison lurks outside with a gun, stalking Jack Gates. However, he misfires, and Robert Wagner is killed.
Jack grabs his typewriter, reviving Robert Wagner and sending him away on a trip.
Out of concern for Janet, Jack writes her a new story line in which she is a research scientist in Africa.
In the days that follow, Jack sequesters himself in his hotel room, where he drinks alcohol and writes preposterous scenes in hope of winning Rachel’s affection.
During a party at the Hedison mansion, Jack plays a virtuoso piano piece, saves a choking man’s life, and performs a dance routine with Rachel.
Much to his surprise, Janet Dubois returns to Ashford Falls.
She makes an elegant appearance at the party, before learning that she, not Rachel, is Carter Hedison’s daughter.
Chaos ensues as the Hedison family turns on each other.
When Janet is accidentally shot by Blake Hedison, Jack admits his feelings for her.
As she is rushed to the hospital, Blake informs Jack that Dr. Kirkwood plans to botch the surgery.
The writer returns to his hotel room, but before he can write a new scene, Robert Wagner walks in and shoots him.
Jack awakens in a hospital bed on the set of “Beyond Our Dreams”.
Actors Laura Claybourne and Dennis Graham comfort him, but he accuses them of being insincere, before realizing he is back in New York City, with the whole experience in Ashford Falls just a dream (similar to the twist ending of ‘The Wizard of Oz’).
The next day, Jack confronts the Sherwoods at their office and insists they allow him free reign in writing the character of “Janet.”
Arlene chokes on her sandwich, and Jack forces her to agree to his terms before rescuing her with the Heimlich maneuver.
After arranging for Louise to be cast as “Janet,” Jack writes “Rachel” off the show and looks forward to creating new narratives for the residents of “Ashford Falls.”
The film ends with Jack and Louise going ice skating in Central Park as the end credits roll.
John Candy made this film.
The story involves a soap opera writer (Candy) who gets knocked out, and enters his own, type-written, created world, where all the characters are alive and playing their roles - or so he thinks. They are actually living them.
So, Candy finds that whatever he writes on the 'ol typewriter happens in the world he's in, because, after all, he created it on the typewriter, right?
Built off the same foundation as "Groundhog Day," Delirious is by no means great, and not John Candy's best, (I give that to Planes, Trains and Automobiles) but it does have an actual soap opera feel to it - that cheap feel - and has some laughs along the way.
Not great, but worth watching. Candy was one of the best comedians of his time, God rest his soul...
John "Candy" Ulmer
A final conclusion
Take a moment and watch the movie if you want some pointers on how the Affirmation Prayer Campaign operates. It’s an old silly comedy, but yeah… this is the way that it works.
There is nothing wrong with reaching for the wildest and craziest dreams, but keep in mind that the further away they are from your reality, the more world-lines you must traverse to reach them. In addition, there will always be discomfort with change. And many people do not like a great deal of discomfort in their life.
There are techniques that you can use to mitigate the effects of everything, but in all cases be calm, consistent, and steady. And whatever you do, do not write out your affirmations with spelling errors like the guy did in the movie. Yikes!
The story begins with a scene the three witches from Macbeth brewing a potion and staring into a crystal, which reveals another scene that takes place on a rocket ship. Originating from Earth, the men on the rocket ship are panicking because they have recently experienced nightmares, confusing illnesses, and unexpected death. They are destined for Mars, and they are worried that these events may be warnings from Martians not to arrive.
As the crewmembers talk, it becomes clear that the Earth they are leaving has banned many books, some of which are considered some of the best authors of all time. The rocket ship has the last edition of many of these works, and their goal is to burn the books upon their arrival at Mars. Once they have burned the books, there will be no remaining evidence that these authors ever existed...
The Exiles
THEIR EYES were fire and the breath flamed out the witches’ mouths as they bent to probe the caldron with greasy stick and bony finger.
‘When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?’
They danced drunkenly on the shore of an empty sea, fouling the air with their
three tongues, and burning it with their cats’ eyes malevolently aglitter:
‘Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!’
They paused and cast a glance about. ‘Where’s the crystal? Where the needles?’
‘Here!’
‘Good!’
‘Is the yellow wax thickened?’
‘Yes!’
‘Pour it in the iron mold!’
‘Is the wax figure done?’ They shaped it like molasses adrip on their green
hands.
‘Shove the needle through the heart!’
‘The crystal, the crystal; fetch it from the tarot bag. Dust it off; have a
look!’
They bent to the crystal, their faces white.
‘See, see, see . . .’
…
A rocket ship moved through space from the planet Earth to the planet Mars. On
the rocket ship men were dying.
The captain raised his head, tiredly. ‘We’ll have to use the morphine.’
‘But, Captain”
‘You see yourself this man’s condition.’ The captain lifted the wool blanket and
the man restrained beneath the wet sheet moved and groaned. The air was full of
sulphurous thunder.
‘I saw it’I saw it.’ The man opened his eyes and stared at the port where there
were only black spaces, reeling stars, Earth far removed, and the planet Mars
rising large and red. ‘I saw it’a bat, a huge thing, a bat with a man’s face,
spread over the front port. Fluttering and fluttering, fluttering and
fluttering.’
‘Pulse?’ asked the captain.
The orderly measured it. ‘One hundred and thirty.’
‘He can’t go on with that. Use the morphine. Come along, Smith.’
They moved away. Suddenly the floor plates were laced with bone and white skulls that screamed. The captain did not dare look down, and over the screaming he said, ‘Is this where Perse is?’ turning in at a hatch.
A white-smocked surgeon stepped away from a body. ‘I just don’t understand it.’
‘How did Perse die?’
‘We don’t know, Captain. It wasn’t his heart, his brain, or shock. He just’ died.’
The captain felt the doctor’s wrist, which changed to a hissing snake and bit
him. The captain did not flinch. ‘Take care of yourself. You’ve a pulse too.’
The doctor nodded. ‘Perse complained of pains’needles, he said’ in his wrists and
legs. Said he felt like wax, melting. He fell. I helped him up. He cried like a
child. Said he had a silver needle in his heart. He died. Here he is. We can
repeat the autopsy for you. Everything’s physically normal.’
‘That’s impossible! He died of something!’
The captain walked to a port. He smelled of menthol and iodine and green soap on his polished and manicured hands. His white teeth were dentifriced, and his ears scoured to a pinkness, as were his cheeks. His uniform was the color of new
salt, and his boots were black mirrors shining below him. His crisp crew-cut
hair smelled of sharp alcohol. Even his breath was sharp and new and clean.
There was no spot to him. He was a fresh instrument, honed and ready, still hot
from the surgeon’s oven.
The men with him were from the same mold. One expected huge brass keys spiraling
slowly from their backs. They were expensive, talented, well-oiled toys,
obedient and quick.
The captain watched the planet Mars grow very large in space. ‘We’ll be landing
in an hour on that damned place. Smith, did you see any bats, or have other
nightmares?’
‘Yes, sir. The month before our rocket took off from New York, sir. White rats
biting my neck, drinking my blood. I didn’t tell. I was afraid you wouldn’t let me come on this trip.’
‘Never mind,’ sighed the captain. ‘I had dreams too. In all of my fifty years I
never had a dream until that week before we took off from Earth. And then every night I dreamed I was a white wolf. Caught on a snowy hill. Shot with a silver bullet. Buried with a stake in my heart.’ He moved his head toward Mars. ‘Do you think, Smith, they know we’re coming?’
‘We don’t know if there are Martian people, sir.’
‘Don’t we? They began frightening us off eight weeks ago, before we started.
They’ve killed Perse and Reynolds now. Yesterday they made Crenville go blind.
How? I don’t know. Bats, needles, dreams, men dying for no reason. I’d call it
witchcraft in another day. But this is the year 2120, Smith. We’re rational men.
This all can’t be happening. But it is! Whoever they are, with their needles and
their bats, they’ll try to finish us all.’ He swung about. ‘Smith, fetch those books from my file. I want them when we land.’
Two hundred books were piled on the rocket deck.
‘Thank you, Smith. Have you glanced at them? Think I’m insane? Perhaps. It’s a
crazy hunch. At that last moment I ordered these books from the Historical
Museum. Because of my dreams. Twenty nights I was stabbed, butchered, a
screaming bat pinned to a surgical mat, a thing rotting underground in a black
box; bad, wicked dreams. Our whole crew dreamed of witch-things and were-things, vampires and phantoms, things they couldn’t know anything about. Why? Because books on such ghastly subjects were destroyed a century ago. By law. Forbidden for anyone to own the grisly volumes. These books you see here are the last copies, kept for historical purposes in the locked museum vaults.’
Smith bent to read the dusty titles:
‘Tales of Mystery and Imagination, by Edgar Allan Poe. Dracula, by Brain Stoker.
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving. Rappaccini’s Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce. Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. The Willows, by Algernon Blackwood. The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. The Weird Shadow Over Innsmouth, by H. P. Lovecraft. And more! Books by Walter de la Mare, Wakefield, Harvey, Wells, Asquith, Huxley’all forbidden authors. All burned in the same year that Halloween was outlawed and Christmas was banned! But, sir, what good are these to us on the rocket?’
‘I don’t know,’ sighed the captain, ‘yet.’
…
The three bags lifted the crystal where the captain’s image flickered, his tiny
voice tinkling out of the glass:
‘I don’t know,’ sighed the captain, ‘yet.’
The three witches glared redly into one another’s faces.
‘We haven’t much time,’ said one.
‘Better warn Them in the City.’
‘They’ll want to know about the books. It doesn’t look good. That fool of a
captain!’
‘In an hour they’ll land their rocket.’
The three bags shuddered and blinked up at the Emerald City by the edge of the
dry Martian sea.
…
In its highest window a small man held a blood-red drape aside.
He watched the wastelands where the three witches fed their caldron and shaped the waxes. Farther along, ten thousand other blue fires and laurel incenses, black tobacco smokes and fir weeds, cinnamons and bone dusts rose soft as moths through the Martian night. The man counted the angry, magical fires. Then, as the three witches stared, he turned. The crimson drape, released, fell, causing the distant portal to wink, like a yellow eye.
Mr. Edgar Allan Poe stood in the tower window, a faint vapor of spirits upon his
breath. ‘Hecate’s friends are busy tonight,’ he said, seeing the witches, far
below.
A voice behind him said, ‘I saw Will Shakespeare at the shore, earlier, whipping
them on. All along the sea Shakespeare’s army alone, tonight, numbers thousands: the three witches, Oberon, Hamlet’s father, Puck’all, all of them’thousands!
Good lord, a regular sea of people.’
‘Good William.’ Poe turned. He let the crimson drape fall shut. He stood for a
moment to observe the raw stone room, the black-timbered table, the candle
flame, the other man, Mr. Ambrose Bierce, sitting very idly there, lighting
matches and watching them burn down, whistling under his breath, now and then laughing to himself.
‘We’ll have to tell Mr. Dickens now,’ said Mr. Poe. ‘We’ve put it off too long.
It’s a matter of hours. Will you go down to his home with me, Bierce?’
Bierce glanced up merrily. ‘I’ve just been thinking’what’ll happen to us?’
‘If we can’t kill the rocket men off, frighten them away, then we’ll have to
leave, of course. We’ll go on to Jupiter, and when they come to Jupiter, we’ll
go on to Saturn, and when they come to Saturn, we’ll go to Uranus, or Neptune,
and then on out to Pluto”’
‘Where then?’
Mr. Poe’s face was weary; there were fire coals remaining, fading, in his eyes,
and a sad wildness in the way he talked, and a uselessness of his hands and the
way his hair fell lankly over his amazing white brow. He was like a satan of
some lost dark cause, a general arrived from a derelict invasion. His silky,
soft, black mustache was worn away by his musing lips. He was so small his brow
seemed to float, vast and phosphorescent, by itself, in the dark room.
‘We have the advantages of superior forms of travel,’ he said. ‘We can always
hope for one of their atomic wars, dissolution, the dark ages come again. The
return of superstition. We could go back then to Earth, all of us, in one
night.’ Mr. Poe’s black eyes brooded under his round and luminant brow. He gazed
at the ceiling. ‘So they’re coming to ruin this world too? They won’t leave
anything undefiled, will they?’
‘Does a wolf pack stop until it’s killed its prey and eaten the guts? It should
be quite a war. I shall sit on the side lines and be the scorekeeper. So many
Earthmen boiled in oil, so many Mss. Found in Bottles burnt, so many Earthmen
stabbed with needles, so many Red Deaths put to flight by a battery of
hypodermic syringes’ha!’
Poe swayed angrily, faintly drunk with wine. ‘What did we do? Be with us,
Bierce, in the name of God! Did we have a fair trial before a company of
literary critics? No! Our books were plucked up by neat, sterile, surgeon’s
pliers, and flung into vats, to boil, to be killed of all their mortuary germs.
Damn them all!’
‘I find our situation amusing,’ said Bierce.
They were interrupted by a hysterical shout from the tower stair.
‘Mr. Poe! Mr. Bierce!’
‘Yes, yes, we’re coming!’ Poe and Bierce descended to find a man gasping against
the stone passage wall.
‘Have you heard the news?’ he cried immediately, clawing at them like a man
about to fall over a cliff. ‘In an hour they’ll land! They’re bringing books
with them’old books, the witches said! What’re you doing in the tower at a time
like this? Why aren’t you acting?’
Poe said: ‘We’re doing everything we can, Blackwood. You’re new to all this.
Come along, we’re going to Mr. Charles Dickens’ place”’
”to contemplate our doom, our black doom,’ said Mr. Bierce, with a wink.
They moved down the echoing throats of the castle, level after dim green level,
down into mustiness and decay and spiders and dreamlike webbing. ‘Don’t worry,’ said Poe, his brow like a huge white lamp before them, descending, sinking. ‘All along the dead sea tonight I’ve called the others. Your friends and mine, Blackwood’Bierce. They’re all there. The animals and the old women and the tall men with the sharp white teeth. The traps are waiting; the pits, yes, and the pendulums. The Red Death.’ Here he laughed quietly. ‘Yes, even the Red Death. I never thought’no, I never thought the time would come when a thing like the Red Death would actually be. But they asked for it, and they shall have it!’
‘But are we strong enough?’ wondered Blackwood.
‘How strong is strong? They won’t be prepared for us, at least. They haven’t the
imagination. Those clean young rocket men with their antiseptic bloomers and
fish-bowl helmets, with their new religion. About their necks, on gold chains,
scalpels. Upon their heads, a diadem of microscopes. In their holy fingers,
steaming incense urns which in reality are only germicidal ovens for steaming
out superstition. The names of Poe, Bierce, Hawthorne, Blackwood’blasphemy to
their clean lips.’
Outside the castle they advanced through a watery space, a tarn that was not a
tarn, which misted before them like the stuff of nightmares. The air filled with
wing sounds and a whirring, a motion of winds and blacknesses. Voices changed,
figures swayed at campfires. Mr. Poe watched the needles knitting, knitting,
knitting, in the firelight; knitting pain and misery, knitting wickedness into
wax marionettes, clay puppets. The caldron smells of wild garlic and cayenne and saffron hissed up to fill the night with evil pungency.
‘Get on with it!’ said Poe. ‘I’ll be back!’
All down the empty seashore black figures spindled and waned, grew up and blew into black smoke on the sky. Bells rang in mountain towers and licorice ravens spilled out with the bronze sounds and spun away to ashes.
Over a lonely moor and into a small valley Poe and Bierce hurried, and found
themselves quite suddenly on a cobbled street, in cold, bleak, biting weather,
with people stomping up and down stony courtyards to warm their feet; foggy
withal, and candles flaring in the windows of offices and shops where hung the
Yuletide turkeys. At a distance some boys, all bundled up, snorting their pale
breaths on the wintry air, were trilling, ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,’ while
the immense tones of a great clock continuously sounded midnight. Children
dashed by from the baker’s with dinners all asteam in their grubby fists, on
trays and under silver bowls.
At a sign which read SCROOGE, MARLEY AND DICKENS, Poe gave the Marley-faced knocker a rap, and from within, as the door popped open a few inches, a sudden gust of music almost swept them into a dance. And there, beyond the shoulder of the man who was sticking a him goatee and mustaches at them, was Mr. Fezziwig clapping his hands, and Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile, dancing and colliding with other merrymakers, while the fiddle chirped and laughter ran about a table like chandelier crystals given a sudden push of wind. The large table was heaped with brawn and turkey and holly and geese; with mince pies, suckling pigs, wreaths of sausages, oranges and apples; and there was Bob Cratchit and Little Dorrit and Tiny Tim and Mr. Fagin himself, and a man who looked as if he might be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato’who else but Mr. Marley, chains and all, while the wine poured and the brown turkeys did their excellent best to steam!
‘What do you want?’ demanded Mr. Charles Dickens.
‘We’ve come to plead with you again, Charles; we need your help,’ said Poe.
‘Help? Do you think I would help you fight against those good men coming in the
rocket? I don’t belong here, anyway. My books were burned by mistake. I’m no
supernaturalist, no writer of horrors and terrors like you, Poe; you, Bierce, or
the others. I’ll have nothing to do with you terrible people!’
‘You are a persuasive talker,’ reasoned Poe. ‘You could go to meet the rocket
men, lull them, lull their suspicions and then’then we would take care of them.’
Mr. Dickens eyed the folds of the black cape which hid Poe’s hands. From it,
smiling, Poe drew forth a black cat. ‘For one of our visitors.’
‘And for the others?’
Poe smiled again, well pleased. ‘The Premature Burial?’
‘You are a grim man, Mr. Poe.’
‘I am a frightened and an angry man. I am a god, Mr. Dickens, even as you are a
god, even as we all are gods, and our inventions’our people, if you wish’have
not only been threatened, but banished and burned, torn up and censored, ruined and done away with. The worlds we created are falling into ruin. Even gods must fight!’
‘So?’ Mr. Dickens tilted his head, impatient to return to the party, the music,
the food. ‘Perhaps you can explain why we are here? How did we come here?’
‘War begets war. Destruction begets destruction. On Earth, a century ago, in the
year 2020 they outlawed our books. Oh, what a horrible thing’to destroy our
literary creations that way! It summoned us out of’what? Death? The Beyond? I
don’t like abstract things. I don’t know. I only know that our worlds and our
creations called us and we tried to save them, and the only saving thing we
could do was wait out the century here on Mars, hoping Earth might overweight
itself with these scientists and their doubtings; but now they’re coming to
clean us out of here, us and our dark things, and all the alchemists, witches,
vampires, and were-things that, one by one, retreated across space as science
made inroads through every country on Earth and finally left no alternative at
all but exodus. You must help us. You have a good speaking manner. We need you.’
‘I repeat, I am not of you, I don’t approve of you and the others,’ cried
Dickens angrily. ‘I was no player with witches and vampires and midnight
things.’
‘What of A Christmas Carol?’
‘Ridiculous! One story. Oh, I wrote a few others about ghosts, perhaps, but what
of that? My basic works had none of that nonsense!’
‘Mistaken or not, they grouped you with us. They destroyed your books’your
worlds too. You must hate them, Mr. Dickens!’
‘I admit they are stupid and rude, but that is all. Good day!’
‘Let Mr. Marley come, at least!’
‘No!’
The door slammed. As Poe turned away, down the street, skimming over the frosty ground, the coachman playing a lively air on a bugle, came a great coach, out of which, cherry-red, laughing and singing, piled the Pickwickians, banging on the door, shouting Merry Christmas good and loud, when the door was opened by the fat boy.
Mr. Poe hurried along the midnight shore of the dry sea. By fires and smoke he
hesitated, to shout orders, to check the bubbling caldrons, the poisons and the
chalked pentagrams. ‘Good!’ he said, and ran on. ‘Fine!’ he shouted, and ran
again. People joined him and ran with him. Here were Mr. Coppard and Mr. Machen running with him now. And there were hating serpents and angry demons and fiery bronze dragons and spitting vipers and trembling witches like the barbs and nettles and thorns and all the vile flotsam and jetsam of the retreating sea of imagination, left on the melancholy shore, whining and frothing and spitting.
Mr. Machen stopped. He sat like a child on the cold sand. He began to sob. They
tried to soothe him, but he would not listen. ‘I just thought,’ he said. ‘What
happens to us on the day when the last copies of our books are destroyed?’
The air whirled.
‘Don’t speak of it!’
‘We must,’ wailed Mr. Machen. ‘Now, now, as the rocket comes down, you, Mr. Poe; you, Coppard; you, Bierce’all of you grow faint. Like wood smoke. Blowing away.
Your faces melt”
‘Death! Real death for all of us.’
‘We exist only through Earth’s sufferance. If a final edict tonight destroyed
our last few works we’d be like lights put out.’
Coppard brooded gently. ‘I wonder who I am. In what Earth mind tonight do I
exist? In some African hut? Some hermit, reading my tales? Is he the lonely
candle in the wind of time and science? The flickering orb sustaining me here in
rebellious exile? Is it him? Or some boy in a discarded attic, finding me, only
just in time! Oh, last night I felt ill, ill, ill to the marrows of me, for
there is a body of the soul as well as a body of the body, and this soul body
ached in all of its glowing parts, and last night I felt myself a candle,
guttering. When suddenly I sprang up, given new light! As some child, sneezing
with dust, in some yellow garret on Earth once more found a worn, time-specked
copy of me! And so I’m given a short respite!’
A door banged wide in a little hut by the shore. A thin short man, with flesh
hanging from him in folds, stepped out and, paying no attention to the others,
sat down and stared into his clenched fists.
‘There’s the one I’m sorry for,’ whispered Blackwood. ‘Look at him, dying away.
He was once more real than we, who were men. They took him, a skeleton thought,
and clothed him in centuries of pink flesh and snow beard and red velvet suit
and black boot; made him reindeers, tinsel, holly. And after centuries of
manufacturing him they drowned him in a vat of Lysol, you might say.’
The men were silent.
‘What must it be on Earth?’ wondered Poe. ‘Without Christmas? No hot chestnuts,
no tree, no ornaments or drums or candles’nothing; nothing but the snow and wind
and the lonely, factual people. . . .’
They all looked at the thin little old man with the scraggly beard and faded red
velvet suit.
‘Have you heard his story?’
‘I can imagine it. The glitter-eyed psychiatrist, the clever sociologist, the
resentful, froth-mouthed educationalist, the antiseptic parents”’
‘A regrettable situation,’ said fierce, smiling, ‘for the Yuletide merchants
who, toward the last there, as I recall, were beginning to put up holly and sing
Noel the day before Halloween. With any luck at all this year they might have
started on Labor Day!’
Bierce did not continue. He fell forward with a sigh. As he lay upon the ground
he had time to say only, ‘How interesting.’ And then, as they all watched,
horrified, his body burned into blue dust and charred bone, the ashes of which
fled through the air in black tatters.
‘Bierce, Berce!’
‘Gone!’
‘His last book gone. Someone on Earth just now burned it.’
‘God rest him. Nothing of him left now. For what are we but books, and when
those are gone, nothing’s to be seen.’
A rushing sound filled the sky.
They cried out, terrified, and looked up. In the sky, dazzling it with sizzling
fire clouds, was the rocket! Around the men on the seashore lanterns bobbed;
there was a squealing and a bubbling and an odor of cooked spells. Candle-eyed
pumpkins lifted into the cold clear air. Thin fingers clenched into fists and a
witch screamed from her withered mouth:
‘Ship, ship, break, fall!
Ship, ship, burn all!
Crack, flake, shake, melt!
Mummy dust, cat pelt!’
‘Time to go,’ murmured Blackwood. ‘On to Jupiter, on to Saturn or Pluto.’
‘Run away?’ shouted Poe in the wind. ‘Never!’
‘I’m a tired old man!’
Poe gazed into the old man’s face and believed him. He climbed atop a huge
boulder and faced the ten thousand gray shadows and green lights and yellow eyes
on the hissing wind.
‘The powders!’ he shouted.
A thick hot smell of bitter almond, civet, cumin, wormseed and orris!
The rocket came down’steadily down, with the shriek of a damned spirit! Poe
raged at it! He flung his fists up and the orchestra of heat and smell and
hatred answered in symphony! Like stripped tree fragments, bats flew upward!
Burning hearts, flung like missiles, burst in bloody fireworks on the singed
air. Down, down, relentlessly down, like a pendulum the rocket came. And Poe
howled, furiously, and shrank back with every sweep and sweep of the rocket
cutting and ravening the air! All the dead sea seemed a pit in which, trapped,
they waited the sinking of the dread machinery, the glistening ax; they were
people under the avalanche!
‘The snakes!’ screamed Poe.
And luminous serpentines of undulant green hurtled toward the rocket. But it
came down, a sweep, a fire, a motion, and it lay panting out exhaustions of red
plumage on the sand, a mile away.
‘At it!’ shrieked Poe. ‘The plan’s changed! Only one chance! Run! At it! At it!
Drown them with our bodies! Kill them!’
And as if he had commanded a violent sea to change its course, to suck itself
free from primeval beds, the whirls and savage gouts of fire spread and ran like
wind and rain and stark lightning over the sea sands, down empty river deltas,
shadowing and screaming, whistling and whining, sputtering and coalescing toward the rocket which, extinguished, lay like a clean metal torch in the farthest
hollow. As if a great charred caldron of sparkling lava had been overturned, the
boiling people and snapping animals churned down the dry fathoms.
‘Kill them!’ screamed Poe, running.
The rocket men leaped out of their ship, guns ready. They stalked about,
sniffing the air like hounds. They saw nothing. They relaxed.
The captain stepped forth last. He gave sharp commands. Wood was gathered,
kindled, and a fire leapt up in an instant. The captain beckoned his men into a
half circle about him.
‘A new world,’ he said, forcing himself to speak deliberately, though he glanced
nervously, now and again, over his shoulder at the empty sea. ‘The old world
left behind. A new start. What more symbolic than that we here dedicate
ourselves all the more firmly to science and progress.’ He nodded crisply to his
lieutenant. ‘The books.’
Firelight limned the faded gilt titles: The Willows, The Outsider, Behold, The
Dreamer, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Land of Oz, Pellucidar, The Land That Time
Forgot A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the monstrous names of Machen and Edgar
Allan Poe and Cabell and Dunsany and Blackwood and Lewis Carroll; the names, the
old names, the evil names.
‘A new world. With a gesture, we burn the last of the old.’ The captain ripped
pages from the books. Leaf by seared leaf, he fed them into the fire.
A scream!
Leaping back, the men stared beyond the firelight at the edges of the
encroaching and uninhabited sea.
Another scream! A high and wailing thing, like the death of a dragon and the
thrashing of a bronzed whale left gasping when the waters of a leviathan’s sea
drain down the shingles and evaporate.
It was the sound of air rushing in to fill a vacuum, where, a moment before,
there had been something!
…
The captain neatly disposed of the last book by putting it into the fire.
The air stopped quivering. Silence!
The rocket men leaned and listened. ‘Captain, did you hear it?’
‘No.’
‘Like a wave, sir. On the sea bottom! I thought I saw something. Over there. A
black wave. Big. Running at us.’
‘You were mistaken.’
‘There, sir!’
‘What?’
‘See it? There! The city! Way over! That green city near the lake! It’s
splitting in half. It’s falling!’
The men squinted and shuffled forward.
Smith stood trembling among them. He put his hand to his head as if to find a
thought there. ‘I remember. Yes, now I do. A long time back. When I was a child.
A book I read. A story. Oz, I think it was. Yes, Oz. The Emerald City of Oz . .
.’
‘Oz? Never heard of it.’
‘Yes, Oz, that’s what it was. I saw it just now, like in the story. I saw it
fall.’
‘Smith!’
‘Yes, sir?’
‘Report for psychoanalysis tomorrow.’
‘Yes, sir!’ A brisk salute.
‘Be careful.’
…
The men tiptoed, guns alert, beyond the ship’s aseptic light to gaze at the long
sea and the low hills.
‘Why,’ whispered Smith, disappointed, ‘there’s no one here at all, is there? No
one here at all.’
The wind blew sand over his shoes, whining.
No
The End
A final MM note.
Our reality is one ruled by quantum physics. An within this reality is the idea that thoughts create and change our reality. So what happens when entire groups of people no longer have , or possess, certain thoughts? What will the resulting landscape look like?
The following is my very own first attempt at a fictional story.
I have been told that I must be a great writer because all of my Metallicman writings are so fantastical and imaginative. I must have a great colorful and active mind to dream up such ideas. But that’s not really true. I only write what I have personally experienced, and talk about the life that I live and what I see and do.
There’s nothing fictional in this site whats so ever.
Never the less, I have tried to write fiction in the past, maybe the early 1990’s and it got no where. Maybe I could try again. Maybe I’ll be another Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke or Robert Heinlein. Who actually knows?
So with that introduction, let’s introduce my first internet published short story. And you’se guys are the first to read it. I do hope that you enjoy it.
The Three Shepherds
Once upon a time, in a rather pastoral land, were three shepherds. They were men of sheep.
All of them were tall, strong and carried about a long crooked cane. And as they went about their day to day life shepherding, doing sheep related things, and discussing sheep related current events, they would often gather together (as was their want) under this huge shady tree.
And there, under the great expanse of the mighty oaken limbs, they would discuss the latest in sheep husbandry, sheep technology, and sheep-related gossip.
The three shepherds went by the names of Tom, Dick and Harry.
Tom, the best shepherd of the trio had a massive and impressive flock of sheep. All of them were well cared for, happy and were the envy of the local village.
Dick, an average shepherd, had an average flock of sheep. There was nothing really that great about it. All of the sheep were solid “C” grade students in the local sheep academy, and it showed in their actions and behaviors.
And, Harry, well, Harry was the worst shepherd of the three. He tended to ignore his flock of sheep and left them to do their own bidding. Meanwhile he would cavort with a prized sheep or two off in the wilds behind the bushes in a most devilish manner.
And one day, on this fine and quiet pastoral land, they came to an argument.
It turns out that they were arguing just who was the best shepherd.
And the point was raised, that your actions are reflected in how the sheep behavior, and not whether or not you get ribbons at the local annual sheep parade, or are given the key to the city for the most amazing sheep.
Ai! And the argument went long and hard and well into the night. No one could decide who was the best shepherd.
By the crowing of the early bird, a cock named “amorphous weasel” on account of his propensity to steal long bananas, with (two) well rounded kiwi fruit off kitchen window sills, the group tiredly came to a conclusion.
It was decided that each shepherds would go off, one by one, and gather their flock and bring it to the tree. And there in front of everyone the sheer beauty (or maybe it’s “shear” beauty) and magnificence of the flock would be obvious to all to behold.
So Dick, the average shepherd, went off to gather his flock.
And after what seemed to be day, but was really a mere two hours, he came back. (Let it be known that he stopped for a blueberry pie, and maybe a little kiss, from the baker Lady Ms. McSmunch-a-lot in the town.) And refreshed, wiping the blueberry stains off his lips, he led his flock to the rest of the trio to observe.
And there, came the flock.
They were clean and presentable. Their hooves were all trimmed and well manicured. Their eyes were also clear, and the wool was obviously of the finest quality. They came well behaved, and presented themselves are docile, but proud sheep; they were the kind of sheep that you would introduce to your son.
And as they arrived, they sang a little sheep marching song. It went a little like this…
Baa Baaaa, Baa Baaaa,
We’re the sheep of Baaa Dick.
Baa Baaa, Baa Baaa.
And then, after a short while, the filed to the tree, and then upon the proper signal (by Dick obviously), they settled down. All the time making tiny cooing sounds…
Baaa Baaa.
Of course both of the other two shepherds were impressed. For indeed this was a fine, fine flock of sheep. It was undeniable. And nothing would make this moment more noteworthy than when a shepherd talent-scout showed up and wanted to take a picture of young shepherd Dick with his fine, well tended flock.
There were rumors that he was going to be on the cover of “Sheep News and Pastoral Report”.
And it seemed to be his destiny, for shortly afterwards a gaggle of young attractive lasses, with hair in long pony-tails, wearing short skirts with low cut bodices were asking for Dicks autograph. They all wanted a piece of Dick, and were willing to do anything to get a taste of this Dick action.
Well, as impressive as all that was, Tom decided to go off and get his flock of sheep.
Now Tom went off and it wasn’t long before the clouds in the sky opened up. And bright blue “spring time” sky appeared with two enormous sheep blowing long golden trumpets appeared. And as they blew the ground and surroundings became calm. Everything went absolutely quiet. Even the worms and the snails stopped their crocheting, and stood by a listening.
Then, brighter than day and appearing in blinding, and stunning radiance appeared the flock. It approached the stunned spectators in organized cadence. And they hummed, and sang, and their voices resonated in brilliance and within spectacular fashion.
Ba Ba. Ba Ba.
Baaaaaa!
Ba, Ba, Baaaa, Baaaa, Ba!
They approached the group in groups of three. marching to the beat, and their hooves landed ever gently upon the grass at the feet of the shepherd.
There was no question that this flock was truly exceptional. Their wool was of the finest texture, and so white and clean that it hurt the eyes of any who beheld it. The faces of the sheep were impassioned with glee, happiness and empathy. And when they finally gathered together they were polite about it.
They would say such things as “Excuse me, my fine fellow sheep, can you please pass me the Grey Poupon…. Baaahhh.”
Indeed, these sheep were exception. No one could deny it.
And when the shepherds started to talk, the sheep took the time to post insta-sheep photos for their followers, for after all, many of the sheep in this flock were famous influencers. And sheep all over the world would follow their postings. They would want to know what grass they were eating and why. They would want to see who they were hanging out with, and pictures of their latest meals, and pictorials of their latest pastoral settings.
It was absolutely clear that this flock was spectacular.
Well, the time came for Harry to show his flock. So he got up off the long he was sitting upon and ambled off to gather his flock. As he went he muttered something under his breath, but no one could make it out.
It sounded something like “truck fist” or something similar. He grumbled away saying things like “razzmatazz” and “hoodwink, and scurvy tweaky boondoggle”
Hours passed.
The sky got dark, and a wind started to blow.
Dark clouds appeared on the horizon and a cool chill started to cause everyone to gather their shawls and jackets around their shoulders.
And the ground started to rumble.
It was low at first but soon become enormously loud. It sounded like an air plane jet engine revving up, and the exploding and dying over and over as it’s internal parts bashed and clanged upon each other in the most terrible of grinding sounds. People started to cover their ears, and a light oily rain started to fall upon everyone in a brown oozy slimy mess.
And there, on the horizon were what appeared to be a herd of tiny tornadoes. These brown dusty and dirty nightmares approached the crew, the tree, and all the two flocks that were gathered there. The talent scout stopped talking and taking pictures, the Insta-sheep models stopped filming selfies, and everyone stood shaking where they stood. They remained rooted to the ground.
And as the group got close you could make out what was approaching.
For, in front of them was a small army of “Mad Max style” cobbled together quasi vehicles of all makes, models and unusual pedigrees.
Some looked like something the devil himself would weld together with nightmare steel, twisted metal, and chain link accoutrements.
Others looked like a maniac’s idea of a military vehicle if they had the budget of a used junk yard attendant.
And still others looked more like they belonged outside a meth-lab, a biker bar, or an abandoned kiddie circus prowled by nightmare clowns with chainsaws and blood lust in their eyes.
And they roared towards them.
It was like an avalanche or a tidal wave and they pulled up in front of all the startled spectators. they all revved their motorcycle and various engines for effect.
Barroom! Barroom!
Braaaaam!
And black oily smoke blew out of their exhausts. And the sheep themselves looked like Frankenstein-sheep.
Many had patches of wool missing, obviously from a diet low in vitamin “D”, or perhaps suffering from mange. Many were missing eyes, limbs, teeth. They all wore vests emblazoned with the words…
“Satan’s orphan lamb”
And many had tattoos everywhere.
Some were of names of a certain loved one, a sheep from their past, but with the name crossed out, and another one written next to it. Others were tattoos of knives, skulls, and “low brow art”.
And then…
…just then…
… a big noisy, and particularly malodorous motorcycle-like vehicular contraption pulled up. It sprayed dust and gravel everywhere, and the lone dark sheep got off the bike.
He was an ugly brute, a big blustering monstrosity, that was foul, nasty, criminally dirty, and oily…
…an onerous sheep that went by the name of Beelzebub.
He was big, and nasty. His wool was black and grey with red and purple highlights. He wore lipstick, and ear rings, with seemed to point to some kind of LGBT sheep hybrid of sorts, he wore a big leather belt with an enormous belt buckle featuring the head of one of the missing sheep-dogs that used to help the shepherd, and emblazoned upon his chest was a big garish tattoo with the words…
“My shepherd doesn’t love me”
And he scanned the people gather there with his one lone bloodshot eye. As he got off his bike and hobbled towards them, his single leg ended up hitting the dust while his wooden peg-leg went thunk, thunk, thunk….
…and he stopped in front of all the shepherds, and their flocks. No one said a sound.
A moment passed and then another.
Finally, shepherd Tom cleared his throat, and said…
“You are by far, the absolutely worst flock of sheep that I have ever seen in my life!”.
And no one moved.
…
No one.
No one said a thing.
You could hear a pin drop.
Then the leader, the biggest, the baddest, the most foul, and slimy sheep went up to him. his foul sheep breath was stinky, oily, nasty and disgusting.
And he said…
…
“We might be the ugliest, the most disgusting, the most untamed sheep that you have ever laid your eyes upon. But I will tell you one thing…”
…
And he paused for effect, and gave everyone a good harsh look with his remaining blood-shot eye…